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auroracloudAs many of you (but maybe not all) probably know, rachelmanija recently started the idea of FF Friday, with the idea of reviewing/recommending any book/story/etc. featuring women loving women. It doesn't have to be a positive review, if you've had a negative reading experience you'd rather tell about, and the reviews can be as long as or as short as you like. There's a community for it, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fffriday, and I'm going to try to do this as often as I manage, posting a longer review/rec here in my journal, and linking to it in the community. Do check out the community if you're interested in the topic; there are already plenty of interesting works you can find reviewed there.
I've wanted to do this since it started, but I seem to kind of fail at actually doing this on a Friday - often I'm too tired on Fridays after a week of work, but yesterday was Midsummer's Eve which is a big holiday in Finland and hence a day off and I didn't have any program planned, and I still didn't get around to writing it. But I figure early Saturday is okay, too. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this as often as possible now that I've started. I've no pretensions of being a professional reviewer, but I do my best to give an overview of the books and how I felt about them, and not ramble on endlessly as I tend to.
So, I wanted to start by writing brief reviews of Heather Rose Jones's Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage, the first two books of her Alpennia series. Because I've been meaning to write about these books ever since I read the first one last year, and they're awesome. The books are historical fantasy with a strong element of lesbian romance, but they're not romance genre; the adventure/historical fantasy portion is a stronger part of the plot, though the romance is significant. There is a third book out, Mother of Souls, and it recently won The Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel of 2017. I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it a bit!) so I won't review that yet.
I absolutely adore these books. They take place in an alternative 19th century Europe, in a fictional Central European country called Alpennia (I'm assuming from the context it's located somewhere between France, Switzerland, and Austria). The fantasy element draws heavily on actual historical mystical material from European history - the first book involves magic based on mysteries for invoking various saints and their protection, the second deals with alchemy. They centre on a group of intelligent, studious, strong-willed women who don't conform to the expectations of women or the typical roles of female characters in historical romance, and whose lives and roles draw from the rich history of what women have actually been able to do throughout different centuries, even if we're not usually told about it. Basically these women just want to study and learn with their other female friends and do magic / alchemy / be excellent swordswomen and lawyers / etc. Oh, and they fall in love with other women. And it's beautiful and grand.
Daughter of Mystery is about Barbara, a young swordswoman-protector (a profession called armin in the books) of a baron who in fact owns her. When the baron dies, he makes his goddaughter Margerit the heir of his vast fortune, and also bequeaths Barbara to Margerit. Margerit, a sweet, lovely, bookish young woman, doesn't want to own another person, but ends up needing the services of an armin with her sudden fortune - especially as the man who inherited the title didn't inherit the money. Margerit, though, just wants to study the mysteries of the saints, where she has the rare power of both seeing the effects of magic and making magic happen. Against their will, they end up entangled in intrigues involving the politics of Alpennia. And you, dear reader, will probably not be surprised that they also end up entangled in growing romantic feelings for each other.
The second book picks up where the first one ended, focusing on two other characters from the first book, but still keeping Margerit and Barbara in as important characters. I don't want to say too much so I won't spoil it, but it involves more courtly and political intrigue, alchemy, an introvert who just wants to be left alone with her books and furnaces and experiments, and an unlikely romance that ends up being just the thing both of the participants need. It also introduces us to the characters who'll be central in the third book, and shows a circle of women devoted to intellectual pursuits and reading growing around Margerit and Barbara.
The books feel like they were custom written for me, seeing as I'm not only a reader of fantasy and sci-fi but also a huge big history geek, and love 19th century (and earlier) European history and Central Europe in particular; I love reading about smart, studious women bonding over books and learning, forming circles of friendship through their shared intellectual pursuits; and I love reading about women loving women. On the other hand, I'm not a primarily a reader of romance (though it turns out I like it a lot more when it's about two women) and prefer stories where the romance is only a part of the overall history/fantasy/sci-fi plot rather than the main thing. I'm not even sure how you could write a book tailored more exactly to my tastes -- especially as it seems the third book has a lot to do with music, which I adore.
So, given that all these elements are to my taste, I'm happy to say that the books themselves are excellent, too. They're well-written, with engaging characters and engaging plot lines. Especially the first novel, with its surprise heiress, mysterious heritage, and adventure plots involving intrigue and sword fights, evokes plenty of typical Regency romance tropes but such a manner that it's much more than just its tropes. Margerit and Barbara are both lovable, interesting characters, the development of their relationship is natural. There are plenty of interesting secondary characters, two of who will get their story continued in the second novel.
The wealth of historical background Heather Rose Jones has shows in the world, which is rich, nuanced, informed by lots of detailed historical understanding of 19th century and earlier history especially in Europe, and history of women, as well as women loving women. Alpennia feels like a very believable small European country, rich steeped in tradition, influenced by its landscape and its more powerful neighbours, having its own language and culture distinct from those neighbours although having much in common with them.
I don't have a lot of criticisms - the first book occasionally has some marks of being a debut novel, parts where the writing doesn't flow quite as well as it could or where the pacing is a bit too slow or a bit too fast, but nothing that would make me give up the book or even put it down for long. The main bad guy of the first book is a bit two-dimensional, but I find the character wholly believable in this sort of setting, and he works satisfyingly in this storyline, so it wasn't a huge problem. The second book was even better written, although I had some difficulties following the resolution of the plot - but I may just have been too tired when I read it. In any case I was so engaged by the journey of the main character and her relationship, as well as the wider landscape of Alpennian history, politics and magic that was enfolding in the story, that my slight confusion over the resolution of the alchemy-related plot hardly detracted from my enjoyment.
Finally, if you're interested in history of lesbians / women loving women, you should check out the author's website and blog for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, where she has assembled an amazing wealth of historical research involving queer women in the past, with careful attention to sources and how to read them critically, understanding what we can deduce from the available material and what we can't. She also does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast that's a part of this project over at The Lesbian Talkshow podcast. Every Saturday has a new podcast about historical lesbian/queer women, research into them and gender and sexuality, and historical fiction about queer women, including historical fantasy / alternative history (such as steampunk). Every now and then there's also a podcast where a new original piece historical f/f short story is narrated. It's a very good quality podcast, and even if you don't normally listen to a lot of podcasts, it's worth checking out if you're interested in the topic. It's one of the two podcasts that got me hooked into podcasts in general (the other one being the Doctor Who themed podcast Verity!). She also is on Dreamwidth ashrj.
The Lesbian Talkshow podcast is great in general, featuring several different podcasts in one, many of them discussing lesbian fiction in one way or another. Totally worth checking out! I don't like all of the different podcasts, but enough that it's worth subscribing to - I just delete the episodes that aren't to my taste.
rachelmanija recently started the idea of FF Friday, with the idea of reviewing/recommending any book/story/etc. featuring women loving women. It doesn't have to be a positive review, if you've had a negative reading experience you'd rather tell about, and the reviews can be as long as or as short as you like. There's a community for it, fffriday, and I'm going to try to do this as often as I manage, posting a longer review/rec here in my journal, and linking to it in the community. Do check out the community if you're interested in the topic; there are already plenty of interesting works you can find reviewed there.I've wanted to do this since it started, but I seem to kind of fail at actually doing this on a Friday - often I'm too tired on Fridays after a week of work, but yesterday was Midsummer's Eve which is a big holiday in Finland and hence a day off and I didn't have any program planned, and I still didn't get around to writing it. But I figure early Saturday is okay, too. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this as often as possible now that I've started. I've no pretensions of being a professional reviewer, but I do my best to give an overview of the books and how I felt about them, and not ramble on endlessly as I tend to.
So, I wanted to start by writing brief reviews of Heather Rose Jones's Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage, the first two books of her Alpennia series. Because I've been meaning to write about these books ever since I read the first one last year, and they're awesome. The books are historical fantasy with a strong element of lesbian romance, but they're not romance genre; the adventure/historical fantasy portion is a stronger part of the plot, though the romance is significant. There is a third book out, Mother of Souls, and it recently won The Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel of 2017. I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it a bit!) so I won't review that yet.
I absolutely adore these books. They take place in an alternative 19th century Europe, in a fictional Central European country called Alpennia (I'm assuming from the context it's located somewhere between France, Switzerland, and Austria). The fantasy element draws heavily on actual historical mystical material from European history - the first book involves magic based on mysteries for invoking various saints and their protection, the second deals with alchemy. They centre on a group of intelligent, studious, strong-willed women who don't conform to the expectations of women or the typical roles of female characters in historical romance, and whose lives and roles draw from the rich history of what women have actually been able to do throughout different centuries, even if we're not usually told about it. Basically these women just want to study and learn with their other female friends and do magic / alchemy / be excellent swordswomen and lawyers / etc. Oh, and they fall in love with other women. And it's beautiful and grand.
Daughter of Mystery is about Barbara, a young swordswoman-protector (a profession called armin in the books) of a baron who in fact owns her. When the baron dies, he makes his goddaughter Margerit the heir of his vast fortune, and also bequeaths Barbara to Margerit. Margerit, a sweet, lovely, bookish young woman, doesn't want to own another person, but ends up needing the services of an armin with her sudden fortune - especially as the man who inherited the title didn't inherit the money. Margerit, though, just wants to study the mysteries of the saints, where she has the rare power of both seeing the effects of magic and making magic happen. Against their will, they end up entangled in intrigues involving the politics of Alpennia. And you, dear reader, will probably not be surprised that they also end up entangled in growing romantic feelings for each other.
The second book picks up where the first one ended, focusing on two other characters from the first book, but still keeping Margerit and Barbara in as important characters. I don't want to say too much so I won't spoil it, but it involves more courtly and political intrigue, alchemy, an introvert who just wants to be left alone with her books and furnaces and experiments, and an unlikely romance that ends up being just the thing both of the participants need. It also introduces us to the characters who'll be central in the third book, and shows a circle of women devoted to intellectual pursuits and reading growing around Margerit and Barbara.
The books feel like they were custom written for me, seeing as I'm not only a reader of fantasy and sci-fi but also a huge big history geek, and love 19th century (and earlier) European history and Central Europe in particular; I love reading about smart, studious women bonding over books and learning, forming circles of friendship through their shared intellectual pursuits; and I love reading about women loving women. On the other hand, I'm not a primarily a reader of romance (though it turns out I like it a lot more when it's about two women) and prefer stories where the romance is only a part of the overall history/fantasy/sci-fi plot rather than the main thing. I'm not even sure how you could write a book tailored more exactly to my tastes -- especially as it seems the third book has a lot to do with music, which I adore.
So, given that all these elements are to my taste, I'm happy to say that the books themselves are excellent, too. They're well-written, with engaging characters and engaging plot lines. Especially the first novel, with its surprise heiress, mysterious heritage, and adventure plots involving intrigue and sword fights, evokes plenty of typical Regency romance tropes but such a manner that it's much more than just its tropes. Margerit and Barbara are both lovable, interesting characters, the development of their relationship is natural. There are plenty of interesting secondary characters, two of who will get their story continued in the second novel.
The wealth of historical background Heather Rose Jones has shows in the world, which is rich, nuanced, informed by lots of detailed historical understanding of 19th century and earlier history especially in Europe, and history of women, as well as women loving women. Alpennia feels like a very believable small European country, rich steeped in tradition, influenced by its landscape and its more powerful neighbours, having its own language and culture distinct from those neighbours although having much in common with them.
I don't have a lot of criticisms - the first book occasionally has some marks of being a debut novel, parts where the writing doesn't flow quite as well as it could or where the pacing is a bit too slow or a bit too fast, but nothing that would make me give up the book or even put it down for long. The main bad guy of the first book is a bit two-dimensional, but I find the character wholly believable in this sort of setting, and he works satisfyingly in this storyline, so it wasn't a huge problem. The second book was even better written, although I had some difficulties following the resolution of the plot - but I may just have been too tired when I read it. In any case I was so engaged by the journey of the main character and her relationship, as well as the wider landscape of Alpennian history, politics and magic that was enfolding in the story, that my slight confusion over the resolution of the alchemy-related plot hardly detracted from my enjoyment.
Finally, if you're interested in history of lesbians / women loving women, you should check out the author's website and blog for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, where she has assembled an amazing wealth of historical research involving queer women in the past, with careful attention to sources and how to read them critically, understanding what we can deduce from the available material and what we can't. She also does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast that's a part of this project over at The Lesbian Talkshow podcast. Every Saturday has a new podcast about historical lesbian/queer women, research into them and gender and sexuality, and historical fiction about queer women, including historical fantasy / alternative history (such as steampunk). Every now and then there's also a podcast where a new original piece historical f/f short story is narrated. It's a very good quality podcast, and even if you don't normally listen to a lot of podcasts, it's worth checking out if you're interested in the topic. It's one of the two podcasts that got me hooked into podcasts in general (the other one being the Doctor Who themed podcast Verity!). She also is on Dreamwidth as
hrj.The Lesbian Talkshow podcast is great in general, featuring several different podcasts in one, many of them discussing lesbian fiction in one way or another. Totally worth checking out! I don't like all of the different podcasts, but enough that it's worth subscribing to - I just delete the episodes that aren't to my taste.
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Date: 2018-06-23 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-25 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-25 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-24 01:44 am (UTC)I enjoyed the first two of these a lot. I should re-read them, write them up, and read the third one.
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Date: 2018-06-25 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-25 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-25 07:14 pm (UTC)