The Tiger’s Daughter (Ascendant, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Jan 30, 2018 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Interesting book from several angles. Firstly, nearly the whole thing is written in the second person, as a book-length letter from one main character to the other relating their shared history from one of the character's perspective. (More on that below). Secondly, because the book has issues with cultural appropriation. It's an Asian-inspired setting with a romance between two women. The author is a lesbian, but clearly not Asian, and has inspired criticism from reviewers more familiar with th Interesting book from several angles. Firstly, nearly the whole thing is written in the second person, as a book-length letter from one main character to the other relating their shared history from one of the character's perspective. (More on that below). Secondly, because the book has issues with cultural appropriation. It's an Asian-inspired setting with a romance between two women. The author is a lesbian, but clearly not Asian, and has inspired criticism from reviewers more familiar with the cultures she's "borrowing" from. I'm far from qualified to discuss the appropriation issues, so I won't do so here, but I do encourage people to read the reviews where this is discussed as there are some interesting perspectives there. It's also far from black and white, because purely from a representational point-of-view, a lesbian relationship in a not specifically romance book that doesn't fall into the Bury Your Gays trope is still a significant enough thing as to be notable. Particularly so when it's a really good book in a genre that doesn't tend to do well by gay characters. (Hello The Traitor Baru Cormorant!)

Our main characters are Shizuka, the niece of the Emperor of Hokkara (a country that reads like a combination of China and Japan) and Shefali, the daughter of a warlord of the Qorin people from the Steppes (pretty much Mongolia). Both are at least partly divine and from a very early age, adoring friends. But hard times have come to Hokkara, with crops failing and demons running rampant in the countryside. The Qorin too have issues, mainly due to losses from a war a generation ago. There are forces that constantly try to tear Shefali and Shizuka apart, along with their homelands.

I really enjoyed this. The relationship between the two characters is wonderful from when they're very young. Shefali ends up paying the costs for some of Shizuka's actions, but at no point does she indicate an unwillingness to do so with her devotion to Shizuka never in question. What we get are these two larger than life semi-divine characters blossoming into powerful young women with a deep relationship. It's kind of wonderful for that at least.

The framing conceit is a bit much though. This has to be the longest letter in history; longer than is believable. While there's a lot of Shefali's internal narration, personal secrets and opinions revealed to Shizuka, most of the story Shizuka should be intimately familiar with rendering the detail in the letter unnecessary. There's also an issue with the level of recollection that Shefali is displaying here for the events of literally years ago. (I don't recall even yesterday's events with this level of detail, let alone what happened when I was 8 years old).

Finally, I will comment a little on the mashing up of real world cultures here. China and Japan have very different cultures: mixing them is a bit on the nose, even to a person not directly familiar with either of the sources. ...more

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Jul 25, 2018 Lata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bipoc-actor, sf-f-h, auth-f, x2018-read, bipoc-author

3.5 stars.Though I enjoyed the story, in general, there were points I was not crazy about.
Dislikes:
-I had a vague discomfort throughout the book at the way the author used aspects of ancient Japan, China and Mongolia. I cannot properly articulate my discomfort; I just know little things kept snagging my attention, and kept me wondering how deeply the author had researched these cultures.
-The frequent mentions of Shizuka’s tiny hands and feet. I get it! Shizuka’s a lot shorter than Shefali! I did ...more

7 likes · Like · see review