J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

Genre: epic fantasy

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, bisexual (?)

Warnings: none

Rating: four stars

 

Review

An epic war across an empire is detailed through the experiences of four women: a warrior, a poet/singer, a scholar, and a belle.

 

General

It’s rare that one gets to view war through the eyes of women, especially when such a view is not driven solely by warrior-women. THE WINGED HISTORIES (TWH from now on) provides a lush, lyrical description of four strong-willed women as they cope with the challenges of power, corruption, and ‘dark’ magic.

In many ways, this book reminded me of THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER in terms of prose and general construction. Samatar’s writing is poetry, and so nuanced that each sentence really should be read a few times to really get the full meaning. In contrast to THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER, however, TWH is less love story and more bold epic fantasy. While there is a f/f romance line, it is not the main purpose of the story. Instead, it serves to highlight the moral grayness of those engaged in war, and gives a deep humanity to several of the characters.

 

Plot

Deeply woven, sometimes almost to confusion, the plot of TWH has an unexpected depth and a slow climax. None of these detract from the book, and in fact make it more compelling a read. Readers who handle more than two POV characters well will have absolutely no issues in following each chapter, however those who stumble with more than two POVs may want to look elsewhere. Due to the complexity of both prose and plot,  the reader must be ‘turned on’ at every moment while reading, and this can be tiresome over 300 or so pages.

 

On wlw

While I never really connected with the aloof Tav, her poet/singer love interest was remarkable compelling. The romance, when viewed through the poet’s eyes, was very well realized and fulfilling. Unfortunately the first POV we are introduced to is Tav’s (the warrior), and she felt flat and two-dimensional. It was the later character POVs that better drew me in, and while I did have a hard time finishing the book, I do not regret pushing through it.

 

Generally, if you are a lover of high fantasy and more lyrical writing, this book is a solid choice. You can buy it in paperback here and ebook here.

 

Review: Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone

Genre: high urban fantasy

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: trans lesbian, cis lesbian, bisexuality

Warnings: none

Rating: three stars

 

Review

Kai is called to the city of Agdel Lex, built on the ruins of Alikand, to visit her estranged sister, Ley. Once there, she finds Ley tangled up in an intricate plot to free the city from its oppressors. The sisters must find each other, however, before they can stop the multi-faceted threat.

General

Generally, this is a heist story in a high fantasy setting (urban fantasy, in that it is more modern, but high fantasy nonetheless). Like a lot of high fantasy it employs many POV characters and rich, deep worldbuilding. It is also an amazing tale of sisterhood, as well as a solid romance book. It’s everything, really, which is amazing. There is no one feeling, nor one trope, that consumes this book. Instead, it is a fully fleshed out story in a world so real you can smell it.

Characters

The characters were generally very well rounded and dynamic, but there were just so many of them. I had a hard time keeping the secondary characters straight, especially the ones where we only got to be in their heads for a partial chapter or two. The main characters were generally much more interesting, although my interest in the sisters waned as the story progressed and their friends became more dynamic. By the end of the book I was actually more interested in the tertiary characters than anyone else, and had a hard time staying invested in the plot.

Plot

While this is book six in a series, each book can function as a stand alone. This book had been recommended to me many times, and I finally just said to hell with the earlier ones, and read it. I’m not sure if the lack of backstory contributed to my confusion, but I’m going to assume it was at least somewhat to blame.

The first two hundred pages or so were very compelling, and despite not having read the previous five books, I didn’t mind being confused. The language was rich enough and the characters round enough that it was a delightful discovery. The middle of the book started to drag, however, with one mini arc after another, and with the continuing introduction of characters, I found myself lost. The end melded together a bit better, but by page 450 I had lost much of my investment.

The ending was solid, and it was worth getting there, but much like when I read any GAME OF THRONES books, I found myself skipping over POVs I just didn’t care about. So while I enjoyed this book, and it had just about every element I look for in a story, I found it generally to be too long. It would have been an amazing 400 page book, but it ran a bit long in the tooth.

This isn’t to say that lovers of high fantasy wouldn’t enjoy it! I often think high fantasy is just a bit too long, and that the stories should be tighter, but I know many high fantasy fans really want an extended ride. Any lovers of Sanderson’s work would feel at home in RUIN OF ANGELS, as would anyone who doesn’t mind juggling more than five POVs.

Additional Bonus

In terms of queer rep, one of the sisters is a trans woman. The nod to this is subtle, and no one in-world cares at all, which is amazing. This type of accepted, unquestioned queerness was so wonderful. In addition, there are two strong f/f romance lines through the book, and book were sweet and relatable. This book stands very well on queer rep and queer romance, especially for those who like a sturdy fantasy plot along with their ‘I love yous.’

 

You can buy RUIN OF ANGELS in ebook here and paperback here

Review: Banquet by Adan Ramie

Genre: science fiction (unclassified)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: racism

Rating: one star. possibly five stars. Depends on what you’re looking for

Review

Rison Ecks, prisoner aboard a transport spaceship headed for…a penal colony (I think), gets marooned on a planet. The droid she befriended on her voyage is kidnapped, and Rison risks death, out of body orgasms, and unattractive women in order to save the droid and…get off the planet? I think? I’m not sure what Rison’s higher purpose is, honestly.

Normally I would break the review down into basic elements, like plot, characters, etc., but the lack of most of these elements in BANQUET make that difficult. Generally speaking, this book has all the campy elements of 1970s era pulp sci fi (+1 for slave girls, +1 for random lesbian sex scenes, -1 for white default, -1 for magical negro, +1 for not burying your gays) without the benefit of really any form of social commentary. The only person of color (barring purple and red skinned aliens) is simply referred to as ‘the dark man’ for the first few chapters until he and the ‘ugly woman’ are captured, leaving Rison alone on a planet filled with… strange lesbians and beings that like meat a lot (which is not a gay joke, and I feel like that was really a lost opportunity there).

For some reason not specified, possibly due to lack of character development, Rison chooses to save the captured droid she befriended on the prison barge, instead of the black guy or the ugly woman. Hence, she goes on a quest to find the thing, running into (not necessarily in this order): a mirage of her dead lover with whom she has sex, a random pregnant woman, a woman who gives her another woman to have sex with, but during the sex she leaves her body to talk with the first woman, the antagonist who really likes meat, and the love interest (I think) who is a really good cook.

Also there is a cooking contest? Did I mention that?

If it weren’t for the problematic implicit bias, the lack of narrative structure, the typos, and the magical black man trope, I’d be tempted to file this book under the ‘ridiculously campy’ tab, and have it sit next to such favorites as (and really, these are some of my favorites) ETERNAL PLEASURE (they’re men with the souls of dinosaurs and they need a hot limo driver, STAT!), DAUGHTER OF THE BLOOD (magical cock rings of obedience!), and everything by Chuck Tingle. Alas, the writing fell too flat for me to tell if the book was meant to be pulp satire or not, the tropes were problematic, and I never connected with the narrative.

Sadly, as much as I love space lesbians, and as eager as I was to get my hands on this book, I can’t say that I enjoyed it. However, those looking to relive 1970s era pulp fiction, complete with its problematic attitudes but minus the homophobia, may be well served by this book.

You can buy BANQUET here

 

Review: Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms, edited by Sacchi Green

Genre: low fantasy / fantasy romance

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: racism, heavy objectification

Rating: two stars

 

Review

Western European fairy tales reinvented to be f/f, but with the same problematic issues with racism and objectification as the originals.

I really wanted to like this book. There was no reason I shouldn’t have liked this book, noting my deep love of both A) fairy tales and B) lesbian romance / sexy time. Books like these have a decent track record, too, from KISSING THE WITCH to all three volumes of INTO THE MYSTIC. So while yes, retelling of fairy tales with a f/f bend is not novel in the slightest, it is still a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, WITCHES, PRINCESSES, AND WOMEN AT ARMS (hereafter WPWA), was not fun.

General

Almost all the stories felt rushed. In the desire to have a drawn out sex scene in each (it is erotica, after all), character development was often completely ignored. Personally, I have no real interest in a sex scene unless I care about the players involved (much like with a fight scene). If I don’t care about their struggles, their passions, and their goals, why do I care what they do beneath the sheets?

In the vein of fairy tales, most of the descriptors in the book were overly purple and food-based. This was especially frequent when describing women of color, who were overwhelming described as exotic things, fruit-colored things, things to be worshipped and revered (sometimes reviled, if they were a witch), but were wholly other.

Seriously. It’s 2018. This book was published in 2017. Stop it. People of color existed in western Europe during fairy tale times, and they interacted with white people outside of ‘here is a visiting princess.’ Perpetuating this narrative has got to stop.

In other irritations…

I was surprised by the homogeneity of the stories in this collection which were for the most part, basically forcing two women into a situation where sex was inevitable (some exclusions apply, see below for story-by-story breakdown). In KISSING THE WITCH, the authors altered the stories enough that some were not even recognizable as the original fairy tale, and others were twisted enough that I was pleasantly surprised by the ending (such as with the Beauty and the Beast retelling, which was amazing).

I was also surprised that a book published in 2017 would only include Western European fairy tales. In all of the INTO THE MYSTIC books, we are treated to a range of cultures’ fairy tales, which makes for a much more exiting read. It also meant that women of color weren’t perpetually treated as exotic beauties.

As a final general comment–the very cis nature of the stories was bothersome. Women come in lots of flavors, heck, even lesbians come in lots of flavors, and the most creative the authors got in this book was a lesbian/dryad pair. Very disappointing.

Story by story breakdown

STEEL by Cara Patterson

A strong start to the book, and with a decent amount of character development. I never really felt the chemistry between Sianna and the witch, but I liked the backstory and the taming of the dragon. This story suffered from cramming a big story into a small space, and I think it would have been much better served with another twenty pages.

ROBBER GIRL by Madeleine Shade

Problematic from the start, this story lacked any real character development or plot. Noting this, it would have been better served as just a sex scene, without the attempt at plot. I was also done with it the moment our ‘dusky skinned, plum-colored nippled’ protagonist wished to look like the white love interest because she was so beautiful. There is literally a line that says “In that instant, I hated my inherited darkness…” I’ll spare you the rest.

THE PRINCESS’S PRINCESS by Salome Wilde

While I enjoyed the power dynamic in this one, I could have lived without another ‘exotic other’ trope. “…whose looks made it plain she was from a distant land.” Nope.

WOODWITCH by M. Birds

The strongest story in the book, and by far my favorite. A tomboy princess runs off to war to help her father, only to find her father is a terrible king and hey, witches are also pretty fun. Excellent atmosphere, good character development, and a lovely ending. This was also the only story that I really felt any sort of chemistry between the two main characters. I’d be very interested to read more from this author.

THE PRIZE OF THE WILLOW by H. N. Janzen

A sweet woman x dryad story. Not much of a narrative arc, but enjoyable and very comforting.

TOADS, DIAMONDS, AND THE OCCASIONAL PEARL by Emily L. Byrne

This one just seemed to wander a bit much for my liking. The premise of a princess questing to make her own destiny, and running into another princess doing the same (and breaking a curse), is solid enough ground, but the execution seemed lacking. I had a hard time finishing this one.

SWF SEEKS FGM by Allison Wonderland

A first date between Cinderella’s wicked stepmother and her fairy godmother. Great premise, and very unique writing style and voice. It was denser than I’d thought, so a bit hard to get through, but I really appreciated the quick. This story stands out in the anthology as by far the most unique.

THE MARK AND THE CAUL by Annabeth Leong

This was another of my favorites. Excellent worldbuilding. The character development was a bit rushed, but I liked the destiny trope and Sam, the plodding, do-good protagonist. The princess was also a lot of fun, and I do like that her (very) risky scheme to save Sam works out well in the end.

PENTHOUSE 31 by Brey Willows

The modern-day retelling of Rapunzel had a lot of good bones, but it never really fleshed out. The homages to the Disney version kept pulling me from the narrative (our heroine is ‘Bren Ryder’), and I didn’t understand enough about the magic involved to feel like the Rapunzel character was ever truly trapped. The story also lacked any real chemistry between the characters.

THE MILLER’S DAUGHTER by Michael M. Jones

A Rumplestiltskin retelling without much changed except the gender of Rumplestiltskin. Nothing much of note with this one. It failed to capture my imagination, but neither did it make me angry, either.

WARRIOR’S CHOICE by A. D. R. Forte

I was confused for most of this story. Having now read it twice, I’m still not quite sure what the character arc is supposed to be. There’s some character chemistry, but the world and character building seem flawed. I think this is another story that would have benefitted from another fifty or so pages.

TROLLWISE by Sacchi Green

I DNF this one. I just couldn’t get into it and honestly, I was kind of tired at this point in the anthology.

THE SORCERESS OF SOLISTERRE by Lea Daley

An interesting romance between a bisexual queen and a white witch. I enjoyed this one, especially the turning of one of the suitors into a rat, and would have loved if this was about thirty pages longer, to really give it some meat.

 

Overall, while the quality of writing in WPWA was higher than the INTO THE MYSTIC books, and about the same as KISSING THE WITCH, it suffered from too much homogeneity and some outdated (and highly problematic) writing styles. Still some of the stories were well worth the read.

You can buy WITCHES, PRINCESSES, AND WOMEN AT ARMS in paperback here and ebook here.

Review: Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

Genre: low fantasy / fantasy romance (YA)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: extreme boredom

Rating: one star

 

Review (contains angry rants and spoilers)

Princess Dennaleia, a secret User of Magic, is betrothed to a prince from a land that hates magic. She gets shipped off, falls in love with the tomboy sister of the prince instead, and… that’s really about it.

Prepare to be underwhelmed.

At it’s heart, this seemed like a great story. Magical princess meets tomboy princess, foils political intrigue, gets the girl and gets to maybe toast some bad guys. Awesome.

Except it wasn’t. Any of it.

The plot was so contrived and distorted it was impossible to suspend reality in this middling fantasy with only the faintest strokes of worldbuilding. Dennaleia has zero agency until the last twenty or so pages, even though she is by far the strongest person in the book, and has ample opportunity to do so. The tomboy princess, Mare, has just the smallest vestige of agency, yet fails to emote during the most tense situations (brother is going to kill the only thing in the world that brings you joy that you have sobbed about the whole damn book? Meh. Over it.)

The main characters are two-dimensional and the tertiary characters are simply walking tropes that get dialogue. The villain is obvious from the first time he is introduced. The king is obtuse to the point of ridiculousness. The prince isn’t much better, and his half-assed apology at the end of the book, and that Mare forgives him though he fucking ordered her favorite horse culled and basically excused her violent abduction and forced marriage, made me so mad I threw the book.

Across the hall.

While at a convention.

I almost injured someone dressed like David Bowie (from the Labyrinth, complete with tights and bobbing package).

And with all the joy (and apologies to Bowie), let’s get to…

Magic

It’s there. Dennaleia appears to be courting a Chosen One trope, and has three elemental powers that she has to keep hidden because of course. Not one. Three. Does she actually use these powers? Just one, really, at the very end. Not while her girlfriend is being bludgeoned, or while her girlfriend’s horse is being shipped off (though she has the audacity to yell at a lord for not doing anything about the horse, either). She goes where the princes tells her, or the king, or Mare, half the time, despite the fact that she can 1) control fire, 2) control wind, and 3) melt (?) stone.

Seriously. Why she didn’t melt the castle to the ground when everything started going to hell is beyond me. The magic system is also never defined, though it gets info dumped about enough that I’m not really sure why I don’t know more about it. A lot is skimmed over, such as the imprisoned minor magic users, their role in keeping the ambient magic ‘in check,’ and how exactly Dennaleia’s powers work. Dennaleia’s powers have a tendency to work when they are plot convenient, and then puff out of existence when it would end the book too early.

Romance

The romance between the two princesses was passable, but nothing to write home about. It was very sweet, first time, non-explicit, with a lot of hand holding and gentle caresses for the first several hundred pages. It was the only thing that felt ‘real’ in the book, and the only real aspect that made Mare and Dennaleia seem like characters.

For a first time fantasy reader, or a young reader looking for some light lesbian content, this book might be of interest. Those with higher expectations of fantasy, or those with a desire for action, good pacing, and well-developed characters, will want to look elsewhere.

You can buy OF FIRE AND STARS in ebook here and paper here.

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