A review by elenajohansen
Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan
1.0
I would have DNF'd this, if only I hadn't bought it specifically because I picked up #2 in the trilogy at a used book sale, on the strength of a lot of people recommending Canavan's Black Magician trilogy.
Turns out, this isn't nearly as good that the praise for her other works led me to believe it would be.
I have a lot of complaints and basically nothing good to say.
1. Too disjointed. I'm not opposed to brief asides that introduce a new focus character, for the purpose of showing something specific that a main character isn't present for. In fact, I can think of quite a few fantasy works I've read before that use this technique beautifully. Here, though, the narrative hops between characters constantly, and it got to the point where I didn't know on beginning a new scene (or tiny chunk of scene) if the character being introduced was important or not, simply because the jumps happened so often.
2. Not a fan of theocracies. Auraya, our MC, is one of the White, the chosen of the Gods, and she's bestowed both magical and political power because of it. The White keep saying that all other religions are "cults" because their gods "aren't real," the implication being that their own are, and we do see the Gods manifest in what certainly seems to be a real way. But their reasoning never sat well with me--seeing Auraya agonize over saving the souls of the Dreamweavers, in particular, turned my stomach--because of the constant insistence that the White's religion, their way of life, was the "right" one, that they knew best and should convert/rule over others. Um, no thanks? By the time this bothered me, I hoped for a subversion at the end of the book, that the White find out somehow that they're not fully "right." It sort of happened, because Auraya witnessed what looked like another God manifesting to its followers. However...
3. The war is stupid. Evil heretics are coming to invade us because they hate our Gods! Okay, good reason to have a war. But then, after the entire book is spent gathering allies (with two out of the three missions to do so turning out successfully,) there's one battle staged around one big magical throwdown that the White have with the enemy sorcerers, and that's it. Auraya kills one of them, and then the White's leader orders that the others be spared, and everybody goes home? Yeah, because none of the other sorcerers kept fighting? They weren't furious at the death of their comrade and they didn't want revenge or victory? Everything was just over? I was just flabbergasted at how anti-climactic the last hundred pages were. Especially since HEY MAYBE YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY GODS IN TOWN. Hopefully that's addressed in the next book, which I am still going to read, dammit. (Or at least try to.)
4. Worst romance ever. Okay, that's not entirely fair, I've read some awful romances, but Auraya/Leiard is a dumb pairing because a) he was her teacher when she was a child/teenager (it wasn't clear how old she was until FAR too late in the story); b) he's significantly older than her even as an adult, and while I could get over that age gap under other circumstances, he knew her as a child and so it just squicks me out; c) they have no chemistry; d) she's a chosen priestess and he's a heathen (according to the White) practicing forbidden teachings and ohmygod this is a bad idea for so many reasons, but "love" is supposed to trump that, only it doesn't ever seem like love, just like they both get off on the secretive, forbidden aspect of their affair. It's two people being stupid at each other for the sake of sex, and we don't even get to see the sex (yes, I know, this isn't erotic fantasy, but still, maybe if we actually got to see them together in any sort of romantic/sexual sense, their "love" would hold up to scrutiny better.)
5. Unclear world-building. So, mind-reading, yay or nay? Because the White, and apparently a goodly number of the lower ranks of their priesthood, can read minds. Much of what Auraya "learns" comes from skimming the brains of those around her (without their permission, might I add.) The second half of Emerahl's subplot depends on this, because as a sorceress her mind can't be read by the priests, so she needs to avoid or trick them to keep herself safe. Yet, about halfway through the book, Auraya expresses grave distaste for other people potentially reading minds; I forget in what exact context, but she viewed it as a violation of privacy and something no one should be doing. You know, except her, her four fellow Chosen, and however many of their priests and priestesses can do it. Because it's okay for them, they're the "right" religion, after all.
6. Two demi-human races, very little description. We spend a lot of time with the Siyee, child-sized flying humans, yet for a good chunk of that, I had no idea what they looked like or how they flew. And then when their "wings" were finally described, they sounded like sugar gliders, with wing-like membranes attached to their sides, and I'm sorry, but those don't sound like functional wings for full flight at all. I had a really hard time believing that they could lift off from the ground, do complicated dance-like aerial maneuvers, or basically do anything other than glide from something tall to the ground or something shorter. And the Elai, the sea people? Webbed hands and feet. If they have any other distinctive features, I don't remember them, because their part of the story was so short and insignificant it didn't even need to be included--they were the race that turned down an alliance with the White, pre-war. Nothing would have been lost if Auraya hadn't had time to go see them and get turned down.
Turns out, this isn't nearly as good that the praise for her other works led me to believe it would be.
I have a lot of complaints and basically nothing good to say.
1. Too disjointed. I'm not opposed to brief asides that introduce a new focus character, for the purpose of showing something specific that a main character isn't present for. In fact, I can think of quite a few fantasy works I've read before that use this technique beautifully. Here, though, the narrative hops between characters constantly, and it got to the point where I didn't know on beginning a new scene (or tiny chunk of scene) if the character being introduced was important or not, simply because the jumps happened so often.
2. Not a fan of theocracies. Auraya, our MC, is one of the White, the chosen of the Gods, and she's bestowed both magical and political power because of it. The White keep saying that all other religions are "cults" because their gods "aren't real," the implication being that their own are, and we do see the Gods manifest in what certainly seems to be a real way. But their reasoning never sat well with me--seeing Auraya agonize over saving the souls of the Dreamweavers, in particular, turned my stomach--because of the constant insistence that the White's religion, their way of life, was the "right" one, that they knew best and should convert/rule over others. Um, no thanks? By the time this bothered me, I hoped for a subversion at the end of the book, that the White find out somehow that they're not fully "right." It sort of happened, because Auraya witnessed what looked like another God manifesting to its followers. However...
3. The war is stupid. Evil heretics are coming to invade us because they hate our Gods! Okay, good reason to have a war. But then, after the entire book is spent gathering allies (with two out of the three missions to do so turning out successfully,) there's one battle staged around one big magical throwdown that the White have with the enemy sorcerers, and that's it. Auraya kills one of them, and then the White's leader orders that the others be spared, and everybody goes home? Yeah, because none of the other sorcerers kept fighting? They weren't furious at the death of their comrade and they didn't want revenge or victory? Everything was just over? I was just flabbergasted at how anti-climactic the last hundred pages were. Especially since HEY MAYBE YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY GODS IN TOWN. Hopefully that's addressed in the next book, which I am still going to read, dammit. (Or at least try to.)
4. Worst romance ever. Okay, that's not entirely fair, I've read some awful romances, but Auraya/Leiard is a dumb pairing because a) he was her teacher when she was a child/teenager (it wasn't clear how old she was until FAR too late in the story); b) he's significantly older than her even as an adult, and while I could get over that age gap under other circumstances, he knew her as a child and so it just squicks me out; c) they have no chemistry; d) she's a chosen priestess and he's a heathen (according to the White) practicing forbidden teachings and ohmygod this is a bad idea for so many reasons, but "love" is supposed to trump that, only it doesn't ever seem like love, just like they both get off on the secretive, forbidden aspect of their affair. It's two people being stupid at each other for the sake of sex, and we don't even get to see the sex (yes, I know, this isn't erotic fantasy, but still, maybe if we actually got to see them together in any sort of romantic/sexual sense, their "love" would hold up to scrutiny better.)
5. Unclear world-building. So, mind-reading, yay or nay? Because the White, and apparently a goodly number of the lower ranks of their priesthood, can read minds. Much of what Auraya "learns" comes from skimming the brains of those around her (without their permission, might I add.) The second half of Emerahl's subplot depends on this, because as a sorceress her mind can't be read by the priests, so she needs to avoid or trick them to keep herself safe. Yet, about halfway through the book, Auraya expresses grave distaste for other people potentially reading minds; I forget in what exact context, but she viewed it as a violation of privacy and something no one should be doing. You know, except her, her four fellow Chosen, and however many of their priests and priestesses can do it. Because it's okay for them, they're the "right" religion, after all.
6. Two demi-human races, very little description. We spend a lot of time with the Siyee, child-sized flying humans, yet for a good chunk of that, I had no idea what they looked like or how they flew. And then when their "wings" were finally described, they sounded like sugar gliders, with wing-like membranes attached to their sides, and I'm sorry, but those don't sound like functional wings for full flight at all. I had a really hard time believing that they could lift off from the ground, do complicated dance-like aerial maneuvers, or basically do anything other than glide from something tall to the ground or something shorter. And the Elai, the sea people? Webbed hands and feet. If they have any other distinctive features, I don't remember them, because their part of the story was so short and insignificant it didn't even need to be included--they were the race that turned down an alliance with the White, pre-war. Nothing would have been lost if Auraya hadn't had time to go see them and get turned down.