I got one finished!!
Unfortunately, it was another one of the Wheel of Time so this isn’t so much a review as a discussion point. There are (sort of) spoilers ahead!
Book 48 – A Crown of Swords, by Robert Jordan. This is book 7 of the series, so I’ve reached the halfway point and the speed has slumped somewhat. However, that is not what I’m going to talk about today.
No, what I’m going to talk about is sex.
For a fantasy novelist, Jordan’s descriptions of sexual encounters is a little shy. When sex is mentioned it leads to blushes, fingernail marks or haylofts… This is good because badly written sex scenes are uncomfortable to read, but it does mean we are in a fantasy world with Victorian morality.
In this particular book there are three sexual encounters that really stood out as being different:
- A man is ashamed of having sex with a female character, calling himself a ‘monster’ for ‘forcing himself’ on her despite the fact that she initiated the encounter and was as willing as him. I do not understand this scene. It took the story no further forward, made very little sense and made the male character seem foolish. Arguably, it shows the female character as being empowered in some way but as the most likeable of the women it wasn’t really necessary. I think what it mostly identifies is that the male character has a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders that makes him hard and potentially cruel, and that he fears being cruel to women more than anything. That would gel with the character but we’ve seen that enough times not to need it again!
- A woman sleeps with a man she hates, to save herself from a man she fears. This made sense in the scheme of the story, and for the character. It was treated as a serious event, something from which she would have to recover and shown as something deeply painful, more painful than the physical danger to her – it hurt more than she would have realised. For this particular character, it highlighted both how far she was from the world she knew and how alone she felt,despite being surrounded by people who cared for her. The tone of this section of the book was sombre and reflective.
- A man is pursued by a more powerful woman and, ultimately, raped. This section gave me great pause for thought. The character is cajoled, starved, dragged, bullied and ultimately threatened at knifepoint to sleep with a woman who has taken a fancy to him, with the laughing help of various women. The situation is treated as comical, with one of the key female protagonists mocking him for it and saying it is a taste of his own medicine (despite it being clear he would never force his attentions on anyone). It is revolting, and there is absolutely no reason for it to happen in this way or for the reaction to be as it is. Despite not liking the female protagonist anyway, I can say it is utterly outside her normal behaviour and is another example of Jordan writing women badly. Quite honestly, as the male character is only in this situation to aid the female protagonist and keep her safe, I kind of hope he doesn’t bother again.
I love the series for the world it creates, and the complex weaving of magic and its own internal history, but there are such unnecessary choices sometimes I find it frustrating to read.
The series is long – the total series length is about 4.25 million words, discounting the prequel! – so it is hard to maintain a sense of focus when the story meanders into sections that negatively impact on both the progress of, and my enjoyment of, the tale.
I remember struggling with these middle books before, and nearly stopping. The only thing that keeps me going is my historic inability to give up on books – I have overcome that with new reads, but because I know I got past this point before, and the books get better again, I will keep going for now!
If you’re reading with me, just don’t expect to understand the morality of Rand al’Thor’s world.
On another point – I won’t get through 52 this year, but I gave it a good go and am reading a very long series! Here’s to adding a few more to the numbers next year!
Happy reading,
EJ
🙂