Continuing the Phédre trilogy and I can really see, or at least I think I can see maybe I'm wrong, the influence of this series on even the scanty amounts of the romantasy-labelled stuff that's popular right now which I have read. You'd think I wouldn't like it because I've mentioned that I don't tend to get along well with things labelled romantasy, but looking at those books, it's like seeing a diluted mirror of this series. There's something about Carey's writing and worldbuilding that is much more....complex? Subtle? Convinced of itself? Dedicated to something other than Aesthetic and marketability? Sincere? The characters are more rounded, their choices are more an outgrowth of who they are? With Phédre in particular I feel she's not at all similar to the stock romantasy heroine: yes, she has the almost suspension-breaking combination of genius and talent and beauty, but the context of her culture and her birth and her upbringing make it just about work. Her relationships with other women transcend the 'problem or prop' dichotomy that is so common -- I mean not even getting into the fact that she's bisexual let alone the Melisande situation. Her special power is also a massive disadvantage and the weaknesses it gives her are part of the driving plot. Idk. I have complex feelings about it so far but none of them are at all similar to how I feel about its descendants. It's like reading The Lord of the Rings after having read a lot of its successors: it has its own very real flaws, but many of those are not the same as the wave of popular imitators, yet you can also see how its imitators' flaws stem directly from trying to copy this with less complexity. Very interesting to experience.
