J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: Fruits of the Gods by William C. Tracy

Genre: fantasy (high/epic)

Pairings: f/f, f/m

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, trans, cis gay men

Warnings: (as listed on the book jacket) abuse, rape, mutilation, torture, incest

Implied Tropes Later Subverted (but important to note anyway incase of trigger): lesbian after rape, magical travelers, Kill Your Gays

Review

Disclaimer – I worked as a CP and sensitivity reader for this book. I am more intimately familiar with its content than most books I review

Sisters Belili and Kisare, born slaves, find a magical box with a strange seed while out working one night. Determined to change their fate, the sisters escape from the orchard and, with the help of another group of outcasts, learn to use their own magic to bring back the gods who once ruled the land.

Epic fantasy is rare in small press, which is why I always get so excited when I find it.

FRUITS is a blend of the grit from GAME OF THRONES and the regimented magic system of any of Brandon Sanderson’s work. It paces much more along the lines of STARLESS by Jacqueline Carey, and has elements seen in many small press SFF titles, such as deeper introspections.

The POV is pretty tight for epic fantasy, juggling only between Bel and Kisa. This takes out the elements I find most irritating in epic fantasy–the constant head hopping–and allows for a steady pace as the sisters move from journey to final showdown at the palace.

The secondary characters get ample ‘screen’ time in the book, from the charismatic Hbelu, prince of the Asha-Urmana, to the delightedly subversive Ligish–a slave turned spy. Keeping with epic fantasy tropes, the good people versus villains are clearly delineated, and our villains are the mustache-twirling level of evil that can be really nice to read–especially when they get their just desserts.

FRUITS has trigger warnings, and with good reason. Some caustic themes are explored in the narrative, and some problematic tropes are presented (and then subverted), including a ‘kill your gays’ fake out (unreliable villain diatribe, don’t worry, no queer people actually die!), a ‘caravanner’ stereotype, dealt with through larger worldbuilding, a piece of which is quoted below:

(here Kisa describes the ‘camp’ of the Asha-Urmana (caravaners), which is nothing of the sort)

The construction was finer than the master’s house, and the boards on the upper portions of the dwellings were coated with a clear varnish that kept the original glow of the wood. The stone at the base looked like polished marble, and Kisare wondered where they quarried it. The stone at the Aricaba orchard was gray and drab granite. This marble fit together so tightly she could see no crack between the blocks. The streets were similarly made of flat fitted stones. 

It’s worth noting, however, that the rape and incest portions take place entirely ‘off-screen.’

For queer content, the book has a nice romance line for Bel and Ligish, though they do meet through a shared trauma, so keep those trigger warnings in mind. Queerness is canon in the world, and plenty of instances are described through basic worldbuilding, such as:

“Once we get you better clothes and a little paint for your faces, you will have half the population of Karduniash falling over you.” She leaned in closer. “And I’m not just talking about the men.” She laughed at Kisare’s expression, but Bel looked thoughtful. “The capital is a lot different from a mountain orchard.”

One of the major secondary characters is a trans woman, and her identity is neither brutally revealed (so help me if I read another ‘clothes get ripped off and oh so-and-so is a different gender oh my! book I will scream), nor more than a blip on anyone’s radar. Gender as a whole is dealt with well, and I am particularly fond of the scene below, where Bel is trying to figure out which of the ruling twins is the man and which is the woman:

“So this is the pretty one,” the one on the right said. Belili used the last of the prunus juice, held under her tongue, to look at the person’s throat. Female. Then the other was the male twin.

I’m a sucker for a clearly defined magic system (which is why I read Sanderson), and the fruit magic tied to hair color really worked for me. Like any good magic system, the benefits and drawbacks are well defined, and it is a delight to watch Bel and Kisa discover not only their own colored hair (all non-magic people are blonde in the book and slaves’ hair is bleached weekly to hide any magic hair they might possess) but their ability to wield the godfruit.

The sisters’ interactions, from loyalty to bickering and back again, came across as particularly authentic. Though the two must rely on each other to survive, old slights still crop up and, as they are worked through, help round out the characters. It’s also really nice to see an epic fantasy lead set that isn’t a m/f love interest set, or a group of men/elves/orcs/dragon slayers, whatever. And even with two female leads there is no backbiting and cattiness–just two sisters who need each other, love each other, but also really don’t like each other sometimes. Just like real life.

Lovers of Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN trilogy, GAME OF THRONES (yes, there is incest between twins!), and epic fantasy that doesn’t need a whole new language to function, will enjoy FRUITS OF THE GODS.

You can get your own malus fruit and join in on the adventure here by preordering!

Tracy’s website

Tracy’s Goodread’s page

 

Review: Yule Planet by Angel Martinez

Genre: science fiction (novella)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, nonbinary, cis male

Warnings: none

Review

Sofia can’t wait for her exciting vacation to Yule Planet – a Christmas wonderland of snow and ancient traditions. During transport to the planet, however, a malfunction in her pod maroons her in an isolated snow drift. The ‘natives’–convicts on work release–rescue her but they’ve got to finish their run before they can take her back to the resort and her long awaited vacation. Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, as well as a sweet romance.

YULE PLANET is another holiday novella by Angela Martinez, who got on my radar after I read SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR HUMAN HOLIDAYS. YULE PLANET lacks some of the humor of SAFETY, but has much more adventure and fun, feathery dinosaur pets. The romance, as always, is well paced, and the sex scene satisfying without bogging down the short narrative.

There’s an added dimension to this book that comes from Sofia’s background as a logistics accountant and the management of the Yule Planet corporation, lends excellent tension to what could have been a simple romance plotline (not that I don’t enjoy a simple romance, mind). Helping reform a problematic organization, getting to ride a tame and pet-like chionisaurs, a hot make-out scene in a small shower–all blends together into another delightful and fluffy holiday short.

You can book your own vacation package on Yule planet in ebook here and paperback here. Chionisaur rides extra.

Review: An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

Genre: fantasy – portal fantasy

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: pansexual, cis lesbian, cis gay, aromantic, agender, trans

Warnings: none

Review

Saffron Coulter, a mild-mannered but angry sixteen year old girl from Earth, has had enough. Between the sexual harassment from the boys at her school to the uncaring faculty, Saffron’s biggest wish is that someone would just stand up to all the BS. Someone other than her, that is.

During a particularly nasty encounter with a schoolboy, Saffron is saved by the unknown Gwen, a woman with a mysterious past. Saffron ends up following Gwen to a more secluded area of the school–mostly to thank her–when a portal opens. And Saffron, being done with boys and high school and Earth, hops right in.

What follows is a twisting, engaging if not sometimes confusing, adventure through Kena–a magic using world teetering on the brink of war. Gwen, the worldwalker Saffron followed through the portal, must bring her up to speed on a very complex social hierarchy and several religions lest Saffron get herself killed through simply existing. As happens in these types of books, Saffron soon becomes ensconced in the war and ends up a key player in the final battles.

Format

I have mixed feelings about this book. The beginning is strong, and Saffron a sympathetic protagonist. Her motivations for going through the portal make a lot of sense and her first day or so on Kena has a lot of strong action. The setting is delivered well, the secondary characters are charming and delightful and cruel, and enough tropes are employed to help the reader feel comfortable in the world before they have a lot of information.

Where I struggled was with the swapping third to omniscient voice and the number of characters who got to wield either or both.

In some places, the POV switch is indicated by a line gap. In some the head hopping happens simply between normal paragraphs. There never seemed to be a reason for why narration changed, and it didn’t seem to follow the character with the most agency or interesting happenings, either. Due to the sheer volume of characters that were allowed a POV, I soon lost interest in a sizable section of the world.

The amount of time spent in Saffron’s head is excellent, and helped pull my interest back in every time she was on page. However, the extensive worldbuilding and political mechanics were beyond the scope of one book or at least, beyond the scope of Saffron’s understanding and therefore also beyond the reader’s.

Because I was so invested in Saffron and Zech (a younger girl who ends up in a sort of mind-meld with Saffron) I persisted through the book. The back third was mostly delightful, and the action, especially when the group hit the queen council and Zech and Saffron had to go through trials, was by far the best part. The final battle as well was very well done and the book had a fantastic, melancholy-but-still-happy ending.

It is saying something, however, that I skimmed pages and pages of this book, and almost the entire princess storyline (after her introduction, when it was clear she would only be annoying) and still felt like I didn’t miss anything. The ending made perfect sense and the final battle was still very compelling. As AN ACCIDENT OF STARS skims close to high fantasy, I wonder if it wasn’t shooting for world-as-character levels of description, and just fell a bit short.

Some excellent parts

I enjoyed that Saffron is Australian, which isn’t a POV I get to see a lot of in mainstream fiction. The racism of the teachers and Saffron’s own internal racism are addressed on page, and that was wonderful. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a fantasy that called out the implicit bias of its characters so directly:

“Not seeing Viya as a queen because she’s not white is racist,” she whispered into the pillow. “I’m being racist.”

British racism was also touched upon:

She didn’t say, ‘the police wouldn’t look for me when I vanished, because they didn’t think a missing black woman mattered.’ She didn’t say, ‘my parents convinced themselves I’d run off with a boy I was too ashamed to bring home, and when I came back, the second thing they asked was if I’d had an abortion.’

The trans rep was also fantastic, which isn’t surprising since the author is genderqueer. The ‘alikrevaya’ (trans) are seen as a natural variance and allowed to declare themselves however they wish. The worldbuilding of a culture of trans acceptance was so seamless that it actually took me a few pages to realize what the author was talking about. Also, they have sex-affirmation magic. Fantastic.

“It means she was born with her body and spirit in conflict, so the priests of Kara used the sevikmet to reshape her.”

“Bodies are bodies, and hearts are hearts. The priestess hood admits women only, though flesh plays no role in such determinations;”

Overall, AN ACCIDENT OF STARS is strong portal fantasy with solid queer rep and a sweet f/f line. The action scenes in particular stand out, although the book would have benefitted from some tighter 3rd limited.

To go through your own portal to Kena, buy the book here in print and here in ebook.

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Review: Mutiny at Vesta by R.E. Stearns

Note: this is the second book in the series. A review of the first book, BARBARY STATION, can be found here.

Genre: sci fi space opera/military

Pairings: f/f, enby/m

Queer Representation: cis female, nonbinary of many flavors, cis gay

Warnings: Sequel review. Will contain spoilers for BARBARY STATION

 

Review

Buckle up kids, it’s time to kick off the YEAR OF SEQUELS!

It is hard as hell to get your sequel books reviewed, especially the farther you get into a series. Most small review sites and blogs flat out won’t even consider them. Hence, this year I’m dedicating to sequels and series, as well as trying to finish up my list from last year that I didn’t quite make it through.

Top of my list for sequels for 2019 was MUTINY AT VESTA, the sequel to BARBARY STATION. BARBARY introduced us to long-term couple Adda and Iridian, who have turned to piracy as a way to pay off their sizable student loan debt. Excellent hook. Everything goes awry when they get trapped on Barbary Station with a rouge AI bent on killing them, the pirates, and a mess of civilians.

Eventually of course they manage to deactivate the AI and escape Barbary. MUTINY AT VESTA picks up not long after. Adda and Iridian are now fully members of Captain Sloane’s pirate crew. Unfortunately they don’t get to do a lot of fun lesbian pirating, as they are almost immediately blackmailed into working for a mega corporation with no soul… as these things go.

The rest of the book contains a series of short adventures as the crew do the bidding of the corporation while also trying to get out from under its thumb. Adda and Iridian are just as adorable as ever, Pel is back with his flamboyant, youthful earnestness, and there are a ton of explosions. Added to it are four sentient AIs that may or not be evil. No spoilers.

Like BARBARY, MUTINY had a lot of nitty gritty detail. Lovers of every movement and minute action described will find the blocking perfect. It’s easy enough to skip over if that sort of stuff bores you, too. The book truly is a blend of space opera and military sci fi, and consistently wriggles between the crew interactions and feeeeeelings, to command structures, heavily explained tech, and A.I. workspaces.

The A.I.s though, that’s the real reason to read MUTINY. AegiSKADA, the rouge A.I. that tried to murder everyone in BARBARY, is back (although rebooted), along with all the other awakened A.I.s from the end of book one. Adda ends up trying to train all of them, which inevitably puts a strain on her relationship with Iridian and the rest of the crew. The detailing of her artificial dreamscape/workspace remains incredible, and the A.I.s are as fully fleshed out as any character.

As Sloane’s crew become more and more tangled with mega corporations and further from their dreams, it’s impossible to not root for the A.I.s turning into contributing members of the pirate crew. At times they even seem the most straightforward of the characters, which of course, is all part of R.E. Stearns’ plan.

While it might not always be the most straightforward romp, MUTINY AT VESTA is a worthy sequel to BARBARY STATION. From the ending it looks like there might be a third in the series, so here’s hoping.

You can buy MUTINY AT VESTA in ebook here, print here, and audiobook here.

 

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Review: Once Upon a Rainbow, Volume II (anthology from Ninestar Press)

Genre: fantasy (fairy tale)

Pairings: f/f, m/m

Queer Representation: cis gay, cis lesbian, aromantic, asexual, trans

Warnings: none

Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Review

Generally, this was a decent anthology. It started slow, and some of the first stories had pacing issues and/or failed to grab me. The real meat of the anthology came at the end, where the stories got longer, better written, and had much better character arcs. It actually took me longer than usual to get through this book, due to the slower stories at the start, but it was well worth continuing. Some specifics on each story follow.

 

Coming Home by Jennifer Cosgrove

A M/M (cis) modern Cinderella. I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other on this one, likely because the writing was fine but I don’t generally get into m/m stories. I do always enjoy a good Cinderella retelling, though.

 

Snow Fox by Sara Codair

Modern Snow White (F/F, trans) with a neat social media bent. Rosa is a poor college student trying to make ends meet through ad revenue via her instagram and YouTube videos. Another social media darling wants her dead so she can be number one. Thank goodness for Cara, the hot EMT who is always around to do some saving.

I really enjoyed the very different take on this Snow White story. Unfortunately I don’t think I know enough about social media to really get all the jokes in it, but I was amused, nonetheless.

 

Deathless by Emmalynn Spark

M/M (cis) fairy tale of an origin I am unfamiliar with (or possibly a mashup). Vanya, third in line for the throne, is sent to rescue his betrothed princess from an evil wizard. He trades places with the princess (sort of Beauty and the Beast like), and in his confinement, falls for the wizard. This was one of the longer shorts in the book and the romance developed at an even pace. It had a good mixing of stock fairy tale elements and traditional imagery.

 

At Her Service by K. S. Trenten

F/F (cis) cinderella retelling, with a fun twist on the saint/slut narrative. Instead of the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, we get a ‘mistress’ Ariella (around the same age as Cinders, and it’s hinted they were raised together), and the Cinderella character. Some good twists in this one, and a number of good trope-turning changes. The romance was also very palpable, although the writing could have been tightened.

 

Shattered Glass by Lina Langley

This is one of the better written (and longer) shorts in the anthology, although I am not familiar with the fairy tale it draws from. M/M (cis). It didn’t capture my attention like some of the others, but it was a very smooth read.

 

Finding Aurora by Rebecca Langham

F/F, asexual (cis) Sleeping Beauty. Talia, a master spell caster, must accompany Prince Amir on a quest to find and wake Aurora Rose, and her kingdom, else he will be disinherited. Spirits, goblins, dragons, and magic pop up everywhere in this well-paced, well-written short that would have been far better served at the start of the book than at the end. Bonus–no damsels in distress in this short, and Aurora is just as much a hero as is our master caster.

 

Master Thief by Sita Bethel

M/M, but a fairy tale I don’t recognize. Tyv is one of three brothers who sets off to find his fortune, He falls in with a group of thieves, who teach him the way of things. Although this story was well written, I failed to connect with Tyv and found him arrogant and unlikable. This is the first short in the series to have erotic content, however, so if you’re reading for a sex scene, this is where you’ll want to start.

 

The True Love Curse by Tray Ellis

F/F, M/M,aro/ace (cis) fairy tale mashup (I think). This one is definitely my favorite. Smoothly written, intricate, and all the right fairy tale elements blended together to make a really enjoyable tale. The romance is brief but strong, the characters rounded, and just enough trope boxes checked to make this comfortable, but not silly.

 

Buy this delightful queer fairy tale collection here in paperback, and here in ebook.

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