Science Fiction – Marked for Plot

Private Eye – Memes in a Post-Internet Noir

I picked up Private Eye as a text for the Queer Comics elective that I get to teach when student interest is high enough. While there are plenty of breakout hits in that space, I also force students to expose themselves to a broad variety of stories for our independent exploration units. This was one of the few queer noir comics I’d heard about. It was fun and irreverent, great for helping me manage stress at the start of the school year – probably a running theme in my reviews in the next month or so. Unfortunately, and unfairly, I kept comparing this to Watchmen, and it just isn’t on the same level as the greats in the comic space.

The Premise: a private investigator in a world where masks and pseudonyms are part of everyday life sees his most recent client brutally murdered. Now, the target is on his back as both a suspect of her death and as a mysterious criminal seeks to tie up loose ends.

Read if You Like: weird imaginings of humanity’s future, dynamic characterization (in writing and art), stories that push a little bit on the edges of absurdity

Avoid if You Dislike: classic noir structures, books without a ton of thematic heft, ambiguous endings

George Falls Through Time – Being Polarizing is a Good Thing

When I was browsing new releases in January, I passed over George Falls Through Time; admittedly this was mostly because the publisher dropped Ministry of Time as a comp title. I despised … pretty much everything about that book, and it’s gotten worse with time. Thankfully, this got put back on my radar via being pitched to me as an ‘interior existential fuckshit novel’ which is right up my alley. It’s the type of controversial book that is executed well enough to cater to very specific tastes, meaning that most people who picked this up hated it. Honestly, this is likely going this year’s biggest gap (other than DNFs) between my rating of a book and the general consensus.

And honestly, I blame the marketing. It’s pitched as “A confessional queer romance, a swords-and-sorcery soap opera” … which is missing everything this book is trying to do. It is a glorious train wreck in slow motion. This is not a fun book full of whimsy and romance with a historical serf trying to find his freedom (well, there is that, but not like you’re thinking). Instead, this book is the hollowness that comes when when you fixate on the pointlessness of life, the artificiality of all human connection, and the lack of agency over your own destiny. It is cyclical and frustrating and uncomfortably real.

No matter how conflicted (in a good way) I feel about this book, the sign that this review is looking to be one of my longest is a sign that this novel had lots of interesting things to say.

The Premise:
George has lost his job, his boyfriend left him, he has no sense of meaning in life, and now walks dogs. When two run away and things spiral out of control, he ends up falling into 1300s England. Honestly, this was probably the best thing that could have possibly happened. There’s some business with a dragon, but the book is really about George’s internal journey to find meaning in life.

Read if You Like: intense depictions of depression, speculative fiction character studies, the power of a quiet life, simple vocabulary arranged intentionally

Avoid if You Dislike: time travel light on historical detail, books that de-emphasize traditional plot structures, characters (and romances) that are hard to cheer for

Demigod 12 – Romeo and Juliet, but via Intergalactic Eurovision

Earlier this year, I fell in love with the slice of life Intergalactic Idol boot camp that was Divinity 36. With my push to actually continue reading the series that I’ve been enjoying – instead of leaving everything abandoned at book 1 – I picked up this audiobook for some long car rides to and from a cabin weekend. While it didn’t quite have the magic of Divinity 36, I had a great time with it and will totally and definitely finish the series this year … probably … assuming I don’t get distracted.

The Premise:
This book picks up with Phex and company going on tour as the opener for Tillum, the universe’s most popular Pantheon. Phex needs to balance the needs of both Pantheons with his growing feelings for superstar Missit, in a job where romantic and physical love are forbidden.

Read if You Like: the dangers of parasocial relationships, angst and yearning, the lack of agency in idol culture

Avoid if You Dislike: ‘how could he possibly love me’, protagonists without real flaws, grumpy/sunshine pairings

The Language of Liars – Award-Worthy in all the Right Ways

This book has all of the elements that typically appeal to me: it’s a novella, engages with questions of linguistics and ethics, and it asks the reader to be uncomfortable. The Language of Liars blew me out of the water. The opening sections left me with the feeling that this would be a good book, worth reading and recommending, but it got better and better. Every chapter sucked me in a little bit more until I sat in bed, story finished, thinking about the ending and its implications. I was not super enthralled by the 2025 novella nominations from most major awards. The Language of Liars has the right blend of thematic ambition, accessible writing, and the backing of a traditional publisher that make it an excellent candidate, and I will be happily advocating for it to make some waves on the awards circuit this year. To anyone who likes their stories to shine a mirror on our world without being too obvious about it, this is for you. There’s enough here for me to happily teach this novella in my Genre Fiction elective, and I’m desperately hoping one of the book clubs I participate in picks it up, because there’s so much to talk about from the last few chapters.

Really, truly an excellent piece of writing. Plus, the book is short and straightforward enough that the content-to-time-investment ratio is one of the best I’ve read this year.

The Premise:
Ro is a talented linguist, hoping to be the first in generations of his species to jump into another’s body. He succeeds, possessing a Star Eater who, like all of their race, mine the cosmic space dust necessary for faster than light travel. He has been trained for this moment, hoping to gather the information and skills needed to save the slow death of the universe’s society, which depends on the service (exploitation?) of the enigmatic aliens.

Read if You Like: autism-coded characters, uncomfortable questions about how you (the reader) live life, musings on linguistics

Avoid if You Dislike: straightforward prose, lack of clear solutions to problems, monolithic intergalactic governments

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light

Short Fiction anthologies generally don’t get much mainstream traction. Most genre fiction readers, myself included, tend to not pick them up. I never read them until I started participating in r/Fantasy’s bingo challenge and discovered that they can be really incredible. If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light had been getting mentions in both genre fiction and short form circles. It’s a translated work from Korean, and I’m trying to read more work not published in English, admittedly in a very unfocused way. This collection won’t rank in my favorites, but I think people who are more ardent science fiction fans will enjoy it, while people who primarily see themselves as fantasy people – like me – may resonate less with it.

Broad Overview:
This anthology of science fiction is thematically focused on belonging and personal connections in a world that is set up to push people apart. Oddly, it has an emotionally distant style. The closest analogues in English are some of the older science fiction writing that cared more about exploring an interesting premise than the modern conception of stories and characters. This didn’t necessarily work the best for me, despite plenty of interesting ideas that Cho-yeop dove into. Unlike the older US sci fi, there isn’t a consistent desire for the technology or aliens to be realistic and intricately detailed. Instead, Cho-yeop seems more interested in presenting ideas and their ripple effects rather than exploring the underlying logic supporting the technology and biology that each story focuses on.

Novella Readathon #30: We Burned so Bright

I have been super hit or miss with Klune. He’s definitely the biggest gay author in fantasy right now, but I don’t find myself terribly interested in pursuing his backlog. However, since We Burned so Bright is a novella, featured elderly gay protagonists, and got a reputation for being a tonal shift from his normal writing, I figured it would be worth trying out. I still don’t think Klune is going to be a must read author for me, but this settled some hesitations I had about his older work.

The Premise:
The world is ending. A black hole is slowly consuming our solar system, and everyone’s lives are measured in weeks. Don and Rodney are an elderly couple. As the world ends, they buy an RV and set to travel from Maine to Washington. Along the way, they meet all sorts of folks who are facing the end of the world in their own way. At the end of their journey is a piece of their own past that they never completely came to terms with.

Read If You: want to watch the world crumble, enjoy episodic stories, crave elderly protagonists who don’t descend into stereotypes

Avoid If You: are looking for cozy fantasy, salacious gay romance, or saving the world

Novella Readathon #25: Murder by Memory

The Cozy Fantasy/Sci boom seems to have two modes: romance featuring the opening of a small business, and elderly folks solving murders. Unsurprisingly, this is the latter. I liked this book quite a bit, though Mystery aficionados will leave disappointed. The portrait of the generation ship that Dorothy rides on is unrealistic, but an engaging and evocative locale for a series of mysteries to be set in. I’ll read the sequel for sure, as this series feels like a great palette cleanser between longer novels. In terms of Hugo viability? I’d slot this well below Cinder House, probably about equal with Summer War.

The Premise
Dorothy was taking a break from life when the Fairweather’s AI stuck her consciousness in the body of a bank clerk. It turns out the previous host for her new body was tangled up in some shady business, including wiping a shelf of memory archives that included Dorothy’s herself. As she gets used to a new body that she very much hopes to abandon as soon as possible, Dorothy gets pulled back into her Detective work, hoping to solve a mystery that involved several deaths, at least one of which was permanent (not something that’s supposed to happen on this ship).

Read If You: are craving something light and readable, want to follow a stereotypical Auntie solving crimes, enjoy utopian portraits of humanity’s future

Avoid If You: want realistic depictions of space travel or economic models, want the experience of a tightly written mystery

The Last Contract of Isako -Corporate Samurai in Space

Fonda Lee won my heart with The Green Bone Saga, but I’ve been less thrilled with the work that she’s released since then. That’s how I felt when I got to the halfway point of The Last Contract of Isako. The book won me over in the back half though, which reinforced that Lee is going to be an author I follow closely. This book has a lot of her hallmarks from Greenbone Saga – complicated character relationships, a clear sense of culture in the world, and a small number of highly impactful fight scenes – and I eagerly await what she puts out in the future!

The Premise
Isako is a Contractor, legally connected for life with a company Director. She is one part spy, one part guard, and one part voice of reason. Unfortunately, her boss just lost a corporate war, and she consigns herself to Resigning. Before she can take the long walk into the cold, saving oxygen and water for those with life ahead of them, she is given one final job. Her joints ache, she’s disillusioned with her work, and she just wants it all to be over. For the sake of her daughter – whom will receive her retirement bonus only if she fulfills her duties till the end – Isako will do everything she can to prevent Sandbar Uchi from getting confirmed to the Board of Directors. Things get personal when she realizes something terrible has happened to his contractor & her former apprentice.

Read If Looking For: realistic-feeling dystopias, the cutthroat realities of terraforming, late-late-late stage capitalism, protagonists past their prime, atypical endings

Avoid If Looking For: characters tearing down The System, modern senses of morality, chosen ones or zero-to-hero

Novella Readathon #21: The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain

Sofia Samatar has been on my reading list for a long time. I always figured I’d start with The Winged Histories, but this novella kept getting rave reviews, and I love a school/academia setting. I knew this story dealt with class displacement from the chatter, but I wasn’t prepared for how sharply Samatar wields the pen … or perhaps keyboard. This is yet another author that I have now committed to reading more of; I wanted this project to lessen my TBR, but it has in fact done the exact opposite.

The Premise
The Fleet travels from mining site to mining site, remaining for generations before making a long journey to a new source of resources. The boy is one of the Chained, laboring in the darkness beneath, and the professor is one of the ankleted, a sort of middle working class. Some of her friends don’t bear any fetters at all. The professor brings the boy out of the darkness, ‘liberating’ him to her class and installing him as a student at her university. It does not go as smoothly as she’d like. As the two grapple with the chains they bear, they both realize they have much more to learn.

Read If Looking For: thematically dense stories, nuanced yet archetypical characters, the pointlessness of meetings and committees

Avoid If Looking For: plot heavy books, tidy endings, school settings featuring classroom scenes, happy vibes

Novella Readathon #18: The Iron Below Remembers

Every year there’s a book. A book that blows my mind and makes me want to scream from the rooftops how much I love it. Typically, this book is a little more niche, with choices that keep the story from appealing to the broad audience needed for breakout hits. I’ve championed Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares and How to Survive this Fairytale by SM Hallow, and now its time for me to tackle The Iron Below Remembers. This book examines how history gets layered and built, revels in queer sexuality, and uses a superhero framework to focus on the intensely personal. Characterization is consistent and exciting, and our characters aren’t stand-ins for the reader’s hopes and dreams. It’s kind of a perfect mix for me, though there are a few elements that I think will put off the general reader. Certainly it’s a strong contender for book of the year (the only current competition is The God Eaters by Jessee Hajicek). I’m mostly just disappointed I didn’t pick it up sooner.

Elevator Pitch:
Professor Yadav’s specialty is ancient history, specifically the Karthik Empire, a South Asian colonizing force whose lasting impact is comparable to our world’s British Empire. His boyfriend is Ezra/Savior, a beloved superhero with golden retriever energy. When one of Savior’s battles uncovers a pristine artifact of sorcery – whose use and knowledge has been lost to time – Yadav’s connections see him as one of the primary researchers studying it. As his academic star rises, relationship dynamics shift. Woven through their journey are Yadav’s academic musings on the Karthik Empire.

Read If You Like: superhero settings from the perspective of a normie, fictional academia, relationships as something requiring work and investment

Avoid If You Dislike: abundant talk about sex (but very little actual sex happening), anecdotes that don’t connect with the main plot, footnotes, superhero settings without many superhero plot beats