(no subject)

I mentioned a month or so back that I was on a kind of Arthuriana kick at the moment, at which point ceitfianna recced me Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron. I'm not sure I'd actually call this book hard-core Arthuriana exactly - there's definitely a heavy Arthurian factor, but the book also involves werewolves, changelings, pookas, Welsh mythology, Weyland Smith, mages in New York City, at least two different kinds of fairies, dragons, and a hefty dose of Tam Lin. Um, as it might sound, it's kind of stuffed. It's also a little bit bewildering at times keeping track of the various different mythologies (I still don't have any idea what's going on with Heaven and Hell, but I don't at all think it would be unlikely for God to turn out to be an evil alien computer from another dimension.) There are three main point of view characters, and between the viewpoint switches and the moderately overwhelming nature of the universe, I had a hard time getting into this book at first.

Once I got about a third of the way in, though, and I began to see what Bear was doing, I started really admiring it. First of all, the book got about ten times more interesting for me when Elaine, the changeling-huntress main character, stopped wandering around hunting and angsting and started getting involved in the politics of the fairy court, because they were wonderfully complex and ambiguous, and often confusing but I sort of feel that politics should be, so. The choices to be made were genuinely difficult, and not in the same-old tried-and-true ways; pretty much all the characters had complex and understandable reasons for their actions, and although there were clear sides, 'right' and 'wrong' were not clear at all. And there are powerful and ruthless women who aren't vilified, and aren't Redeemed By Love, and get to go on being powerful and ruthless and are justified in doing so! I feel like this should not be as rare as it is, and so I appreciate it when I see it. I also enjoyed the way in which the romantic aspect was handled, by which I mean that although there were multiple romances/seductions/etc. going on at once, often as a part of the political intrigue, the angst was never about 'zomg I am betraying [x] by making out with [y]!' (hi, generic Arthurian triangle-itude). More often the angst was 'zomg I am betraying [y] by making out with [y]', but I can deal with that a lot better. Also I really liked the rock keyboardist university professor pacific islander lesbian Merlin. Also the pooka was really hot. What is it about urban fantasy and pookas?

So basically despite some flawsI enjoyed this book and would recommend it, especially to people who like urban fantasy and discussion of mythic tropes, and have a strong suspicion that I will be going on to read more in the series.