Zer Netmouse

In 2012, Alex Dally MacFarlane wrote at length and with eloquence on Feminist SFF: Female Friendships, or rather the near-total absence of female friendships in SFF.

You might recall I wrote, well, er, ranted, about this topic back in 2006. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who notices it's still a THING.

As an aside, I'm happy to report that Tobias S. Buckell, whose Crystal Rain I called out on this issue in my first post, put more female characters and more female relationships and mentorships in The Apocalypse Ocean, which is a later work in the same universe (The Xenowealth Series, Book 4). I highly recommend it.

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I realized at some point this summer that I was putting off reading this book because I was so impressed by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I was afraid the sequel would disappoint me.

It did not; in fact, I liked this book better than the first one. Both have vivid imagery but I found this one even more visually evocative, perhaps because different kinds of sight figure keenly in the plot, which is about a blind artisan who can see, but only by the light of magic. I also thought the protagonist was more sympathetic, her causes and concerns ones I truly cared about. There is still intrigue and plotting among gods and humans alike, but this book had more to do with the secondary effects and how the lesser gods and the people on the ground suffer from the machinations of others.

I also really liked the themes of forgiveness (and when forgiveness is not justified), self-forgiveness, and personal growth in the book.

I find I am very much looking forward to the next one in the series, The Kingdom of Gods, which is coming out in October. :)



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