photo_editor_ds_1682382984434

It Always Ends This Way – a review of Dreadnought by April Daniels

by with No Comment Fantasy

This week we tackle the T in LGBTQ+ as we dive back into our Pride Month reads. The second book for the queerest month of June features an author AND a main character who are trans women.

Danny Tozer gets given the powers of a dying superhero. In the process, her dream comes true and she transitions into the female body she always wanted to have. That comes with pitfalls as the world around her knows of her new identity. Her father wants nothing more than to cure her and revert her back into a male, a superhero agency is divided as half want to recruit her and half want her to give up her powers for various reasons, and her school life is changed as a result of her transition. To top all that off, the villain who killed the hero who gave Danny her powers is still on the loose, and Danny’s powers may be one of the few things to stop such plots.

The trans struggles and moments within this book were the strongest. I got close to tears multiple times while reading this novel, and that’s a feat. I rarely cry at books. So getting close means you are doing something right. I recognise that every person’s experience coming out as trans is different, but the interpretation here allowed me to connect with an identity I don’t have. And it was so precious to see the world change for this girl. To fight for everything she ever wanted.

I enjoyed the superhero worldbuilding in this novel a great deal. Magical realism worlds, which superhero novels often fall under (fight me on that), are excellent ways to transform the world we know and understand how whatever is magical has changed that world. This superhero league was an entertaining way of discovering many power origins, including Danny’s and how she gains her powers while transitioning. And of course we have my favourite part, FANTASY TECH! In case you are new here, I am a sucker for fantasy tech even if it is modern day tech being affected by magics.

That being said, the final superhero battle was where things were let down for me. It’s the staple of a superhero film that we all get tired of, and to see it in book form this trope dragged out more for me. I think it was more of a drag for me in this part of the book because it became unclear what Danny was exactly fighting for and too many bits of information popped up like a mole ready to whack. It felt like it was there for the sake of having a grand and epic finale, but the number of chapters that were action packed in a row were erring on too much for me.

Dreadnought gets a score of 3.5/5. I think the sagging third act trend may have returned.

photo_editor_ds_1682382924466

My Brain Is Small – a review of An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

I kid you not. I read two books in a row with a character with the same name.

This was a pure coincidence, because throughout June, the internationally recognised Pride Month, I will be reading novels featuring LGBTQIA+ protagonists and authors. This author, who uses they/them pronouns, has an intersex protagonist and a trans-feminine love interest.

Aster works as a botanist on a starship called The Matilda. As the lower decks face power cuts on a regular basis, Aster’s bunkmate Giselle breaks a code found within Aster’s late mother’s diary entries. This leads Aster on a mission to find out what she was hiding, what is wrong with her home and the history of it. All the while, the medic she is apprenticed other has news that their leader is dying and about to be replaced by a far more corrupt leader.

The writing style was brought down this novel a lot for me. This is not a book for everyone and one I would not call accessible on the first read. The main POV characters, largely Aster, are very scientifically minded and analytical. This meant that the POV from a third person perspective almost felt non fiction and essay like for me. I stay away from non fiction in text form because I struggle to keep focus, and that’s how I felt about this book. Too much like a non fiction author giving a go at writing fiction.

One character was intriguing enough for me to continue reading. Giselle and her derangement was the only thing that kept me going, the only character in this novel with a personality and arc worth observing. Maybe it was just because she was so different from everyone being so monotone? And the things she does to get shit done too, now I write about this and think on it. We see one POV chapter from her perspective, and I think it may have been far more entertaining to read this story through her lens.

The plot had potential when paired with interesting worldbuilding. The politics of this novel was one of the few things I could understand and I enjoyed learning about that side of things and the poverty of the lower levels inside of this spacecraft. But more focus was put into sciences. I understand that it is a trope of sci fi, and maybe I’m realising how I don’t like this specific kind of sci fi. Ah well. I still liked the sci fi politics.

All that was ruined for me by a confusing ending. To my knowledge this book was a standalone. It ended on too many disappointing uncertainties. Too much depression. So much hard work to end in an eternal sadness for dear Aster. Literally. I would be okay with this kind of an ending if I knew why they decided to end this book in such a way, but as established there was a lot in this book I didn’t pick up.

So all in all, I was too stupid to enjoy this book.

An Unkindness of Ghosts gets a score of 2.5/5. Maybe I shouldn’t have dropped the science subjects the first chance I got.