Beyond Selidor

Thirty Day Book Meme Day 15: Favorite fictional father mother

I'm switching this to mother rather than father, because I honestly can't think of a book with a good father character — most of the books I've read have either terrible fathers, or they're dead. Good mothers are a bit easier to find (although a lot of them are dead in the fiction I read too). My favourite, however, is Kiya from Kate Elliott's Court of Fives — a story of the slow build to revolution of a colonised people against their colonisers (the setting is inspired by Ptolemaic Egypt). Kiya, a mother of four daughters at the start of the series (and mother to two more children by the end of it), is from the colonised people, and her husband (or rather, partner, as it's illegal for them to marry) is a soldier from the colonisers, and over the course of the series their relationship unravels as it becomes apparent that individual people's qualities and feelings are not enough to overcome deeply entrenched systematic and structural iniquities.

I'll add what I wrote about Kiya in my review of the final book:

But the character who meant the most to me was Jessamy’s brilliant mother Kiya, who was given a prominence and authority rarely seen in portrayals of mothers in YA literature. Kiya’s strength comes from her identity as a mother, and all the skills we later see her deploying are those she honed as a parent: care for others, the ability to juggle multiple tasks while also looking ahead to the near and distant future, a strong sense others and their needs and motives, and the ability to console and inspire. It is because of, and not in spite of, these strengths that she becomes the leader of the revolution sweeping Efua, and it was profoundly moving to me to see a character like Kiya honoured, lauded and respected in this way.

This is why she's my favourite.


16. Can't believe more people haven't read.
17. Future classic.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.