Now that I've finally had time to sit down and read it, please allow me to recommend Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Best!
A gloriously multicolor sci-fi queer romance accurately pitched as "Knives Out in space", this book has a cast of characters all worthy of their own spin-offs and a cleverly ticking mystery at its heart.
You can read the plot bits elsewhere, I won't get bogged down in em. Here's what I love: this is sci-fi with a beating heart. In Stars, Hide Your Fires no one is an island, even in space; I was strongly reminded of Becky Chamber's Wayfarers, with its complex and complicated communities of people who are just trying to make it through the day. (The space day. It is, still, a sci-fi novel, with delightful diversions on the food they eat, the way transit works, interplanetary commerce, and of course, space cussin'.)
Our hero is charming, and practical, and relatable, and funny sometimes to her own detriment, and has some growing to do. Our romance is complicated For Plot Reasons, but built on mutual respect and admiration and food-sharing (not how you'd expect!). Our perspective is one in which we have all the clues, if we can put them together fast enough-- for one delightful moment I was one step ahead of Cass as I called a plot twist, only to realize with dawning horror exactly what that meant for the narrative--
Our story is one with a satisfying ending and room still for expansion. I know I'll enjoy going back to this one again and finding all the hints I missed, and just living in this universe for a little while.
Recommended for: Fans of The Starship Iris (duh), Becky Chambers readers, people with intense feelings about AOS Jim Kirk, anthropologists disappointed by lazy sci-fi cultures, lesbians with a competence kink, cosplayers who enjoy a challenge, and you, if you're reading this.
Oh, why is this an audio post? Because this is a song based on the book we recorded and I thought it would be neat. :)
obsessed with mass market paperbacks. their pleasing rectangular proportions. how they fit badly in a hoodie pocket so you can drag them around everywhere with you like a temporary little buddy. the way they fit in your hand because they're MADE for human hands and not as bookshelf decoration. the way the pages feel when you riffle them gently with your thumb. How pristine and crisp they look when you get them and how creased and folded they look when you're done, even if you try to be nice to them. how that wear is okay, how that's correct actually, because they're made with the philosophy that books aren't meant to be PRETTY, they're meant to be read. that little ripple new ones get on the left side from where you hold them when you're reading, the way the ripple only goes as far as you've read, because u change stories by reading as they are changing you. how you can find thousands of these creased and folded and loved little dudes in every thrift store and used book shop and neighborhood library and you can instantly see the ones that someone carried around in a backpack for weeks or read to pieces or gave up on halfway through because they wear being read like fresh snow wears footprints. I love these poorly made, subpar little rectangles so much. truly the people's books.
SO! here it is! The roof comes off with the rafters attached; the floor for the 'ground' level is also removable--remember that this is designed to sit in about 3 inches of litter. The windows are inset so that after this is fired, I can cut and glue in little panes of stained glass.
Rewatching Fellowship of the Ring has really reminded me how much other fantasy shows/movies love to center on Powerful Superhero Magic Warrior Royals with Noble Destinies, while LOTR just focuses on a sad gay doomed little waif. When will we have another fantasy franchise centered on a main protagonist that is just “a very ordinary friendly little guy who Suffers….”
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