Archive for the Queer Fiction Category


Summer Reading: What Happened

October 1st, 2017

Well. That was cathartic.

What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, won’t fix anything. It won’t change the weaponization of social media we saw used so effectively (even now) by Russia and mercenary allies. It won’t change or fix the crushing misogyny and racism that is choking us as a society. It won’t fix that America’s always-flawed system has been irretrievably and possibly irreversibly damaged by the election of the least competent person to run for President in a hundred years to the highest position in the land. It won’t and cannot fix any of those things. Nor does it attempt to do so.

But as a clear-minded and reasonably balanced look at the many factors that loomed large in the 2016 USA Presidential election, this is a book that will be mandatory reading for decades, possibly centuries, to come.

It begins with Clinton thanking and praising so many people; the village that helped her campaign. And it never stops thanking her friends, her supporters, the people she spoke with, who canvassed for her, the press who traveled with her, her peers and coworkers in the government, her friends, family and all the folks who helped her make history as the first-ever female major party candidate for President. That achievement has been wholly ignored by everyone, but it’s an achievement, nonetheless.

Clinton breaks down all the mistakes she made even, and especially, ones she thought she managed to do right that were turned against her. She holds the media and Former FBI director James Comey accountable for their behaviors that contributed, both directly and indirectly, to her loss. And she speaks plainly about the ongoing “active measures” Putin is taking in elections around the western world. We’re seeing it in drives to secession from the successful Kurds to Catalonia, from Brexit to the ridiculous California secession movement – anything to fragment and destablize the west. And of course, she recognizes the decades-long hate campaign against her, personally, from days when she was the Arkanasas’ governor’s wife, through her days as First Lady right through the campaign. But the person she blames the most is herself.

After the stress of election night, she talks about how she put herself back together, about her new activism and about her renewed desire to be and stay active for women and children. Clinton’s voice is so distinct, I don’t know how one could read this book and not hear it as she would speak it.

This was not an easy book for me to read. It hurt – it hurts again right now as I review it. Every round of golf, every racial baiting tweet, every day that incompetent is in the White House, it hurts. Which is why I had to read it. But it also has moments of laugh-out-loud humor. And it ends with love and kindness…and hope.

This is a chronicle of the day the west fell. We all should know what happened.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

The weaponization of social media Clinton speaks of is still in full-force. Before the book even was available, hundreds of 1-star ratings appeared on Amazon and thousands of nasty comments appeared on the 5-star ratings. It’s not just bots – it’s people manipulated by propaganda spread by bots and partisan politics. On my review I commented that I had cried and laughed reading the book. The angry angry person who commented told me that no, I hadn’t. So much anger because of 30 years of lies about a woman who worked so hard to serve her country. It’s terrifying. And we still have to live in it.

 





Summer Reading: The Causal Angel (English)

September 10th, 2017

In May, I reviewed Hannu Rajienmi’s novel The Quantum Thief as a prelude to the rest of my summer reading. We meet and become involved with gentleman thief Jean Le Flambeur, whose escape from prison was a set-up by the woman who sent him there in the first place, his former lover and goddess, Founder Josephine Pellegrini. Set in a Solar System after the Earth has been destroyed, in which virtual and “real” existence are equivalent, wealth is measured in time, and the political forces arrayed against one another are complicated and multi-layered, this book was an absolutely fantastic read.

The second book of the series, The Fractal Prince, shifted the background to the foreground, as Jean becomes less of a focus and his partner-in-need, Mieli’s story starts to step up. Mieli, it turns out was working for The Pelligrini, and has been a double agent in Jeans’ camp since the moment she broke him out of jail. 

Now, as the summer comes to an end, I take a look at the the third book of the series, The Causal Angel. In this volume, all the various Zoku (temporary and permanent groups bonded by need or desire in the virtual realms) find themselves embroiled by Jean and Mieli (working together, but separately,) in a war amongst the technology-based Sobornost and the Founders, for the ability to shape reality itself. The book primarily follows Mieli, as she works her half of the plot developed by Jean to bring down the Founders themselves using the power of the Kaminari Jewel. Mieli navigates multiple virtual realms to gain the jewel but, in the end, won’t turn it over to Jean. When reality is remade, the wish that makes it is pure and unassailable and…most importantly…uncorruptable. Reality will always be corruptable, but that doesn’t mean it has to start that way.

This series was extremely well-written, if what you like is a barrage of new information cannoned at you faster than you can grok it. As it happens, that is exactly what I like. ^_^ Catching up with the story only meant that the story was about to wrap up, not that I was particularly fast on the uptake.

When I reviewed The Fractal Prince, I commented casually that Mieli needed a new girlfriend. Thumbs up, Hannu. Thumbs up.

Ratings:

Story – 10
Characters – 9 all the way around
Lesbian – 10

Overall – 10

If you’re looking for sci-fi that is not at all the usual stuff, with fully-developed characters – both male and female – vast and deep world-building that moves quickly and is compelling, I got your series right here. 

This was a great read and a stellar summer reading series. It would be hard to beat, so my next book is going to have to be something completely different. ^_^





Summer Reading: The Fractal Prince (English)

July 9th, 2017

In May 2017, I  wrote a glowing, if mostly-incoherent review, of Hannu Rajienmi’s novel The Quantum Thief.  This brilliant, but lightspeed paced science fiction novel centered on gentleman thief Jean le Flambeur, who was simultaneously attempting to free himself from the prison of his own mind after the destruction of the Earth, escape from a detective convinced he had something to do with a murder, and convince an Oortian warrior and her ship to help him steal something – and in return for their help, do a favor for her goddess, the pellegrini, who may well be his former lover in god form. All wrapped up in multi-layered realities of virtual existence, the mechanical Sobornost, the various Zoku, and the Founders all carving up the various kinds of reality for themselves.

Maybe you can understand why I was a little incoherent. 

In Volume 2 of the series, The Fractal Prince, nothing is less complicated and into the various Japanese, Russian and Qabalistic references, we now add classic Arabian mythology in the form of the wildcode of the deserts and the Djinn who make deals and possess and the Aun who, as they move through and into people, who wish to consume. In the desert city of  Sirr, left on a destroyed Earth, surrounded by wildcode, we follow a young woman, Tawaddud, as she tries to save her family.  We meet the King of Mars and a economy based upon the time in a lifespan.

While Jean investigates his own mind palace, Mieli and her sentient ship, the Perhonen, find themselves once again entangled by her goddess, the pelligrini, who has indeed turned out to be Jean’s former lover Josephine. The pelligrini wants Mieli to help Jean, but she has a different agenda than the thief. Mieli spends time in her own past with her late lover Sydan, only to discover the truth about who destroyed the Earth.

Because Rajienmi favors throwing you into the story without any extraneous explanation (what Amy Goldschlager at The LA Review of Books called his strict adherence to “show, don’t tell”) there is a certain presumption of your willingness to be in the game without all the rules as you read. For my part, I am all in on this. I love this no-expository form of writing. It assumes the reader is as fast a thinker as the writer and to that, I say, bring it on, Hannu. ^_^

Where in the first book, Mieli and Perhonen are supporting cast to Jean, the story strips away from itself in this second book. The ship Perhonen becomes even more of a character, Jean becomes less of one and Tawaddud and Mieli each take up an equal share. The Fractal Prince is not a gentleman thief’s story anymore, it has become a ensemble cast adventure. And it’s worth every moment spent with it. For a competent, tragic, sensitive, strong lesbian female lead, you couldn’t do better than Mieli. Now all we need is to get her a new girlfriend. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 10
Characters – 9 all the way around
Lesbian – 5 

Overall – 10

I’m currently reading the third of the series, The Causal Angel. I’ve slowed myself down to a chapter at a time, so I don’t slam through it too quickly because it’s so damn good.





Summer Reading: The Quantum Thief (English)

May 28th, 2017

Raffles. Bandette. Ana DuPre. Jean le Flambeur.

What do all these names have in common? They are members of the privileged class who, for one reason or another, make their living as thieves.

In The Quantum Thief by Finnish author Hannu Rajaniemi, we meet the last of these – Jean le Flambeur – in prison. Sentenced to die repeatedly in a series of video game-like scenarios until he can convince his warlike and violent partner to work together. So far, he’s not having any luck, but then a sentient ship, the Perhonen, and her pilot Mieli break him out of prison at the bidding of Miele’ goddess. And we are catapulted into an adventure that was so complicated and so damn interesting, I can barely describe it.

Jean is competing with his other self – the self that locked him into the body he currently has – his ex-lover, and the arch-detective who his following his trail after the death of a chocolatier.

Rajaniemi writes at a blazing pace and he presumes you can keep up. From the Oubliette, a shtetl filled with Qabalistic references, to the gaming Zoku of space and the Vir, the virtual realities of a dozen different simultaneous layers of existence and society, you are expected to grasp the obscure and the created knowledge with equal fluency and speed. 

I loved this book.

Which is all well and fine, Erica, you say, a hint of impatience in your voice, but why are you reviewing it?  

Because of Mieli. Mieli is an Oortian, a tribe of people who are portrayed as rather…Finnish…in a mythological manner of speaking. Mieli’s former lover was Sydan, another woman with whom she had a complicated and involved history. Mieli is currently seeking Sydan, who disappeared when Earth was destroyed. Mieli now serves the Founder, pelligrini. Along with her sentient ship, the Perhonen, Mieli is as critical to the plot as Jean is…although I might put Perhonen slightly higher on the cast listing.

If you’re confused about now, no worries, this was just the vaguest, most superficial taste of the high-density information dump that is The Quantum Thief.

Did I mention that I loved it? 

Mieli is another cool, competent lesbian, with a nicely melancholy backstory. She’d fit nicely enough with all the cool lesbian detectives of the 1990s. Kate Delafield, meet Mieli. You’ll get along swimmingly.  

Ratings:

Story – 10
Characters – 9 all the way around
Lesbian – 3, but it’s there

Overall – 10

I adore writers who assume I can keep up with them, and Rajaniemi is the best I’ve ever read in this regard.This book relies on obscura and slang from Japanese, Russian, Yiddish and a few other languages, but if you’re a patient reader, everything is given context in an Escher kind of way. Just hang on for the ride.

Thanks to bestie Daniel H for the recommendation – you are now among the very few who can recommend things to me. ^_^





Summer Reading: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

October 16th, 2015

12115870_10156173448730422_1958114243138977117_nOf the many booths I visited at New York Comic Con 2015, one was the Tor Books booth, where I had a chance to catch up with Melissa Ann Singer, a Senior Editor with Tor. She was extremely enthusiastic about the books they had at the booth and I picked up Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, which just felt like the title I needed to read. I know I said I finished up my summer reading, but I’m glad I trusted my gut on this because this was the best science fiction I had read in years.

Okorafor’s deep understanding of spirituality that is tied to the land one belongs to, the joy of learning, of thinking, of discovering and making…the wonder of seeing things one does not know and the terror of dealing with those things all combine into a novella that had it all.

Binti is a young woman from a people who never leave the land on which they live. Against her family’s wishes, she has been accepted into Oomza Uni to study what comes most naturally to her – mathematics. She leaves her family to start a new life…and her transport ship is embroiled in a centuries-old war that threatens to destroy Binti’s new life before it can begin.

But this is merely the setup, not the story. How Binti handles everything, the new, amazing, path she forges and how it all turns out had me gasping, it was just so…glorious.

The single sentence I want to share with you is from the very beginning, as Binti enters the shuttle, and finds herself treated as “other” by the occupants. “No Himba has ever gone to OomzaUni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something isn’t surprising, doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.” (italics mine)

If there is a single sentence that fully describes 2015, and everything that we are seeing in terms of diversity in media, in politics, in community life, this, to me is that sentence. And so many of us here on Okazu understand this sentence from personal experience.

If you love science fiction and culture-building and character and words that tell stories, I highly recommend Binti. And I’ve got a few more Okorafor’s books on my to-read pile now, as well.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Binti is a splendid book. You should read it. Then lend it to friends and have them read it.