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A review by mandygris
Imager by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
3.0
I bought this entire 11 book series when it was on sale. I'll probably come back and re-rate the books depending on how the entire series plays out. I was a bit wary about book 1, because it didn't seem like it'd pass the Bechdel test or that women would be anything more than plot devices to help the male protagonist along. It definitely is a man's world and the amount of notable women featured isn't huge, but they ones that do are interesting secondary characters with developed personalities and have some agency. They still kind of seem to exist in book 2 for the sake of being useful to the protagonist, but book 3 is expanding more on the agency and ideas of the women he knows.
Some of the societal settings, naming, and family set-up remind me of ancient Rome in terms of a "woman's place" though it's a bit more progressive and diverse with a variety of cultural interactions and beliefs, I think that is why we don't end up seeing a ton of women workers or women-to-women conversations unless there are multiple ladies in a household. Book 1 can also be forgiven for the lack of ladies, as it's a story about a young man who is fairly cloistered off for most of that book. As he gets older, the amount of people he gets to interact with increases.
Again, I will reserve full judgement until I finish the series.
Some of the societal settings, naming, and family set-up remind me of ancient Rome in terms of a "woman's place" though it's a bit more progressive and diverse with a variety of cultural interactions and beliefs, I think that is why we don't end up seeing a ton of women workers or women-to-women conversations unless there are multiple ladies in a household. Book 1 can also be forgiven for the lack of ladies, as it's a story about a young man who is fairly cloistered off for most of that book. As he gets older, the amount of people he gets to interact with increases.
Again, I will reserve full judgement until I finish the series.