you know those things that feminists and social revolutionaries who mostly consume fiction and analyze it to death (aka tumblr) are always wishing for
like gosh it would be fabulous if we had young adult fiction where all the main characters were of color
or where the most important relationship was between two women
or where no women were demonized or hated or belittled or unrealistic or scapegoats, where all women were treated with compassion and respect
or where the love interest actually genuinely respected and listened to the protagonist
or if fantasy used its freedom to investigate the shitty things that bind our world, colonialism and racism and misogyny and a thousand forms of structured oppression that we’re so deeply trenched in that it’s hard to see them properly
like ALL OF THOSE THINGS, if you told me that a book could give me ALL OF THOSE THINGS, I probably wouldn’t believe you, and if I did, I would be satisfied with it, I would be bloated by it, it would be all I would need or want
and I know I sound like an infomercial, but Cold Magic has all of that– AND MORE
it’s steampunk– genuinely steampunk the way steampunk was meant to be, reconstructing history from the ice age onwards to make you think about the way our history happened and how it formed the society that we assume is unavoidable and authentic and real
and this ice age went on longer, and the Roman Empire didn’t fall till the year 1000, and one of the principle arguments of the book, which takes place 800 years later, is that the Romans told lies
and plus there are sentient dinosaurs.
REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-COLONIALIST FEMINIST THEORY
and the heroine is brave and rude and a little cocky, and she holds her secrets tight to her chest, and she thinks with her feet and keeps going
and she gets the dreamiest unlikeliest most besotted love interest you’ve ever met, who takes an absurd amount of pride in his clothing, who is angry about having sweet tender feeeeeelings
and let me remind you that both of them (plus everyone else of importance!!!) are of color
and there is magic, and magic interacting with politics, and with it investigations into freedom/power/safety/oppression/obligation/choice, and also it is sexy
and there are plagues and ghouls and a beautifully drawn spirit world, actually the most complete world building I’ve seen since His Dark Materials or Harry Potter
and the talking heads of poets
and also kissing, and hilariousness, and thrilling action, it’s described in the blurb as an Afro-Celtic Roman icepunk, like DO I HAVE TO BEAT YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH THIS BOOK TO MAKE YOU READ IT
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romaincrisis
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