Swedish writer and blogger Pernilla Lindgren, author of Alvhilda, has a project where she reads and grades modern Swedish fantasy novels based mainly on gender issues, such as how women and men are depicted and how they interact. How much is cliché? How much of old fashioned gender roles are represented? And so on.

I sent her my novel, mainly because the two main female characters have received praise. And right now, she is reading it! (Scroll down a bit and keep your eyes to the right.)

It will be very interesting to read her conclusions. The setting is, after all, a very conservative one, even though I have tried to give the women credible voices and make them strong without reverting to the same old fantasy cliché: A strong woman is one who kills just as well as men, while wearing substantially less.