Roc
310 pp.
Wen Spencer does some interesting things with the “female dominated society” trope that appears in science fiction and fa
ntasy from time to time in this book. From my reading of The Shore of Women, Glory
Season, The Gate to Women’s Country etcetera, whenever this story appears, it is usually clear that the writer has an axe to grind about gender politics. Spencer is mainly attacking the “females are not innovative” meme and the “females are naturally more peaceful and nonaggressive” memes that occasionally appear in these works. A Brother’s Price seems to be mostly a response to the axe grinding, than to gender politics. It is at its base a historical romance fully of derring-do and plucky heroes, and there is no sense that the society is “superior” to a male dominated society–it is just different from a male-dominated one. Continue reading