The Battle for Skandia - Likewise Book Reviews

"Basically all of the Rangers Apprentice series and the Dreamhouse Kings series by Robert Liparulo! "

"Once I started thus series I could not put it down."

"- major steps forward for women in these books: Evanlyn/Cassandra is useful and saves Will!<br/>- major steps backward for women: any woman who is under the age of ~40 is introduced as "pretty;" the one dude only brings his concubines along to cook for him bc only cooking matters on the battlefield not looks; Horace meets and appreciates prostitutes; Evanlyn puts other women (her grandma) down, which is only an issue because that's basically the only other time a woman has spoken of another woman in this series (making a joke abt another woman to a man). Otherwise we'd accept the grandma slander.<br/>- racism: orientalism goes craaazy in this. We couldn't have made our bad guys a little less Asia/Middle East-coded???? instead we're like "they're from the east and they're herders and they are just the pure epitome of evil" bestie PLEASE<br/><br/>Aside from these nitpicks, I love everyone's resourcefulness. However I feel like we also approach these books as if violence is the only solution all the time. Brute force, but smartly, basically. We could chill. Please send the women in. I KNOW a female ranger could probably end all the stupid rivalries between groups."

"8/10"

"The first book is called The Ruins of Gorlan"