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The Magnolia Sword, by Sherry Thomas
Jul. 2nd, 2022 10:18 amI've read The Magnolia Sword once before, when it first came out, and I loved it at the time. But on rereading, I've unfortunately discovered that I don't love it nearly so well anymore.
The first time I read it, I was racing through it because it was so exciting and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next, and I didn't have a lot of brainspace left to spare for really paying attention to everything the narrative was doing. This time, the way I read it was via me and a friend (M) taking turns to read it aloud to each other chapter by chapter over the course of 5 or so days while we were on vacation -- a much slower, more meditative way to read a book. And it turns out that I don't think it's actually particularly deftly written.
There are a number of quirks of the prose that are actively irritating to me, to the degree that I started editing on the fly as I read aloud to make it flow better, plus nearly EVERY chapter ends in some sort of cliffhanger. M and I started laughingly going "dun dun dunnnnnn" at the end of every chapter because it was such a thing.
I also felt like various aspects of the story and characters were handled in a too-simplistic way.
And there are some choices that I feel work against the themes the story is going for! For example, the book is going for "war is bad and destabilising, and anything that can create greater stability under the circumstances is worth chasing after in order to avoid widespread death, even if it's an imperfect solution" which is a great theme to go with the time period in China that the book is set in. But then when Mulan meets the emperor at the end she's like "ah yes but he's a GOOD emperor because I can tell he really cares, so I'm glad he's the emperor" when I think it would have made more sense to reinforce the theme by having the emperor be like, mediocre at best, but supporting his reign is still the right choice because toppling the current dynasty will lead to further instability and death for the common people. (okay I might also have preferred this vision of the emperor because I am the opposite of a monarchist lol but I STILL THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THIS PARTICULAR STORY TOO)
And I haaaaaaated that there are multiple really big decisions in Mulan's life that are taken out of her hands at the end and the narrative doesn't seem to notice it or see a single thing wrong with it: someone else reveals her true gender to the rest of her comrades without even asking her if she is okay with that, and Kai invites her father to the capital without telling her when Mulan is still in turmoil over the things she's learned about her father and isn't sure she's ready to meet him again.
I do still appreciate the casual queerness of background characters, and the friendship between Mulan and the other soldiers in their little band, and the connection between Mulan and Kai, and all that. Though I'm a little more uncomfortable now with exactly how Kai's anxiety is handled, even if I'm still glad a lead character gets to be shown as both anxious and heroic.
But one thing I actually like better this time around than my first read is the crossdressing and gender identity! I actually really like that Mulan has a very clear sense of her gender identity and doesn't like being seen as a man or having to dress like a man through so much of her life. She's cis, but cis in a way where she kind of had to interrogate her own gender, and has come to a solid answer about what gender that is. Do I still eternally want more "crossdressing" narratives that lead to the character coming to some trans realisations about themself? Absolutely! But I like this too.
It was also fun to read this wuxia-inspired novel with more of a grounding in wuxia/xianxia now; I could see the ways in which it was following those tropes, when last time I had no idea how to recognize what it was doing in that respect.
At any rate, despite my various frustrations this time around, I still very much enjoyed sharing this book with M; reading it aloud to each other was a great deal of fun, and such a good way to experience a story together.
The first time I read it, I was racing through it because it was so exciting and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next, and I didn't have a lot of brainspace left to spare for really paying attention to everything the narrative was doing. This time, the way I read it was via me and a friend (M) taking turns to read it aloud to each other chapter by chapter over the course of 5 or so days while we were on vacation -- a much slower, more meditative way to read a book. And it turns out that I don't think it's actually particularly deftly written.
There are a number of quirks of the prose that are actively irritating to me, to the degree that I started editing on the fly as I read aloud to make it flow better, plus nearly EVERY chapter ends in some sort of cliffhanger. M and I started laughingly going "dun dun dunnnnnn" at the end of every chapter because it was such a thing.
I also felt like various aspects of the story and characters were handled in a too-simplistic way.
And there are some choices that I feel work against the themes the story is going for! For example, the book is going for "war is bad and destabilising, and anything that can create greater stability under the circumstances is worth chasing after in order to avoid widespread death, even if it's an imperfect solution" which is a great theme to go with the time period in China that the book is set in. But then when Mulan meets the emperor at the end she's like "ah yes but he's a GOOD emperor because I can tell he really cares, so I'm glad he's the emperor" when I think it would have made more sense to reinforce the theme by having the emperor be like, mediocre at best, but supporting his reign is still the right choice because toppling the current dynasty will lead to further instability and death for the common people. (okay I might also have preferred this vision of the emperor because I am the opposite of a monarchist lol but I STILL THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THIS PARTICULAR STORY TOO)
And I haaaaaaated that there are multiple really big decisions in Mulan's life that are taken out of her hands at the end and the narrative doesn't seem to notice it or see a single thing wrong with it: someone else reveals her true gender to the rest of her comrades without even asking her if she is okay with that, and Kai invites her father to the capital without telling her when Mulan is still in turmoil over the things she's learned about her father and isn't sure she's ready to meet him again.
I do still appreciate the casual queerness of background characters, and the friendship between Mulan and the other soldiers in their little band, and the connection between Mulan and Kai, and all that. Though I'm a little more uncomfortable now with exactly how Kai's anxiety is handled, even if I'm still glad a lead character gets to be shown as both anxious and heroic.
But one thing I actually like better this time around than my first read is the crossdressing and gender identity! I actually really like that Mulan has a very clear sense of her gender identity and doesn't like being seen as a man or having to dress like a man through so much of her life. She's cis, but cis in a way where she kind of had to interrogate her own gender, and has come to a solid answer about what gender that is. Do I still eternally want more "crossdressing" narratives that lead to the character coming to some trans realisations about themself? Absolutely! But I like this too.
It was also fun to read this wuxia-inspired novel with more of a grounding in wuxia/xianxia now; I could see the ways in which it was following those tropes, when last time I had no idea how to recognize what it was doing in that respect.
At any rate, despite my various frustrations this time around, I still very much enjoyed sharing this book with M; reading it aloud to each other was a great deal of fun, and such a good way to experience a story together.
