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A review by secretsloth
The Two Pearls Of Wisdom by Alison Goodman
1.0
I really wanted to love this book but I think I made the mistake of reading Iron Widow first.
Note: I'm white and not that knowledgeable about the Chinese and Japanese folklore that this book draws so heavily from so I've chosen not to critique this area of the book. Hopefully there's a reviewer who can shed some light here that will do a much better job than ignorant me.
There were some things I really enjoyed about this book. It's rare to find a book written pre-2015 or so with gender diverse characters in it that don't heavily lean on stereotypes or serve to illustrate transphobic ideas or themes, but this book absolutely does; in fact, diversity amongst the characters in general is a real saving grace. I loved Chart and I loved that we had more than one disabled character here and more than one gender non-conforming character. But in 2022 that's a pretty low bar to pass, and I think in the time that's passed since this book was published it's aged poorly in a lot of ways - especially in its portrayal of womanhood, which is somehow barely explored and yet a central theme of the book. I also greatly enjoyed the relationship between our MC Eon(a) and Prince Kygo which didn't fall into the usual enemies-to-lovers or political rival-themed trappings. Another strong point of this book is the pacing and descriptive work in the fight and battle scenes; usually I'm in the habit of skimming over these or barely following the beats of a fight so I can get to the other bits, but I enjoyed the fight scenes Eona was in and I especially enjoyed seeing not only that she was making progress in building her abilities but also how she was doing so.
That said, I don't think this story could withstand a light breeze. Whilst reading I encountered a lot of easily-fixable plot holes (*why* is it that Eon(a) forgets important things that happened to her, other than so she can conveniently remember in the last third of the book?) and the only reason I didn't guess the two major twists at the end of the book is because they felt entirely hollow and obvious.
I think my expectations of the book had a big impact on how much I enjoyed it; I've recently read Iron Widow, and I'm a big fan of authors like Brandon Sanderson and Philip Pullman who construct incredibly fantasy worlds to set their work in. My standards are doubtless high - but I don't think that excuses this book from giving its characters cohesive reasons to not know things that they absolutely should know (You're telling me
I've already touched on this but I think the largest issue I had with this book was its treatment of femininity and womanhood. I also took particular issue when viewing this book from my perspective as a non-binary person.
The nail in the coffin for me was. I get it, it's no walk in the park to but I would think it to be insensitive and dated to portray this experience as positive even in 2008.
Read it if you like books set in Eastern-style worlds but that aren't really so that the author has the freedom to play fast and loose with the setting, aren't too bothered about things actually making sense and aren't too picky about portrayal of trans/NB/disabled characters.
Note: I'm white and not that knowledgeable about the Chinese and Japanese folklore that this book draws so heavily from so I've chosen not to critique this area of the book. Hopefully there's a reviewer who can shed some light here that will do a much better job than ignorant me.
There were some things I really enjoyed about this book. It's rare to find a book written pre-2015 or so with gender diverse characters in it that don't heavily lean on stereotypes or serve to illustrate transphobic ideas or themes, but this book absolutely does; in fact, diversity amongst the characters in general is a real saving grace. I loved Chart and I loved that we had more than one disabled character here and more than one gender non-conforming character. But in 2022 that's a pretty low bar to pass, and I think in the time that's passed since this book was published it's aged poorly in a lot of ways - especially in its portrayal of womanhood, which is somehow barely explored and yet a central theme of the book. I also greatly enjoyed the relationship between our MC Eon(a) and Prince Kygo which didn't fall into the usual enemies-to-lovers or political rival-themed trappings. Another strong point of this book is the pacing and descriptive work in the fight and battle scenes; usually I'm in the habit of skimming over these or barely following the beats of a fight so I can get to the other bits, but I enjoyed the fight scenes Eona was in and I especially enjoyed seeing not only that she was making progress in building her abilities but also how she was doing so.
That said, I don't think this story could withstand a light breeze. Whilst reading I encountered a lot of easily-fixable plot holes (*why* is it that Eon(a) forgets important things that happened to her, other than so she can conveniently remember in the last third of the book?
Spoiler
I really think I would remember someone deliberately breaking my hip?I think my expectations of the book had a big impact on how much I enjoyed it; I've recently read Iron Widow, and I'm a big fan of authors like Brandon Sanderson and Philip Pullman who construct incredibly fantasy worlds to set their work in. My standards are doubtless high - but I don't think that excuses this book from giving its characters cohesive reasons to not know things that they absolutely should know (You're telling me
Spoiler
not a single person recognised the book was written in Woman Script in four hundred years? Pull the other one.I've already touched on this but I think the largest issue I had with this book was its treatment of femininity and womanhood.
Spoiler
Eona goes on a journey in this book from wilfully concealing that she is a woman from the world to shouting it from the rooftops, but the book never really explores how Eona feels about this experience; I'd love to have known more about that, as it might have explained how she failed to consider the possibility that her womanhood was tied to her Dragoneye status and what impact concealing her sex might be having on her mind and body.Spoiler
Though this book does have what is (in my opinion) a tastefully written trans woman character, it fails to hit the mark by failing to satisfactorily explore Eona's gender identity in this work. We know this setting has the concept of gender identity and trans-ness - so why is it absent from Eona's thoughts when she is living the experience of her presentation not matching her assigned gender at birth? A missed opportunity.The nail in the coffin for me was
Spoiler
when Eona's disability is healed by her dragon at the end and she's all pleased about itSpoiler
be disabledSpoiler
Being disabled, while not always present and often causing physical pain, is not a bad thing and we should be uplifting and empowering disabled characters, not magically healing them like it's loot at the end of a DnD campaign to not be disabled anymore.Read it if you like books set in Eastern-style worlds but that aren't really so that the author has the freedom to play fast and loose with the setting, aren't too bothered about things actually making sense and aren't too picky about portrayal of trans/NB/disabled characters.