A Jungle of Tales

                Back in high school, I read quite a few books that could be classified as “1990s girlboss fantasy retelling”, such as the ‘Mists of Avalon’. Generally, they took some classic legend or fairytale and re-told it from the POV of one of the main female characters, such as Morgan LeFae or Maid Marion. I soon caught on that the feminism was usually kind of superficial, often involving the MC liking sex plus some generic “look how bad sexism was in medieval times” stuff. They could still be a good time, though, especially considering that back then smut, especially of the sex positive, female-focused sort, was harder to access! I kind of expected this book (which I remembered seeing at the time) to be a nostalgic throwback to that, though maybe with more plant lore and less spice than some. Boy, was I wrong! While I generally liked the writing style, and there were moments of both great natural ...

               “Papa Franz” Boas and his intellectual “family,” in a time that saw the height of the eugenics movement, invented the more positive way of thinking about human diversity that is more or less mainstream 1 today. It’s an inspiring story about the power of science and also a really good illustration of why diversity within science is important. Essentially every member of this group of scholars was marginalized in at least one way, which meant they brought a variety of experiences to the table, none of which lent themselves to thinking “yep, this society I live in is definitely the pinnacle of humanity!” Boas experienced not just anti-semitism, but the prejudice leveled at German immigrants during WWI. Ruth Benedict was partially deaf, prone to depression, and in love with the bisexual and polyamorous Margaret Mead. Zora Neale Hurston faced not only the racism from whites tha...

  This series, which is both dark and humorous, has an intriguing take on vampires. These vampires are not inherently monstrous; They like blood, but they don’t need it – the main POV character, Noe, is extremely fond of tarte tatin! They are, in fact, rather like the fey: immortal unless killed and with some magical abilities, but otherwise just people. Unless , that is, they are cursed and their true name corrupted, in which case they become one of a variety of ravenous blood-thirsty monsters of legend. The vampires blame these curses on the Vampire of the Blue Moon, called Vanitas. But then a (mostly) human man appears, announcing that he has taken on that name and will use the book of Vanitas to cure curses and save the vampires – whether they like it or not!                               ...

              This 1936 Czech science fiction novel is a satire on colonialism, slavery, fascism…and a dozen other things from newspapers and Hollywood, to education reform, to scientific detachment. The basic premise is that near the turn of the 20 th century, intelligent, bipedal amphibians the size of a young child are discovered living in the South Pacific. Almost immediately humans start trying to exploit their labor, and over the next few decades proceed to be incredibly oblivious to what a terrible idea it is to create a hundreds-of-millions-strong underclass that is simultaneously mistreated, educated, and armed. The end of the book was clearly intended as a reference to the “it can’t happen here” attitude that enabled the spread of fascism. However, the way economic arguments are used as an excuse to keep selling the newts weapons even as they revolt, these days feels like it could be a metaphor for ...

              This book seems to be the start of a very promising and unique fantasy series. Set in a world inspired by the various cultures of pre-Columbian America, it follows three primary characters: Xiala, a hard-drinking bisexual ship’s captain, who has been released from prison with the assignment to reach the city of Tova within 20 days; her mysterious and rather spooky passenger Serapio, a blind young man who communicates with crows; and Naranpa, a young woman who rose from the slums to become the Sun Priest of Tova. The story has romance and action and a lot of visual details that would translate well to the screen in either animated or – if you could get sufficient budget and proper casting – live action format.             I really liked the first two characters and their dynamic. Xiala is worldly and cynical and earthy. Serapio is…not shelt...

              This short novel is basically a space-opera-meets-quest-myth. It is the 32 nd century and humanity has expanded out into the galaxy, fueled by the rare element of Illyrion. Captain Lorq Von Ray has a daring plan to fly into the heart of a supernova for the chance to bring back seven tons of it. But, as his hastily assembled crew of eccentrics soon discover, he isn’t in it for the money. Lorq’s quest starts in revenge and ends…somewhere else.             With my first introduction to Delany being ‘Stars in my pocket like grains of sand’ , and having read synopses of several of his other books, I was immensely surprised that this one wasn’t gay! Then I realized this was published in 1968 when he was only 25 – and, apparently, even the fact that it had a Black main character was a problem when he was trying to get it published. He then took ...