Bookworm Speaks!- Volle by Kyell Gold

Bookworm Speaks!

Volle 

by Kyell Gold

Acquired: Amazon Kindle

Series: Argaea Series

Paperback: 317 Pages

Publisher: Sofawolf Press

Language: English

Subject: Fiction

*****

WARNING!!! This review may contain spoilers!

The Story: Volle is the first published novel by Kyell Gold--a stirring tale of romance, espionage, and the intrigues common to both. Follow the adventures of a young gay fox trying to be a spy in a foreign palace, where enemies and temptations abound. Received the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Novel of 2005. Warning: contains sexually explicit scenes. Not for sale to underage readers.

The Review: After reading and really enjoying Waterways by Kyell Gold, Bookworm was eager to explore more of the worlds he had built. One of his most famous works, the one that put him in the limelight as it were was the eponymous Volle (rhymes with ‘wall’) series. 

A spy adventure in a foreign land starring a cast of furry characters, several of them happen to be gay? A few years ago, that last part may not have tickled Bookworm’s fancy, but again, Waterways worked so why not this one?

So Bookworm purchased the e-book, loaded up on his Kindle App and began to read. 

He did not like it. 

Why?

It can be summed up in a single word:

BORING

The book is incredibly dull. 

The main character, Volle, is a red fox, who is supposedly a spy, does very little in the way of spying. He just seems to walk around, talk to people (animals), get laid (a lot), and make connections. 

Yawn. 

In his defense, that is what spying really is, not at all like what James Bond makes it to be. It really is an anticlimactic process of schmoozing with the movers and shakers of a particular locale and trying to see if they are planning anything untoward the spie’s homeland.  Spying really more passive than reactive. 

Then again, Bookworm is not here for ‘reality.’ He cannot speak for all readers, but he reads, plays, and watches things to escape the humdrum nature of day to day life. If he wanted to read about the real life nature of a subject i.e. spying, he would have gone to the non-fiction section.

What makes it ultimately fail in the end is the overall lack of conflict for the majority of the book. The mission Volle is sent on is extremely vague and honestly if the reader is not careful, they will spend the majority of the book wondering what his mission even is. 

Things go a little too easily for him during the first two thirds of the entire book. The only real challenge he seems to face is having to perform a sexual favor for a fat, greasy, clerk. Otherwise, it just seems that he just…hangs out. 

Even the sex isn’t done well. If anything it may make the volume worse. Waterways got hot in a few places but it fit in with the overall them of a young man coming-to-terms with his newfound sexuality. The sex in this one is not only repetitive, it just seems…hollow. 

Bookworm wouldn’t be surprised if Volle turned out to have a sexual addiction of some kind. Bookworm wonders if nymphomania can apply to men, both straight, gay, etc. Volle goes to the brothel seemingly just to get his fix. This cheapen’s the quality of the sexual scenes and ultimately leads them to becoming distasteful. The author couldn’t even be bothered to put Volle with a different boy-whore every night. It would have at least spiced things up a bit. 

When reading further, a reasonable hypothesis comes to light in that Volle suffers not so much from sex addiction as problems with relationships. Several scenes attempt to explore this, but after having to stew through gay erotica and palace banter, it is also a reasonable hypothesis that the reader will put the book down before reaching the deeper parts. 

Also, perhaps this is to be expected, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount of homosexuals in Volle’s adopted home. They seem to be everywhere. There’s nothing wrong with that mind you, it just doesn’t feel realistic. Homosexuals tend to be in the minority in most places. 

On another note, they are homosexual males up the yin yang but is there any mention of lesbians? None whatsoever.  

The story does not really pick up until the last third when Volle meets and begins a relationship with a leopard named Xiller. After waffling back and forth on this book for a while, when Bookworm finally got to this point he became more interested in finishing the book. Volle’s more sensitive side finally made an appearance and many of his bargains and exploits in his adopted home land come to a head. 

In the end it was just a little too late. The appeal of the final third is ultimately nixed by an ending that feels very rushed. 

Final Verdict: Volle was a disappointment. Too much sex and not enough story. 

Two Foxes out of Five

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