tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7354250.post1370318135834373..comments2024-01-31T01:40:57.553-06:00Comments on Adventures in Reading: A Brother's Price, by Wen SpencerJoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16094675116398769415noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7354250.post-64758472178806680462016-02-27T20:46:30.650-06:002016-02-27T20:46:30.650-06:00I found it more offensive with the gender flip, ac...I found it more offensive with the gender flip, actually. If it was told the logical way, then I would just assume it was reminiscent of the Middle Ages. The truth is that I can't imagine males putting up with treatment of that sort no matter how many of them there were. Men are not the same as women, and its not nurture. Its nature. Men prefer competition, women cooperation. Men prefer doing, women prefer talking. Anyone who has ever taught kids will tell you this. You know what a good way to get a boy to do something? Say "I bet you can't…". It doesn't work on girls. It bothered me so much, I stopped reading, assuming that the writer was an angry feminist. Lollipop55414https://www.blogger.com/profile/11834828872560654060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7354250.post-53211911086466231322010-02-22T21:37:29.897-06:002010-02-22T21:37:29.897-06:00Hi N.K.! (not sure how you feel about folks using...Hi N.K.! (not sure how you feel about folks using your first name in public-like, and it's not as if I actually <i>know</i> you - but I tend to think of J. K. Rowling as Jo Rowling, and likewise with you by your first name - wow, that was an over-long parenthetical into how my brain works. Sorry about that)<br /><br />And one last - congrats on the nomination! Woo! <br /><br />Okay, I can see what you're saying about the Regency and what Spencer may have been doing with the gender roles. Makes perfect sense. <br /><br />As a Regency or as a SF tale, Spencer told it very well and I was hooked into the fairly stock plot of <i>A Brother's Price</i>, but I have deep concerns that if I tried to read an actual Regency that I'd be more troubled by the traditional repressed gender roles and stock-ness of the story. <br /><br />I guess I could give one a shot, but I'm kind of prejudiced against them from the start and the one thing that saved <i>A Brother's Price</i> for me was the flipped gender roles. Put them back in their "proper" place and I would tend to run away flailing my arms. But that's just me. <br /><br />Like you, though, I very much wanted to know about the rest of the world. There have to be more tales left to tell there. Surely there is an audience. <br /><br />It's just not the story Spencer told. Or, it is, but she didn't tell more - either as Regency or as different sorts of SFF novels. <br /><br />Have you read any other Spencer? Anything I should check out?Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16094675116398769415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7354250.post-6839873385512884682010-02-20T10:09:20.313-06:002010-02-20T10:09:20.313-06:00Actually, if the gender roles had remained the sam...Actually, if the gender roles had remained the same, it would've been a Regency romance. I think that was the point -- to do a traditional romance-novel format with a man as the object of desire and repression, instead of the usual woman. And maybe encourage people who would otherwise never be caught dead reading a Georgette Heyer novel to check out something similar. :)<br /><br />I was intrigued by the background too, and wondered how this world worked in other societies. Do the caliphates have harems of men, guarded by female eunuchs? (Not sure how that would work, but I'm sure somebody would figure out something.) Did Europe survive the bubonic plague at all, since more women than men tended to survive the disease if they got it? Were there long-haired beautiful men living on estates in Heian Japan, having women perform poetry or feats of daring for them, in the hope of sex? This world had no Native Americans -- which I found problematic -- but is there a reason for that? Maybe the smallpox and other plagues that (in our world) killed off 90% of the Native Americans upon Europeans' arrival got all the men, which ruined any hope of recovery.<br /><br />I keep hoping Spencer will write a sequel and touch on these things... but that's me, the science fiction and epic fantasy lover, wanting this book to be what it isn't. It's a Regency, plain and simple, and best read as such. It's got a stock Regency plot: boy meets girl; boy negotiates complicated social mores in order to get girl while keeping himself chaste and considering his family's needs; boy marries well, which doesn't necessarily mean boy gets the girl he wants, but that's what counts as a happy ending in a Regency.<br /><br />(Got lured here by your shout-out about the Nebs; hi!)N. K. Jemisinhttp://nkjemisin.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7354250.post-75668260125964281922010-02-04T10:10:48.555-06:002010-02-04T10:10:48.555-06:00Color me intrigued. I have seen me a new novel on ...Color me intrigued. I have seen me a new novel on the horizon. Great take and yes, if the gender roles had remained the same, I gather that there would be hell to pay with all the sexist and gender scandals in the publishing industry right now.Harry Markovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09140305922494369576noreply@blogger.com