Science Fiction – Equal Opportunity Reader

[Last While In Books] Short Fiction, Actually

Black and white photograph of a tiny light skinned boy with short dark hair standing between the open pages of a thick book.

Read time: 3 minutes Fellow readers! I had a short story published this week over at Strange Horizons. It’s called Palimpsest, and it’s a look at the silences that cause strain in close relationships and the hidden injustice of women not being deeply known by their own families. There’s also some climate change, (poorly understood)Continue reading “[Last While In Books] Short Fiction, Actually”

[REVIEW]Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke

The black and white Kindle cover of Several People are Typing leans against a laptop screen displaying an empty Slack chat. The cover depicts a series of Slack chat bubbles with odd emojis of wolves, weather, and death symbols interspersed throughout.

(Buy this book here.) Read time: 2 minutes Gerald is trapped in his work Slack chat. Literally. While his body sits dormant in his New York apartment, his consciousness has been fully uploaded to the worst thing about every remote job in America. If he doesn’t find a way out, he’ll be in danger ofContinue reading “[REVIEW]Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke”

[REVIEW]The Free People’s Village, by Sim Kern

The bright orange cover of the hardback edition of The Free People's Village, depicting a punk rocker hitting a robot dog with a baseball bat, sits on a blonde wooden table on top of a booksleeve printed with 1940s Black debutantes.

[Buy this book here.] whew This is a BOOK, y’all. The year is 2020, and COVID-19 doesn’t exist. In 2000, Al Gore became president, declaring a War on Climate Change and ushering in 20 years of Democrat control. Infrastructure is totally green, and carbon taxes keep it that way. Sounds great, right? NOPE. Instead ofContinue reading “[REVIEW]The Free People’s Village, by Sim Kern”

[REVIEW] Condomnauts, by Yoss, translated by David Frye

A paperback of Condomnauts is held up against a cloudy night sky. The cover shows a red mouth open to reveal a starry galaxy, all on a sky blue background.

(Buy this book in the Equal Opportunity Bookshop) Whew this was a weird book. But, here goes. Josué is a queer, light-skinned AfroCuban with locs, a survivor of the cutthroat slums of future Havana, and part of a highly specialized intergalactic ambassadorial sex worker class. Known as “condomnauts”, Josué and his colleagues are responsible forContinue reading “[REVIEW] Condomnauts, by Yoss, translated by David Frye”

[REVIEW] Somebody’s Dilemma, by Joshua Valentine

The blue trade paperback of Somebody's Dilemma lays on a blonde wooden table top, next to a shirt with stylized drag eyes printed on it. Drag and scene stickers are laid on the shirt.

(Buy this book directly from the author here.) It’s 2347, and Earth is a polluted, barren wasteland. Exploratory research robots roam, collecting information and sending repetitive transmissions while they prepare to resurrect the human race more than 200 years after its extinction, using carefully banked embryos. Jacey-One is the first of the new humans, raisedContinue reading “[REVIEW] Somebody’s Dilemma, by Joshua Valentine”

[REVIEW] Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, by Ibi Zoboi

The author's hand hold's the colorful, modern art collage of Star Child featuring front and side profiles of Octavia Butler's face on a background reminiscent of stars, up in front of a blurry green and yellow background, probably garden plants.

(Buy this book here.) When I was in elementary school I went through a phase of trying to read all of the middle-grade biographies available in my school’s library. There was a mass-market series of them in a shelf right next to the librarian’s office. They were old and cheap, mass-produced, bound in nubbly plasticizedContinue reading “[REVIEW] Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, by Ibi Zoboi”

[REVIEW] Walking Practice by Dolki Min, translated by Victoria Caudle

The cover of Walking Practice by Dolki Min, displaying a weird, grotesque alien,is held in the lap of the writer's sundress. In the background you can see a very gross beach.

(Buy this book here.) Spoilers abound, because there was no other way. Sometimes, it takes a people eating alien to show us just how much dating, gender expectations and hook-up culture can suck. This debut novel by enigmatic queer Korean literary figure Dolki Min follows an alien stranded in Seoul, light years away from home,Continue reading “[REVIEW] Walking Practice by Dolki Min, translated by Victoria Caudle”

[REVIEW] The Mountain In The Sea, by Ray Nayler

The Kindle cover of The Mountain In the Sea, depicting a giant octopus floating in the ocean, is propped up on a cafe countertop, an empty mug behind it.

(Buy this book here.) Ha Nguyen is many things; a brilliant researcher who studies octopi, the best-selling author of a book on cephalopod thought, an orphan, and the latest addition to a small team assembled on a near-future Vietnamese island to study strange activity in the local tentacled sea life. The local octopodes, protected asContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Mountain In The Sea, by Ray Nayler”

[REVIEW] I Am AI, by Ai Jiang

The Kindle cover of I Am Ai, depicting the face of an Asian woman with a blank stare and electricity coursing up her neck. The Kindle is held up in front of a old, weathered brick wall.

(Buy this book.) It’s taken me a while to write a proper review of this novelette because I really felt it in a deep and personal place that I’m not really sure how to talk about it. Sorry in advance if this gets treacly, or treaclier than usual, anyway. The city of Emit exists somewhereContinue reading “[REVIEW] I Am AI, by Ai Jiang”

[REVIEW] Camp Zero, by Michelle Min Sterling

The Kindle cover of Camp Zero, depicting a close-up image of an Asian woman's face surrounded by parka hood with the title overlaid, sits next to a cocktail on a wooden table.

(Buy this book here.) Mixed feelings, thy name is Camp Zero. The writing is beautiful and tight. Sterling has clearly studied the craft in depth and the book has a technical precision to it that’s really admirable. There were many times in this book when I read a sentence and thought “wow, that’s a beautiful/sharp/movingContinue reading “[REVIEW] Camp Zero, by Michelle Min Sterling”