Review: A Woman Worth Ten Coppers
Jun. 24th, 2012 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotI picked up this book at the library sale because I expected it would be really Idficcy - it's all about this seer who gets sold as a slave to a holy warrior, their fates are entwined, they're obviously going to fall in love and defeat the Evil Empire. But it doesn't work.
To start with, the author doesn't seem to buy into the scenario (despite having written another book called Queen of Orcs: King's Property). What do I expect from Iddy slavefic? Lots of acknowledgement of the slavery, basically. But Yim and Honus just kind of hang out together most of the time. When they do acknowledge it, it's because Honus is being an ass for no reason.
Yim grows up as the goddess Karm's chosen one and is sent off in disguise as a peddler's daughter, but the wagon is taken by robbers and Yim is sold into slavery. Honus is a warrior of Karm who's supposed to travel with a Bearer; his last one was killed while looking into the Evil Emperor, but he told Honus he should never carry his own pack, which leads to him buying Yim as a pack carrier. It's blindingly obvious from the second he says he's going to buy a slave to carry his pack that it's all been arranged by Karm to put them together, so it's obnoxious when they go the last 95% of the book without figuring it out.
It's also obnoxious that part of Yim's chosen-one-ness is that she's chosen to bear a child who will defeat the Evil Empire, and she's going to meet the child's father while still a virgin. So her main issue with threats of rape are fear that she'll never have the chosen baby, and she's completely unable to figure out that Honus is the guy, despite her name being part of the secret tattoos on his back and the whole "never carry your own pack" thing being an obvious way for Karm to have them meet. It also has the effect of making it clear that the author wants to write a trilogy since nothing at all gets resolved here and neither of the main characters can do anything against the Evil Empire.
And here's another thing. Karm's religion is pretty humble, they rely on charity to eat, etc. So either Bearers and their warriors should be not allowed to own slaves, which would make the most sense - Honus could have bought her and then freed her, telling her that he couldn't pay her then but he'd give her proper wages once they got to the Temple if she'd act as his servant - they should have a rule about treating your slaves well (Honus doesn't; he threatens to sell her to a place where she'd have to work on a treadmill), or there should be some kind of justification for why the hypocrisy exists. It makes it seem flimsy.
Accents, too - the book is lousy with poorly written accents. I think they're meant to be Scottish, but they don't match the way Scottish accents are usually written, so I'm not sure.
So, yeah, it's on the level of something you pick up for free for the Kindle. Not recommending it.
To start with, the author doesn't seem to buy into the scenario (despite having written another book called Queen of Orcs: King's Property). What do I expect from Iddy slavefic? Lots of acknowledgement of the slavery, basically. But Yim and Honus just kind of hang out together most of the time. When they do acknowledge it, it's because Honus is being an ass for no reason.
Yim grows up as the goddess Karm's chosen one and is sent off in disguise as a peddler's daughter, but the wagon is taken by robbers and Yim is sold into slavery. Honus is a warrior of Karm who's supposed to travel with a Bearer; his last one was killed while looking into the Evil Emperor, but he told Honus he should never carry his own pack, which leads to him buying Yim as a pack carrier. It's blindingly obvious from the second he says he's going to buy a slave to carry his pack that it's all been arranged by Karm to put them together, so it's obnoxious when they go the last 95% of the book without figuring it out.
It's also obnoxious that part of Yim's chosen-one-ness is that she's chosen to bear a child who will defeat the Evil Empire, and she's going to meet the child's father while still a virgin. So her main issue with threats of rape are fear that she'll never have the chosen baby, and she's completely unable to figure out that Honus is the guy, despite her name being part of the secret tattoos on his back and the whole "never carry your own pack" thing being an obvious way for Karm to have them meet. It also has the effect of making it clear that the author wants to write a trilogy since nothing at all gets resolved here and neither of the main characters can do anything against the Evil Empire.
And here's another thing. Karm's religion is pretty humble, they rely on charity to eat, etc. So either Bearers and their warriors should be not allowed to own slaves, which would make the most sense - Honus could have bought her and then freed her, telling her that he couldn't pay her then but he'd give her proper wages once they got to the Temple if she'd act as his servant - they should have a rule about treating your slaves well (Honus doesn't; he threatens to sell her to a place where she'd have to work on a treadmill), or there should be some kind of justification for why the hypocrisy exists. It makes it seem flimsy.
Accents, too - the book is lousy with poorly written accents. I think they're meant to be Scottish, but they don't match the way Scottish accents are usually written, so I'm not sure.
So, yeah, it's on the level of something you pick up for free for the Kindle. Not recommending it.
