Gloria’s plans to stop the Californias invading the
Texican territories and likely massacring thousands of people – including several
innocents in between the two territories, looks to have been scuppered when she
narrowly avoided being kidnapped by the California’s ambassador
She can see only one way to stop the war – to appeal to
the Viceroy himself. But to even get to the man involves crossing a territory
where no woman travels alone – and with her speaking not a word of Spanish. It
seems only a marriage of convenience will allow her to make her plea for peace.
I have to say yet again how much I love Gloria
Merriwhether-Astor for being one of the most selfless, kind yet non-matyred
characters. It has to be stressed that Gloria has no personal stake in the
events of this book
Gloria is an extremely wealthy woman. She if the heir to
a massive munitions manufactory which is making an absolute fortune selling
arms for a brewing war. Gloria has everything to gain from this war going ahead
and everything to lose by stopping that war
But she’s a deeply moral person and she absolutely
refuses to accept this war going ahead. Considering her father directly
responsible for this war and the upcoming massacre of a vast number of people
including several innocent tribes – like the Brujas we saw last book and the
Navapai who are caught in the middle. Gloria is not only determined to stop
this war and cost herself a whole lot of money but she is willing to endure a
lot of hardship to make this happen. She has been kidnapped, faced a lot of set
packs and physical discomfort and, finally, in this book actually opts to marry
a man she doesn’t love or even know very well because it’s the only way she can
navigate the incredibly misogynist society of the Californios.
Gloria is a protagonist acting entirely from altruistic
motives. And entirely against her own self-interest. And entirely to her own
detriment. Yet she isn’t a protagonist who is being dragged into this by fat or
destiny or special Chosen One status. Nor does she spend any real time
bemoaning her fate or what is happening. She spends some time debating whether
she really wants to take a certain step – but it’s only really about which step
she takes, not about whether she should keep going forward. No matter how much she
sacrifices, she is completely lacking in angst because these are actions she
actively chooses; she’s not acting badly done to. She is an active participant
here and the choices she makes are her own active decisions
Part of this may stem from her slightly shaky low self
worth. Again this is interestingly well done – we have a lot of protagonists in
the genre who will sit in a corner and dramatically declare how hideously
ugly/awful/terrible they are. Gloria isn’t like that, she merely fails to
acknowledge how extraordinary she is: partly because of her extremely terrible
father but also because she has been surrounded by the awesome protagonists of
this series which she persists in comparing herself too
Gloria is capable, driven, slightly self-depreciating,
intelligent, determined, selfless and one of the most unabashedly moral
characters in the series and a worthy inheritor of the protagonist status
following in the footsteps of so many female characters
And it’s fitting that he is pretty much sole protagonist
in this book. We have other important and clearly determined female characters
with Alice making another appearance, as well as the interestingly separatist Brujas
(who have also been developed to show a level of racial diversity even though
none of them are especially major characters) as well as also showing some very
shrewed and cunning Californio women. In particular I like one daughter of a
high ranking noble who is brilliantly and ruthlessly ambitious and not shy
about it. I like this because it has already been established that the
Californio culture is extremely misogynist and women are sheltered at best and victimised
at worst – yet we still see these women in this culture are capable of drive
and determination which many books miss. While also showing treats that, when
appearing in women, are nearly always evidence of evil or villainy: ambition
and selfishness. I like that she is respected for these and not demonised
especially since this book also has the shining pedestal that is Gloria the
Selfless.
Another element I really appreciated is the man who has
always mooned after Gloria, loves her dearly and makes many puppy-dog eyes and
she… doesn’t love him. Nope, for once we have the desperate hero taking
desperate measures to desperately win the affection of his Beloved and her
being very clear that that’s nice and all but she doesn’t actually love him.
Sorry, but no and nor is he entitled to her love because of the epic feats of
epicness he has performed in her name. I like that a lot.
All of this happens alongside the interesting backdrop of
the world building of this series that has developed these steampunk nations
with their own culture and history and traditions and how much they differ from
what we have already seen in the series
The plot is an interesting exploration. It isn’t full of
action or fast pacing and doesn’t need to be: this isn’t a swashbuckling book
of previous stories. This is a book of introduction and explorations. We are
within the Californias, the colony of the Royal Kingdom of Spain with its own
radically different traditions cultures and religion and one we need to explore
as Gloria enters a battle not of airships and electric rifles, but of politics
and manoeuvring. It’s a very different story
It ends in a cliff-hanger which I’m never a fan of, but it’s not a will-she-die-or-not but more a cliff-hanger over what choices she will make: and is infinitely more interesting because of that.
I’ve mentioned the diversity – we have some minor POC
among the Brujahs – as well as Latinos there are Asian characters which was
unexpected but not a huge presence in the country. This is also one of the
vaguer aspects of the Californios, descriptions make it difficult to define
between Latinos and Spanish – and given the lack of independence and the
ongoing Spanish Empire, I’m not entirely sure the definitions are even entirely
contextually possible to define (to a degree that, honestly, as a European
makes me generally thinking I am too far out of my depth to define the
complexities of the Hispanic Language group vs the Latino ethnic group and the
difference between Spanish empire and ex-empire independent Spanish speaking
countries and how much latino ethnicity is influenced by Latin American
context, culture and Native identities and how any of that fits in a Steampunk
Victoriana setting of Spanish controlled California – so am just going to leave
that there).
We do have hints that one of the women around Gloria is
attracted to her. It’s not entirely subtle in any means, to a degree where any
reader should probably feel “gods Gloria can you be this clueless” while, at
the same time, not ever really being overtly labelled as such.
It’s another excellent chapter in this ongoing epic
adventure of this series. I love this world and the story of these excellent
women and the saga will never end. No. It will not. The Fanchickens demand it.
