Series Saturday: Nathan Burgoine's TRIAD

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

 

Triad Trilogy

Written by ‘Nathan Burgoine

Novels published by Bold Stroke Books

 

Novels:

·       Triad Blood (2015)

·       Triad Soul (2017)

·       Triad Magic (2019)

 

In the supernatural underworld of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s Ottawa, “three” is the magic number. It takes three wizards to start a coven, three vampires to start a coterie, three demons to start a pack. Loners are looked down upon at best and more often hounded to an early grave. Until Curtis (a wizard), Luc (a vampire), and Anders (a demon) form a Triad of their own. Their action is unprecedented, upsetting Ottawa’s supernatural powers-that-be. Their union makes them stronger but also makes them targets.

Luc, Anders, and Curtis debuted in a short story in an anthology and proved popular enough to get their own novel trilogy. You do not have to read any of the short stories to follow the flow or to understand the world-building or character backgrounds of the trilogy. The short stories enhance the novels, but the novels stand completely on their own.

The relationship between Curtis, Anders, and Luc starts out as an act of necessity. They renew the bond that makes them a triad every month because they need it to survive; separating would put them again at the mercy of the covens/coteries/packs. But the relationship grows as the trilogy progresses, becoming more emotionally intimate (physical intimacy … okay, sex … is what brought them together in the first place). What we see is a nuanced portrayal of consensual polyamory, each partner bringing strengths and vulnerabilities to the triad. Burgoine doesn’t shy away from the very realistic potential for jealousy and misunderstanding that any open relationship, polyamorous or not, faces but he also doesn’t make these tensions the sole focus of the books nor does he drag them out longer than necessary the way some polyamorous romance novels would just to maintain “tension.”

              The real focal point of the novels is the effect the Triad’s existence has on the political landscape of Ottawa’s supernatural community. The wizards have traditionally been in control, in a strained détente with the vampires, demons, and other supernatural entities (werewolves, spirit-talkers, and others). There is bitterness over the accords that formed this power structure and keep it in place. I loved how Burgoine teases out the strains and uneasiness throughout the books, eventually revealing how things got to where they are and just why the Triad’s existence is a threat to that structure. While each book does a wonderful job of standing complete on its own, there’s a definite through-line and build up of subplots that lead to a big finale at the end of the third book, a very satisfying conclusion. So if you’re looking for a complete-in-three urban fantasy that still leaves the door open for the main characters to have more adventures, this is the series for you.

I also love these books because I’ve come to love the three main characters. Burgoine takes what could be standard, flat tropes (young nerdy wizard; vampire with a mysterious past; horny lust-demon) and imbues them with depth and complexity. The transformation from three guys bound together by common need who also enjoy having sex with each other into a relationship of mutual respect is so well done. Anders and Luc warily put up with each other at the start; they have a history of competition that is hard to work past even while they acknowledge just how much they both care for Curtis. Curtis’ physical attraction to both men, despite how different they are, leads to strong feelings for both that the trio have a tough time reconciling. And their banter is snarky and often self-effacing, with quips perfectly timed – just my kind of humor.

There is also a diverse supporting cast of friends and grudging allies who also grow and change over the course of the trilogy. And something else I appreciate: Burgoine does not give his bad-guys redemption arcs or tragic back-stories to make them relatable. The bad guys are bad; they may be different levels of bad, but they’re bad just the same.

I am heavily skirting around anything that might be considered a major spoiler, intentionally not naming some of the supporting cast or villains. I highly recommend this trilogy, and the associated short stories.

Speaking of which…

 

Related Short Stories:

·       “Three” (in the anthology Blood Sacraments)

·       “Intercession” (in the anthology Wings: Subversive Gay Angel Erotica)

·       “Possession” (in the anthology Erotica Exotica: Tales of Sex and Magic)

·       “Necessary Evils” (in the anthology Raising Hell: Demonic Gay Erotica)

·       “Bound” (in the anthology Not Just Another Pretty Face)

 

As you can tell by the titles of the anthologies, our three heroes made their debut, and several subsequent appearances, in erotica anthologies. I enjoyed all five of these stories, only one of which I think I read before the first novel came out. But I know explicit, or even close-to-explicit, sex scenes are not for everyone, which is why I mentioned near the start of this that you can read the novels without reading the associated short stories. But if you don’t mind a bit of sex in your fiction, these stories absolutely enhance the action of the main novels and add depth to a few of the supporting characters.

Highly recommended if you enjoy urban fantasy with gay male leads, interesting world-building, and strong representation of polyamorous relationships.

Theater Thursday: Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast Albums

Just for a change of pace, and because I haven’t done a “Top Ten(ish)” post in a while, here are my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast (OBC) albums.

Yes, it skews heavily towards the 70s-90s. This is not a judgement. There are a lot of current new shows I enjoy songs from. It’s just that I don’t listen to cast albums the way I did back then, so these are the ones that are the most ingrained.

Note: these are my favorites, chosen for emotional/sentimental reasons.

Note 2: cast albums, not live shows. In high school I didn’t have many opportunities to get to Broadway, so cast albums were my only way to experience the shows (other than occasional Great Performances airing on PBS).

So, in no particular order, my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast albums:

1.      1776.  William Daniels, Ken Howard, Howard Da Silva, Betty Buckley, Ron Holgate … Okay, so I fell in love with the movie version first. My father bought the OBC that summer instead of the movie cast. “Sit Down, John,” “The Egg,” “But Mister Adams,” “The Lees of Old Virginia.” I even took a stab at “He Plays the Violin” (but changed “he” to “she” when anyone was listening as any closeted boy would do back then.

2.      BARNUM. Sorry, Greatest Showman fans. While I’m sure this 1980 musical was no more historically accurate than GS, it’s the Barnum musical I grew up on and will not be supplanted. The odds of it ever coming back to Broadway are infinitesimally smaller now that GS exists, but I guess I can hope for a City Centers Encores! production at some point. This was my first encounter with the wonders that are Jim Dale and Glenn Close.

3.      PIPPIN. Another “Saw the movie first” or rather “saw the film of the stage play on VHS first.” I love that filmed version (with William Katt as Pippin, Chita Rivera as Fastrada, and Martha Raye as Berthe) and was, admittedly, slightly disappointed at first the OBC had other folks in those roles. But I warmed up to them (John Rubenstein, Leland Palmer, Irene Ryan) and wore that vinyl (as with the two above) out.

4.      ASSASSINS. Okay, maybe this is cheating because it was Off-Broadway, but something just clicked with me the first time I heard that cast: Victor Garber, Jonathan Hadary, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, Lee Wilkof, Greg Germann, Patrick Cassidy, Annie Golden. Dark humor was definitely my jam in 1990.

5.      HAMILTON. I may not listen to OBCs quite the way I used to … but I think the Hamilton OBC was in the CD player of every rental car I got for my work travel in 2016-17. This was probably the last time I so obsessively listened to an OBC album for a show I hadn’t yet seen.

6.      SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. Another case where I’m almost positive I saw the televised version of the stage play before hearing the cast album, got obsessed, bought the vinyl, played it incessantly. To my mind, there will never be a better Mrs. Lovett than Angela Lansbury, and I’m split as to whether Len Cariou or George Hearn is the better Sweeney. And oh, look … there’s Victor Garber making his second (but not last) appearance on this list.

7.      JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. Another entry that’s kind of a cheat. Someone gave me a cassette of the 1971 US release of a 1969 Decca Records recording of a 39-minute version of the show, with an all-male (or mostly male) cast including David Daltrey as Joseph and Tim Rice himself as Pharoah. I don’t remember who sang the Narrator, as that cassette tape got worn out and turned out to not be replaceable. Of course, when the OBC album came out, I picked it up. Which was after (I believe) a high school trip to see it.

8.      DOONESBURY. In the early 80s, Garry Trudeau decided it was time for his characters to graduate college, enter the work force, and start aging the way real people (as opposed to comic strip characters) do. To accomplish this … he put them in a Broadway musical. Another show I never got the chance to see, but man did I love this album (which I believe has only ever been issued on vinyl). There’s so many quippy, snarky, at-the-time-topical lyrics. The political stuff was fun, but songs like “Another Memorable Meal” (making fun of Mike’s cooking inability, which I pretty much share), “I Came To Tan” (Zonker’s ode to his tanning career), and “I Can Have It All” (Boopsie’s ode to the modern woman) still take up space rent-free in my brain. Also, the cast included Mark Linn-Baker, Lauren Tom, Gary Beach, Kate Burton, and Keith Szarabajka. Also never revived.

9.      MAYOR. Another Off-Broadway cheat, another show that has never been revived and probably never will be (even for City Center Encores! this would be a stretch), given how precise a look at a certain era of New York City it is. I believe “You Can Be a New Yorker, Too!” is a cabaret favorite amongst the NYC theater set. I also love “Hootspa,” “What You See Is What You Get,” “I Want to Be the Mayor,” and “The Last I Love New York Song.” The original cast included Lenny Wolpe as The Mayor.

10.  CITY OF ANGELS. Oh, look, another Cy Coleman musical that’s never been revived on Broadway. Fairly sure my obsession with this one is my father’s fault. He bought it for the jazzy score and Manhattan Transfer-like “Greek chorus.” I kept it in constant rotation on CD because it was about the golden age of Hollywood and a writer and his private eye creation. My two favorite songs are “You Can Always Count on Me” (which I now love singing a gender-flipped version of) and “Funny,” which was one of the songs my college voice teacher (the late, great Professor Joe Cook) assigned because while I didn’t have faith I could sing it, he did. And I still can. Also, look at that cast: James Naughton, Gregg Edelman, Rene Auberjonois, Randy Graff, Dee Hoty, Kay McClelland, Carolee Carmello.

11.  CHESS. Okay, yes, I know you’re thinking “now you’re really cheating, that’s a concept album!” And I loved that concept album, played the vinyl constantly, pretty much wore out the CD as well – but I also loved (as many people apparently did not), for all its flaws, the OBC cassette tape I had with Phillip Casnoff, Judy Kuhn, David Carroll, and Harry Goz. If nothing else, it was the first time I heard “Someone Else’s Story,” which was not on the concept album; it’s been a favorite song ever since.

12.  CAMELOT. Another one that I came to through the movie. Took me a bit to get used to Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet in place of Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero, but again: I warmed to them quickly enough. And surprise surprise (to me): in the play version, Mordred (played by Roddy McDowall) has a song all about how being naughty is more fun than being good! (“The Seven Deadly Virtues” is not the greatest villain song ever written, but I will choose it every time.)

13.  INTO THE WOODS. A world in which all the fairy tale characters not only co-exist but interact, and some of them are related to each other? I was already a fan of cohesive fictional universes (thanks Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip Jose Farmer, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics) by the time this musical debuted, and I was smitten from first listen. There have been some excellent revival casts, but give me Chip Zein, Joanna Gleason, Danielle Ferland, Robert Westenberg, Bernadette Peters, Kim Crosby, Ben Wright, and Tom Aldredge any day.

14.  A CHORUS LINE. I mean, when your mother yells at your father to “stop playing that song where the kids can hear!” (I’m looking at you, “Dance Ten / Looks Three”), of course you need to listen to the whole cast album every time she’s not home. (She’d have had apoplexy over certain parts of “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love” as well, if she’d paid attention). And maybe my obsession with “I Can Do That” should have been a sign of things to come (spoiler alert: not that I’d be a dancer. I can’t dance.)

15.  JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR/GODSPELL. Ending the list on a tie. These two shows are so inextricably linked in my mind not only because they tell the same story from different directions but because songs from each wound their way into our high school chorus and church folk group performances (Yes, I was in the folk group at my Roman Catholic church. Are you shocked?) I may not have listened to either straight through as much as I did the other entries on this list, but those songs were part of the soundtrack to my high school years and after, so I can’t leave them off. (And there’s Victor Garber, showing up for a third time!)

Honorable Mention: OKLAHOMA. My father owned a stack of 78 RPM vinyl, even though the format had long since been discontinued. Among them were the cast albums (plural, yes) of the original Broadway cast of Oklahoma. Alfred Drake, Howard Da Silva, Celeste Holm … I didn’t know who most of them were at that time, but this is probably the earliest Broadway cast album I can recall listening to, so it holds a special place despite not being listened to as much as the others (piling all those thick 78 vinyls up took effort, man!)

 Now, how about hitting comments and letting me know what YOUR favorite Original Broadway Cast Albums are. No judgement! I woke yuck your yum if you don’t yuck mine!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Reading Round-Up: August 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in August 2024!

 

BOOKS

I read 8 books in August: 3 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:

1.       My West Side Story: A Memoir by George Chakiris and Lindsay Harrison (E-BOOK, Non-fiction Challenge)

2.       A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, (Narrated by Tim Curry) (AUDIOBOOK)

3.       Superman Batman: Saga of the Super Sons by Bob Haney, Dick Dillin, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, and others (PRINT; Graphic Novel Challenge)

4.       Stormgate Press Quick Reads Book #1: The Purple Mystique by Charles Millhouse (PRINT)

5.       Tournament Manners: A Martial Arts Mystery by Jess Faraday (E-BOOK)

6.       In the Hands of Women by Jane Loeb Rubin (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

7.       The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson (AUDIOBOOK; Non-fiction Challenge)

8.       A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins by Ann Tonsor Zeddies (e-book) REVIEW HERE

 

 

 

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

 

1.       “The Darkness Between the Stars” by Richard Thomas in Lightspeed Magazine #171, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Resistance” by Cat Rambo

3.       “The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strain'd” by Archita Mittra

4.       “Under the Skin” by Deborah L. Davitt

5.       “Mud Maidens Rise” by K.A. Wiggins

6.       “Look at the Moon” by Dominique Dickey

7.       “What's in a Name?” by Matthew Hughes

8.       “Child of the River” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

9.       “The Lazarus Cabal” by Sean Lee Levin, from The Lazarus Cabal, edited by Michael Croteau

10.   “Daily Nightly” by Jim Beard, from Moonstone Double Shot May 2024, edited by Joe Gentile

11.   “Streets of Blood” by Richard Scanlan

12.   “The Time Capsule” by Alice Towey, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “The Sort” by Thomas Ha

14.   “A Night in Purple” by Charles Millhouse, from Stormgate Press Quick Read Book #1: The Purple Mystique, edited by Charles Millhouse

15.   “Death in Purple” by Charles Millhouse

16.   “Into the Valley of Death” by William Meikle, from Creature Feature, edited by William Meikle

17.   “Home from the Sea” by William Meikle

18.   “A Rock and a Hard Place” by William Meikle

19.   “One Ear Left Over” by Jonathan Olfert, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #413, edited by Sean H. Andrews

20.   “An Isle in a Sea of Ghosts” by J.A. Prentice

21.   “Once There Was Water” by Katie McIvor, from The Dark #111, edited by Sean Wallace

22.   “The Operculum Necklace” by Megan Chee

23.   “Bite Me, Drink Me, Get Me” by H. Pueyo

24.   “To Call the Lightning” by Rebecca Burton, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

 

So that’s 24 short stories in August. Less than “1 per day” again, which keeps me slightly behind for the year! (August 31st was the 244th day of 2024.)

 

MOVIES

I watched four movies in August:

1.       We Are Doc Savage (2024)

2.       Logan (2017)

3.       The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

4.       West Side Story (1961)

The week ending August 31st was the 35th week of the year, so I’m still behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

 

TELEVISION

·       Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1, Episodes 1 – 10 (10 episodes) REVIEW HERE

·       Slow Horses Season 3, Episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 4, Episode 1 (1 episode)

·       The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episodes 1 – 3 (3 Episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which puts me still well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

 

LIVE THEATER

I saw two live theatrical performances in August:

1.       Back to the Future: The Musical (Winter Garden Theater, New York City) REVIEW HERE

2.       Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theatre, New York City) REVIEW HERE

 

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  24 read; YTD: 226 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 83 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 16 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 14 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 21 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 169 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 11 of 12 attended.