Monday, February 17, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton




Lady Hotspur is the second modern fantasy adaptation of a classic Shakespeare work by author Tessa Gratton - in this case, it's a genderflipped and queer retelling of Henry IV, Part 1.  The novel also serves as a stand-alone sequel to Gratton's "The Queens of Innis Lear" (Reviewed on this blog here), her prior adaptation of King Lear.  I thought Queens was a really well written book, with some great characters, although its turn towards tragedy was a bit much for me.  Still, I enjoyed the other work of Gratton's I've read - her YA Horror/Fantasy "Strange Grace" - so I was very interested in giving this a try.

Note:  I have not read the original Shakespeare work, and deliberately avoided even wiki-ing it until I completed the novel, and felt very comfortable with the text even without the foreknowledge.

 Lady Hotspur is as well written as Queens, but is honestly overall a bit of a mess.  As a stand-alone novel, the story has some severe pacing issues, with a final act that tries to reverse the story from impending tragedy to a happy ending way too abruptly, and a major character who disappears from the narrative for long stretches of time.  The characters are written extremely well mind you, but the events that occur in the plot often don't feel like they're set up properly, with an ending that has some issues.  Moreover, the best parts of the novel essentially act as an extra epilogue to Queens, and thus will only be enjoyable for readers of that novel.

Note: I read this mostly as an audiobook, and the audiobook reader is well worth your time, so if you want to read this book, that format is solid.

More after the jump.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Time has passed since Aremoria was ruled by the legendary Morimaros the Great, and the throne of Aremoria is no longer secure, held by Rovassos, a king more concerned with his lovers than his obligations.  Rovassos exiled his niece Celeda Bolinbroke 10 years ago, and took her daughter Calepia"Hal" Bolinbroke as his ward, but never married and relied upon his niece Banna Mora to be his heir.   But the nobility of Aremoria would not let this stand, and so they backed Celeda when she returned in war to take the throne for herself.

Hal was sworn to be one of Banna Mora's "lady knights," but upon her mother's return, Hal joins her mother in taking the throne from Rovassos and finds herself unexpectedly appointed as Prince and heir to the throne.  But Hal has no understanding of what it means to be Prince and is more interested in the talented knight, Isarna, "Hotspur", Persy, also known as the "Wolf of Aremoria".  Meanwhile Banna Mora finds herself restless, torn between the injustice of her title being stripped from her and her friendship with Hal, the one who stripped it and betrayed her. 

But when Banna Mora is abducted to the magical island of Innis Lear, and a prophecy is made that the future of both Innis Lear and Aremoria will be decided by the Dragon (Banna Mora), the Lion (Hal), and the Wolf (Hotspur), it soon becomes clear that conflict between Banna Mora and Hal is inevitable.  And in the middle of it all is Lady Hotspur, torn between the love she feels and the belief that Mora may in fact be the rightful queen, and whose actions will determine the path forwards for both countries.....
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Lady Hotspur is essentially advertised as a genderflipped queer version of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1, and as a stand alone novel at that, but oddly, substantial subplots of this book function more as a sequel to The Queens of Innis Lear than as a stand alone story.  Despite this book taking place 100 years after that book, multiple characters from Queens recur here, often under pseudonyms to not make their identities apparent - although enough background facts will make those identities clear quickly enough.  If you haven't read that first book, I suspect these parts will mean little for you, as why should you care about the stories of Mars, Ban, Elia, and Regan?  If you have read that book, then you'll probably get a lot of enjoyment out of these parts, as essentially providing closure to that book's tragedies, and lessening the misery that book ended with.  I certainly appreciated it.

But as for the parts of this book that make up its own story, it isn't nearly as successful.  Like the prior book, the story is told from the perspectives of various characters - most frequently from the viewpoints of Hotspur, Hal, and Banna Mora, but also with chapters from characters such as Rowan, Connley, and Charm.  However, chapters often end with interludes from other perspectives or that of third party narrators or prophets or flashbacks.....it may sound like a bit of a mess, but even in audiobook format, where the shifts are a bit more confusing, it doesn't take long to get used to.  Still, the result of all these viewpoints is that sometimes certain characters can fall out of the narrative for long stretches of time.

This is most particular with Mora, who is clearly one of our three major protagonists, and spends the first act with substantial page time, only to find herself pregnant in the middle third and relegated to the background.  Given how a huge part of this novel is Mora's shifting motivations and goals, it's bizarre how little time we spend in her head, with large parts of Mora's actions being shown only from the POVs of others in the final two acts.  Hal and Mora form the central conflict of this novel, and yet the book devotes far more of its time to Hal's personal transformation than Mora's, leaving Mora's final arc to feel incredibly rushed and unearned.  You very easily understand Mora's transformation between where she is in act 1 and act 2, but from there on the narrative basically fails her.

Hal and Hotspur are better in this regards, although there are issues here as well.  It's easy to understand how Hal reacts to distress and chaos by falling into debauchery as a distraction, causing those who love her distress and leaving things spiraling out of control.  But in the final arc, Hal pulls herself together as a Prince, and yet again, this transformation is kind of abrupt - we can understand why Hal is making the case against war and trying to become Princely to save everyone, but for her to plead to Mora about the people who will be harmed in another war is more than a little bit hypocritical given what Hal's mother did to seize the throne (and there's no proof Hal's mother is any better at ruling than her predecessor!) and this is never ever acknowledged.  Hotspur is the most well treated by the narrative of the trio, as her confusion and frustration at the situation always feels incredibly understandable, and her changes in allegiances and friendships throughout always make sense.  But she's basically the sole character like this.

Other characters are less well treated, particularly Hal's mother Celeda, who spends the first two thirds of the novel as an unlikable ass, only for the narrative treat her as a loving mother all of a sudden for no reason in the final act whose coming death is tragic. Then there's the sixth POV character, Charm, whose perspectives add absolutely nothing to the main story, other than to try and make Hal's forced marriage seem less bad?  But even then that part is just tremendously problematic, as Hal - a lesbian with no interest in guys - is forced to marry Charm and try to get heirs, and the solution is just......spoilers in ROT13: Punez trgf nabgure jbzna gb unir frk jvgu gur gjb bs gurz fb Uny jvyy srry pbzsbegnoyr va orq rabhtu gb trg n puvyq, fvapr hayvxr Ubgfche (jub vf Ov) naq Zben (jub vf fgenvtug) Uny whfg pna'g trg vagb frk jvgu n zna.  Yvxr htu, gung'f abg n tbbq erfbyhgvba naq gur obbx cynlf vg nf n terng fnpevsvpr sbe Punez naq n jbegujuvyr pbzcebzvfr.

Again, the writing is terrific, and the language is great, and the romance between Hotspur and Hal is excellent, and well, the book has some of the more.....interesting sex scenes I've ever read.  There's a good framework here, and I cared about most of the characters!  But there are so many problems in the end, that it just feels overall like a disappointment, and I can't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read Queens and wants more.
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