This book was not what I was expecting. It's an Appendix N book, Gary Gygax's list of inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons. This book has swords and sorcery, but not the grandiose, bedroom poster type. Magic is offhand, furtive, even accidental, and most violence is off-screen.

What this book is instead about are two young people being buffeted about a late medieval world riven by subtle magic and political intrigue. They come together and are torn apart, subjected as much to their own impulses as they are to external events. The narrative agency of the hero and heroine is slight. They make important choices, but those never come from a place of high morals or passion, instead from base horniness or helpless frustration.

The book is superficially retrograde but ultimately felt quite modern. Men are horny, greedy, power-hungry, or some combination of those; women are similarly emotional, submissive, and/or manipulative. But the heroine Lalette is probably even more sympathetic than she was originally intended, furious at social repression and clumsy, incessant male desire. Rodvard initially seems a cipher for the male reader, but becomes uncomfortably identifiable for someone who was a young man - his inability to not fall in love with whatever pretty girl happens to be nearby ultimately has you - and himself - question whether he has any control over his emotions (he doesn't).

All that to say, the book has the trappings of pulp fantasy but comes out feeling like something much more "realistic" and grounded in the human condition. It was quick, engaging genre fiction that nonetheless stood out for its refusal to be flashy or hand out a tidy ending, instead keeping to a plausible account of how two unremarkable young lovers would experience getting swept up in events far larger than themselves.