Book #37: Eon, by Alison Goodman
Dec. 9th, 2010 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_itygirl power, Asian flair, swords, dragons, destiny, gender issues, clever rebels, etc.
Maybe because the book was recced on the cover by Tamora Pierce, and maybe because it's also one of those "girl dresses up as a boy" deals that I associate with Pierce's writing, but this book was not nearly as much fun as I hoped it would be. I mean, it was a great read and stuff, but the characters were much more...serious. In the Lioness books, there's always a sense of levity and fun, or at least the potential of it, but here...nothing. There are several reasons for this, which I'll discuss in the spoiler cut, but it made for a very different reading experience that I was expecting.
To begin with, the stakes Eon is playing for are much, much higher. Not only her life, but the lives of her master, all his servants and his household depend on her success. At first it's just money: they need her to become the breadwinner for the household, or they're all going to starve to death, but after she gets picked, they'd be killed for participating in the conspiracy that got her through training. This doesn't exactly play to heartwarming bonding.
Once Eon is picked, the stakes get even higher as the Emperor, the Heir and the Rebels decide to use her for their own ends, all under the impression that they're using a him. What it comes down to is that Eon has no friends. No one in her training group, no one in her household, and no one (really) in the court. Even the Lady Dela and Ryko are using her. This means that when her secret finally does come out, everyone is really pissed with her, because all of a sudden, they're stuck with a crippled woman who has a dragon, instead of a crippled man who has a dragon.
Personally, that was my biggest surprise in the novel. I expected at least the Lady Dela and Ryko to shrug it off, but Ryko was so angry he nearly betrayed her. I thought it was weird, particularly given that the Lady Dela is two spirited anyway, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Because even Eon is convinced, for most of the book, that she'll fail because she's female. Until the end of the book, she is a complete product of her own society, and that last minute character growth kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile.
I did like the idea that women have a way to communicate that men cannot decipher, which they invented because men won't teach them to read, and even though it was obvious that it was Woman's Script that the folio and compass were written in, Eon can be forgiven for not immediately cluing in on account of being busy and freaked out about some stuff.
I'm not sure how I feel about the whole sun/moon drug thing. It seems kind of convenient. And I'm also not sure how I feel about the part where the Mirror Dragon is female, because I think it would have been cooler if a) the dragons were genderless and b) it wasn't male/male, female/female, because there are still ELEVEN OTHER MALE DRAGONS. As for the Lady Dela, I appreciate authors who encourage their readers to be true to themselves. I was vaguely horrified when I realized that a) Eon's master was the one who crippled her, and b) he loved her, but not like a father (which is what I had assumed), but in the good way, if that makes sense.
As for the ending? I kind of liked it. At least the whole Mirror thing made sense (she showed the bad guy how bad he was, and then he felt really bad about it...simplistic, but effective) If nothing else, it means that the second book will be more interesting than this one was.
I said when I left Chapters that if either of the books scored less than an 8, I was going to take it back, but even though I'm only giving this a 7/10, I'm keeping it, on the grounds that the cover is freaking gorgeous and the sequel has potential.
Maybe because the book was recced on the cover by Tamora Pierce, and maybe because it's also one of those "girl dresses up as a boy" deals that I associate with Pierce's writing, but this book was not nearly as much fun as I hoped it would be. I mean, it was a great read and stuff, but the characters were much more...serious. In the Lioness books, there's always a sense of levity and fun, or at least the potential of it, but here...nothing. There are several reasons for this, which I'll discuss in the spoiler cut, but it made for a very different reading experience that I was expecting.
To begin with, the stakes Eon is playing for are much, much higher. Not only her life, but the lives of her master, all his servants and his household depend on her success. At first it's just money: they need her to become the breadwinner for the household, or they're all going to starve to death, but after she gets picked, they'd be killed for participating in the conspiracy that got her through training. This doesn't exactly play to heartwarming bonding.
Once Eon is picked, the stakes get even higher as the Emperor, the Heir and the Rebels decide to use her for their own ends, all under the impression that they're using a him. What it comes down to is that Eon has no friends. No one in her training group, no one in her household, and no one (really) in the court. Even the Lady Dela and Ryko are using her. This means that when her secret finally does come out, everyone is really pissed with her, because all of a sudden, they're stuck with a crippled woman who has a dragon, instead of a crippled man who has a dragon.
Personally, that was my biggest surprise in the novel. I expected at least the Lady Dela and Ryko to shrug it off, but Ryko was so angry he nearly betrayed her. I thought it was weird, particularly given that the Lady Dela is two spirited anyway, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Because even Eon is convinced, for most of the book, that she'll fail because she's female. Until the end of the book, she is a complete product of her own society, and that last minute character growth kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile.
I did like the idea that women have a way to communicate that men cannot decipher, which they invented because men won't teach them to read, and even though it was obvious that it was Woman's Script that the folio and compass were written in, Eon can be forgiven for not immediately cluing in on account of being busy and freaked out about some stuff.
I'm not sure how I feel about the whole sun/moon drug thing. It seems kind of convenient. And I'm also not sure how I feel about the part where the Mirror Dragon is female, because I think it would have been cooler if a) the dragons were genderless and b) it wasn't male/male, female/female, because there are still ELEVEN OTHER MALE DRAGONS. As for the Lady Dela, I appreciate authors who encourage their readers to be true to themselves. I was vaguely horrified when I realized that a) Eon's master was the one who crippled her, and b) he loved her, but not like a father (which is what I had assumed), but in the good way, if that makes sense.
As for the ending? I kind of liked it. At least the whole Mirror thing made sense (she showed the bad guy how bad he was, and then he felt really bad about it...simplistic, but effective) If nothing else, it means that the second book will be more interesting than this one was.
I said when I left Chapters that if either of the books scored less than an 8, I was going to take it back, but even though I'm only giving this a 7/10, I'm keeping it, on the grounds that the cover is freaking gorgeous and the sequel has potential.
