(no subject)

[skygiants]

The pitch I'd heard for E.K. Johnston's The Afterward was 'sequel to an imaginary lesbian version of the Belgariad', so way back when I started my Belgariad||Mallorean Reread Project I also bought a copy of The Afterward as a palate-cleanser, and then promptly forgot about it for two years.

Anyway, now I've finally read it and it is indeed a perfectly cute lesbian fantasy about a knight and a thief who fall in love on a Big Fantasy Quest and then have to figure out if they can include each other in their normal, non-Big-Fantasy-Quest lives. This is a great premise and I have no bone to pick with it --

--okay, that's not true, I do have one bone to pick with the idea that we're picking up a year after a triumphant and successful Fantasy Quest and one of the book's two major conflicts is that the thief has had to go back to professional thieving to support herself but keeps getting arrested because she's too famous to thieve successfully. All her friends, including the queen of the country are wildly stressed because she's running out of get-out-of-jail-free cards but doesn't have any other life skills and she is starting to be under serious threat of execution. Guys! This is a solved problem! Are you telling me that no one in this group of heroic and honorable questers has figured out the Frank Abagnale solution? I'm assigning the queen and all of her advisors to sit down right now and watch Catch Me If You Can, as homework, and then read The Queen's Thief for good measure. It is not hard to create job opportunities for a famously heroic thief if you happen to have one to hand and you are the actual queen of the actual country. Someone does finally figure out that they could just hire her to work for them, but it takes 3/4 of a book to do so, from a character who's previously been offscreen, and in the meantime my respect for everyone else really took a deep hit.

The other major conflict of the book is that the knight has to get married to someone rich to pay off her knight student loans. I actually love this one; the concept of knight student loans that even saving the world doesn't get you out of is depressingly realistic and I'm really glad to see E.K. Johnston giving relatable fantasy representation for all our deserving and valiant but debt-burdened lesbian grad students trying their hardest out here.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

KNIGHT STUDENT LOANS I love it. That armor is expensive! A proper knightly charger ditto1 And it's not like you make much MONEY while questing to save the world, I mean, really you just do it for the exposure.

I also join you in face-palming over the thief plotline. Even if they can't come up with the novel idea of hiring her to help catch thieves, there is a long and noble tradition of rewarding good services to the crown with things like "pensions" and "sinecures." Make her Chief Ragamuffin of the Palace and give her 500 gold a year for it.

[jothra]

I made a deeply ungraceful snort-laugh when I read 'Ragamuffin of the Palace'.

[skygiants]

There's a very matter-of-fact explanation about how if you're not a legacy, independently wealthy knight you're simply going to have to marry someone who wants a knightly spouse for the prestige, and I'm like, okay, yes! this absolutely tracks!

iirc they do try and just be like 'you could stop stealing and live in the palace and be taken care of and ... not do anything ....' and she's like 'I CANNOT I'm a PROFESSIONAL I need a JOB' but as soon as a knight is like 'I, uh, I need a personal assistant! This Is A Job! For You!' she's like 'oh thank god' so clearly it would not have been hard to just assign her some actual tasks, as long as the job of Chief Ragamuffin had appropriate responsibilities I think she would have been more than happy to do it.

[lirazel]

Reading this tickled me immensely!

[skygiants]

Glad you enjoyed! :D

[larryhammer]

Hrm. That might be my catnip, but I suspect my aggravation over finding the thief a job might be even higher than yours, enough so to make it not enjoyable.

[nineveh_uk]

I am feeling the same. I'd love to read it! It sounds like a great follow-on to my teenage Eddings addiction. I also think I would throw it against the wall very soon.

[skygiants]

I do wish I could travel back in time and hand it to the version of my younger self who had just finished reading Eddings!

[skygiants]

It might be worth a try to find out! I did enjoy much of the book, though, as you can see, this element still nags at me.

[schneefink]

It is not hard to create job opportunities for a famously heroic thief if you happen to have one to hand and you are the actual queen of the actual country. Someone does finally figure out that they could just hire her to work for them, but it takes 3/4 of a book to do so,
Oh yeah that sounds very frustrating, that is a shame.

[skygiants]

I do understand the challenge that if you are writing a dashing thief you would like to show them doing some dashing thievery on-page! And I also understand that a big part of the project is 'life in the aftermath of a quest still goes on and is difficult.' Nonetheless, it did jar me.

[brownbetty]

I find I oscillate wildly with this author between "this is dumb, but I'll allow it," and "No! I do not allow it!" which is undoubtedly an oscillation in me, and not their work. I failed out of Aetherbound (sp?) at about 15%.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I've loved both of Johnston's Star Wars IP books that I read and I would love to also love an original Johnston but so far that hasn't yet happened -- maybe something about working in the bounds of established worldbuilding helps there? But I do hold out hope that someday Johnston will write a Perfect Original Book For Me! And in the meantime, there's always the gay fanfic about Padme's handmaidens.

[chestnut_pod]

I've decided that EK Johnston and I are not for each other, but I DO enjoy reading people's reviews of her, and I do enjoy having internalized the phrase "knight student loans."

[skygiants]

I'm sure someday I'll find the right E.K. Johnston original fic for me! but this has not yet been that day