4.0
The Origin of Storms
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Origin of Storms Reviews
4.0
“HIGHLIGHTS
~blind dragons are still badass
~#transwomenarewomen
~literal bookworms contribute to empire
~goddesses are rarely what you expect
~wearing a crown is almost as complicated as claiming it
*Spoilers for The Bone in the Skull and The Red-Stained Wings!*
To be honest, the ending ruined it for me.
The first two thirds of Origin of Storms cover Mrithuri, Sayeh and the rest working to consolidate Mrithuri’s unexpected empire. It’s definitely slow to get moving, but something about the rhythm and cadence of the prose made it surprisingly readable and oddly soothing. It was easy to drift along with, enjoyably. It involved more military logistics than political manouvering, but there was manouvering, and it was sneaky and clever and well-done.
Even moreso than the rest of the trilogy, Origin of Storms is very much a book about women: royal women, noble women, educated women, loyal women, servant women, holy women. It’s about the restrictions placed on women – especially those who want to hold power that men will respect – and how to move within those restrictions to get what you want (or as close to what you want as can be managed). It’s about the nature of feminine power, which can’t look like power at all if you want to get things done. It’s about being women playing the traditionally-male game of kingdoms and thrones. It’s about how hard that is.
And it is very, very much about women – all kinds of women – working together.
One of the things that made me happiest about Origin is that Sayeh – who is third-sex, and identifies and presents as a woman – is never left out of this. Her place among the rest of the women is never even up for debate, is never questioned. Of course she’s one of them. She’s a vital and valued member of the sisterhood. Which is something that would make me happy no matter when this book was coming out, but it feels particularly important – and powerful – right at this moment, when so much transphobia is running rampant in the USA and UK.
But the last third or quarter of the book ruined the entire trilogy for me.
https://everybookadoorway.com/from-nowhere-a-beast-origin-of-storms-by-elizabeth-bear/”
About Elizabeth Bear
ELIZABETH BEAR was the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005, and is the author of The Eternal Sky trilogy, including
and
. She has won two Hugo Awards for her short fiction, a Sturgeon Award, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Bear lives in Brookfield, Massachusetts.
Other books by Elizabeth Bear
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