A Jungle of Tales

  This is one of my favorite long-distance space travel stories, because the conflict is not what you usually see. Namely, there is nothing wrong with the  ship – all the bits are working perfectly - or the society on it, at least at first. Everything is great, and that’s where the problem comes from! The point of a generation ship is to get from planet A to planet B over the course of more than one generation…but what happens if some of the crew don’t want to get off the ship?             The novella-length tale – which I found in the collection ‘The Birthday of the World’ - follows 5-Liu Hsing and 5-Nova Luis. As their numbers suggest, they are part of the fifth generation on Discovery , which is expected to reach Sindychew 1 when they are in their sixties. Luis is a quiet, sensitive boy who is very loyal and deeply intellectually honest. Hsing is a highly practical bisexual girl who is good at math...

  The full original title of this book pretty succinctly summarizes what you’re going to get: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &c. Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu’d variety for threescore years, besides her childhood, was twelve year a whore, five times a wife (whereof once to her own brother), twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon in Virginia, at last grew rich, liv’d honest, and died a penitent. Of course, while the author and Moll herself repeatedly claim this is a cautionary tale…it doesn’t actually feel that way, and one has good reason to doubt the penitence! This 1722 novel builds on the picaresque tradition, in which a roguish, lower-class hero lives by his wits in a corrupt society and engages in a series of loosely-connected adventures. However, ‘Moll Flanders’ makes several interesting changes to this form. Most notably, of course, the witty rogue is a she who has to deal with spec...

When revisiting the books I blogged about last year I realized that half have some level of queerness 1 in them. Some, such as ‘The Pull of the Stars,’ had representation that surprised and delighted me (the blurb not having mentioned anything about it), some…were a bit iffy. So I wanted to share my recommendations and reflect a bit on what worked well and what didn’t.   1. I’m going to be using “queer” and its variants a lot here. I know reclaimed slurs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. If you prefer, you can skim the titles or click to the individual reviews where I often use more specific terms. Personally, I like having a one-syllable option that covers everything (acronyms with 5 or more syllables being a bit unwieldy). But I’m also the sort to take “weird” or “eccentric” as a compliment, so…   I’ve divided the books into those that definitely include LGBT+ characters, even if the precise label they should be given is unclear ( canonical depictions...

    (Spoilers ahead, obviously!)   I wrote a review for Helen Oyeyemi’s ‘Gingerbread’ last year, but there were two parts of it I couldn’t talk about because they were spoilers – the kind of twists that are most refreshing if experienced unexpectedly, especially if you are tired of common romance tropes. But I also really want to gush about them a bit. So that’s what this is. #1. Not-a-love-triangle: When we are introduced to cousins Gabriel and R é my Kercheval, a reader can be forgiven for expecting a classic YA-style love triangle or agreeing with the guess by one of the talking dolls that “sexy bad boy” R é my will turn out to be the father of Perdita (Harriet’s daughter). This thought lingers because Harriet is our POV and, while she has always had a stronger crush on R é my, she thinks: Wouldn’t chasing R é my be like running after a tiny kitten that turned around, morphed into a cheetah, and hunted you down…? But no! Her first im...

  Honestly, this list would more honestly be titled "Best, good, and slightly iffy female protagonists", because only one of the characters listed below was truly awful, and even then she had three better female leads to dilute my ire. Which is great!   Take note, Hollywood: None of these characters are femme fatales or the "strong female character" who is "strong" due to the ability to wield violence and be emotionally repressed – just like a man! Some do have combat skills (most notably Red and Blue) but that is not the core of what makes their characters interesting or successful. Instead, intelligence, grit, and the ability to collaborate and make allies are by far the most common traits, especially for those at the top of the list. In fact, several have to be listed as pair or groups because that is how they function. Not exclusively, though – there are a few loners. Most in some way fight, bend, or circumvent the restrictive rol...