Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I will not go over a lot of topics covered already except to say I agree with many of the critical comments. Medieval soap opera, way too many characters, too many writers perhaps? But no body has made the following comment so its here. One massive clanger did it for me and so I was unable to even finish the book. The modern girls can do anything stuff is now inserted into most fantasy and adventure novels. You have these tiny pretty girls who are killing machines with an attitude. You also have the untrained female character who decides enough is enough and trains hard for, well it varies, maybe a week, a month several months? and then emerges able to regularly take down professional soldiers who are 40% larger and twice as strong at least. These men-at-arms have trained in the military arts since they were apprenticed at 12 or so. It is so wrong that it is in your face for the whole book saying "this is just a fairytale". The view is not misogyny. It would be like one of the knights having a glock. Just kills it for me. It seems it is now embedded in almost all of this type of fiction. An example is the tiny female Chinese courtier at the Kagan's court. She decides to learn to defend herself. She gets archery lessons from one of the Mongol nobles. Of course Mongol men are renowned for their tolerance for women especially non mongol women. It ignores than anyone touching a weapon who has not earned the right through the initiation process is severely punished. In any case she picks up the bow and after a few hints she draws the bow three times and had a burning sensation in her biceps but that will go away in time as she gets used to it. For real. Anyone who has tried to bend one of these powerful bows for the first time is shocked at the pull weight. You have to start with a learner bow and move up in pull weight even if you are a 180 lb man. I mean a proper war bow draws over 100 lbs. The longbows recovered from Mary Rose have been tested at a weight range of 100 to 185 lbs. Mongol bows which are still made the same way today are 165 lbs draw. (coldsiberia.org/monbow.htm) I know its fiction, but be a bit reasonable with your female warrior personas. They would be better served (and the reader would find it a bit more believable) if they used a rapier or stiletto or poison in a dart or something. Game of Thrones used a female warrior but she was well done in that she was naturally big and muscular and had trained her whole life for combat. She was not portrayed as attractive to men as she was mannish. I liked her character and she added to the story and in no way set off any BS meter.