Maxwell, Ann - Fire Dancer

[oyceter]

rachelmanija warned me that even though she loved this series, it was rather pulpy. Having read Maxwell's romances (under Elizabeth Lowell), I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting into, along with Maxwell/Lowell's gender issues. Short form: all her Lowell romances have a sweet, innocent plucky heroine with a masculine, overprotective alpha male hero. Usually the heroine knows nothing about her own sexuality, and the hero goes through much UST, often leading to a not-quite-rape scene.

Surprisingly, this works much better in the SF genre, particulary when the gender politics are based on species.

Fire Dancer stars Rheba, a fire dancer, and Kirtn, her cat-man-esque protector and tutor. As the cover copy says, "Were they the last survivors of their planet's blazing DOOM?" (the entire thing is capitalized, so I am taking advantage of that for "DOOM"!). Rheba's a Senyasi and Kirtn's a Bre'n; their two species evolved together so that the Bre'n's and the Senyasi are paired to control the Senyasi's powers (gene dancing, rain dancing, fire dancing, etc.) and the Bre'n's propensity toward rez, an uncontrollable killing rage.

So first, the crack! I laughed every time I encountered "Kirtn," which I unfortunately pronounce as "curtain." I also giggled over his furry virile manliness and his sexual frustration. Also! There are talking rocks! And there is a species that is so foreign that they forgo apostrophes for slashes! I kid you not, they are called the J/taal. Rheba knows nothing about sex, given that her planet exploded before she could learn. I feel this is a much better reason than the usual "They are too innocent to know!" in Maxwell's romances.

But I still enjoyed this a lot. First, there is a talking snake, which is the best character ever! Second, as I said before, the gender politics projected onto species works a lot more for me, particularly because we see examples of female Bre'n and male Senyasi pairs (no idea if there are same-sex pairs). And ... the crack works better for me in an SF/F setting because everything's so much more heightened and so much more is at stake. Plus, talking snake! Planet dying of blazing DOOM!

On a final note, Rachel mentioned the cover is yet another example of white-washed people. Rheba's explicitly described in the book as having brown skin (and blonde hair). On the possibly plus side, she's not white on the cover. Instead, she's a zombie grey!

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

DOOM! must always be capitalized and include an explanation point, even should the printed version not have it as DOOM!

I remember reading many Elizabeth Lowell books as a teen...she had a medieval trilogy that I must've read 5 times, yet all I can remember is that the 3rd book had a heroine who had been raped before, and they either had sex for the first time or did everything but in the ruins(I think) of a church with all his men about a hundred feet away...

Typo of DOOM!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

obviouly, that was meant to be "exclamation point."

Re: Typo of DOOM!

[oyceter]

HEE! The explanation point probably accompanies expositions of DOOM!

OMG! The medieval trilogy! I love the third book even though now I am not a teenager any more, it is with a somewhat embarrassed love of feminist shame. But yes, they totally have sex against the castle walls in open air!

Re: Typo of DOOM!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I was very, very in love with that trilogy as a teen. Ooooh...I just remembered that all the heroines were psychics. That was fun.

Hmm...I wonder why I stopped reading her books...

Re: Typo of DOOM!

[oyceter]

Probably her gender politics and how every romance novel is just like the other one?

Ah ha ha, no, not bitter at all....

Re: Typo of DOOM!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup, probably that.

Not exactly uncommon in romance novels.

Though I'm amazingly forgiving when it comes to Jayne Ann Krentz, for whatever reason.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention Kirtn's glowing manhood on the really remarkably bad cover. And that Rheba has no nipples or genitalia, despite being nude!

I don't know how to pronounce Kirtn other than "curtain," which is why I avoided saying it aloud.

[oyceter]

OMG that's right! I must have tried to erase Kirtn's glowing manhood from my mind.

Er, what are the next books in the series? Also, when you were pimping these, you didn't mention the totally awesome talking snake! Fssa is my favorite character.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I love Fssa! He's in my Yuletide letter.

Dancer's Luck and Dancer's Illusion; not as good as the first but still fun. You'd probably also enjoy Change.

[oyceter]

Ooo, what's Change?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Cold, hostile psychic woman meets talking cat-aliens, saves the world.

[oyceter]

AWESOME.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I always pronounced it like the Japanese/Germans would, with a short "e" sound, like "drink". ^^

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Pulpy but loveable is a pretty good description of the book. It has a sequel or too, as well.

[oyceter]

Yes! I mean to look those up, but they're out of print, sigh.

[keilexandra]

Sounds cracklicious. :D

[oyceter]

It is indeed!

[estara.livejournal.com]

If you like talking snake and dying planet of doom, do get "The Merro Tree" by Katie Waitman (I think), which has the talking snake as the romance interest of the also fascinating main character. It's really good scifi about art and its importance in life. I kid you not.

[oyceter]

I've actually read that quite a few years ago... I don't remember much, except that I was really squicked by the alien snake/main character sex.

[estara.livejournal.com]

So would you get over that these days, since you've developed a talking snake kink? ^^

[oyceter]

Ummmm. I wouldn't say it's a talking snake kink so much as a "I think they're cute and snarky" kink. And definitely not in a sex way.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I haven't read her books as Maxwell, in fact the only ones I did read, and kept are her books set in the fantastical early middle ages (I think) which have the same gender issues.

[oyceter]

Hee, yes! I still have Enchanted, though I ended up giving away all the rest of her books.

The gender issues really do work better in the SF format, largely because they're more species-specific and less gender specific.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH.

Okay, other Maxwell books to read:

Timeshadow Rider - She is innocent because their planet blows up first again!
A Dead God Dancing - She is COLD and BITTER.
Jaws of Menx - She is not innocent!

Change is too romance-y for me, Name of a Shadow has cool worldbuilding but the main relationship doesn't work for me, The Singer Enigma is dull.

[oyceter]

I have Timeshadow Rider! I tried to start reading, and then I got so confused by the absolutely insane worldbuilding that I had to stop.

Darn. Now I can't remember if I bought Jaws of Menx when you handed it to me at Wiscon or not. Must go home and check.

Though dude! COLD and BITTER!

(also, I thought of you when I got to Fssa and your theory of talking snakes = comedy gold)

[heresluck]

Rheba knows nothing about sex, given that her planet exploded before she could learn. I feel this is a much better reason than the usual "They are too innocent to know!" in Maxwell's romances.

::collapses laughing::

Better, absolutely. Less ludicrous, jury's still out. I'm not sure I want to actually read this book, but your description of it has MADE MY MORNING. Thank you. (Talking snake! Rock on!)

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You should read it for the talking snake! This is one of the books that has convinced me talking snakes are COMEDY GOLD. (In this case, vain, clever, and unexpectedly heart-rending comedy gold.)

[oyceter]

I am glad to entertain!

The talking snake is so awesome! And vain and petty and cute and touching!

I think "planet exploding" is now my new favorite reason for people to not know about sex.

[atuinsails.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, I remember reading this book as a teenager and gulping quite a bit. I think I might have hid that book from my Dad for at least six monthes (we had a strict policy in those days). I have got to see if I can find a copy for the nostalgia value.

[oyceter]

Hee! You should, although hopefully not the one with my cover, unless you are up for cracktastic grey people!

[(Anonymous)]

Maxwell's SF is great. It's always honestly SF, even when it's also romance. (I've seen the Fire Dancer books marketed both ways, with utterly opposite cover art.)

I love the depth and presence of the inclueing for her galactic history. Time goes back and back and back, and almost all of what has happened has been forgotten. Very few more traditionally-known SF authors have been able to portray a universe that large.

Note that _Timeshadow Rider_ takes place in the same history, but eons earlier. It's about the Zaarain.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Drat. Forgot to log in. That was me.

[oyceter]

I'm still sort of on the fence about her worldbuilding, largely because the first chapter of Timeshadow Rider was so freaking insane that I couldn't even figure out what was going on. But so far, interesting, and it's good to know TR is in the same universe as the Dancer books.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite first chapters ever!

Okay, now you know too much about my fetish for deep information overload.