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Jiana #1
Heroing: Or, How He Wound Down the World
WHEN JIANA OF THE CITY OF BAY BAY TALKS . . .
. . . nobody listens. As far as Prince Alanai is concerned, she has three strikes against her: she's foreign, she employs outlandish fighting techniques from the Flower Empire, and worst of all, she's a woman!
When Jiana tries to join Alanai's quest for the World Dream, he dismisses her out of hand. In the wilderness of the barbarous southern lands, beset by magic and monsters, wars and gods, what good can one raven-haired woman warrior possibly do?
Alanai is about to find out ... as Jiana sets out on a quest behind the quest—and discovers the truth about heroes.
. . . nobody listens. As far as Prince Alanai is concerned, she has three strikes against her: she's foreign, she employs outlandish fighting techniques from the Flower Empire, and worst of all, she's a woman!
When Jiana tries to join Alanai's quest for the World Dream, he dismisses her out of hand. In the wilderness of the barbarous southern lands, beset by magic and monsters, wars and gods, what good can one raven-haired woman warrior possibly do?
Alanai is about to find out ... as Jiana sets out on a quest behind the quest—and discovers the truth about heroes.
- GenresFantasy
344 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
About the author
Dafydd ab Hugh
27 books47 followersDafydd ab Hugh (born David Friedman) is a U.S. science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 26, 2008
Cool woman swordswoman when there were few in fantasy fiction in interesting take on what it means to be a warrior and a hero.
February 23, 2022
Jiana of Bay Bay is supposed to be the protagonist, but she’s absolutely awful. I couldn’t sympathize with her even once. She had no sympathy/empathy for anyone but herself (including her poor horse, who she left in the middle of a rainstorm). Huge turnoff. Sorry.
July 20, 2015
Not a good book, but I admire it, particularly for its time, on having a strong female hero- and not just strong in the masculine/no feelings sort of way, but strong in a coming-to-grips-with-some-heavy-shit kind of way.
August 2, 2019
This is a 1-star, Dorothy Parker review. That is an accurate assessment of my experience.
Five chapters. That's all it took. And as it was a physical book, the opportunity to evaluate its aerodynamic capabilities was not to be denied. The gouge in the drywall will need to be fixed.
It appears that this is the first book written by the author. It showed.
In five chapters, there was no character development. Why was she there? Why did she want to go adventuring/fighting? What personality quirks endeared her to the reader.....or made her interestingly repellant.
Nothing.
Within the story of the book, the heroine was broke and out of work. Within the text, it is demonstrated that she isn't very good at "heroing". At least, she doesn't demonstrate any special capacity for it.
There is a bit of misogyny expressed by other characters that seems to suggest that what she lacks is an opportunity rather than lacking in the ability.
It was about that time that I found the author's statement at the back of the book. Apparently, this book was an attempt to illustrate the "patriarchy". The book accomplishes that task poorly by using a character that is ill-prepared for any opportunity that might come her way.
The primary sins of this book are that it fails to present interesting characters and places an unsubtle polemic objective before the task of telling a good story. I read several other books both immediately before and immediately after that subtly and effectively did a better job of discussing issues surrounding equality than this awful load of offal.
Heroing might have reached the rare achievement of being a book that will go in the dustbin instead of to a used book store or a Little Free Library.
Five chapters. That's all it took. And as it was a physical book, the opportunity to evaluate its aerodynamic capabilities was not to be denied. The gouge in the drywall will need to be fixed.
It appears that this is the first book written by the author. It showed.
In five chapters, there was no character development. Why was she there? Why did she want to go adventuring/fighting? What personality quirks endeared her to the reader.....or made her interestingly repellant.
Nothing.
Within the story of the book, the heroine was broke and out of work. Within the text, it is demonstrated that she isn't very good at "heroing". At least, she doesn't demonstrate any special capacity for it.
There is a bit of misogyny expressed by other characters that seems to suggest that what she lacks is an opportunity rather than lacking in the ability.
It was about that time that I found the author's statement at the back of the book. Apparently, this book was an attempt to illustrate the "patriarchy". The book accomplishes that task poorly by using a character that is ill-prepared for any opportunity that might come her way.
The primary sins of this book are that it fails to present interesting characters and places an unsubtle polemic objective before the task of telling a good story. I read several other books both immediately before and immediately after that subtly and effectively did a better job of discussing issues surrounding equality than this awful load of offal.
Heroing might have reached the rare achievement of being a book that will go in the dustbin instead of to a used book store or a Little Free Library.
July 1, 2019
I honestly really enjoyed Heroing! I went in expecting more then my fair share of 80s cheese, a fun little adventure, and hopefully a passable lead. But Heroing blew past my expectations. Jiana is complex and compelling, I actively wanted to see her succeed and defeat her demons. abHugh balances a world that is interesting without being imposing, and his language in the book is phenomenal. Action feels like action, and is exciting to read. When the book chooses to slow down and enjoy the world and its characters it thrives. This book is certainly not PC, but I don't think it veers so far into that realm that it becomes unenjoyable or invalid. I did have a few problems with the romance in this book: it's interesting but can get pretty damn uncomfortable, especially in some scenes. But what I do like is that Jiana is never weak for no reason. She never slips into the Damsel in Distress trope and she never becomes an absolute Mary Sue. She's strong in some areas, weak in others, and she grows. Heroing is a feminist book, is an exciting book, and is far more complex then it has any right being.
September 15, 2026
This book almost had something to say and almost managed to say something. What does it mean to be a hero? How can a strong woman leave behind a legacy in a patriarchal world? Yet it never quite managed it. Jiana is extremely unlikeable in chapter 1 and is not better by chapter 10. She thinks she’s learned something in the end, but I’m not convinced she did.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews