Archive for the Queer Fiction Category


Summer Reading: Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

June 3rd, 2018

Today we’re going to take a look at a book I first mentioned back in December, when I wrote up a quick list of Queer-friendly Science Fiction novels. 

Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer, is the first of the Terra Ignota series, which includes Seven Surrenders, which I have also read, and The Will to Battle, which is on my to-read list.

I don’t have a simple way to describe Too Like the Lightning, because it is not a simple story. In a future where humanity has chosen to band together based on philosophical affinity in Hives, in a time of abundant peace, prosperity, gender and racial equality, the world is about to face a crisis from which it has already recovered and the world remade. But what, exactly, the circumstances and who, exactly, the players in that crisis and recovery are, is the subject of what is one of the most exacting books I have ever read and enjoyed. 

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that this novel took 100% concentration from me. I often felt as if I could not look away from it, or all the details might slip from my grasp. 

I would also like to apologize to my much-maligned college professor of 18th century literature, because while I hated reading French philosophers at the time, (and still harbor negative feelings about Jean-Paul Rousseau,) I find that I needed every last bit of my remembered knowledge of 18th century French philosophers to help me get through this. I’m not saying that you need a familiarity with 18th century French philosophy (religion, mysticism, etc) to follow this book, but it helped.

The plot follows a tale (told in 18th century broadsheet style, which was absolutely delightful and maddening) by an infamous criminal about the end and remaking of the world. Oh,  and politics, too. You should probably be able to follow global politics. And understand that gender equality does not mean gender politics disappear. Because “politic,” remember derives from “polis” meaning “city” and all politics are merely the state of affairs of any given society. 

Characters here are fascinating and complicated, rather than charming or relatable, although the protagonist, our infamous criminal is, unironically, both of those as well. Sexuality is not a thing in the way gender is, so that sexual relationships of all kinds have been destigmatized. There are polyamourous (spelling intentional), homosexual, pansexual characters and at least one that is transgender, although it doesn’t really apply anymore, since gender is not a consideration…until it becomes a major plot point. Several characters are variously gendered as the situation demands and “they” is the standard pronoun. Gender neutrality becomes important several times in the course of the story, although gender equality does not.

This book does have some graphic violence, in narrative if not action, and some sexual violence as well. If the politics don’t nauseate you, this might, so be warned.

While I recommend this book, I recommend it only to readers who can handle exceptional complexity in storytelling or those who really enjoy being challenged. If you’re looking for a light read, or prefer simple linear story-telling, this is not it.

That said, I absolutely do recommend this book and this series. Palmer’s writing is masterful. 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Thanks very much to Peter K for the recommendation! You hit the nail on the head with this one!





Winter Reading: A Whisper of Bones, a Jane Lawless Mystery

March 4th, 2018

Ellen Hart recently was named a Grandmaster of the Mystery Writer’s Association, a very great honor awarded to her by her peers. She’s written 33 novels, 25 of which are the Jane Lawless mysteries. Jane was one of the first out lesbian detective series that shepherded me through my 30s.  Hers was not a a story of  struggling with being closeted, as was Katherine A Forrest’s Kate Delafield, but she was, like Kate, an accomplished adult woman, with a life and friends (and she just happened to be good at solving mysteries.)

I have a soft spot for lesbian mysteries. It was the first genre of lesbian fiction that I could stand to read. Although a remarkable number of the detectives had shitty relationships and drank too much, in the time honored way of detectives everywhere, these were the first lesbians I had ever seen in popular fiction who existed in my world as lesbians. So I was willing to overlook a bunch of tired tropes. Including shitty relationships and alcoholism. ^_^

The last few Jane Lawless books have been a little uneven. I liked The Grave Soul, which I reviewed here in 2015. The beginning was very strong, but it thinned out a bit as the plot wore on. I didn’t review Fever in the Dark because it was a fine beach read, but nothing to hold on to.  But here I am again, this time reviewing her newest Jane Lawless book, A Whisper of Bones, because it did some very good things and some really not-good things.

To begin with, Minneapolis is now firmly lodged in my mind as a hotbed of creepy family mysteries and murder.  Maybe it’s time to take Jane on the road or it might begin to  affect tourism. ^_^

One of the not-good things is that it is now almost wholly implausible that Jane can run a restaurant and be absent so often and for so long. In this novel she literally walks out during a wine tasting at her restaurant at which the vitner is the guest of honor. I find it hard to believe that this could continue more than a short while before it began to take a toll on the well-being of the restaurant.

Another weak point was Jane’s implied incipient alcoholism in the last two books has just disappeared. And, of course she has a shitty relationship. As horrible as it sounds, I was looking forward to the impending death of her shitty girlfriend, but no luck so far.

The final weak point is one of the characters that fans love best, Jane’s friend Cordelia. In 1990, Cordelia, a kind of femle Oscar Wilde, was a delight. In 2018, she’s a tad wearing. Luckily for this book, she’s also given a lighter, more human touch, which made her less a piece of ornate scenery and more of an actual character.

The good things all revolve around the mystery itself. Hart’s got a great talent at creating creepy, moody set pieces that work out completely differently than  a reader could possibly imagine. And it’s that talent makes this book enjoyable. The right people end up happily, the right people don’t and there’s a bonus “you could not possibly have known” thing that feels a bit like the cherry on top. 

Ratings:

Overall – 8

As a fun bit of winter reading without making me (or allowing me) to work too hard at it, A Whisper of Bones is  a good choice to enjoy some light reading about a lesbian private detective surrounded by death, disease and lies.

Thanks very much to the publishing company, St. Martin’ Press, for the review copy!





Winter Reading: Queer-Friendly Science Fiction

December 20th, 2017

I know I usually write about non-Yuri stuff on Sundays, but I’ve read a pile of great science fiction recently that I wanted to share with you before the holiday season slams down on all of us and I spend my days slaving over end-of-year lists.

To start things off, I highly recommend the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie. The Sad/Rabid Puppies hated this series with the burning of thousand fiery dyspeptic stomachs, which was good enough for me to give it a try. ^_^ I’ll do my best to no-spoiler synopsize the books, but no promises.

The series, which consists of three books –  Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy – follows an artificial intelligence that runs a troopship, Justice of Toren. The timeline of the first novel is split as Justice of Toren tells us of her experiences before and after a massively traumatic experience forces her to involve herself in the personal politics of the rule of the Imperium. The language of the Empire is non-gendered, and Justice of Toren is herself not really all that keyed into understanding gender, she she defaults to calling everyone “she.” (And for the moment, so will I.) This enraged the Puppies, as did some implied and actual homosexuality. It’s true that the different perspective on gendered language makes the book difficult for some folks, but of itself not enough to call the series good. That said, the story is not good – it’s brilliant. Characters, writing, world-building are all impeccably tight and extremely well-constructed. Leckie’s ability to create a society based around the principles of the Roman Empire that feel fresh and also very human, and her ability to create characters that are not at all human in stark contrast is astounding.

I have literally one complaint about this series and it has nothing to do with the series itself, but entirely is about my own needs as a reader. We – unfortunately, IMHO – do learn the sex of several of the main characters, when gendered language is used. I felt that to be a bit of a betrayal of the core concept. Other than that one thing, I found the entire series to be compelling reading. I’ve got Leckie’s next book, Provenance on my to-read list.

My next book of interest was Martha Wells’, All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries. This follows an artificial intelligence security bot, who refers to itself as “Murderbot” assigned to protect a scientific expedition. When it appears that they are being sabotaged, Murderbot teams up with it’s humans (despite it being generally uninterested and incapable of dealing with humans all that well) to find out what the heck is going on. 

Based on the size of this book and it’s font, I assumed it was an YA novel. I certainly could have read it easily in one sitting had I had the time. Even so it only took me two evenings to finish it. It was amusing, rather than compelling. I found myself fascinated by the behaviors of the protagonist who, despite calling itself Murderbot, seemed a peaceable enough being. There is also homosexuality in the story and gender and sexuality are topics that are covered within the story. Murderbot was, like Breq in the Imperial Radch series, not interested in sex for themselves, although it understood the concepts, and was, unlike Breq, not very good at relating to humans. More and more as the story unfolded I started developing an idea about AI behavior being patterned after or reflecting our understanding of neuroatypical thought. I can totally see the behaviors associated folks on the Asperger Spectrum reflected in these characters. I am not saying “ASD folks are like robots” or that they are inhuman. I am saying neuroatypical folks might see themselves reflected, as I did. These AIs were empathetic for me and they allowed me to see my own neuroatypicality reflected as I watched them process human relations. It seemed to me to a useful lens with which to understand my own processes.

I’m wrapping up a third book about an AI tonight (I’m still not sure if the trend here is with stuff that’s being published or just me, honestly). Autonomous: A Novel by Annalee Newitz is good, but I have some reservations about it. It follows a pharmaceutical drug pirate and biotech engineer, a woman who goes by the name Jack, as she seeks to stop an outbreak of a deadly adverse event in a reverse engineered drug she’s bootlegging. The powers that be have sent a human-AI team to track her down.

Sexuality and gender are part of the plot in this story. Jack is bisexual and that’s a non-issue, but the human detective Eliasz and his AI partner Paladin have a sexual relationship, as well. And this is where my reservations come in. Paladin is a military-grade bot, and is therefore gendered by humans as male. Eliasz has a very self-loathingly homophobic reaction to his own attraction to Paladin. When they commence an actual relationship, Eliasz ask Paladin whether he should refer to it as a he or a she. Paladin chooses “She.” I 100% support Paladin having a choice and the choice she makes, but, by making it, she allows Elisz to skip over his very serious issue with homophobia. And Paladin realizes this. So she appreciates the act of being able to consent and the fact that she is an active participant, not just a receptacle, but also thinks this is more complicated than Eliasz realizes. I agree. I’m not done with this book, should be wrapping it up tonight, so maybe I’ll feel differently in a few hours…but I don’t think so.

Also queued for me is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer, which I am told also deals with gender in an intelligent way. It’s worth noting that Tor is really reach out to find and publish interesting books on sexuality and gender (and by women,) and so are getting a lot of my money these days. ^_^

If you’ve read anything you think people ought to know about for their winter reading, throw it out in the comments! We can all always use a good book recommendation.

 

 





Winter Reading: “Abyss” Novel Series by Emily Skrustkie

November 12th, 2017

 It’s kind of obvious to most people interested in and embedded in pop culture that we are going through a massive cultural cramp right now as previously silenced and controlled voices find that they don’t actually have to be quiet to protect other people’s fragile sensibilities.

The folks who have decided that gaming and perverting the awards systems to fuel their egos; Gamergate, the few people left arguing that Jane Foster as Thor or female Ghostbusters destroys their childhoods and the Sad and Rabid Puppies are, in a nutshell, pathetic. But they, and their political counterparts, have done the rest of us a service. They serve as a sign post to a miserable, regressive position on the future.  And by being those signposts, we can just as easily look in the opposite direction for inspiration.  And so, I have been spending my days reading science fiction and fantasy again as I had not in many years. I’m using the puppies’ “Do Not Want” lists as my to-read list, and it’s been great.I don’t think I’ve been this happy reading science fiction and fantasy in decades. It’s not suitable for Okazu, but I finished Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor last week. If you have a YA reader of any age who liked Harry Potter or who wished not all magic users were white or male, have them start with Akata Witch. Brilliant stuff. I’m also reading Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, which I’ll be reviewing here. 

But today I want to talk about a different kind of monster than those who inhabits the Internets. Today we’re talking about giant monsters. Giant Sea Monsters.

Emily Skrutskie’s The Abyss Surrounds Us follows sea-beast trainer Cassandra Leung on her first day testing her skills in controlling the giant monster, the Reckoner, she has trained to fight pirates. Instead of taking down the pirates, Cassandra is captured and forced to train a Reckoner that will belong to the pirates themselves.  

The dialogue and plot are pretty-high tension, as befits both Cas’ character and the situation. There’s violence which is wholly appropriate to the story. And there’s a sexual tension and relationship that builds up between Cas and her captor Swift, who is one of four trainees’ being groomed by their strict, strong and openly manipulative captain, Santa Elena. Swift wants to be captain someday and she’s probably going to be.

The two best things about the series are the way that pirates are portrayed as pretty much terrible people and the Reckoners. There’s alliances, rather than friendships among the pirates…even within a crew. And Santa Elena plays the trainees off of one another, so none of them know enough to take over individually and they don’t know enough to gang up on her and take over together. Skrutskie takes the kind of manipulation and maneuvering we all know from school and work and lays it out as the actual standard operating procedure of the ship.  The beasts are portrayed as beasts. No warm fuzzy mammal-bonding here. These are giant sea-going creatures like squids and whales and turtles, trained to be ship-destroying machines. They are terrifying.

Edge of the Abyss begins a few weeks after Cas has been captured and has negotiated her place in the crew. It opens the world of the pirates up a little larger, and we can see the symbiosis between the pirates and the oceans and their prey, the ships from the land countries. The story swirls more tightly around Swift and Cas’ relationship and how it affects their work, the crew and the larger political relationship with the other pirates, and their relationship with the boats they attack.  But mostly, it’s about Cas and Swift. Their relationship is tempestuous, to say the least. 

The ending of Edge of the Abyss is abrupt, however, I felt it was the right choice to make. Stretching this book into a third story would have been forced and exhausting. By ending it the way she did, Skrutskie left room for a third book without needing cleanup of leftovers, and equally, she could leave this book where it is, wrapped up tightly without need for a sequel. 

Most importantly, Skrutskie has given us a more modern, more realistic, and yet still futuristic idea of pirates and piracy that fails to glorify the lifestyle, even as it is embedded within it. And it gives us an image of women and men as pirates on more or less equal footing without explanation or handwave. And, for us, it provides a same-sex young female couple without  coming of age or coming out clogging up the larger story.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I found these two books to be enjoyable. Perfect for teen or older reader looking for a more realistic image of pirates and less historical fantasy. No Johnny Depps need apply, but Natalie Portman would make a damn fine Santa Elena. 





Yuri Novel: Shoujo Mousouchuu. (少女妄想中。)

October 2nd, 2017

As I read Shoujo Mousouchuu. (少女妄想中。) by Iruma Hitoma, I pondered how I might translate the title, as I do. Is it more like the “Girl of my Delusion” or “The Delusional Girl?” This is not an idle thought, either. How I translate the title could easily affect how I saw the stories in the collection.

A girl in elementary school sees an older girl running by and spends the next decade running after that figure. Having rejected the friend who loves and desires her, she knows that her obsession is unhealthy, but can’t help running after her image of the running girl. A girl on the beach meets another girl with a strange name. They spend time together, and run away together…but are either of them real?

A girl falls in love with her aunt, who only has one eye. The story of the accident looms large, but not as large as the girl’s desire for this woman she can’t stop thinking about. A girl goes to the beach with a friend where they discover love for one another, but it was probably all a dream.

You see my point. Is the girl with the delusion the point or the girl being obsessed about? It’s not that easy to tell, as reality and delusion mix and merge and pull apart repeatedly in these stories. In the first story, Ao meets the running girl several times in her imagination before she encounters her as an adult many years later. And the entire love affair in the last story isn’t real at all. So as we read, we’re constantly being asked to re-evaluate the story and see it through two lenses, one of delusion and the other of reality.

Nothing at all happens. Nothing. Less than nothing. I mean, like Misaki and Shirone go to the beach, meet up in town and one day get on a train, then turn around and come back. The end. So if you’re looking for clear cut stories with beginnings and endings, this may not be the thing for you.  On the other hand…it was a pretty good book, I have to say. Not an easy read, especially when I was tired, but compelling enough that I often read a few pages more than I should have stayed up for.  

Ratings: 

Overall – 8

If you want to read something with a little light Yuri and a frisson of mindfuck, Shoujo Mousouchuu. isn’t a bad choice.