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Review: Gael Baudino book DragonSword
Gael Baudino book DragonSword
Gender
During a war, a wizard turns the other sides elite soldiers into young women. Several of them also appear in the two sequals "Duel of Dragons", and "Dragon Death".
From: Joan Gnarlwode , 660 months, post #1
This series' overall TG element is very strong and ongoing throughout; the changes are permanent and the soldiers' stories are told with sensitivity as they learn different ways to cope; some through lesbianism, some by accepting male husbands and lovers. All of this
is handled very well.

Unfortunately the series is marred by such heavy-handed, stereotypical depictions of a misogynistic, chauvinistic society that it seems like the author (herself female) must have a deeply misandrist, fairly prejudiced set of beliefs herself. Her preaching about the Vietnam war is rather out of place, heavy-handed, and extraordinarily one-sidede (I guess no communists murdered or tortured anyone in Vietnam, in her wold, so no effort to stop them could possibly have been in any tiny way the least bit morally justifiable.).

On the whole the whole series is a fun read and well worth seeking out for the TG elements, which are strong, sexy, and sensitively handled. Find it if you can.



From: Caitlin B , 660 months, post #2
This is the best serious exploration of gender-change as power issue I have seen. The new-females must learn how to be complete people in sexist societies, which involves learning new strenghts rather than merely trying to act as their old male selves.

The transformed soldiers are perhaps THE major subplot over the entire trilogy, which as a whole could be characterized as the author's wrestiling with finding value in being a woman while resenting societies expectations of what that means.




From: Gavin , 660 months, post #3
Not a bad book, although I wasn't really blown away.



From: Kismet , 660 months, post #4
Very well handled, both social and mental adjustments.




From: Fish , 660 months, post #5
This book aspired to be so much more than it was. The big "surprise" at the end wasn't much of a surprise and, feeble though it is, I won't spoil it here. It is set in a fantasy world in which men are naturally (?) big dumb brutal oppressors, chauvanists, and bigots in general; a company of the country's finest troops is changed into a group of good-looking women during a battle and must deal with being on the other side of society's tracks, so to speak, and handle their permanent changes to womanhood. This part of the story is well-handled, at least, and is worth a read. The rest of the story seems a little heavy-handed in its anti-mysoginistic message, and the symbolism is spread on so thick you can cut it with a yawn. The TG section, happily, is worth the read, and it's quite sizeable.



From: Durwood , 660 months, post #6
Awful, preachy, overdone gobbledygook utterly ruins a pretty interesting story with lots of over the top emoting, anti-American Vietnam-era pontificating and heaps of ludicrous angst. The subplot about the soldiers had fascinating potential but they're all distant, secondary characters and we're given little about their experience until it all devolves into a preposterous, melodramatic, militant feminist sociology lecture. In real life, Gael Baudino is actually a witch. As an author, she's a baaaaaad witch!

From: Corwin , 290 months, post #7
What could a fascinating story about a strangely familiar alternate world stuck in the middle ages possibly have to do with... KENT STATE???

Nothing!

Yet throughout this tale we're bludgeoned with a nonstop leftist hippie diatribe dredging up Kent State, Vietnam, the Cold War, and flasbacks from who-knows-what drugs. The relentless politics spoil what ultimately could be an intriguing puzzle. Likewise, the startling change of the elite tough guys of First Wartroop into women had such potential. But, instead, it becomes a launching point for still more militant leftist rhetoric. The actual transformation happens "off camera" and the soldiers are just distant supporting characters before and after they're altered.

The whole book leaves you frustrated over the loss of the amazing story it might have been.


From: Anne-Mal , 284 months, post #8
A fantastic series, that is gripping to the end. The TG element is played out though out the series and is a major storyline.

A must have!

From: KF , 213 months, post #9
The author's name is spelled incorrectly - it's Gael Baudino.

The first book wasn't so bad - fairly typical fantasy. The second and third books were only worth reading as a continuation of the First Wartroop plot - the rest was fairly muddled and at times sickening.

From: Bieeanda , 213 months, post #10
If you have any degree of empathy toward women, Dragonsword will embarrass you at best. The protagonist is a dumpy hippie in an age when flower power has long since turned to mulch, and for much of the novel she is mostly a violent foil against the misogynist fantasy world that she's thrust into in the first chapters. It's not paticularly deep on either side of the sexual politics equation, and those reading it merely for the promise of mass, forced transsexualization may be just the teensiest bit squicked when it turns out that dealing with femininity means suicide for a large proportion of the First Wargroup.
I found the rest of the trilogy to be much better-- the righteous radical-feminist indignation is toned down by a significant degree, examined and ultimately rejected for being as destructive and hurtful as the mindset that spawned the hateful land of Gryylth that the first novel spent much of its time wallowing through. Unfortunately, while they show signs of the author's politics developing beyond one-dimensionality, they are still strongly influenced by her real-life experiences: expect to see rape referenced and experienced multiple times. The surviving, changed members of the First Wargroup figure strongly in the rest of the trilogy, receiving almost as much attention as the protagonist.

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