Seven Crowns (Shadows & Starlight Book 1)

Most Helpful Review

"The beginning was epic. It was brilliant. It drew me in and had me totally invested. The shift to a new world with a new culture and new way of life was fascinating. The stakes were sky high. It was awesome.Then, somewhere around the middle, things took a nosedive. My interest waned. The characters lost their allure. The plot seemed bland. The alien culture wasn’t actually as different as it felt it should have been and there was no by-the-by from the MC either about her questions, doubts and suchlike. Things were bearable until a particular scene close to the end. It was totally unnecessary and all it did was brainlessly spout ideology without thought or critique. That scene could have been wrapped up in a much simpler way that would have had the same outcome and have been believable, but instead, the author decided to craft a scene that states: the female and male bodies are identical and can achieve the same thing.This is blatantly not true and particularly so when it comes to running, which was the activity in question. It is simply not believable that a female of sixteen who’s been training for a race for one month can not only keep up, but hold her own and maintain the pace for a very long time with a male of seventeen who’s been training his whole life. It is an abuse of the use of words and it is causing our society much harm. There are many authors who do this, I for one am among those readers who simply can’t swallow it because of the harm it is causing in the very real lives of people. Just ask the female athletes who’ve trained their whole lives for a competition only to be wiped off the field because a male body is permitted to compete in that category because of the politics of words, not the acceptance of biological, anatomical facts.We seem to have forgotten the basics of what the feminist movement was about and instead keep pushing without a care for the harm it does. Putting this kind of idea as a statement of fact into a book for teens, without critical thought or even an explanation about a different planet perhaps having some kind of difference in this regard; stating this scenario not only as a possibility, but as a fact, is incredibly dangerous. Our society is struggling with the phenomenon of gender dysphoria. Stating as a fact, that the female body is capable of something it is anatomically unable to do, contributes to the split between what people believe and what biological reality dictates. There are very real differences between the male and female bodies. The female body can do things the male body cannot. Likewise, the male body is capable of some feats the female body cannot.Feminism has brought us a long way from the society of two hundred years ago, which believed women incapable of doing sports, studying or doing math. We have proven that women can do these things. However, as the division in sporting competitions attests, we have, until now, been very aware of the physical differences between male anatomy and the female. It is telling that of the twelve instances where women have indeed been capable of showing up the best of the men in a sports discipline, not one of these existing examples has involved running. They have been in other sporting disciplines where it even makes biological sense that the female body might be superior for the activity. Not running. The male body is simply faster. By a lot. Especially when it’s been training for it.The lines between “man” and “woman” might be blurred in our lived reality, and in terms of identity that’s totally fine, but there is a very distinct line between male and female bodies. Male bodies do not have uteruses and cannot give birth. Female bodies have wider hips and different muscle mass, which makes them slower runners. We should be teaching the younger generations to respect, love and nurture the differences, to seek to achieve what resonates with all of who they are, rather than pitting their beliefs against their bodies and watching them burn themselves alive with self-hatred.Right then. Diatribe over. Back to the book.The ending was fun. It could have even been good. But unfortunately, the he complete disregard for the facts of human anatomy and what it is capable of in that scene as well as a couple of others ruined the book for me. I accept this is a me problem. I am too biologically minded to let something like that slide. As the years go by, these little ideologically-drive “oopsies” irritate me more and more. If you’re scientifically minded or care for sci-fi that is accurate and believable, stretching the imagination but not leaving you with disbelief (yes, there were a couple of other instances where this book requires the reader to shut down a scientific mind entirely) then I suggest you don’t get this one. If such issues don’t bother you in the least, go ahead. You’ll probably enjoy this book."