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archytas 's review for:
Semper Fidelis
by Ruth Downie
I thoroughly enjoyed this installment. Downie's grasp on the workings of institutions dovetails nicely with her passion for British history, providing an interesting critique of the army, and it's relationship with those it has effectively conquered, all through the lens of a military operates.
I'm impressed with how long Downie has let the infertility story slow burn: I had expected a pat solution by now. It can be a delicate topic in fiction (Cough, Black Widow, cough) - strong women in fiction either don't want kids or obtain them - and I think there is a derth of stories that explore the complexity of emotion around the issue. Having said that, having Tilla want to switch from midwife to doctor obviously allows a different set of stories around sexism, and also allows her and her husband to be more directly involved in the same case, but I thought one of the strengths of the books so far was unobtrusively showing how hard, skilled and vital midwifery is at this point in history, and yet so unappreciated when compared with the surgeon's often less effective work.
Introducing a new POV character also worked very well, introducing variety at a point where a series starts to feel repititious.
I'm impressed with how long Downie has let the infertility story slow burn: I had expected a pat solution by now. It can be a delicate topic in fiction (Cough, Black Widow, cough) - strong women in fiction either don't want kids or obtain them - and I think there is a derth of stories that explore the complexity of emotion around the issue. Having said that, having Tilla want to switch from midwife to doctor obviously allows a different set of stories around sexism, and also allows her and her husband to be more directly involved in the same case, but I thought one of the strengths of the books so far was unobtrusively showing how hard, skilled and vital midwifery is at this point in history, and yet so unappreciated when compared with the surgeon's often less effective work.
Introducing a new POV character also worked very well, introducing variety at a point where a series starts to feel repititious.