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Something has been discovered on the Moon but the Lunar Mining Colony that might have great scientific and economic importance. But there is a problem with security capabilities. Nobody considered that an occasion would arise creating a need to defend the colony from Earth! But that day has come. The Lunar colonists perceive this discovery as their own. But the governments of the Earth don’t aagree with the Lunarian’s philosophy. As far as the Earth is concerned, they paid for everything on the Moon, so it belongs to them. There is only one solution: Battle Luna!
Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with something a little unusual this week. I’ve just got one book I want to shriek about, but you’ll understand why when you get there. Have a great weekend and stay safe, everyone!
I wish to share a TikTok that brought me joy this week.
Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.
News and Views
Nisi Shawl would like to guide you on a tour through the history of Black science fiction.
In case you missed it: N.K. Jemisin and Kate Elliott in conversation.
P. Djèlí Clark and and Troy L. Wiggins talk about the building of FIYAH.
Octavia Butler’s motivational notes to herself
C.L. Polk and Alyssa Cole have a conversation about romance in science fiction and I LOVE IT. (And if you haven’t grabbed Alyssa’s book The AI Who Loved Me, check it out.)
Sci-fi shows ruined by terrible endings
ConZealand has unveiled a Colonised, Marginalised, and Historically Underrepresented People Inclusion Initiative. They’re also extending the Hugo voting deadline due to issues getting online voting up and running.
UFO sightings have gone way down in the last few years.
41 years ago today, Voyager 2 started going in for its Jupiter fly-by.
On Book Riot
12 must-read high fantasy novels coming out in the second half of 2020.
Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.
Free Association Friday: Stealing Thunder
I want to do something a little different this Friday, because You-Know-Who is having another Twitter tantrum and I just finished reading a book that’s sticking with me. I want to talk about Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden.
In her intro to the book, Alina writes that it’s the first fantasy novel published by a major publisher (Ace) that’s written by a trans woman and has a trans woman protagonist. As far as I know, that’s true. It’s about Razia Khan, a hijra who lives in a fantasy Mughal Empire, dancing and also stealing for her supper. Razia was formerly the son of a powerful Sultan; she escaped him to live as her true self, and despite all she has lost—and then suffered as a hijra—she still considers it a good bargain. Then she meets Prince Arjun, the son of a Maharaja who is her father’s rival, and falls in love with him.
I don’t want get into spoilers, but I do want to tell you, it’s a ton of fun–though I’d add content warnings for discussion (but not depiction) of sexual assault and Razia getting dead named a lot. What I want to talk about is my own reaction to reading it and why I love it.
Stealing Thunder is about a trans woman who gives up everything—wealth, power, and her beloved zahhak (a dragon powerful princes fly around on) Sultana—in order to be her true self. And her true self necessitates a life of scrambling and suffering, clawing always to be above poverty, but is still better than being someone she isn’t. That part of the story isn’t so different from common trans narratives in fiction that cis people consume, though it’s very firmly on centered Razia’s experience of the reality of her gender. But the rest of the book is very much about Razia taking back everything she has lost and about her finding love and family that accept her for herself. It’s about Razia winning, and winning, and winning, and winning against a cis-centered society that would love nothing more than to see her lose.
In that way, it’s a work of pure wish fulfillment. It’s a book that, honestly, I would have rolled my eyes at a bit if the heroine had been a cis woman, because at times it feels almost too easy. But the very fact of a trans woman enacting that wish fulfillment fantasy was, let me tell you, absolutely revolutionary for a trans person like me to read. It’s defiant. It’s beautiful.
There’s a lot of discussion about stories of queer suffering in general. How cis and straight people write us, or the narratives that we write for ourselves that have previously been deemed acceptable for consumption by intended cis audiences. There definitely needs to be space for us to process our traumas and explore darker themes, and do so when we are our own intended audience. But we so infrequently get a chance to explore our wishful fantasies and our joy, particularly not when major publishers are involved. That’s why Stealing Thunder was a shot of sunlight directly to my heart.
Here’s hoping that Stealing Thunder will open the door for more kinds of wish fulfillment stories and joy. It’s our turn, damnit.
Aside: If you want more Mughal-inspired fantasy that’s really good and has an A+ romance (this one written by a cis queer woman), I definitely recommend Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, and its sequel Realm of Ash.
See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.