The Adversary by Julian May
472 pages
Published 1984
Read from May 25 to May 27
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
After I finished The Nonborn King, I spent a day and a half unable to focus on a new book. It took me that long to realize I was most interested in seeing how The Saga of Pliocene Exile would end -- surprising, given that I put down Nonborn King with the thought that I didn't much care about the story anymore.
Just as surprising was how enjoyable I found the first half or so of The Adversary. All that tedious piece-moving and board-setting in King enabled some brisk, entertaining passages as events finally moved forward, at least until the story got bogged down again in plans of genetic engineering and industrial fabrication. And after all the troubling gender politics in the previous volumes, perhaps it's no surprise that the central conflict is resolved when a powerful female protagonist finally, contentedly relinquishes control and assumes a subsidiary role to a more powerful male. (I get that this is supposed to be the character Elizabeth's need and not archetypal confirmation of a gender "ideal" -- there are, after all, a handful of tertiary characters who are strong women leaders -- but every other main female character is dead by this point, so it's hard to ignore.)
But hey, at least we (briefly) got to follow the adventures of my new favorite character in the series: Mr. Betsy, a badass former spacecraft engineer and test pilot who dresses in sumptuous Queen Elizabeth I drag.
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