J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: Seawolf by Anna Burke

Genre: science fiction: lesbians on boats

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Review

Second in a trilogy, SEAWOLF follows the smashing COMPASS ROSE–a dynamic and very, very hot lesbians on boats tale, complete with pirates, bondage, and power play.

In this installment, the directionally unflappable Compass Rose now resides on the pirate ship Man o’ War, with her lover/pirate captain/it’s complicated. Miranda Stillwater is everything we love in a butch pirate captain. She’s emotionally complicated. She’s a little too into substances. She likes a lot of sex and not a lot of talking. She’s clearly a lesbian train wreck. Which means she does not handle Compass Rose’s early injury and subsequent loss of her navigational superpower, very well. Not very well at all. There’s a lot of very poor decisions, crew mutinies, and Miranda Stillwater treating Compass Rose like a breakable doll. Not breakable in the bedroom, mind, just, you know, there’s only so many jellyfish stings and concussions one captain can take before she ties you to a bedpost. *cough*

The plot progresses, as it does, and we are treated to several underwater battles and jellyfish. People die, people are injured, and the crew is deeply sassy. The main villain from COMPASS ROSE returns to eventually take Miranda’s ship from her, and the crew are sassy about that, too:

“90 degrees south, Compass Rose.”

I stared at Ching’s–Amaryllis’s–mouth in order to avoid her eyes, noting the chapped skin and the determined bow of her upper lip, and had one coherent thought: What the actual fuck?”

“What the fuck?”Orca echoed my thoughts, slamming her hands on the table in what I assumed, dimly, was shock. “Nobody sails there. The water–“

“Isn’t the real danger,” said Ching. I couldn’t quite bring myself to call her Amaryllis.

“Like hell it’s not.”

“Orca,” Miranda said in warning.

I’m just very confused about why you’re suddenly insane, Captain.”

Their adventures eventually sail them into forbidden waters, where Compass Rose meets more people with eyes like hers, and gets to meet the lost side of her family tree. It is in this part of the book, the second half, that the narrative really finds its footing. The first half of the book wanders and feels mostly like an extended clean up or epilogue to COMPASS ROSE. Fresh plot and new advances occur once we finally get to meet the sea wolves and learn about their culture. Stakes raise, estranged family members reunite, and we are left on an excellent cliff hanger for book three.

I find with Burke books that the author has really mastered the novella, but struggles in long form. Her full novels would often benefit from about 100 fewer pages (200 fewer in the case of the Robin Hood retelling). SEAWOLF is no exception. The book is a slow start, as was COMPASS ROSE, but lacking the sexual tension that drove the first book in this series. Breakups are all well and good, and make sense in a second book, but without new plot details, don’t much contribute to movement.

With that said, this was still a very enjoyable book and I’m looking forward to the third. A strong opening with the sea wolves for the third book would be much appreciated, as well. (And if you’re looking for what I consider Burke’s masterpiece, check out THORN).

Let yourself be kidnapped by a butch pirate captain (but only if you bring the booze) here.

Review: Isle of Broken Years by Jane Fletcher

Genre: science fiction – time travel / fantasy – lesbians on boats (pirates)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: rape taunts (it IS a pirate book after all)

Review

Like all of Jane Flecther’s books, please pay ABSOLUTELY NO ATTENTION TO THE COVER. This book is GOLD and so help me I will pay for the next cover myself can we please get this woman covers that properly showcase her work!?!

Ahem.

Catalina de Valasco is on a galleon, headed for the Americas to meet her rich husband (whom she has never met). Pirates attack! The cabin boy of said pirate ship is Sam, our dashing tomboy lesbian love interest, cleverly disguised (or so she thinks). Anyway. The crew is slaughtered but finding a lady in a fancy dress, they realize hey, ransom! Sweet! So they change course and head for the Bermuda Triangle (stay with me).

So it’s hard, right, being a pirate that likes ladies? I mean, you’ve got one ON YOUR SHIP but your captain won’t let you rape her because they she isn’t worth as much money. Not all the crew agree with this financial plan, and several attempts are made, which Sam cleverly foils with chickens. We are not yet to the major plot twist. Hang in there. They sail through the triangle as they try to go somewhere that will pay ransom for an annoying, high-bred Spanish lady. There is weird weather and there is a mutiny etc. Sam, Catalina, Catalina’s (very gay) manservant Alonzo, and some of the would-be-rapists are stranded on an island where robots try to kill them. Yes. Robots. Strap in.

Welcome to ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME without the BS colonial narrative and obvert racism. The few that survive the first robot attack are found by other island survivors and taken to a safer location, where they learn that the island is (wait for it) a Greek/alien invention (Catalina reads Greek, conveniently!) and moves through time. The current refugees come from different cultures, times, and places, and make for a fantastic back up crew. The goal – to get off the island without being killed by robots, or minotaurs, or weather. Secondary goal – can Sam get together with Catalina, or will Catalina’s crushing upper class eighteenth centuries Spanish morals get in the way? And why is Alonzo trying to kill Sam? How would you expect a meeting of modern day lesbian millennial to go with said eighteenth century closeted lesbian?

WELL YOU GET TO FIND OUT.

Catalina is….kind of over the top and it’s kind of perfect:

Catalina tightened her jaw and drew her shoulders back. The blood of kinds ran in her veins. She was a true daughter of Spain, who could trace her ancestors to El Cid, and beyond. Whatever else, she would not let this rabble see fear on her face. They deserved nothing by contempt, and that she would grant them, in abundance.

Sam is the standard ‘my dad didn’t know what else to do with me so he dressed me as a boy and took me to sea’ trope–pirate with a heart of gold, loves the ladies, etc. The ‘pirate’ part makes this difficult, of course, noting Catalina’s attitude towards pirates, per above. As a fun twist, the pirate crew all think Sam is a ‘backdoor man’ because he doesn’t visit the whorehouses with them. In a +10000 for Fletcher, Sam’s gender reveal does not come from her shirt being torn open. Instead, the more modern people on the island have no trouble seeing she’s a woman dressed as a man and just flat out ask her. Sam has no issue adopting this very upfront attitude:

She turned to Sam. “And you are?”

“Sam. Sam Helyer, I was cabin boy on the Golden Goose. The ship has sunk, and I’m the last survivor.” Sam hesitated, as if making a decision. “So I’ve missed my change to tell my cremates I’m not a boy. Probably just as well. I don’t think they’d have been happy about a cabin girl.”

While people around her laughed, Catalina needed long seconds to be sure she understood what Sam had just said. But there could be no doubt. She was dimly aware of Alonzo at her side giving a low growl. Mostly, Catalina just felt her jaw drop open.

Per usual, I have quibbles with how the binder is addressed:

Babe picked at the band Sam had wrapped around her breasts. The binding had been necessary when she was passing as a boy, and she had kept it for comfort when running and jumping.

If every author could just come and sit next to me for a quick second – IF A BINDER IS TIGHT ENOUGH TO PROPERLY CONCEAL BREASTS, IT IS NOT COMFORTABLE. Maybe for a few hours. DEFINITELY not for running. Those shits constrict the HELL out of your lungs. Running in a binder that tight is a good way to pass out. ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

Okay, binder grump aside, you should buy this book because, at the very end when they’re trying to battle a robot minotaur, they have to use lightsabers.

Yes. You heard me.

“The only thin we have that stands a chance of hurting the Minotaur are these plasma blades.”

Uh huh. Call them ‘plasma blades.’ We all know what’s going on. Time Island has alien tech and LIGHTSABERS. LESBIANS WITH LIGHTSABERS WHO WERE PREVIOUSLY ON BOATS.

you are welcome. It has a happy ending and no lesbians are eaten by fish robots.

Get your own lightsaber and try to find Atlantis by buying the book here. Don’t feel bad if you have to rip the cover off to keep it on your bookshelf. Still very much worth it.

Review: Branded Ann by Merry Shannon

Genre: fantasy – historical (lesbians on boats!)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: Scary Black Man trope, discussion of child rape, some off-page adult rape (not voyeuristic), ethnic slur (Gy*sy)

Review

Violet, former prostitute now merchant-wife, is setting off on the vacation / move of a lifetime with her new husband. They’re headed to Jamaica, where her husband’s land holdings and wealth will make her a queen among the natives (don’t worry, it’s not a colonial narrative) and allow her to leave her past behind.

Barely into their voyage, Violet’s ship is taken by pirates, who are lead by Branded Ann, a “woman with eyes like ice and a face marred by a mysterious cross-shaped scar.” But Ann isn’t after Violet and her husbands possessions, nor is the ship carrying any worthwhile cargo. Ann is after a portion of a map that will help her translate the portion she carries, and allow her to find her father’s hidden treasure.

None of this is of much interest to Violet of course, who gets to watch her crew and husband murdered. Violet makes some key missteps and Ann, who will kill anyone who looks at her but who can’t stand rape, has to take Violet under her protection to save her from the crew (this is all very well done, I have no objections to this scene). Violet has no intention of serving Ann or the crew, except as a scullery maid. Hence she’s left to scrub decks and make friends with the cabin boy–and slowly earns the respect of part of the crew.

As Ann’s scheming takes the crew farther afield, into dangerous waters that could spell disaster for the ship and its crew, Violet and Ann must learn to trust each other as a mole on the ship, other treasure seekers, and Ann’s own crew plot to kill them both. Trust isn’t something that comes easily for the merchant’s wife or the pirate, and the reader gets treated to the very best of the enemies-to-lovers trope, while on the high seas, and surrounded by murderous pirates.

Much like SWORD OF THE GUARDIAN, BRANDED ANN combines the very best fantasy tropes (herein, pirates) with my favorite romance tropes in a skillful, suspenseful, and hot stand-alone book. There’s a real plot that I actually care about. Both Violet and Ann are three-dimensional and have their own motivations. They have unique voices. The crew of the pirate ship are complex and distinct, and act with the moral grayness of, well, real pirates. There’s a reasonable, on-page sex scene and plenty of sexual tension before it, swashbuckling, fun outfits, a misfit kid, and a pirate with a heart of gold. Seriously, what isn’t to love in this book??

Unfortunately, like SWORD OF THE GUARDIAN, this book does have some tired racist tropes, primarly in the form of Black descriptions:

Then there was Mason, a giant of a man with skin so black it shone like polished ebony when he sweat in the sun. Rumor had it that Mason had originally been captured from Africa by pirate slave ships, and the captain had been so impressed–or perhaps intimidated–by the enormous man that he’d recruited him.

For those playing their TV Tropes bingo card at home, Mason hits the Scary Black Man trope, specifically Token Minority, Proud Warrior Race, and Gentle Giant.

The book is surprisingly realistic in how it portrays the brutality of pirate lives, though it does so without glorifying violence or giving us voyeuristic rape scenes. It’s a fine line not many authors can walk, and Shannon does it with grace. Be warned, however, that there is rape of Violet, though it is off page and no actual portion of the rape is discussed other than Violet’s frustration over the encounter.

Somewhat more concerning is one of the pirate crew propositioning the ten-ish-year old girl who ends up stowing away on the pirate ship, who Violet takes under her wing. Again, it’s just a proposition and nothing happens, but it does serve to really enforce the real brutality pirate life, and the very complex morals of Branded Ann’s crew:

Saunders reached out and took hold of Charlie’s arm. “Aw now, Sister, that bunk of yours is awful tiny, ain’t it? Maybe this little one ought to share berth with me.” The lecherous gleam in his eyes made Violet sick to her stomach. “What do you say, moppet, you want to come sleep next to your Uncle Saunders?”

There’s also a concerning passage from Violet’s past about a Gy*sy woman who is paid to give her an abortion, and the effects of said potion. So, racial slur and problematic context, in a one-page backstory.

Racial and rape issues aside, BRANDED ANN is decidedly well-written and walks the perfect balance between romance and adventure. With a publication date of 2008, some of the issues are more forgivable (rape, in particular, seemed to be almost required in fantasy books from the 1980s-about 2010) than others (at no point has the slur Gy*py been okay unless you’re Roma). Readers will need to decide if they can put the racism aside for an otherwise delectable adventure.

Grab a cutlass and join Branded Ann’s pirate crew here.

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.

Review: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Genre: contemporary thrillers/light horror

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: gore

Review

(from the jacket)

Seven years ago the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a documentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend.

It was lost at sea with all hands.

Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy.

Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greater hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves.

Okay so first off, if you can, you should get a signed copy of this book, because sometimes Grant/McGuire draws creepy little fish in it:

because she is also, quite possibly, a ravenous mer-person.

Second, you should get this book because holy balls is it amazing.

The premise starts a little silly, with a group of documentary film makers who make their money off of bogus films, much like on the old Discovery Channel (THE TRUTH ABOUT BIGFOOT, anyone?). Except when the company decides that mermaids are the next big thing and send out a boat to get some footage of… ocean? Probably? Anyway, the boat never comes back.

But because cell phones and such, some of the video feed that was being recorded does get sent, and it shows some terrifying mermaid-looking things eating the crew.

The public can’t decide if it is a hoax or not. Imagine Entertainment knows very well it isn’t a hoax, but has to let the public chill a bit before it can do its very first ever real documentary.

Fast forward some number of years. Victoria’s sister died on the original voyage and she’s determined to return to the location and get some closure. Luckily she is one of a handful of mermaid/ocean/sound experts that Imagine Entertainment scouts for its next voyage, which is how Victoria finds herself on a massive boat with professional hunters, a gajillion scientists and, eventually, killer mermaids.

INTO THE DROWNING DEEP has an ensemble cast and multiple POVs, however the head hops move the narrative along instead of repeating events, which means the tension and pacing don’t get sacrifices in the name of introspection.

There’s some fantastic rep in the book, from fluent users of American Sign Language (two of whom are deaf), queer people, and an autistic lead character.

The mermaids themselves are…well downright terrifying, and their few POV spots are like icy fingers on your spine. The science in the book is strong and concise without devolving into technobabble. It really feels like you are listening to scientists bicker, and the description is so precise that it’s hard not to reach out and want to touch mermaid hair, or run screaming for your life as one of them launches over the side of your boat/armchair. Grant/McGuire is clearly familiar with academic life, and little throwaway lines like below cement the worldbuilding:

“I may not have credibility, but I have tenure, and that’s more than I can say for you.”

“Ex-girlfriend used to talk about the Serranko series like they were sex toys,” said Olivia. “I sort of memorized their product catalog for pillow talk. Which means they still send me catalogs. Paper catalogs on this thick, glossy paper that you know costs almost a dollar a page. It’s amazing. It really is science porn.”

And the romance line, oh, the romance line. I never knew how badly I needed science nerd romance until I saw this:

“Uh, hi,” said Tory.

“Hello,” said Olivia, cheeks coloring faintly pink. She paused before asking, “Did your science go well?”

“Oh. Uh, yes. Very well.” Tory resisted the urge to rub the back of her own neck. She was here for science–she was here for Anne–not for some schoolgirl crush on a woman who couldn’t stop bleaching her laundry.

Honest.

—

“No offense, hon, but you flirt like it’s a form of espionage and you’ll be executed if you get caught.”

INTO THE DROWNING DEEP may end up being my gateway into horror/thriller books, since I was enthralled with the story from the start. If you’re looking for science in your contemporary thriller/horror, some decent humor, and lesbians on boats (an exciting new subgenera!), you can pick up INTO THE DROWNING DEEP in paperback here, ebook here, and audio here.

Killer mermaids sold separately. Hopefully.

 

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