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A compelling prologue, in which an acolyte of the spider goddess, who conveys the infallible ability to tell if people believe what they're saying, desperately flees the cult, and a solidly intriguing first third carried me through the increasingly disappointing rest of this epic fantasy.
Abraham sets up a cool world, with many semi-human races, a promising magic system, a fun theatrical troupe, and a banker heroine. He then proceeds to sideline the non-human races, the lie-detecting magic, the theatre, and, finally, even the banking in favor of unlikable characters and cliched plotlines: a complete monster of a sociopathic nerd, a boring lord, and a warrior obsessed with his refrigerated wife and daughter. The acolyte, who was by far my favorite character, does show up again, but in a supporting role. If he had been the lead, I would have enjoyed the book way more.
Abraham's previous series had some excellent, original worldbuilding, and while it ended up being somewhat gender-essentialist and playing into tired gender-role tropes, he also portrayed convincing, non-stereotyped individual female characters. This book was a huge step back.
Early on, the banker girl, Cithrin, asks a male soldier about learning a martial art that will compensate for being little and comparatively weak. He informs her that no martial art can ever be useful for weak, helpless women, and that stronger men will always prevail, so there's no point in even trying to train. A woman's true weapon is sex, he says.
Silly me, I expected that exchange was there in order to be subverted later, either by Cithrin learning distance weapons or magic or fantasy!Wing Chun or (my favorite option) the mad power of banking. Nope! She learns that a woman's true weapon is... sex.
Unless someone informs me that the sequel is less sexist AND there's less page time spent on the Hitler-like Geder and boring Marcus and Dawson, I'll pass.
I expect this, the more sexist, less original, faux-European series to be much more heavily promoted and successful than his first, less sexist, more original, faux-Asian series.
The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin)
Abraham sets up a cool world, with many semi-human races, a promising magic system, a fun theatrical troupe, and a banker heroine. He then proceeds to sideline the non-human races, the lie-detecting magic, the theatre, and, finally, even the banking in favor of unlikable characters and cliched plotlines: a complete monster of a sociopathic nerd, a boring lord, and a warrior obsessed with his refrigerated wife and daughter. The acolyte, who was by far my favorite character, does show up again, but in a supporting role. If he had been the lead, I would have enjoyed the book way more.
Abraham's previous series had some excellent, original worldbuilding, and while it ended up being somewhat gender-essentialist and playing into tired gender-role tropes, he also portrayed convincing, non-stereotyped individual female characters. This book was a huge step back.
Early on, the banker girl, Cithrin, asks a male soldier about learning a martial art that will compensate for being little and comparatively weak. He informs her that no martial art can ever be useful for weak, helpless women, and that stronger men will always prevail, so there's no point in even trying to train. A woman's true weapon is sex, he says.
Silly me, I expected that exchange was there in order to be subverted later, either by Cithrin learning distance weapons or magic or fantasy!Wing Chun or (my favorite option) the mad power of banking. Nope! She learns that a woman's true weapon is... sex.
Unless someone informs me that the sequel is less sexist AND there's less page time spent on the Hitler-like Geder and boring Marcus and Dawson, I'll pass.
I expect this, the more sexist, less original, faux-European series to be much more heavily promoted and successful than his first, less sexist, more original, faux-Asian series.
The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin)