oh boy

[brainwane]

From Servant of the Crown by Paul J Bennett, an action fantasy novel self-published in 2018.

Our point-of-view character is Gerald, a grizzled veteran. Multiple key moments in his history involve defending girls and women from violent men, including stopping one of his own soldiers from raping a civilian. Background: a bunch of citizens were shouting at the soldiers, Gerald's strategy of holding the line and not escalating the conflict was working, and then his incompetent boss Walters ordered the soldiers to charge, and the soldiers started killing civilians. Gerald got injured and needs to stop the shit that's happening. Page 54 of the paperback:

He moved toward the alleyway, then turned into it to see a woman being pushed to the ground by a soldier who loomed over her, fumbling with his belt.

Gerald was outraged! He stepped forward intending to strike the man with the hilt of his sword, but ... [fight scene elided] ... luckily the woman rolled to the side.

"Get out of here," he screamed at her, "save yourself!"

[fight scene elided]... The soldier turned, and his eyes went wild with recognition. It was one thing to attack a woman in an alley; it was quite another to strike one's superior. The soldier scrambled to his feet, a look of shame on his face. He offered his hand and helped Gerald to his feet.

"Sorry, Sergeant," the soldier said, with an apologetic look on his face. "I got carried away."

This was no time for a lecture, Gerald thought, he must take action.

"Start gathering up the rest of the men, call them back to the line."

"Yes, Sergeant," the soldier agreed, his discipline returned.

"Have you seen Lord Walters?"

"He's on the next street over," he replied, pointing down the alleyway. "He's had us breaking into buildings to root out the rabble."

"Never mind that, gather what men you can and form a line at the end of the street. If you find anyone looting, stab them."

"Sergeant?"

"You heard me. No looting is to be tolerated. You understand?"

"Yes, Sergeant. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk to the captain. I'll join you shortly. Smith, isn't it?"

Smith smiled, pleased at being recognized. "Yes, Sergeant."

"Well, wipe that smile off your face and get to work."

He wasn't happy about leaving Smith to his own devices, but he had no choice. He must find Lord Walters to stop this madness.

The woman he rescued finds him and helps bandage his leg:

"What's your name, sir, if I may so bold as to ask?"

"My name is Sergeant Gerald Matheson, from Bodden.

"I knew you was different from the others," the woman said. "You've the look of a gentleman about you."

Gerald snorted, "I have been called many things over the years, but a gentleman is not one of them. What's your name?"

"Marcy, sir." She finished wrapping his leg and tied off the ends.

(The missing quotation mark after "from Bodden." is in the original.)

I .... Matheson doesn't have an acid retort to Smith's "I got carried away"?!?! He gives no-looting orders but says nothing about sexual assault? And the woman's compliment about "the look of a gentleman" could be read a few different ways but

when she says "I knew you was different from the others," that is interesting in a way that the next quote deepens.

Many years later (page 210 of the paperback), Gerald has just rescued a servant, Sophie, from sexual harassment. His friend, the young girl Anna, is shocked at what she saw. For context, by this point, Gerald and Anna are each other's closest friends, and he's her mentor and defense instructor.

[character] and his two friends left early the next morning without much fanfare. Anna and Gerald watched them ride away. He looked down at Anna who had a firm look upon her features. He could tell she was upset; [character] had laughed as his friends attempted to assault Sophie. He knew she would have questions, so he waited in silence for her to get her thoughts in order. The riders reached the gate and turned onto the road. He could see Anna's shoulders finally relax.

She kept staring towards the gate while asking, "Why are men that way?"

He had expected something of the sort, and so found himself prepared for once.

"Not all men, Anna. There are many men who would never treat a woman that way."

I think this is where I stopped and checked the publication date (2018).

Did you know that English Wikipedia has a page for "Not All Men"? It helpfully tells me how widespread its usage was as of 2013.

(Here I got distracted by noticing that the Twilight Zone reboot has an episode entitled "Not All Men" and reading the other episode descriptions. "Replay" sounds utterly chilling.)

And this, combined with Marcy saying that Gerald seemed different from the others, implies that Gerald is special .... there's a real "empire in decay/decline" vibe in this kingdom, so maybe we're supposed to see this fact, that decency is rare in the King's soldiers, as part of that.

The rest of the conversation includes Anna asking whether Gerald has ever done this ("No, of course not! No man in his right mind would do such a thing." which, to me, feels like he agrees with Smith's self-assessment) and Anna asking "So how do you prevent this sort of thing from happening?"

"Discipline, he responded. "You need to make people understand that it's not going to be tolerated, and that requires leadership."

Which I actually agree with! It's like that Australian army leader David Morrison said in his speech in 2013:

I will be ruthless in ridding the army of people who cannot live up to its values. And I need every one of you to support me in achieving this. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. That goes for all of us, but especially those, who by their rank, have a leadership role.

This is the first book in a multi-book series. I try not to look at spoilers, but I believe at least one of the later books is from Anna's point of view. And this is a book in which women are somewhat rare as fighters, and many men discriminate against them, but they are uniformly excellent fighters. So the ways Gerald's perspective rubs me the wrong way, regarding gender and sexual assault, may be part of a journey that the character and the book goes on. I want to be open to that. Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist series pulls some serious rugs from under the reader throughout (especially in the final book, Of Noble Family), demonstrating that the point-of-view character's perspective has been super wrong and showing her chagrin and growth. Some TV shows I've loved (Halt and Catch Fire and The Good Place, for example) have kind of bait-and-switched in this way -- the first season is a necessary prerequisite to the massive change, in Season 2 and onwards, in what and who the show is even about.

But it is an act of reader generosity to keep reading, open to the possibility that this kind of awesome switcheroo is on the horizon. I will probably finish this book but I'm unlikely to read the next.

Comments

[skygiants]

Even Dickens, for all his flaws, knew enough in the nineteenth century to call out 'not all men':

Miss Wren wrinkled her nose to express dislike. ‘Selfish. Thinks only of himself. The way with all of you.’

'The way with all of us? Then you don't like ME?'

'So-so,' replied Miss Wren, with a shrug and a laugh. 'Don't know much about you.'

'But I was not aware it was the way with all of us,' said Bradley, returning to the accusation, a little injured. 'Won't you say, some of us?'

'Meaning,' returned the little creature, 'every one of you, but you. Hah!'