Sunday: finished first Earthsinger book, family zoom

I did not walk with M.; they drove out to Mt. Greylock. It was apparently very crowded at the summit. Probably to be expected for this holiday weekend.

I did finish reading _The Song of Blood and Stone_. It is _long_, and totally worth it. For a long time, I thought I really did not like long fantasy epics; in retrospect, I think I had other issues with them, and it was not just the sexism / heterocentrism. This book (series?) seems to fix most if not all of the other issues. It is still kind of a meatgrinder — the main characters are often isolated and severely abused, exhausted but not allowed to rest, ill and not allowed time to recover, etc. But this fixes a lot of the other problems.

SPOILERS!

Always with the spoilers.

There is an attempted rape. Bad things happen to children. Systemic racism is a theme, and institutionalized violence is depicted, along with justification. BUT the reader is not asked to sympathize with the people actively supporting the racist system, and the author does not reify the systemic racism. The main characters are generally victims of the systemic problems and/or actively trying to reform the system. The characters who are (relatively) privileged are shown as complex in their own right (and often with their own history of trauma / neglect / abuse), and are not centered as heroes for doing what they can to make things better. When characters compromise their values (whether because the greater good requires that or because they are cowardly or lack the imagination to come up with an alternative or some combination thereof), they feel shame and remorse and try to correct what they did and display a willingness to repeatedly make amends. And they do not demand forgiveness.

So much here to love!

I think my absolute favorite trait of Jasminda is her stubbornness. She takes persistence and perseverance to a whole new level. Stubbornness is her superpower. She is smart, and works hard, and treats others with compassion, and is never entitled. She is wily and clever and resilient. She never seems to completely lose the ability to make the effort to connect to others. She gets angry, and she sees problems with her anger (notably, the effects it has on her ability to control her Song), but she sees Zero Problems with her stubbornness. I love it and I love her.

I loved the depiction of Ella. Ella is a secondary character, but important to the progress of the story. She is an immigrant with significant limitations on where she can go, and which circumstances require her to violate at substantial risk to herself, her marriage, her newborn nephew, etc. She is married to someone posted a long ways away, and his focus on his career aspirations has left her (rightly) feeling very Not The Priority, and very, very alone. She was raised by parents who also left her feeling very alone. She has not been crushed by this; like Jasminda — even more than Jasminda — she constantly makes the effort to connect to others. _Because she can sorta pass_ these efforts work better for her than Jasminda’s work for her. A lot of Ella’s resilience comes from her ability to bounce relatively easily from one situation to the next and right herself and carry on. It takes her a while to realize that she could be using her abilities to connect easily with other people and induce them to tell her their stories and cares and concerns for a greater good. Once she does realize that, she becomes a formidable force in the story.

I am not totally certain that Jack and Benn deserve these delightful women! But each couple works together well as a team, and shows consistent kindness and care throughout their relationships. They screw up, but they do not try to torture each other, nor do they walk around with Big Misunderstandings that they make no meaningful effort to correct.

I love the two magical systems, and how the connections between those two systems are central to both the backstory and to the particular problem (the True Father destroying the Mantle) in the present day of the story. I also like how layered the mythology and backstory is, and how the ongoing visions ultimately move through time to “catch up” to the present day of the story. I love the idea of the country the story takes place in as being somewhat backwards, but having immigrants like Ella and visitors like Zaura who love it, faults and all. I LOOOVEEE

HEY I MENTIONED SPOILERS

The physical appearance of Eero and Oola and the surprise that engenders when their physical appearance is revealed. And that the Dominionists totally make hay out of that surprise to convert a bunch of new followers.

I also really love Ella’s lost faith being revived by a series of signs, subtle but unmistakable, that enable her to become a much stronger and more confident Ella.

So: magic and jeeps and why do you people not have railroads and an airship but no pilot, a successful plot to kill the former Prince Regent that fails to attain its ultimate goal, a power hungry woman using a religious organization whose aim is to help the downtrodden to gain personal power and luxury, a retired woman lawyer who is the Very Best Kind of Auntie, a lesbian aunt even more tormented by the parents who _did not_ throw her out (and who rescues the inheritance Our Heroine did not know was coming to her), a sleeping goddess who really DOES awaken just when she is needed and who then nearly cocks it up anyway, an herb that in its various formulations can render a man unable to get an erection or can help a newborn keep down food that is not from his (deceased) mother, a Truly Bonkers adoption with clear supernatural approval, resentments galore, an amazing library, and, best of all, a nutter woman anthropologist who saves the day. Repeatedly. This book truly is a world of women who solve all problems, generally speaking by knowing another woman who can do The Thing that needs doing.

I’ve already started the novella that falls between this and the next book.