Books: Gender Blender and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

[thefourthvine]

Book I Have Issues With: Gender Blender, by Blake Nelson

Let's just present this as a conversation between me and the book.

Gender Blender: I am YA bodyswap!
Me: Sold.
Gender Blender: So. Let's start off with a spurious Native American legend! Ha ha, those wacky Indians and their crazy gender-swapping gods!
Me: Um.
Gender Blender: And then I think we should explore gender by reinforcing stereotypes! Emma is a sweet little gymnast A-student perfectionist, always eager to please, but also part of an evil bitch cabal! Also, she likes to talk about feelings. Tom is a slacker slobbo thrill-seeking baseball player dude! He likes to spit and punch things.
Me: Oh. Um. Look, since we're talking and all, can I ask you a question?
Gender Blender: Sure!
Me: If you're going to have a scene where Tom-in-Emma's-body looks in a mirror to have his First Real Experience of Boobs, and he's all excited about that, then why does Emma's only exploration of Tom's body consist of thinking Tom's dick is a chipmunk when she wakes up with an erection?
Gender Blender: Because, see, boys like boobs.
Me: But girls don't like cocks?
Gender Blender: Well, not good girls. Also, we prefer to use the term "boy part."
Me: This is my review, and I will call it a tiddlewinkle before I call it a boy part.
Gender Blender: Fine. Clearly you aren't a good girl.
Me: Nope. Also, why is there a whole chapter of Tom checking out the girls in the locker room (where most of them turn out to be ugly and fat!) and the shower, and getting to see the boobs of his crush and so on, but Emma never gets a chance to check out guys in the shower or the bathroom or anywhere?
Gender Blender: It might make boys uncomfortable. Plus, you know, she's a good girl, so obviously she wouldn't want to.
Me: I see.
Gender Blender: But I have many other things to offer! Did I mention that there is embarrassment squick aplenty?
Me: Oh, joy. Remind me why I finished you?
Gender Blender: My chapters are short. And you were desperate.
Me: Right.
Gender Blender: I did avoid the smoochy ending you were fearing. Don't I get credit for that?
Me: Sure, yes, absolutely. In the "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln" sense, anyway.
Gender Blender: You know, if you're going to be like this about it, I think maybe you should stick to bodyswap and genderswap in fan fiction.
Me: I will, thanks.

But you'll all be relieved to know that Tom and Emma got good grades on their gender report and learned not to argue so much. There. Now you don't have to read this. (If anyone feels like writing me bodyswap, especially Spock/Kirk or Sam-Teal'c, as a "thank you for saving me from this terrible book" gift, I will not say no. For the record.)

Book I Love: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin

You know, when I used to play AD&D (when I used to have time to play AD&D), I was always welcome in any group I cared to join. Because I was willing to play the cleric. No arguments! No roll-percentiles-loser-has-to-be-the-cleric! No letting one person have two player characters if he'd make one of them the healer! I actually wanted to be on the god squad, giving hit points and taking them away (usually not to the same person). I liked using a mace. I preferred clerical spells to magic-user spells. But most of all, I loved gods. (I could, no lie, spend a whole hour just selecting my character's god. This is an important choice, people!)

So, you know, you give me a really well-thought-out pantheon, I am pretty much your girl. I will cling to you through two thousand pages of dense prose and let you kill off nearly all the awesome characters. I will even forgive you shoddy worldbuilding and cookie-cutter fantasy and women whose entire purpose is to have sex and make babies and then die so the hero can experience manpain. (To a point. Don't test me on this one.)

Which makes me all the more grateful that in this book, I didn't have to forgive anything. There's, yes, a massively awesome pantheon. (Some of the gods are slaves, and some are dead, and one is crazy, which is just so incredibly wonderful I can't even tell you. Um, not for the gods, though. Just the reader.) But it doesn't stop there, because this book is incredible: well-written, set in a world the author clearly actually put thought into, and not a Tolkien knock-off in sight. (I think this book might actually have killed Tolkien, in all honesty, if it somehow managed to travel through time to land in his extremely cultured hands. For one thing, the squat dark-skinned girl isn't actually evil, and the tall skinny white people sort of go beyond evil. We all know how hard he would have taken that.) Plus, it provides a functional education in all the things that can go terribly, terribly wrong with ruling by divine right. (Particularly if the divine right is, shall we say, explicit.) You have to admit that's a handy bonus.

I am supposed to pace myself with new books - otherwise I end up reading things like Gender Blender, which never ends well for anyone - but I couldn't with this one. I didn't so much read it as fall on it like a starving wolf. In the end, my only complaints with this book were 1) it ended and 2) there was not nearly enough of it.

If all fantasy was like this, you would not be able to pry me out of the genre with the jaws of life.

Comments

[torachan]

Wow, Gender Blender sounds SO BAD. DDDDDDDD:

[thefourthvine]

And yet I still don't feel I managed to capture all the badness. Did I mention that there's a prolonged sequence when they're both at a party where they are playing kissing games? Yeah. I think I won't go into
that in any kind of detail.

[princessofgeeks]

wow, you are like the tenth person to rave about jemison's book on my f list. i'm convinced.

[thefourthvine]

It is really astonishingly good. (The astonishment comes in because I don't usually like fantasy, or if I do, it's the kind of like where I have major reservations, or have to shut down significant sectors of my brain. So I am always astonished and overjoyed when I read fantasy that's really and truly WONDERFUL.)

i'm convinced.

Then my work here is done.

[killing_rose]

...Oh dear. Gender Blender sounds like someone needs to inform the author that that is not actually how you write this topic. Please and thank you.

Plus side, you had a good book? (Must investigate this for plane ride of doom.)

[thefourthvine]

...Oh dear. Gender Blender sounds like someone needs to inform the author that that is not actually how you write this topic. Please and thank you.

I think if you can write a book like this without, you know, REALIZING WHAT YOU'RE WRITING, you're kind of past help.

Must investigate this for plane ride of doom.

You totally should. It's longish, which is always a bonus on lengthy plane rides. And it comes on Kindle, in case you've got one. (Ebook readers would seem to be especially suited to travel.)

Of course, probably by the time you board the plane, you'll be required to sit with your hands folded in your lap for the entire flight.

[dorinda]

This is my review, and I will call it a tiddlewinkle before I call it a boy part.

STAND STRONG, SISTER. *fist of solidarity*

Also, the Jemison sounds like just the thing! Many thanks for the tip, from my own starving-wolf-brain.

[thefourthvine]

STAND STRONG, SISTER. *fist of solidarity*

I will fight them in the fan fiction! I will fight them in the book reviews! And I will NEVER SURRENDER.

...I would probably even use "man meat" before "boy part," although frankly that is the kind of choice that kills.

Also, the Jemison sounds like just the thing! Many thanks for the tip, from my own starving-wolf-brain.

It is amazingly good. And there's no talk of boy parts, which has become one of my new requirements for fiction.

[eisen]

This was my face for the first review: >:(

This was my face for the second: >:D

I AGREE SO HARD WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS POST.

[thefourthvine]

Yay! Have you read both books? If so, you have my sympathies on the first one (sorry I couldn't get there sooner and warn you off) and congratulations on the second.

[language_escapes]

See, I always loved playing the cleric. And, like you, choosing the divinity always took me hours. It was important! It could make or break the entire character! The entire game! The entire WORLD! My group never really got my obsession.

All right, you have to be the eightieth person I've seen recommend The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I'm too busy writing my senior thesis right now, but when I graduate in June, I'm all over it.

[thefourthvine]

My group never really got my obsession.

I don't understand what's wrong with people. They're seduced by magic missile and shiny swords and pick pockets skills, and they do not even SEE how awesome clerics are. Which is fine. More for me.

[dragonfly]

I can't write you a bodyswapping fic, but I can rec my favorite. It's not a well-known fandom, alas, but it's my fannish duty to toss what good stuff I know about around to the universe at large. This one is excellent and funny. It's a vampire fandom.

Bodyswapping Only Looks Fun on TV
by Emma Demarais
fandom: Blood Ties

You can put me down as another recruit to read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

[thefourthvine]

Thank you! Do I need to know anything about Blood Ties to read it? Because what I know is: vampires. But I can always read a Wikipedia page or something.

[were_duck]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: so good! Lives up to the hype!

Gender Blender: not touching that one in a million years. Thanks for the very entertaining warning.

[thefourthvine]

Thanks for the very entertaining warning.

You are entirely welcome. I consider it a service to the many fans out there who, like me, have a Pavlovian response to bodyswap stories. (YES PLEASE would be that response.) I'm saving eyes!

[msilverstar]

*orders The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms*

[thefourthvine]

YAY.

[aderam]

I am sorry your eyes had to experience that first book. It sounds horrible.

I think I might have to read the second book though. I'll put it on my massive list of to read (but I'll put it near the top).

In the books-with-cool-gods category I'd like to recommend Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout. Which is not an original pantheon (it is in fact the Norse Gods - surprise!), but he just does it so well! And brings them into the modern world without sacrificing all their cool Norse-ness and values and things. I asked for it at Yuletide, but no one wrote for it. Le sigh.

When I played D&D (we went through a few different editions based on which rulebooks we could get a hold of) I was always whatever class my brother and his friends weren't playing that we needed to round out the group. For some reason I was usually a rogue or a druid. And I sucked at playing both of them. Because no matter how much I loved the idea of making a character, in practice I would run into the middle of any melee and try to hit the enemy with my sword. This was not usually very good for my health, especially when I was a gnome or halfling. I've since learned that Dwarven fighters are the way to go. :)

[thefourthvine]

The first book was one of those reading experiences where you keep thinking, "Well, realistically, we must have hit rock bottom now. There's no way to go but up!" And then the next chapter a new pit opens underneath your feet.

The second book, though: awesome. And then it gets more awesome! It's like the first book, except it keeps getting BETTER.

And, ooo, thank you for the rec. I have added the sample chapters to my Kindle! I need ALL THE RECS IN THE WORLD to save me from further potential Gender Blender experiences.

[xenacryst]

For the record, I have never confused my tiddlewinkle with a chipmunk. Not when it did that for the first time, nor even when it did that for the first time. I think it would have had to be particularly rambunctious and agile for me to mistake for a small member of the rodentia order.

However, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for Jemisin's book. Sounds quite good, that one.

[dhara]

I think it would have had to be particularly rambunctious and agile for me to mistake for a small member of the rodentia order.

*dying of laughter*

oh my God most special mental images ever.

[livrelibre]

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was awesome!

[thefourthvine]

It totally was.

[blueswan]

Blearg on the first book.

I've got The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in my shopping cart,while I've been trying to decide what else I want. *orders*

[thefourthvine]

Yeah, "blearg" would have been a much more succinct and just as accurate review.

And yay for ordering The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms!

[cofax7]

someone needs to send nojojojo a link to this review, stat. She'll be so pleased. *g*

[nojojojo]

::polite cough:: My Google-fu is strong. =)

::dances with joy::

[jadelennox]

Have you read Cycler and (Re)Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin? YA genderfuck. The firstbook has a fair amount of gender essentialism fail, but the second book fixes it rather swimmingly.

[thefourthvine]

No, but I will! I tell you what, I am up for some YA genderfuck that doesn't make me want to punch someone.

[vass]

I just got The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in the mail. I feel good about my choice.

[thefourthvine]

You totally should. *approves*

[abyssinia]

(If anyone feels like writing me bodyswap, especially Spock/Kirk or Sam-Teal'c, as a "thank you for saving me from this terrible book" gift, I will not say no. For the record.)

Well, now you've made me intrigued at the idea of Sam-Teal'c bodyswap. *glares*

(and apparently I really need to track down Hundred Thousand Kingdoms given how many people have recced it the past few weeks...)

[monanotlisa]

Me three! Will return to sift through comments to check if there is one.

For the benefit of other readers

[rydra_wong]

Has anyone mentioned yet that N. K. Jemisin's website has the first three chapters available as a sample?

Also, she blogs "unofficially" (but openly) as nojojojo.

Go, sample her awesomeness!

Re: For the benefit of other readers

[daegaer]

Oooooh. But then I'd have read the first three chapters and not be able to read the rest for some time! Oh no, it's instant gratification vs delayed gratification!

*feverishly orders book*

[daegaer]

Gender Blender and its chipmunks do not sound like fun. Does she at least get to have the convenience of peeing more easily on country walks?

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms sounds far more my cup of tea, yay!

[thefourthvine]

No, but she does almost pee on the heads of some eighth graders! Truly the highlight of the book.

And, yes, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is definitely where I would recommend you go with your reading time. Because it is awesome, and Gender Blender will cause you a sharp, stabbing, chronic head pain that can only be relieved by plotting extensive YA bodyswaps and genderswaps that DON'T SUCK.

[marina]

*Adds The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms to wishlist*

[thefourthvine]

Yay! *beams*

[feanna]

I have read one gederswapYA-novel, but that was a long time ago. The girl got turned into a male version of herself, so at least there was no "boy stares at boobs" moment, though there was a ditzy girl in there who was suddenly crushing on "new-him". I have no clear memories of the book, but I do remember that I wasn't impressed, so it probably wasn't very good.

I loved "the hundered thousand kingdoms" too!
(Minor spoilers)
I'm still stewing over what I think about the portrayal of Matriarchy that was basically Patriarchy turned on its head. On the one hand it avoids idialization and does serve nicely to point out how ridiculous and random some rules are. In the other side would it be really like that? Just switch around male and female? But we really only got a glance at that and Yeine never gave the impression of thinking less of the men she met because they were male. As I said, it's not that I didn't like what the author did, I think it's valuable that it's NOT perfect, but I'm thinking about it.
(Also, some small gendefuck in this book too!)

[thefourthvine]

I had no idea there was such a tradition of genderswap and bodyswap in YA fiction. Clearly I missed out with all my YA stories containing magic.

I'm still stewing over what I think about the portrayal of Matriarchy that was basically Patriarchy turned on its head.

It worked fairly well for me. I mean, I have no idea what a matriarchy would be like, but the definition pretty much *is* patriarchy inverted - a society run by women - so I guess I've always sort of assumed men would be in subordinate roles. To the extent that I've imagined it at all. (I don't even know if there's a name for a society in which women and men have equal importance or weight. Hmmm.)

I do see what you're saying, though. I hope we see other cultures in future books; if there are a hundred thousand kingdoms, there have got to be some fascinating governments and societies in there. Including somewhere that has a society of total equality. (Which would be its own kind of hell, I have to think.)

Yay, twice!

[sherrold]

I just read/finished/loved The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, you've given me the joy of having my opinions confirmed, and now you've rec'd it so I don't have to!

Re: Yay, twice!

[thefourthvine]

Yay three times! I am happy so many other people have read and liked it. It's AWESOME.

[phlox]

I tried to read Gender Blender after it got a positive review in Unshelved. GAH. Thank you for articulating so clearly why it really, really didn't work. One of the few moments I remember when the story didn't just reinforce existing gender norms was when Emma (in Tom's body) got Tom on the baseball team as a pitcher. Tom (if I remember correctly--trying to forget!) is both naturally strong and he's been practicing--but the reason his body makes the team is because Emma has the ability to focus and the determination to things, like a responsible girl.

No, I didn't read the whole thing. I had other things to do--like sleeping.

[thefourthvine]

I got the rec from Unshelved, too! This is the first time I've tried a book on their say-so (usually, with the books they do, either I've already read it or it's not my thing). In the future, I will be MUCH warier, because oh my GOD.

I support your decision to go with sleeping. And fear not! THEY CHANGED BACK AND LEARNED THEIR LESSON AND GOT GOOD GRADES.

Is it wrong of me to want to request Yuletide fic where they have to stay like that? Where they actually have to confront the issues, because their we'll-just-get-married plan would so not work? Where they have to decide between being apart from their families or telling their families? Where they have to deal with being gay, at least in the eyes of the world, because the book made it very clear that sexual preference is all brain, no body, and they were both very very straight? I want the scene where Emma goes through her carefully-kept scrapbooks and souvenirs, explaining each one to Tom so he can pass as her, crying as she realizes she's giving all these memories to him, because they don't really belong to her anymore. I want the scene where Tom yells at Emma for the millionth time for screwing with his rep, for switching to being a geekboy, for dumping all his old friends and hanging out with the weirdos, and she says, "It's MY life now. Why do you CARE?" and Tom realizes she's right, he's got no right to have a say anymore.

And then I want them to have the option to switch back 10 years down the road, when they've lived almost as long in the wrong bodies as they did in the right ones, and they have to choose between their bodies and the people they've become.

Probably it would be wrong to request it. But I WANT it.

[beachlass]

Oh My God - yes to everything you said about a Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I could not put it down. And my friends wanted to read it (we were on vacation) and I hid my copy in my bag so that they will have to go out and buy their own damn copy because everyone should have one.

Or possible two.

[archersangel]

for some reason this came to me. there was a TV movie in the '80s were a girl was tired of being treated badly because she was a girl (or something) wished on a falling star & woke up as a boy. i don't remember much about it other than she was named milly & as a boy became willy. and her best friend (girl) was putting moves on the "new him" either because she had a crush or just wanted to kiss a boy & none wanted to kiss her. at the end she wishes on another falling star (meteor shower that month) and goes back to a girl with lessons learned^TM