Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen
I've been re-reading Tamora Pierce lately and started in on Trickster's Choice this morning on my commute. The Daughter of the Lioness books easily my least favourite of the Tortall books (save for the Provost's Dog trilogy, which I haven't finished) mostly because Pierce makes a LOT of narrative choices that I find incredibly problematic. I'm not even talking about the "What These People Need is a Honky" trope that Pierce bumbled her way into with little awareness--no, I'm talking about the dead children and the character assassination. I mean, civil wars and uprisings are rarely bloodless and I understand wanting to be realistic, but these are still young adult fantasy novels and maybe I'm just weird but dead children aren't really what I'm looking for in my leisure reading.
If I re-wrote these two books, I would let Sarai turn her passion into something more enduring. There was absolutely no reason, other than writerly fiat, that Sarai couldn't have matured over the course of two books to become the kind of queen that the raka needed. Sure, it was clear from the beginning that Pierce had in mind that Dove should be queen--that Dove was the "real" heir and Sarai was the disposable "spare". I even understand that Pierce justified it by having gods as actual characters in her books, reordering the human world and the destinies of individuals. But Dove's ascendency was so clearly telegraphed that I felt absolutely no anticipation about her future. It was difficult to root for either sister, knowing that Sarai was doomed regardless of her character development, and that Dove was fated to reign, regardless of her character development. I mean, Dove is still a great character, but Pierce would have made her queen even if she'd been even more of a cliche. You know? It's the fact of Pierce's fingerprints all over this book, the transparent manipulation of characters to suit her plot--which I personally don't find any more palatable simply because there's an actual trickster god transparently manipulating everyone--and the lack of respect for the characters as fictional persons, rather than puppets.
...er, that's a bit harsh, I suppose. But it's how I feel.
If I re-wrote the ending, I would have Sarai and Dove as co-rulers. IMHO, that would have been truly feminist, truly subversive. Two women, sharing, ruling together--passing the Bechdel test a thousand times over. Dove is still just a kid, for all her even temper and keenness of mind. Sarai had the love of the people, in the first book. She had fire and passion and great sensitivity, which Aly seemed to value meanly. Sarai and Dove could have been two sides of the same coin. Rather than set them up as competitors for a crown neither anticipated wearing, Pierce could have told a very different story, of cooperation and sisterhood, two different personalities working in concert to advance the cause of the raka. And given that the raka and luarin would have to continue living cheek by jowl, would have to find a new balance of power, having two rulers, both half-raka and half-luarin, would have been a real symbol of that balance of power.
As for the child deaths... The raka uprising could have simply won, defeating the luarin establishment and instituting new laws which would give the crown to Sarai and Dove without murdering young children. I mean, I know that executing the royal family, regardless of age, is something that happens in real-life revolutions, but this is still a fictional universe and given the blatant manipulation of the trickster god and Pierce herself, it's a hard blow to see kids killed off for their bloodlines, rather from illness, an accident, or even indiscriminate war.
Lastly, if I re-wrote these books, I would have Aly return to Tortall and for Dove and Sarai to find advisers among their own people. It's simply unrealistic that any ruler would accept someone like Aly as spymaster. Aly is simply too entwined with Tortallan royalty and has too much love for her former homeland and her own family to be completely loyal to the Copper Isles. It's one thing for Numair to denounce an evil Carthaki emperor who had imprisoned and tortured him and to swear fealty to Jonathan instead, and quite another thing for Aly to swear fealty to Dove without actually--legally and emotionally--denouncing a country that she loves, let alone her own family! It's beyond my ability to suspend disbelief.
(I'm also not a big fan of Aly/Nawat, but that's a rant for another day.)
I adore Tamora Pierce and I love that she's so unapologetically feminist. She's not the best with race, but at least she seems to try to be inclusive. She's ultimately conventional, though, and tends to fall prey to high fantasy tropes that undermine her progressive ideals. I mean, instead of a raka uprising in favour of democracy or establishing a republic, it's an uprising to replace one monarch with another. Instead of interrogating the notion that a queen could be a commoner with great leadership skills who rose to power, she made her queen twice-royal and thus doubly "legitimate". Instead of finding a balance between the two Balitang sisters, she chose a winner and discarded the loser. IMHO the Daughter of the Lioness books are kind of a mess, and while there are fantastic moments of Aly being utterly competent and bad-ass and moments of good characterisation of secondary characters like Chenaol, the two books don't hang well together. The plot is a series of exciting conflicts, but the action is largely disconnected from what one would reasonably expect would be the characters' motivations--particularly the raka. Pierce's fingerprints are everywhere, and not in a good way.
I do like her world-building, however, and the power fantasy she creates in Aly, who is basically that slacker young adult who has graduated university but doesn't have a job yet and is quite happy mooching off her parents until she gets kidnapped, forced into slavery, and becomes a spy. BECAUSE SHE CAN. I mean, it's ridiculous and yet ridiculously fun.
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If I re-wrote these two books, I would let Sarai turn her passion into something more enduring. There was absolutely no reason, other than writerly fiat, that Sarai couldn't have matured over the course of two books to become the kind of queen that the raka needed. Sure, it was clear from the beginning that Pierce had in mind that Dove should be queen--that Dove was the "real" heir and Sarai was the disposable "spare". I even understand that Pierce justified it by having gods as actual characters in her books, reordering the human world and the destinies of individuals. But Dove's ascendency was so clearly telegraphed that I felt absolutely no anticipation about her future. It was difficult to root for either sister, knowing that Sarai was doomed regardless of her character development, and that Dove was fated to reign, regardless of her character development. I mean, Dove is still a great character, but Pierce would have made her queen even if she'd been even more of a cliche. You know? It's the fact of Pierce's fingerprints all over this book, the transparent manipulation of characters to suit her plot--which I personally don't find any more palatable simply because there's an actual trickster god transparently manipulating everyone--and the lack of respect for the characters as fictional persons, rather than puppets.
...er, that's a bit harsh, I suppose. But it's how I feel.
If I re-wrote the ending, I would have Sarai and Dove as co-rulers. IMHO, that would have been truly feminist, truly subversive. Two women, sharing, ruling together--passing the Bechdel test a thousand times over. Dove is still just a kid, for all her even temper and keenness of mind. Sarai had the love of the people, in the first book. She had fire and passion and great sensitivity, which Aly seemed to value meanly. Sarai and Dove could have been two sides of the same coin. Rather than set them up as competitors for a crown neither anticipated wearing, Pierce could have told a very different story, of cooperation and sisterhood, two different personalities working in concert to advance the cause of the raka. And given that the raka and luarin would have to continue living cheek by jowl, would have to find a new balance of power, having two rulers, both half-raka and half-luarin, would have been a real symbol of that balance of power.
As for the child deaths... The raka uprising could have simply won, defeating the luarin establishment and instituting new laws which would give the crown to Sarai and Dove without murdering young children. I mean, I know that executing the royal family, regardless of age, is something that happens in real-life revolutions, but this is still a fictional universe and given the blatant manipulation of the trickster god and Pierce herself, it's a hard blow to see kids killed off for their bloodlines, rather from illness, an accident, or even indiscriminate war.
Lastly, if I re-wrote these books, I would have Aly return to Tortall and for Dove and Sarai to find advisers among their own people. It's simply unrealistic that any ruler would accept someone like Aly as spymaster. Aly is simply too entwined with Tortallan royalty and has too much love for her former homeland and her own family to be completely loyal to the Copper Isles. It's one thing for Numair to denounce an evil Carthaki emperor who had imprisoned and tortured him and to swear fealty to Jonathan instead, and quite another thing for Aly to swear fealty to Dove without actually--legally and emotionally--denouncing a country that she loves, let alone her own family! It's beyond my ability to suspend disbelief.
(I'm also not a big fan of Aly/Nawat, but that's a rant for another day.)
I adore Tamora Pierce and I love that she's so unapologetically feminist. She's not the best with race, but at least she seems to try to be inclusive. She's ultimately conventional, though, and tends to fall prey to high fantasy tropes that undermine her progressive ideals. I mean, instead of a raka uprising in favour of democracy or establishing a republic, it's an uprising to replace one monarch with another. Instead of interrogating the notion that a queen could be a commoner with great leadership skills who rose to power, she made her queen twice-royal and thus doubly "legitimate". Instead of finding a balance between the two Balitang sisters, she chose a winner and discarded the loser. IMHO the Daughter of the Lioness books are kind of a mess, and while there are fantastic moments of Aly being utterly competent and bad-ass and moments of good characterisation of secondary characters like Chenaol, the two books don't hang well together. The plot is a series of exciting conflicts, but the action is largely disconnected from what one would reasonably expect would be the characters' motivations--particularly the raka. Pierce's fingerprints are everywhere, and not in a good way.
I do like her world-building, however, and the power fantasy she creates in Aly, who is basically that slacker young adult who has graduated university but doesn't have a job yet and is quite happy mooching off her parents until she gets kidnapped, forced into slavery, and becomes a spy. BECAUSE SHE CAN. I mean, it's ridiculous and yet ridiculously fun.
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)