The Unbroken by C.L. ClarkMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
C.L. Clark at one point wrote an article for Tor.com challenging the trope of the "butch martyr" in SFF, citing specific examples of Gideon the Ninth and The Traitor Baru Cormorant. This, then, is her extended challenge to that trope, with lesbian leads and their complicated dynamics - but also adding to that complication, the colonial setting, heavily inspired by North Africa under French imperial rule (Touraine is Qazāli, analogous to Moroccan or Algerian but forced to deny her true nationality in the colonial armed forces, while Luca is Balladairan, which is all but straight up French just like Aquitaine in Heidi Heilig's For a Muse of Fire.) Based on the acknowledgments section, Clark really did her research with French and Moroccan institutions alike, and the setting and themes remain as urgent and timely as ever today. I wasn't as invested in the characters, though. I could suspect that there'd be a certain Court of Fives playbook of decolonization for them to follow...but the ending was a huge surprise, setting up some twists to lead into a second book that I'm hoping will play out a little more in the style of An Ember in the Ashes, with characters whose complexities makes them even more worth rooting for.
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