The Oracle's Queen (Tamir Trilogy, Book 3)
by Lynn Flewelling
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lynn FlewellingIllustrator: John Jude Palencar
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-06-27
ISBN: 055358345X
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Spectra
Book Reviews of The Oracle's Queen (Tamir Trilogy, Book 3)
Book Review: A Tender Conclusion
Summary: 5 Stars
What struck me most clearly while reading Oracle's Queen, and thinking about the novel and it's place in the three-story arc, is that this trilogy has been Tobin's story -- the story of a child coming of age in a hostile world, fighting forces (and odds) that have him at a severe disadvantage. More importantly for me, the incredible detail and effort that Lynn has gone to in writing *this particular story* -- about a young boy who is actually a young girl, a child growing into a doubly unfamiliar body, a human being realising that inexplicable forces have altered his life without his knowledge or consent or desire -- required a very specific framework in order to tell it well.
When I heard Lynn speak a few months ago, she really elaborated on a need to tell this particular story because of her own experiences as a tomboy -- as a girl whose behaviours and enjoyment of life led her into a slightly different set of experiences than most girls and young women had, and that as a result there is some level of disconnect between tomboys and adult female peers who were more feminine children; there is a difference in experiences that blocks the immediate understanding of some things with so many others. I loved most deeply her statement that "it's not a question of right or wrong, it's just a difference -- it is what it is." That very personal desire to explore the question of "what happens if there's something deeper than clothes and mannerisms and behaviour that separates a girl from other girls" gave, in my opinion, an incredible tenderness and vulnerability to Tobin's story.
I'll go so far as to offer that this trilogy speaks to me of the personal demons in James Boylan's struggle with a transgendered life -- he was a middle-aged, married professor of English living in Maine when he began the formal steps of acceptance and transition to a biologically female lifestyle (book title is "She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders" and is published under the name Jennifer Finney Boylan if any of y'all are interested in readig it). The questions of "something missing" -- as Tobin-appearing-as-Tamir is all too aware of his changed physicality, of a body that moves in ways it's "not supposed to," of body parts that are "missing" or have "appeared" where he doesn't want to have to change. The nearly paralyzing terror that his friends won't love him, that his family won't accept him, that those important to him will leave him. The anger, and the emotional need to blame someone, to find out "who caused this to happen." The overwhelming fear, the isolation, the way that the child goes back and forth in his mind, wondering what's the right thing to do, what *should* he want.
The thing that clinches the comparison for me is the magical unbinding, the singing away of connections that Mahti performs at the very conclusion of the novel. Mahti severs the ties between Tobin and those who cling to him as the boy-child he was. In effect he obliterates the false, male Tobin from the world -- so that Tamir can finally exist free of the hauntings and demons of Tobin's temporary life. This falls dramatically into line with the most difficult of steps for so many transgendered people -- the fact that at some point who they have been "dies," so that their "true selves" can live free. Tamir is helped forward from Tobin by magical gifts -- but in the same way that she was suppressed and hidden by them in Tobin.
Arkoniel's words in the epilogue, too, confirm for me that this trilogy is a whispered fragment -- the gift of a glimpse into a world's history. "Even you, Tamir -- Tamir the Great, they call you now -- you are only a half-told tale." That rings of the truth we who read stories understand best about the world -- that what "really" happened is rarely what is told and less so what is remembered. It connects me more clearly to the stories and the characters in the Nightrunner trilogy -- we're seeing their past, their legends, the possibilities shaped for them by those who came before. And like all good stories, that sends me back into our own human history, and to my dreams for our own world and my hope for my own effect on it -- even, or perhaps especially, because there is so little that will be remembered though so much that might be altered.
I highly recommend this novel and the trilogy it completes. If you are new to Lynn's work, begin reading with the Nightrunner stories (starting with Luck in the Shadows), and then read Tamir's story -- you will be enveloped in a brilliant world full of compelling characters, an amazing series of plots, and an ongoing collection of questions.
Melissa
Albany, NY
Summary of The Oracle's Queen (Tamir Trilogy, Book 3)
Under the rule of a usurper king, the realm of Skala has suffered famine, plague, and invasion. But now the time for the rightful heir has come, a return to the tradition of warrior queens. And the Lightbearer?s prophecy is to be upheld at last: so long as a daughter of the royal line defends and rules, Skala will never be subjugated.Now a mystical fire has burned away the male body known as Prince Tobin, revealing Princess Tamír, a girl on the verge of womanhood?and a queen ready to claim her birthright after a life in disguise under the protection of wizards and witches. But will her people, her army?and the friends she was forced to deceive?accept her? Worse, will the crown?s rival heir, friend to Tobin, turn foe to Tamír, igniting civil war in a fierce
battle for Skala?
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