Heyo!

It’s been a whole seven months since my last update, yikes! I was waiting until I had some significant news to share, but then I remembered that I never actually posted about my latest two original short stories. Whoops.

The first is “High Tide,” which came out last December in Index on Censorship. It’s my first piece of nearish-future dystopian short fiction, and it’s about a pair of researchers at a remote lab in a post-war United States. When their pasts catch up to them, they discover they have a lot more in common than either suspected.

The second is “Preservation,” which was published in Being Aro: A Collection of Aromantic Fiction about Love, Connection, and Empowerment this year. The story follows a disowned aristocrat-turned-activist determined to save an endangered species at any cost. I had a lovely time working with Rosiee and Madeline, the editors, and it was an honor to be a part of such a cool anthology.

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All right, now onto mini book reviews! Since there are so many this time (17 in total!), I’m organizing them into three categories instead of listing them from most-to-least recent as I usually do.

Some of what I’ve read recently: 

must-reads

• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei. Yume’s debut was amazing, and she only gets better and better! I’m a big sucker for messy, beautiful sibling stories, and she absolutely delivers. I won’t spoil anything here, despite how much I want to dig into the details, but Yume has written such a striking reflection of the real world here. I was on the edge of my seat as I read the last few pages. 
• The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith. Politics is often thought of as different groups of people—whether cultural, religious, ethnic, or social—struggling to change their world in ways that benefit them. Here, de Mesquita and Smith explore politics as the struggle of specific leaders to stay in power—and avoid jail (or worse) before they die. At the end of the day, all that matters is the size of the group a leader needs to care about to gain and exercise power.¹ It might be a cynical way to think of the world, but their framework explains the behavior of both democratic and autocratic rulers. And only by understanding how the world is can we create viable ways of realizing the world that could be.
• The Traitor & the Wretch by Jasmine Wells. Hahaha come closer. I don’t bite. I have something to tell you. Listen, I AM NOT OKAY. I REPEAT, I AM NOT OKAY. Gnashing my teeth. Kicking my little feet in joy. I came across this GEM of a story because of the fantastic fanart drawn by THEE Laya, and man, am I so glad I did. Truly this MASTERPIECE altered my brain chemistry. I was very sad when I hit the 40% mark because that meant I was almost halfway done, and then what was I supposed to do after I was finished?? Throw myself into the sea?? Anyway, this book follows Percy—a brusque, foul-mouthed traitor to the Prophesied Hero—and Deathknell (AKA Knell)—former thrall to the Great One, Bringer of Chaos. They both expected to die on the battlefield, but well, they didn’t, and now they have to team up to escape both the chaos-maddened flesh-mages and royal bounty hunters that would very much like to kill them. I liked this book a normal amount. 🙂

fiction

• The Will of the Many by James Islington. Dudebro romantasy—as in pure wish fulfillment, designed on an atomic level to please the typical cishet man. Obviously, anyone can enjoy it—I generally did!—which also makes me think that more guys should try woman-led romantasy, too. Besides the gender of the protagonists, both have a ton in common; they’re often about one Very Cool Amazing Person against a Great Evil Force, with rapid pacing and frequent fight scenes. I think many TWOTM fans would love books like Fourth Wing for the same reasons they adored this, if they were willing to give them an honest chance.
• The Well by Jake Wyatt and Choo. Li-Zhen is a fiery young woman who makes a monumental mistake: when she carelessly spends her boat fare, she steals three old coins from a wishing well. Now cursed, she must grant the three wishes—no matter if they’re good ones or not. This graphic novel’s got lovely art, an easy-to-root-for heroine, and a few twists you won’t see coming. This was recommended to me by Jasmine Wells, the author of The Traitor & the Wretch, and I’m passing on the suggestion here.
• The City of Factories by Naomi Eselojor. If you love Nnedi Okorafor and Naomi Novik, you need to read this. Eselojor puts forth an impressive debut indeed, a powerful steampunk fairy tale that examines colonialism, cultural conflict, and complicity. Ultimately a resistance tale, this novella emphasizes empathy, showing that even a small kindness can be an act of revolution. Once I picked it up, it was incredibly hard to put down. This book is electric.
• Tomorrow Factory by Rich Larson. Behold: the collected fiction of my favorite short story writer! This book made me laugh, and gasp, and more than once nearly brought me to tears, something that hadn’t happened all year until this. Sweary, searing, superb science fiction. The highlights, in my humble opinion: “All That Robot Shit,” “Ghost Girl,” “You Make Pattaya,” “Edited,” “Razzibot,” “Motherfucking Retroparty Freestyle,” and—the best piece, with a real gut-punch of an ending—”Innumerable Glimmering Lights.” Highly, highly, highly recommended. 
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. I really liked the short story this novel expanded on, “The Six Deaths of the Saint,” and this was… incredible. I was honestly pretty resistant to picking it up; I’ll expand on this in a minute but I don’t like reading Serious Romances. Plus, time-travel… Blegh. I can’t stop myself from poking holes in the plots. But oh, how I adored this book. Thank you to all the friends who recommended this separately, which in my head means that the universe meant for me to just give it a try, damn it. Don’t read anything about this, just know it’s about a hot butch knight and a cowardly scholar and legend-making and power and love and love and love.
• Book club: Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer. At this point, I consider myself something of a romantasy aficionado. I’ve mentioned once or twice that since college, I’ve been part of a reading group with an exclusive focus on romantic fantasy, fantastical romance, however you want to think of it. By now we’ve seen/read it all, and in the past years, our reading has slowed down because we’ve become much harder to please. But this series stands out. This book, just like the last, was impossible to put down, dragging me out of a weeks-long reading slump. Broadly speaking, I strongly prefer stories where platonic relationships are the focus, and outside of this club, romance played straight is usually a hard if not impossible sell for me. I generally prefer my romance-heavy fantasy, when I pick it up, to be sweeping mythological epics with grand, tragic plots (e.g., The Song of Achilles) or hilarious adventures that aren’t actually meant to titillate (e.g., King of Battle and Blood). It’s unsurprising that with many of our recent reads, the romance has been the least interesting part of the story for me. Not so here! Kemmerer writes such compelling characters, and their relationships—and the development of them—is so well done. I love how casually queer her world is. I do have one critique, though, and it’s that I would love to see at least a few characters of color in this series.
• The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman. Longman’s chief concern is capturing the moody, misty feel of a chivalric romance; in pursuing that goal, they sacrifice a certain level of character depth. For example, only one person in the whole novel gets a name, which would feel very weird in a novel that leaned harder on the people populating it. That’s not to say Bisclavret, the protagonist, is a cardboard cutout; he just doesn’t really have flaws (or at least severe flaws the book is interested in examining extensively), and neither does his love interest, the unnamed king.² As someone who primarily reads for character work, this book wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, especially given the lack of environmental detail. Nevertheless, Longman achieves exactly what they set out to do, and they do it creatively and cleverly. I can’t help but commend them for it, and I’d be lying if I said the final chapters didn’t send shivers of excitement down my spine. The Song of Achilles comparison put forth by the marketing doesn’t feel accurate to me—Madeline Miller’s work has very different vibes to me, and the only real similarities are the queerness and historical/mythological setting—but people who loved Solomon’s Crown by Natasha Siegel, as I did, will likely enjoy this book as well.
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. After years of wanting to read this, I finally got around to it. This book—like pretty much any debut novel I can recall reading—has some awkward descriptions, occasionally uneven pacing, and a couple segments that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the story, but you can see, so very clearly, the beginnings of the author who wrote Beloved, one of perhaps three literary/general/realistic/etc. fiction novels that made me feel anything before I began reading more widely in grad school.³ This novel is horrifying and painful and, at times, hilarious. After watching the phenomenal stage adaptation in Pasadena some years ago, I wasn’t expecting there to be any humor in here, but the searingly clever insults that pour out of Morrison’s characters pulled startled laughter from me. (I’d love to share a couple quips here, but that would ruin them.) To no one’s surprise, this was excellent. 
• Beyond II: The Queer Post-Apocalyptic & Urban Fantasy Comic Anthology ed. by Sfé R. Monster and Taneka Stotts. Urban fantasy isn’t usually my thing, but recently I’ve really enjoyed books like Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle’s Ebony Gate, and I had a lot of fun with this collection! Standouts: “Pilot Light” by Paul Reinwand & Steve Foxe, Stardust & Feathers by Mar Julia, “Time Will Tell” by Samantha Cox and Ria Martinez, “Cúchulainn” by Sarah Stern, “Found” by Cat Parra, “Wanderer” by Evan Dahm, “Sleeping Giant” by Stephanie Hovden, “The July Fashion Issue” by Keezy Young, and “Courier” by Kiku Hughes & Sarah Duvall.
• Ex. Mag, Vol. 03: Dark Fantasy by Patrick Crotty, Linnea Sterte, Valentin Seiche, Delfina Pérez Adan, Jake Terrell, Tarmasz, Hanna K, Al Gofa, Geov Chouteau. This collection of gritty, bloody fantasy comics had some of my favorite stories of all five books in the Ex. Mag series. Highlights: “Soldiers of Fortune,” “Creepers,” “The Darktamer,” and “An Arrow for the King.”
• We Belong ed. William O. Tyler and Viktor T. Kerney. This was, I believe, the first of its kind—an all-Black, all-queer sci-fi and fantasy comics anthology—and it was a blast. Highlights: “The Panther’s Unforgiving Shadow” by Valerie Complex & Gedemukti, and “The Pact at Blue Clove” by Nicholas Orr.

nonfiction

• More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by Adam Becker. What it says on the tin. Wondering why our not-so-benevolent tech overlords say the insane things they do? They sort of have to—the idea that they’re going to build a better (?) future for untold billions of us is the ideological foundation of their empires. There isn’t much in this book that surprised me (I’ve been living in Silicon Valley for the past 4-ish years), but it was an informative and entertaining read nevertheless.
• Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough. A collection of essays by a woman who’s lived a thousand lives, this book is thought-provoking, edgy, and—as it should be—unapologetic. “Cable Guy” stunned and startled me. Highly recommended.
• Tasting History: Explore the Past Through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller. One of my roommates and I are doing a Game of Thrones rewatch. This was, of course, after repeatedly saying we were absolutely never, ever going to do a Game of Thrones rewatch. We made it through most of season 2 before I ran off to New Zealand for fieldwork, and so far the experience has been fun and disappointing and bittersweet. There’s a reason millions were obsessed with the show; the first few seasons, at least, were objectively quite good. The worldbuilding is astounding, the sets and costumes are incredible. Varys and Petyr Baelish are in a wildly toxic platonic situationship and I’m so here for it. But the sexposition feels more patronizing than I recall and the writing, especially for Daenerys’ arc, is blander than I remember it being (though, of course, I can’t blame the screenwriters for the novelty wearing off on a rewatch). Her story, tracking her dramatic rise to power, should probably be the most interesting, but it’s not. And of course, there are the usual issues with the lazily insulting portrayal of the savage, ambiguously-brown-but-definitely-Mongol Dothraki. BUT I DIGRESS. The rewatch ignited a fantasy fixation and so I’ve been reading a bunch of medieval cookbooks because my media obsessions always find their way into the kitchen. Unfortunately, most of the cookbooks only compile recipes from pre-1500s Europe, so it’s all very meat- and cream-heavy with incomprehensible and extensive spice usage.⁴ As a lactose-intolerant pescatarian, my dinner options are limited to fish dishes the books keep insisting ought to be served chilled, or room-temp, or jellied. The desserts leave much to be desired as well—my favorite part of a pie/tart is the crust, and that used to be a flavorless slab of carbohydrate simply meant to hold the filling. I do not like the taste of saffron, and I don’t want to throw red wine into everything. ANYWAY. This book, out of all the tomes I have perused, is the best by far so far, including recipes from places beyond Western Europe and featuring treats from as far back as the age of the pharaohs. I had a lot of fun with this, and if you like cooking, so will you.
  

1. For example, the authors argue that the US, which has a large coalition and therefore requires the government to appease many people, is imperialist not simply because individual leaders are uniquely terrible (although that certainly does not help) but because imperialist policies benefit citizens (especially powerful elites) who, unwittingly or not, accept the suffering of the people in other countries as the price of, say, cheaper oil. We live in unprecedented times, but what’s happening right now is unique only in its brazenness; as this book makes clear, powerful democracies have a habit of bullying whoever they can and negotiating peacefully only when they have to. Preventing resource-grabbing invasions requires those within the coalition (i.e., voters), to care about the lives of those outside the US more than we do about increasing our own immediate comforts, vote for leaders that respect this, and emphasize these concerns to current representatives.  ↩︎
2. Though I should note neither Bisclavret nor the king are as perfect as Diago/Vis Telimus, haha. ↩︎
3. The others were Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala. ↩︎
4. Clearly these are dishes that were only eaten by the wealthy. ↩︎