Monday, April 24, 2023

Spear, by Nicola Griffith

This is a very good after-dinner read, a solid re-telling of one of the Arthurian stories, the tale of Percival (the afterword is very worth reading where Griffith goes into the naming). A historical name for Percival is Peretur, which our protagonist goes by. In this telling Peretur has a secret (though not a plot twist, so I'm not giving anything away)--Peretur started out as a girl, Dawnged or Tal depending on her mother's mood. Peretur's pronouns remain female throughout, she is simply built and destined to be a knight in a circumstance where women aren't knights.

Queer retellings still fill a void, though they are not as new and fresh as they were a decade ago. Now you have to seriously bring the narrative skills in order to expand the space. Nicola Griffith is a master and does this effectively.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Water Outlaws, by S. L. Huang

According to the introduction this book is intended to evoke "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (thought that title is not explicitl...