Its also nice to see a book where women and men share roles in all aspects of society, from ruling to fighting to farming, without it being mentioned as unusual at all.

And why not? Readers of fantasy can accept almost any far-flung societal ideas, and yet the most alien society is still expected to have our hereto-centric relationship norms? And for the few who have called it 'unbelievable', its not too far removed from the Roman idea of romantic love, especially among soldiers. Some people have complained that it feels forced, but that's just a testament to how straight-oriented most of our reading experience is - we read countless fantasy books where every relationship is straight, but that never feels 'forced' or a 'conceit.' In Mark's world, families are sprawling, polygamous communities centered around community and child-rearing, whereas romance seems to be reserved for members of one's own sex. The most notable and infamous aspect to Mark's world, however, is the complete fluidity of gender and sexual-orientation, with all the primary characters being queer. A bit hippie 'subvert the dominant paradigm,' but basically well done. But what starts as a 'one-man's freedom fighter' model then begins to lend a bit of emotional depth to the invaders as well however, instead of merely going to the easy end of 'both sides are human,' the book hints more at the evil of conflict and dualistic simplicity - the struggle perpetuates violence and we need to look outside the simple modes of 'good/evil' for a solution.

I also liked the 'clash of civilizations' the plot entails - our heroes are insurgents fighting off a technologically superior invading force that believes it is bringing law and order to an oppressed, backwards society. Most people are peasants, even those forced to fight, and battles result in death, amputations and infected wounds. The closest you get to a castle is a wooden fort on a hill, and the paladins spend the time between battles hand-sewing their torn clothes and oiling their rare and precious blades. This is not a high-fantasy setting at all: there are no knights, no castles, no silk wearing nobility. What I liked about the setting was the realistically poor and dirty medieval feel to the world. I tend to only read weird-fiction fantasy these days, and I was expecting this to be a bit weirder - the third book in the series is printed by Small Beer, Kelly Link's press, and until I picked up Fire Logic I didn't know that the series started out at Tor, a very mainstream fantasy press. I think the main reason I was disappointed was that over the years I've really raised my standards regarding fantasy novels. I liked the setting and admired the bold society she set in place, but at the same time parts of their culture was grating. I both really enjoyed and yet was disappointed by this book at the same time.

Fire logic by laurie j marks