Book Boogaloo

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Geez, that's the smallest 'read' pile in a while - I've been *reading,* I know I have, but I've the sneaking suspicion it's all fanfic. That or Nine Layers of Sky, my last on-the-bus book, took longer then usual.

Currently Reading:

Cunt by Inga Muscio (I don't take this one on the bus with me for, lo, I am a wimp, and it's been regulated to strictly bathroom reading. But I'll finish it someday!)
Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (reread)

Finished Reading:

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
Pluto vols 1 & 2 by Naoki Urasawa
20th Century Boys vol 1 by Naoki Urasawa
Nine Layers of Sky by Liz Williams

To Read Pile:

Around the Bloc by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Kindred by Octavia Butler
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer


Okay, so: I go out and get Jim Butcher's Dresden books as soon as they come out and eat the things like candy, but I've been avoiding reading his Furies series. 'Read it!' says my family (also Dresden addicts), 'You'll love Tavi! And the furies are pretty cool!' Um, I would say back. Isn't it set in the faux!Roman Empire? Where the culture is not Euro/American and the people are largely not white and occasionally pretty queer (unlike, say, the uber monocultural/white/straight land of Chicago [sarcasm])? 'What is your point?' They would reply.

And the point was... I didn't trust Butcher not to fuck up. I was afraid his use of the setting would throw all his issues into sharp relief. And I was right! And yet surprised, because the stand out issue (for me, for now) isn't cultural (your typical fantasy empire with Latin-ish words thrown in for flavor), racial (we get almost no description, outside of the occasional 'deeply tanned,' and everyone whose so far not part of the empire is barbaric and *nonhuman* which, okay, is a big deal and I will maybe cover it in a later post), or homosexual (what is this thing of which you speak?) - it's gender.

'Wait, why is this a surprise?' you ask. 'You have read the Dresden books', you add, 'and also a wide sampling of the fantasy genre. You know how this goes!'

And, okay, Fantasy. And yes, Harry Dresden is a sexist, sexist man and we only ever see people from his point of view. But it always seemed (to me) that Butcher was aware of this and was careful to invalidate said views in the text - there are a ton of fully realized female* characters: Murphy, Molly, Ivy, Luccio, Susan, Most of the fairy courts, Ms. Gard, Georgia, Charity, Justine, Elaine - the list goes on and on, each an individual with their own motivations and desires and strengths/weaknesses.

(*With the exception of Susan, all of these women are white. While the more recent books are better about race, Harry's Chicago is still a white, white world.)

So I went in to the Furies books expecting it's female characters to be treated the same way. And the first book, Furies of Calderon, was... okay. Sure, there's Odiana, the crazy watercrafter who was driven mad by rape and is now in a dependent relationship with famous!swordsman Aldrick - she's at least got nuance and passes the Bechdel test and exhibits mostly realistic survivor (rape and slavery) behavior. Amara's interesting, being a trained spy/courier/leader and acting consistently with honor, duty, and bravery; Isana's got some emo going on, but is intelligent, quick witted, and intensely distrustful of the powers-that-be (*some* one's got to be); Kitai's got badass rebellious teenager down pat. And then Amara falls for strong! noble! Bernard and Isana's made the first female steadholder and Kitai bonds with Tavi and the book is over, yay.

In Academ's Fury, we have lots of men doing lots of things for lots of reasons, hurray! And we have rather fewer women doing lots of things for one reason (guess what it is!). Amara's torn between Love! and Duty! (she's compromised! she'll never be able to marry him! she'll never be able to give him children) despite the fact that the First Lord knows damn well she's in love with Bernard and has gone out of his way to make sure she gets to see him regularly during the course of her duties (seriously, he spells this out at the end of the first book, her angst over this is ridiculous). Isana's spiraling into some kind of paranoid panic, where bad things are happening (true) and she must! protect! her family! (not her people, not her hold, not her land, just her brother and 'nephew') and goes around telling people loyal to the First Lord she hates/distrusts him (she her sister fell in love with the prince some soldier and then he they both died in the big battle 17 years ago leaving behind Tavi, who is totally her son nephew, and now she can't trust the First Lord who sent them into battle and where did the rational, intelligent Isana of book one go?) and then asks them for help, even if it goes against the First Lord's (who's name is Gaius, btw, which throws me for a loop every time. Merlin fans know why) interests. Kitai's still bonded to Tavi (she's Marat, a nonhuman species who spirit/soul/mental bond with animals) and there's this scene where her father holds her chin and says "I like his [Tavi']) eyes on you," because they take on the eyes of the creatures they bond with and. Yeah. At least she's not happy about it, 'though her father's mentally got them mated and settled. And there are a couple (well, three) other female players running around, each of whom are using sex to control and manipulate.

Also! Every woman, no matter who's point of view we're seeing through, is initially described in terms of her sexual attractiveness. Lots of lush curves and small hands and non-traditional beauty. You know how Harry sometimes describes women? Yeah, like that. All the time.

It makes me glad that we only see the Dresden Files from inside Harry's head. I don't think I could take finding out that Murphy is primarily motivated by her daddy issues, or that Susan's doing her vampire resistance thing to make Harry proud of her, or that Thomas is all Justine can think about, ever.

I read somewhere (will have to look it up that the Furies series is the one Butcher *wanted* to write - the one he dreamed up as a kid and has been working on for years, etc. And you know what? It reads like it. We've (okay, I, but I'm assuming lots of other people are the same way) all got that Epic Fantasy tucked away, full of our dreams and desires and regurgitated chunks of other stories and Butcher got the chance to publish his. If this were any other author, I'd put this series down and walk away - I outgrew this shit years ago. But... He's shown growth with the Dresden books (and I imprinted on those at 16, bias!) so I'm going to try and finish Academ's Fury and maybe the next before chucking them at the wall. Live in hope, right?

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