J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Genre: science fiction: space opera

Pairings: f/f, m/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: delightful social commentary

Rating: five stars

Review

I’m embarrassed to admit that this was my first Scalzi book. I’d followed him on Twitter for a while and his sense of humor worked for me. When THE CONSUMING FIRE popped up on my review site, I thought, hey, why not? I like space opera, he writes space opera, and clearly knows something about writing what with all the awards he’s won.

And wow, was I glad I took the chance. Unexpected lesbian content!

The full, pro review is here. At its heart this was the quintessential space opera. Intergalactic politics. Feuding families. Hints of romance. Religions that easily mirror modern monotheistic dogma. As with any good science fiction there was a healthy dose of political commentary as well, torching uptight scientists (that might have hit a little close to home) and power-hungry politicians (who put power above the good of humanity) in the same breath.

Plenty of plot lines and point of view characters wound through the story. Of particular importance for this blog was the arc of Kiva Lagos, a particularly foul-mouthed (love!) woman who is put in charge of one of the more corrupt houses in the Interdependency. Kiva uncovers corruption (shocking!), earns the ire of the former head of the house and then of course, ends up the victim of various assassination plots. She also ends up falling for the mole sent to spy on her which really, sounds less than romantic but the whole book is a bit tongue and cheek, and the romance between Kiva and Senia Fundapellonan is just… well, it’s satisfying. There’s really no better way to describe a relationship that starts off with, at the head of chapter 7:

Kiva Lagos was in the middle of receiving some perfectly serviceable oral when her table pinged.

I mean, sign me up.

Kiva’s story (outside of the perfectly serviceable oral) is central to the main arc, and its her interactions with her lover and the Emperox that were the most engaging (in terms of character engagement. Plot engagement was strong amongst all the POV characters). Scenes that the Emperox and Kiva shared, especially in the final chapter, were far more than ‘serviceable,’ and the book ending had that sort of smug and fulfilling satisfaction that always comes at the end of a good shoot-em-up or -get-the-bad-guy book.

It’s the kind of feeling you got when you watched A New Hope for the first time, but without the bitterness of knowing that Leia was probably the only woman allowed to speak in the whole galaxy, and that meant opportunities for her to boink another woman were in no way possible.

So live your dream, queer space opera nerds. I promise you won’t regret it.

You can buy THE CONSUMING FIRE in paperback here, ebook here, and audio here.

Review: Translucid by Zen DiPietro

Genre: science fiction (space opera/military)

Pairings: female/female

Queer Representation: bisexual, pansexual, lesbian

Warnings: none

Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Review

Emé wakes up on a space station with no memory of who she is, but a complete memory of her job as a security chief. With every part of what makes her her missing, Emé must learn to trust those around her while she pieces her life back together. It turns out, however, that the person she was before was a liar–a good one–and Emé must unravel not only her personal identity, but determine why she lead a second life on Dragonfire station…with a wife who was originally her ‘mark.’

General

Heeeey it’s space lesbians! My favorite trope! The book started off strong, with a great hook chapter with Em waking up without her self-memory but a great technical memory… and then having to go home with a wife she does not remember. Em also discovers she has some uncanny fighting skills that she’s been hiding from the entire station. There’s great tension, the pacing is reasonable, and the interaction between Em and her wife is fantastic. The only time the pacing drops is in the final third of the book, when Em leaves Dragonfire station to find her missing Black Ops friends. Even then it doesn’t drop so much as it changes. The book goes from a sweet space opera directly into military sci fi, which was a little jarring. It was almost like two books smashed into one without much transition, leaving me to wonder if the rest of the books in this (extensive) series skew to the space opera side, or the military sci fi side.

 

Writing

This is one of those times were the narrative carried the book despite its flaws. The writing could have been much cleaner and direct, and there were numerous instances of timeline conflicts (pg 89, for instance, when Wren tells Em that a friend will be visiting for dinner that night, only to have Wren and Em watch a movie and go to bed because the friend actually isn’t coming over until the next night). The editorial work on this book was not tight, but it was easy to forgive amongst the intrigue of Em’s identity and the richness of the station.

 

Characters

I was instantly involved with Em. Her lost memory and the issues surrounding her wife and living situation created strong conflict from the first page and drove the book the entire time Em was on the station. Wren, her wife, was three-dimensional despite having very little page time. There was a menagerie of secondary station characters, all of whom were fleshed out and had distinct personalities. A number of cultures were very well described as well, giving a 270 page book surprising depth.

The members of the Black Ops team were less compelling, likely because they were introduced late in the book and had little screen time. It was hard to make the transition between Em’s daily station life and her Black Ops life, especially after she left the station. I think I needed more investment in the three other ops characters before I could get on board with the story line moving in their direction. One of the main factors keeping me from picking up the next book, in fact, is the uncertainty of whether it would continue the military side with Em’s operative friends, or whether it would drive Em back to the station and her interpersonal relationships there.

In the end, TRANSLUCID is a strong addition to the lesbians in space genre. Those interested in space opera and its intersection with military science fiction will enjoy this book. Those looking for straight space opera may want to look elsewhere.

You can buy TRANSLUCID in ebook here and paperback here.

As an addendum, since purchasing this book the cover has been updated. The cover in this post is the old cover, which I adore. The new cover is…decidedly not as nice.

 

 

Review: Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns

Genre: science fiction – military / space opera (somewhere in-between)

Pairings: lesbian, pansexual

Queer Representation: cis lesbian, pansexuality, nonbinary (nonspecific variety)

Warnings: touch of gore, nothing too unusual though

Rating: 5 stars

 

Review

Recent college graduates Adda and Iridian are wracked with debt and a deep desire for adventure. An engineering degree won’t pay the bills but piracy might–assuming they survive several killer AIs and a dilapidated station threatening to crumble at a moment’s notice.

Plot

Solid plot on this book, despite a somewhat rocky start. I was never really sold on Adda and Iridian’s reason for choosing piracy over a job (aside from the stock rationale of not wanting to be in crippling debt–like, I don’t want to be in debt either but piracy never really crossed my mind), but it does make for a good book starter. The commandeering of the first ship to get to Barbary Station, the home of the pirates, went on a bit long but once the couple was on the station proper, the book really found its pacing.

There was a constant tension from their arrival at the station through to the end, good plot twists, and enough real science to make the twists really land. In fact, the book would have been fine with a bit more science in it, especially on the microbial side with the biological weapons. Tell me more about the Pseudomonas-like bacteria!

I also really enjoyed the depth of the story. There are multiple ‘threats’ to the station at any given time, and actions of various political bodies and a group of refugees living amongst the pirates further muddies the waters. A lot of good interaction comes from the various factions of people living on the station. Some are the original crew of Barbary, some are the pirates, some the refugees, and still others parts of rescue and extraction crews. Each group of people has their own set of motivations, although all are working towards a common goal of getting off the station and away from the killer AIs. Adda and Iridian, of course, are the only two with skills to really get control (see, those engineering degrees are useful!), which pushes them into the center of almost every conflict.

 

Characters

Although we are given a huge array of characters (which did bother me at first), it does help to give names to the bodies when the AI really goes off the rails. Most of the secondary characters were very three-dimensional, and Adda and Iridian were compelling protagonists. We spent enough time with each of the secondary and tertiary characters that their deaths really helped drive the narrative. Even the AIs were compelling characters, and once we got into the meat of the story, my empathy for their sentience had me rooting for both ‘sides’.

 

Nonbinary Rep

I’m assuming this book was in my TBR pile because, hello, lesbian space pirates! I was surprised, therefore, to find that the pirate captain was nonbinary, and a well developed character at that! The attention the author paid to nonbinary genders in this book was excellent, and passages such as the one below had me squealing in joy.

 

Boyfriend? Girlfriend? Nope, zefriend!

If ‘lesbians in space’ is your thing, this book is a must buy. Bonus, the next book in the series is up for preorder on Amazon (and yes, I’ve already preordered).

You can buy BARBARY STATION in ebook here, paperback here, and hardback here. It’s available in audiobook from Audible.

Review: Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Genre: science fiction – space opera

Pairings: f/f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Rating: five stars

 

Review

All Alana has ever wanted is to be an engineer on a real live spaceship. A crippling, chronic illness for which she can barely afford medication, as well as her family’s poverty (and the general lack of ship engineer jobs), has kept her from achieving her dream. When the intoxicating Tangled Axon comes to her repair yard–dripping seduction like THE SHIP WHO SANG–Alana takes a chance and stows away, hoping that the crew won’t find her before they’re too far from her planet to make a return trip. But the crew have their own plans, including kidnapping/coercing Alana’s sister to save a dying crew member. Alana must find her place on the ship, save her sister and the crew she increasingly grows to love, all while trying to keep herself from succumbing to Mel’s Disease.

General

Noting how well the catch-line ‘lesbians in space’ sells books, I’m really surprised there aren’t more excellent lesbian space operas like this in the world. ASCENSION is evenly paced, and filled with wonder and action and all the right kinds of emotions. It’s the Star Wars we all wanted, but will never get because Hollywood would implode if someone suggested black women leads (and heaven forbid one of them be struggling with a chronic condition). The elements of magic blend seamlessly with the tech, the secondary characters are well developed, and it has multiple layers of relationships. It is the quintessential space opera, but with enough lesfic elements and shoot-em-up moments to keep any reader happy.

Relationships

There are a number of strong relationships in the book. Central to the story is Alana’s relationship with her sister, Nova (the ‘Jedi’ of the book), who is presented as a pretentious asshole with a fierce protective streak. The journey of the two sisters finding each other rang very true to sibling dynamics, and was immediately a hook for me. The second strong relationship was between Alana and Tev (the love interest), which was exactly the kind of slow burn I love in a book. The relationship develops slowly (but not so slow you want to throw the book into your window), and the eventual coming together of the characters is sweet but passionate. Tertiary relationships, between Alana and the other crew members, are engaging and do not in any way detract from the main two relationship plot threads. Every interaction pairing was intuitive and rewarding.

Parallels

Like any space opera, this one pulls from a number of familiar elements. Readers will find Tangled Axon reminiscent of THE SHIP WHO SANG, or, if you’re a younger reader, the ship from THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET. Star Wars parallels saturate the narrative, from the Jedi-like sister (seriously, we aren’t the fugitives you’re looking for. Look! I have a tail!) to the ‘just-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-law’ semi-fugitives, to the scruffy pilot. ASCENSION blends these elements into a comfortable, familiar yet exciting narrative with far more diversity and marginalized voices than the mainstream book/cinema has managed to ever produce (Black Panther aside, cause that was awesome).

Randoms

The engineer of the Tangled Axon is a wolf-man. Not a werewolf. A wolf-man. He has some type of wolf soul. I’m still sort of unclear on this but every time he was on page, I could only think about the ‘dinosaur souls in buff men’ book series by Nina Bangs. Full disclosure- they’re not gay at all but they’re…an experience. Yup.

 

Anyone in the mood for excellent space opera can find ASCENSION: A TANGLED AXON NOVEL here in ebook. The book is out of print (ARGH!), so if you want a paper copy, you’ll have to cough up $30 to get it used.

Review: Dalí by E. M. Hamill

Genre: science fiction (space opera)

Pairings: NB/female, NB/male

Queer Representation: gender fluid, third gender, trans masculine, trans feminine, agender

Warnings: violence against enbies (may be triggering for some)

Rating: five stars

 

Review

Dalí, a human, third gender changling, used to be a highly regarded diplomat. That all changed when their husband, wife, and unborn child were murdered. Adrift in suicidal thoughts, Dalí gets into one too many fights and stumbles across an interplanetary conspiracy to sell other third gender changelings to the highest bidder. Dalí agrees to help rescue their fellows, but the conspiracy is much deeper than they feared, and making it out alive isn’t exactly a high priority.

Plot

A very space opera-y space opera, Dalí gives a look at a pseudo-dystopian future in which being born nonbinary is common (that’s not the dystopian part, clearly), but factions from Earth would prefer to see people ‘go back’ to just male and female. Add in a mess of aliens and Dalí’s proclivities for sexual encounters and you get an intense book filled with intrigue, sex, betrayal, and a host of uncomfortable parallels to our modern society.

Although I found some of the scenes too brutal at times (I see and experience plenty of enby discrimination in day-to-day life, so I don’t always care for it in my books), the book was very well written and the pacing, especially in the second half, excellent. I was hooked after Dalí began to befriend a ‘pirate lord,’ and I got to see more of their personality come forward, instead of the (understandable) gut reactions we got in the first half of the book.

General

This book was recommended to me so many times that I waited to purchase a print copy, instead of getting an ARC from Ninestar (also my publisher). It was well worth the purchase and while I didn’t necessarily connect with Dalí on an enby level (we’re just different flavors of enby), the struggles they faced were all too real, and the conflicts, while set in space, were very 2018. It’s fantastic that stories like this are getting published, and that enby readers have more and more opportunities to see themselves in fiction. Much like with THE SEEDS OF DISSOLUTION, it was nice to see a variety enby types, from true gender fluid, to agender and third gender, to transmasculine and transfeminine. This representation, too, is key, in helping to educate readers that nonbinary doesn’t mean just one thing.

A solid, well-paced plot, strong writing, and a memorable main protagonist made this book a very satisfying read. Lovers of gritty books, such as TRANS LIBERTY RIOT BRIGADE, will find this book especially valuable, as will lovers of queer space opera.

You can buy Dalí in paperback here and ebook here.

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