J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: Mutiny at Vesta by R.E. Stearns

Note: this is the second book in the series. A review of the first book, BARBARY STATION, can be found here.

Genre: sci fi space opera/military

Pairings: f/f, enby/m

Queer Representation: cis female, nonbinary of many flavors, cis gay

Warnings: Sequel review. Will contain spoilers for BARBARY STATION

 

Review

Buckle up kids, it’s time to kick off the YEAR OF SEQUELS!

It is hard as hell to get your sequel books reviewed, especially the farther you get into a series. Most small review sites and blogs flat out won’t even consider them. Hence, this year I’m dedicating to sequels and series, as well as trying to finish up my list from last year that I didn’t quite make it through.

Top of my list for sequels for 2019 was MUTINY AT VESTA, the sequel to BARBARY STATION. BARBARY introduced us to long-term couple Adda and Iridian, who have turned to piracy as a way to pay off their sizable student loan debt. Excellent hook. Everything goes awry when they get trapped on Barbary Station with a rouge AI bent on killing them, the pirates, and a mess of civilians.

Eventually of course they manage to deactivate the AI and escape Barbary. MUTINY AT VESTA picks up not long after. Adda and Iridian are now fully members of Captain Sloane’s pirate crew. Unfortunately they don’t get to do a lot of fun lesbian pirating, as they are almost immediately blackmailed into working for a mega corporation with no soul… as these things go.

The rest of the book contains a series of short adventures as the crew do the bidding of the corporation while also trying to get out from under its thumb. Adda and Iridian are just as adorable as ever, Pel is back with his flamboyant, youthful earnestness, and there are a ton of explosions. Added to it are four sentient AIs that may or not be evil. No spoilers.

Like BARBARY, MUTINY had a lot of nitty gritty detail. Lovers of every movement and minute action described will find the blocking perfect. It’s easy enough to skip over if that sort of stuff bores you, too. The book truly is a blend of space opera and military sci fi, and consistently wriggles between the crew interactions and feeeeeelings, to command structures, heavily explained tech, and A.I. workspaces.

The A.I.s though, that’s the real reason to read MUTINY. AegiSKADA, the rouge A.I. that tried to murder everyone in BARBARY, is back (although rebooted), along with all the other awakened A.I.s from the end of book one. Adda ends up trying to train all of them, which inevitably puts a strain on her relationship with Iridian and the rest of the crew. The detailing of her artificial dreamscape/workspace remains incredible, and the A.I.s are as fully fleshed out as any character.

As Sloane’s crew become more and more tangled with mega corporations and further from their dreams, it’s impossible to not root for the A.I.s turning into contributing members of the pirate crew. At times they even seem the most straightforward of the characters, which of course, is all part of R.E. Stearns’ plan.

While it might not always be the most straightforward romp, MUTINY AT VESTA is a worthy sequel to BARBARY STATION. From the ending it looks like there might be a third in the series, so here’s hoping.

You can buy MUTINY AT VESTA in ebook here, print here, and audiobook here.

 

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Review: The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

Genre: sci fi (space opera)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, nonbinary, asexual, aromantic

Warnings: none

Rating: 5 stars

 

Review

Callie, captain of the salvage ship White Raven, stumbles upon a derelict ‘Goldilocks’ ship–one of many vessels sent out of the solar system some 500 years ago in the hope of finding new worlds to seed. The one remaining passenger (in cryosleep of course) awakes with tales of aliens, and not the kind humanity has been interacting with for the past 300 years.

What follows is fast paced, seductive tale of two women whose worlds collide in all the right ways at all the right times as they unravel a galaxy-wide conspiracy about some unruly ‘gods’ and their plans for the universe. If this sounds a lot like the overarching plot to ARDULUM, you’re not wrong, but the books are actually really different in execution.

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OMG. Just… OMG. I’ve had a lot of good books come through my TBR pile in the last few days but this one just blew me away. The ‘just on the right side of the law but okay with going over the line’ crew, the hot tension between Callie and Elena who have a bit of an age and power differential (but not enough to be squicky), the quirky crew, the tech, the creep AF aliens, it all worked so well together. Space lesbians at their finest, with a great plot to boot.

The queer representation too, is top notch, hitting most every end of the spectrum (and naming almost every iteration on page). Trans characters, on-page bisexuals whose histories are not erased or minimized, nonbinary characters with nonbinary pronouns, all seamlessly integrated. The book also misses the binary gender trap so many space operas fall into, and the aliens have multiple genders, sexualities, and ways of reproducing (I think at one point the book says the Liars have seven sexes). It’s really neat, too, that the humans don’t really understand their genders or reproduction, so despite being heavily complex, Callie’s max understanding of the Liars is:

“His” wasn’t really accurate–Liars didn’t exactly fir into human gender categories, and when it came to biological sex, Liars either reproduced asexually or had multiple sexes or cloned themselves, depending on which group you were talking about…

The banter, in particular, was very well done (pg 23 of the print version being an excellent example). The aliens are both familiar yet creepy and very well fleshed out. The brain spiders are suitably terrifying, the plan for galactic domination both deliciously evil yet somewhat understandable, and the ending satisfying while still leaving room for sequels. Every explosion makes you whoop with excitement and every plot twist leaves you bug eyed and frantically turning the page.

Hands down, I would put THE WRONG STARS in my top three books I read this year, right next to STARLESS by Jacqueline Carey and BARBARY STATION by R.E. Stearns. I bought the sequel immediately after finishing book 1.

You can buy this delicious space lesbian adventure (complete with sexual tension and discussion of ‘straps’) on ebook here, paperback here, and audiobook here.

To read the review for the sequel, THE DREAMING STARS, click here.

 

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

 

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 mirrored 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

 

 

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.

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