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A review by erinys
The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro
2.0
This novel won the Nebula in 2001, and I really wanted to enjoy it more than I ended up being able to. It's a science fiction romance about a young political leader from a small, primitive, backwater world who falls in love with the princely heir apparent of an ancient and powerful interstellar empire.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.
It's full of descriptive, inventive prose. The protagonist is an interesting woman, who lives by her principles and finds non-violent solutions to even the most dire problems. Half of the characters are named after scientific principles and it somehow works. People are riding around alot on alien Riding Steeds, and I am always a sucker for alien Riding Steeds.
Unfortunately, this is also a story about an 18-year-old girl who is "bred to be a slave" and have no childhood, and a reduced ability to learn things like literacy or mathematics.
This is a story about a woman whose body and life are a commodity to be bought by powerful men. Her agency is limited and she is easily (and constantly) bought, bullied, manipulated, abducted and violated.
This is a story about a woman who is brutally raped at least twice by her former fiancee, who faces absolutely no consequences for that crime at any point during or after the events of the novel.
This is a woman who might legitimately be said to have started her relationship with her main romantic love interest with sex that was not negotiated properly.
This is also a story about a girl of 18 who ends up in a "Happily Ever After" love relationship with a man over 70, who has had many children, grandchildren and great-children by the time the two of them meet.
This is a story about a LOT of people on at least two worlds who are "bred" for certain traits, and whose personality and traits are baldly stated to be a result of that breeding.
In short...this is a story that is very, very misogynistic by my standards, more than a little bit rapey, and also pretty darn racist, at least in its ideology.
I was really kinda uncomfortable reading this. I decided to finish it because I was interesting in the Space Opera McGuffin at the end. Plus also, there were excellent Alien Riding Steeds.
YMMV. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to tolerate certain approaches to sexual assault. This book did not make me happy.