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A review by mirandanoel
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
2.5
I think this book is frustrating not because it is poorly written, but rather because it is *clear* that Richard Swan has promising writing capabilities, but has squandered them by not thinking critically about the implications of what he is writing.
First off, I think his choice of Helena as the POV character is baffling. Helena does not drive the story forward, but is rather just sort of along for the ride. This in and of itself is not a crucial error; in fact, I think it is usually refreshing when the POV character is more peripheral to the action that drives the story forward. However, in this case, Helena just seems to be an avenue for Richard Swan to demonstrate all the different ways to infantilize a young female in a SFF work. Helena is helpless, she is combative, she is often nonsensical (eg her instalove plotline) and it is *all for nothing*.
She is always afraid, even wetting herself at one point. I don’t know if Richard Swan has talked to many adolescent women, but in my experience they are like the most fearless group of people there is! It’s terrifying how unafraid they are! Seriously! They frighten me still!
Even though Helena has been fighting for survival seemingly her whole life, has lived through both of her parents deaths, and has witnessed a literal war, she is reduced to a frightened tagalong for the whole damn book. We *hear* how she /was/ fearless (daring to attempt to rob Vonvalt before he apprenticed her), we never see it.
I’m not trying to say your characters can’t be afraid. Scary, awful things are happening. But when we have exactly one female main character and she is shaking in her boots from page 1 to 413, it feels frustrating and cheap.
Moreover, for the majority of the story, Helena seems to be the only young female to exist on this entire god-forsaken world. There is no other representation - just Helena, who may as well be a piece of wet cardboard.
The story is interesting, the themes are compelling, the prose is well-polished, but it is all squashed for me by Richard Swan’s mishandling of higher, complex social relationships (particularly gender).
I genuinely hope that Richard Swan continues to develop as a writer and might come to deal more aptly with these things later in his career, but for now this book really fell flat for me, despite it’s promising characteristics.
First off, I think his choice of Helena as the POV character is baffling. Helena does not drive the story forward, but is rather just sort of along for the ride. This in and of itself is not a crucial error; in fact, I think it is usually refreshing when the POV character is more peripheral to the action that drives the story forward. However, in this case, Helena just seems to be an avenue for Richard Swan to demonstrate all the different ways to infantilize a young female in a SFF work. Helena is helpless, she is combative, she is often nonsensical (eg her instalove plotline) and it is *all for nothing*.
She is always afraid, even wetting herself at one point. I don’t know if Richard Swan has talked to many adolescent women, but in my experience they are like the most fearless group of people there is! It’s terrifying how unafraid they are! Seriously! They frighten me still!
Even though Helena has been fighting for survival seemingly her whole life, has lived through both of her parents deaths, and has witnessed a literal war, she is reduced to a frightened tagalong for the whole damn book. We *hear* how she /was/ fearless (daring to attempt to rob Vonvalt before he apprenticed her), we never see it.
I’m not trying to say your characters can’t be afraid. Scary, awful things are happening. But when we have exactly one female main character and she is shaking in her boots from page 1 to 413, it feels frustrating and cheap.
Moreover, for the majority of the story, Helena seems to be the only young female to exist on this entire god-forsaken world. There is no other representation - just Helena, who may as well be a piece of wet cardboard.
The story is interesting, the themes are compelling, the prose is well-polished, but it is all squashed for me by Richard Swan’s mishandling of higher, complex social relationships (particularly gender).
I genuinely hope that Richard Swan continues to develop as a writer and might come to deal more aptly with these things later in his career, but for now this book really fell flat for me, despite it’s promising characteristics.