The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018)
★★★☆☆
This book launches us headlong into a post-oil, climate-changed “Vancouver” featuring a commune of parthenogenic sister-clones, cyberpunk consciousness mainframes, and hallucinogenic Chinese herbal medicines turned street drugs. It gives no quarter. That dedication reminded me of Neal Stephenson, but the larger premise seemed more like something by Karen Tei Yamshita. @waxpoeticness recommended this to me, saying it turned every fantasy trope on its head, and I felt that. I don’t know that I grokked all of it—there’s a lot to chew on here, and it definitely takes a bewildering turn for the surreal in the last third—but I enjoyed the Grist sisters as a fundamentally decolonized (and depatriarchy-ized) group in mind and body, as well as the suggestions of other indigenous narratives (i.e. First Nations reclaiming land and trade) on the fringes of the main story.
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Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (Jimmy Patterson Books, 2018)
★★☆☆☆
“Books can be safe places to explore difficult topics. While we cannot shelter young people from being exposed to sexual violence, whether through lived experience or indirectly, we can give them a way to safely engage with and reflect upon these issues.” —Natasha Ngan
As much as I think this story—about a forced concubine defying an abusive king and finding love with a fellow concubine—should exist, and as much as its Chinese-Malaysian influences warmed me, I don’t personally feel interested in reading more stories about shitty men abusing women. I’d rather envision and experience worlds where, by default, men are not powerful and masculinity is not admirable. Putting aside my feelings, I had a hard time off the bat with this YA novel. The opening scene where a soldier kills a dog to show how callous he is (doesthedogdie.com: YES) felt simplistic and OTT. Exposition of the various clans felt clunky and distant, the story was painfully linear, and the climax was resolved with an almost literal deus ex machina.
I did enjoy the portrayal of queer romance and supportive female friendships. I’m reminded, as I was after Black Panther came out, that the bar is a lot higher for #OwnVoices, and there needs to be room in the world for POC stories that are not amazing or mind-blowing or magnificent. It needs to be okay to be okay.
Two stars.
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Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Penguin ROC, 2000)
★★☆☆☆
Reasonably fun popcorn paranormal mystery. But goddamn if there is not an overabundance of male gaze—it’s like the narrator can’t see a woman without commenting on her makeup or how “appealing” she looks, or otherwise having thoughts he admits would get him called a chauvinist pig (but he’s “old-fashioned” and “a gentleman” so it’s okay 🤷🏼♀️). Otherwise, I wished the conflict didn’t revolve so much around allied forces becoming unshakably convinced the protagonist was the killer; even though I understand those conclusion-jumps were in the service of Drama and Harry’s Internal Conflict, it just seemed like all parties could have communicated better.
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All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com, 2017)
★★★★☆
Really ~identified~ with Murderbot. Laughed out loud a few times. I also liked the creeping sabotage scenarios.
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The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com, 2018)
★★★☆☆
Neat worldbuilding in a Civil-War-AU, steampunk-inflected New Orleans. I enjoyed the tempestuous orishas and exploration of how gods might be carried/preserved in the diasporic consciousness.
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Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (HarperTorch, 2003)
★★★★★
Took The Curse of Chalion’s lore/setup to interesting new places, with once again perfect, fluid prose. More action here—sometimes feeling perfectly disastrous, almost contrived—but in some tense moments, my heart was actually racing. And while I loved modest, broken, honorable Cazaril in Curse, I LOVED LOVED LOVED mulish, broken, yearning Ista.
Bujold depicts the gods beautifully; I treasured (and frequently was moved to tears during) any scene with their infinitely certain voices. How they can or can’t influence the world is given loving, questing thought, and all the ways the Bastard is not a typical god were perfect.
Buy Paladin of Souls (affiliate link) and support local bookstores.
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Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski (Simon & Schuster, 2015)
★★★★☆
Targeted toward cis women and written in an accessible tone, this book contains useful science, advice, and therapy for anyone struggling with sexuality in their individual or partnered life. I picked it up when questions in my own relationship of “what should we do if one partner has lower levels of desire?” and “what should we do if one partner initiates sex less frequently?” were, elsewhere on the Internet, characterized more appropriately as questions of spontaneous vs. responsive desire; commenters recommended this book, which delivers insightfully on that particular topic.
A couple other major takeaways: “criterion velocity” as an ideal effort-to-progress ratio, which causes frustration and despair if not met, in sex and generally; the idea that we all have embedded cultural scripts (maps) but to trust our lived experienced (terrain) over them; and how letting go of maps is expected to cause a grief you must pass through to come out of.
Buy Come as You Are (affiliate link) and support local bookstores.