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maiakobabe
A Queer and Pleasant Danger has the best subtitle ever. Bornstein lays out the whole story of her life, from Jewish New Jersey boy to high powered Scientology missionary and salesman to fledgling San Francisco lesbian performance artist to the blossoming Seattle sadomasochist and star. It is quite a story, one of the best autobiographies I have ever read.
This wonderful and strange book explores identity in ways I have never read before, even in other excellent science-fiction stories with non-human characters. The main character of this book is an AI, currently living under a false name and passing for human. It used to be a spaceship, with dozens of humanoid ancillary bodies at its disposal, but 19 years ago it was reduced to a single body. It has been traveling through various worlds ever sense, trying to figure out why nearly all of itself was destroyed. It is seeking a mythical weapon, possibly the only tool that might allow it to receive justice from the it's opponent. One thing that immediately struck me from the first page, and continued to subtly influence the whole story, was the author's choice to use only female pronouns for every character, whether or not they have a gender or that gender is every disclosed in the narrative. In that sense this book is a direct descendant to Ursula K Leguin's The Left Hand of Darkness but I'd say this book goes even farther into exploring gender-free intergalactic space. Also similar to LeGuin is the richly imagined and beautifully developed alien cultures of the Imperial Radchaai Empire.
This second book in Ann Leckie's stately and astonishing space opera is even better than the first. One Esk Nineteen, also know as Breq, is now travelling under the name Breq Mianaai. Despite successfully killing several bodies of the Lord of the Radch, Anaander Mianni has given Breq a ship and orders to keep the peace in the Athotek system. Breq, Seivarden and Mercy of Kalr begin the journey through gate space, with danger behind them and also ahead. The Lord of the Radch is fragmented, the ships are casting their allegiances and the threat of the Presger looms over them all. This series tackles questions of classism, sexism, gender and identity in ways I have never seen before in sci-fi. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
This is the last book in Leckie's powerful Imperial Radch triology, and my only complaint is that I wish there were about 10 more books in the series. Berq, Seivarden, the ship Mercy of Kalr and the Athoek Station AI battle for control of the system and the very lives off all of it's citizens against the Lord of the Radch. Supposedly the source of all justice and propriety, Anaander Minaai seems willing to kill everyone on the Station in her struggle for command. This series is a classic space opera of the highest order.
I met the author of this book at SDCC this summer, and they pitched it to me as "Gay robots and drug pirates." I said SOLD, and bought it immediately. What a good decision that was! It's been awhile since I found a sci-fi book which was this smart, wildly inventive and fun to read. Newitz tosses off more ideas and world-defining-details on a single page than some authors do in a whole book. Set in 2144, the planet Earth in this book has been rapidly remade by climate change, re-configured national boarders, AI technology,legal human indenture and the patenting of medicines, drugs and gene therapies. Jack is a loner and a Robin Hood-engineer, trying to get meds into the hands of those too poor to afford them. Eliasz is an agent in the military branch of the International Property Coalition, sent to hunt down and eliminate the source of the illegally-sourced drugs. Paladin is a humanoid AI robot, newly created and partnered with Eliasz on the mission. The plot crosses multiple continents, love and betrayal, memes, laws, and meditations on the nature of freedom. The whole story was a completely delight, but the quote that will be sitting with me for a while is this: “But now we know there has been no one great disaster—only the slow-motion disaster of capitalism converting every living thing and idea into property.”
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
Another home run of a book from NK Jemisin. This one is set in an alternate version of ancient Egypt, a city-state called Gujaareh, in which dreams serve as a source of magic. Sharers take dream-tithes from the citizens which they use to heal wounds and mental illness. Gatherers take a person's dreamblood- their life force- to be used in the service of Hananja, the moon goddess, ruler of the realm of dreams and the afterlife. One of these Gatherers is Ehiru, whose faith in his work and his mission is absolute- until he botches a gathering, accidentally sending a man's soul into the nightmare realm instead of a peaceful eternity. The man's angry spirit warns Ehiru that he is being used for corrupt purposes before it is ripped apart. Meanwhile, a diplomat from a neighboring country investigates her predecessor's probable murder; an apprentice-Gatherer begins his final training, not hiding the feelings he harbors for his mentor; and the Prince of the city, who killed his father and all of his siblings except one to gain the thrown plots a course towards immortality and domination. This book was written before the Broken Earth trilogy, and it's a bit easier of a read, partly because it is shorter. If you want to get into Jemisin but have been a bit intimidated, this is great book to start with. If you've already read Broken Earth, pick up this one too! It's a delightful treat.
Re-read (audiobook) in 2025 and enjoyed it very much again!
Re-read (audiobook) in 2025 and enjoyed it very much again!
Bishakh Som discovers the power and potential in creating an alter-ego who both is, and is not, the self in this gorgeously drawn almost-memoir. Using the character of Anjali, Som writes about an international childhood spent in Ethiopia, India, and New York City. She writes of the death of her parents and the gutsy decision to quit a dull, safe job to pursue an uncertain creative dream. We, the readers, are the benefactors of this leap into the unknown. Along the way she also begins to further explore her own queerness and gender identity. How fortunate that Anjuli, and Som, chose comics! (Thank you to the publisher, Street Noise Books, for letting me read an advanced reader copy of this book.)
I think this might be the QUEEREST book I have ever read!! At some point in the first chapter I thought to myself "A straight person could never have written this," and I was delighted. Set in 1993, it starts in Iowa City where Paul is half-heartedly working on a film degree. Most though he is bartending, dressing up, flirting, and constantly on the prowl for potential conquests. One day he decides he want to try lesbian sex and so grows breasts, transforms his dick into a vagina, and goes to see a touring girl band from Seattle playing at a local club. It turns out Paul has had the ability to transform himself since childhood- in fact, for a while he thought all queer people could do it. He doesn't know why he has this ability or if he is the only one who has it. But he isn't greatly concerned. Lesbian sex is good; he decides to try his luck at the Michigan Women's Music festival, which he road trips to with his best friend Jane. Thus begins a wandering, whimsical journey into various queer subcultures from Provincetown to Chicago to San Francisco. The book is deeply rooted it it's time period; the specter of AIDs haunting the edged of every community, and constant references to the music of the era on a mix of CDs and cassette mix tapes. This book was a strange delight, I definitely recommend it.