sci-fi – Page 2 – A. L. Lester

#AmReading

This week, some sci-fi with The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal; and two gay romances, Green Tea and Pink Apples, a short, sweet contemporary from R. Cooper and the werewolfy Night Shift Series from T. A. Moore.

The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. A Lady Astronaut Novel.

The premis of this story is that a metorite hits Earth in the 1950s. It asks the question what happens next?

It’s told from the POV of a well off, educated, married female pilot with wartime flying experience.
I found it fascinating. I was irritated on behalf of the MC by the intrangency of the male establishment in recognising the skills and experience women could bring to the operation to save the earth’s population. And I was cross about the assumptions made about their competence.

I was completely sucked in by the question of how a situation like this would have been dealt with given the tech of seventy years ago. I have always been told–and believe–that the perfect sci-fi story takes one or two aspects of life as we know it and asks what if? And this book does it perfectly.

It’s probably the only historical science fiction story I’ve ever read and I recommend it!

Green Tea and Pink Apples by R. Cooper

Another comforting read from R. Cooper, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers.

This is a gentle short contemporary about two men who have known each other for years and who finally find their way toward each other. It’s a beautifully drawn picture of perfectly ordinary humanity and I loved it. Everything I read by this author makes me like their work more.

The Night Shift series by T. A. Moore

I’ve read the first two of these in quick succession this week. They’re definitely not stand alone – they both end on cliffhangers, so if that bugs you, steer well clear. I really liked the format though, it has the feel of a newspaper or TV tune-in-next-week serial that worked very well for me.

The world is a reversal of the usual small population of werewolves universe. Wolves are in the majority, and the Night Shift, where one of our MCs works, are all drawn from the twenty percent of the population who are null and stay sensible instead of changing. Wolves have no memory of the savage things they do over the nights of the full moon, which can include eating their spouse and children. Of course, our MC falls for a wolf, who is also an asshole in human form. They are thrown together in an attempt to solve police corruption, against a background of unsupportive colleagues and lots of snark.

I loved the world-building, which is steady and leaves a lot behind the scenes that is drip-fed in. I am having a mild amount of trouble suspending my disbelief about how society evolved to the point where they have mobile phones etc if most of the population are busy tearing each other apart for a few nights every month, but not to the point of it stopping me really enjoying the story!

The third one is out later this month and I’m really looking forward to it. Recommend!

That’s the lot for this time. Happy reading!

#AmReading

This week, three gay romances. Dystopian sci-fi from Manna Francis, alt-historical magic from Jordan L. Hawk and a reworked fairytale by Kim Fielding.

Mind Fuck, The Administration #1 by Manna Francis

I’m so late to Manna Francis–they’ve been recommended to me time and time again and I’ve only just taken the plunge because I suspected that when I did I’d end up having to buy the lot. They’re definitely my bag… spy stuff, ethical dilemmas, a dystopian future that you can see has roots in how we are now. I love the world-building and I like the way the characters are grey, but still likeable. Thoroughly recommend, like the other two thousand plus people who’ve left reviews :).

Blind Tiger, The Pride #1 by Jordan L. Hawk

This is a new series set in the the Hexworld universe. You don’t need to have read any of those for this to make sense, although obviously if you have, you already have a handle on how the universe works. This is a slow-burn romance between two very different people who are both hurt and vulnerable, set against a background of an alt-1920s Chicago run through with shifter-magic. Shifter big cats running a speakeasy? Yes please, sign me up. Wounded heroes finding love that they had given up on? A tick in that box, too. A happy ending? Yep. And more books in the series to come… yay!

Gravemound by Kim Fielding

This is a reworked fairytale in a sci-fi, magical setting, which sounds odd until you read it. A space-crash survivor comes to terms with the loss of his partner and is welcomed by the low-tech society he finds himself marooned in. It’s a story of loss and renewal and finding your family and your place in the world after displacement. It’s a lovely little novella. I really liked the blending of high-tech and magical/paranormal elements. As is often the case with Kim Fielding, there’s a bittersweet coming-to-terms element to the happy ending.

That’s it for this time!

Am Reading

This time I have some queer sci-fi and a non-fiction book about the First World War.

A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, Sub Zero by Angel Martinez and Elsie and Mairi Go to War by Diane Atkinson.

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Cover, A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Cover, A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

So, I’m late to the party with this duology. I have read both in the last week and been blown away by them. The world-building is amazing, the character development is fascinating and the way everything pulls against each other…the different cultures, the different expectations…is perfect.

In the first book there is the tension between the Stationer culture and the ever-expanding Teixcalaan empire, which have radically different values and ways of being. They are both human, but the Teixcalaan’s don’t really see non-Teixcallaanim as being real people. In book two, the human cultures are thrown against aliens who are so completely <i>other</i> that the Sationers and the Teixcallaani need to put aside their differences to learn to communicate with them and survive as a species.

Interwoven with the big, space-opera story of both books is a delicate, touching, personal story of the tentative relationship growing between the Stationer ambassador to Teixcalaan and her Teixcallaan translator. They struggle with their feelings and cultural differences against a background of violence, attempted rebellion and political maneuvering.

I found the whole thing completely absorbing and I’ll be going back to them in a few months, as I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve missed. It’s rich, textured and absorbing. Read them. They’re good.

Elsie and Mairi Go to War by Diane Atkinson

I read this as part of research into women doctors and nurses in the First World War for a story I’m writing. It started off a bit of a mad dash though the pages, extracting information to use as background colour. However, I soon got sucked into the story for its own sake…they were amazing women who saw a job that needed doing and did it. They spent a great deal of time running a first aid post very close to the Belgian lines in the cellar of a bombed out building and went out every night looking for wounded who had been overlooked on the battlefield. Their story is told through letters and photos and recollections and is a very easy read.

Elsie was quite a bit older than Mairi and I took an instant dislike to her…she was clearly an adventuress who thrived on adrenaline. She lied about being a divorcee and having a child to the Belgian nobleman she went on to marry during the war. Afterwards when he found out and they parted, she flitted from one thing to another…for example setting up a first aid post in the East End of London during the General Strike and actually causing more problems than she solved.

Mairi on the other hand settled back to post-war life with comparative ease. She, a close friend and a couple of other women opened a chicken-breeding farm in Scotland, temporarily moved the whole shebang to Guernsey and from thence back to Scotland again.

I found it a really interesting, colourful book that brought the protaganists to life. I also came away with a distinct feeling that Mairi had a crush on Elsie. She never married although she and her close friend lived together for decades after the war. Although that isn’t surprising for women of that generation, I guess, because of the swathes of men lost in the trenches.

Sub Zero (The ESTO Universe) by Angel Martinez

I loved this queer SFF story. It has a really well defined sense of place–a planet colonized by humans not once, but twice. The first colonizers abandoned their genetically engineered slaves who then became indigenous and more and more undervalued in the eyes of the second wave of humans when they arrive.

The main protagonists are a human and a not-quite-human, one sent to solve a murder, one accused of it. They fall in love, they solve the mystery, they bring a better sense of balance to the world. It sounds so simple.

But the universe is deeply textured, the details are painted with a bright, engaging brush and the relationship between the MCs grows at a steady, tender pace. It’s lovely and you should read it.

That’s it for this time!

#AmReading

I’m so behind on these, I’m very sorry! This time I have queer sci-fi!

A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright

I loved this. It’s a brilliant plotty space-opera with additional gay romance. The characters are beautifully realised, there’s a middle-aged female space-ship captain with a trick hip as a main character and the world-building is drip-drip-dripped in rather than delivered in a big ‘here is my universe’ clump. Identity-wipe, political machinations, mysterious enemies and big guns. What’s not to like?

Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen

So this was weird and complicated. I really liked it. It follows someone who is initially a child and then has their growth accelerated to make them an adult for /complicated plot reasons/. It’s got a racing story and some extremely gruesome bits which I found heart-wrenching, so be warned. However it also has brane-like universe bubbles that have different rules of physics and-or existence, an extremely cool selection of aliens and different technologies and a plot that twisted my tiny mind n the best way. I should add…it has genderfluid and enby characters and the main character is ace.

Taji from Beyond the Rings by R. Cooper

This is my first R. Cooper book and I am now wondering why I waited so long to start. It’s a ‘queer human in a world of genderfluid aliens’ story and the dislocation and loneliness of the main character really resonated with me in this dislocated and lonely covid-time.

Taji, the human embassy translator, is an academic who’s been subbed in to cover for the murdered previous incumbent. He’s in love with one of the Shavian embassy guards. There’s a mismatch of cultural knowledge and expectations and failed communication between them that interweaves with a fantastic, exciting political-machinations plot that I loved. A lot of the plot is based around a minority of the Shavian’s tendency to ‘go shehzha’ for their lover…to become mindlessly desirous of them during the first phase of a relationship. It was interesting and I thought done really well–it had a cultural and political impact on the story and the relationship between Taji and his lover.

That’s it for this time!

interview with Amara Lynn

Hi Amara! What made you decide to subject yourself to my interview technique?

My newest release, on 2/22, Tundras, Travelers, and Other Travesties! It’s a queer sci-fi novelette set in a future earth that’s covered in snow.

What started you writing?

I’ve always had a huge imagination, thinking up stories and characters all my life. I didn’t really start writing them down until I was in college, though, after reading Twilight and thinking, “I could do this, only gay.” So I started writing all kinds of things, and it’s only gotten queerer from there!

Where are you most comfortable writing?

Usually in my office, which is filled to the brim with little trinkets and pieces of inspiration on my walls. I’m most proud of my corkboard of pretties.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I’ll read just about anything, from contemporary romance to fantasy. I most enjoy reading romance stories with fantasy element sprinkled in.

What are the three books you’d take to a desert island? Why would you choose them?

How to Love a Monster by Lyssa Dering (preferably in audio), because it’s my comfort listen. It’s an odd little story, but it’s somehow perfect to me. I’ve listened to it over 5 times now.

Into the Deep by yours truly. I guess it’s weird I’d choose one of my own books, haha. I hope it doesn’t seem to vain. I spent 10 years writing that story, and it’s so important to me. It’s the story of my heart, and I’ve worked in a little bit of everything I love into it, so I wouldn’t mind having it be one of the only things I could read over and over on a deserted island, which is ironic because it’s about a pirate getting deserted on an island!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. If you like villains, read this book. It’s amazing. I love Victor and Eli so much, and I wouldn’t mind being stuck with this book at all.

Writing is an intrinsically solo occupation. Do you belong to any groups or associations, either online or in the ‘real’ world? How does that work for you?

I’m most active on Twitter, and I love the queer writing community there. It’s one of the most welcoming spaces I’ve found, and I love hosting my own hashtags to contribute to the community. If not for that community, I wouldn’t have been able to successfully win NaNoWriMo three years in a row, or even once for that matter!

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I watch way to much anime, and play a game or two here and there. My favourite foods are chilli and tacos or any Mexican dish. I have two cuddly cats who like to keep me company all around the house and try to trip me constantly.

Tell me a little bit about your most recent release, Tundras, Travelers and other Travesties. What gave you the idea for it? How long did it take to write? What did you enjoy about writing it? What did you hate?

Tundras, Travelers, and Other Travesties was inspired by a call for solarpunk winter stories, and I revived a long shelved wintery piece for it, made a couple changes, and did a little research to back up the story. It didn’t make it into the call, or another I submitted it to, so I decided to self publish it.

What I most enjoyed about it was making it queer, and writing about a character that shares my chronic pain. I don’t think there’s anything I really hated about this story. I’m excited for it to be out in the world! It’s a cute, hopeful piece, that’s unapologetically queer.

Tundras, Travelers and other Travesties

Eis has lived on a solar powered outpost in a tundra covered land all zir life.

After zir parents passing, Eis is left to maintain the outpost alone, struggling to do so between chronic pain flare ups, waiting for the day a traveler might come in need of a warm bed and a meal. A day Eis thinks might never come, until a mysterious craft crashes into one of the solar panels.

Eis never expected a traveler to come out of the craft, or for him to be so captivating and beautiful. Everything Eis knows could change with the coming of this traveler, and yet the greatest travesty would be never knowing what else is out there, beyond the tundra, beyond the skies.

Tundras, Travelers, and Other Travesties is a 5800 word solarpunk post-apocalyptic sci-fi short with a queer protagonist.

Buy Tundras, Travelers and Other Travesties : Add on Goodreads

Connect with Amara

Amara Lynn has always been a quiet daydreamer. Coming up with characters and worlds since childhood, Amara eventually found an outlet in writing. Amara loves anything to do with pirates, villains and superheroes, and angels and demons.

Amara is addicted to music and gets the most inspiration from moving songs and lyrics. When not writing, Amara usually reads, listens to podcasts, watches anime, plays a video game here and there (but mostly collects them), and takes way too many cat pictures.

Amara is non-binary/enby and queer and uses they/them pronouns.

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