Li'l bit high fantasy, little bit internet fetishes you wish you didn't know about.
Do you like... creepy, beautiful, stuff? (Almost) all-female worldsLi'l bit high fantasy, little bit internet fetishes you wish you didn't know about.
Do you like... creepy, beautiful, stuff? (Almost) all-female worlds? Things that aren't a faithful retelling of Tolkien? This is for you!
Also, if you ever hear anyone refer to this as "Marjorie Liu's Monstress," spin-kick your way into that conversation screaming "AND SANA TAKEDA!!!!!" because, while Liu certainly deserves her writing credit, the art is definitely half the book.
Merged review:
Li'l bit high fantasy, little bit internet fetishes you wish you didn't know about.
Do you like... creepy, beautiful, stuff? (Almost) all-female worlds? Things that aren't a faithful retelling of Tolkien? This is for you!
Also, if you ever hear anyone refer to this as "Marjorie Liu's Monstress," spin-kick your way into that conversation screaming "AND SANA TAKEDA!!!!!" because, while Liu certainly deserves her writing credit, the art is definitely half the book....more
Li'l bit high fantasy, little bit internet fetishes you wish you didn't know about.
Do you like... creepy, beautiful, stuff? (Almost) all-female worldsLi'l bit high fantasy, little bit internet fetishes you wish you didn't know about.
Do you like... creepy, beautiful, stuff? (Almost) all-female worlds? Things that aren't a faithful retelling of Tolkien? This is for you!
Also, if you ever hear anyone refer to this as "Marjorie Liu's Monstress," spin-kick your way into that conversation screaming "AND SANA TAKEDA!!!!!" because, while Liu certainly deserves her writing credit, the art is definitely half the book....more
I feel a need to start out by explaining that this is not my sort of book. Usually when books are not my sort of book, I simply do not read them. ThisI feel a need to start out by explaining that this is not my sort of book. Usually when books are not my sort of book, I simply do not read them. This one, however, engaged me sufficiently to pull me effortlessly through all the bits that were not shaped in a way familiar to me, which is very much to its credit.
The general shape of this book is as follows. Ames is living a somewhat boring (to me? But also to him, I think) job at an ad agency and having somewhat thrilling (to him, mostly) sex with his boss. (Probably the fact that this is self-evidently a bad idea adds to the thrill.) Until his boss calls him into her office to ask why she is pregnant when he had assured her he could not get her pregnant. He had been under the impression he could not, because when he went on feminizing hormones, during the period of his life when he was a woman, he was told this would destroy his fertility. Katrina, his boss, wants to know if he will commit to raising the baby with her, as she plans to have an abortion otherwise.
Ames panics, torn between wanting to keep the baby and not wanting to commit (I think?) and proposes instead that Katrina raise the baby with Reese, his girlfriend back when he was a Amy, who has always desperately wanted a baby. Katrina has never met Reese, and also was not aware Ames was at any point a woman, and is fairly resistant to this idea but eventually agrees to consider it. Adding Reese to their somewhat messy relationship only makes it messier. Reese finds Ames' detransition suspect and perhaps ridiculous. Reese lives passionately, pursuing something indefinable, a wholeness she finds just out of her reach but searches for mostly in relationships with men who treat her badly.
None of this sounds like my jam. Furthermore, I found the book quite challenging because of its approach to its characters. This is a book that pries into the crevices of the human soul and finds the unlit and grotty chambers of the heart where pettiness and uncertainties and small meannesses hide, and contemplates them all with a faintly interested air that isn't cruel, but isn't exactly kind. I am aware of peoples' pettinesses and doubts and meannesses, as I am a people, but I do not particularly enjoy watching them catalogued. You might feel differently!
I feel I am talking too much about this book's stumbling blocks, for me, so the part I enjoyed:
This is a book that wants to look at how different women relate to womanhood.
The Sex and the City Problem wasn’t just Reese’s problem, it was a problem for all women. But unlike millions of cis women before Reese, no generation of trans women had ever solved it. The problem could be described thusly: When a woman begins to notice herself aging, the prospect of making some meaning out of her life grows more and more urgent. A need to save herself, or be saved, as the joys of beauty and youth repeat themselves to lesser and lesser effect. But in finding meaning, Reese would argue—despite the changes wrought by feminism—women still found themselves with only four major options to save themselves, options represented by the story arcs of the four female characters of Sex and the City. Find a partner, and be a Charlotte. Have a career, and be a Samantha. Have a baby, and be a Miranda. Or finally, express oneself in art or writing, and be a Carrie. Every generation of women reinvented this formula over and over, Reese believed, blending it and twisting it, but never quite escaping it.
Yet, for every generation of trans women prior to Reese’s, the Sex and the City Problem was an aspirational problem. Only the rarest, most stealth, most successful of trans women ever had the chance to even confront it. The rest were barred from all four options at the outset. No jobs, no lovers, no babies, and while a trans woman might have been a muse, no one wanted art in which she spoke for herself. And so, trans women defaulted into a kind of No Futurism, and while certain other queers might celebrate the irony, joy, and graves into which queers often rush, that rush into No Future looked a lot more glamorous when the beautiful corpse left behind was a wild and willful choice rather than a statistical probability.
This book very very much about how women related to womanhood or, if you prefer, "womanhood", that tricky beast. The book is incredibly insightful, on this one. There is a scene where Reese is surrounded by cis women at an 'essential oils party' that is genuinely hilarious. Reese's anthropological observations of the cis woman in her environment are absolutely spot on and very good.
It is also very _written_. Either you find this writing compelling, or you do not, but I definitely did:
Reese first came across Tammi at Saint Vitus, a dank club that primarily hosted music of the angry male variety. Every surface of the interior was painted black and therein such ample moshing had occurred over the years that the accumulated musk of sweaty post-adolescent boys forever lingered in the circulation-free air. A straight Tinder boy who was into noise had suggested meeting Reese there one night, and she agreed, primarily because she’d know immediately whether he was worth fucking or whether to flee after a drink, and either way, her apartment was two blocks away. Onstage, a cadre of boys hunched over keyboards. Among them, the only thing truly worth looking at in the whole club: a trans woman on guitar. Six foot three, tattoos jagged on lean porcelain arms, slashes of asymmetrical dark hair bisecting a face made up so expertly vampiric that had Elvira known about it, she’d have stopped by to learn something. The woman less played her instrument than throttled it every ten seconds or so, between which attacks she gazed with poised stillness at some unfixed point over the heads of the audience, listening to the reverberations of her own sudden violence, as a hiker who has shouted over an empty alpine lake holds quiet for the moments it takes his echo to return.
I am now going to dip into a thing that is not strictly book review: responding to other book reviews. It is not generally my custom! But a cursory skim of reviews for this book reveal a number of people saying that the protagonist is a rapist, and I *genuinely do not know what they are talking about*. It is possible to write a sex scene that some people might feel was consensual if poorly negotiated, and other people might find non-consensual, but generally, if that happens, I at least know what sex scene people are talking about. There is a fair amount of sex in this book, not much of it closely described, some of it merely alluded to, so it's possible I missed the scene they are referring to. In fact, there is a great deal of sex that was, all things considered, probably ill-advised. But so far as I recall, there was no sex where everyone present did not want to be there! Some people had mixed feelings! But everyone wanted to be there more than they wanted to be elsewhere! Have a number of reivewers noticed some event I overlooked? This is possible. It is also possible these people... are terfs? I did not investigate closely, but it seems possible!...more
This book's lineage is, at a guess, Hamilton/The West Wing/That brief liberal mania after the election of Obama. It is very much a fantasy of a differThis book's lineage is, at a guess, Hamilton/The West Wing/That brief liberal mania after the election of Obama. It is very much a fantasy of a different political system, one not captured by big money, where politicians may be ruthless or use means you don't approve of, but are serving in politics because of something they believe in. It is a fantasy of an America that could elect a divorced woman president.
On the other hand, if you can't have fantasies in your romance novels, where can you?
I didn't check this out for a long time because I find celebrities, politicians, and royalty, all vaguely squicky, and this book is written on the assumption that all of these are something you are at least a little into. However, the book doesn't rely on your kink for the aforementioned; it has a lot going for it. The book has a full cast of characters who are delightful, the banter is non-stop, and if you like your books to playfully reference real events, you will be rewarded.
The main couple are also constantly comparing themselves to other literary and historical couples, so if you enjoy that sort of thing, it is the sort of thing you will like.
A lot of this book was *not* the sort of thing I like, but honestly, it's so well written! Do you like writing?...more
Not a great year for getting reading done, so if I finished a book this last year, it was either very good, or extremely my shit. This is the former, Not a great year for getting reading done, so if I finished a book this last year, it was either very good, or extremely my shit. This is the former, rather than the latter. I'm not usually into autobiographical meditations on mental health or the absurdity of mortality, or grappling with the unfairness of why things happen to people.
But if you think those things wouldn't absolutely destroy you, this is an attempt to engage with those things humanely and hopefully....more
Just long enough to whet your appetite, in an alternate history Cairo that is a collision of modernity and history. (In this context, "modernity" meanJust long enough to whet your appetite, in an alternate history Cairo that is a collision of modernity and history. (In this context, "modernity" means "modern, Djinn-powered technology".) Agent Hamed is middle-aged, and gives off a faint air "I'm too old for all these new-fangled things" that isn't so regressive that it made me annoyed with him. He's like 'I guess it's time for women to get the vote?' but also happy to get help from various women in exorcising the haunted tram car....more
Maybe I'm the wrong reader. Like if Edward Gorey did Hannibal? Except that sounds compelling and this never quite grabbed me.Maybe I'm the wrong reader. Like if Edward Gorey did Hannibal? Except that sounds compelling and this never quite grabbed me....more
I mean, I guess if you like stories about people who rise from the ashes to do extraordinary things, stories about terrifyingI dunno how to rate this.
I mean, I guess if you like stories about people who rise from the ashes to do extraordinary things, stories about terrifyingly powerful magics that are hidden behind reality, maybe this is your jam? It reminds me a little of the Chinese 'cultivation' story, but I'm not familiar enough with that genre to really pick apart the similarities and difference, so just dropping that in there for people more familiar.
the blurb gives you an idea:
After all, she was a normal American herself once.
That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father.
In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.
Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.
The most charitable description of this book is that it's about overcoming suffering, and learning to reject becoming what one's abuser was. The least charitable description is that it's about how abuse makes you strong, so it's all worth it in the end. I don't know if either of those are true, but as you can tell, the thing that stuck with me was the abuse. ...more
This is "Lady Sherlock Holmes" plus "Inter-dimensional Travel, but also Vampires" so you should know if that's your jam. Also, as Dr. Science says, "wThis is "Lady Sherlock Holmes" plus "Inter-dimensional Travel, but also Vampires" so you should know if that's your jam. Also, as Dr. Science says, "we're all queer here." It is extravagantly, joyfully queer.
Lady Sherlock (Shaharazad Haas) is one of the colder versions of Sherlock, but Haas' calculating ennui is offset by Watson (Wyndham)'s warmth and concern, and charming narrative voice. Wyndham is convinced that Haas is fundamentally a good person; I'm less so, but I'm willing to stick around to find out.
Most of the charm in this book, for me, was in its writing. It's a little overwrought, as is appropriate in a Holmes pastiche, and one recurring joke was Wyndham's refusal to commit any vulgar language to paper, even thought it becomes very apparent that everyone around him is saying "fuck" all the time. He is also a little bit incapable of telling when men are flirting with him, and very bad at talking to the police.
(Also, although I generally do not care about the author's intentions, I really want to know if Wyndham is getting laid on page 268???)...more
I feel like there are several classic SF stories on the theme "Oh no, a bunch of us have been abducted and we're on an (abandoned?) alien space ship aI feel like there are several classic SF stories on the theme "Oh no, a bunch of us have been abducted and we're on an (abandoned?) alien space ship and don't know how it works or why we're here so we're just kinda stumbling about sticking our human forks into alien light sockets and trying to learn stuff." But I can't think of any in particular, so maybe it's a subgenre I have made up.
But in case I have not, this is the fantasy version of that SF trope.
Protag Isoka has murdered her way into a somewhat comfortable position as a mid-level mob boss, but now she's stuck on a mysterious ghost ship with a bunch of other people who have been stuck on the ship longer than her; long enough to have murdered their way into their own murder-based social order. Can she solve the problem with more murder? Or is the solution... lesbianism???
(Surprise! It's both.)
(Isoka might not consider herself a lesbian, because she has sex with men? But she seems to consider them relatively unmemorable athletic equipment. Then she meets one pretty girl and forgets how to form sentences, so honestly.)...more
In this world, interstellar humanity is ruled by the AI gods their ancestors created. The gods need humans, and claim their souls after death, so theyIn this world, interstellar humanity is ruled by the AI gods their ancestors created. The gods need humans, and claim their souls after death, so they mostly rule them with an eye to their well-being. Mostly. One of the greatest threats to the gods and, (perhaps?) humanity, is the Outside, a force/worldview/way of thinking that threatens reality. Humans touched by it tend to go mad, and spread their madness, so the gods are ruthless in excising Outside influence.
I love this book's world-building. The Outside is a sort of cosmic horror that is a bit more cosmic than usual, in this book. It undermines physics and causality and seems to have an agenda of destruction. The gods, on the other hand, are ruthless dictators with the agenda of all dictators: to hold on to power by whatever means necessary, but with a light touch on the day-to-day lives of their subjects. They let the worlds under their power develop independently, so long as they hew to the laws of the gods, and offer them worship.
Yasira, the protagonist, comes from a world that is better about disability and mental health than some. Her autism was celebrated and supported there, although she's encountered other attitudes when she went to school. She's trying to build an energy source that will decrease her world's dependence on god-technology. This is a problem because it turns out she's been contaminated by the Outside, but the gods are giving her a long tether to try to discover new means of confronting their old enemy.
This does not go well for Yasira, or, ultimately ,the gods.
I want people to read this, but if you don't like cosmic horror, you might not like this. It doesn't marinate in it the way Lovecraft does, but it certainly visits that territory. There's also some accounts of abuse in a therapeutic context that maps pretty well onto ABA. This is not a major theme, but it's central to one character's back-story....more
Set on a planet where the only human-habitable zone is the terminus between day and night, this book is about a lot of things. It's about settler coloSet on a planet where the only human-habitable zone is the terminus between day and night, this book is about a lot of things. It's about settler colonialism, political power, differing models of social control, the limits of political revolution, the longing for a feeling of connection to one's culture, and those weird, intense friendships between pre-teen and teen girls that make you go "is it gay? Are they on the verge of forming a cult? Or is this just a normal stage in development?"
You might enjoy this if you like LeGuin, Anne of Green Gables, or thought Enders Game could have more girls in it....more