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: The Adventure of the Golden Woman by Cynthia Ward

Genre: science fiction: alternate history

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis bisexual, cis lesbian

Warnings: DRACULA

Review

Another adventure awaits the half-vampire, bisexual Lucy Harker! Dracula’s daughter, still with her lovely lady vampire lover, works as a double agent to steal England’s spaceship plans. But wait! The handoff is interrupted by a mechanical man…no, wait! A mechanical woman! A golden mechanical woman who is far more advanced than her ‘male’ counterparts. Unlocking the golden woman’s emotions may be the key to saving Lucy AND the solar system. Why is the solar system in jeopardy? Something about mechanical people populating the moon? I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter.

Holmes raises his powder-whitened brows in a. rare display of surprise. “A golden mechanical woman, did you say?”

“The mechanical had a feminine shape and the visible portions were made of the alien alloy,” I said. “She–it killed the man and appropriated his portfolio, which holds information intended for SIS. Then the mechanical fled into an alley. I saw no one giving the mechanical orders, but my view was obstructed.”

“Dr. Krüger’s machine-men aren’t capable of independent action,” Holmes says.

“The design of the golden woman was far more advanced than Krüger’s ambulatory tins. And far more aesthetically pleasing.”

Don’t overthink the plot. THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOLDEN WOMAN is the fourth in Cynthia Ward’s ‘vampire hunter falls for a vampire and they have to constantly battle Martian technology and sometimes also Tarzan’ series. Will there be dinosaurs? Yes. Aliens? Probably. Weird beings at the center of the Earth, the Titanic, and Sherlock Holmes? Yup. This book, as with the series, is a consistent delight. I love the well-researched history that is then twisted and deformed into comedic genius. I love the mash up of pop culture and lesbian vampires. I love that Sherlock Holmes is the butt of 50% of the jokes. I love that the world is so weird that literally no one bats an eye at the half-vampire daughter of Dracula is also bisexual and has a lady lover who is a vampire.

This is a short little novella, as they all are. But if you’re looking for a delight of escapism, start with THE ADVENTURE OF THE INCOGNITA COUNTESS aboard the Titanic. Get yourself a helping of dinosaurs in THE ADVENTURE OF THE DUX BELLORUM. Then journey to the center of the earth with THE ADVENTURE OF THE NAKED GUIDE. Then come meet me here with the Golden Woman, who is a well-deserved fourth book in the series. Come for the lesbian vampires, stay for the period pop culture jokes. You won’t be disappointed.

Get it on Amazon here.

Review: ONE LAST STOP by Casey McQuinston

Genre: science fiction: modern time travel

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis bisexual, cis (butch) lesbian, trans man

Warnings: this book is freaking adorable

Review

Twenty-three-year-old August has just moved to New York City, intent on finally finishing her degree and carving out a life away from her obsessive mother. Frequent rides on the subway keep her running into a mysterious woman in late seventies fashion. Jane is the butch of August’s dreams, but has a little bit too much of the unknown about her. The more August unravels about Jane, the more she comes to doubt not only her understanding of physics, but her understanding of her own family. Jane may be the key to finding August’s long-missing uncle, but she may be the key to August’s heart, too.

I’m not usually a contemporary reader. I did like the author’s last work, the m/m RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE, and so an f/f pairing, with time travel, sparked my interest. Overall, ONE LAST STOP is a cute, if overlong, ‘meet cute’ book. The sci fi elements are deeply downplayed in favor of extensive character work. Found family abounds, deep introspection is the norm, and there’s a lot of NYC atmospheric elements that help bind the book together.

The romance between August and Jane is the strongest part of the narrative, and all the make out and sex scenes are tight with tension, longing, and butch/femme dynamics. They are unfortunately couched between what sometimes feels like endless friendship discussions with August’s roommates–all of whom are entertaining, but all over the top in one way or another. One or two would make the narrative richer. Five or six make the narrative overwhelming.

ONE LAST STOP would make for a great airplane travel book or comfort read on a long, rainy day where you still have some things to do. Imminently interruptible, it’s a soft, cozy love story about subway romance with easily skimmable fluff filler.

With that said, the narrative voice is strong and August’s voice in particular is distinct. Some examples include:

 

“Yikes,” she says, gesturing at August’s shirt, where the coffee stain has soaked in and spread, which is the last possible reason August wants this girl to be looking at her boobs.

 

August can feel her face glowing red to match the scarf, like a giant, stammering, bisexual chameleon. An evolutionary mistake.

 

And the writing is rich with lesbian courting dynamics I seldom see written down, even in contemporary romance:

She lowers her eyes finally, and when she cuts them over, August forgets she ever asked a question. Or what questions are. Or the entire process of speech. “What brought you here?”

“Um, school,” August says. The lighting is already unflattering, so it can’t be helping the shade of red she turns when confronted with significant eye contact from butch girls in leather jackets.

 

There are also a few delicious pop culture references. My favorite:

“August, I love you very much, and I want you to be happy, and I’m very confident that you and this girl are, like, fated by the universe to finger blast each other until you both die,” she says. “But honestly? I am in this for the sci-fi of it all. I’m living a real life episode of The X-Files, okay? This is the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to me, and my life has not been boring. So, can we go, Scully?”

 

Grab yourself a subway card and see if you can find your own time traveling butch girlfriend by buying the book here.

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.

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.

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