Tag: fantasy books

Why We Need “Ugly” Heroines

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

“I want something better than this for women. Intelligence, compassion, integrity, persistence, the ability to look beyond oneself — these are qualities that we should encourage all genders to value and embrace, both in themselves and others, from a young age. But the assumption that heroines need to be good-looking creates a corresponding assumption about women who are not. Books have the power to combat the idea of appearance as defining currency. Books can show us that admirable and interesting women come in all shapes and sizes.“

Very good article on female beauty standards in genre fiction. This topic is very close to my heart and I agree with most of it. The author is unfortunately a bit dismissive of women having romantic plot lines and I get where she’s coming from. Still I don’t agree with her.

Of course we need to see heroines who have other worries besides their love interest but she makes it sound as if a romantic love diminishes the female protagonist and takes away from the realistic depiction of a character. Romantic love is for most people a very important part of our daily life and I love to read about it in my fantasy and science fiction novels. 

Why We Need “Ugly” Heroines

SPIDERLIGHT
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The
Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for
as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that
a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord
Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an
artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen.

Their
journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will
become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord
will be waiting, always waiting…

Spiderlight
is an exhilarating fantasy quest from Adrian Tchaikovsky, the author
of Guns at Dawn and the Shadows of the Apt series.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28765741-spiderlight

Spoilers ahead…

This
book was a pleasant surprise. At first glance it’s a classic quest
novel about a small party (priestess, mage, warriors, thief) setting
out to defeat the eeeeeeeeevil Dark Lord.

It
becomes relevant to my (monster) interests when they force a giant
spider to join their party. To make him look less conspicuous the
resident mage attempts to give him a human shape. This goes slightly
wrong. The result is Nth, a man spider described as having a sinewy
physique, gray skin, slightly too long limbs, much too long fingers
and sporting 6 beady eyes as well as razor sharp fangs in a mouth
that, upon occasion, opens a bit too wide in an otherwise handsome face.
He’s also strong and tall. I’m in love.

The
poor spider monster fills his party members with intense disgust. Not
only do they not trust him despite having him placed under a spell
which compels him to obey everything they say, the human questers are
also having a hard time recognizing him as a person. My heart really
broke for Nth. He tried to adjust to an unwanted body complete with
its strange sensations and even stranger states of mind. He is forced
to betray his people, knows that he will never really belong anywhere
ever again and is even denied a free will.

But
slowly some of the party members start being compassionate towards
him and he in turn reaches out to them. A kind of camaraderie
develops between them and they start turning to each other for
comfort. Yes, I mean Nth and the female warrior Cyrene have (drunk)
sex. Moral implications ensue. Cyrene is genuinely worried that she
might have raped him because he’s still under the spell that makes
him obey everything the party members tell him to do. Luckily it
turns out Nth went into the situation willingly. This is quite
astonishing considering he later thanks Cyrene for not eating him
afterwards. He didn’t know that among humans this is not a common thing to do
after sex. 😅

So
Nth starts making friends, first the thief and then Cyrene. By the
end of the novel he has gained at least the respect of all the
questers (except the dead ones…) and is more or less made into a
hero and savior. Needless to say he doesn’t care about those
things. He also regains his free will and that is infinitely more
important to Nth.

The
end is happy enough because it suggests Nth and the two people who
genuinely care about him look forward to a quiet life where they can
escape all forced heroism and live unnoticed and therefore free.

I
have some minor criticisms but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this
book. The language is a bit overwrought but on the other hand this
goes very well with the dry humor the whole novel is infused with.
The POV of view changes quite frequently but it wasn’t confusing
despite all the characters’ voices sounding a little bit too much
alike.

The
book also deals with issues I didn’t expect in a novel about some
questers setting out to defeat the ultimate evil such as racism,
blind faith and bigotry, sexism, crimes committed under duress and
free will in general. Sometimes it’s a bit heavy handed but overall
the inclusion of those themes made the emotional struggle of the
characters very real.


Also have I mentioned that I love Nth? His
characterization is human enough to emphasize with him, yet as a being
of a different species also believably alien.  The poor monster
spider boy just wants to be treated like a person.

More books with monsters as the love interest: HERE

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Uprooted https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22544764-uprooted

Occasional self reblog.

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6294.Howl_s_Moving_Castle

Reblogging myself because this book deserves more attention. I even prefer it over the movie. The characters are more consistent, the plot makes more sense and I the development of the romance is better.