Title: Winter of Fire Author: Sherryl Jordan
Published: January 28, 1992
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Page Count: 321
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:In a grim future world where the sun has vanished from the sky, people glean what warmth and light they can from the firestones mined by an untouchable caste known as the Quelled. Countless taboos are shattered when Elsha, an idealistic and rebellious Quelled girl, is chosen to be handmaid to the Firelord—the man revered by those calling themselves the Chosen. Traveling in the privileged class, Elsha encounters ugly, unthinking prejudice; she also meets a few relatively enlightened Chosen men, who cannot help falling in love with the feisty maid. Spurred on by a hatred of injustice, Elsha battles against sexism, improves life for the Quelled, and even (it seems) hastens the return of the sun to her world.
Winter of Fire is an unconventional middle grade (or very juvenile YA) novel. In it, Sherryl Jordan tells the story of a special girl who overcomes her own slavery and strives to make the world a better place. This is fantasy with hints of post-apocalyptic fiction, and the set-up and idea worked well for me. However, I was troubled with some parts of Jordan’s execution, and in the end I didn’t love this book.
Our protagonist, Elsha, is a Chosen One. She was born not only a slave, but is considered to be a soulless, brainless animal. When the Firelord sends his henchman to kidnap her so she can be the Firelord’s handmaid, she steps into her destiny. I have to say that Elsha is a strong female character—she’s tough, stubborn, speaks her mind, and isn’t afraid of much. At the same time, she’s also a Special Snowflake, which is why I really hate the Chosen One character type. And, of course, she’s a total boy magnet. For most of Winter of Fire, Elsha travels around, stopping in various towns. And in every single town, there’s some guy who falls in love with her, swears his eternal devotion, and kissing ensues. And by the way, Elsha is very “ugly”, making her Special Snowflake status even more annoying. Naturally, all of Elsha’s man-candy was very helpful in the Big Battle Scene—all her boyfriends just lined up to fight for her. Woohoo!
Sherryl Jordan’s constant message throughout Winter of Fire is that slavery is bad. And that’s an awesome message to have. I fully applaud her for that. Except, the society in this book condones not only slavery, but blatant sexism. And Jordan never attempted to portray that sexism is wrong. In this world, women serve men. At meals, they eat only the leftovers, and basically they’re slaves themselves (even the non-slave women). Even the “enlightened” people are disturbingly hypocritical. “Slavery is bad,” they say, “but oh, Elsha, how could you stop slavery? You’re only a woman.” Barf.
I’m also pretty upset by the fact that the only female character in Winter of Fire worth mentioning is…Elsha. That’s it. Otherwise she’s surrounded by her doting male admirers, drawn in by the power of their love for her. Uh…no. That’s great. One woman with extraordinary abilities gains acceptance, but what about the rest of them? Even Elsha didn’t seem to care too much about the legions of oppressed women right underneath her nose.
So. Winter of Fire is really great in the areas of strong female protagonist, totally engrossing story, and interesting set-up. It’s really awful in portraying women as powerful (I mean, the book pretty much hinges on the fact that Elsha uses her sex appeal and power over men to do her bidding—which is fine, but why couldn’t she do her own fighting?), and Jordan manages to portray slavery as bad all while saying sexism is okay, as long as the Special Snowflake protagonist gains equality for herself. Uh, no.
