Bishop, Anne - Shalador's Lady

[oyceter]

After the events in The Shadow Queen, Cassidy is tentatively set up in Dena Nehele, but the delicate new balance between her and her First Circle is thrown off when someone new comes in...

I reread the original trilogy and The Invisible Ring after reading this, and I'm a bit sad how the hints of how a powerful Queen and her court balance out has been domesticized and made into a lot of fussing and whatnot as each successive book goes on. There are some very interesting undercurrents going on through Bishop's Black Jewel books, such as the male need to serve or the way female anger works, but sadly, Bishop either doesn't seem to be aware of the bits that push the envelope, or she shies away from them and buries them under more typical gender roles.

This book, as with the rest, has a similar dichotomy. I like how the Black Jewel books always include female friendship, and I was especially glad to see Cassidy nurturing and training a younger Queen. But I dislike how the evil women are always portrayed as sluts and bitches. I'm glad in this case, the villain isn't as unredeemable as the villains in the Black Jewel books, but I wish the world's sexual dynamics were less virgin/whore.

Still, Bishop at least managed to tone down Jaenelle and the boys' appearances; they're still a bit distracting here, but at least they serve only as supporting characters to Cassidy's plot as opposed to having plot of their own. And it's always awesome to see Karla again.

I also liked how the ending mirrors The Invisible Ring, though Bishop's handling of racial minorities in the form of the Shalador people isn't exactly subtle.

And there are hints that her worldbuliding is just not that well thought out—coffee shops and bustling downtowns make the world feel unexpectedly modern in a way that feels unintentional instead of purposeful.

Still, because there are those hints of interesting-ness (I still love the focus on the lighter Jeweled people), I keep reading the Black Jewels books. Mostly, though, I want some fanfic writer to go in and completely re-envision it to make things darker and to really shake up the gender roles. Frex, how does homosexuality or transgendered-ness work in a world so focused on male vs. female?

Comments

[inkstone]

Yeah, I liked the focus on lighter jewels rather than dark and I definitely liked how Jaenelle & the boys were toned down. Still too much presence but not as annoying as in The Shadow Queen.

I do wish the books would deal more with LGBT characters. I mean, they do have queer characters like Karla and Rainier so why not? Trans characters would definitely be interesting to explore in this setting, given the stark dichotomy between male and female powers.

I did think the antagonist was a little too over the top caricature though. I was like, "Really?" It was a bit 2D.

[jonquil]

And the solution was weird. Selfish woman, selfish to the core, and cruel. And the solution is to make her ugly? WTFing F? All she is likely to learn from being not-pretty is that people are MEEEEN to her and they should STOP. Dumb. (Of course, she'll probably come back, worse than ever, and this is the author's clumsy way to achieve this. But it's dumb. God knows Saetan has killed people for less.)

[inkstone]

I know. It wasn't her beauty that was the problem; it was her personality that was bad. And if we're supposed to draw the conclusion that beauty = bad personality, then that causes Jaenelle and her BFFs to fall apart!

[oyceter]

(Sorry! Esp. since this comment is late. But am trying not to use "dumb" and etc. in comments.)

The solution was so bad! What I'd be interested in is if she actually did end up changing and was still kind of petty and childish but growing. But then, I have a soft spot for that type of character...

[jonquil]

You are so very right about "dumb", with its horrid origins. I have mostly gotten "lame" out of my vocabulary, so I'll put "dumb" on the list.

Actually, the next book with her actually slowly getting a clue would be awesome. But unfortunately Bishop *really* doesn't write that way; as you say, there's Jaenelle, and then there's everybody who opposes her or her people, who is EEEEVIL.

I kind of miss the Jaenelle who took on her old girls' school. Corpses everywhere.

[oyceter]

Yes! I feel like after the trilogy, all Jaenelle has to do is be domestic and cute. I miss the corpses and the Jaenelle who got so angry someone ended up in pieces!

[jonquil]

Exactly. It's as if Witch was the only interesting part of Jaenelle. Which... really doesn't go with the child-Jaenelle we saw.

[oyceter]

The antagonist was so bad! So boring! Now I want an Anne Bishop book in the Black Jewels world in which the heroine is selfish and flirty and etc. and still manages to be a good Queen.

[inkstone]

We both know Anne Bishop doesn't have the writing chops to do that. ;)

[oyceter]

So sad, but so true!

[nojojojo]

I refuse to spend any more money on her books, so I'm waiting for this one via the library. Still gets her a little money, but not as much as a direct sale.

And I've given up on getting any real worldbuilding from her, from non-Blood society to GLBT people to women who don't get "feisty" and men who don't talk about their cocks. At this point I read her books only to keep myself from falling asleep on the subway. On the other hand, I would dearly love to see some good BJ fanfiction; has anyone seen any?

[oyceter]

Ahahahaha, yes. These are definitely from the library.

I haven't seen much good BJ fic, which makes me sad =(. I keep thinking of requesting it for Yuletide, but a lot of the fic has the same flaws as the book, which... is not my cup of tea.

The sad thing is, I reread the trilogy, and before book 3, it's stereotypical and annoying, but the women aren't as feisty (Surreal and Titian are still scary) and while Jaenelle is still the Mary Sue of all Mary Sues, she is at least really freaking scary.

[inkstone]

Yeah, most BJ fic definitely doesn't improve or subvert the canon. My latest attempt to find some resulted into my stumbling into some very heteronormative fic (featuring Karla, of all people) and I backpedalled hard because it was like reading about some other character.

it could be worse

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, looks like I'm behind by a couple books. I stopped checking if Bishop had anything new out after I was unable to slog through her Tir Alainn books.

The overall Jewels world is interesting - there are so many aspects that could be explored that it's sad that some things never seem to get touched on enough. It took me longer than it should have to realize that Rainier was gay, and then I started wonder, "But how does that work?" - there really are some great things Bishop could explore, but, at the point that I stopped, she hadn't done anything. From the sounds of things, she still hasn't done anything.

Still, her world is more daring and interesting than some. A while back, I read A Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy, a "futuristic" romance set in a Regency England-ish world in which women are the ones with all the power. Unfortunately, rather than being the interesting gender role reversal I thought it would be, everything was the same, only with genders flipped. It gave me a new appreciation of Bishop's Jewels world.

Re: it could be worse

[oyceter]

Urgh, yeah. I almost gave up on her after reading Sylvester, which was terrible, and then she went back to the Black Jewels world!

Yeah. I think she has better worldbuilding than a lot of the old paranormals (the newer ones are better IMO), but I want her to push the boundaries so much more! Especially because sf/f has a lot of cool gender-based worldbuilding!

[jonquil]

I cannot tell you how much it pleases me that you share my love for these cracktastic books.

I mean, MAGICAL COCK RINGS!!!! WINGS!!!!! SEX-ORIENTED MAGIC!!! MAGIC HORSIES AND MAGIC DOGS AND MAGIC TIGERS!!!!

I am hopelessly, hopelessly addicted and deeply ashamed of myself. The only one that wasn't a pleasure was the dumb one with them trapped in a Halloween haunted house.

[inkstone]

I'm still bitter over that book because Surreal is my favorite character in the Black Jewels world and she got stuck in the stupidest story ever.

[jonquil]

Yup. Surreal and Karla, yaaaaay.

[oyceter]

Yes! I especially want more of Karla!

... actually, she and Surreal should go off and have awesome adventures together. Where is this fic?

[inkstone]

....:ponders:

[jonquil]

Oh, God, they should totes fall in love. I love the idea of Surreal hanging around Karla's court and grinning menaacingly. And then Karla and Surreal cackling at each other and everybody else looking nervous.

[oyceter]

I KNOW! GRRR.

I reread the trilogy and realized Surreal was awesome until she got thrown in with the SaDiablos. And then she started sounding like Rogue all the time and being useless. I think it is because Bishop could not figure out how to deal with a dangerous woman who was not a Queen. Boooo!

[inkstone]

Yeah, like, I was thinking about her backstory and how she had that disastrous encounter with Daemon? I really would have liked to see that disaster carried through their relationship rather than it being this random blip in their personal history that's mentioned once and never referred to again!

[oyceter]

OMG I love them so! Even as I critique! I totally reread the original trilogy right after reading this, and although I can see the flaws, the first two books are still kind of awesome for me!

[saraspeaking.wordpress.com]

Delurking to express surprise and love that Someone Else Reads Ann Bishop. I've only read the trilogy (er, a lot) and while I adored it the first go-round (it has Strong Women! Sex! Hot Guys With Wings!), in subsequent readings I just got more and more bothered by certain aspects of it and I think that @jonquil has nailed it. I just sort of felt ashamed that I was so head-over-heels for something like, er. This.

I think too that I kinda feel bait-n'-switched, like, it was so awesome to me to read a fantasy story about women kicking ass, but then when I went back and read it with a more critical eye it seemed like that had just been window dressing because, really, gender stereotyping much? I almost don't know how I missed it that first time. (I blame the wings.)

This, though, is making me think that there's more to this series that I should really start exploring. So thanks for the push :)

[oyceter]

Bwahaha! I totally read her! I loved the first book so much in high school.

I think you're right about the bait-and-switch, because I think one of my favorite things about it was that Jaenelle was a total Mary Sue, but that she was also kind of really scary! There are still a lot of flaws in the series, and I think Bishop set up something with interesting possibilities and then proceeded to try to ignore those possibilities as much as possible and kept everything as heteronormative and gender role stereotypical as she possibly could, but gah, I wish someone would take up something in the world and run off with it.

[lovepeaceohana]

(ps. this is the same poster, just + DW account, courtesy of zvi's huge page of invite codes.)

Yes, Jaenelle was a total Mary Sue. I didn't get that the first time 'round, either, but on further reading it was painfully, painfully obvious. I had some issues around that as well, because of the way I'd been trained to autoread Mary Sues as BAD WRITING, BAD! *smacks with newspaper*, but the whole debate going 'round now about Mary Sues is making me rethink that, so we'll see.

But yes a million to wanting someone else to play with the world she halfbuilt and take those awesome possibilities to their logical (and maybe even illogical!) conclusions, or to at least explore them in new and bold ways that get sadly unaddressed in the actual canon. If you do find links to good fanfiction would you mind sharing? *hopeful*

[oyceter]

I actually kind of love that she's a Mary Sue! Like, not just for Bishop, but for the characters... she's the person they literally dreamed into being!

I will totally pass along links to good fic if I find it... sadly, it's been nonexistant, but I hope there will be more.