Shapechangers - Book Four - Chapter Four and Epilogue

[kalinara]

I'm writing this review a day early because I am so fucking happy. This is IT, my friends. I am in the home stretch. This terrible book is almost OVER.

I'm not sure what I'll do with myself now that I'll no longer have a truly terrible book to criticize. But I know what I won't be doing! READING THIS BOOK!

( HAPPY DAY )

Shapechangers - Verdict

[kalinara]

I don't really have to tell you whether or not Shapechangers passes the test of time, do I?

No. No, it doesn't. It is, quite possibly, the worst book I've read in a long time. It is definitely the worst book I've reviewed for this blog. Just. Awful. So let's talk about WHY it's so awful.

I mean, the big elephant in the room is the racism. This gets its own category rather than getting incorporated into plot or character, because it's just that bad. Let's spell out the biggest examples of racism in this story.

1. The story is a captive fantasy involving a woman who initially identifies as white being captured by exoticized Native allegories who exert sexual dominance over her.

2. This fantasy allegory of native people is depicted as specifically bestial and animalistic. It's not just that they happen to shapeshift, but even in human form, their animal traits are emphasized, especially their eyes.

3. Every single member of this race is portrayed as either a rapist or a rape apologist. We're told that Alix's consent doesn't make a goddamn bit of difference as to who she's married off to (EVEN after Duncan cuts her hair as a form of assault and humiliation, to "show" that she's not interested in marriage.). We're told that the Cheysuli keep Homanan women basically as sex slaves so they can raise their numbers. Everyone is fine with this.

Finn's behavior toward Alix is treated as being a roguish hothead. His wolf partner only protests because Alix is Cheysuli herself, and implicitly wouldn't if Finn were behaving that way toward a Homanan woman. Characters like Duncan and Raissa make excuses for him. When Duncan isn't being fucking worse.

4. The Cheysuli society is misogynistic nonsense. Roberson apparently missed that a major appeal of the captive fantasy is that women tended to be better respected in Native tribes than in their European homes. Here, it's the reverse. The Cheysuli society though appears to be entirely focused on the comfort and convenience of the warriors. Women can "choose their lovers", supposedly. But we saw what happened to Alix when she tried to exert her own choice. We saw how Duncan could use his position to punish her for refusing him. Women can be married off to whomever the Council wants, and could possibly even have their children taken away. A man can ditch his wife or mistress for another at any time, leaving the prior one in the lurch without providers.

Women don't get to say goodbye publicly to their husbands, because they might make a scene with their emotional reactions. Men name children before they go to war, to be reassured that a part of them will survive. It's ALL about the men.

It's possible that the Council isn't entirely male dominated, but we're not told otherwise. We do know that shar tahl (priests with some power) seem to be men.

In contrast, while Homanan society seems to look down on "light women", there is still the implication that Alix could choose her partners, have some kind of influence, and would be able to raise her own children. Not to mention that the only male would-be love interest concerned for Alix's consent is the white dude.

5. Alix has powers beyond anything any other Cheysuli can do (especially other women who have no magic), but it doesn't come from her Cheysuli father, Hale. It actually comes from her white mother, Lindir, who happens to be descended from a very special Cheysuli woman.

Alix has the Old Blood, which makes her basically an Ur-Cheysuli. And she got that from her WHITE HERITAGE.

So yeah. Racist ass tripe.

So now let's discuss the plot:

The frustrating thing about the plot of this book, aside from the fact that it's racist as fuck, is that it's not the most interesting thing going on. There's nothing inherently wrong with a plot of girl meets boy, or girl discovers magic heritage (...aside from the obvious issues above). But it's hard not to notice that there's a far more interesting plot that we COULD be focusing on.

There's a genocidal purge going on. It's been going on for twenty five years. The Cheysuli are almost dead. And then, one lucky day, a warrior kidnaps the crown prince. A man who, though raised with the hate and prejudice of his people, actually seems like he could learn otherwise. A man who might well be prophesied to end the purge and usher in a new peace.

So now this man is captured by people he's been raised to see as demons. One is the son of the king's liegeman, whose betrayal ignited Shaine's rage, leading to the qu-mahlin. The other is descended from what would have been the royal line, had the Cheysuli not given over their kingdom. I'm sorry but that's the more interesting story!

I like Alix, more then I like most of these assholes. So it does make me feel rotten to suggest that the story is better without her. But honestly, the story is better without her! Her plot is a distraction from far more meaningful events. (And I feel like Roberson agrees, since the sequel, Song of Homana, is about Carillon.) We should have a female presence, so let's turn Finn into a woman. She kidnaps Carillon. Hell, they basically end up in a diplomatic alliance marriage anyway.

Also, can I take a moment to rant about the ridiculous timeline? First, apparently, the Cheysuli ruled Homana until 400 years ago. And I know there are a lot of jokes about Americans' inability to really appreciate age, but come on. Four hundred years is simply not enough time! If you ask an average English person about England 400 years ago, they might not know the specific names of kings, but they're going to have a rough idea of what was going on. 400 years ago was Stuart England. Hell, 400 years ago this year, the Pilgrims set sail in the Mayflower.

There'd be recorded history. People would remember. Even if it's just "four hundred years ago, the first Mujhar liberated us from those awful Cheysuli."

But now, let's look at the qu'mahlin timeline. Twenty-five years ago, Hale stole Lindir and Shaine started the qu'mahlin. He destroyed Hale's keep, crushed Raissa's pavilion, almost killed Duncan and Finn at five and three respectively. Hale and Lindir apparently lived somewhere for eight years before Hale was murdered and Lindir came home to Shaine. Shaine decides, after eight years of demonizing the Cheysuli, that he's fine naming Lindir's son his heir. Lindir dies in childbirth and Shaine decides he has been cursed and the qu'mahlin continues.

That seems needlessly complicated. Also weird. Where WERE Hale and Lindir during that time? Clearly not in the Keep, or Duncan, Finn, or Raissa would have mentioned that. Why did it take so long to have a child? Why was Shaine suddenly okay with this.

This is how I would fix the timeline: we're going to get rid of those pointless seven years. They're idiotic. Basically, EIGHTEEN years ago, Hale steals Lindir. At this time, Shaine has no reason to believe he's cursed. He's just mad at Hale. He hunts him down, murders him, and Lindir decides to come back. Maybe she wants to keep Shaine's wrath from descending on the Cheysuli. Or she just has no reason to stay.

Shaine takes her back. He wants her son to be his heir. He hasn't yet spent years demonizing the Cheysuli so this is actually feasible. Also, he likes the idea of stealing Hale's son, like Hale stole his daughter. But Lindir has a daughter and dies. NOW Shaine loses his mind. He thinks he's cursed. He starts the qu'mahlin in full. The Keep is destroyed.

We keep Duncan and Finn at their respective ages: 5 and 3, when that happens. Which means rather than being a thirty year old and twenty-eight year old, they're actually twenty-two and twenty respectively. While it doesn't excuse all of their behavior, I'd find SOME of it a little more forgivable if they're young. Also, it's less skeevy to have seventeen year old Alix marry a twenty-two year old than an abusive thirty year old. And it would look less pathetic to have Finn and Duncan verbally clash swords with eighteen year old Carillon. It also emphasizes how difficult things are for the Cheysuli, when their leaders are so young.

There, we have a timeline that makes sense. Age gaps that aren't as appalling. And a deeper sense of the tragedy of the Cheysuli.

It's also very frustrating that so much of the story involved repetitive dialogue, as opposed to any real attempt to flesh out the Cheysuli people and Alix's experience with them. By the end of the book, four Cheysuli have had speaking lines: Finn, Duncan, Raissa, and the shar tahl who tells us how special Alix is. We still don't really get a great understanding of the day to day lives of Cheysuli, especially Cheysuli women. We don't really know anything about women's society in general there. We've never seen the Council. We don't know if they're men or women, old or young. We don't know what the shar tahls actually do. And we don't know about the goddamn prophecy. AND WHAT ARE THE GODDAMN WARDS?

This is infuriating, because Alix is the perfect character to explore all of this. She's not raised Cheysuli, so this is all new to her. But she is Cheysuli, so the others are more likely to be willing to explain things to her.

Heck, wouldn't it have been nice to have gotten a little more information on the conflict between Bellam and Shaine? If it was about Lindir's failed marriage, why did it take twenty-five years to invade. Why is Atvia involved at all? Does Homana have any allies? What's Shaine's reputation among foreign kings? Hell, what's Shaine's reception among his own people? Do they admire him? Fear him?

Carillon would know this stuff. Would it have been that hard to construct a scenario so he could tell us? Here's one I thought of while typing that last sentence: kidnapped Carillon tries to convince the Cheysuli that they should let him go, because things are in a very precarious position politically. Homana's on the brink of war, and Carillon needs to be ready to lead troops into battle or offer himself up in a marriage alliance with another kingdom who can help!

Maybe we could have actually explored what Alix's heritage means to the other Cheysuli. Do any of them resent her for being the product of the liaison that led to Shaine's purge? Do they resent her for being the cause of Carillon's attack on them and leading to the death of Bors? How does Malina feel about any of this?

Imagine how we might have been able to explore some of these things if Roberson had stopped writing the same dialogue fifteen times.

So now let's talk about Characters:

First, Alix. I started out disliking Alix. She was racist, rude, foolish, and had all of the significance of a sexy lamp for the first part of the book. Then she had that really ill-conceived confrontation with Shaine that only worked because he forgot he could order her death. BUT THAT SAID, she did grow on me. Especially in part 2, where she attempted to proactively take control of her life, but found herself thwarted on all sides when the man she loved reneged on his promise. I felt for Alix then, getting jerked around by an abusive asshole. All I wanted her to do was escape to the capitol city of Ellas or something, they could have sheltered her there.

I like Alix's powers, aside from the racist aspects of their source, and I like her initiative. I like that she doesn't magically become an amazing fighter. She does her best.

Then Carillon. I remembered Carillon as being maybe the only decent dude in the book. And honestly, that kind of played out. Granted, he started out as a racist genocide-apologist. But he did learn, albeit very clumsily. The truth is, Carillon is the only character who sustains anything resembling character growth. He's also the only character who seems to give a shit about Alix's consent. And, hey, racism flag here: if the white guy is the only member of your cast that cares about consent? You're writing something racist.

Then Finn and Duncan: They're terrible. They simply are. I've bitched about their rapist tendencies. Finn's fondness for sexual harassment. Duncan's outright abusive behavior. It's just all terrible.
And I hate to say it, but by the end, Finn started to look like the marginally better option. He at least seemed to appreciate Alix being Alix, rather than lecturing her in such a way that she becomes terrified of doing anything that might endanger their child.

So yeah. This book is terrible. It's racist, sexist, and incoherent, which is all the more frustrating because every so often there is something interesting and good buried amidst this dreck. But it's not worth it. On the plus side though, Chronicles of the Cheysuli is a generational epic. Which means that eventually, all of the old guard will die. Some more unpleasantly than others.

Perhaps that will be its own review. But right now, thank all the gods in the sky, sea, and earth, I AM FREE.