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Apr. 6th, 2021 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI've been wanting to try an f/f cnovel for a while, so last month I read Female General, Eldest Princess on the simple basis of the facts that a.) it's the one I've read most often and b.) I have never said no to a cross-dressing heroine in my life and I don't intend to start now.
The premise: teen Lin Wanyue's entire village was slaughtered by the Huns, so she's taken the identity of her dead brother 'Lin Feixing', joined the army, and dedicated her life to revenge. Because of her intelligence and her single-minded dedication, she quickly rises to prominence despite her humble origins!
Meanwhile, Li Xian, teen Imperial Princess, has dedicated her life to out-scheming her various half-siblings so that she can deliver the Imperial succession to her beloved but still moderately useless baby brother. When she encounters Lin Wanyue on a field trip to the front, it's love more or less at first sight ...
...well, it's love or at least crush for Lin Wanyue, who encounters the impeccable image of a perfect princess and is immediately ready to become the lionheart to her queen, no questions asked. Li Xian, meanwhile, sees a talented and besotted young officer with no inconvenient connections and the baby beginnings of a brilliant tactical instinct to nurture and is delighted to have discovered such a useful pawn: with a few significant nudges, she's pretty sure she can eventually place 'Lin Feixing' in a position to command the entire border, and that's that army's loyalty sorted.
(As long as Lin Feixing never finds out enough about the various morally questionable things that Li Xian has done for that loyalty to shake, obviously, but it's not like that's going to happen! What is this, amateur hour?)
I dug the course of the romance in the book: intense potentially-misplaced loyalty stuff is very much my jam and I really enjoyed the very slow and difficult shift in Li Xian and Lin Wanyue's relationship from manipulation/hero-worship to genuine partnership, as Lin Wanyue levels up in savvy and Li Xian levels down in ability to crush all her human feelings. Also, I am a simple individual who likes to see a cross-dressing general and a scheming lesbian respectively be more competent than everyone around them, and Female General, Eldest Princess gets top marks on this score.
I liked less the extremely dehumanizing depiction of the Huns (there's one sympathetic and intelligent antagonist-turned-ally at the very end of the book and before that they are more or less ravenous horde video game villains about whom Lin Wanyue has some extremely genocidal fantasies while embarked her Revenge Quest). Also the ending is ... hmm. It's a happy ending overall, it is just also OUT OF LEFT FIELD WILD AS HECK.
OK, so it's the end of the book and Lin Wanyue has been betrayed and captured while attempting to put down a rebellion by Li Xian's stupidest and most homicidal brother, who has unexpectedly been joined by Li Xian's smartest and most sympathetic brother. Li Xian rides out to try and rescue her and:
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: All right, so you're probably wondering why I betrayed you. Here's the thing: I'm in love with our stupidest and most homicidal brother.
LI XIAN: ...
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: But don't worry, it's not incest! I'm secretly not the Emperor's biological son! It turns out my dad is someone completely different. Not important to the story, do not worry about it.
LI XIAN: ....
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: So anyway, sorry about capturing and torturing your wife -- hey, congratulations on the wife, by the way! Love to find out I'm not the only gay sibling! -- but at this juncture I'm really happy to just take the inexplicable object of my affection and ride away into exile if you're cool with that? Sorry again about the torture, I really hope your wife recovers and there's no hard feelings.
LI XIAN: .... I'll accept this on the condition that I can torture the stupid homicidal one to the exact same degree that you tortured my wife.
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: You know what? That seems fair. That seems fine. Happy to accept this deal on his behalf!
LI XIAN'S MOST HOMICIDAL BROTHER: ?!?!?!?!?!
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER, THROWING HIS BELOVED, LI XIAN'S MOST HOMICIDAL BROTHER, INTO A ROOM WITH A FURIOUS LI XIAN AND HER TWELVE FAVORITE NINJAS AND LOCKING THE DOOR: you'll be fine! it's for your own good! you didn't need all those fingers anyway!
It is impossible for me to emphasize the degree to which none off this is foreshadowed. I'm trying to come up with a comparison ... it's like if Lion in Winter was resolved by Richard suddenly declaring that he was adopted, and also in love with John and riding off into the sunset with him (after generously allowing Geoffrey to break a few of John's fingers)? Except less foreshadowed than that, actually, because at least we already know Richard is gay and has bad taste in twinks -- anyway. It's hilarious, is my point. Glad about the gay sibling solidarity???
Would love recommendations for other f/f danmei if anyone has them!
The premise: teen Lin Wanyue's entire village was slaughtered by the Huns, so she's taken the identity of her dead brother 'Lin Feixing', joined the army, and dedicated her life to revenge. Because of her intelligence and her single-minded dedication, she quickly rises to prominence despite her humble origins!
Meanwhile, Li Xian, teen Imperial Princess, has dedicated her life to out-scheming her various half-siblings so that she can deliver the Imperial succession to her beloved but still moderately useless baby brother. When she encounters Lin Wanyue on a field trip to the front, it's love more or less at first sight ...
...well, it's love or at least crush for Lin Wanyue, who encounters the impeccable image of a perfect princess and is immediately ready to become the lionheart to her queen, no questions asked. Li Xian, meanwhile, sees a talented and besotted young officer with no inconvenient connections and the baby beginnings of a brilliant tactical instinct to nurture and is delighted to have discovered such a useful pawn: with a few significant nudges, she's pretty sure she can eventually place 'Lin Feixing' in a position to command the entire border, and that's that army's loyalty sorted.
(As long as Lin Feixing never finds out enough about the various morally questionable things that Li Xian has done for that loyalty to shake, obviously, but it's not like that's going to happen! What is this, amateur hour?)
I dug the course of the romance in the book: intense potentially-misplaced loyalty stuff is very much my jam and I really enjoyed the very slow and difficult shift in Li Xian and Lin Wanyue's relationship from manipulation/hero-worship to genuine partnership, as Lin Wanyue levels up in savvy and Li Xian levels down in ability to crush all her human feelings. Also, I am a simple individual who likes to see a cross-dressing general and a scheming lesbian respectively be more competent than everyone around them, and Female General, Eldest Princess gets top marks on this score.
I liked less the extremely dehumanizing depiction of the Huns (there's one sympathetic and intelligent antagonist-turned-ally at the very end of the book and before that they are more or less ravenous horde video game villains about whom Lin Wanyue has some extremely genocidal fantasies while embarked her Revenge Quest). Also the ending is ... hmm. It's a happy ending overall, it is just also OUT OF LEFT FIELD WILD AS HECK.
OK, so it's the end of the book and Lin Wanyue has been betrayed and captured while attempting to put down a rebellion by Li Xian's stupidest and most homicidal brother, who has unexpectedly been joined by Li Xian's smartest and most sympathetic brother. Li Xian rides out to try and rescue her and:
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: All right, so you're probably wondering why I betrayed you. Here's the thing: I'm in love with our stupidest and most homicidal brother.
LI XIAN: ...
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: But don't worry, it's not incest! I'm secretly not the Emperor's biological son! It turns out my dad is someone completely different. Not important to the story, do not worry about it.
LI XIAN: ....
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: So anyway, sorry about capturing and torturing your wife -- hey, congratulations on the wife, by the way! Love to find out I'm not the only gay sibling! -- but at this juncture I'm really happy to just take the inexplicable object of my affection and ride away into exile if you're cool with that? Sorry again about the torture, I really hope your wife recovers and there's no hard feelings.
LI XIAN: .... I'll accept this on the condition that I can torture the stupid homicidal one to the exact same degree that you tortured my wife.
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER: You know what? That seems fair. That seems fine. Happy to accept this deal on his behalf!
LI XIAN'S MOST HOMICIDAL BROTHER: ?!?!?!?!?!
LI XIAN'S MOST SYMPATHETIC BROTHER, THROWING HIS BELOVED, LI XIAN'S MOST HOMICIDAL BROTHER, INTO A ROOM WITH A FURIOUS LI XIAN AND HER TWELVE FAVORITE NINJAS AND LOCKING THE DOOR: you'll be fine! it's for your own good! you didn't need all those fingers anyway!
It is impossible for me to emphasize the degree to which none off this is foreshadowed. I'm trying to come up with a comparison ... it's like if Lion in Winter was resolved by Richard suddenly declaring that he was adopted, and also in love with John and riding off into the sunset with him (after generously allowing Geoffrey to break a few of John's fingers)? Except less foreshadowed than that, actually, because at least we already know Richard is gay and has bad taste in twinks -- anyway. It's hilarious, is my point. Glad about the gay sibling solidarity???
Would love recommendations for other f/f danmei if anyone has them!
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Date: 2021-04-19 09:10 pm (UTC)