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

[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.