J.S. Fields

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January 24, 2021

Review: Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan

Genre: science fiction – urban (also lesbians plus dinosaurs!)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

 

Review

Pearl, who is probably not an angel, works for the Resistance–an organization that does small acts of kindness to improve the overall world. Stealthily. She’s unnaturally strong. She has wings that exist in a sort of extra dimensional space pocket and is missing part of herself–a part that appears to be stored in a killer’s briefcase that may also contain an extra dimensional space pocket and dinosaurs. Having no memory of who or what she, Pearl knows she must get back the briefcase at all costs, putting her job, her lovers, and her connection to humanity on the line. But the man with the stolen briefcase has a secret of his own, and Pearl’s truth, if found, may be more than the universe can take.

Shortlisted for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award, OCCUPY ME is urban science fiction at its best. It’s weird. It’s twisty. It’s got killers and altered states and dimensional pockets and dinosaurs. What isn’t to love?

Pearl, the main protagonist, wakes up in a refrigerator with no memories, a lot of energy that needs to be spent, and wings that may or may not actually exist in reality. Dr. Sole, the other main character, has two people living in his head and driving his meat sack body, and only one of those people is him. He’s also accidentally killed some relatives of his not-quite-dead-but-very-definitely-evil geriatric employer, which is why he has the guy’s soul in his inter dimensional briefcase.

The briefcase, of course, is the missing part of Pearl (her launcher), and she cannot regain her memories and purpose without getting it back. Dr. Sole has plans of his own–mainly to screw his boss for destroying Dr. Sole’s village, ecosystem, culture, and basic will to live.

Everyone wants the briefcase. Every time Pearl and Dr. Sole tangle, dinosaurs come out of the briefcase and fuck people up. Pearl’s girlfriend breaks up with her for crashing a plane, she meets a hot veterinarian, Dr. Sole kills a bunch more people, and everyone ends up in dinosaur land for a while, and eventually, space.

It’s fucking fantastic, if not a little confusing. BUT ALSO FANTASTIC.

This book is gilled with social commentary:

It is so tiring and ironic, their fear. No matter how many African people the white people robbed of their lives, still they will be afraid of you.

realistic yet sexy running commentary:

Marquita was sleeping, sprawled on her back with her mouth open, a slug trail of saliva tracing gravity’s vector from the corner of her mouth. Her brightly-beaded braids were splayed around her in a semi-circle like the head of a paintbrush that’s been jammed against the paper. Or a halo. The hotel’s Egyptian cotton sheets were tangled with her legs, but one foot had managed to escape and its painted toes twitched in her dreaming. She wore a shell necklace that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a mermaid and, even though the fine wrinkles on her neck and around her eyes showed the drag of years, she had fucked like a storm all night.

and dinosaurs:

Number 47: because you never know when your obliging vet friend will ask you to hold an unconscious pterosaur’s leg out of the way while she roots around with her forceps, looking for the place where the bullet chatters agains the bone.

The chapter headers in particular are gold (see example: Fucks like a gerbil) and there is no small amount of third wall breaking:

This is for everyone who thinks ships are made of metal and petrochemicals and that they travel through space like sailboats travelled the high seas, propelled by mysterious engines that grant them impossible speed. That space sailors have space battles with space pirates and electrical cables and explosions and space bars with space booze.

And, like all moderately confusing books, it offers fantastic summary paragraphs every so often to catch the reader up:

‘Indeed,’ you say. ‘I shall tell her that until further notice I will be living in an airplane hangar and fraternizing with the Loch Ness monster while you engage in a little dubious financial hacking to try to recover some of the funds that were lost when Bethany Collins ruined the future of humanity because her boyfriend doesn’t satisfy her sexually. My wife will then file for divorce and report my location to the police.’

OCCUPY ME is wild and weird and perfect for 2021 (though it was written back in 2016, the vibe still works). Even if you never grasp the plot, the writing is sharp, witty, and engaging. It’s original sci fi, surreal at times, honest all the time, and breathtakingly innocent.

You can escape the pterosaur by jumping into the magic inter dimensional briefcase by buying the book here.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: dinosaurs, lesbian, science fiction

January 17, 2021

Review: Heathen, vol 2, by Natasha Alterici and Rachel Deering

This review is for the second volume in a comic series. To read the review for volume 1, click here.

Genre: fantasy – alternate history

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual, cis pansexual, gender fluid

Warnings: none

Review

Aydis is back! Having freed Brynhild and spent some time in Freyja’s love nest, she now searches for Heimdall, the entrance to the land of the gods, in an effort to end Brynhild’s curse (and take out Odin if the opportunity permits). Adventures abound, including a brush with killer mermaids and a ship full of buxom lady pirates.

Now separated from Aydis, Brynhild and Freyja get their own adventures, too, with Freyja falling from Odin’s grace for aiding Brynhild and Aydis. There’s a great scene where Freyja, trying to re-entice Odin, turns into a male version of herself which was perfectly drawn and very Loki-esque.

Although this volume doesn’t push the story particularly far, the art remains enchanting and the promise of an eventual Aydis/Brynhild arc continues to tease. Like the previous volume there are plenty of bikini-tops, cleavage shots (hell, Freyja doesn’t even wear a top), and women who just don’t give a fuck. Odin is still a jerk, but he’s down an eye so hey! Things are looking up!

Volume 2 is on Amazon, and should be there for a while, though I know there is still a rights issue going on.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: bisexual, fantasy, gender fluid, lesbian, pansexual

January 10, 2021

Review: Heathen, Vol 1, by Natasha Alterici and Rachel Deering

This review is for the first volume in a comic series. To read the review for volume 2, click here 

Genre: fantasy – alternate history

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual, cis pansexual

Warnings: none

Review

Viking woman Aydis lives at a critical moment in history, where the old gods are falling away and new gods creeping in. Her people attempt to hold strong to the old ways, and are not forgiving when Aydis is caught kissing her childhood best friend. Her father is given the choice – force his daughter to marry a man, or kill her.

Aydis has no desire to marry a man. Her father takes her into the woods with her trusty (tiny) horse Saga, and exiles her instead.

Alone for the first time, Aydis sets out on a hero’s journey to prove her bravery by freeing Brynhild, former leader of the Valkyries. It is said that Brynhild can only be rescued from her ring of magic fire by someone ‘worthy’.

Aydis sees no reason why that can’t be her.

These comics came out ages ago in digital, and I backed the kickstarter also ages ago to get the rest of the volumes and the print versions. Volumes one and two just shipped a few weeks ago, and it was a delight to get to hold the artwork in my hands and take my time reading through Aydis’ adventures.

I do not generally read comics, so something has to be just right for me to buy them, especially if I intend on keeping them. Aydis is the kind of heroine I love–bumbling, willful, and sure of herself despite what society thinks. Her (eventual) affair with Brynhild is VERY slow burn, so don’t expect any action in volume one (or two, for that matter). Instead, savor the imagery and worldbuilding as Alterici and Deering take you on a savory walk through Norse mythology. There are adventures along the way, talking horses (+10), warring gods, scantily clad women in snowy landscapes (+20) and some full page illustrations that tear at your heart.

The story does not entirely focus on Aydis, and Brynhild gets a fair bit of action and agency, as does the current leader of the Valkyries, Freyja (who is very into teh sexy time). Together, the three of them eventually task themselves with ending Odin’s reign…and maybe finding love along the way. Regardless, there is eyeball squishing and giant orgies and battling the patriarchy in tiny little bras. Something for everyone!

Heathen appears to be available on Comixology right now, though I know there are some rights issues going on so I am not sure how long it will be up there.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: comic, fantasy, lesbian

January 2, 2021

Review: Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield

This review is for the SECOND book in the series. To read the review for ALICE PAYNE ARRIVES, click here.

Genre: science fiction (historical/time travel)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: none

Review

Have they successfully helped humanity and stopped people from using time travel, or has our daring group of heroines bungled things further? This sequel to ALICE PAYNE ARRIVES begins with another botched time travel job, this time accidentally bringing back Arthur of Brittany (yes, King Arthur) to the late 1700s…and smallpox along with him. Alice’s lover and inventor Jane has not had her vaccination, nor have many of the servants of Alice’s manor (now no longer in debt thanks to book one, YAY!).

They need a vaccine not available until the next century at the earliest. And, unbeknownst to the lot of them, Arthur’s abduction sends huge ripples in the time line, alerting Prudence’s boss to her whereabouts (she’s been in hiding since going rogue in book one).

And of course, since the group has not one but two time travel devices, our lovers end up trying to unravel the mystery of Alice’s deceased father and what plagued him in his later year’s dementia, while Prudence tries to sort out time. Alice and Jane get stuck in the USA during the revolution, their time device breaks via Prudence’s boss, Prudence’s beloved sister is erased from history, etc. IT’S A GIANT TIME FUCK but Alice and Jane still find time for heart-to-heart talks and some serious conversations about their relationship.

ALICE PAYNE RIDES is less coherent than its predecessor, but no less fun. It still has tons of time travel hijinks, steam-punk flavors, wacky inventors, and lady highway robbers. And the cover is more gorgeous than the first, which is a real feat. Like the first book, it also discusses mores around lesbianism at the time, but in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion:

Mr. Duncan makes a sound like a kettle about to boil. “I hope you pay little attention to the scurrilous libels in the London newspapers, Miss Payne. Certainly there are women who amuse themselves with Sapphic romances, but there is no true carnality in…playacting. It’s a physiological impossibility, you see. Isn’t it, Dr. Jenner?”

Join Alice, Jane, and Prudence in more time travel shenanigans here. Though as things never seem to work out all that well for them, maybe you’re better off discussing hedgehog reproduction with Dr. Jenner.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: lesbian, sci fi

December 27, 2020

Review: Escape to Pirate Island by Niamh Murphy

Genre: fantasy – pirates, lesbian on boats

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: forced removal of a woman’s clothing which exposes her gender

Review

Catherine ‘Cat’ Meadows, born a landed lady, is also a smuggler on the high seas. After her husband’s death (along with a few others) Cat becomes wanted for murder and must take passage on a ship as a cabin boy (concealing her gender…I’m fairly certain you know where my review is going from here).

Lily Exquemelin is the daughter of a landed man and a whore, and has recently been orphaned. Her father of course has left Many Debts, and Lily must clear them or end up in debtors prison. She has an old treasure map and key left from her father’s privateering days. Desperation sends her to seek out a ship she can hire with very little money, for a crew that will sail without knowing where they are going.

Only scoundrels would take such a journey, of course, just as only scoundrels would take on a cabin boy with no experience and no references. Catherine and Lily end up on the same ship, where everyone has a secret and everyone is also hunting for Mr. Exquemelin’s lost treasure. There are fifteen thousand mutinies (an estimation), character motivations switch at the drop of a hat, a kissing scene that quickly leads to some lackluster deserted island sex, and a reasonably happy ending.

This is a very hard book to review. On the one hand, LESBIAN PIRATES. Sign me up. It has all the tropes I love–the bastard heiress, the brusque pirate with a heart of gold, a little bit of cross dressing, swashbuckling, and boats. The writing is solid in terms of syntax and grammar, and I never felt beaten to death with adjectives or endless redundancy. Structurally the story was fine, with a five part act and a wide crew within a decently depicted universe.

Unfortunately, the writing felt like the author was trying to subvert tropes, but didn’t understand enough about the tropes to subvert them. Other times it felt like they wanted to lean into the tropes but not enough groundwork was put down first. Cat is our ‘top’, but alternates between rough and tumble and being a giant pushover who can’t seem to drive the plot. She spends most of the book as a plot spectator, being pushed and pulled wherever the narrative needs her to go. Lily is the femme, sometimes a Power Femme, sometimes a High Femme, dependent upon plot needs and whether Cat is topping or not.

There was little voice distinction between the two leads, and it often felt like their personalities intertwined…as if they were one character continuously split in whatever direction the author needed. It was impossible to gain a foothold into the world, and Cat’s inability to push the plot lead me to skimming most of her sections. Normally hers would be the character I would be most engaged with, but there was just so much failure. And not failure in the world, so much as just failure to act.

The book also contained the trope I hate most in the world, the exposure of a character’s gender (/birth sex) by forced removal of clothing. It wasn’t as gratuitous as in some other books since Cat IS a woman, just masquerading by choice, but Cat is still forced to be naked from the waist down right before she is whipped with a cat-o-nine-tails. Hard pass. Especially with the jeering and leering that comes along with it from the pirate crew.

(trigger warning – the excerpt is below wherein Cat’s gender is forcibly revealed)

“Remove the boy’s shirt,” he ordered them.

The men stepped forward and, to Strong’s horror, they ripped off the shirt.

They laughed and stepped back to reveal what appeared to be a boy in a girdle. 

“What’s this?” Kingsley spat, infuriated. “Armour is it? Did you hope to spare yourself the pain? One hundred lashes!” He pulled a knife from his belt and tossed it to one of the guardsmen. “Cut it off.”

Strong looked round for Fletcher. ‘Where’s the man gone?’ he thought. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t next to hm, ready to partake in whatever action they could. 

‘Few men can survive a hundred lashes,’ he was panicking, ‘few men.’

Then suddenly there she was.

No longer ‘Jack.’ By a long way, she was no longer Jack; her hair was loose in the breeze, her eyes defiant, and her chest bare. There was no shame about her manner. She stood like a Queen of the Amazons held captive by savages.

And yes, I do appreciate that Cat owns it there at the end, but the act itself, and the threat of doing more, is just so overdone for me. Props, however, go to the author for including the first ever discussion of menstural product needs on a pirate ship that I have ever seen.

There’s so much potential in this book, and yet it really fell flat for me. I felt no chemistry between the two leads, found the writing wandered where it needed to be snappy, and was too snappy where it needed to breathe. It’s not a bad read, it’s just a boring one. An additional round of edits to trim here and expand there could have really brought this out to SHELL GAME level of awesome. Still, if you’re into lesbian pirate adventures it is worth checking out. Boring lesbian pirates are better than no lesbian pirates, always.

Grab a confusing cowboy hat (see front cover) and join your own lesbian pirate gang here.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: fantasy, lesbian, lesbians on boats, pirate, problematic tropes

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Blog Posts

Review: Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan

January 24, 2021

Genre: science fiction - urban (also lesbians plus dinosaurs!) Pairings: f/f Queer Representation: cis … [Read More...]

Review: Heathen, vol 2, by Natasha Alterici and Rachel Deering

January 17, 2021

This review is for the second volume in a comic series. To read the review for volume 1, click here. Genre: fantasy - … [Read More...]

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