A review by coffeeandink
A Fall of Princes by Judith Tarr

4.0

2013 reread. This was my favorite of the original trilogy when I first read it, and that hasn't changed. I didn't think the big plot twist was worked out well, and that hasn't changed, either.

The problem isn't that Sarevadin's sex change is WTF random, the problem is that he immediately identifies as she, she is heterosexual (when male Sarevadin claimed not to be very attracted to Hirel physically), and that she immediately becomes more indecisive and passive than she was. Now that I have it in ebook, I suppose I could run it through a gender-swap page and see if the problem is me reacting differently to women than to men, but I honestly don't think it is. They just do not feel like the same character to me.

I have much more mixed feelings about the gender politics than I used to, and some qualms about exoticization of Asanion.