Erin (PT)'s Reviews > The Ladies of Mandrigyn

It's been a long time since I've reread The Ladies of Mandrigyn and I've changed a lot in the meantime, making it interesting to revisit the story with new eyes. Though I knew the book was a fond favorite, I don't think I ever realized before how much of the book I'd absorbed to carry back into the real world. At the time, there were few enough books in SFF--and further, few enough that I'd read--that were female and feminist in the way Ladies is. At the age I was when I first read Ladies, I suspect it was a book I needed rather badly, in ways I couldn't describe or even understand at the time. But, having engaged in a lot more feminist discussion in the meantime, especially where it intersects with SFF, I can see how fortunate I was to find and absorb this book when I did. And, even now, with a greater prevalence (or even dominance) of women in the genre, I think that there's a lot for modern readers in Ladies' varied depiction of women.

Interestingly enough, though I always loved the character of Starhawk, in the chapters told through Sun Wolf's POV, I was always, I think, a lot more sympathetic to him and his viewpoint. Which only makes sense, as he is the story's protagonist and a fairly sympathetic one...but this time around, I found myself wishing a great deal more for greater insight to the women of the troop because our experience with them is so limited by Sun Wolf's presence and viewpoint and his opportunity for more is equally limited by his circumstances. It's kind of fascinating to imagine what a different story it would've been written from Sheera's POV, or Amber Eyes or Denga Rey.

That being said, familiarity and time and the desire for even more female POV haven't made the story any less readable. From a purely sword & sorcery adventure level, it's a good read, the hothouse intrigue of the scenes in Mandrigyn balanced nightly by the road trip with Starhawk and Fawn.

Ladies is the first Hambly book I ever read and, having now read every other thing she's written, it was also interesting to see how much the themes I recognize from her later works are still very much present here, particularly that of (view spoiler)[untrained/unskilled antagonists who derive (or otherwise shortcut) their power from perverted and/or inhuman sources (Altiokis here, Dennis in Those Who Hunt the Night, The Nazi magicians from the Sun-Cross books, Dyzm from Planet of Twilight). (hide spoiler)]

In any case, with so many things--books, movies--that have not held up to the test of time for me, there's something incredibly satisfying and soothing that Hambly does and that I can create a clear and smooth trajectory from this book, in particular, to the person I've become. I hope it has and will continue to do the same for lots of other geeky little girls and grown women. And dudes too, sure, why not? :)