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A review by roguebelle
Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
STEALING THUNDER seems to wander between fantasy romance, adventure story, and political intrigue. It lives somewhere between Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series and Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, though without the textual density, narrative nuance, or geopolitical complexity of either of those sagas. It could perhaps best be described as a riches-to-rags-to-riches Cinderella tale with a trans heroine. Razia begins life as a prince, runs away from her abusive father to live as her true self, a hijra, which in turn relegates her to life as a courtesan. Her keeper also forces her to steal, for reasons that are never quite clear, since the possible consequences would seem to outweigh the benefits. Razia meets a handsome prince, Arjun, who becomes immediately smitten with her and paves the way for her advancement in the world.
I say a Cinderella tale, but we might also see this as a trans woman's power fantasy. Razia rises above what she has suffered, and certainly in her backstory, she has suffered -- but within the narrative of the book, success is a fairly simple progression for her. Every decision she makes is correct. She wins over her detractors through cunning and a bit of martial prowess. When she makes a life-altering choice, any potential consequences are wiped away by her paramour's money. I kept waiting for her to make a mistake, to show an interesting character flaw, or at the very least for some threat seeded earlier in the text to pay off. But I waited in vain. Razia triumphs without setbacks along the way. The plot contains very little in the way of reversals, which I think may be what gives it that fairy-tale-esque feel. Good wins; evil dies or is converted.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. In some ways, it's great. More types of characters should get the chance to have that sort of power fantasy. But the story lacks the saturation and complexity that makes a novel compelling, to me as a reader, and Razia is almost too perfect of a heroine. (To compare to Kushiel's Legacy -- Phedre is a preternaturally talented heroine, to be sure, but she's a terrifically unreliable narrator and makes more mistakes than you can shake a stick at. And that keeps things interesting.) Once you realize there are never negative consequences, that her plot armor utterly shields her, and that no choice will ever come back to bite her, it lowers the stakes considerably.
Too, every character who isn't Razia feels quite thin. Arjun is unquestioningly supportive and accepting, and those seem to be his only personality traits. It's gratifying to see a character like Razia enjoy that sort of romance, but it doesn't make Arjun interesting. Razia's fellow hijra are more sketched-out than fully-realized: this one's the jealous one, this one's the BFF, this one's the little sister. We hear a fair bit about Razia's desire to be a mother, but mothers in general are thin on the ground -- while the influence of fathers is omnipresent. If Razia ever thinks of her own mother, it went by so fast that I missed it. Nor do we hear about the mothers of the other hijra. Prince Arjun's mother appears in one scene, as a foil to Razia, and seems to exist mostly just to give Razia another chance to show how clever she is. Arjun's sister is also in that scene, wherein she mentions her desire to ride a zahhak -- and then she's never mentioned again. The various antagonists are all cut in the same mold: gruff, paternalistic men who like military things and being rude to women. They vary only in how willing they are to be won over by Razia -- and as I mentioned above, all the ones who survive are won over by the end of the book.
Overall, I could recommend this to a reader looking to see a trans heroine in a positive light. If that's what you need, then this certainly delivers -- though with a fair few content warning qualifications. I think Razia will resonate with readers desirous of a queer fairy tale, and perhaps be a comfort to some of them. To someone looking for a nuanced and complex fantasy novel, however, I would have to point elsewhere.
I say a Cinderella tale, but we might also see this as a trans woman's power fantasy. Razia rises above what she has suffered, and certainly in her backstory, she has suffered -- but within the narrative of the book, success is a fairly simple progression for her. Every decision she makes is correct. She wins over her detractors through cunning and a bit of martial prowess. When she makes a life-altering choice, any potential consequences are wiped away by her paramour's money. I kept waiting for her to make a mistake, to show an interesting character flaw, or at the very least for some threat seeded earlier in the text to pay off. But I waited in vain. Razia triumphs without setbacks along the way. The plot contains very little in the way of reversals, which I think may be what gives it that fairy-tale-esque feel. Good wins; evil dies or is converted.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. In some ways, it's great. More types of characters should get the chance to have that sort of power fantasy. But the story lacks the saturation and complexity that makes a novel compelling, to me as a reader, and Razia is almost too perfect of a heroine. (To compare to Kushiel's Legacy -- Phedre is a preternaturally talented heroine, to be sure, but she's a terrifically unreliable narrator and makes more mistakes than you can shake a stick at. And that keeps things interesting.) Once you realize there are never negative consequences, that her plot armor utterly shields her, and that no choice will ever come back to bite her, it lowers the stakes considerably.
Too, every character who isn't Razia feels quite thin. Arjun is unquestioningly supportive and accepting, and those seem to be his only personality traits. It's gratifying to see a character like Razia enjoy that sort of romance, but it doesn't make Arjun interesting. Razia's fellow hijra are more sketched-out than fully-realized: this one's the jealous one, this one's the BFF, this one's the little sister. We hear a fair bit about Razia's desire to be a mother, but mothers in general are thin on the ground -- while the influence of fathers is omnipresent. If Razia ever thinks of her own mother, it went by so fast that I missed it. Nor do we hear about the mothers of the other hijra. Prince Arjun's mother appears in one scene, as a foil to Razia, and seems to exist mostly just to give Razia another chance to show how clever she is. Arjun's sister is also in that scene, wherein she mentions her desire to ride a zahhak -- and then she's never mentioned again. The various antagonists are all cut in the same mold: gruff, paternalistic men who like military things and being rude to women. They vary only in how willing they are to be won over by Razia -- and as I mentioned above, all the ones who survive are won over by the end of the book.
Overall, I could recommend this to a reader looking to see a trans heroine in a positive light. If that's what you need, then this certainly delivers -- though with a fair few content warning qualifications. I think Razia will resonate with readers desirous of a queer fairy tale, and perhaps be a comfort to some of them. To someone looking for a nuanced and complex fantasy novel, however, I would have to point elsewhere.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence and Transphobia
Moderate: Rape and Pedophilia
This book goes through a long stretch where Razia is constantly either under threat of sexual menace or remembering a past rape. It saturates the text so thoroughly, so relentlessly for many pages, that it put me, personally, in a very difficult headspace for a prolonged section of the text, to the point that I couldn't really appreciate or enjoy the other aspects of the story.
In another component I found troubling, the man who raped Razia when she was a child of eleven becomes an uneasy ally over the course of the book. He's the antag with the most personality, the one who causes the most turbulence within the narrative itself, and though Razia doesn't exactly forgive him, their dynamic is more buddy-buddy than I was comfortable with after he decides that he can respect her for her mind and she decides he must have grown up a bit. Y'know. In the years since he raped a child.