big read the second

my second big read for the month is sword and verse by kathy mcmillan, as i discussed in my last post.

 the book is rather different from what i was expecting based on the goodreads page.  Raisa doesn't actually know how to read and write, shes just from a people who do and she knows a couple letters here and there. She has a poem from her dad that she doesn't know how to read, and she really wants to learn it. so while being promoted to learning things is scary, it's also a happy thing for her. her falling for the prince involves being invited to be in a play with him, in the role that nobody wants to fill. oh and she's just got to play the goddess of wisdom who everybody hates because she taught people how to read and write and that's bad.  did i mention that the ruling class traditionally portrays this fallen and bad goddess as looking like the people they use as slaves? most of the ruling class need a punch in the teeth.

the gods in this book are so hard to like. as a reader and a writer, mostly when the gods pop up in this book, i found myself thinking that 90% of them needed to be punched in the teeth. i know this is partially because the main character is from the down trodden slave class, taken from her own people.

the resistance starts off blackmailing her into helping them, and just... that's tired, as tropes go. I mean, yeah she's between a rock and a hard place, but the hard place doesn't need to be a jerk about it. there is some nice imagery used about the birds kept in the place of learning that have been caged so long that they don't fly away once you take the bars down but leave the shape of the cage. the resistance pops up after the prince turns out to have fiancee, and gives her a  second, gentler option to join them.

overall it's an ok book. it's not really a sword and sorcery book. barely a fantasy. it's a nice fully fleshed world reminiscent of ancient Greece or Egypt. Gods and slaves and raiding etc

5/10 and an ugh to goodreads for calling it fantasy.


in other news my book count for the month is 9, so i'm on track so far.