This sounds fascinating, especially the alternative Roman element. The absence of Christianity and Islam sounds like a witty commentary on the old truism that Rome's most lasting legacy is the three Religions of the Book (of course Judaism as we know it wouldn't exist without the Romans, either). I must read it!
The final thing that I adore about this book is the way that it is unabashedly and obviously anti-monarchical and pro-science--shades of Philip Pullman indeed, but this is a rare enough political stance in fantasy that I treasure every instance of it. I've had discussions with several SFF writers about this, one of whom opined that monarchy is the predominant form of government throughout history and therefore monarchism in fantasy isn't a priori objectionable. I disagree
I love your train of thought here. One of my great complaints is that the form of monarchy I most often see in fantasy is (badly) modeled on an idea of medieval kingship that a) couldn't exist without Christianity and b) brings in and at the same time hides from view a lot of Christian norms. Your interlocutor's point about the prevalence of monarchy in history seems beside the point if it's only a very small slice of human experience in Western Europe being presented.
But your point brings out the bigger picture of the conservatism behind the monarchy presumption. Although I do think there are fantasies that depict monarchy that are explicitly anti-monarchial, like Westmark above, and those don't (to me) pose quite the same problem.
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regna
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Date: 2012-07-31 21:28 (UTC)The final thing that I adore about this book is the way that it is unabashedly and obviously anti-monarchical and pro-science--shades of Philip Pullman indeed, but this is a rare enough political stance in fantasy that I treasure every instance of it. I've had discussions with several SFF writers about this, one of whom opined that monarchy is the predominant form of government throughout history and therefore monarchism in fantasy isn't a priori objectionable. I disagree
I love your train of thought here. One of my great complaints is that the form of monarchy I most often see in fantasy is (badly) modeled on an idea of medieval kingship that a) couldn't exist without Christianity and b) brings in and at the same time hides from view a lot of Christian norms. Your interlocutor's point about the prevalence of monarchy in history seems beside the point if it's only a very small slice of human experience in Western Europe being presented.
But your point brings out the bigger picture of the conservatism behind the monarchy presumption. Although I do think there are fantasies that depict monarchy that are explicitly anti-monarchial, like Westmark above, and those don't (to me) pose quite the same problem.