I did not know words could do that.
As I read this book, I kept highlighting individual sentences because I was just so impressed with the way Khaw uses words. She had me at “Her casual numinosity is frankly offensive.”
But I begin in the middle, let me start from the beginning. I am recently on a quest to find books about angry women hurting things. I read and adored Red Sonja by Gail Simone and, in continuing to look for other stories about angry women beating the shit out of terrible people, I found Cassandra Khaw’s The All-Consuming World.
Content Warning: This is an exceptionally violent novel, even by my standards. “Gouging out someone’s eyes with one’s thumbs as a greeting”-level violence. It was great.
Here is the summary from Amazon: “In space, everything hungers.
Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies during her dangerous career with the Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir.
The highly evolved AI of the galaxy will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle both sapient ageships and their own traumas, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.”
That about covers that what. The who takes up the bulk of the book. What drives Maya and her former comrades takes up the rest. And holy shit is this a really good, really compelling, really queer book.
The queerness here is fascinating. There is no romance and no sex in the main relationship, only a highly toxic Stockholm Syndrome, but it is still very much a relationship and deeply queer, not just because the people caught in, up, and by it, is are women and non-binary people. This is a story rooted deeply in pain and trauma and in different ways to move past it, to let it fuel you, and to keep it around, to keep burning up with anger. There is one happy ending here and it’s very sad.
My only complaint, as such, is that I hope there is a sequel, as there is a lot left undone at the end that I would like to see done.
Ratings:
Overall – 8
If you are looking for the anger of angry queer folks in fiction to fuel yourself, I can highly recommend The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw. Once again, I link to Amazon here, but I read this on Libby, though my library system. Get your library card and get into Libby or Overdrive or whatever digital resources they have and get reading! Using your local library is the best way to advocate for it.
