C0smic Occurence

Perdido Street Station

This is a book that’s been sitting on my ‘priority read’ bookshelf for about three years now. New Weird is a genre I’d been interested in, and Miéville’s reputation as an author who is concerned with his books as political objects pushing against the autoritarian status quo of fantasy really appeals to me. However, I’m finding that extremely large books put me off more than they used to, and I kept pushing it off until I was in the right mood. I left the book with mixed feelings. In some parts I felt in awe of what Miéville was accomplishing, and elsewhere I was disappointed in the choices he made to the point where I considered stepping away for a week or two. I have the feeling that I’ll be thinking about this book for a while, as it seems the type of story to sit with you.

The Premise
New Crobuzon is a dirty, grimy city. It’s filled with trash, corruption, and enough police brutality to make Vladmir Putin proud. It’s also home to humans, cactus-people, women with scarabs for heads, avian humanoids, literal demons, hands that can posess people, a whole caste with intensive plastic surgery forcibly grafting on mechanic or animal parts onto their bodies, among other things. This story mostly follows a dating couple: Isaac (a scientist) and Lin (an artist). Isaac gets recruited by a bird man without wings to get him to fly again, and Lin is recruited by a crime boss to create a masterpiece sculpture. Events spiral out of control, bizarrely leading to eldritch abominations let loose across the sprawling metropolis.

Read if You Like: unhinged worldbuilding, examinations of power and culture, eldritch horrors, characters without happy endings, books to chew on

Avoid if Looking For: fast paced stories, consistent female characterization, happy and mindless books

Mister B. Gone

I’ve known the name of Clive Barker for a while now. Hellraiser is influential enough that even someone who absolutely despises horror movies knows its basic imagery. He’s an author lauded as a pioneering queer writer and an author I had no intention of touching with a 10 foot pole. Mister B. Gone was recommended to me by a friend who swore it was their favorite book of all time though, and so I took the plunge into this dark comedy. It wasn’t a perfect book, but the writing was engrossing enough that I’m curious to try some of his books that are more widely lauded.

The Premise:
Jakabob Botch is a demon. A rather incompetent and pathetic demon really, who can’t even work magic properly. And he’s trapped inside a book, the book you’re reading incidentally. Throughout his recounting of his life’s story on Earth, he besseeches you to burn the book in your hands, to end his pitiful existence trapped in ink and paper. But fine, why not, he’ll tell you a little bit more, but only if you promise that you really will destroy the book by the end of it all.

Read if You Like: Fourth-wall breaking, morally bankrupt (but likeable) protagonists, humorous asides, demons and angels

Avoid if You Dislike: books without a strong A-Plot, engrossing climaxes, straightforwardly gay characters

Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games 0.5)

The Hunger Games was part of my high school experience. I’m part of the generation that grew up with Harry Potter, reaching high school right as YA as a genre was beginning to coalesce into something more than a target audience, instead a grouping of stylistic decisions that led to a rather depressing homogeny. Hunger Games has stood the test of time, and for good reason I think. It’s one of the best of the era, and is a phenomenal book to use in a 7th grade Dystopian book club unit, especially when paired with data on mental health and suicidiality of those who go on reality television programs for our enjoyment. I didn’t pick up the other prequel, as Snow never interested me much as a character. When kids started raving about this though, I figured Haymitch intriguing enough for me to return.

The Premise: Not a lot to say here assuming you’ve read the original trilogy. This is Haymitch’s Hunger Games. We already knew from the earlier books that there’s double the number of tributes and an arena themed around utter beauty where everything is poison. The only little tidbits to throw into this are that we’ll see some early apperances of Capitlol characters like Effie and Plutarch, as well as some of the Champion Tributes of Catching Fire (Mags, Beetee, and Wiress all make appearances), and that Haymitch wants to find a way to break the arena, sort of like the returning tributes ended up doing in Catching Fire.

Read if You Like: Hunger Games content, bits of District 12 Lore, Books you know the end of

Avoid if Looking For: the adreneline of the original series, a ‘normal’ hunger games, exploring new thematic depth in the series

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Sometimes, incredible books fall in your lap for no seeming reason (and by no seeming reason, I really mean Audible’s algorithim has learned that I like books about gay men). It’s certainly not my normal fare: I don’t read a ton of magical realism, and even less that pushes more on the literary end of things than the genre fiction side of that subgenre. Yet I’m so incredibly thankful I indulged the whim to dive into this book. It isn’t perfect, and likely won’t crack my favorite reads of the year, but it’s going to stick with me for a long time.

The Premise:
Maali is dead, stuck in a queue to find his way to the next life. He doesn’t know how he died, but he knows that he has unfinished business in the land of the living. He’s a war photographer in 1990 Sri Lanka, a gambler who loses more money than he makes, and a slut who has trouble remaining monogamous to the boyfriend he really does dearly love. He learns he has seven days before he is stuck forever in the in-between, and promptly sets off to try and get his partner and best friend to find his photographs, which have the power to topple a government.

Read if You Like: Magical Realism, ghosts, critiques of colonialism, dry humor

Avoid if You Dislike: tight plotting, morally upright characters, books lacking answers hard questions they bring attention to

Luck in the Shadows

The Nightrunner series is probably the single most recommended gay epic fantasy book, and was absolutely the type of story I wish I’d been able to find as a teenager. I knew going in that I was probably going to have some issues wht the eventual romantic pairing between the two leads, and have been frequently assured that the mentor/student dynamic isn’t a problem since they don’t get romantically entangled until later. Unfortunately, even though nothing concrete has happened yet, there’s already issues. I’m only one book into the series, and can already tell you that this is going to be a fantastic epic fantasy with, like so many older fantasy works, problematic elements that should be acknowledged instead of brushed aside.

The Premise
Alec is a 16 year old orphan, sitting in a dungeon of a particularly sadistic lord when a new prisoner is brought in. Seregil is a spy and a noble, and takes Alec with him when breaking out. He then takes Alec under his wing as they travel back towards his homeland, bringing back dark tidings of the coming war and dark magic. But the land of Rhiminee has its own challenges, and the duo gets dragged into internal politics of the nation as soon as they arrive in Seregil’s homeland.

Read if you Like: 90s epic fantasy tropes, spy protagonists, down to earth wizards, a brewing war

Avoid if you Dislike: age gap or mentor/student romances, over-the-top evil villains, quick pacing

Dark Moon Shallow Sea

I’m slowly beginning to think that David Slayton may not be the author for me. My reactions to this book feel very similar to his fairly popular series (by gay fantasy standards at least) White Trash Warlock. I don’t want to say that I don’t have any concrete issues with the book, but the biggest one is that the writing style just didn’t resonate with me. It just ended up being the type of story I likely won’t remember in a month.

The Premise:
In the recent past, knights of the sun god killed the moon goddess and her priests, accusing her of consorting with demons. Now the tides have stopped, bloodthirsty shades haunt the night, and poverty is rampant. Rafe was raised in a temple to the moon goddess, and barely escaped with his life. Now a thief, he hears rumors of a strange container being moved by the Knights embossed with the symbol of his goddess. Inside he finds a human named Kinos, and the who escape in hot pursuit by the Knights, including Seth. Seth is an impure Knight, who can call the fire of his god, but isn’t protected from it like the other Knights. And Seth will do anything to claim his god’s favor, including hunting down a thief and a mysterious boy sought out by the church.

Read if Looking For: thief protagonists, dead gods, insta-love triangles, eldritch fire dogs that are absolutely a good boy

Avoid if You Dislike: characters who are part of police forces, twists that feel coherent, breakneck pacing

Abbott (and Sequels)

Despite teaching a few different classes on graphic novels/comics to middle and high schoolers, I don’t actually read that many for fun these days – and almost never ones geared towards adults. In an effort to start changing that, I decided to pitch a graphic novel theme when I was asked to guest host r/QueerSFF’s July Book Club. Out of the nominees I selected, Abbott was far and away the winner, and I think it will lead to some great discussion! Books 1/2 left me with some frustrations (book 2 especially), but the final volume really blew me away and was an excellent ending. While I’m discussing my thoughts about the series as a whole, I won’t reference any specific spoilers for any of the books.

Additionally, I’ll include some images of the art at the bottom of this post for people who want to see some examples of non-cover art, which will become standard practice should I continue to review more sequential art.

Read if Looking For: nuanced depictions of sexism and racism, a historical Detroit setting, gruesome and evocative art, noir vibes

Avoid if Looking For: Dynamic fight scenes, properly-paced plots, innovative villains

The Other Valley

Literary Fantasy/Science Fiction isn’t something I read a ton of, but after this year I’m starting to think I should be reading more of it. The Other Valley wasn’t on my radar at all until it starting coming up repeatedly by reviewers I trust as one of the top books of 2024. As someone who read a lot of books published last year, this book is going to be my go-to example for how there are more phenomenal books coming out every year than you will ever be able to read. This is a frustrating and humbling thought, and one I’m slowly beginning to accept. It’s also the type of book that gave me a small existential crisis on whether I was doing anything meaningful with my life, which I’m still in the process of working through.

The Premise:
Odile lives in a small, unnamed town surrounded by villages, mountains, and a lake. The only thing distinguishing it from any part of rural France is that it is neighbored by it’s own past and future. Travel and visitation is highly regulated by the Conseils, who approve requests to visit only from family members who have lost a loved one, or who know their impending death will mean they miss important milestone’s in their family’s life, and even then visits are anonymous and highly monitored to avoid changing the timeline. Odile applies to apprentice as a Conseil, mostly at the request of her overbearing mother, even though she isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life. Normally quiet and tepid, she begins to open up to some other teens, right when she identifies a visitor from another valley, which shifts her trajectory in life forever.

Read if you Like: stoic protagonists pushed to their limits, snapshots of emotional intensity, books that feel like indie-films

Avoid if You Dislike: Time travel that makes very little sense when you pick it apart, fast-paced novels

The Brightness Between Us (The Darkness Outside Us #2)

The Darkness Outside Us is one hell of a story. If you’re in the mood for a truly captivating existential thriller with heavy romance elements, then it’s a great pickup. You should absolutely not read any review that spoils twists (mine doesn’t), and know that the remainder of this review will spoil details from the first book.

When I heard Darkness was getting a sequel, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, Schrefer earned my trust, and I love reading more by authors who have won me over. On the other hand, Darkness was a great standalone – ending included – and I was worried that anything else would be a disappointment. In the end, I thought this book was a rather large step down from the first, but it wasn’t bad by any means. Just not perfect, you know?

The Premise:
This book bounces back and forth in time. Most of the story takes place 17 years after Darkness, following the teenage children of Ambrose and Kodiak, the only two who survived the early years. And just like in the original story, some strange and unexpected things are happening. It also tells the story of the original Ambrose and Kodiak in the events after they learned about the cloning scheme, right as the world is on the brink of nuclear war.

Read if Looking For: Ambrose and Kodiak falling in love all over again, kids going on adventures without permission, asshole Yaks

Avoid if Looking For: gay parent POVs, jaw dropping twists, the dangers of settling a new planet

The Effaced

I don’t watch much TV, but when Arcane dropped in 2021, I was hooked. I’m not even a League of Legends player and think it’s some of the best fantasy TV to come out this decade. The Effaced felt a lot like watching the first season of Arcane: steampunk meets magitech, a city with a class-war brewing, great fight scenes from a talented protagonist, and a rapidly escalating situation. This book isn’t going to win any awards innovation or complexity, but it was an incredibly fun read, and Tobias Begley remains one of my favorite authors.

The Premise: Axel Font is an airship technician haunted by his past as a child gladiator and assassin, now trying to live a quiet life. When a Senator is murdered and he gets framed for the crime however, he finds himself wrapped up in a city-wide conspiracy far above his pay grade. This happens right as his old ‘mother’ has arrived back in town with a new child soldier who has been conditioned to unconditional violence. Axel grapples with needing to pick back up the skills of his old life and struggling to maintain the humanity he’s clawed back as an adult.

Read if Looking for: easy reading, action-packed fantasy, hard magic systems, a surprisingly wide variety of assassins

Avoid if you Dislike: the occasional typo, easter eggs to author’s other series, characters that don’t grow in power