A fairly fun romp. There was less visualization of traveling through Purgatory, which is a sadface.

These books are pretty short and are basically adventure novels, so there's not a whole lot to get offended by, characterization-wise. Silence is the only really fleshed-out character, so there's not much to say about the poly relationship. Chase Mago and Balthazar are mostly archetypes, and half of the book was Silence in a harem so there was even less space to flesh them out.

This isn't a bad thing - it means even less space to run into disagreements between gender theories of the 1980s and 2020's. That said, there are like three lines of genetic gender assignment that would be pretty not-great today (but then again it's in a pretty misogynistic society so maybe it still passes a little? But either way, not great).

The stuff about Silence not being very good at being a tradfem woman was interesting, more so her getting called out on it by another woman. There are some deeper questions to be asked about whether women could present Silence's powers and remain more feminine, but (a) I think it's also tied to the extremely masculine nature of the jobs she takes and the power they convey and (b) it's not that kind of book.

A lot of deeper societal questions lurk underneath - and I don't think many of the answers about the worldbuilding reflect badly on Scott, even when viewed through a 2020's lens - but I'll just enjoy a queer-positive space romp from before I was born. ( )

This is the second book of the trilogy following Silence Leigh, a pilot, and now mage, in a universe in which magic is used to travel FTL between worlds. Silence has been accepted as a candidate for training by the mages, despite the fact no woman has ever displayed, or been seen or acknowledged to display, any ability as a mage previously. But the hegemon is still after her because she broke his geas, and the Rose Worlders, guardians of the road to Earth, are also after her because she nearly broke past the siege engines they use to blockade the route to Earth. While researching routes to Earth – entirely ex-curricula and without permission – at the mages’ college, Silence discovers a reference to an ancient book of interstellar navigation, the portolan. And the only person likely to have a copy of this ancient text is the satrap of Inarime, who is fortunately a friend of Silence’s teacher, the mage Isambard. And, happily, the satrap does prove to own a portolan. Unhappily, there is a price for it. The hegemon has the satrap’s daughter in the Palace of Women, a strongly-guarded seraglio on the Hegemony’s capital planet. Silence must free the daughter in order to win the portolan. And that’s what this novel is about. Silence infiltrating the Palace of Women. Silence discovering what life is like in the Palace of Women. Silence plotting to escape the Palace of Women with the satrap’s daughter. It’s all good stuff. It goes without saying that Silence succeeds, with help from the daughter, although it’s a close-run thing. But then… Silence in Solitude jumps the shark. As part of the escape plan, the satrap’s fleet attacks the capital world as a diversion. But they run into the hegemon’s fleet and battle is joined. And the satrap’s side is losing. Until Silence does some magic stuff and re-tunes her ship’s keel so it sends out a note that destroys all the hegemon’s ships. And so the satrap becomes the new hegemon, and Silence is a heroine. The sections set in the Women’s Palace are good, as is the bit where Silence is taught magery… but her two husbands, Chase Mago and Balthasar, are still only sketched in, and even Isambard seems more like a stereotype than an actual character. But the satrap’s daughter, Aili, is quite good, the plot mostly romps along, and the background is pretty interesting. So far, this is proving to be a fun trilogy. ( )

This is the second in Scott's The Roads of Heaven trilogy, and unlike in many ways to the first. This novel starts with Silence in mage-training, but tevents force her, her husbands (yes, both of them) and her magus master on the run. To escape, they are forced to make a deal with an old acquaintance of her master. He will remove the price on their head and give them the map to Earth they need in exchange for the impossible - Silence must rescue his daughter and heir from the heart of the very government trying to capture them. Again the story starts a bit slow, but picks up quickly and by the end, is edge-of-your-seat. I liked watching Silence grow. Having spent most of her life with men, in a "man's" job, or being asked to pretend to be a man (or to act less female) it was interesting to see her navigate an entirely feminine setting. Even though she is female, she holds most females in contempt, doubting their intelligence and worth - simply because they are not like her. To see her change as a character made the book that much more interesting.
There are some cheesy bit, and the end was a bit far-fetched (SPOILER: I mean, if you can change or damage another ship's keelsong that easily, why doesn't everyone do that?) But in the end, the story is not about the battle of the Hegemon and I understand what Scott didn't want to spend loads of time on that. The story is about getting to Earth - and by the end of this second novel, Silence, her Husbands and her mentor have all they need to make the trip. I'm eager for the third and final to see where Scott takes us on this journey. ( )