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  1. We both already know how much I heart Mercy Thompson, so let me instead turn my attention to the other book in this particular post.

    First of all, it sadly does not particularly strike me at all that very little research is done into the actual nature of the Amazons. So much fictional literature out there these days is all about the gimmick, and less about the historical or academic reality. Sure, vampires and werewolves are still very big out there, so there are authors that are turning in other directions, trying to look for the Next Big Thing. For a couple authors, it’s dopplegangers/shapechangers. For some, it’s superheroes, and as recently as a post ago, it was valkyries in Norse Code. This author chose Amazons. And in her story, it’s not about who they actually were, it’s just a mythological buzzword. Kickass female warriors that have mythological basis: very apropros for the times, in a post-Buffy world. Print it!

    I’m not saying Amazons couldn’t be done right. I’m just saying that from how you describe it, it doesn’t seem she did that. Especially what with the disparaging of hearth-women, which sounds far more a modern critique of the house-wife stereotype, than it is of any reality (as you yourself said).

    So, yeah. It sounds like she did a very little research, thought the idea was cool, and usurped the Amazons for her own literary use. This sort of thing can be very frustrating. I mean, if you’re going to do your own spin on Amazons (as many people have done their own spin on vampires… rassafrackatwinkletwinklelittlevamp) why not just call them something else, and make them wholely yours, and however you want them to be? but that doesn’t work, does it? No, need the buzzword. Otherwise, it’s not a selling point.

    So Amazons get watered down, because someone wants to sell books. Typical.

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