A review by ejimenez
The Conqueror's Child by Suzy McKee Charnas
4.0
The conclusion to this series is excellent - thoughtful and self-aware.
Things I especially appreciated:
I like the tacit acknowledgment at the end of the book that the Riding Women, a society that McKee Charnas created, were a fantasy. The utopian female separatist colony is not sustainable or realistic - and is, in fact stagnant. They are literally reliving the same lives over and over again. Such a thoughtful insight for McKee Charnas to apply to her own story.
Things I especially appreciated:
Spoiler
While the women are constantly worried that D Layo and the Ferrymen are going to take back over and destroy what they have built, it becomes clear to a reader much clearer than it is to the women that D Layo has no chance. McKee Charnas doesn't overemphasize his power or the threat from him in order to increase dramatic tension - the drama comes from the interpersonal moments and the fate of individual characters more than our fear for the whole project of liberation.I like the tacit acknowledgment at the end of the book that the Riding Women, a society that McKee Charnas created, were a fantasy. The utopian female separatist colony is not sustainable or realistic - and is, in fact stagnant. They are literally reliving the same lives over and over again. Such a thoughtful insight for McKee Charnas to apply to her own story.