fiction

Subtitle: An Extremely Silly Tale of Alien Abduction, Starship Teapot #1
Recommended to me by: free download offer on mastodon (now expired)

The dedication at the front of the book says, “For everyone whose mind is reeling from, well, everything and who can’t cope with another serious novel about serous people dealing with serious problems. Not right now.”

And the content notes are “Anaphylactic shock, minor injury to a dog. Also, please note that trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are who they tell you they are. This book is not for TERFs.”

With that reassuring beginning, the book starts out with Lem and their dog, Spock, settling in to a camping vacation, and proceeds immediately to the silly alien abduction. A group of alien abductees soon coalesces and works on getting back home. There are universal translators, but each person has to come up with their own names for individuals and species they meet, since sound production varies so wildly between aliens.

Silly, warm, with just enough danger to keep the plot moving forward. This book delivers on what it offers up front. Recommended if that’s what you need right now.

Available at bookshop.org.

Recommended to me by: Luzula

I loved the world-building in this book. Humanity has dispersed to the stars, and brought corporate greed, income inequality, and the need for insurance along, not to mention complex social politics. These people are so rich that they create a white sand beach complete with ocean and waves on a satellite.

There are characters of African and Asian descent and their presence is taken for granted in high society, so at least that has improved in this future world. Names are multicultural, with a wealthy family named Mendez-Yuki. The main character goes undercover as Evelyn Ojukwu, a socialite from a distant planet. Judaism and its cultural and religious rules play a role in the plot, to my delight.

The book centers capable women, with men as annoying hindrances or servants. LGBT relationships are apparently looked at askance, but a budding romance between the main character and another super-competent woman is a main focus of the plot.

The other focus is revenge. The main character is a con artist. Lying is what she does for a living, and she’s good at it. There is some judgement of con artists in the book, but overall the main character takes it for granted that it’s a fine thing to do, which bothered me.

I’m not quite the target audience for this book, but it was well-written, inclusive, and the plot moved right along. Recommended if this is your kind of thing.

Available at bookshop.org.

Recommended to me by: Sean Eric Fagan’s Kindle giveaway @wandering.shop

This urban fantasy is not at all my kind of book, with a hard-boiled first person narrative and a lot of violence. I nearly put it down a couple of times, but kept reading because I have some time on my hands and the plot kept humming along. In the end, there was less dance involved than I hoped for at the beginning. It’s great that the main character is a woman, although the male side character is the one who grows and changes.

While the main character’s parents seem loving and involved in her life, raising child soldiers is still child abuse.

I appreciate the anti-xenophobia message of the book. At the same time, I wonder why none of the characters in New York City read as Black (thank goodness the monsters don’t read as Black) and some of the non-humans read very much like exoticized Asian women.

This is the first in a long series of InCryptid books with “discount” themed titles, per the InCryptid page on Seanan McGuire’s website, good news if they’re your kind of thing.

Available at bookshop.org.