Sigh. This book is so dated. It is mired in a kind of second-wave white woman feminist writing where a woman encounters several deeply misogynistic cultures and is constantly being told " a woman with a sword there is no such thing" to which she responds "not only am I a swordswoman, I am the best one." It also doesn't help that these misogynistic cultures are heavily coded to be allegories for non-white peoples and non-white countries trafficking in such orientalist tropes as cannibalism, white slavery (this is actually the crux of the entire plot), polygamy etcetera (and I have to say that this author seems to be particularly guilty of this because even though I enjoy shapechangers! for its pulpy-ness, I do think it is kind of a similarly racist portrayal of indigenous people). I did think that the dynamic between tiger and del is very good because the arc is tiger's and he is allowed to grow out of his misogyny. The problem with every single person being a misogynist is that del's personality gets relegated to constantly telling people that she can do the thing, and it is exhausting. So we don't really get told important things about del by del herself. Instead we have other characters explaining del's backstory. This isn't helped by the fact that this book is entirely Tiger's pov, so we don't really get inner world. ( )

Loved it just as much as back in the day. ( )

More or less popcorn. ( )

Sword-Dancer is the story of Sandtiger, a famous Southron sword-dancer, who is hired by a Northern woman to guide her through the fierce desert to rescue her brother, a slave in the South. This woman, Delilah, or Del is a sword-singer who is as good as Tiger, and this grates on Tiger's Southron ideas.

It is a decent sword-and-sandals fantasy. The narrator (Tiger, the sword dancer) can get a little annoying with his machismo. The author made up swear words for her characters (hoolies instead of hell, and the like) much like the frak of BSG, and that can get a little annoying because the main character is always using them. Having read the series before, it wasn't quite as good the second time through, but I also remember the later books being better. ( )