Defiance, C.J. Redwine
Oct. 28th, 2012 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianThe dragon is banned and the government controls women.
Despite that thrilling summary, I hated this book.
(And I stole a lot of this review from my ranty email torachelmanija about it.)
Granted, this is not quite a one-note dystopia. That would be if the evil Commander merely ruled with an iron fist and no one objected because he was the only one who could save everyone from the fire-breathing monster.
But no! In a startlingly original addition to totalitarianism, women are practically enslaved! You get Claimed by your new Protector when you're seventeen (and you know these are not my capitalizations), and if you go out into the market without him you get flogged to death. Because NO REASON.
Thus, this novel contains a two-pronged dystopia. Sadly, the worldbuilding means that both prongs are as limp as anything else so half-baked.
Rachel is the only nonconformist, unsubjugated girl in town. Obviously, she has wild red hair; she can beat people up and survive in the wilderness. The slightly older love interest, Logan, is her disappeared tracker dad's apprentice and a hobbyist inventor. He rejected her love two years ago because he was being noble. Both of their mothers are dead, one extremely tragically; both of their fathers are missing, one slightly more mysteriously. They fight tyrants.
Tyrants appearing in this book include The Commander and his Brute Squad. I am not making this up or rephrasing in any way. There's an official Brute Squad insignia, and someone is forcibly branded with it. It is not clear whether the brand has "BRUTE SQUAD BRUTE SQUAD BRUTE SQUAD" in tiny letters around the edge, notary-public-style, but I choose to believe that it does.
Rachel is not quite the only woman in the book, but damn near. One pregnant woman is a hostage, and there's a spunky kid toward the end. Rachel's obligatory paradigm-embedded best friend appears in three entire scenes, and while they do technically talk about a dress as well as about men, I do not think it is really a Bechdel pass if the dress is solely for the ceremony in which said men will CLAIM people.
This novel's every plot twist is predictable from miles away:
DO YOU THINK MAYBE THEIR PLAN GOES WRONG
There are obligatory callous murders, an obligatory hostage situation, an obligatory prison break, an obligatory trek through the wilderness, etc. These are clearly the author's Cool Bits in operation, it's just that none of them is mine, and they're not handled that well. Logan is an inventor, but none of the tech makes sense whatsoever. Plus, Rachel has to have the inventor figure out how to operate the MacGuffin, because there are three buttons and she is incapable of combinatorics or analysis.
So, where did the dragon come from in this postapocalyptic version of our own world, anyway? Well, when people were drilling for renewable energy deposits (I'm hoping the author had vaguely heard of geothermal rather than completely misunderstanding the concept of renewability) they hit bad creatures that were sleeping in the earth. Doctor Who has a lot to answer for. Then a small band of soldiers heroically killed all the dragons... except one. It wasn't the biggest or the most awesome; it was pretty clearly the one they kept around once they figured out how to manipulate it a bit so they could set themselves up as rulers in little walled cities.
Somehow, the giant burrowing dragon was not cool or scary. Maybe its sisters that got slain were better. We have seen giant burrowing animals and their hunters be cool as hell, quite recently, in Railsea, and those were moles. Despite the dragon's fiery breath, reasonable ability to hunt by sound waves, and apparent ubiquity -- maybe it just really likes the protagonist? -- it conveys very little menace. Got a problem? Bait the dragon, then escape easily as your enemies fry. It does get a good rampage in at the end, but I think that was only so it could behave inexplicably to create a sequel-hook.
(Stabbing the dragon in the eye during a fight is stated to be useless, because nothing ever died from losing an eye. OKAY BUT THE BRAIN IS RIGHT IN THERE YO.)
Duringrachelmanija's Portal Fantasy thread of doom (LJ version), where this novel was recommended, it was said to be, among other virtues, sexy. I disagree.
Then there was kissing, during which he devoured her fear. I would read the hell out of a baku-boyfriend story -- and thus should probably look for the manga that doubtless exists -- but I don't think that's really what the author was going for. Also, I generally have some idea where someone else ends and I begin if our legs are tangled up and it's sexy. Maybe the water is really, really cold. Her frostbitten fingertips would seem to support that idea.
This is all just as reasonable as eddies of rock and plummeting to a bottom your feet are already on, though.
I did like one thing, and that was the description of the main character being in shock after someone is murdered at her. The setup was creepy as hell; when it was over, they washed the guy's blood off her and re-dressed her in exact replicas of her clothing and boots before returning her to her friend in the dress shop. Her understandable resulting dissociation was well portrayed.
Overall, however, I emphatically dis-recommend this book.
Read something else instead. I have recently enjoyed Ankaret Wells' duology, for instance, and Marie Brennan's Driftwood stories.
Despite that thrilling summary, I hated this book.
(And I stole a lot of this review from my ranty email to
rachelmanija about it.)Granted, this is not quite a one-note dystopia. That would be if the evil Commander merely ruled with an iron fist and no one objected because he was the only one who could save everyone from the fire-breathing monster.
But no! In a startlingly original addition to totalitarianism, women are practically enslaved! You get Claimed by your new Protector when you're seventeen (and you know these are not my capitalizations), and if you go out into the market without him you get flogged to death. Because NO REASON.
Thus, this novel contains a two-pronged dystopia. Sadly, the worldbuilding means that both prongs are as limp as anything else so half-baked.
Rachel is the only nonconformist, unsubjugated girl in town. Obviously, she has wild red hair; she can beat people up and survive in the wilderness. The slightly older love interest, Logan, is her disappeared tracker dad's apprentice and a hobbyist inventor. He rejected her love two years ago because he was being noble. Both of their mothers are dead, one extremely tragically; both of their fathers are missing, one slightly more mysteriously. They fight tyrants.
Tyrants appearing in this book include The Commander and his Brute Squad. I am not making this up or rephrasing in any way. There's an official Brute Squad insignia, and someone is forcibly branded with it. It is not clear whether the brand has "BRUTE SQUAD BRUTE SQUAD BRUTE SQUAD" in tiny letters around the edge, notary-public-style, but I choose to believe that it does.
Rachel is not quite the only woman in the book, but damn near. One pregnant woman is a hostage, and there's a spunky kid toward the end. Rachel's obligatory paradigm-embedded best friend appears in three entire scenes, and while they do technically talk about a dress as well as about men, I do not think it is really a Bechdel pass if the dress is solely for the ceremony in which said men will CLAIM people.
This novel's every plot twist is predictable from miles away:
I have every avenue covered, every plan fleshed out, every piece of technology working as it should. The sense of triumph I feel at having an edge on the Commander and any other tracker he employs to go after Jared is a vicious light burning within me.
DO YOU THINK MAYBE THEIR PLAN GOES WRONG
There are obligatory callous murders, an obligatory hostage situation, an obligatory prison break, an obligatory trek through the wilderness, etc. These are clearly the author's Cool Bits in operation, it's just that none of them is mine, and they're not handled that well. Logan is an inventor, but none of the tech makes sense whatsoever. Plus, Rachel has to have the inventor figure out how to operate the MacGuffin, because there are three buttons and she is incapable of combinatorics or analysis.
So, where did the dragon come from in this postapocalyptic version of our own world, anyway? Well, when people were drilling for renewable energy deposits (I'm hoping the author had vaguely heard of geothermal rather than completely misunderstanding the concept of renewability) they hit bad creatures that were sleeping in the earth. Doctor Who has a lot to answer for. Then a small band of soldiers heroically killed all the dragons... except one. It wasn't the biggest or the most awesome; it was pretty clearly the one they kept around once they figured out how to manipulate it a bit so they could set themselves up as rulers in little walled cities.
Somehow, the giant burrowing dragon was not cool or scary. Maybe its sisters that got slain were better. We have seen giant burrowing animals and their hunters be cool as hell, quite recently, in Railsea, and those were moles. Despite the dragon's fiery breath, reasonable ability to hunt by sound waves, and apparent ubiquity -- maybe it just really likes the protagonist? -- it conveys very little menace. Got a problem? Bait the dragon, then escape easily as your enemies fry. It does get a good rampage in at the end, but I think that was only so it could behave inexplicably to create a sequel-hook.
(Stabbing the dragon in the eye during a fight is stated to be useless, because nothing ever died from losing an eye. OKAY BUT THE BRAIN IS RIGHT IN THERE YO.)
During
rachelmanija's Portal Fantasy thread of doom (LJ version), where this novel was recommended, it was said to be, among other virtues, sexy. I disagree.The water is crisp on top and murky below, where our feet kick up eddies of sand and rock. He catches me, his hands wrapped around my arms, as we plummet toward the bottom. My hair floats out to surround him, and he stares at me while above us the sun pierces the surface with golden darts.
Maybe this is better than words. Maybe this is all I need to show him he didn’t offer his heart to me in vain.
He lets go, and I reach for him. Twining my fingers through his, I feel something soft warm the silence within me a little as he tangles his legs with mine until I can’t tell where one of us ends and the other begins.
But it isn’t enough. The ache within me pushes against my chest, tingles down my arms, and hurts the tips of my fingers. I need more. I need to disappear into what we are together.
I need him.
Then there was kissing, during which he devoured her fear. I would read the hell out of a baku-boyfriend story -- and thus should probably look for the manga that doubtless exists -- but I don't think that's really what the author was going for. Also, I generally have some idea where someone else ends and I begin if our legs are tangled up and it's sexy. Maybe the water is really, really cold. Her frostbitten fingertips would seem to support that idea.
This is all just as reasonable as eddies of rock and plummeting to a bottom your feet are already on, though.
I did like one thing, and that was the description of the main character being in shock after someone is murdered at her. The setup was creepy as hell; when it was over, they washed the guy's blood off her and re-dressed her in exact replicas of her clothing and boots before returning her to her friend in the dress shop. Her understandable resulting dissociation was well portrayed.
Overall, however, I emphatically dis-recommend this book.
Read something else instead. I have recently enjoyed Ankaret Wells' duology, for instance, and Marie Brennan's Driftwood stories.
