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A review by azagee
Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
2.0
DNF'd. The weirdness towards Natives continues in this, because it wasn't enough to have a fantasy world based around the slow genocide of Native children, in this the narrative also focuses on Natives owning slaves. This would be a fine plot point if it also pointed out that the number of Native slaves outnumbered the amount of Native slave owners by about 5 million, but it doesn't.
Furthermore, once we begin to meet Chinese characters, the same thing happens: Although in reality, Chinese immigrants were facing the same slavery by another name that is a major theme here, they are portrayed as rich model minorities who are trying to use their superior fighting skills to take "jobs" away from Black people.
I got the feeling that instead of writing a real alternate history, Ireland was trying to write a metaphor for modern perceptions of these races in America. This absolutely does nor work, however, because it ignores the history of oppression that they actually went through and led to their modern circumstances.
Furthermore, once we begin to meet Chinese characters, the same thing happens: Although in reality, Chinese immigrants were facing the same slavery by another name that is a major theme here, they are portrayed as rich model minorities who are trying to use their superior fighting skills to take "jobs" away from Black people.
I got the feeling that instead of writing a real alternate history, Ireland was trying to write a metaphor for modern perceptions of these races in America. This absolutely does nor work, however, because it ignores the history of oppression that they actually went through and led to their modern circumstances.