J.S. Fields

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June 12, 2021

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.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: bisexual, dystopian, lesbian, military, science fiction

March 31, 2019

Review: The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

Genre: fantasy – military

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: rape, racism, thinly veiled Christianity

Review

An army  of white people from not-Europe who practice not-Christianity wage war against magical, less developed grey-skinned people to steal a holy artifact. Lots of people die.

In general

The book is primarily military encounters and battles in a fantasy setting that very much mirrors any number of Europe’s holy wars. The people of color are grey instead of brown or black but are still discussed as primitive, having witchcraft and magic, etc. The white people all practice a religion that banned magic (and had a lot of other Christianity touchstones for those familiar), and the grey people all practice magic. The entertaining part comes in the form of the Church wanting the grey people’s power for their own, and attempting to steal it as part of the land grab campaign.

Women
Much like ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME (amusingly, S.M. Stirling blurbed THE THOUSAND NAMES), there are some decent female characters, and lesbian female characters, amid the racist world. Though it takes a while to pass the Bechdel test as most of the armies are made of men (which, really, in a fantasy… come on) we do get three (THREE!) well rounded women. Two are masquerading as men in the army, one a general foot soldier, the other a lieutenant and one of the POV characters. The third is an informant/spy/paper pusher, who ends up having a fantastic arc.

Winter, the only POV woman, is a delight and her sections kept me reading through all the battles that I had little interest in. Her backstory from the orphanage, her love with one of the other girls who is eventually sold as a wife, made her hands down the most compelling character (and the one given the most backstory). There’s no romance for Winter in this book but I’ve been told some crops up around book five. Unfortunately I don’t know if I have another four books of war and thinly veiled racism in me. Still, Winter is an outstanding character for an otherwise male centric military fantasy, and the inclusion of her character should be commended.

With that said…

Writing women

Both of the women masquerading as soldiers bind their breasts. This makes sense. What does not make sense is the lack of discussion of how this affects their service. There are several 15 mile runs noted in the book, of which Winter participates, as well as many, many drills. Running in a binder, in the heat, is a quick way to pass out. It is also noted that Winter has been in her section of the military for seven years and only takes the binder off occasionally to quickly bathe. Long term binder use has consequences on internal organs, ribs, etc. None of this is given any discussion, which made it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief. Winter’s aching breasts are mentioned, in fact, and of course there is a scene where her binder is ripped and breasts tumble out, but no page time is given to actually looking at what wearing a binder for so long, during active military service, would mean.

There’s also a smattering of problematic POV, such as this line:

“Beneath the spectacles, the severe hairstyle, and the mannish clothes, he guessed she was actually quite pretty.”

Again, it’s a character POV, but one that is never rebutted.

Finally, there’s a throwaway line that I’m sure was meant to elicit laughter, but came off as pretty coarse:

‘”It’s been nearly two years.” Winter drew her knees to her chest. “I feel like I’d nearly convinced myself.'”

This comes from a scene where Winter is discussing her ‘secret’ with a woman she’s rescued. And while I understand what the author was getting at, it falls into the problematic narrative that so often crops up in the ‘woman pretending to be man’ trope. Gender identity is not something one can turn on or off at the drop of a hat. If Winter is indeed a woman, pretending to be a man would not have been easy, and there is no way living like one for that long would have changed her identity unless she was already questioning. Which of course, is possible, but no hint is given of that in the narrative.

Grey skin is still a POC

The people being fought, who get very little page time and limited POV time, are the grey skinned (sometimes copper-grey skinned) people of a relatively tropical location, who hold mystic magical knowledge. Some wear loin cloths. They’re pastoral to a point and heard sheep and goats. They are repeatedly referred to as ‘heathens.’ I suspect the author was trying to showcase the problems with characterizing people in such a manner by having some of the most vile characters do the discussions of heathen natures, but the narrative isn’t consistent and the attitudes are never rebutted. One of the white leaders who allows his men to rape and murder women and children while taking a village (and the imagery is quite graphic) is defended by one of our supposedly more upstanding POV characters, Marcus, when a superior wants to fire him. Marcus standing up for him helps him be a better man…. on the backs of all the POC who were raped and murdered.

Even the POC refer to themselves using animal language on occasion, which clearly doesn’t help things.

“Jaffa sat, watching them go after each other like a couple of angry cats.”

Finally, much as with ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME, this is a decent story with a strong female lesbian lead that falls short with racial equality. The various ‘power ups’ that happen at the end could make the sequels interesting, but there is a lot to unpack in other areas for the reader. POC and trans readers, in particular, will want to prepare themselves before diving into the series.

You can contemplate problematic tropes by buying the book in ebook here, paperback here and audiobook here.

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: fantasy, lesbian, military, problematic tropes, reviews

April 11, 2018

Review: The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Genre: military fantasy

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian (literally no gender other than cis female)

Warnings: none

Rating: eleventy billion stars (but no living planets because they’re creepy AF)

 

Review

Zan has no memory of her past. She awakes on a ship (also a planet) with a mass of injuries and a deep attraction to a woman who may have betrayed her. All she knows is that she once threw away a child, and she must penetrate the membrane of world known as ‘Mokshi’ so that her mother can take control of its resources to save their own dying planet. But as Zan’s memories slowly return, she is haunted not only by her growing feelings for Jayd, but snippets of her past life, her dying world, and a hidden plan to save the Legion.

General

Just…wow. I am not a fan of military sci fi but this book picked me up by the collar on page one and did not let me go until the very end. Forget everything you know about military sci fi. This isn’t Battlestar Galactica, this is female military sci fi, which means a lot less… well, men. The lack of men and their (stereotypical) goals and obsessions makes this book an exploration of community and war, of birth and gore. It’s amazing.

Plot

Fast paced without being rushed. Even in the middle of the book, where it shifts from military to ‘journey’ book, the plot did not lag. Every chapter had relevance and character building, and following Zan through the layers of the world as she regains her memory was a delight. The tension stemming from not knowing the in-world plot really drove my interest, to the point where I almost mourned the end of the book.

In contrast to Hurley’s THE MIRROR EMPIRE, LEGION delivers a solid, tight plot without the wandering and massive POV list. Where MIRROR was a slog with occasional tension, LEGION is polished to a high gloss.

The ending was perfect. Too often with books I love I feel let down when the ending lacks punch, or resolution, or leaves me with a syrupy sweetness that makes me want to brush my teeth. The ending to LEGION wrapped the book and the emotions up but left me with that melancholy happiness I need to really feel fulfilled .

Characters

Although we have two POV characters–Jayd and Zan, Zan really drives the narrative. Jayd serves as more of a device (both as a character and for the plot). The mothers/rulers of the two warring worlds have an interesting dynamic as well, and Rasida was one of my favorite characters (the warlord ruler of the ‘antagonist’ planet who more or less buys Jayd for her childbearing capabilities) along with Das Muni, the woman who gives birth to some sort of healing squid creatures. Read the book for Das Muni if for no other reason. She’s been recycled too many times. She deserves it.

 

You can experience THE STARS ARE LEGION (and hopefully not give birth to a healing squid creature as a result) in paperback here and ebook here.

 

 

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: lesbian, military, reviews, sci fi, the

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