From the Archives: Equal of the Sun and Daughter of Xanadu

It's been a busy few weeks keeping up with my Fright Club writing assignments, so I thought I'd pull a couple of my old reviews out from the archives and post them here. Both were posted to Goodreads in August 2016, but were written before that. The books are Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang and Equal to the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani. I am pairing these two together because they are historical fiction and feature characters exploring different gender roles. One is a young woman from a rigid society who performs duties that are traditionally male, and the other stars a eunuch.

Equal to the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani Review:

 

I wanted to read this book because it was about an interesting woman in a time period and country I know little about (Iran around 1576). What I found was an emotional and strange story of political intrigue and the love that can develop between a eunuch and the princess he serves.

Javaher is a brave man who is willing to risk and sacrifice everything to achieve his goals. At the age of 17, he volunteers to become a eunuch so he can serve in the harem, which will allow him to investigate his father's murder and restore his family's honour. He comes into the employ of Pari Khan Khanoom Safavi, the favourite daughter of the shah. Together they ride the roller coaster of politics in the court and come to respect and care for each other as true companions.

The author's descriptive writing brings the characters and the palace to life in exquisite detail. I do wish she had skipped the detailed sex scenes and details about eunuch anatomy. Brace yourselves, men, the cutting ceremony leaves little to the imagination. Even so, I don't think I've ever read a book that starred a eunuch as the main character and it was a unique experience to live with Javaher as he wrestled to be content with his choice. There are times when what he is missing haunts him, but he is able to find happiness and even pride in his new gender and status.

This book, while I'm sure it's rife with inaccuracies, has opened me up to a new era in history and people to read and learn about. I'm excited to research the princess behind the story.

 

 

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang Review:

 

Emmajin Beki is the granddaughter of the great Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire and longs to join the army and win glory in a time when women are forbidden from doing so. On the cusp of womanhood, she is granted her wish, but is distracted from her duties by a mysterious foreigner, Marco Polo who stirs up feelings in her that she has never experienced before. Battling the norms of society and her new desires, she faces down dragons, lions, elephants, armies, and her own people to find what she truly wants.

The only problem is what she truly wants changes constantly, as do her beliefs and principles. Emmajin starts off with traditional beliefs about her empire, the roles of men and women, and what foreigners are like. However, she quickly tosses all these ideas aside and learns that her people might not always have the right answers. That might be fine, but it comes about very fast. For instance, watching Marco at the market once changes her entire worldview that merchants are silly and ignoble. She also overcomes her racism against Marco in about 2-3 conversations. There is a lot of character growth and the major change in her views is earned and comes at great cost, but a lot of it is very simple and much more modern-thinking than perhaps I can quite swallow.

The other issue with the book is that stuff comes to Emmajin very easily. She is in a society where women are objects not to be bowed to or listened to. They must never fight in the army, are to be married off at a young age, and not allowed to be alone with me or risk their reputation. Yet, early on, she is granted an assignment walking through private gardens alone with a strange man from another country with different customs. She sneaks off alone with him at many points in the story, and yet faces no judgment/comments on her reputation. She is allowed into the army with very little sexism or resistance and the men very easily accept her. It's all very nice and sweet and innocent. I think the author wanted to aim at a younger audience and keep things simple, but it's just too easy.

Now there are some consequences, and people do suffer for her rashness and stubbornness, but I still would have liked to see more struggle. I would have liked to see her work hard to win over the men, or to get into the army at all. Too much time is taken up with her strange attraction to Marco which just seems to be based on him being "Exotic" and not mean to her.

But, if what you're looking for is a nice, sweet story about a young woman's bravery and determination as she learns about love and what matters in life, then you'll probably enjoy this story.

 

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