Transgender dwarves are everything that is wrong with modern fantasy. Well okay maybe not everything, but it’s still a very jarring thing to encounter in a book that you were actually looking forward to reading.
I made the now very clear mistake to pick up and start reading The Dungeoneers by Jeffery Russell. I was looking for a dwarf story maybe with a little dungeon crawling thrown in; which is what the book’s description promised. Although the tongue in cheek humor rubbed me wrong at the time I was unable to find a ‘serious dwarf story’ and decided to take my chances.
So I started reading and the first chapter in this epic adventure series was about food. While there was one or two cringe lines there was at least an element of characterization and world building and I was happy to press on.
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Then came chapter two and we learn that Dwarven gender issues are complicated when we meet Ginny.
“Dwarves are sequential hermaphroditic parthenogens,” Ruby said, anticipating his question.
“What?”
“They can change back and forth from male to female and are capable of fertilizing themselves to make more dwarves. They exhibit what we regard as male characteristics, typically, but some favor a more feminine approach.”
Russell, Jeffery. The Dungeoneers (p. 20). Kindle Edition.
How fascinating and current year. This would have been a welcome twist if not for the fact that this is a dwarf book that I specifically bought looking for at least semi-traditional dwarves only to be confronted with reddit-tier clever boy plot twists that will almost certainly lead to some sort of weird fetish crap down the line.
If I wanted that I’d just read some edgy Drow fan fiction or pick up the latest monster-f***er romance novel at a local bookstore. (Misunderstood Were Pandas in Love, perhaps?)
“So, the changing sex thing. How does that work? Does it take a while or is it the sort of thing that might happen in the middle of a conversation?”
Russell, Jeffery. The Dungeoneers (p. 21). Kindle Edition.
Ginny (currently identifying as a female dwarf) is also the second in command of the expedition. Will that lead to girlbossing? The plague of modern fiction. I can’t be arsed to find out because now after this massive red flag I have to read cautiously with my woke-dar pinging away searching for hidden minefields. Immersion completely broken. I’m told Dragon Age players are having the same problem.
This is why modern fantasy is dying and why gamers and readers are praying for a return to 1990’s Dungeons and Dragons. There’s even a few BroSR fanatics calling for a return to the 70’s but most people would be happy with 3.5 era content.
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Dwarves are the most static and traditional of Western fantasy races. Elves can be diverse, exciting and often color coded for your convenience. Orcs can be walking mushrooms or happy Mexicans with a taste for human flesh burritos. Nobody can seem to agree on what a kobold is and yes the giants can always be bigger. However a dwarf is a freaking dwarf and no change is for the better.
Again my issue here is that this weird gender stuff in is a dwarf-centric book and it’s simply bad worldbuilding that puts the rest of the setting into question. Besides if the dwarves are this degenerate what by the abyss are the ELVES into?
Anyway I tapped out of this book on page 26; finding the main viewpoint human character to have been made intentionally boring and NPClike; well before we find out whether the local mega-dungeon is wheelchair accessible. Plenty of other books to read. Including John C. Wright’s latest: Starquest: Space Pirates of Andromeda.
UPDATE: I’ve been told Dungeoneers and indeed the entire series gets much, MUCH worse. This was not a simple smart boy joke or a clever twist. This was a deliberate sexual perversion and possibly the central focus of the series. Exactly the kind of degenerate garbage that we here seek to fight and provide alternatives for.
I may be forced to continue reading just out of morbid curiosity. Pray for me, frens.
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Article by Wolfman.
If anything actually deserves a trigger warning, something like that does.