2019 in Review: Women
Highwaymen and Others
by Cynthia Ward
by Cynthia Ward
It's been a year too draining to do more than read a few
pages, here and there. Still, I did finish
a few things.
"Stand and Deliver!" (Books and Magazines)
Graphic Novel:
Bingo Love by Tee
Franklin (writer) and Jenn St-Onge (artist) - While it opens in the future, this
beautiful graphic novel is a non-speculative romance which follows two women
across the decades of their lives since they met in '63.
Anthologies and Magazines:
AfroSFv3 edited by
Ivor W. Hartmann - An excellent, space-themed science fiction anthology by
African authors, focused on classic tropes (interstellar travel, space colonies,
aliens, etc.); my full-length review may be found in The
Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Beyond Binary:
Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction edited by Brit Mandelo -
A strong literary anthology whose contents I found rather at odds with my
expectations, given its title and subtitle (there are indeed stories with trans
or genderqueer characters, but also stories centered on cis bisexuals, and
stories I can only call mainstream).
Space Pioneers
edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio - An anthology of classic mid-20th-Century
hard science fiction and emulations
thereof, punctuated by ham-fisted editorial attacks on "feminist" and
"liberal" straw men--it's unfortunate the editors, who want to keep
the SF they love alive for the future, have little idea how to present it to
the present.
StoryHack Action &
Adventure #1 - A promising first issue for this new pulp magazine; my
favorite story is Jay Barnson's "Retrieving Abe," which features a frontier
Mormon co-wife who depends as much on wits as weaponry in her dragon-hunting.
Novels and Novellas:
A Woman of the Road
(The Honest Thieves Trilogy Book 1) by Amy Wolf - The fun, fast-paced
adventures of Megs, the taverner's daughter who dresses as a man and takes up
highway robbery to avoid an unwanted marriage.
The Masqueraders
by Georgette Heyer - I followed Wolf's novel with a re-read of Heyer's delightful
historical romance about a cross-dressing brother and sister on the lam, which
might also be considered a woman highwayman novel.
Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield - Next, I randomly opened this eBook to kick off my
2019 Nebula Awards reading, only to discover it's the story of another woman
highwayman (and her woman scientist lover/accomplice)--and a very good and
rather steampunky novella it is, too (though it ends on a cliff-hanger, which I
hope is resolved by the sequel, Alice Payne Rides).
The Mazarinette and the Musketeer by Heather Rose Jones - What with all the gender-bending
and highway robbery, I knew it was time to re-read this enjoyable alternate-history
caper novella about cross-dressing women and a trans Musketeer (and you can
enjoy it, too, with a free download).
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark - No highway robbery here, but this excellent,
steampunky alternate history features a female airship captain, the
pocket-picking orphan who wants to join her pirate crew, a feral child, a Haitian
scientist, uncanny nuns, African gods, and the swamp-dwelling rebels plotting to
destroy Free New Orleans.
Point of Honour (Sarah Tolerance Book 1)
by Madeleine E. Robins - Down these mean Regency streets a woman must go who is
not herself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid, but a smart,
square-dealing "agent of inquiry" with a penchant for swashbuckling
and cross-dressing; I shall be reading the sequels post-haste.
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - All these buckled swashes inspired me to re-read this
classic novel, which gave the Ruritarian adventure genre its name (and which is
less sexist than you might expect of a book first published in 1894, although
that's not to say it can't piss you off).
The Affair of the
Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall - This Weird and witty new novel (2019)
transmogrifies Sherlock Holmes into a homicidal cis lesbian sorceress and Dr.
John H. Watson into an honor-bound gay trans man, in a world where Lovecraftian
fish-people coexist with the King in Yellow--I'm typically not keen on the
Sherlock's-a-sociopath cliché, yet this is as delightful a read as I've
encountered in years.
A Fashionable
Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen Series Book 1) by K.J. Charles - This
erotic gay Regency romance novel is good, dirty fun, which makes it only sadder
that the intriguing subplot involving the English democracy movement is ultimately
dropped; I'm hoping it finds resolution elsewhere in the series.
Proper English by KJ Charles - A racially and
sexually diverse Edwardian F/F romance that avoids the usual long, maddening
wait for the lovers to realize they belong together--and it has a
drawing-room mystery that might have won a nod from Dame Agatha Christie (the diverse
M/M semi-sequel, Think of England, is also quite strong).
Trail of Lightning: The Sixth World Book One by Rebecca Roanhorse - If this post-apocalyptic
selection seems rather jarring after the above adventures in swordplay and/or
robbery and/or sex, rest assured the novel has plenty of action, a
girl-meets-boy romance, and a Navajo lead whose monster-hunting activities demonstrate
she's equally adept with firearms and blades.
A Little Light Mischief: A Turner Novella by Cat
Sebastian - No monster hunters or highwaypersons, but you'll find romance and jewel
thieves in this delightful lesbian Regency caper.
Black Dog: Bannon's Gym Book 1 by Cat Grant - No
jewels or swords, but this thoughtful contemporary M/M romance mixes martial
arts with a theme of family, birth and chosen.
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia
Waite - A sharp lesbian historical romance in which one of the leads is a
scientist, giving the novel a pleasant spec-fic feel.
My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh (who also
writes as Zoe Archer) - A fun Regency novel about a pair of geeky scientists (M/F)
who mime a romance, which of course doesn't work out as planned.
The Cater Street Hangman - The first
book of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Victorian mystery series is quite
good, but I expect a lot of queer readers will be less than pleased with its
lone queer character (and won't find out why until late in the proceedings).
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - As the
thirty-fourth in line for the English throne, the youthful Lady Victoria
Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie has no money, romantic prospects, or practical
skills with which to face Depression London; but she'd better develop the last fast,
because Her Royal Highness has dispatched her on an espionage mission.
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells - This classic from 1898 is
not the first alien-invasion novel, or the first science-fiction horror novel,
but it holds up to decades of re-reads very well.
The Green and Growing (Conversation Pieces Book #65) by Erin K. Wagner - Sharing a theme with
the Wells novel, Wagner's SF novella insightfully examines how the conquered
might subvert the conqueror.
Amberlough and Armistice (Books One & Two of the
Amberlough Dossier) by Lara Elena Donnelly - The first two books in a new trilogy
beautifully bend gender and genre expectations as they follow a pair of
star-crossed lovers, the spy Cyril DePaul and the actor Aristide Makricosta, from
a Cabaret-esque fascist takeover to a studio city reminiscent of 1930s Bollywood.
Shadow Man by
Melissa Scott - Scott's classic novel of a future which recognizes five genders
and nine sexual orientations is thought-provoking and absorbing, but ultimately
something of a mixed bag; however, the narrative avoids easy answers, and it went
places in 1995 that few fictions visit even today, making it well worth a read
or several.
Medusa's Touch by
Emily L. Byrne (who also writes as Catherine Lundoff) - While it provides far
more of the characters' thoughts than I want, this erotic, cyberpunk-tinged
adventure offers tense fun as it follows a love-besotted starship captain into interstellar
intrigue.
Undertow: A Whyborne
& Griffin Universe Story by Jordan L. Hawk - The author is known for
M/M romance, but the first Hawk title I've read turns out to be a fun inter-species
F/F erotic romance set in the Massachusetts seaport of Widdershins, which you
might read as Innsmouth, though Hawk's bipedal underwater race is descended
from sharks instead of fish (the writer J.S. Fields has posted a full review of the
novella).
Sisters of the Wild
Sage: A Weird Western Collection by Nicole Givens Kurtz - In this excellent
first collection from one of my favorite Weird Western writers, the speculative
fiction adventures are dark and diverse, upending expectations at every turn.
Wuthering Heights
by Emile Brontë - The psychologically astute story of the iconic lovers who
blight every life they touch.
The Haunting of Hill
House by Shirley Jackson - This subtle, disturbing, and possibly queer classic
(about a psychological experiment inside a possibly haunted New England house) delineates
mental breakdown as well as anything outside of The Bell Jar.
Among the Red Stars
by Gwen C. Katz - This young-adult historical novel about the Nachthexen or Night Witches (the female Russian pilots
feared by the Nazis) eludes clichés and expectations as it focuses on determined
country-girl trainee Valka.
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith - If you're tired of
uplifting fiction about poor little helpless crippled victims, designed by
able-bodied authors to reassure able-bodied readers, I have just the read for
you: this dark, incisive, genre-bending,
award-winning page-turner of a novella.
Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout - Re-reading the first Nero
Wolfe novel reminds me that I find its lethargic, misogynistic crime-solver
unbelievable; perhaps later in the series he evolves into more than a ragbag of
irritating quirks and tics.
Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha
Wells - The sequel to All Systems Red is almost as good as its
predecessor, which is merely one of the best novellas I've ever read.
Cynthia Ward has
published stories in Analog, Asimov's,
Nightmare, Weird Tales, and other
magazines and anthologies. For WolfSinger Publications,
she edited the diversity-themed anthologies Lost Trails: Forgotten Tales of the Weird
West Volumes
1-2. With fellow
Aqueductista Nisi Shawl, Cynthia coauthored Writing the Other: A Practical Approach.
In March 2020. Aqueduct Press will release
The Adventure of the Naked Guide,
the third novella in her Bloody-Thirsty Agent series (sequel to The Adventure of the Incognita Countess
and The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum).
No comments:
Post a Comment