Saving the world from stereotypes
Say hello to a refreshingly realistic fantasy series heroine
How I wish Canadian author A.M. Dellamonica had been writing when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Her Hidden Sea series is billed as adult fantasy, but it’s also perfect for “new” adults reading up — which was precisely the time I started to realize the world needed saving (so I pinned a “Save the Whales” button to my backpack and briefly stopped eating meat), precisely the time a close friend was questioning her sexuality (but of course this was not something anyone could talk about without raised eyebrows and titters), and precisely the time reading was starting to become serious, school-related business and intelligent escapism was what I craved most (as a sort of brain rinse after reading Ayn Rand, for example).
A Daughter of No Nation comes after Child of a Hidden Sea, which introduced 24-year-old Sophie Hansa, her bright half-brother Bram, the magical land of Stormwrack and a host of other seafaring characters to the world. Sophie lives in San Francisco and is adopted. In order to avoid defending her master’s thesis (this becomes a slightly comical theme to which anyone who has ever avoided defending a master’s can relate) she does a lot of extreme sports and also starts to investigate the identity of her birth parents: not because she’s unhappy — she adores her adopted family — but because she’s naturally curious and knows there’s a secret here to unearth. A secret, indeed. It turns out she’s from a portal-world similar to Earth, but made up of many island nations and with a mystical edge. Now, after a brief and tortured hiatus, she’s back in Stormwrack and it’s more intriguing than ever.
The magic of Stormwrack is a reality Sophie is constantly questioning in a very realistic way. In fact, Sophie is a refreshingly realistic character, for a fantasy series heroine. Not only does she seek to understand the enchantments that piece Stormwrack together, she also turns her wide-eyed stare on the ecosystem and science of the place. She’s always attempting research and experiments — but her inquisitiveness is not especially welcome. Her strident (but gold-hearted) younger half-sister Verena is constantly trying to thwart her, but out of protectiveness; her powerful (but black-hearted) birth father Cly doesn’t have such pure motives: he’s imprisoned her birth mother and is up to many other kinds of no good that threaten Sophie’s life, and the political climate of the already tempestuous Stormwrack, as the truth is uncovered.
The appeal of this series lies in Dellamonica’s thoughtful, penetrating writing — only once in a while does she attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator and do things such as describe characters as “looking thinky” — and the effortless way Dellamonica weaves sexually diverse characters into the narrative without making it feel like they’re fulfilling a quota. The overarching sense of social responsibility is refreshing, too. Sophie questions her new world as all young people should: she does not simply let life happen to her, but instead seeks to understand and improve her surroundings.
Because of this, she’s a character who is surely going to change the world — any world.