Pride Roundup: POC Trans Authors

For this year’s Pride post I wanted to highlight POC trans and nonbinary authors. Authors which are asterisked are those I have personally read. The authors I have not personally read, I was recommended and I researched. 

Kacen Callender debuted in 2018 with Hurricane Child, a middle grade novel which received critical acclaim. Their adult novel, Queen of the Conquered is an Caribbean inspired fantasy which was published in 2019. They have several young adult novels as well. Kacen’s books cover a wide age range so there is something for everyone. 

Publisher’s Blurb For Queen Of The Conquered:

An ambitious young woman with the power to control minds seeks vengeance against the royals who murdered her family, in a Caribbean-inspired fantasy world embattled by colonial oppression.

Sigourney Rose is the only surviving daughter of a noble lineage on the islands of Hans Lollik. When she was a child, her family was murdered by the islands’ colonizers, who have massacred and enslaved generations of her people—and now, Sigourney is ready to exact her revenge.

When the childless king of the islands declares that he will choose his successor from amongst eligible noble families, Sigourney uses her ability to read and control minds to manipulate her way onto the royal island and into the ranks of the ruling colonizers. But when she arrives, prepared to fight for control of all the islands, Sigourney finds herself the target of a dangerous, unknown magic.

Someone is killing off the ruling families to clear a path to the throne. As the bodies pile up and all eyes regard her with suspicion, Sigourney must find allies among her prey and the murderer among her peers… lest she become the next victim.

Queen of the Conquered reckons with the many layers of power and privilege in a lush fantasy world—perfect for readers of V. E. Schwab, Kiersten White, and Marlon James.

Rin Chupeco is a genderfluid/nonbinary author from the Philippines. She is the author of several young adult series including The Bone Witch series. Her latest novel, The Never Tilting World, features a lesbian protagonist. You can read her short fiction on her website: https://www.rinchupeco.com/#shortstories. 

Publisher’s Blurb For The Never Tilting World:

Frozen meets Mad Max in this epic teen fantasy duology bursting with star-crossed romance, immortal heroines, and elemental magic, perfect for fans of Furyborn.

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun.

While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal.

But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands. 

*Indrapramit Das is an Indian author of both short fiction and novels as well as an Octavia E. Butler scholar. His debut novel, The Devourers won the 2017 Lambda Award for best speculative book. The Devourers is historical fantasy following werewolves in India and features trans and queer characters. I really love his short fiction especially The Worldless. You can find more of his short fiction on his website: http://indradas.com/writing/.  His work also appears in The Mythic Dream anthology which I am currently reading.

Publisher’s Blurb For The Devourers:

On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man’s unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger’s behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins.

From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman—and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok’s interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent.

Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian writer and artist who debuted in 2018 with their autobiographical novel Freshwater. In 2019, they published their first young adult novel, Pet, which follows a Black trans girl. I have heard really good things about Pet and it’s been on my list of books to read for some time. Akwaeke’s next novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, will be released this August!  

Publisher’s Blurb For Pet:

Pet is here to hunt a monster.

Are you brave enough to look?

There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question — How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices a young person can make when the adults around them are in denial.

Anna-Marie McLemore is a nonbinary latinx author who has written both young adult novels and short fiction. Their novel, When the Moon Was Ours was critically acclaimed and won the Triptree Award. Anna-Marie’s work features latinx and queer representation.  

Publisher’s Blurb For When The Moon Was Ours:

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

*Yoon Ha Lee was the first trans man (and trans man of color) nominee for the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke awards. Yoon Ha Lee’s Hexarchate Series features trans and queer characters in a space opera setting where queerness is the norm. I highly, highly recommend Ninefox Gambit and the rest of the Hexarchate series since it is absolutely wild and brilliant. Yoon is very much an inspiration for me as a writer. Yoon has also written a middle grade novel for Rick Riordan’s imprint, Dragon Pearl, which is a Korean folklore inspired space opera featuring ghost and a nonbinary side character. I wish I had Dragon Pearl when I was that age. Yoon’s next novel is a silkpunk fantasy called Phoenix Extravangant which features an nonbinary artist main character. It is set to be released October 2020. 

Publisher’s Blurb For Phoenix Extravagant: 

Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.

One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.

But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics.

What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight… 

Claribel Ortega is a nonbinary author whose debut middle grade novel, Ghost Squad, was released in April. Ghost Squad features latinx characters and Claribel has put together lesson plans/educational resources for using Ghost Squad in the classroom or for home learning which can be accessed on her website: https://www.claribelortega.com/educators-teachers The book looks super cute and I have added it to my to read list. 

Publisher’s Blurb For Ghost Squad:

Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late. With the family dynamics of Coco and action-packed adventure of Ghostbusters, Claribel A. Ortega delivers both a thrillingly spooky and delightfully sweet debut novel.

Aiden Thomas is a latinx trans author whose debut novel, Cemetery Boys is set to release in September 2020. I’m really looking forward to Cemetery Boys since the premise sounds absolutely great. Ghosts! Trans protags! 

Publisher’s Blurb For Cemetery Boys:

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Iona Datt Sharma is a nonbinary writer of literary science fiction. They are currently working on their first novel, but have released several short stories and novellas. Their short fiction collection, Not for Use in Navigation: Thirteen Stories, was published in 2019 and focuses on queerness and decolonization. They have work in the upcoming anthology Consolation Songs: Speculative Fiction For A Time of Coronavirus which will be released June 30, 2020 as a fundraiser for COVID-19 causes in the UK. 

Publisher’s Blurb For Not for Use in Navigation: Thirteen Stories:

The bell, the lantern, the witching hour…

A refugee arrives from elsewhere in time; a generation ship makes landfall; a vast galactic empire settles to the business of government. Tarot readers find hope in the cards; witches live through the aftermath of war; and Indian mothers think it’s high time you were married. Here are thirteen stories of love and queerness, hope and decolonisation, and the inevitability of change.

Includes a new introduction by the author and four previously unpublished folktales.

“[Iona Datt Sharma] is adept at creating entire worlds in a compact, delicately finished package, blending pure sensibility with the best bits of the magical realist movement.”

-Jeannelle M. Ferreira, author of The Covert Captain 

*Rivers Solomon is an nonbinary  author whose debut Unkindness of Ghosts is one of my favorite books and made me cry like a baby. I highly recommend Rivers’ work to everyone. It is often brutal and handles heavy topics, but is beautiful and unabashedly queer and trans. They teamed up with Clipping to write The Deep which won this year’s Lambda for best science fiction book. Their next novel, Sorrowland is expected to release in 2021 and I am absolutely hype for it. Their short fiction, Blood Is Another Word For Hunger, and St. Juju were published by Tor.com and The Verge Respectively. 

Publisher’s blurb For Unkindness of Ghosts: 

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

When the autopsy of Matilda’s sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother’s suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother’s footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she’s willing to fight for it.

*JY Neon Yang is a nonbinary writer from Singapore who has written short fiction and the critically acclaimed Tensorate Series. The Tensorate Series is a silkpunk series of novellas that features trans and queer characters, giant dinosaurs, and more. Yang has worked as a molecular biologist which is reflected in some of their short fiction. You can read JY Yang’s short fiction here: http://jyyang.com/short-fiction/. I highly recommend Waiting on A Bright Moon aka the ansible lesbians story. It is beautifully written. 

Publisher’s Blurb For Black Tides of Heaven:

The Black Tides of Heaven is one of a pair of standalone introductions to JY Yang’s Tensorate Series. For more of the story you can read its twin novella The Red Threads of Fortune

Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as children. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While his sister received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What’s more, he saw the sickness at the heart of his mother’s Protectorate.

A rebellion is growing. The Machinists discover new levers to move the world every day, while the Tensors fight to put them down and preserve the power of the state. Unwilling to continue to play a pawn in his mother’s twisted schemes, Akeha leaves the Tensorate behind and falls in with the rebels. But every step Akeha takes towards the Machinists is a step away from his sister Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond he shares with his twin sister?

Summer Reading 2019

I hope that all y’all had a good summer. Between working full-time and my thesis I did not write as many reviews as I had hoped to despite reading several books. So here’s a compilation of what I read this summer. 

Her Silhouette Drawn In Water – Vylar Kaftan 

I initially picked up this novella since Ann Leckie blurbed it. It didn’t appeal to my personal tastes despite being very queer. I think my issue with it is that it feels too short to properly do all that it is doing with its plot. Kaftan has several layers of “reality” within the story which is an interesting concept. However, the “reality” I found the most interesting isn’t the main focus. If you like telepathic lesbians then give this one a try. The one lesbian is coded as a trans lady which is pretty awesome!

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – P. Djèlí Clark

I really enjoyed this novella. The Black God’s Drums really hooked me with the alternative history and Djeli Clark does not disappoint with an alternate Cairo. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 intersects my interests in Middle East and North African (MENA) history and science fiction. The worldbuilding is lush and I just love all the details that Djeli Clark puts such as the food. I could go on and on about the setting. The story is really tightly written full of interesting characters and captures a changing time clearly. I highly recommend this book for people who want to read steampunk that is not imperialistic or focused on Britain. 

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color – Edited by Nisi Shawl

This is a stellar anthology. I was originally going to wait for my library to get it but when I saw it and the table of contents at the bookstore I knew I had to have my own copy. The stories are absolutely fabulous and it is a good introduction to contemporary SFF writers of color. My favorite story was a lesbian mermaid story set in Malaysia featuring bobbit worms. It just was completely up my alley. There was only one story that I did not finish. The author’s writing style was too heavy for my brain to focus on which was a pity because I really, really wanted to finish it! But when I can’t concentrate on something due to style it’s pretty much futile. 

The Outside – Ada Hoffmann

Since I heard the premise of The Outside, I have been really excited to get my hands on it. My friend and I went to the bookstore on its release date so I could grab a copy. I didn’t even have to ask the bookstore employees to look in the back to see if the copies had arrived like in the past with other books. I will try to write something that isn’t just screaming in excitement because I just cannot convey how much I loved The Outside in a comprehensible manner. It is one of my top five books of 2019 so far. 

The Outside’s characters are so real and relatable. I haven’t seen any science fiction novel before fully capture the dynamics in academia between a student and their adviser. The Outside basically caters to everything I want in science fiction — a cute wlw romance, academia done right, religion, and a heavy dose of eldritch. One of the biggest things about this novel is that it’s the first science fiction novel I have read with a female autistic protagonist. It’s just so well done. I really loved the religion system and the cybernetic angels. Like that part was just so cool! I am hoping that there will be a sequel or short stories set in the world of The Outside since I absolutely adore Yasira. 

Please read this book. It is amazing. 

Storm of Locusts – Rebecca Roanhorse 

Having previously enjoyed Trail of Lightning, I was excited for Storm of Locusts. I was not disappointed at all by the novel. It continues to have the Mad Max vibes and expands the setting outside of Walls of Dinetah. There are viscerally horrifying things that Maggie and her friends encounter on the quest to find Kai who has been taken in by a cult. The addition of Ben was absolutely delightful and added further character depth to Maggie. Storm of Locusts explores issues within the Native American community that I am not qualified to talk on besides being a satisfying adventure novel.

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Review: Ascension

I had been meaning to read Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi since I heard about it on Tumblr a few years ago. I had heard it was a good book from a few book bloggers’ reviews. I found a copy at a used book store last month  and was excited to read. It is delightfully queer with a disabled black main character.

Publisher’s Blurb

Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he’s a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego . . . and Alana can’t keep her eyes off her. But there’s little time for romance: Nova’s in danger and someone will do anything–even destroying planets–to get their hands on her

My Thoughts:

I ended up reading Ascension in a night since it moved fast. Two things that I liked right off the bat is that Alana is introduced as black through mentioning her hair style, she immediately talks about being disabled, and then 5 pages in we find out she is a huge lesbian. It’s just really nice to read a novel that starts off right the bat with the queer themes.

Alana’s chronic illness  affects her joints and muscles but is managed with medication. The medication isn’t cheap and the anxiety and worry about affording it is very realistic. I was originally worried that Koyanagi would take the magic bullet route with curing Alana’s disability when a cure is first offered. However, that is not the route taken which is wonderful because we do not need anymore “magically cured disabled” or “no disabled people”. It turns out that this is an Own Voices novel since Koyanagi has chronic illnesses and drew on her experiences. Alana’s resentment with her sister not taking care of herself is one of the threads in the book and I appreciated how her sister, Nova, acts as a foil to Alana. There is also a subplot that involves trauma which is so subtle and yet ties so well into the twist.

Part of why I liked Ascension is that it uses magic in a space opera setting. At first, it wasn’t clear to me that there are two universes that people travel between. Alana’s universe is one where magic is used to keep living ships healthy and as well to help people with their worries. The Otherside is introduced as a technologically superior universe that has been selling its tech to different universes. Transliminal Solutions is the big corporation from the Otherside that perhaps has a cure for Alana’s condition, but at a steep cost. It was not until halfway through the novel that I realized there was two universes involved. The extra dimensions of multiple realities existing was an interesting addition to magic in space. I appreciated that the magic had some basis in physics, but it still remained the fantastical elements. I also enjoyed the world building around ships since it hit on several motifs I love — spaceships singing, empathic bonds between ship and crew, and ships having organic components.

The other part of of the book that really pops is the character design. If I were to be asked to draw any of the characters, I would be able to without hesitation since the descriptions were so vivid and well done. I particularly liked the design of Marre which has a heavy bee motif but also is very uncanny. The crew that Alana joins is very much a group of scrappy misfits.

The steamy romance between Alana and Tev, the captain of the Tangled Axon hits all the high marks for me. Koyanagi blends together all the good, good tropes to make an intense romance from the classic “enemies to lovers” to “hurt,comfort”. It feels like a romance novel in sections. I just love the melodramatic bits:

She was almost whispering now, breath hot on my lips. “I can’t stand how much like my dreams you smell;it’s torture. You are torture. You wear metal on your skin like you’re made of it, and it bites at me every time you’re around. No matter how many showers I take, I smell your scent on me, on this ship, while I’m trying to sleep. I don’t understand it, and can’t stand it.

This sort of interaction just makes me grin so hard while reading. There is also a thread about loving spaceships and spaceships loving their crew which is the kind of thing I just absolutely eat up.

The plot is fast paced and solid. I did not see the twist coming. It was very much what I did not expect. The one quibble I have about the plot is the amount of time spent on Alana trying to wrap her head around the fact that Tev is polyamorous and in a open relation. It honestly felt too long and was frustrating because of the focus on Alana being from a monogamous culture.  I liked the fact found family was a really heavy theme which fits into the poly subplot very well. Once the communication issues are through, the relationships are full of respect and kindness. Not only that, it is made clear that the crew of the ship accepts Alana into their family despite the fact she stowed away on their ship and causes some havoc. It is a big contrast to how Nova treats Alana (despite being overly supportive in Alana’s romantic life).

I absolutely recommend Ascension. It does many things, but it does it well. It works well as a stand alone novel, but it if any sequels are published I would not hesitate to pick them up.

Content Warnings: assault/violence

Review: Trail of Lightning

Trail of Lightning is an Own Voices novel that I’ve been seeing pop up a lot on twitter and I got my hands on from the library. I absolutely ate this novel up. I don’t know how to describe it besides Mad Max meets Terminator 2 meets Navajo culture. I highly recommend it.

Publisher’s Blurb:

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

My Thoughts:

I have never read a science fiction or fantasy story written by a Native American writer before. Most of my experience with stories that have Native American or First Nations characters were written by white men and women in the 1970s and 1980s since that’s what my library had and I tore through the science fiction section in middle school and high school. Sure, I have a soft spot for Andre Norton’s work, but how accurate and culturally appropriate were the books really? When I saw Trail of Lightning was an Own Voices book I jumped on it right away. In my grad program, I’m surrounded by anthropologists working with Native American tribes so I know a little bit — but not much (even though I work with biological collections, I still have to know about NAGPRA etc.). I didn’t set out to read this with the idea that I would be educated and whatnot.

Maggie is the action hero I want. I grew up on action movies and good female leads with depth were few and far in between. Maggie is 1) very attractive (I am too gay sometimes), 2) emotionally complex, 3) the badass fighter type character I love. I love her prickliness and her awkwardness with friendship. She might not be dealing well with her trauma or her relationship with her teacher, but she has friends and people in her life that support her. Speaking of friends, I enjoyed Kai’s character. I didn’t see the plot twist coming with his powers. I like how he subverts the playboy type of character. Kai is very suave and flirty at first, but he respects Maggie and respects her boundaries. He’s the voice of reason for part of the book, calling out the misconceptions that Maggie thinks about herself. Their dynamic was fun and natural. Plus I had a little geek out moment when Kai talked about visiting archives.

The plot is quick moving and fast. The book is full of gore, bloody fights, and body horror. Further content warnings are at the end of the review. None of the gore or body horror felt gratuitous. It was all there for a reason. The setting is brutal and yet, there is hope and comfort in it such as Kai’s grandfather who considers Maggie his daughter.  Roanhorse paints a vivid world through her descriptions of the shanty towns, trailer parks, and arid lands of Dinétah . My favorite scene is when Maggie and Kai come close to Dinétah ’s wall that serves as a shield against the rest of the drowned former United States. Part of the wall is vivid turquoise and Maggie calls it beautiful. It’s wonderfully subversive in the current political climate. Not only that but some of the locations in Dinétah  are familiar to me because of my curation project at the museum. Every time Black Mesa is mentioned I go ah, yes, I know where that is because of the collection localities that I have been transcribing.

As I said earlier, I went into Trail of Lightning not expecting to be educated or to understand everything. Even, being unfamiliar with Navajo culture, I was able to follow the novel. You do not need to know the stories surrounding Navajo gods or spirits to follow the plot. I really liked the usage of Navajo in the story as well. I loved the why the spirits and gods are treated when they appear to Maggie and other characters. They take forms that the characters are familiar with from movies or history. It felt much more immersive than any of the other stories I’ve read that feature Native American/First Nation characters.

I’m going to end up shoving Trail of Lightning at half my cohort in the fall when they get back from field work and internships because it’s so good. I can’t wait for the next book in the series! I want to see more of Dinétah and Maggie.

Content Warnings: Cannibalism, Body Horror, Gore, Assault, Graphic Death, Police Brutality

Review: The Poppy War

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang came highly recommended from twitter as being a great fantasy. I knew it had war themes, but not how heavy it was. The story is amazing and it kept me on the edge of my seat. At 525 pages, it was thick enough to last me through the 6 hours of bus commute I do weekly for my internship.

Publisher’s Blurb:

When Rin aced the Keju, the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies, it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard, the most elite military school in Nikan, was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.

My Thoughts:

This book hits everything that baby Erin loved in fantasies. As a kid and teenager I tore through fantasies featuring girls being trained to be soldiers or knights or assassins. Most of those were in some sort of proto-europe setting, the typical fantasy standard joe setting. The ones that I still remember had Eastern inspired settings or some other element that stood out. But upon rereading them or revisiting those, I was disappointed at how often they were tone death. The Poppy War is written by R. F. Kuang who is asian and studies Chinese history which was a big selling point for me.

Rin is a great narrator. She’s smart and spunky, she is angry at the injustices that she sees around her. But most of all, she wants to escape and build a better life for herself. I loved how impulsive Rin. Her impulsiveness  and anger gets her into trouble but also is one of her greatest strengths. Rin is allowed to be angry. It’s ok for her to be angry. Her power comes from anger. Part of her character arc deals with vengeance and hatred. She goes through hell and back through the book and does horrible things to protect her loved ones. She is human and has her flaws.

One of the aspects that I enjoyed about The Poppy War was how the gods were treated. The Nikara don’t believe in their gods, but still worship them. The gods are real and shamans who have almost been completely wiped out and are harnessed by the government to defend Nikara use them as tools. The gods grand powers to men to change the fabric of reality or do feats. The pantheon can be reached by shamans through the assistance of psychoactive drugs, most commonly opium. Rin learns over time what the gods actually are and the power that they grant men.

The Poppy War deals with war, genocide, and human experimentation. The Poppy War has a sense of dread through the novel as things get worse and worse. Rin is desperate to keep her country safe, to keep her friends safe, even through the plot twist. The Poppy War has gruesome and unsettling scenes of warfare and the aftermath that are not appropriate for young readers. I would not recommend this as a YA novel to kids under the age of 15. It was not written for that demographic. I’ve seen it pop up on some YA recommendation lists which baffles me.

Part of why The Poppy War was so enjoyable for me was that I was able to draw connections between the fantasy world and historical events. R. F. Kuang poors her history knowledge and expertise into Nikara and the other nations and it just makes the novel work so well. Small things that I noticed reminded me of things that I learned in history courses or when visiting museums. I think that The Poppy War could be used as a great way to entice people to be interested in history.

I cannot state how much I enjoyed The Poppy War. It just was such a good story and I would love for there to be a sequel. It’s the best fantasy novel of 2018 so far. It is poignant, bitter, and gruesome while being an engrossing read. If you like silkpunk, martial arts movies, or strong female heroes that are undeniably human and flawed, please pick up The Poppy War.

Content Warnings: Rape, Assault, Genocide, Torture, Drug Use, Self Harm, Human Experimentation, Medical Abuse

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Review: Dread Nation

I normally do not read alternate history or zombie stories, but the premise of Dread Nation by Justina Ireland caught my attention. In an alternate America after the civil war, black youth are trained to kill zombies, shamblers, to protect the remaining cities in America. The heroine Jane did not chose to attend zombie hunting school, but before she can graduate and return to her home — she is caught up into machinations that may undermine everything.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

My Thoughts:

Dread Nation was a thick book at 400 some pages, but it moved at a brisk page. I was enthralled by the world and characters. In this world, zombies rose up during the civil war and a new war was begun. Slaves were freed but black youth are forced to train as zombie hunters. Racism and oppression are very much there. If you are not white and male, well you’re not going to do so well. The characters are well rounded and fleshed out. I would say that there are two main characters, Jane and Katherine. Jane is a biracial girl who is snarky, tricky, and bold. She is an unreliable narrative and opinionated. Most of all, she doesn’t accept her place in the world (creating sticky situations). Katherine is a white passing girl who is snooty but also is resented by the other girls at Ms. Preston’s because of her lighter skin.

First off, this book is very heavy in some ways because of the setting. There are racial slurs. There is a lot of racism. It does not shy away from discussing the unpleasant parts of American History including Native American boarding schools.  While this is more fantastical novel, it is well researched with many references to historical terminology including “The War of Northern Aggression” and “The Five Civilized Tribes”. I also enjoyed that Ireland brought in cutting edge ideas of the time frame for example, Joseph Lister and germ theory. This world, much like our America during the Reconstruction is grappling with the effects of slavery and social progress. In some ways, some of the current trends are reflected in Dread Nation.

What I loved about Dread Nation was Jane’s growing friendship with Katherine. The two girls start off as enemies. Jane dislikes Katherine and the feeling is mutual at first As the events unfold, the two girls are thrown together in a situation beyond their control which leads to them starting to trust and try to look out for each other. Another part of the book that I enjoyed is that there is no romance, unlike many other YA novels. There is a former love of Jane who is a secondary character, but there is no getting back together or what not. Jane has moved on. Not only that, but Jane is bisexual and it is explicitly shown through the text. Katherine reads very much as aroace through her conversation with Jane about fancying people.

The action is almost nonstop in the book. Between fighting the zombies and trying to save her skin, Jane is very busy. The fights are wonderfully written and choreographed. At one point, Jane takes over a battle. Jane is everything I would want in a YA heroine: she is smart, she fights, she’s queer, and she grows as a character. She is not a static character and nor does she have a man being what drives her. To balance the physical struggles, there are several inner struggles of the characters — Jane’s desire to return home and worrying about her Mother’s opinion and Katherine’s struggle with passing as white.

I devoured Dread Nation in an afternoon. It is one of the best YA novels that I have read in a long time. It is a fun action novel, but at the same time it deals brilliantly with issues of racism, colorism, and oppression. I am waiting eagerly for the sequel!

Get it here.

Content Warning: Racial Slurs, Racism, Assault, Abuse, Body Horror

Pride: Queer Sci-Fi Roundup

Happy Pride! This is the first of my Roundup Recommendation posts which are themed recommendation posts. For Pride, let’s explore some Queer Science Fiction. I primarily read science fiction with lgbt representation in some shape or form at this place or if it’s written by a lgbt author. Here’s five queer sci-fi books I’ve loved. 

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Hands down one of my favorite books of all times. This follows Breq, a former spaceship AI, as she pursues revenge on the Lord of the Radch who killed her favored officer. The Radchaai do not have a concept of binary gender and use she as their pronouns. The Imperial Radch series is full of political machinations, tea, angst, and exploration of personhood, and what it means to be loved. I highly recommend.

Audiobook is available.

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Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit is a space opera where math magic is used to fight space battles. It follows Cheris (who is an lesbian) as she is selected to be an anchor for the feared general Jedao. Things do not go to plan when she and Jedao attempt to conquer the fortress of scattered needles to defeat a heretical fraction. This book is can be heavy, but it by the time Jedao appears, things start to get intense. The sequels are equally as intense and further elaborate the Hexarchate.

Audiobook is available

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Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang

Red Threads of Fortune is a companion to Black Tides of Heaven. It follows Mokoya, who has visions of the future, as she investigates a naga that is attacking cities. She encounters the mysterious Rider who may be friend or foe. This silkpunk novella is fun fantasy with dinosaurs, politics,emotional trauma,and very gay relationships. I absolutely would die for Rider who is nonbinary.

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An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

This is hands down one of my three favorite books from 2017. An Unkindness of Ghosts is an wholly immersive generation ship story that follows Aster and Theo as they struggle with the dark reality of their ship. Aster and Theo’s relationship is very sweet and I absolutely adore them. The generation ship’s worldbuilding is unique.  This book is very heavy and deals with oppression, sexual assault, and abuse. However, it is a hopeful book. I highly highly recommend this if you like Imperial Radch, The Broken Earth, or Machineries of the Empire.

Audio book is available.

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Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

Blackfish City is one of my favorite books of 2018 so far. I have a review coming. It is set in a distant future where the world has collapsed due to disease, ais, and war. It’s set in a floating city in the arctic circle where refugees flee and has a very stratified social layout. A mysterious woman arrives with a orca and turns the city upside down. There’s fight clubs, tired administrators, speed skating messengers, and monkeys whole are pretty much the pigeons of the city. The story is very much about family at its core while being a very much cyberpunk feeling novel. It features nonbinary and gay leads. 

Audio book is available.

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Review: The Tea Master and The Detective

The Tea Master and the Detective follows the tradition of Sherlock Holmes in a unique space opera setting. Aliette de Bodard’s novella is short, but enthralling. If you are looking for science fiction without a Western bent, this is a good selection.

Publisher’s Blurb:

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past–and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

My Thoughts:

The Tea Master and the Detective is a tightly written mystery set in the Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe, where China discovered the Americas before Europe. This novella takes place in the 22nd century in a system where space stations are controlled by various families. The main character is a spaceship, The Shadow’s Child. When she is asked to make a brew for Long Chau to enter the deep spaces safely, a place that deeply traumatized The Shadow’s Child but also is required for travel by space ship, a mystery starts to unfold.  

The Shadow’s Child is a fascinating ai, she was born like a human even though her destiny would be becoming a mindship. The mindships are what really captured my attention. They are related to human families, they have human cousins and siblings, but they are not human. They have their own society in a way in which they have an hierarchy and social gatherings. There are male mindships, female mindships, and nonbinary mindships. I love how their personalities are displayed through their avatars, but also their offices where they decorate with things that they collect ( such as Sharpening into Steel Needles’ dishes collection). They are people, they do have to work to pay for the space to dock at space stations. The humans treat them like they are a person in this universe and express concern, friendship, etc. I really loved this.

The writing of trauma was very well done in the series. The Shadow’s Child experiences ptsd symptoms and refuses to enter the deep space at times because she is scared or mentally can’t take it. But she tries to overcome her fear of the deep spaces to help Long Chau. Recovery is a process, de Bodard does not write it as happening all at once. At the end of The Tea Master and the Detective, The Shadow’s Child is not completely recovered but is starting to make steps towards recovery.

Long Chau is a brusque and blunt character. She says the things that others do not want to hear but also offends or hurts feelings with her words. Long Chau at first seems like a unpleasant character, but as she drags The Shadow’s Child along with her investigation, she starts to take responsibility for her actions. The budding friendship between mindship and human was very fun to read. It wasn’t really an enemies to friends type transition. But I loved how Shadow’s Child was very much I do not like Long Chau why am I doing this? Their banter was entertaining and made the book an enthralling read.

I would love to see the further adventures of The Shadow’s Child and Long Chau. But also, I would love to learn more about the mindships in general. My only complaint was that the book was short. I wanted it to last much longer!

Get it here.

Content Warnings: Body horror, Abuse