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A review by naye
Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4.0
What a wonderfully wrenching book. So many battles that feel truly awful - and that's a good thing! War isn't fantasy here; isn't about glory or heroism - it's about survival. It's a war of aggression, of imperialism... and that makes it all the more interesting that we are beginning to get glimpses into the men and machinations behind the scenes.
Would've been five stars except that both heteronormativity and misogyny/sexual violence against women really bugs (hah) me in fantasy - look, at the point we have flying Wasp people "realism" is no longer an excuse to have no queer folks but plenty of rapist men. Also I am very uncomfortable with Totho - a victim of fantasy racism - being the one to go full Nice Guy and also turn to the dark side. I am hoping his story will take another turn, but yeah. It's just feeling slightly off to me.
And the above might sound harsh but I LOVE these books and I want them to be even better and more inclusive and I it would take so little to make my queer self feel more welcome and at home in the world. (Like - drop a few hints that there's guys thirsty for Salma! Mention Che's past girl crush! Or - come on, you can't tell me Spiders aren't obviously hella bi...)
Would've been five stars except that both heteronormativity and misogyny/sexual violence against women really bugs (hah) me in fantasy - look, at the point we have flying Wasp people "realism" is no longer an excuse to have no queer folks but plenty of rapist men. Also I am very uncomfortable with Totho - a victim of fantasy racism - being the one to go full Nice Guy and also turn to the dark side. I am hoping his story will take another turn, but yeah. It's just feeling slightly off to me.
And the above might sound harsh but I LOVE these books and I want them to be even better and more inclusive and I it would take so little to make my queer self feel more welcome and at home in the world. (Like - drop a few hints that there's guys thirsty for Salma! Mention Che's past girl crush! Or - come on, you can't tell me Spiders aren't obviously hella bi...)