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blacksphinx's review against another edition
I am really torn about this book. On one hand, it contains a lot of ideas, rituals, and spells of necromancy that form a wonderful starting place for the newcomer and spark the imagination of those with more experience. There's two things described in this book that would never have occurred to me on my own and I eagerly look forward to the day where I can enact them.
However, there is an aspect of this book that made me see red. I understand that the author is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. The author goes on in this book to also use they/them pronouns for all sentient beings, at one point arguing that you cannot ever know if someone is buried under the name they wanted. While it is very strange to listen to historical figures like King James VI getting they/them'ed, I understand that thought process. Who knows how someone born in the 1560's would identify today? And then the author started discussing the work of a living author and proceeded to they/them that person too. Five seconds on google reveals the author in question has "he/him" in every social media bio. Mortellus cites him by name and the title of his book so it's not like they were trying to be obscure and vague about who they were discussing either!
However, there is an aspect of this book that made me see red. I understand that the author is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. The author goes on in this book to also use they/them pronouns for all sentient beings, at one point arguing that you cannot ever know if someone is buried under the name they wanted. While it is very strange to listen to historical figures like King James VI getting they/them'ed, I understand that thought process. Who knows how someone born in the 1560's would identify today? And then the author started discussing the work of a living author and proceeded to they/them that person too. Five seconds on google reveals the author in question has "he/him" in every social media bio. Mortellus cites him by name and the title of his book so it's not like they were trying to be obscure and vague about who they were discussing either!
The sheer arrogance of deciding that YOU know better than another person what their gender is and how they should be addressed infuriated me. Mortellus winds up talking quite a bit about ethics and respecting the agency of the dead. How about the agency of the living to decide on a gender? Maybe it's because I have been repeatedly misgendered in such a fashion and know how disconcerting and painful it can be, but it made all their talk of respect and ethics extremely hollow.
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