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12 reviews for:
The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone
Geonn Cannon
3.27 AVERAGE
12 reviews for:
The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone
Geonn Cannon
3.27 AVERAGE
I picked this novel up as part of one of Storybundle's Historical Fantasy bundles back in 2016, and as I'm starting to work my way through a backlog of Storybundle books, it looked like a fun read. Having finished, I've found that the story is a mix of things that I enjoyed, and a few things that bothered me. Some of the things I enjoyed are things I'd really like to see more of in books; one is the fact that in this version of 1920s Europe, a mix of Steampunk tech and magic is around and relatively mainstream, or at least, mainstream enough to not be a source of constant amazement and wonder, but at the same time, not generally earth-shaking enough to be a storybreaker. Another is that essentially every major character in this barring some of the antagonists is a woman - let's have more stories like that, please. Our cast of characters includes but isn't limited to a lesbian/bi member of the gentry who doesn't want to settle down and marry and have children, but instead wants to be off adventuring, chasing ancient relics and kissing pretty women (and is able to do so thanks to the support and legacy of her grandmother, who seems to have been of similar spirit); an Abyssinian woman recruited from a village in the middle of nowhere along with dozens of other young women, allegedly to go overseas and become nannies and the like, but instead is intended to be a human sacrifice, who promptly breaks free, screws up the plans of the devil-worshiping abductors, frees the other captives, kills a few people and becomes an adventuring tomb-robber much like the other lead protagonist - so much so that the two spend years in competition to each other; an invisible thief; an Asian/something woman with no clear memory, some magic-using abilities and a large, unique tattoo of mysterious import; a British Indian airship captain and Great War veteran... and so on. In short, a collection of characters with a huge amount of potential; the only notable male characters are some of the villains, and Lady Boone's gay male beard whose name escapes me.
The world of the explorer/archaeologist/treasure hunter introduces us briefly to a whole host of potentially interesting, generally arrogant and frequently homicidal professional rivals as the story unfolds and the protagonists start to work out what's going on, becoming a running hunt that ,pves through Europe and into the remains of the ancient world, pulling together an attempted murder plot with a secret society of devil-worshiping goateed villains who'd fit nicely into a Hellboy story. There are some great historical references dotted throughout the book - I loved the minor back-and-forth between Boone and ... her gay male beard whose name escapes me ... during one of his lectures, over the nature of the Sea Peoples associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse, which was clearly an old saw between the two of them and which rather delighted me, because more novels should feature references to entertainingly mysterious parts of ancient history. For the record, I'm more inclined to believe Boone's interpretation (the Sea Peoples were from Pavlopetri) rather than his (they were from Atlantis) but I like the idea that in this world, either is a viable alternative.
So, lots of good stuff in here, at least in concept, and the book's a fast and pacey read with an entertaining mystery, a fair number of fights, a number of friendly rivalries, an airship chase and effectively an all-female cast.
There are things that bothered me, though. Archaeology of the period was basically cultural robbery, and remains an issue to this day; while there's a minor effort to address this in the book - you can tell the good 'uns like Boone and Trafalgar from the bad 'uns because the bad 'uns would happily loot holy sites and churches for baubles to sell for profit, where as Trafalgar and Boone engage in legitimate funded expeditions to take artifacts for ... museums? I think? ... but it's one of those areas that's right up there in terms of colonialist behaviour, and here it's very much set in terms of exciting adventures rather than stealing other people's history and culture, with no real acknowledgement of the latter. That made me uncomfortable, particularly as one encounter in the book involves someone accidentally coming into contact with a dangerous artifact called a Medusa Tablet from ancient Greece, which one of the protagonists has lying around in her house - and which she actually comments on how she shouldn't have left it lying around for someone to stumble across. Not the best way to convince me that the protagonists have any respect for the items they're taking or the culture they're taking them from, and yet later in the book one of the evil villain's is shown to be evil because of the way they callously destroy an ancient sculpture at Knossos for no reason other than because they can, because that's totally different to... taking it back to your London house and leaving it lying around somewhere. So... not great.
Another thing that bothered me is that in one of the relationships in the book, there's an unaddressed power imbalance that made me uncomfortable. One of the characters has an on-again, off-again, no-strings-attached sexual relationship with one of the other characters - which wouldn't be an issue, except the other character is someone in her employ. She's pitched as a loyal and trusted companion, someone who has complete access to and authority over the running of the house when the protagonist is away for months at a time, but at the same time is referred to as her majordomo or as a servant several times, so no matter how you try and skip around it, one character has power over the other. It doesn't help that the second character is someone who was living as a street urchin and thief with no other options who met the protagonist as a result of burgling her house, reinforcing the difference in power between the two from the outset. That doesn't mean that a good shagging the servants story can't be fun, but sooner or later, you need to give everyone involved free choice, and so long as one's the employer of the other, that can't happen.
The third thing that bothered me is that for all the elements of a diverse and interesting cast being in place, those elements never really get followed up. One of my favourite minor characters was Araminta Crook, the airship captain. Some things about her character are handled well, like learning why she feels she owes Boone, which touches on the most important relationship in her life, but having been introduced to us as a British Indian and veteran of the Great War airship squadrons, we don't really learn much of anything about what it's like being a British Indian woman in Britain/in the airship corps/in competition with other airship captains/in any way whatsoever, really. Given Britain's long, complicated and troubled history with India, Minty seemed like a great opportunity to see storytelling that included elements of that complex history and its effects on people, but instead, Minty could've just as easily been Sharon from Essex for all the impact it had on the story. That's also true to a certain extent for Trafalgar, although by dint of getting more of her backstory, she's more fleshed out; however, what gets no time at all is anything about what it's like working as a professional treasure hunter in 1920s Britain while being very obviously not a white woman named Sharon from Essex. We actually get more page time devoted to how Boone needed to come up with a socially-plausible explanation for Boone being able to hide that she's a lesbian than we do to anything about Minty or Trafalgar's experience of being not-white in 1920s Britain. Equally, Beatrice is effectively a half-Asian senior servant working for an eccentric but known member of the minor gentry, and is in a sexual relationship with her employer and her history and experiences don't receive much attention in this, beyond mentions of her magical abilities, funky tattoo, period as a street thief and not being able to remember her early life. In contrast, Boone - as the white female lead protagonist - gets much more by way of pagetime for her background history, romantic escapades, treasure-hunting experiences, the cunning plan by which she avoids being ostracized for being gay... it left me with the niggling feeling that while I really liked the promise implied by the diverse cast of characters, the diversity isn't actually particularly deep, and while I'm not sure I'd call it tokenistic, I'd hope that future books actually explore characters other than Boone in much more depth than this first novel did.
So, while it was an enjoyable read, I don't think it was the great read I'd hoped it would be. I'm going to check the other Storybundles I've bought over the last few years to see if I've got any of the sequels, though, because this is still a fun story in the same way that Indiana Jones comics and movies are fun, if Indiana Jones was a gay woman who got to punch Chthulhu-worshippers more while playing with Steampunk tech and magic.
The world of the explorer/archaeologist/treasure hunter introduces us briefly to a whole host of potentially interesting, generally arrogant and frequently homicidal professional rivals as the story unfolds and the protagonists start to work out what's going on, becoming a running hunt that ,pves through Europe and into the remains of the ancient world, pulling together an attempted murder plot with a secret society of devil-worshiping goateed villains who'd fit nicely into a Hellboy story. There are some great historical references dotted throughout the book - I loved the minor back-and-forth between Boone and ... her gay male beard whose name escapes me ... during one of his lectures, over the nature of the Sea Peoples associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse, which was clearly an old saw between the two of them and which rather delighted me, because more novels should feature references to entertainingly mysterious parts of ancient history. For the record, I'm more inclined to believe Boone's interpretation (the Sea Peoples were from Pavlopetri) rather than his (they were from Atlantis) but I like the idea that in this world, either is a viable alternative.
So, lots of good stuff in here, at least in concept, and the book's a fast and pacey read with an entertaining mystery, a fair number of fights, a number of friendly rivalries, an airship chase and effectively an all-female cast.
There are things that bothered me, though. Archaeology of the period was basically cultural robbery, and remains an issue to this day; while there's a minor effort to address this in the book - you can tell the good 'uns like Boone and Trafalgar from the bad 'uns because the bad 'uns would happily loot holy sites and churches for baubles to sell for profit, where as Trafalgar and Boone engage in legitimate funded expeditions to take artifacts for ... museums? I think? ... but it's one of those areas that's right up there in terms of colonialist behaviour, and here it's very much set in terms of exciting adventures rather than stealing other people's history and culture, with no real acknowledgement of the latter. That made me uncomfortable, particularly as one encounter in the book involves someone accidentally coming into contact with a dangerous artifact called a Medusa Tablet from ancient Greece, which one of the protagonists has lying around in her house - and which she actually comments on how she shouldn't have left it lying around for someone to stumble across. Not the best way to convince me that the protagonists have any respect for the items they're taking or the culture they're taking them from, and yet later in the book one of the evil villain's is shown to be evil because of the way they callously destroy an ancient sculpture at Knossos for no reason other than because they can, because that's totally different to... taking it back to your London house and leaving it lying around somewhere. So... not great.
Another thing that bothered me is that in one of the relationships in the book, there's an unaddressed power imbalance that made me uncomfortable. One of the characters has an on-again, off-again, no-strings-attached sexual relationship with one of the other characters - which wouldn't be an issue, except the other character is someone in her employ. She's pitched as a loyal and trusted companion, someone who has complete access to and authority over the running of the house when the protagonist is away for months at a time, but at the same time is referred to as her majordomo or as a servant several times, so no matter how you try and skip around it, one character has power over the other. It doesn't help that the second character is someone who was living as a street urchin and thief with no other options who met the protagonist as a result of burgling her house, reinforcing the difference in power between the two from the outset. That doesn't mean that a good shagging the servants story can't be fun, but sooner or later, you need to give everyone involved free choice, and so long as one's the employer of the other, that can't happen.
The third thing that bothered me is that for all the elements of a diverse and interesting cast being in place, those elements never really get followed up. One of my favourite minor characters was Araminta Crook, the airship captain. Some things about her character are handled well, like learning why she feels she owes Boone, which touches on the most important relationship in her life, but having been introduced to us as a British Indian and veteran of the Great War airship squadrons, we don't really learn much of anything about what it's like being a British Indian woman in Britain/in the airship corps/in competition with other airship captains/in any way whatsoever, really. Given Britain's long, complicated and troubled history with India, Minty seemed like a great opportunity to see storytelling that included elements of that complex history and its effects on people, but instead, Minty could've just as easily been Sharon from Essex for all the impact it had on the story. That's also true to a certain extent for Trafalgar, although by dint of getting more of her backstory, she's more fleshed out; however, what gets no time at all is anything about what it's like working as a professional treasure hunter in 1920s Britain while being very obviously not a white woman named Sharon from Essex. We actually get more page time devoted to how Boone needed to come up with a socially-plausible explanation for Boone being able to hide that she's a lesbian than we do to anything about Minty or Trafalgar's experience of being not-white in 1920s Britain. Equally, Beatrice is effectively a half-Asian senior servant working for an eccentric but known member of the minor gentry, and is in a sexual relationship with her employer and her history and experiences don't receive much attention in this, beyond mentions of her magical abilities, funky tattoo, period as a street thief and not being able to remember her early life. In contrast, Boone - as the white female lead protagonist - gets much more by way of pagetime for her background history, romantic escapades, treasure-hunting experiences, the cunning plan by which she avoids being ostracized for being gay... it left me with the niggling feeling that while I really liked the promise implied by the diverse cast of characters, the diversity isn't actually particularly deep, and while I'm not sure I'd call it tokenistic, I'd hope that future books actually explore characters other than Boone in much more depth than this first novel did.
So, while it was an enjoyable read, I don't think it was the great read I'd hoped it would be. I'm going to check the other Storybundles I've bought over the last few years to see if I've got any of the sequels, though, because this is still a fun story in the same way that Indiana Jones comics and movies are fun, if Indiana Jones was a gay woman who got to punch Chthulhu-worshippers more while playing with Steampunk tech and magic.
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This one was okay, but I ended up kind of disappointed. The main plot had a lot of twists and turns, but all of the characters are written pretty thinly, and seem to have whatever personality is required for the scene instead of motivations that make sense. There's also this kind of weird voyeuristic tone about a lot of it where the women think about their own bodies a lot in uncomfortable ways. (Woman experiences world through vivid description of her own nipples strikes again!)