lightreads

The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Funny how little young adult traditional epic fantasy I see these days. Everything's all punk -- steampunk, mannerpunk, retro recombinant cyberpunk, noirpunk, apocopunk. No punk here. This is straight up epic fantasy, every heroic stand faithfully rendered, every formality observed. Kingdom in peril saved by teenaged princess? Check. Street kid with a tragic past and a powerful secret? Check. Old legends and spirit animal visions? Check. Stultifyingly traditional classism and occasional sexual double-standards cut with really uncomfortable attempts at modern liberal lipservice? Check.

You'd think traditional epic fantasy would become its own kind of punk, that thing where retro turns into a self-perpetuating meta loop of self-examination. But not really. This is just traditional epic fantasy, less successful than previous installments at staying on the right side of the classic/cliché divide, and with the classism elements subliminally turned up to eleven this time.

I wonder how well this sort of thing is selling these days, comparatively speaking. It's not like thingypunk is by definition thinking harder, or even like thinking is what sells in fantasy. I just wonder if this sort of straight up epic fantasy is eventually going the way of the penny-dreadful western, culturally speaking. Satisfying to a certain generation who was inculcated early enough, but otherwise a little embarrassing.

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