How intrusive is the girl-power heroine's journey? Is it more like the Alanna books (which handwavium the problem of female physical limitations, but face them squarely) or more like Rey in Star Wars? Or is it somewhere in between like Menolly in Dragonsinger?
Does it further propaganda about the interchangability of the sexes, or is the Uncle just a cantankerous grouch who carries a severe prejudice, like the Alm uncle in Heidi - one that could just as easily be directed at a non-Narrativist target?
Space Rangers sounds very cool, so I am hoping this is the exception that proofs the rule.
I think you might have misinterpreted a few things. The uncle is a very loving man who wants to throttle the heroine's father for making her think she has to be equal to the boys, which is impossible. He needs his niece's help and tasks her with a very important job no less than twice, but he is not trying to promote any form of "girl power" when he does this.
The heroine's journey makes sense in context of the world and is not "girl power" at all. It is focused on a girl who goes on a journey and learns there is more to life than trying to match a man, which she cannot do. She has great skills - better than she realizes - but that, she must learn, will never make her the equal of the male Rangers. It is why her uncle, and others, must explain sex to her. She is so unaware of the differences between male and female that, if she didn't know how to fight, she would be very hurt in a way she cannot comprehend yet very quickly.
The heroine is wounded in her psyche and soul. She is nothing like Rey. She is nothing like Heidi. I've read neither Dragonsinger nor the Alanna books, but I don't think Tam would be like either of them. She is her own person and quite different from any heroine I have read in the last fifteen years, at least.
The review sounded interesting so I went to Amazon and discovered I've already bought it. Reading....
How intrusive is the girl-power heroine's journey? Is it more like the Alanna books (which handwavium the problem of female physical limitations, but face them squarely) or more like Rey in Star Wars? Or is it somewhere in between like Menolly in Dragonsinger?
Does it further propaganda about the interchangability of the sexes, or is the Uncle just a cantankerous grouch who carries a severe prejudice, like the Alm uncle in Heidi - one that could just as easily be directed at a non-Narrativist target?
Space Rangers sounds very cool, so I am hoping this is the exception that proofs the rule.
I think you might have misinterpreted a few things. The uncle is a very loving man who wants to throttle the heroine's father for making her think she has to be equal to the boys, which is impossible. He needs his niece's help and tasks her with a very important job no less than twice, but he is not trying to promote any form of "girl power" when he does this.
The heroine's journey makes sense in context of the world and is not "girl power" at all. It is focused on a girl who goes on a journey and learns there is more to life than trying to match a man, which she cannot do. She has great skills - better than she realizes - but that, she must learn, will never make her the equal of the male Rangers. It is why her uncle, and others, must explain sex to her. She is so unaware of the differences between male and female that, if she didn't know how to fight, she would be very hurt in a way she cannot comprehend yet very quickly.
The heroine is wounded in her psyche and soul. She is nothing like Rey. She is nothing like Heidi. I've read neither Dragonsinger nor the Alanna books, but I don't think Tam would be like either of them. She is her own person and quite different from any heroine I have read in the last fifteen years, at least.