Before turning to writing, she took up martial arts and earned a Stanford MBA. Both were presenting new releases from Tor, one of the biggest names in sci-fi and fantasy publishing.īorn in Calgary, Alberta, Lee now lives in Portland. One is an Oregonian of the past, the other an Oregonian of the present. On April 11, Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing hosted a launch event for two modern-day masters of speculative fiction: Kate Elliott and Fonda Lee. I didn’t dislike the book and felt like I got something out of reading it, but it definitely wasn’t a favorite.Kate Elliott and Fonda Lee (Photos Courtesy of Kate Elliott, Fonda Lee, and Tor Books) By Eric Ash Apat 5:31 pm PDT

It feels like Elliot was half-heartedly trying to be progressive in many areas, but still ended up robbing the protagonist of her agency in 90% of circumstances. At the end of the day, this book just fell flat for me with the portrayal of gender. I went in with high hopes for Kate Elliot, as it would have been great to have another wonderful woman author to add to my shelf. In the end, her decision in the matter was taken from her, which was another strike against her independence. I’ll be honest in that I’m sometimes a sucker for romance… but the “will she-won’t she?” thing gets kind of old, and it was a major theme throughout the whole book. It also ended up being a bit more of a romance than I anticipated. She is often extremely passive in decision-making and is strongly influenced by the men around her, who often coddle her or make decisions for her (tricking her into hiding her away from a battle, et cetera). Despite these, I couldn’t help but feel that all of her genuine successes in the book were due to her deciding to accept her place as a woman, since she would be happiest there. She has a few other moments as well, involving flouting the normal marriage/relationship dynamic in the tribe. However, she is only able to succeed in this because the men make allowances for her and help her at every step of the way. She does, admittedly, defy some gender roles by insisting on riding with the tribe hunters. The book’s primary theme revolved around the protagonist, Tess, accepting her feminine side and being accepted by the indigenous tribe of Jaran warriors as a woman. I wanted to like this novel more than I did, but the underlying message of “just embrace your gender identity and gender roles!” wasn’t working well for me. If you’re interested in exploring her work as an author, this is not the best entry point. This is one of Kate Elliot’s earliest novels, and it shows. The first book of Kate Elliott’s epic Novels of the Jaran, set in an alien-controlled galaxy where a young woman seeks to find her own life and love, but is tied to her brother’s revolutionary fate.

Jaran kate elliott