Legendborn

This is almost perfect. I think this is a very clever spin on the Arthur Saga. Very original in my mind, and well done.I also love the magic system. Though I didn't quite understand the “taking” and “borrowing”. I assume it's because I'm white. I like the story and plot, and it is a very good first book. But it is a series, and the second book comes out next year, if we are lucky. :-(I love the insight to how the white people's words sound like in the ears of the black people, knowing what I would mean with them, because they don't mean what I think they mean. I read [b:The Black Witch 25740412 The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles, #1) Laurie Forest https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1487956992l/25740412.SY75.jpg 45580046], and that is written by a white person, where she talks about the racism and microaggressions and attitudes WE ARE AWARE OF - this is about those things WE ARE NOT AWARE OF. Like, how could it be offensive for a white person to celebrate diversity? Because we are patting ourselves on the back being so proud of how inclusive and openminded and NOT RACIST we are being. We. We white people. “To the white supremacist mind, the most charitable act and the most benevolent blessing they can bestow is allowing those of the lower race to associate with them.”Soong-Chan Rah That makes it all a bit yucky, doesn't it? I'm slowly starting to realize why some people see including [a:N.K. Jemisin 2917917 N.K. Jemisin https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1438215930p2/2917917.jpg] as one of the best authors of Fantasy as tokenism. To me she IS one of the best authors of fantasy/sci-fi, but I did find out about her only because there was once a sci-fi challenge were one of the prompts was to read sci-fi written by a black person. Yes, we elevate her - on the cost of every other black author who has written sci-fi. How much of it was never published because it was written by a black person? How many black Arthur C. Clarkes and Isaac Asimovs has the world missed? I mourn all the women who were pushed down, suffocated, silenced, forced to do something they didn't want to, forbidden to do things they would have excelled in, just because of their gender... “Once, ladies were respected and honored at court, but then the Order of the Rose fell to the wayside and now women sit at the Table, when Malory tells us that ‘the very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady'! And now my son's foolishness in choosing you, who sits at the crux of two faults. Can you not see the sickness here? How the corruption must be rooted out and corrected?”Two faults. My race and my gender.Unforgivable. Unacceptable. But - it still goes on. Millions of people stopped from living up to their full potential, adding their resources to benefit of the whole world, the waste makes me furious. How much further in the future we'd be without -isms? In my mind every -ist (me included) is robbing this planet, world, the humankind. Despicable.Talking about despicable; “You stole this from my son!”I flinch. The woman next to me sneers, disgust turning her face into a hideous mask. It's Vaughn's mother, Rose member Schaefer, who had been kind to me before. Tonight, the slurs in her eyes rain on me like daggers.“This is his future, you... you nappy-headed little—”Now THIS is something I know how to react. At this my whole White blood rises - with contempt.I have to explain something here. When I say White, I don't mean Caucasian or European. I am talking about the old Russian empire and the White and the Red people - kind of Conservatives and Socialists, if you will. Or noblemen and commoners. And that scene... all those white people, so high and mighty, that scene reduced everyone of them into White-wannabes. Pretenders. Let's scratch a bit of the gilding and see the mud come forth.This was something that bothered me with Harry Potter and “Lord Voldemort” as well. Had I been a blood purist in that society, I would have shunned Deatheaters. To kowtow to a halfblood? How pathetic. So, anyone on the receiving end of this kind of behavior. It might be scary to see grown-up people to show their true colors like this, but they are just karens. They aren't worth any other reaction but pity and contempt. Know you have won, and forced them to break. Remember that. But I said “almost” perfect, so let me tell why “almost”;There were some bits I can't accept could have happened. Some of it was due to the fact that the author is writing characters that are not what she is, but what I am. Some of it was due to the fact that I am who I am. I'm sure most readers wouldn't even notice these bits. I'm not going to go any further into that, because if you don't notice, good. Then there's the love... triangle or what ever it is.Then there's the fact that it all went very quickly when it started to happen. I mean, in the beginning of the book the scions being called went out cold and were out for a long time, in the end they just got the powers et voilà. There's the “the chosen learns to fight with sword in a week well enough to beat someone who's done it their whole life” trope. Which I hate. There's that Bree got very quickly used to her powers. And other things like that.I also didn't like the way they treated Sel's reaction to the revelation about his mother. Oh, and I loved the talk about her hair. :-D I have watched some of Viv Hair Therapy videos, and this reminded me of that. I had to go and wash my hair just because it is so lovely to have clean hair :-DAnother thing I loved about this book was the relations. Her relation to her parents, her best friend - a lot of friendship and lovers in this book. Very nice. I want to hear more about her mom and her “Arthurian” friend.