Fire (and the Graceling series in general)
Finished "Fire" by Kristen Cashore, second in the Graceling series but third for me. I mostly enjoyed it, but there were things I didn't like, and despite everyone saying the books are very different I found it a bit too similar to the other two and need a break from her shtick.
Fire is set in a land "over the mountains" from the countries the other two are set in, and the worldbuilding is so incompatibly different I'd have found it more plausible as a literal different world with a portal or something. Basically, there are "monster" versions of humans and animals: beautiful but oddly coloured with mind reading and control abilities they generally use to lure prey. The main character is such a "monster", and spends the book finding a place for herself in a world which both adores and fears her, especially given the legacy of her father, who evil-psychic-grand-vizier-ed the country into ruin.
Like the other two, it's an engaging and effective story of a young woman brought up to use her power for evil overcoming trauma, loneliness and mistrust to find love, happiness, and purpose. But like the other two there were a few things that bugged me.
First, on a shallow note, I knew people didn't like the romance but what I wasn't expecting was a charming and well set up romance plot somewhat spoiled by a weirdly reticent portrayal of the moment they get together. Their first kiss is implied. I am fine with books with no romance, or with romantic relationships written in an unromantic way. But this felt like typical tropey Romance Sideplot With Pining right up until that point.
Secondly, and more significantly, I really didn't like the gender roles. The main character's love interest is fine, but (a) Despite same sex relationships existing it's outright stated that female monsters have to deal with constant creepy and often violent attention from men (and only men) while male monsters never have to worry about anything like that. Once she hits puberty her father is attracted to her but not vice versa and afaict this is 100% because she is a girl and he's a guy (nb he never acts on it) (b) two of her male friends are SUPER creepy, not just to her, but to other women (including a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL), and we're expected to see them as flawed but basically decent.
Thirdly, one of the bad guys is called Mydogg. Come on Kristen Cashore, you can do better than that.
On the plus side, (very) background same sex relationships! Including a past one for the main character, though it's briefly described fluffy romantic friendship. The main character has a friends with benefits relationship at the start of the book and is pretty comfortable with her sexuality. And there's two disabled secondary characters who are written quite well, the way the wheelchair user lost the use of his legs is pretty tragic but everyone is written as seeing their impairments as just an every day thing and they're both sympathetic and competent. Oh and almost everyone in this region is dark skinned but they are by far the most technologically advanced civilisation, which is a nice touch, though it's otherwise pretty generic eurofantasy.
It's interesting to compare the 3 books. All are about noble women in their late teens who have some sort of special power and have been brought up by a father figure to use that power for bad ends. But in Graceling she has supernatural power and he doesn't (his power over her is that he's King), in Bitterblue he does and she doesn't (her power is just being Queen), and in Fire they both have exactly the same power. All explore themes of biological and found family, and moving beyond the "destiny" of your birth.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/585953.html. There are
comments.
Fire is set in a land "over the mountains" from the countries the other two are set in, and the worldbuilding is so incompatibly different I'd have found it more plausible as a literal different world with a portal or something. Basically, there are "monster" versions of humans and animals: beautiful but oddly coloured with mind reading and control abilities they generally use to lure prey. The main character is such a "monster", and spends the book finding a place for herself in a world which both adores and fears her, especially given the legacy of her father, who evil-psychic-grand-vizier-ed the country into ruin.
Like the other two, it's an engaging and effective story of a young woman brought up to use her power for evil overcoming trauma, loneliness and mistrust to find love, happiness, and purpose. But like the other two there were a few things that bugged me.
First, on a shallow note, I knew people didn't like the romance but what I wasn't expecting was a charming and well set up romance plot somewhat spoiled by a weirdly reticent portrayal of the moment they get together. Their first kiss is implied. I am fine with books with no romance, or with romantic relationships written in an unromantic way. But this felt like typical tropey Romance Sideplot With Pining right up until that point.
Secondly, and more significantly, I really didn't like the gender roles. The main character's love interest is fine, but (a) Despite same sex relationships existing it's outright stated that female monsters have to deal with constant creepy and often violent attention from men (and only men) while male monsters never have to worry about anything like that. Once she hits puberty her father is attracted to her but not vice versa and afaict this is 100% because she is a girl and he's a guy (nb he never acts on it) (b) two of her male friends are SUPER creepy, not just to her, but to other women (including a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL), and we're expected to see them as flawed but basically decent.
Thirdly, one of the bad guys is called Mydogg. Come on Kristen Cashore, you can do better than that.
On the plus side, (very) background same sex relationships! Including a past one for the main character, though it's briefly described fluffy romantic friendship. The main character has a friends with benefits relationship at the start of the book and is pretty comfortable with her sexuality. And there's two disabled secondary characters who are written quite well, the way the wheelchair user lost the use of his legs is pretty tragic but everyone is written as seeing their impairments as just an every day thing and they're both sympathetic and competent. Oh and almost everyone in this region is dark skinned but they are by far the most technologically advanced civilisation, which is a nice touch, though it's otherwise pretty generic eurofantasy.
It's interesting to compare the 3 books. All are about noble women in their late teens who have some sort of special power and have been brought up by a father figure to use that power for bad ends. But in Graceling she has supernatural power and he doesn't (his power over her is that he's King), in Bitterblue he does and she doesn't (her power is just being Queen), and in Fire they both have exactly the same power. All explore themes of biological and found family, and moving beyond the "destiny" of your birth.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/585953.html. There are
comments.