Swords and Scoundrels (Duelists, #1)

by Professor Julia Knight

[celinenyx]

French revolution meets fantasy novel meets Musketeers meets steampunk. The lack of women made me sad.

I picked up Swords and Scoundrels because of the main characters: a brother and sister, both trained duelists. Siblings? Sword-fighting? Count me in! I was disappointed, however, to find out that the vast majority of the novel is told from the brother's - Vocho - point of view. It took up to fifty pages for Kacha's point of view to appear. It was such a disappointment to me that the first paragraph of her chapter, written in her voice, recounts her feelings for relatable antagonist Egimont.

Can we please, please, pretty please with a fucking cherry on top, stop making female characters that are defined in relation to men? Can we stop making them the object of desire, controlled by their feelings, giving them only page time when we need some romantic subplot? It feels slightly unfair to go on this rant, because Kacha does get better as the book progresses, but truly, I feel let down. I was looking for a fantasy book in which men and women are given equal standing - if not in the world of the book itself, then at least in the narrative. Instead, I got yet another fantasy book where all key characters and the vast majority of the supporting cast is comprised of men. The king, the prelate, the guild master; all three key political players are men. The only slightly relevant woman besides Kacha is a female magician, who predictably, is sexually dominant and seduces any man she comes across. It saddens me that fantasy as a genre is still stuck in this narrow paradigm of what a story should be like.

The characterization itself was rather flat as well, most characters only having one clearly-defined motivation or issue. The world on the other hand, felt fresh and interesting. Swords and Scoundrels largely avoids long info-dumps, and I enjoyed discovering more about the clockwork-meets-fantasy world that Ms Knight has created. There is enough background information to give rise to interesting political and cultural struggles, and these bits in the story I very much enjoyed.

It is a shame, really, that Swords and Scoundrels wasn't what I expected it would be. I do think the book is fun; there is plenty of action, an interesting debate on democracy in the background, the power imbalance of swords versus guns, and the world does need more stories about siblings.

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Trigger warnings: violence.