Danielle's Reviews > Beyond the Shadows

** spoiler alert ** Nick, see below:

This series was a good one, though I was fairly disappointed by the last quarter or so of "Beyond the Shadows." It felt a little contrived, how one of the main characters suddenly developed a heretofore never-seen ability to fly... as well as the sudden appearance of a special healing ability... (really? Was that necessary?)

In addition to that, though the author used archetype characters in a large way, I feel that the character of Elene took it too far, or perhaps I should say didn't take it far enough. Where did she get her pure, innocent, selfless love? It certainly wasn't from her childhood. The characterization to make her who she was, which turned out to be central to the resolution of the plot, simply was not there. She qualified for sainthood, and I just didn't believe it.

**NEW** And because I was asked to explain, the reason I tagged this book (series?) as "lesson-in-sexism": One, see the previous paragraph. Two, my ears always perk up when I hear a man start talking about strong women (see essay by the author, following first book in the series). Or especially, their attempt to depict one. I can clearly see the 'strength' the author was going for in the female assassin Vi, but the fact of the matter was what he depicted was an extremely abused girl who reacted to her abuse by trying to 'be a man' (divorced from her sexuality, emotional strength or empathy, 'heartless' and 'selfish'). Then, she fell in love (cliche and a half!) and started the process of ("learning her lesson, heh heh!") becoming a self-sacrificing woman who thought of her man's happiness over hers.

So. Which of these were strength, really? Were either of them supposed to be? Maybe that's my assumption, based on his essay, and really he was referring to Elene... But if he was referring to Elene, then that is even worse. Elene is a caricature, the very epitome of the selfless Madonna. Versus Vi, the whore. Of course Vi can't have Kylar's heart (which is such a prize, his heart! ;)), because she's the whore. So Elene, the selfless Madonna, holds Kylar's heart while Vi hangs in the background, waiting for possible pickings after Elene dies and Kylar deigns to allow Vi's eager, whorish heart to comfort him.

Poor thing. Really. That's not strength, it's a woman being exactly where a sexist system wants her, at the beck and call of a man who doesn't even have to love her in return. So I just wanna know; can I read a book with a female character who's strong in a real, as-yet un-represented way? Who isn't just 'being a man', or being the 'perfect woman', who is known to all by her extreme selflessness and self-sacrifices? Who can't be defined as the 'madonna', 'slut', 'whore'--who may be any of those things, but can't be DEFINED by them?

It was a little disappointing. But I enjoyed the series enough that I would recommend it to other fantasy readers I know.