I actually like this review, which is generally positive but points out problematic aspects in Reaver.
Probably unsurprisingly to anyone reading this, both these things got a lot of discussion and thought behind the scenes.
In probably either case, where I actually came down is likely to seem like weak sauce to at least some people, although honestly, no one has taken me to task for the stuff that’s in the book.
Reaver spoilers ahead, more or less.
In the case of Rekala and why she ended up in prison, it’s basically a matter of what felt right and real for the world, and what it conveys to the readers about the world.
Which, you know, as the creator it’s a choice. The kind of thing that got Rekala there is one I generally stay away from, and I struggle with what feels real and what’s creatively ethical to do. And I’m still not sure I got it right.
I can say, and this won’t matter to the reader unless the series gets far enough to address it, that what the reviewer thinks happened and what actually happened there aren’t quite the same.
But as far as that issue goes, it’s a moot point.
(Rekala is also not the only woman in the group, for what it’s worth)
On Mahan’s race. This one was tricky, too. The fundamental problem here is that everyone is awful. Actually, Mahan isn’t, but the key quality he has is that he can pass for the enemy, who’s presented as being monsters.
Which is true as far as it goes, but the Imperials, who he is one of, aren’t any better. So if we coded the Escalene or the Imperials as something standing in as a race on Earth, we get all kinds of implications.
This comes up with the Rael, as well. Their position is that of indigenous peoples who’ve been fucked with by (several) more technologically advanced colonial powers.
That bit is obvious (and explicit) but making them proxies for real world peoples also brings up a lot of implications and assumptions.
So in all of these, I went for a third option, which is that these ethnic make ups are all completely arbitrary (just like the real world) and different for the reader.
The characters, if asked, would not describes themselves as all one race, and the differences to them are clear. They are by design not so to the reader, but it’s tricky to get that point across.
Rekala herself makes the point (if not in issue one, in issue two, but I think it’s here) that SHE can’t tell the difference between the Imperials and the Escalane.
And indeed, there’s no such thing as ‘the Rael’ – that’s just a name the Imperials have for a thousand different cultures they never bothered to understand.
Like the above thing, I’m still not sure this was the best way to go, but I did give it a great deal of thought.
Incidentally, the Imperials are roughly analogous to the English, and the Escalene are more or less the French.