(no subject)

 Just read The Alchemist's Touch (Underrealm) because of a popular post floating around, and...disappointed. (Some spoliers) Like, first of all, it was not remotely like Harry Potter. HP is set ambiguous now, and is a secret magic world hidden within the real world. This book was written all Old Timey (seriously, it keeps using mayhap like every paragraph), where magic is open, known, respected, etc. and creates a privileged magical overclass, and is about political intrigue. So it's not even the same genre. Kind of feel like maybe the author has never read any fantasy books other than HP, or else thinks anything set at a school which is like half of SFF is identical. Anyway I really wish people wouldn't try to write things all Old Timey as it rarely adds anything and usually is just distracting and irritating - the book would've been decent with that script change.

The part that really bothers me is that even though this is a world that explicitly has power and access differentials based on money (among other things), and has starving and homeless people, the main character keeps talking about bigotry against rich people ('it hurts just the same' style) and the narrative treats it as not only reasonable but important? There's also a lot of multiculturalist racism, but sort of the background radiation sort you get in typical fantasy.

Anyway, the thing it advertised itself on was women and queer characters, and it did not do well at all. First off, there was only one explicitly queer character, a woman, no explicitly queer men. A few times people suggested queerness in relation to the main character and he got offended and was like 'no clearly I'm normal'. Also does the regular bi erasure things of suggesting people can only be attracted to men or women, not both (or, god forbid, some other category entirely), and then the really creepy thing of one dude being sad about a chick rejecting him, but then he finds out she's a lesbian and is okay with it??? Really hate that trope, also hate people in real life who do that. Creepy. But the thing is, there weren't even that many women, and all in archetypal roles.

• central character girl, fellow student, both older and has been studying much longer so not in a position to threaten mc's competence. also explicitly a poor orphan, so nonthreatening sociopolitically as well. by far the most developed female character, but also extremely typical to have one in a school based story.
• mc's aunt. very motherly, doesn't know what's going on. not significant to the story, also doesn't appear that much except to do deus ex machina. does not seem to have any motivations or personality.
• mc's sister. mentioned only. not a character.
• mc's mom. appears briefly as accessory to mc's dad (an important and central figure), barely mentioned.
• a prostitute, mc's love interest. does not seem to have any motivations, personality consists of interest in mc's work and goals.
• The Mean Girl
• also some other Mean Girls in her squad
• an administrative type with unclear job. described as ugly, implied to be stupid and not very useful. mc hates her.
• The Teacher. wise, competent. motivations unclear and unimportant. personality: Teacher.
• a student, who for some reason really likes and looks up to mc. no other personality traits, no motivations. doesn't even know him.

That's it! That's all of them! Only one of them is even characterized, as opposed to the reasonably strong characters of mc, central character boy, the Mysterious Assassin, and the VotW, as well as a fairly well developed depiction of mc's dad, who only appears briefly but then is talked about through the entire rest of the book and probably responsible for the whole plot. I don't think two women even have a genuine interaction anywhere in this story. There's like one place where mc's mom and aunt wink at each other. For a book that promised a lot of strong women, this really did not deliver.