Bishop, Anne - Shalador's Lady
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2010 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterAfter 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?
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?
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(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 15th, 2010 03:19 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 15th, 2010 06:06 pm (UTC)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*
(no subject)
Mon, Apr. 19th, 2010 08:55 pm (UTC)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.