In February, I attended the book launch for bestselling author Samantha Shannon’s newest novel The Dark Mirror. Shannon is most known for her beautiful brick of a novel Priory of the Orange Tree, which is around 800 pages of high fantasy epicness, selling millions of copies worldwide and becoming a number one bestseller. The book was astronomically successful, rising to prominence partly due to that literary kingmaker we call TikTok. Her most famous novel is an epic high fantasy taking place in a completely fictional — though painstakingly and expertly crafted — world spanning multiple continents and POVs, drawing inspiration from the medieval era and legends like Saint George and the dragon, with a feminist retelling.
However, The Dark Mirror is the fifth novel of her debut book series The Bone Season. This series is a little more down to earth, though only just. We are at least on Earth — in London and Oxford to be precise — though not as we know them. The series is a unique blend of dystopia and fantasy, with Shannon demonstrating her complete mastery of genre to make something truly original and consistently surprising, yet somehow still managing to include a generous smattering of well-loved and effective tropes.
We follow our protagonist Paige Mahoney, who is a young Irish woman in the Citadel of London within the oppressive Scion Republic — a dystopian empire established 200 years ago, based around the hunting and extermination of clairvoyants. Voyants are a segment of the population who are able to communicate with the aether — the spiritual realm — in some way, and can tell the future or summon spirits amongst a variety of other unique talents.
Scion works hard to hunt these voyants down, forcing many to live in secret and take part in less than scrupulous work — leading to the establishment of a supernatural underworld within London, run by the Unnatural Assembly. Paige, at only 19, holds a powerful position thanks to her unique gift. However, she soon finds that there is more to Scion than meets the eye, as she is imprisoned and whisked away to the prison-city of Oxford, where she is kept as a soldier and trained at the orders of the mighty Rephaim — an otherworldly species who may have been pulling the strings all along.
When queuing outside the venue I noticed that there were significantly more women than men, and almost no men by themselves, whereas there were several women attending solo. This was made more apparent when I went to sit down, and it was hard to spot any more than a couple of men sitting in the audience.
Samantha Shannon's book launch for The Dark Mirror
This raised some overarching questions about women authors and stories about women in the fantasy genre. I wondered if the conspicuous lack of men was because of the nature of the book. Unlike Shannon's sprawling epic Priory of the Orange Tree, The Bone Season is written in first person from Paige’s perspective, giving it one distinct voice and allowing audiences to really get to know Paige. Maybe a first person novel from the perspective of a young woman does not hold much appeal for a male audience. However, other fantasy books with a female protagonist but written by men — for example the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson — do not draw a noticeably female-heavy audience.
Is it also to do with the perception of women authors in fantasy? There may be a prejudice that this book will be a "romantasy", which may appeal less to men for whatever reasons. Are women authors given less of a chance by a large male audience, simply because they are women and therefore could not possibly reach the dizzying heights and talents of writers like George RR Martin?
Ultimately, it does come down to the fact that there are some men who are simply unwilling or uninterested in reading books by women. Research published in The Guardian found that, for the top 10 bestselling female authors, only 19% of their audience are men — compared to a much more equal 55% men to 45% women split for the top 10 male bestselling authors. Keeping in mind that it is now consistently women who are topping the bestsellers list, this is a glaring disparity.
It is also true that nowadays women are simply reading more than men, as the below chart from Deloitte Insights makes very clear.
Additionally, the previous dominance of men in the fantasy genre has led to the exclusion of female characters. Women in seminal fantasy novels often lack agency or a voice, written as passive objects within the narrative and waiting on a man, rather than actively making decisions to drive the plot. Therefore, I think it is understandable that female readers have embraced fantasy as much as they have, with new female writers who can write from a so-called ‘woman’s perspective’. To me, that just means writing women as full-fledged people with their own thoughts.
This significantly plays into the subject of romance and female authors seem more likely to write romances that appeal to other women. Their female characters are equal partners in their relationship and have male counterparts that listen and view them as such. These men are more than content to let the woman be the hero — as opposed to simply sweeping in to save a helpless, inert damsel now and again.
This is very much the case in Shannon’s The Bone Season. The series' central love story is between Paige and her “keeper” Warden within the prison of Oxford, who is tasked with training and supervising her. Like many love interests in the romantasy genre, he is an immortal being of over 200 years old at least. Shannon said at the launch that she was heavily influenced by Twilight in the early stages of the series’ inception. This is a clearly unbalanced power dynamic, he is her jailor, and has several centuries on 19-year-old Paige. This dynamic is not lost on Shannon, nor an unfortunate side effect of romantasy tropes. In fact, the often-changing dynamic between them is one of the most compelling parts of the series and skilfully manipulated by Shannon. It becomes clear that Warden is as much a prisoner as Paige and, in the revolution they plan together, he must repeatedly put his life in her hands. While he may have centuries of wisdom, it is Paige with her leadership and bravery that proves to be the spark for revolution and Warden’s eventual freedom.
A sharp contrast is drawn between their situations in the first two novels. Paige is initially reliant on Warden as she is in the treacherous world of the Rephs in Oxford, yet in the second she is back in London and Warden and the rest of the rebels rely on her power within and knowledge of the criminal underworld. This dynamic is aptly summed up by Paige after they have been separated at the beginning of the second novel of the series: "You needed me to start this... I need you to help me end it".
This leads to the question of whether the series counts as "romantasy". First of all, we should briefly look at how audiences identify a romantasy, as it is really down to the audience — sometimes even against the author’s wishes or intentions. The romance often focuses around heterosexual couples, with surprisingly traditional male love interests — leaders who are conventionally masculine and often older and wiser than the women the stories follow. However, crucially — at least in hallmark series by authors like Sarah J Maas — the protagonist is always a woman who gives as good as she gets. Though, there are plenty of times where the big strong man swoops in to save her. That’s part of the fun after all.
Cover art for The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon
(Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)
There’s a worthwhile question over whether this is really as empowering and progressive as proponents of romantasy claim. It shows the duality of a woman in a relationship able to fend for herself, but also being fallible and requiring saving now and again. However, it can also feel like a repackaging of the age-old trope of women being saved by a wiser, more capable man. This often depends on the book, and does not feel like the case for Paige and Warden, whose relationship is much more give and take than that.
For me, if the female protagonist is constantly requiring saving by a much more competent male love interest — and is a damsel in distress besides her witty banter and ‘feisty personality’, which can quickly become irritating when she is in a man’s arms for the seventh time — then I don’t particularly find it empowering. The trope, which can often be a climatic and enjoyable moment, becomes condescending. Supposedly "strong" female main characters can sometimes be the damsels in distress of old, shrouded in witty banter and a prickly personality — though I am pleased to report this is not the case for Paige and Warden.
So for me, the answer is no, The Bone Season is not romantasy. I argue that romantasy has to in some way feel as if it is pandering, or something close to that, as well as conforming closely to the aforementioned tropes and character archetypes. Romantasy is essentially exploiting exactly what readers want to read in a tropey and indulgent fashion. This does not mean that they cannot be well-written books with engaging plots and characters, or that there is anything wrong with them, but there is certainly an indulgent nature to the books and they can sometimes feel formulaic.
The Bone Season expertly utilises some of these tropes and dynamics, making for an exciting and enjoyable read — yet turns a lot of them on their head. There is a feeling that the romance has been carefully paced and allocated time in the story. It does contribute to Paige’s development, but it's certainly not the most central factor of the plot, nor the largest preoccupation of her thoughts. I believe this is why the series is not found amongst the endless amount of romantasy recommendations on TikTok. It is not conventional enough to be forced into this label.
The Dark Mirror is available to buy in bookshops now.
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