|
|
|
|
|
Gael Baudino book DragonSword
Gender | | |
During a war, a wizard turns the other sides elite soldiers into young women. Several of them also appear in the two sequals "Duel of Dragons", and "Dragon Death". |
| |
|
|
|
From: Joan Gnarlwode
, 673 months, post #1 |
This series' overall TG element is very strong and ongoing
throughout; the changes are permanent and the soldiers' stories are
told with sensitivity as they learn different ways to cope; some
through lesbianism, some by accepting male husbands and lovers. All
of this
is handled very well.
Unfortunately the series is marred by such heavy-handed,
stereotypical depictions of a misogynistic, chauvinistic society
that it seems like the author (herself female) must have a deeply
misandrist, fairly prejudiced set of beliefs herself. Her preaching
about the Vietnam war is rather out of place, heavy-handed, and
extraordinarily one-sidede (I guess no communists murdered or
tortured anyone in Vietnam, in her wold, so no effort to stop them
could possibly have been in any tiny way the least bit morally
justifiable.).
On the whole the whole series is a fun read and well worth seeking
out for the TG elements, which are strong, sexy, and sensitively
handled. Find it if you can.
|
|
From: Caitlin B
, 673 months, post #2 |
This is the best serious exploration of gender-change as power
issue I have seen. The new-females must learn how to be complete
people in sexist societies, which involves learning new strenghts
rather than merely trying to act as their old male selves.
The transformed soldiers are perhaps THE major subplot over the
entire trilogy, which as a whole could be characterized as the
author's wrestiling with finding value in being a woman while
resenting societies expectations of what that means.
|
|
From: Gavin
, 673 months, post #3 |
Not a bad book, although I wasn't really blown away.
|
|
From: Kismet
, 673 months, post #4 |
Very well handled, both social and mental adjustments.
|
|
From: Fish
, 673 months, post #5 |
This book aspired to be so much more than it was. The big
"surprise" at the end wasn't much of a surprise and, feeble though
it is, I won't spoil it here. It is set in a fantasy world in which
men are naturally (?) big dumb brutal oppressors, chauvanists, and
bigots in general; a company of the country's finest troops is
changed into a group of good-looking women during a battle and must
deal with being on the other side of society's tracks, so to speak,
and handle their permanent changes to womanhood. This part of the
story is well-handled, at least, and is worth a read. The rest of
the story seems a little heavy-handed in its anti-mysoginistic
message, and the symbolism is spread on so thick you can cut it
with a yawn. The TG section, happily, is worth the read, and it's
quite sizeable.
|
|
From: Durwood
, 673 months, post #6 |
Awful, preachy, overdone gobbledygook utterly ruins a pretty
interesting story with lots of over the top emoting, anti-American
Vietnam-era pontificating and heaps of ludicrous angst. The subplot
about the soldiers had fascinating potential but they're all
distant, secondary characters and we're given little about their
experience until it all devolves into a preposterous, melodramatic,
militant feminist sociology lecture. In real life, Gael Baudino is
actually a witch. As an author, she's a baaaaaad witch!
|
|
From: Corwin
, 303 months, post #7 |
What could a fascinating story about a strangely familiar alternate
world stuck in the middle ages possibly have to do with... KENT
STATE???
Nothing!
Yet throughout this tale we're bludgeoned with a nonstop leftist
hippie diatribe dredging up Kent State, Vietnam, the Cold War, and
flasbacks from who-knows-what drugs. The relentless politics spoil
what ultimately could be an intriguing puzzle. Likewise, the
startling change of the elite tough guys of First Wartroop into
women had such potential. But, instead, it becomes a launching
point for still more militant leftist rhetoric. The actual
transformation happens "off camera" and the soldiers are just
distant supporting characters before and after they're altered.
The whole book leaves you frustrated over the loss of the amazing
story it might have been.
|
|
From: Anne-Mal
, 296 months, post #8 |
A fantastic series, that is gripping to the end. The TG element is
played out though out the series and is a major storyline.
A must have!
|
|
From: KF
, 226 months, post #9 |
The author's name is spelled incorrectly - it's Gael Baudino.
The first book wasn't so bad - fairly typical fantasy. The second
and third books were only worth reading as a continuation of the
First Wartroop plot - the rest was fairly muddled and at times
sickening.
|
|
From: Bieeanda
, 226 months, post #10 |
If you have any degree of empathy toward women, Dragonsword will
embarrass you at best. The protagonist is a dumpy hippie in an age
when flower power has long since turned to mulch, and for much of
the novel she is mostly a violent foil against the misogynist
fantasy world that she's thrust into in the first chapters. It's
not paticularly deep on either side of the sexual politics
equation, and those reading it merely for the promise of mass,
forced transsexualization may be just the teensiest bit squicked
when it turns out that dealing with femininity means suicide for a
large proportion of the First Wargroup.
I found the rest of the trilogy to be much better-- the righteous
radical-feminist indignation is toned down by a significant degree,
examined and ultimately rejected for being as destructive and
hurtful as the mindset that spawned the hateful land of Gryylth
that the first novel spent much of its time wallowing through.
Unfortunately, while they show signs of the author's politics
developing beyond one-dimensionality, they are still strongly
influenced by her real-life experiences: expect to see rape
referenced and experienced multiple times. The surviving, changed
members of the First Wargroup figure strongly in the rest of the
trilogy, receiving almost as much attention as the protagonist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Add a New Message to This Thread
Posting Guidelines
Primary
- ANY POST(s) MAY BE REMOVED at the discretion of moderators
for violation of this website's guidelines/rules or any law
applicable to this website.
- All discussions must be transformation related OR of interest to
the transformation community.
- Please try to keep posts appropriate for younger teenage eyes to
view (Things you'd be comfortable sharing with a 13 year-old).
- Do not 'attack' other posters. You may attack an individual's
comments but not the individual.
- Be polite, courteous, and respectful. Please keep the conversations
civil.
- While use of an online alias is ok. Do NOT pretend to be another
(or registered) user.
Intellectual Property
- Do not post direct links to complete copyrighted works. Links
provided by (or approved by) the copyright holder may
be exempt.
- Links to content hosted on websites that have a clear, and easy to
find, process for dealing with infringement(s); and a known
reputation for following through with said process, may
be allowed.
- Please read this site's views on copyrighted content on the FAQ
page.
- Do not plagiarize. Credit your sources.
Helpful
- For posts and material that are not safe for viewing in a workplace
or with younger eyes, please mark the thread or post as either, "MATURE CONTENT", "ADULT CONTENT",
or "NSFW".
- Please post clear SPOILER warnings if you intend to give away
details that would spoil the story for those who have not yet seen
the material, preferably by using the spoiler
tags (don't forget to close the spoiler text with the end tag),
like so: <spoiler>Text to be "hidden"
</spoiler>
-- For additional help, please see: HOW TO: Use Spoiler tags
message thread.
- When starting a New Message Thread, please include details about
your topic of discussion or request in the Subject
field to help draw in readers who are interested and avoid wasting
the time of those who are not. Also helpful in searching for the
topic/thread later.
- If you post a link, please provide some detail as to what it is.
Identify the material if possible.
- Please post in English, or include an English translation, when
possible.
- If seeking material / information, include the results of your own
efforts so that others can offer better help (and avoid wasting
time and effort on redundant searches).
- When starting a new thread to request material or information,
please begin the subject with "REQ:"
or "REQUEST".
Etiquette
- Do not post messages in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Do not attack a user for improper spelling and/or grammar. Not all
of our community uses English as their native language.
- Please do not stray (far) from the topic of the original post.
- If a poster provides their contact information for any reason, do
NOT clutter the Message Board by asking them to contact you. They
gave out their contact information for a reason.
- No begging. Ask nicely.
- Do not feed the trolls and spammers. Please ignore them.
- Do not keep asking for clips after others have already posted
information on where to obtain the material.
- Please have some patience. Not everyone visits the board daily.
Your post may not be seen (by someone with the correct information
or idea) for several days or weeks.
- No bumping. Bumping will be treated as intentional spamming.
Advertising
- Do not post advertisements.
- One exception is for products or services that relate to entries on
this site. And even then, only post an announcement once. You
should add links or content to the appropriate database entries. Do
not repeat this information to the message board. Doing so will be
considered spamming.
Miscellaneous
- This list is neither all-inclusive or all-exclusive in nature, and
is meant to guide everyone on appropriate content for and conduct
on this Message Board.
- The purpose of this Message Board is to share information about
transformation-related content, news, ideas, etc. Also acceptable,
are conversations that are of interest to the transformation
community.
- Moderation of posts for reasons not listed above are at the
discretion of the Trusted Users who moderate this website, for the
purpose of keeping things within the "spirit" of the owner's wishes
and the website's purpose.
- If you disagree with a moderation decision, please make an argument
as to why it should be reinstated. Use the posting guidelines to justify your point.
Do not attack the moderator.
[Edit this Page] | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|