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Heroing #1
Heroing
When Prince Alanai rejects the offer of help from Jiana, and expert swordswoman, she decides to go on her own quest
- GenresFantasy
344 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
80 people want to read
About the author
Dafydd ab Hugh
31 books46 followersDafydd ab Hugh (born David Friedman) is a U.S. science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 27, 2010
Cool woman swordswoman when there were few in fantasy fiction in interesting take on what it means to be a warrior and a hero.
February 23, 2022
Jiana of Bay Bay is supposed to be the protagonist, but she’s absolutely awful. I couldn’t sympathize with her even once. She had no sympathy/empathy for anyone but herself (including her poor horse, who she left in the middle of a rainstorm). Huge turnoff. Sorry.
July 26, 2015
Not a good book, but I admire it, particularly for its time, on having a strong female hero- and not just strong in the masculine/no feelings sort of way, but strong in a coming-to-grips-with-some-heavy-shit kind of way.
August 2, 2019
This is a 1-star, Dorothy Parker review. That is an accurate assessment of my experience.
Five chapters. That's all it took. And as it was a physical book, the opportunity to evaluate its aerodynamic capabilities was not to be denied. The gouge in the drywall will need to be fixed.
It appears that this is the first book written by the author. It showed.
In five chapters, there was no character development. Why was she there? Why did she want to go adventuring/fighting? What personality quirks endeared her to the reader.....or made her interestingly repellant.
Nothing.
Within the story of the book, the heroine was broke and out of work. Within the text, it is demonstrated that she isn't very good at "heroing". At least, she doesn't demonstrate any special capacity for it.
There is a bit of misogyny expressed by other characters that seems to suggest that what she lacks is an opportunity rather than lacking in the ability.
It was about that time that I found the author's statement at the back of the book. Apparently, this book was an attempt to illustrate the "patriarchy". The book accomplishes that task poorly by using a character that is ill-prepared for any opportunity that might come her way.
The primary sins of this book are that it fails to present interesting characters and places an unsubtle polemic objective before the task of telling a good story. I read several other books both immediately before and immediately after that subtly and effectively did a better job of discussing issues surrounding equality than this awful load of offal.
Heroing might have reached the rare achievement of being a book that will go in the dustbin instead of to a used book store or a Little Free Library.
Five chapters. That's all it took. And as it was a physical book, the opportunity to evaluate its aerodynamic capabilities was not to be denied. The gouge in the drywall will need to be fixed.
It appears that this is the first book written by the author. It showed.
In five chapters, there was no character development. Why was she there? Why did she want to go adventuring/fighting? What personality quirks endeared her to the reader.....or made her interestingly repellant.
Nothing.
Within the story of the book, the heroine was broke and out of work. Within the text, it is demonstrated that she isn't very good at "heroing". At least, she doesn't demonstrate any special capacity for it.
There is a bit of misogyny expressed by other characters that seems to suggest that what she lacks is an opportunity rather than lacking in the ability.
It was about that time that I found the author's statement at the back of the book. Apparently, this book was an attempt to illustrate the "patriarchy". The book accomplishes that task poorly by using a character that is ill-prepared for any opportunity that might come her way.
The primary sins of this book are that it fails to present interesting characters and places an unsubtle polemic objective before the task of telling a good story. I read several other books both immediately before and immediately after that subtly and effectively did a better job of discussing issues surrounding equality than this awful load of offal.
Heroing might have reached the rare achievement of being a book that will go in the dustbin instead of to a used book store or a Little Free Library.
July 1, 2019
I honestly really enjoyed Heroing! I went in expecting more then my fair share of 80s cheese, a fun little adventure, and hopefully a passable lead. But Heroing blew past my expectations. Jiana is complex and compelling, I actively wanted to see her succeed and defeat her demons. abHugh balances a world that is interesting without being imposing, and his language in the book is phenomenal. Action feels like action, and is exciting to read. When the book chooses to slow down and enjoy the world and its characters it thrives. This book is certainly not PC, but I don't think it veers so far into that realm that it becomes unenjoyable or invalid. I did have a few problems with the romance in this book: it's interesting but can get pretty damn uncomfortable, especially in some scenes. But what I do like is that Jiana is never weak for no reason. She never slips into the Damsel in Distress trope and she never becomes an absolute Mary Sue. She's strong in some areas, weak in others, and she grows. Heroing is a feminist book, is an exciting book, and is far more complex then it has any right being.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews