Deirdre’s Reviews > Servant of the Empire > Status Update

Right now I'm kinda stalled on this one. I will be getting around to finish my re-read of it and the third book eventually, but for now I'm tabling it.

Okay, I'm more of the way into the re-read and yeah, this book is definitely pushing the "white savior" narrative pretty hard, and it's enough to make me lower my opinion of the book. There are still parts I like and enjoy reading (I appreciate the good parts of the book), but the whole white savior is a huge flaw in a book I once really liked as a teenager but didn't notice at the time.

I like how Mara is actually being self-reflective about how she treats people below her station. That said, it irks me that this self-reflection comes about because some "Enlightened" White Dude from generic Euro-fantasy world says "hey Mara, has anyone ever told you your caste-based society is kind unfair, mmkay?" This white savior trope is too common in fantasy, but I think kinda belabored that already.

"swept away by the passion of a redheaded barbarian , Mara discovered what it was to be a woman." Easily one of the cheesiest and most hackneyed lines I've come across lately. And the thing is, these authors can write fairly good prose, but..this isn't it.

(continued) Which isn't to say tricky or difficult circumstances shouldn't be broached in fiction. It's that they have to be handled with great care. The power imbalance and the Western cultural chauvinism displayed here is not handled in a way I consider successful or taking into account all the issues in a thoughtful, considered way, if that makes any sense.

What a difference over 20 years makes, lol. I didn't find the Kevin/Mara relationship squicky as a teen, but now it's just more than a bit disturbing that it's being portrayed as a grand love story when the relationship is between a slave and his owner. And that Mara has ordered Kevin beaten and at one point he physically attacks her. Not what I would call a healthy relationship.

While I can't say definitively that this book trots out the tired "white savior" narrative, it definitely veers uncomfortably in that direction. How the forthright earthy folk of pseudo-medieval Europeland are contrasted with the "decadant" civilization that is a melange of non-European cultures tossed together. This sadly crops up in lot of fantasy novels.

Argh..how many times do they have to mention that Mara is attractive but not aware how attractive she is? That trope is so old it has gray hair and a hearing aid. Even when the book was published all the way back in the Year of Our Lord 1990, it was ancient.
Still the book keeps me turning the pages, so it definitely has that going for it, even with all my complaints.

One of the things I do appreciate about these books is the detail Feist and Wurts have put into the religious/cultural rituals and ceremonies of Tsurani culture. But overall, the second book is starting to show some pretty serious flaws that I did not really notice when I first read these books as a teenager.

Okay so Kevin boasts that there is no slavery in Midkemia but in the next breath he says that they have "freemen" and "serfs" instead. I know serfdom and slavery are not identical but, serfdom is actually pretty close to slavery in terms of the control and coercion, not to mention the abuse it exerts over the workers' lives.