I Read What?!

Sorry for the delay with this part! Things have been a bit hectic for me. But I'm glad to be back.

Well, maybe not so glad when it comes to this book, which seems to really bring out the teenage misogynist in me. I don't WANT to dislike the female lead or the relationship that we're being shown in this book, but it's getting pretty rough.

I don't want to immediately blame the co-writer for this, but there is a distinct difference in style from Lackey's other works in the series. Gwyna, for example, was portrayed as pretty headstrong and occasionally ran a little roughshod over her partner, but I didn't dislike her the way I do Magpie. It does make me think that one of my next books will be a different Lackey-and-Sherman team up (maybe the Bard's Tale tie in, "Castle of Deception" - which could be fun as it also includes a very different style of renegade dark elf) so I can compare the tone and style.

I also feel like the treatment of Roma in this book feels different, and this is where I feel my whiteness as a detriment as a reviewer. To ME, the micro-aggressions and dismissal/obliviousness of the white characters toward Raven and Crow feel possibly more realistic than we've seen so far from previous white characters, but also more frustrating and uncomfortable for me as a reader. It makes me wonder what a reader of color, particularly a Roma reader, would feel about this. Is this better or worse to read? Is harsh realism more preferable to a naive escapism?

I don't know the answer to that one. But if nothing else, I appreciate this book making me think about it, I suppose.

( It's still not as fun to read though... )

So last time, we had a pretty interesting set up, a dilemma that doesn't completely make sense but is at least challenging, and a female lead who is both racist and bizarrely possessive over a man she's just met.

And look, I always take my recollection of female characters with a grain of salt. As a teenager, I was, sadly, one of those girls (or girl-adjacent folk) who tended to not care for female characters for really stupid, internally misogynistic reasons. And if there's one thing this blog has helped me do is appreciate many of those female characters that I didn't care for back then.

I'm HOPING that'll be the case with Magpie, because the more I read, the more I'm starting to remember really disliking her. She's definitely not had a good start though.

( I like a good bickering courtship as much as anyone, but there's a line between bickering and 'do you two even actually LIKE each other' and this one seems like it might be the latter. But we'll see... )

So plot twist!

You may notice that the title of this review is NOT "Eagle and the Nightingales". That's because I did some checking and learned that it's the FOURTH book in the series, not the third!

A Cast of Corbies is a weirdly situated book. It appears to be the start of an aborted spinoff series called "Bardic Choices", but what differentiates that from a Bardic VOICES book is unclear. It doesn't help, I suppose, that there was never a #2 in this side series. And since A Cast of Corbies takes place in the same setting - featuring Raven, by the way, it seems appropriate to slot it in here.

I WILL be doing Eagle and the Nightingales eventually, if only for lots of bird-fucking jokes, but not yet.

As for this book, I think I actually DID read this one. But the only thing I remember from it is a running joke. So it should be interesting to read it now.

One interesting note is that this book is co-written by Josepha Sherman. Sherman's collaborated on a number of Lackey books, including some of her Bard's Tale books (which feature a renegade dark elf in a very different style from Drizzt) and other urban fantasy elf books. I vaguely remember that she'd written an elf-in-historical Britain series as well (the elf was assumed to come from Cathay/China, because of his dark hair and elf eyes. It's funny what sticks with you.)

( So anyway let's get started! )