In [b:The Hall of the Mountain King|18759739|In the Hall of the Mountain King|Allison Flannery|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1383877075s/18759739.jpg|26655384] a young man named Mirain proved his quality and became king of his late mother's kingdom. In [b:The lady of Han-Gilen|317300|The Lady of Han-Gilen (Avaryan Rising, #2)|Judith Tarr|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1259542326s/317300.jpg|2971204], his foster-sister seeks to help him become emperor. Now decades have passed, Mirain's empire is secure, and his heir has grown into a strong young man named Saraven. Saraven is poised to become a great prince, worthy of taking over the vast empire that his father has fought for. Then he meets the son and heir of his father's greatest foe, and his assurance that his family should rule the world is shaken. Saraven and Hirel fight and tease and mock each other, but eventually come to understand that in each other, they have found a perfect match. Unwilling to allow their fathers to destroy themselves in constant battle, Saraven and Hirel give in to a desperate plan hatched by even more desperate mages...They magically change Saraven's sex, gender and sexuality, so that he becomes a woman capable of bearing Hirel's children, thus combining the two bloodlines. Saraven reads very differently when he becomes a woman; his relationship with Hirel, in which formerly he was the masterful one, changes as well. That part is frustrating, but I was astounded by how unexpected the sex-switch plot twist was. I don't think I've ever seen it before.

These books are both enthralling and frustratingly purple. The prose is so very stylized that one has to be in a particular mood for them. ( )