Grace's Reviews > Stormqueen!

Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley
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Nov 13, 11

Read in November, 2011

Shrug. Same Darkover story, different setting. I could write the plot out on the back of a cocktail napkin, and then MZB does her usual trick of filling up the extra 300 pages with navel lint.

I have such a hard time writing Darkover reviews, because I hit the fourth sentence and there's nothing more to say. I read these with the hope of there being redeeming features, and then nada. Boring. At this point I think I'm artificially inflating these by a star when there's NOT an egregious instance of sexism every other page.
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message 1: by Daniel (new)

Daniel Matheson A feminist with Twilight on her favorite books list. Alright.

Grace Twilight on her GOOD books list, I think you'll find. Jane Eyre is a favorite, Twilight I thought was an effective example of that sort of YA fiction I enjoyed it for what it was, but "favorite" is about six steps too far. I reread Te Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I don't reread Twilight.

It's not a bad thing to note sexism when it shows up, by the way. I don't like Edward because he's creepy and controlling. I don't like Darkover because the the women feel wrong and false, and are frequently wedged into gender roles which seem kind of nuts when you consider this is a series about spacefaring humans who then settled a planet and inexplicably went RIGHT back to throwback gender roles.

I like books that explain those societal quirks, like in The Handmaid's Tale. I am not a fan of books where it's taken as a given, and Darkover in particular feels terribly dated and very specifically tied to the era in which it was written.

Pern has throwback gender roles, but also has an explanation and eventually an enlightenment. I have a very, very hard time reading future-speculative fiction and encountering female characters who seem less equal than women are today. Why the backtracking? What happened? I guess an argument can be made (and has been made) that those strict gender roles are "natural" and that the past few centuries of women's emancipation is a temporary quirk, but... I don't really buy that without one hell of an explanation. I don't think we'll "naturally" revert to men exclusively holding leadership positions and women being aides, and that's why it's so weird to read about feudal societies in the supposed future.

Longer response than I suppose you're looking for, but there you go.

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