Freedom's Sisters

The Dead Rivers Trilogy #3

by Naomi Kritzer

With a magical gift for bringing sorcery to vivid life, acclaimed author Naomi Kritzer continues the suspenseful tale of Lauria and Tamar, sisters-in-arms bonded by blood—and torn apart by their enemies. . . .

As a freeborn servant of the Greeks, Lauria once hunted escaped slaves. But as her loyalties shifted, she found herself freeing those she once captured—and loving those she once mistrusted—like Tamar, of the bandit Alashi tribe. Tamar is now Lauria’s blood-sister. But the powerful Greek sorceresses, the Sisterhood of Weavers, do not take treason lightly…especially when the traitor has liberated the djinni who serve them.

Soon Lauria is imprisoned. Desperate, Tamar pleads her case to the Alashi, who send her to sow discord among the Sisterhood. As Tamar searches for Lauria both in reality and in the dreamlike realm known as the borderland, Lauria must trust the magic within to fulfill a wish both desired and freedom for all. . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Lesbian, Historical Fiction, Ebooks, LGBT, Epic Fantasy

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[W B · Rating 5 out of 5]

*spoilers*

i feel like we spent the whole series building up a potential relationship between Lhanna and Lauria only to have it go exactly nowhere, which is a bit disappointing because one of the reasons i picked the series up was because someone tagged it as romance > lesbian; i still greatly enjoyed the book however.

[Jen526 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really solid, enjoyable conclusion to a solid, enjoyable series. I really admire a well-crafted trilogy where the author has enough story to fill three books without feeling too overstuffed, and progresses that story in a way that each book feels like an important step. This one was great in that regard, first in how the thematic elements of slavery and freedom grew in each book (in terms of the human slavery and the enslavement of the "djinn") and also in the way Lauria and Tamar's friendship developed, from the first movements from reluctant allies to friends in book one, to friends who struggled with opposing opinions on how to achieve a goal in two, and then being established enough that we get both Lauria and Tamar's viewpoint as equals in book three, since they're mostly united in their goals and just coming at them from different angles. I liked this one, also, for how it built up some of the secondary characters from previous books into bonafide allies and friends of the two.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/0...

This was a perfectly fine conclusion to this series, mostly satisfying, I wished for more from the ending/epilogue for sure though. I did like that Tamar (the protagonist’s blood sister) gets to be a POV character in this one. Lots of interesting and unexpected moments, even if things felt a bit pat toward the end. B+.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series felt like it got overly complicated with this installment. The magical realm of the borderlands and the djinni and the spell-chains were all complex enough, but this one got way more intricate and harder to follow. Interesting to see how it all came together but not as engaging as earlier installments.

[Ry Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid end to a solid fantasy trilogy. This one didn't always go in the direction I expected, and was in some ways a break from the first two books both stylistically and in the shape of the plotting, but it worked. And that's really the only test that matters.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only sad that I couldn't see the romance developing between Zivar and Laurie.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freedom's Sisters concludes Naomi Kritzer’s trilogy that radically centers women in a genre that seems stubbornly and irrationally determined to perpetuate a tradition of female erasure. *SPOILERS* While I add The Dead Rivers Trilogy to the long list of sunken lesbian ships, I maintain that Naomi Kritzer should be used as a teaching tool to educate male-centric fantasy writers on how to write women. (Patrick Rothfuss, I’m not only looking at you, I am glaring.) *END OF SPOILERS* In Kritzer’s world, women are warriors, slaves, sorceresses, leaders, politicians, rebels, outlaws, whores, lovers, and enemies – not because or OR in spite of their gender, but because they are complex and fully realized human beings with emotions, agency, and purpose. They participate in their environments because, well, why shouldn’t they? Men populate this universe as well, acting as friends, allies, villains, and acquaintances, but the story is not about them, because it doesn’t need to be. Kritzer’s makes the centring of female narratives seem so easy, it puts every author to shame to continues to fail their female characters so utterly. The Dead Rivers Trilogy is no literary masterpiece, but if you need a palate cleanser from the patriarchy at large, you need look no further.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naomi Kritzer’s third venture into an alternate-history world where Penelope (that’s right, the wife of Odysseus) discovered how to make spirits from another plane do her bidding is apparently her last. In ‘Freedom’s Sisters’ (Bantam Spectra, $6.99, 416 pages), her female protagonists battle unbalanced female sorcerors, cruel men and deceptive djinnis as they struggle with the issues of slavery in a pre-industrial world.

I wouldn’t say this series (which began with ‘Freedom’s Gate’) is going to change your world, but it’s got enough substance to keep the coincidence-heavy plot from floating away into Mercedes Lackey-land.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sci-fi trilogy, alternate world fantasy, strong female lead characters.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice ending to Tamar and Lauria's story. I might have to go back and read the first book in the trilogy (even though I've read #2 and 3), just because I enjoyed the world so much. :)