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A review by kuyemura
The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
3.0
Here's my hangup with the premise: a king can marry up to 100 times, also has a bunch of courtesans, and every time he picks a new wife, any woman in his harem who wants to improve her ranking can duel another to the death.
Okay but most of these women are super bloodthirsty and conniving so how are there any of them left after 100 (sorry, 99) marriages? Also, I don't understand why all these women are trained warriors. In a culture where the primary virtue of a woman is to be obedient, why would men be like "yeah, actually, what we think we should do is make sure every woman, even if she's an orphan plucked from the streets, gets well-trained in the art of combat?" The women's skills aren't being used for anything except for exhibitionist entertainment, and only the king's women at that. They're not even bodyguards to the king? They certainly aren't fighting in wars. So why would you...train half the population you are currently subjugating on how to kick your butt?
But if you get past that (which I did), this was fun typical YA "oh there's a hot broody boy," "oh the protag has powers," "oh the protag has the MOST SPECIALEST powers" vibes. My primary annoyance was Kalinda going on, and on, and on, about how she was soooo plain in comparison to the other women because she's thin.
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Girl, please.
Okay but most of these women are super bloodthirsty and conniving so how are there any of them left after 100 (sorry, 99) marriages? Also, I don't understand why all these women are trained warriors. In a culture where the primary virtue of a woman is to be obedient, why would men be like "yeah, actually, what we think we should do is make sure every woman, even if she's an orphan plucked from the streets, gets well-trained in the art of combat?" The women's skills aren't being used for anything except for exhibitionist entertainment, and only the king's women at that. They're not even bodyguards to the king? They certainly aren't fighting in wars. So why would you...train half the population you are currently subjugating on how to kick your butt?
But if you get past that (which I did), this was fun typical YA "oh there's a hot broody boy," "oh the protag has powers," "oh the protag has the MOST SPECIALEST powers" vibes. My primary annoyance was Kalinda going on, and on, and on, about how she was soooo plain in comparison to the other women because she's thin.
-.- -.- -.- -.-
Girl, please.