After saving the Amazonian Queen’s daughter’s life, Deidra is asked to go undercover in the village of Pyrnthia. She is to do everything she can to get abducted by the men of Metropolis if they raid the village of Pyrnthia again. Metropolis is building a defense wall that the Amazonian Queen believes can withstand any attack. Deidra’s job is to make sure that King Alexander, the Son of Ares, never accomplishes this. She meets Kern. Kern is a Son of Earth and possibly a by-product of the Amazonian procreation rituals. He himself wants to escape his life of drudgery and constant sexual assault by these Arcadian women, so he offers to take Diedra to Metropolis and protect her against the possible rape or unwanted sexual advances of men by pretending to be her husband.
“I envy them. They may have to steal to survive, but in Metropolis they have one thing I can never have in Elysia-choice.”-Kern in the novel Heart of an Amazon.
The next thing we know is Deidra is teaching Kern how to fight.
Queen Brianna’s and Hera’s covert operation against Metropolis exposes their brand of feminist misandry. Deidra interactions with Kern reveal this hypocrisy. In the prolog, Deianeira (Deidra) is participating in her first Great Hunt where the Amazonian women procreate with random men once a year. Kern reveals that men from neighboring tribes volunteer but if they do not meet the required numbers, the Children of Earth are drugged, wear masks and are forced to participate. This Great Hunt though not recounted as such is nothing but an institutionalized form of rape. It’s unacceptable; rape demeans its victims regardless of gender. The poignant conversation/dialogue between Deidra and Kern and the descriptive emotions felt by both parties, by the author of the Great Hunt were intense and put me in a weirdly sensitive mood because it involved innocent children. I am not a parent, but I felt what Kern felt. Being forced to father children that might end up trapped in the same cycle of life “as a reluctant sperm donor’ is undesirable.
Unwilling to father another lost child, Kern tells Deidra about the Bonfire of Demeter where the women engage in creative, artful promiscuity by having sexual relations with several drugged//drunk men. The paternity of the children conceived is irrelevant; the men are just a means to maintain the Amazonian population. According to Deidra, the male children were given back to Demeter to be used for labor and breeding.
Five days after the bonfire, Alexandra attacks Pyrthia. Kern requests to join the Raiders with Deidra posing as his wife just like they planned. Of course, Alexander is suspicious because the Sons of Earth and the Daughters of Demeter are not allowed to marry, but he allows it.
Once in Metropolis, Deidra defends herself against Tragor, one of the Warriors, from rape at the granary, unaware of Alexandra watching. Now he knows she is an Amazon and asks her to teach the women to fight and defend themselves against the not so best examples of humanity of Metropolis. You see, Metropolis is a city built by outcasts and the King himself is a reject of Athena.
Deidra’s time in Metropolis, Alexander personality and Kern dismantle her justifiable prejudice. Would Deidra break her Amazonian oath? And if she does, would she be willing to face the consequences? Would she give up her life to protect the King she was sent to spy?
My thoughts
Feminists will hate me for this, I mean the phony feminists who like to perpetuate the traditional myth that women are always the victims.
I am antipathetic to feminism that is why I absolutely loved how the author sabotaged this ideology to be inoperative.
Amazonian Queen Brianna’s reign is nothing but a feminist movement full of hate. While I enjoy imaginative fiction with woman warriors, it is nothing but a feminist's dream. Women and men are not equal by any standards; they just compliment each other. Men and women have different skill sets and abilities. That is just reality. I am a woman and not insulted by this. I can influence society without resorting to acting like a man.
Was the book really that good? Hell Yeah, A Surprisingly moving romantic story, one of the best books I have read thus far, this year.
