Nov 5, 2023
My staff picks shelf has ended up being VERY Gender at the moment…
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My staff picks shelf has ended up being VERY Gender at the moment…
Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1B
Choose a book:
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:
Beneath the waters by the islands of Gelle-Geu, a star sleeps restlessly. The celebrated new starkeeper Ranra Kekeri, who is preoccupied b
Beneath the waters by the islands of Gelle-Geu, a star sleeps restlessly. The celebrated new starkeeper Ranra Kekeri, who is preoccupied by the increasing tremors, confronts the problems left behind by her predecessor. Meanwhile, the poet Erígra Lilún, who merely wants to be left alone, is repeatedly asked by their ancestor Semberí to take over the starkeeping helm. Semberí insists upon telling Lilún mysterious tales of the deliverance of the stars by the goddess Bird. When Ranra and Lilún meet, sparks begin to fly. An unforeseen configuration of their magical deepnames illuminates the trouble under the tides. For Ranra and Lilún, their story is just beginning; for the people of Gelle-Geu, it may well be too late to save their home.
"To heal, you must first become trusted".
R.B. Lemberg's The Unbalancing is a quiet story of salvation, an Atlantis-like story set in a world governed by a Bird goddess, where stars are kept by starkeepers and people do magic with their names. The main characters, a nonbinary demisexual poet and a loud starkeeper with much hurt in her past, come together to save their island from destruction, and they find love with each other.
The poet is a quiet character, unwilling to take on the role that others are sure should be hers; the contrast with the starkeeper, who took what she could to emancipate herself, makes for an interesting dynamic. The starkeeper is an extrovert, taking on many lovers, but behind the exuberant veneer is someone who is deeply hurt. The poet is still questioning, attempting to find their place and the precise iteration of their nonbinary identity, for this is a world where nonbinary people can be of five different types, and they signal it through hair tokens and complex hairstyles. This is a story of acceptance, too, and finding one's worth, and overcoming one's past.
The worldbuilding is immaculate, painting with deft strokes a world that is complex and different and deeply accepting, where consent matters to acts of magic and the stars come from afar. It is a slow unraveling, when the mystery of the stars' origin is revealed, and it is deeply touching. The ending feels just right in its inexorability, with pages of exquisite prose.
The Unbalancing is a quiet treasure of a novel.
✨ 4 stars
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📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:
* Keeper of the Dawn, by Dianna Gunn
for: community, consent
[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]
Trans Rights Readathon Roundup
I, your personal Libro.FM tumblr gremlin, read 3 books last week: Little Fish by Casey Plett The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar Other books people at Libro read for the TRR: God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Nevada by Imogen Binnie Libro.fm made a donation to Transgender Law Center for their Trans Health Legal Fund. I will be making a personal donation as well.
Shout out to my work allies for reading along, and pushing for us to donate!
Queer Book Recommendations part 2!
Here’s the promised second part of my book recommendations! This time we have mostly fantasy books! I’ve included a short summary for each book, along with what I liked most and who I think would enjoy a book the most, and of course which kind of representation there is, though I’ve probably forgotten some. And this time there are even covers, because they are gorgeous :) The books are in no particular order. Some of the authors have tumblrs, I’ve added those I know of as well in case you want to follow them. That said, have fun reading!
(Link to part 1)
Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault (Fantasy)
This is a cute fantasy heist/detective book about a thief, Claire, (who is also the baker Claude by day) and a detective, Adèle having to work together to find and save the city’s magical people who are used as a power source by a scrupulous company. Friendship and found family are important themes in this book, and it has a French-inspired setting which I found refreshing! Read this if you like baking puns and want to read a queerplatonic spin on the enemies-to-lovers trope!
Rep: Claire is allo aro and genderfluid, Adèle biromantic demisexual. Claire is also fat, and it’s treated respectfully and positively. Other rep includes non-English neopronouns, disabled characters and a queerplatonic relationship!
Not Your Sidekick (Sidekick Squad) by C.B. Lee ( @authorcblee) (YA fantasy)
This is the first book in a YA series about a group of teens living in a (somewhat dystopian) town where superheroes are a part of daily life. This one is mainly about Jess, the daughter of two superheroes, who accidentally starts an internship at her parents’ nemesis company- though she also gets to work with her crush, Abby, there. And she soon discovers that there is more to the superhero and supervillain system than she thought. The following books are also really good! Read this if you like teenage superheros having adventures!
Rep: Jess is bi, Vietnamese and Chinese, and her friends include a Black trans boy and a latina a-spec girl. They are the main characters of the following books.
Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver ( @thesylverlining) (Fantasy)
This book takes place in the city of Parole, whose inhabitants have a wide variety of superpowers. It is cut off from the outside world, burning and falling apart, and also under constant surveillance. I don’t usually like books with dystopian/grim settings, so I put off reading this for a long time, even though I heard a lot of praise for it. But despite the setting it’s actually really hopeful and uplifting. The plot centers around how the characters are resisting, not giving up and most importantly sticking together. They are all super interesting, diverse and often very relatable. Read this if you want to read a really well written, character focused book!
There’s a second book set around a group of characters outside Parole (but with connections to the characters in book one) where we learn more about what’s going on in the rest of the world. There’s also a bunch of short stories!
Also: All books by RoAnna Sylver are currently (June 2021) free on their itch.io!
Rep: Lots! Polyamory and QPRs, ace, aro, sapphic, gay, bi, transfem, transmasc and nonbinary characters, and also several disabled characters. Notably, one of the MCs has anxiety and panic attacks and it’s incredibly realistically written.
Stake Sauce Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient Is Love. No, Really by RoAnna Sylver (Urban fantasy)
This is a paranormal fantasy- we follow a group of former firefighters who try to live their life five years after a traumatic work accident killed one of their friends/one character’s fiancé and nearly killed and left one of them, Jude, disabled. But Jude is convinced that it wasn’t just an unlucky accident, he knows he saw a vampire attack and kill their friend. And he is determined to never let anything like that happen again, and tries to be a vampire hunter. Tries, because he still hasn’t found any vampires. But things get complicated when he meets Pixie- a young, cute vampire who doesn’t want to bite anyone and is nothing like the monsters Jude is hunting. I love this book, and the second one a lot! The way the characters deal with grief and trauma, how they can strain relationships even with people who are very close is written very sensitive and realistic while still being optimistically written. Read this if you want friendship and found family as major themes!
There’s also a second book and a short story collection which is usually patreon-exclusive but is currently free on itch.io!
Rep: Jude is an autistic, grey aroace trans man, has PTSD and is an amputee. various flavours of queer (nonbinary, wlw, mlm, some polyamory, a-spec) and neurodivergent.
The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate) by J.Y. Yang (Fantasy)
This is a Asian-inspired Fantasy revolving around Akeha and Mokoya, the twin children of the Protector, the ruler of their country and their struggle to find and keep their agency while their mother wants to use them in her political schemes- especially Mokoya, who has prophetic powers. The worldbuilding here is fantastic, though most things are only hinted at and not described extensively (it’s a fairly short book). Gender identity is one important topic- children in this world don’t have a gender assigned at birth but get to choose their gender when they grow up, something Akeha struggles with a lot. Other important themes are familial relationships, especially between siblings and different ways of rebellion against an absolutist ruler. Read this if you like magical siblings!
Book one of the Tensorate series follows mostly Akeha, while book two follows Mokoya. Books three and four follow other characters and have an unusual writing style, being written as a journal and an extended monologue respectively.
Rep: All children are presumed nonbinary, and choosing a gender that doesn’t fit your birth sex and transitioning are treated as completely normal, so while there are characters that would be trans in our world, it’s qiite different in this world. There are all kinds of queer relationships, including some polyamory!
The Queen of Cups by Ren Basel ( @renniequeer) (Fantasy)
This is a short fantasy novellette about Theo, a young captain who goes to the mysterious Oracle, an ageless woman living on the beach, to have their fortune told and to get a blessing for their ship before their first voyage and the adventure of this first voyage. The story is short enough that writing more about the plot would spoil too much, so I’ll leave it at that. Even though it’s really short, this story has interesting worldbuilding and is beautifully written. Read this if you want a heartwarming and exciting little story!
Rep: Theo is nonbinary and autistic (with synesthesia!) and is in a QPR with a trans woman. There are lots of queer minor characters.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie ( @annleckie) (Fantasy)
This book follows two storylines- the first one is about a troubled kingdom whose patron god is weakening as the throne has been taken by an usurper. Eolo, a young trans man is trying to help the true ruler reclaim his kingdom and discovers an important secret. This storyline has lots of political intrigue, drama and suspense. The second storyline begins in the far past, and recounts the life of an ancient rock deity who is also the narrator. This storyline deals more with concepts, like religion and mythology, language and imagination, with some very interesting ideas. I liked how the gods aren’t just superpowered humans, but powerful, truly inhuman beings (there’s a god who is a swarm of mosquitos!). Read this if you like nonhuman narrators and lots of flashbacks!
Rep: Eolo is a trans man, and I think most characters are POC.
The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg (Fantasy)
This fantasy novella is set in the Birdverse and centers around two trans elders- Uiziya, a trans woman who transitioned years ago and has always been accepted by her people, and a nameless trans man who only transitioned very recently and struggles a lot with the rigid gender roles of his people. Together they go on a journey to seek out Uiziya’s aunt, so she can teach Uiziya how to weave from death, something Uiziya has waited for for decades. The language here is very lyrical and evocative, and the story is mystical and deep. And while it is quite dark at times, overall it’s still a hopeful book. The desert setting is also really cool! I especially loved the perspective of the nameless man, who could finally transition and now struggles both with the people who still see him as a woman, and the people who accept him but expect him to now fit in with the other men- which he doesn’t. I think this perspective is something that’s sorely lacking in most other books with trans narratives. Read this if you want interesting magic with older trans people!
There are also a bunch of short stories in the Birdverse, so check them out if you want to read something shorter by the same author!
Rep: Uiziya is also fat and dark skinned, there’s also some polyamory, sapphic characters and a nonbinary autistic child.
Lifelode by Jo Walton (Fantasy)
Lifelode is a pastoral fantasy, set in a small village where polyamory is the norm (families are usually two women and two men and all their children). The central story is mostly about the daily life of one family, while the larger plot is only in the background. This book also has really interesting worldbuilding- time passes differently in different places, and one character can see people’s past and future. The beginning of the book can be a bit difficult to understand because of this but it’s really worth it to stick with it! Read this if you like cottage core and polyamory!
Rep: Polyamory, and one minor f/f relationship.
The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács (Fantasy/Sci-Fi)
This is a short story collection, and the title accurately shows how weird and queer these stories are. They have widely varying topics, both fantasy and science fiction- sentient octopuses, resistance against alien invasion, a failing memory archive… Frequent themes are nonsexual kink, Jewish faith, community, disability and, well, all forms of queerness. Read this if you want unconventional queer short stories!
If you enjoy weird queer poetry, Bogi has also published a collection of eir poems, called Algorithmic Shapshifting
Rep: too much to list, but nonbinary and Jewish people the most.
it’s about when ocean vuong said “a story, after all, is a kind of swallowing. to open a mouth, in speech, is to leave only the bones, which remain untold.” and when anne enright said “i am not sure what hurt may linger in the bones.” and when rb lemberg said “the bones in all the stories. the bones that have a story to tell, a story that persists beyond the last breath and demands to be told.” and when enright said “i lay them out in nice sentences, all my clean, white bones.”
Book Review: The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Blurb: Among the Surun’, the greatest weavers weave from wind, sand, song, and bone. Uiziya learned the first three weaves from her aunt Benesret, but she could never bear the price of learning to weave from bone, for to weave from bone means to weave from death. Years later, Uiziya seeks out her aunt to learn the final weave.
Among the Khana, women travel far and wide to trade, while men remain cloistered as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.
As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and helping Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter. Set in R. B. Lemberg’s beloved Birdverse, The Four Profound Weaves hearkens to Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness.
My biggest problem with this book isn’t with this book. It’s with the way it isn’t clear that you have to read some of the author’s other novellas first, which I really think you do. I read Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds several years ago, so I vaguely remembered some of the things that set the scene for this book. But that only made me more confused, because things seemed familiar yet didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t until I paused and went back and reread Grandmother-nai-Leylit that I truly understood what was happening in this one.
The Birdverse stories are fantastic. Most of them were published in various fantasy magazines online, and you can find a full list of them, their reading order, and where they’re published on goodreads. Definitely check them out! They’re beautiful and original and full of gay, trans, and nonbinary characters. Their gender standards are not ours, even when they comment on ours, and their gender ideals are exciting to read, especially when they’re so different from ours. Almost all of those things apply to this book too, except it’s longer and doesn’t stand alone. I recommend reading Grandmother-nai-Leylit at the very least for the context for this story, and the rest of the them just for the great worldbuilding (also for the epistolary lesbian love story).
Unfortunately, I don’t think Lemberg’s writing style works as well in this book as it does in the other Birdverse stories. The characters are more passive in this one, following along as the plot drags them places. And the whole logic of the story is less solid. When magic stuff happens, the characters will afterwards be like “ah yes, of course, I understand,” but neither they nor you had any way to understand how the magic works before it happened. You just need to accept it afterwards. That way of writing has a sort of dreamy feel to it which can work very well in some cases but, combined with the less active characters, did not work here.
I’m disappointed, because I do love the Birdverse, and there were some fantastic parts to this story. It’s an incredibly rich and inventive world, the story is very emotional, and it’s great to have more books with two transgender protagonists. If you think of The Four Profound Weaves as another short story or novella to be read in succession with the rest, it’s very good. But I wish the publisher and author had put more thought into crafting it as a standalone book rather than just another Birdverse story, and made it stand on its own as a less wispy, more logical narrative. A full book might have done more justice to the richness of this world and the complexity of its emotions.
So please, don’t just read this book, read its world.
On this episode, we're talking wizards! We're comparing the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul and RB Lemberg's "Geometries of Belonging". Also, Freya has designed a fun game for Alex and Macey! What We’re Into Lately Silver in the Woo...
On this episode, we're talking wizards! We're comparing the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul and RB Lemberg's "Geometries of Belonging". Also, Freya has designed a fun game for Alex and Macey!
What We’re Into Lately
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons Chronin by Alison Wilgus Catalyst by Jennifer Mace A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine Lots of Good Omens shit, including: Alex’s Good Omens fanvids “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Hallelujah”. “vintage demon art, vape pens, & other treasures” by kyrilu “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “My Best Friend” fanvids "Making An Effort: Queer (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens" Much Ado About Nothing (2011)
Other Stuff We Mentioned
Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis Dragon Age: Inquisition DA:I fanfiction Analog July/August Issue (ft. Freya’s short story) Moving Pictures Soul Music Unseen Academicals Wayward Children series Every Heart a Doorway Ursula K. Le Guin Freya’s fairy fic ‘Hood & Glove’ The Magicians Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee The Birdverse section of R.B. Lemberg’s website Kingdom (2019-) “What We Named the Needle" by Freya Marske Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik The Elenium series by David Eddings The Tamuli series by David Eddings The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner Tamora Pierce
For Next Time
Nothing! It's the Episode 40 Extravaganza!
Transcript
The transcription for this episode can be found here. Thanks as always to our wondrous scribes, the lights of our life!