One of the attractions of The Liveship Traders trilogy is the abundance of women’s POVs. One of its key themes is women’s struggle to gain status and authority in the patriarchal environment of Bingtown and Jamaillia. At various points, at least three female characters—Althea, Malta, and Serilla—wish they were men in order to achieve their goals, or express envy of men’s freedom and opportunities. Althea has to pretend to be a boy to obtain a position on a ship.
And then we have Beloved, who knowingly and consciously chooses to live as a woman in this female-unfriendly part of the world: always a rebel, choosing a difficult path, going against the grain.









