Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly
466 pages
Published 2002
Read from March 7 to March 15
Rating: ★★ out of 5
There's
an essay to be written here regarding intersectonality in feminist
fantasy, by someone whose brain is currently firing on all cylinders.
Hambly uses this novel as an unapologetic soapbox against the
subjugation of women -- a laudable if obvious theme -- yet builds it on a
racially-tinged foundation. I suppose this is far from the worst case
of Orientalism I've encountered in modern fantasy, but it's nonetheless
unmistakable. Setting your "Women cast off sub-human social status to
claim power in society" novel in a pseudo-Arabic context kind of makes
sense, I suppose, but it brings with it troubling overtones; I can't
shake the feeling that feminist critiques of Arabic culture, at least in
fiction, are probably best addressed by writers within those cultures,
you know? Add to that the fact that the ruling class of this
pseudo-Ottoman fantasy land are blond-haired and fair-skinned, which
never draws much comment in the text, and you have yourself the starting
point of that possible essay. But I don't feel like writing it right
now.
This book was competently written but a bit unfocused. The
first 65 pages (one-seventh of the book) are spent introducing six
viewpoint characters, not staying with any of them long enough to
establish lasting interest or emotional investment in any of them. I
like multiple viewpoint characters, but give me a chance to get to know
them, jeez. This process isn't helped by character names like
"Corn-Tassel Woman" and "Pomegranate Woman" and "Summer Concubine." Yes,
I get the point of the naming system -- women are property to be named
at the pleasure of their husbands or keepers -- but that doesn't change
the fact that it doesn't make it easy to keep track of the welter of
characters. Worse, after I got them sorted out in my head, I didn't much
care what happened to them. I never felt emotionally invested in any of
them, or anything that was going on. Though I might make an exception
for Pomegranate Woman and her spirit pig, who seem to have wound up in
this book after getting lost on the way to a Gaiman novel.
I will
say I liked the structure and execution of magic in this universe. At
one point a spell is worked on two soldiers by making them eat papers
with the spell on them. How Old Testament is that?
If I had to sum up my impressions, it would be "A Star Wars author tries to write a Big Important Novel, with predictably middling results." Sisters of the Raven
was never an outright chore to read, but it lacked much to keep me
interested, as you can tell; it took me for-fucking-ever to finish it.
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