J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

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January 18, 2020

Review: Shell Game by Benny Lawrence

Genre: fantasy – low

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Review

He said, “My name is Hasak, and I am going to rule these islands.”

She said, “My name is Darren, and I am going to punch you in the nose.”

So begins one of the most enchanting and erotic lesfic books I have ever read (and erotic without any actual on page sex, either!) Darren is a (not great) pirate, hell bent on stopping other (not great) pirates/warlords from continuously plundering little villages. She’s also a noble–outcast from Torasan Isle for daring to fall publicly in love with a woman.

That first relationship ended badly, as they tend to do. Now, with no home and no wife, she sails the seas with a ragtag crew, looking for assholes to punch and fishing villages to save.

Life continues to chug along at a normal pace until Darren stumbles into a fishing village that has just had enough.

The fishing village where I lived was nothing special–just a bunch of mud huts and a fishing skiff or two. And yet four raiding parties had invaded it in the past three days. The first set of raiders took all the young men, the ones with the muscle to work the oars of a warship. The second set took all the men older than twelve and most of the women as well. The third set took what food was left: sacks of flour and jugs of oil and piles of dried fish. The fourth set wasn’t very impressive.

With every island out for itself, the commoners are caught in between warring nobles, and their populations are dwindling.

Lynn, resident of said fishing village, knows an opportunity when she sees it. She challenges Darren, looses, and ends up literally tying herself to the mast of Darren’s ship, insisting Darren kidnap her and keep her in chains or, at the very least, ropes.

If you’re seeing the BDSM vibe already, good work.

Darren has no fucking idea what she has inadvertently signed herself up for. She’s crap at relationships and almost as bad at being a pirate. Lynn, on the other hand, knows exactly what she wants, and is hell bent on molding Darren into the hero pirate queen the world needs. Getting Darren to admit to her penchant for some kink in the bedroom is a nice bonus.

Darren eventually learns that Lynn has a dark past herself, it turns out. One that only a pirate queen can save her from.

SHELL GAME is pirate fantasy at its finest. There’s swashbuckling rogues, political intrigue, fantastic pacing, romance, and one of my favorite tropes: lesbians on boats. The characters are three-dimensional and it takes very little time to gain investment in the two leads.

The romance is hot. Hot. Hot enough that even though you never get any on page sex it doesn’t matter because you know what they are doing. The dom/sub relationship between Darren and Lynn is by far the best I’ve ever read in fiction, showcasing how the power dynamics should work, the role of consent, and the role of respect.

More than once, in some desperation, I wondered whether I would have to keep her in a small metal box to protect her from the others. But Lynn never allowed me to protect her. She had a sharp tongue and a level head, and a strong sense of pride, and she gamely took on the job of carving out her own place on board [the] ship. She did let me show her what parts to kick on the human body to inflict maximum pain, but that was about the limit of what I was allowed to do.

The banter alone is enough reason to read the books. Some favorites:

And every time, I would whisper, “You know, I’m not really a pirate queen.”

And every time, she would whisper back, “Do you honestly think that anyone can tell?”

—

They say he foamed at the mouth while he was fighting, and each time he impaled one of his victims, he let out a shuddering pant, as if he had just–well, you know.

—

He moved, but as he moved, he muttered, “Your slave is going to kill us for leaving you.”

“It’ll be good for you,” I called after him.

“What? Being killed?”

“It teaches humility.”

—

Iason was on his feet, screaming to everyone and no one, “Kill her! Kill the bitch!”

It’s always the same. Just once, I’d like someone to point at me and scream, “Giver her a foot massage! Give a foot massage to the bitch!”

—

And of course, Burke occasional slings some life truth in the narrative, such as:

I would like to pause at this point to share something about women that it took me a very long time to learn. If your girl tells you that she has a headache, she is sending you a message in code. The message is that she wants to play a game, and the game is called, “Figure out what is bothering me by reading my mind.” If you fail to guess right, you lose. If you do guess right, you still lose, because you should have known that something was bothering her before she said anything. Either way, be prepared to set aside a couple of hours for back rubs and apologies.

SHELL GAME is an absolute pirate delight. There’s really no excuse not to read this book, unless you’re a asshole noble, or an abusive step mother, or just plain dead inside. Join Darren and Lynn on the Badger in ebook here and print here.

 

To read the review for the sequel, BEGGAR’S FLIP, click here.

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

June 9, 2019

Review: Rescue Her Heart by KC Luck

Genre: science fiction: space opera romance

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian. cis pansexual

Warnings: homophobia (by a character), attempted sexual assault

Review

Captain Nat Reynolds is a workaholic space ranger. Catherine Porter is an eighteen year old down-on-her-luck waif with a dilapidated ship and not a penny to her name. Asteroids happen and Catherine gets stuck on the ice planet Hoth (not really its name but same idea) and needs some serious saving. Catherine thinks she’s straight. Nat definitely isn’t. They end up in a hotel room together. You can guess how it goes from there.

Also space pirates.

RESCUE HER HEART is romance with a light sci fi flavor, but definitely can be classified as ‘lesbians in space’ due to several space scenes. The plot follows well-established romance lines and employs a number of lesbian tropes such as soapy sex scene, age gap, and coming of age sexual awakening.

The book begins by establishing Nat as a battle-worn space ranger whose only love is her job. She’s never taken a vacation, which is critical information for her spending spree a bit later in the book.

An asteroid field strands Catherine on an ice planet and space ranger Nat comes to her rescue–a rescue that of course involves getting naked for warmth.

Nat learns Catherine has no money due to her father disappearing (and being quite the drunk) and so offers to fly Catherine to a nice planet where she can get some clothes with Nat’s money. They end up in a hotel room (cue important ‘where will we sleep’ tension) and go clothes shopping (cue ‘do you want to see the cute panties you bought me?’). Catherine thinks she’s straight and so flirts like only an eighteen year old can with a safe target. Nat’s big on consent and so things get really damn hot. Catherine eventually realizes she wants to bang and things proceed.

The second half of the book has more of the sci fi plot. Deciding to go on a pleasure cruise in a fancy rented spaceship, Catherine and Nat become prisoners of space pirates when their ship gets jacked. Then there’s lesbian space pirate drama (the best kind) and some decent action scenes.

Nitpicks

Erasing homophobia in future settings is a growing trend in queer fiction, especially spec fic. Parts of RESCUE read more like a 1980s bar encounter in terms of homophobia and sexual advances but it’s definitely important for authors to be able to see their worlds in the books they write. Many lesfic writers in particular came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, when homophobia and sexual harassment were still very commonplace. Being in this age group I can deeply relate to the events in the book, although they may ring abstract and unnecessary for younger readers.

The biggest stumbling block in the story is the tech. The book is one hundred years in the future but one law enforcement person still uses a paper printer (it’s noted as an antique). Heaters still have dials. The ‘old’ spaceship has a windshield (that gets cracked from a meteor but no one gets sucked into space) and a steering wheel that Catherine actually has to fight to keep the ship on course through the asteroid field.

(It should be noted that my partner defended the steering wheel and suggested that the old ship was made for human comfort and the inertial dampeners had been routed through the steering wheel to give it a more ‘historic’ feel.)

You don’t really read books like this for the science, however, and the problems are easy to overlook in the very well done sexual tension. The scenes and placements are sometimes silly and over the top but keep you well in the narrative and rooting for the main characters to just boink already. Example:

…Nat realized the woman was braless. Nat forced her eyes away, and with shaking hands, pulled off the girl’s boots and socks before focusing on removing her pants. It was difficult to cut through the thick fabric and knowing precious time was slipping away, Nat tossed the scissors aside and gripping the cloth, yanked with all her strength to tear the pants apart and off the girl’s body.

I mean, we laugh but really, we’ve all had this fantasy.

You can join the space pirates in ebook here, or the space rangers in paperback here. Either way, you get to bang in the shower.

 

Filed Under: book review Tagged With: lesbian, pansexual, pirate, reviews, romance, space opera

February 17, 2019

Review – Princeless, Book Two: Free Women, by Whitley, Higgins, and Brandt

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

Genre: fantasy (comic)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Review

Book two picks up right where we left off, with the all female crew of Raven’s pirate ship off on their first adventure! In this collection the crew sails to The Island of the Free Women–an island Raven’s grandmother set up decades ago to beat back the patriarchy. Unfortunately now it’s just a wretched hive of scum and villainy, as these things go.

The crew are still getting to know one another, and as they split into teams to get the supplies they need to beat Raven’s brothers, the brothers strike first and Raven must go head to head with her family.

While the series still has my attention, I felt like this volume wasn’t as well done as the last. There are too many characters and we’ve not spent enough time with most of them for me to remember their names, much less their backstory. It makes their peril less interesting to read about, and the action scenes harder to parse.

The font also seems to be smaller in this edition (or my eyes got worse in the… two months? between reading volume one and volume two), or there was just too much going on in the panels to focus on the words. Whatever it was, reading this volume gave me a headache and I actually put it down for a few days. Volume one I read to cover to cover in one sitting, so enthralled was I by Raven and her crew.

This volume might have had more punch if it had a contained arc to it, which volume one certainly did. In this one we spend a lot of time on character building (and yet somehow still not enough, since there are so damn many characters) and only get action with the brothers at the very end. As that action ends mostly unresolved, I was left with a ‘that’s it?’ taste in my mouth at the end of the volume. I don’t mind being along for the extended ride, but I need touchstones and progress markers, or I’m going to wander.

Regardless, it’s still a lot of good solid lesbian pirate fun. If you’re like to get back with Raven’s very diverse pirate crew, pick up the next volume here.

~~

Hey readers! Did you know you can subscribe to this blog? Don’t miss out on Review Sunday and Ardulum Wednesday ever again! Look on the right sidebar for the grey box that says ‘Get my blog posts via email,’ enter your email, and hit subscribe. It’s that easy! (if you can’t see it, just scroll down a bit.)

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

December 30, 2018

Review: Princesless. Raven: The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Genre: fantasy (comic book)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

 

Review

Okay so I don’t generally like comics. I’d much rather make the images in my head than let them be made for me on the page (and comic reading slows me down, so I can’t read as fast as I would like). But wow, was this worth it!

Book one covers the story of Pirate Princess Raven, out for revenge against her brother and fathers who thought she was better off locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon, than inheriting her father’s pirating business. We get to see Raven collect her motley crew, get a decent number of origin stories, and get the first hint of romance (yay!) between Raven and Sunshine.

The comic has all the good stuff. Action. Adventure. Kissing. Various body sizes. More than one skin tone. Solid voice. The crew are diverse and three dimensional and oh-so bingeworthy. We’ve got a chemist (yay!) who loves to make things explode, a mapmaker with an axe to grind, a half-elf thief/dancer (YES PLEASE), and ‘the muscle’, a Brienne of Tarth character, for the Game of Thrones fans out there. Raven herself  is a pirate princess I would follow anywhere. Seriously, sign me up for the next voyage.

The art style as well (by Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt) is detailed without being overwhelming. It flows well with the writing and the panels aren’t so overwhelmed with detail that you get bogged down in looking (and then get distracted from the story).

I promptly went and bought the second book after finishing the first. I’d suggest buying the whole series, because it is really hard to put the comic down. High tension on the high seas for sure. BUY IT!

 

You can snag your own pirate princess and her crew of misfits here in paperback and here in ebook.

To read the review for the second volume in the series, click here.

~~

Hey readers! Did you know you can subscribe to this blog? Don’t miss out on review Sunday and Ardulum Wednesday ever again! Look on the right sidebar for the grey box that says ‘Get my blog posts via email,’ enter your email, and hit subscribe. It’s that easy! (if you can’t see it, just scroll down a bit.)

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

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