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A review by rosiapacifica
Transformation by Carol Berg
3.0
This book, a strong finish and a disappointing end.
Seriously. It starts out pretty well. A slave who has experienced horrible things and has nothing left of pride or resistance left in him. A prince who has certainly begun to drown himself in the cruelty and evil that most in power love so much. And then they meet and the Prince sees his own shame in this slave and actively works to be something different while Seyonne tries to convince him to help save the world. I’d seen it before, but not handled so well. I was interested. The characters were dynamic.
Fun start. Plenty of conflict there.
But then the author pulls out some female characters and that’s when the story became painful to read.
The female characters are strong, beautiful, and wise. There are exactly three of them because the secondary villain of the story is a fiancé who might have abandoned the main character to slavery so that she could be with his best friend instead. Who of us has seen that one before. So the third female is a replacement potential love interest. Until he discovers that she belongs to another man. Then he is at peace with not pursuing her. But in general the three named women in the book are, again, beautiful, strong, powerful. Such good matches for the main characters, if they could see past potential betrayals and harsh words. Yes, they are strong, but ‘the nature of their gifts’ is that they are powerful in a passive way. Being strong and holding open the doors. Loyally waiting in the background. Magic systems policed by gender make me die inside. They are horrible and reinforce far more bad than good to a reader living in a world that already struggles to see women as people.
Say what you will about how nice and rare you think it is that the main male characters love each other platonically. But this story? Two male friends who save the day and go home to their beautiful wives? That is a story I am bored to death of. Its not rare. At all.
Possible solution: Switching one of the protagonist’s genders would have made this far less painful to read. And I would be writing a review about how groundbreaking it is to read a book about a male and female protagonist who form a deep, platonic love. Which says a lot about how low the bar is set for female characters.
Or not splitting the magic system up by gender. Please, I’m just asking for something.
I was so ready to love this book when it began. So disappointed now.
If anyone reading this is of a similar mind and has recommendations of books with decent female representation, I would love you forever.
Seriously. It starts out pretty well. A slave who has experienced horrible things and has nothing left of pride or resistance left in him. A prince who has certainly begun to drown himself in the cruelty and evil that most in power love so much. And then they meet and the Prince sees his own shame in this slave and actively works to be something different while Seyonne tries to convince him to help save the world. I’d seen it before, but not handled so well. I was interested. The characters were dynamic.
Fun start. Plenty of conflict there.
But then the author pulls out some female characters and that’s when the story became painful to read.
The female characters are strong, beautiful, and wise. There are exactly three of them because the secondary villain of the story is a fiancé who might have abandoned the main character to slavery so that she could be with his best friend instead. Who of us has seen that one before. So the third female is a replacement potential love interest. Until he discovers that she belongs to another man. Then he is at peace with not pursuing her. But in general the three named women in the book are, again, beautiful, strong, powerful. Such good matches for the main characters, if they could see past potential betrayals and harsh words. Yes, they are strong, but ‘the nature of their gifts’ is that they are powerful in a passive way. Being strong and holding open the doors. Loyally waiting in the background. Magic systems policed by gender make me die inside. They are horrible and reinforce far more bad than good to a reader living in a world that already struggles to see women as people.
Say what you will about how nice and rare you think it is that the main male characters love each other platonically. But this story? Two male friends who save the day and go home to their beautiful wives? That is a story I am bored to death of. Its not rare. At all.
Possible solution: Switching one of the protagonist’s genders would have made this far less painful to read. And I would be writing a review about how groundbreaking it is to read a book about a male and female protagonist who form a deep, platonic love. Which says a lot about how low the bar is set for female characters.
Or not splitting the magic system up by gender. Please, I’m just asking for something.
I was so ready to love this book when it began. So disappointed now.
If anyone reading this is of a similar mind and has recommendations of books with decent female representation, I would love you forever.