Manda’s Reviews > A Song for Arbonne > Status Update

Ya know, despite it being a hot button topic in modern writing and how more POC SFF authors are gaining exposure, it will always boggle my mind how prevalent the "othered, suspicious-looking, scimitar-wielding dark skinned people" trope is in fantasy.

I already said that this book can be heavy with exposition so it's easy for me to zone out when new characters are introduced with limited dialogue but as soon as the characters begin talking - and especially about the sociology between Gorhaut and Arbonne - I am sufficiently glued.

Having read part one, I can say thay there isn't much character-to-character dialogue as compared to exposition and internal dialogue, but I enjoy learning about the culture and sociology of this world.

"What was even more ominous was that the obvious leader [...] was rangy, dark-skinned, moustachioed Arimondan." lol that's a little bit racist, Blaise.

At least the sexism in this story is so brazen that it's basically satire. At least, that's what it appears to be doing (I mean, what with one kingdom being woman-driven and the other being misogynistic).

If this throne room is being described like a pigsty, I don't want to know how the rest of the kingdom looks like.

First part of chapter 2: that was a lot of exposition.