Literarily: I loved it, except that the terrible-disability-politics ending was also bad storytelling. Disability as metaphor is the lazy lazy lazy writing, and I hate it, and I have gotten in shouting arguments with friends who insist that physical-traits-as-metaphor is poetic and of the core of good writing.
But other than the ending, I really did enjoy the book. Sure, many of the plot points came straight out of the Tamora Pierce/Anne McCaffery playbooks, but they were done better. I thought it was a walloping good fantasy adventure.
Gender politics: I loved how matter of fact they all were about Lady Dela, and her heterosexual relationship with a eunuch. That gave me the basis of trusting Eon's cross-dressing enough to give it a chance, and it deserved the chance I gave it, I felt.
Culture mashing: Urgh. I can't remember at this point is my feelings on the way it dealt with culture were from book 1 or book 2, so I won't comment.
Disability politics: well, you know how I feel. It involved damaging the book. Like I said, I think among other things it was totally untrue to the character's growth arc. And yet until that point, god, the reason I think I felt so betrayed was because I found myself in that book. I believed in Eon's chronic pain, and I believed in how shitty it felt for her to go through her days, fighting and eating and being a fantasy heroine, while in constant grinding pain. I loved that she was managing to be a fantasy heroine -- a sort-wielding fantasy heroine, at that! -- while in chronic pain. I loved that she wasn't a superhero, but she did it anyway.
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Literarily: I loved it, except that the terrible-disability-politics ending was also bad storytelling. Disability as metaphor is the lazy lazy lazy writing, and I hate it, and I have gotten in shouting arguments with friends who insist that physical-traits-as-metaphor is poetic and of the core of good writing.
But other than the ending, I really did enjoy the book. Sure, many of the plot points came straight out of the Tamora Pierce/Anne McCaffery playbooks, but they were done better. I thought it was a walloping good fantasy adventure.
Gender politics: I loved how matter of fact they all were about Lady Dela, and her heterosexual relationship with a eunuch. That gave me the basis of trusting Eon's cross-dressing enough to give it a chance, and it deserved the chance I gave it, I felt.
Culture mashing: Urgh. I can't remember at this point is my feelings on the way it dealt with culture were from book 1 or book 2, so I won't comment.
Disability politics: well, you know how I feel. It involved damaging the book. Like I said, I think among other things it was totally untrue to the character's growth arc. And yet until that point, god, the reason I think I felt so betrayed was because I found myself in that book. I believed in Eon's chronic pain, and I believed in how shitty it felt for her to go through her days, fighting and eating and being a fantasy heroine, while in constant grinding pain. I loved that she was managing to be a fantasy heroine -- a sort-wielding fantasy heroine, at that! -- while in chronic pain. I loved that she wasn't a superhero, but she did it anyway.
Thus, violently hurling the book across the room.