J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Genre: sci fi / horror anthology

Queer Representation: bisexual, trans, nobinary, lesbian

Warnings: none

 

 

There’s no great way to summarize this anthology so I want to start off with this: I read this book around six months ago and I am still thinking about the stories in it. Even when life ate up every last second of my free time, somehow, these short stories stuck in my brain like hardening tree sap. And I’m not a big horror fan, even gentle horror like this, which I think speaks to the absolutely superb writing from Stufflebeam (what a name!) Honestly, I don’t even remember how I got this book. It’s been on my shelf, has no publicity contact form (so it wasn’t likely mailed to me like most review material), which means someone likely handed it to me at a con.

Publicists know my taste. Random people at cons do not. So to have a book land like this, is just flat out spectacular.

My favorite story in this collection is The Lifespan of Shadows, in which a sentient house conspires to force its former occupants to remain there. The two soon-to-be victims grew up in the house, and story is filled with detailed memory that deeply resonates.

The house is flat out spooky, but in that highly-relatable way in which you can follow the progression from I’m lonely to I will trap these people here forever (relatable, not saying I’d actually DO that).

The house did not know the difference. The house wanted to be loved For a moment, it thought Beth would give it that without asking for something in return, But she would not. As for Jackie, her love for the house wouldn’t be enough to save it. That much the house knew like it knew it was made from pier-and-beam, from concrete and fluffy pink insulation, from wood and granite and carpet fibers. A terrible truth; it would never be skin. But it could witness skin. The house wanted Beth and Jackie to stay. Beth and Jackie would stay, if it was the last thing the house did.

I also really enjoyed The Damaged, so much so that I reread the whole short before writing this review. It doesn’t have much of an arc, this story, but it’s so engaging right from the start that it doesn’t really matter.

Robin Underwood is an engineer for Playmates, a line of artificial intelligence sex dolls. Due to some alluded to previous bad relationships and the contractual inability to own her own Playmate, Robin finds one of the homeless ‘damaged’ playmates, takes him home, and after some bathing and sex, decides to open him up and see where her programming went wrong. She ends up taking out his heart, which is beating far too fast, and examining it.

Night after night she brings home more damaged Playmates, each of which she sleeps with and then takes apart. All have a little box inside their heart and within each little box, a screw that’s coming loose. Eventually a Playmate catches Robin and works with her to solve the mystery, and we do get an answer in the end…but goodness the treatment of Robin’s serial killer nature is just so well done. There’s a lot of ‘this would be a crime if XYZ but it isn’t’ bits, and the absolute blasé nature of her shoving Playmate bodies into dumpsters, only being able to fall asleep to the waning light of a dying Playmate, is both macabre and brilliant.

I did this again and again, the next night and the next. It began to feel like part of a routine. Without it, without the dying embers of artificial life beside me, I found I couldn’t sleep.

With Halloween just around the corner, you owe yourself this book. Maybe a Playmate too? You can definitely buy them both here. And yes, there’s absolutely tons of sapphic content, and some nice nonbinary rep as well. Neopronouns ahoy!

Review: OF DEMONS AND COAL by Thomas Gondolfi

Genre: fantasy: alternate history / low fantasy / steampunk (blends the three)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual/pansexual (not defined)

Warnings: none

Review

Demons power steam engines, occasionally get out of control, and rampage around killing humans. Witch Stella Ochoa and the Hellfighters are on the job, although a certain demon seems to have it out for Stella, personally. Stella, meanwhile, can’t quite seem to sort out her love life between her dead husband and prostitute/lover Karie. There’s a lot of dialogue and period scenery described, and that’s pretty much the book.

Okay, here’s the deal. While I didn’t dislike this book, it also failed to grab my attention. The premise is neat and there’s some great tension between Karie and Stella, but in the end I felt like the tension kept snapping every time we got an extended dialogue and/or description of the city. There’s a lot of over-description for a relatively short and plot-light book, although I will say for those who enjoy the nitty-gritty of how does it work in the magical steampunk subgenera, this may be right up your alley.

On the surface, interning a loose demon is simplicity itself–tease it back to where it doesn’t want to go and then imprison it. Two witches take turns baiting the fiend with mild damage spells, getting it to chase them. Three others block the demon’s view and access to anything but its tormenters. The last witch heals any of our team who is damaged in the process. In the end, he is also often the one that seals the beast in place. But for all of that, every hellfighter has to be on their toes as something always goes wrong.

And there are fun little nuggets of real life humor embedded between all the slice-of-life moments.

“So, how do I make this work, Henry?”

“First, we put this belt around your chest,” he says, lifting a belt from beside me.

“Excuse me?”

“My apologies again. I hadn’t considered women when I put it in. It buckles through the loop on the other side.”

I eye the leather belt. The height puts it right across my breasts. “Are you sure this is necessary?”

“Quite, Stella. It is essential if there are any sudden stops.”

Ahh, the joys of seatbelts and breasts.

Stella is an interesting protagonist, who doesn’t get to do a whole lot of protagging. She does have some excellent internal monologues every so often, however,

I oft wonder if I would have made Aaron a good wife. We’d only been married for a scant few months, and only weeks of that together. My cooking manages not to poison, but nothing better. Cleaning doesn’t come naturally. I can barely throw a stitch. And I dress only well enough not to be stoned by other Catholics. My only natural talents seem to be sarcastic, witchcraft, and sex.

The relationship between Stella and Karie may leave some sapphic readers unsatisfied, as there doesn’t seem to be resolution on Stella’s side (Karie is delightfully polyamorous).

In the end, if you love world building for world building’s sake and a lot of period-appropriate talk and and humor, you’ll like find yourself at home in OF DEMONDS AND COAL. If faster pacing and plot movement is your preferred MO, better to look elsewhere.

Trap a demon and maybe kiss a lady of the night by buying the book here.

Review: The Adventure of the Golden Woman by Cynthia Ward

Genre: science fiction: alternate history

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis bisexual, cis lesbian

Warnings: DRACULA

Review

Another adventure awaits the half-vampire, bisexual Lucy Harker! Dracula’s daughter, still with her lovely lady vampire lover, works as a double agent to steal England’s spaceship plans. But wait! The handoff is interrupted by a mechanical man…no, wait! A mechanical woman! A golden mechanical woman who is far more advanced than her ‘male’ counterparts. Unlocking the golden woman’s emotions may be the key to saving Lucy AND the solar system. Why is the solar system in jeopardy? Something about mechanical people populating the moon? I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter.

Holmes raises his powder-whitened brows in a. rare display of surprise. “A golden mechanical woman, did you say?”

“The mechanical had a feminine shape and the visible portions were made of the alien alloy,” I said. “She–it killed the man and appropriated his portfolio, which holds information intended for SIS. Then the mechanical fled into an alley. I saw no one giving the mechanical orders, but my view was obstructed.”

“Dr. Krüger’s machine-men aren’t capable of independent action,” Holmes says.

“The design of the golden woman was far more advanced than Krüger’s ambulatory tins. And far more aesthetically pleasing.”

Don’t overthink the plot. THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOLDEN WOMAN is the fourth in Cynthia Ward’s ‘vampire hunter falls for a vampire and they have to constantly battle Martian technology and sometimes also Tarzan’ series. Will there be dinosaurs? Yes. Aliens? Probably. Weird beings at the center of the Earth, the Titanic, and Sherlock Holmes? Yup. This book, as with the series, is a consistent delight. I love the well-researched history that is then twisted and deformed into comedic genius. I love the mash up of pop culture and lesbian vampires. I love that Sherlock Holmes is the butt of 50% of the jokes. I love that the world is so weird that literally no one bats an eye at the half-vampire daughter of Dracula is also bisexual and has a lady lover who is a vampire.

This is a short little novella, as they all are. But if you’re looking for a delight of escapism, start with THE ADVENTURE OF THE INCOGNITA COUNTESS aboard the Titanic. Get yourself a helping of dinosaurs in THE ADVENTURE OF THE DUX BELLORUM. Then journey to the center of the earth with THE ADVENTURE OF THE NAKED GUIDE. Then come meet me here with the Golden Woman, who is a well-deserved fourth book in the series. Come for the lesbian vampires, stay for the period pop culture jokes. You won’t be disappointed.

Get it on Amazon here.

Review: The Silences of Ararat by L. Timmel Duchamp

Genre: contemporary fantasy / contemporary dystopian

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis bisexual / cis pansexual (unclear narratively)

Warnings: none

Review

Paulina is a sculptor in a sort of THE HANDMAID’S TALE type dystopian future, where the ultra conservative faction of the USA has splintered off (Congress of Christian American States), elected a king, and follows ‘Christian’ teachings. Her husband, the king’s advisor, has gone missing and is presumed dead, leaving liberal Paulina only her sculpture by which to show her dissent.

Queen Hermione is everything a conservative king could want – beautiful, kind, doting, and able to hang on his every word without punching him in the face.

I have to admit, the branding of her image, combining “white” purity with womanly fecundity, revolted me. In person, though, I barely noticed it, distracted by the glimpses I began to see of an intensity I’d never before noticed. Those glimpses intrigued me. Maybe, I thought, there was something below the surface of wifely perfection composed of expensive grooming and constant deference to her husband and his most trusted advisors. Hermione was, after all, an actor. It was just possible she was consciously playing the role of the young third trophy wife and not merely following the script without noting she was doing so.

The king’s paranoia drives him to eventually accuse Hermione of adultery with his brother, and the ensuing trial and altercations result in the deaths of her two children and, as far as the public knows, of Hermione herself.

Paulina is the rescuing sort, turns out, and through using her innate magic to turn living things into sculpture, she fakes Hermione’s death, rescues the queen, and sequesters her in her own house. Romance blooms, the two women plot a delicious revenge on the king, and general emotional turmoil ensues.

The thought of her life as one of unending loneliness made me want to cry. “For godlike, love. That’s not what I meant when I talked about your needing to be strong.”

She took my hand and brought it to her cheek. “You are so good to me,” she said. “Better than I deserve.”

In that moment, Hermione’s entire attention was fixed on me in a way I hadn’t before experienced. The intimate intensity of her gaze kindled a dozen small flames licking at my skin that the sensation of my fingers on her face fanned into a blaze. To conceal what I was feeling, I pulled her close in a hug. “You don’t deserve to be lonely,” I said. “You don’t deserve to be abandoned.”

I began to pull away, only to be engulfed in confusion as her lips nudged mine and her fingers stroked my neck, feeding the conflagration of my most sensitive nerve endings. I had thought my sexuality desiccated and frozen, my heart petrified into stone. But my heart now beat so powerfully that I was suggested with heat, and the pulse in my vulva beat so strongly that I could no longer think.

Out of all the Conversation Pieces by Aqueduct Press that I have read, THE SILENCES OF ARARAT is definitely in the top five strongest installments (nothing will ever evict any of the Lucy Harper books from my heart, and the one about the girl journeying through the underworld still makes me smile). The narrative is strong and tight, with little fat and solid character development. The author spends enough time developing Hermione and the king that, when the inevitable betrayal occurs, it is both expected but still heart wrenching. The slow build up to the revenge, coupled with the romance arc, made the book a quick, delightful read.

The nonlinear narration did make the first half of the book confusing, though its a novella so the confusion was short lived. By the end of the book I didn’t mind it at all, although it makes me unlikely to reread.

For a fun dystopian with a satisfying revenge plot, you can join up with Paulina and Hermione to take down the king by buying the book here.

Review – Threadbare by Elle E. Ire

Genre: science fiction: dystopian

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: on-page, plot irrelevant rape scene

 

Review

Vick is more machine than woman, due to a fatal evening with some coworkers and having inadvertently signed her body away to the military upon her death. Kelly is an empath assigned to work with Vick to help channel emotions she can no longer control.  Vick has a lot of missing memories, Kelly has a lot of questions, and the military has a lot of operations that require a super soldier. Unfortunately those suppressed memories of Vick’s keep turning up and leading to rage, which compromises both the missions and Vick’s usefulness.

The military wants Vick alive but emotionless. Kelly wants Vick naked and in control of her life. The Fighting Storm organization is crumbling from the inside and it is up to Vick and Kelly to figure out who is out to get them, before Vick destabilizes and takes Kelly down with her.

So.

This book.

Premise: fun-super soldier with suppressed trauma needs an empath handler. It’s a natural romance opportunity. The first chapter has solid tension and a seemingly decent plot. Vick is pretty easy to like, and Kelly fleshes out the more you read. Nice start.

Everything unwinds around chapter three. Nonlinear timelines between chapters don’t help, and neither does the flimsy plot, which does not stand up to even a gentle prodding. Fighting Storm is a pseudo-military organization that helps people with their (violent) problems and maybe also is a government entity. The plot tries to establish and then gets repeatedly back-burnered by the romance arc, which starts and stops more often than my car. On the plus side, there’s some psychic sex scenes, which aren’t too bad:

 

Oh holy hell.

I was the reason she hadn’t satisfied her sexual needs, the reason she was so overwhelmed she was practically ready to explode and had to hold herself in check.

If she’d touched herself, I would have felt it. I would have known exactly who and when and how. Yeah, that would have been awkward for both of us.

 

Kelly gains three dimensionality as Vick looses hers–a function of the choices Vick makes, yes, but not helpful for the narrative. And at the end we get treated to an on-page rape scene which serves no narrative purpose except tittilation, then a plot/romance conclusion that is not at all satisfying (first part below so you can get the flavor of it):

I clench my jaw as he slips the carving knife under my collar and rips downward, slicing through both my envirosuit and the uniform beneath, all the way to my waist. Another flick severs my bra between my breasts, and the material falls away, baring me to his insane leer. My nipples harden to a painful state as the chill hits them. A glance down his body tells me they aren’t the only the only things that have hardened.

This is the first in a trilogy, but I won’t be reading the others. The book had a lot of promise and a very nice set up for a romance, but the plot was far too flimsy and on-page rape scenes are a big no for me. There were some solid sci-fi elements, but not enough to drive the narrative. I felt like the book tried to walk a 50/50 split between romance and sci fi, and failed to meet the trope expectations of either.

You can have telepathic sex with a hot android lady by buying the book here.

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