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par3's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars. This review is for the novelette, I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter by Isabel Fall:
It’s really quite good and makes you think. Just not a very appealing genre to me. I can see the award nomination for sure. I cannot see what everyone complained about… Conor Oberst said it best.. “I do not read the reviews. No, I am not singing for you.”
Read: 11/6/21-11/7/21
It’s really quite good and makes you think. Just not a very appealing genre to me. I can see the award nomination for sure. I cannot see what everyone complained about… Conor Oberst said it best.. “I do not read the reviews. No, I am not singing for you.”
Read: 11/6/21-11/7/21
pine_wulf's review against another edition
3.0
I hadn't heard of this until the Hugo nominations, so of course I missed all the controversy. I can see why. Not only the title, but there seems to be a subtext of gender is programmable. You can be brainwashed into being something else.
On the other side, there are also some interesting ruminations on gender. What it is and what it means. And I don't think anyone who argues that sex and gender are the same would argue this:
"if your body-fact is enough to establish your gender, you would willingly wear bright dresses and cry at movies, wouldn’t you? You would hold hands and compliment each other on your beauty, wouldn’t you? Because your cock would be enough to make you a man."
So without knowing anything about the author or her intent, I think you could make an argument either way. I've heard it's obviously one way, so I could also be completely ignorant and missing something critical. Of course, now we have info about the author, so now we know which side of the aisle this story is supposed to fall on. Either way, it's very thoughtful.
As for the actual story, I didn't really care for it too much. The helicopter stuff went over my head and it reads a bit like military fiction, which I'm not into. The interesting bits are told to us between glimpses of action, and some of that was still confusing because it was mixed up with helicopter stuff.
On the other side, there are also some interesting ruminations on gender. What it is and what it means. And I don't think anyone who argues that sex and gender are the same would argue this:
"if your body-fact is enough to establish your gender, you would willingly wear bright dresses and cry at movies, wouldn’t you? You would hold hands and compliment each other on your beauty, wouldn’t you? Because your cock would be enough to make you a man."
So without knowing anything about the author or her intent, I think you could make an argument either way. I've heard it's obviously one way, so I could also be completely ignorant and missing something critical. Of course, now we have info about the author, so now we know which side of the aisle this story is supposed to fall on. Either way, it's very thoughtful.
As for the actual story, I didn't really care for it too much. The helicopter stuff went over my head and it reads a bit like military fiction, which I'm not into. The interesting bits are told to us between glimpses of action, and some of that was still confusing because it was mixed up with helicopter stuff.
titusfortner's review against another edition
2.0
This review is only for Monster.
This is difficult because I love Naomi Kritzer's work, but this one really fell flat for me. I just couldn't connect with the characters or the story in any way.
This is difficult because I love Naomi Kritzer's work, but this one really fell flat for me. I just couldn't connect with the characters or the story in any way.
katje's review against another edition
5.0
This is a really good short story and it's such a shame that the author was harassed to the point of having it withdrawn from Clarkesworld. The story examines themes of gender, war, identity, and how in a dystopia anything that can be exploited, will be (in this case, gender by the military for tactical uses). Well-written and thought-provoking, and no, not transphobic. I hope Isabel Fall keeps writing, and does not let the vitriol flung her way by the purity police discourage her.
yak_attak's review
5.0
Incredibly important - One of the smartest, most incisive short stories I've read in ages. Ignore the "controversy" and just read the damn thing - Isabell Fall deserves a hell of an apology
duartecompanhia_'s review against another edition
Essential transgressive sci-fi, something you can't say very often nowadays. Unfortunately, its many merits got buried beneath a mountain of outrage and misinformed hysteria, leading to the author's hospitalization for all of the psychological abuse she suffered through (you can read all about it here. Look beyond the title and read it.
klettie's review against another edition
4.0
I read this story without prior knowledge of the controversy as part of the Hugo packet. I found it fascinating, as others have, and I enjoyed a lot of the points it makes about how "natural" gender feels to us. The subversion -- that it does not feel natural that "helicopter" be a gender -- is well executed.
One quote in particular stood out to me:
“Maybe what Axis feels is a necessary new queerness. One which pries the tool of gender back from the hands of the state and the economy and the war. I like that idea. I cannot think of myself as a failure, as something wrong, a perversion of a liberty that past generations fought to gain.
But Axis can. And maybe you can too. That skepticism is not what I need . . . but it is necessary anyway.
I have tried to show you what I am. I have tried to do it without judgment. That I leave to you."
I like to mirror this back onto our concepts of gender today, to say think of them as a failure, something wrong, manufactured by our culture similar to the way Barb's gender is. That doesn't have to be the way they are, it just has to be a way we can think about them. The skepticism is necessary.
One quote in particular stood out to me:
“Maybe what Axis feels is a necessary new queerness. One which pries the tool of gender back from the hands of the state and the economy and the war. I like that idea. I cannot think of myself as a failure, as something wrong, a perversion of a liberty that past generations fought to gain.
But Axis can. And maybe you can too. That skepticism is not what I need . . . but it is necessary anyway.
I have tried to show you what I am. I have tried to do it without judgment. That I leave to you."
I like to mirror this back onto our concepts of gender today, to say think of them as a failure, something wrong, manufactured by our culture similar to the way Barb's gender is. That doesn't have to be the way they are, it just has to be a way we can think about them. The skepticism is necessary.
wanderlustlover's review against another edition
5.0
Spring 2021 (April);
Another incredibly well-written, creepy, and sudden twist ending. I was so involved with this one. It was cat-and-mouse, guilt-leads-to-diaster, leads to even harder choices, thriller the whole way. I've loved Kritzter since I was a young wee thing, but this just exploded my love for her a million times wider. Both of her stories in the Hugo's this year were entirely different, but both were amazingly good.
Merged review:
Summer 2021 (June);
2021 Hugo Nominee
This is one of those stories with such an epic and histories background to how it hit the masses and caused a cannonball reaction through everything. While I feel it got a little overhyped due to that, I actually really liked all these different risky moves she took with it. I love all the commentary on gender, and what it is-isn't-might be throughout this story being the whole point of it.
Another incredibly well-written, creepy, and sudden twist ending. I was so involved with this one. It was cat-and-mouse, guilt-leads-to-diaster, leads to even harder choices, thriller the whole way. I've loved Kritzter since I was a young wee thing, but this just exploded my love for her a million times wider. Both of her stories in the Hugo's this year were entirely different, but both were amazingly good.
Merged review:
Summer 2021 (June);
2021 Hugo Nominee
This is one of those stories with such an epic and histories background to how it hit the masses and caused a cannonball reaction through everything. While I feel it got a little overhyped due to that, I actually really liked all these different risky moves she took with it. I love all the commentary on gender, and what it is-isn't-might be throughout this story being the whole point of it.
ameliapancake's review against another edition
4.0
It had a slow start, but by the middle I was totally into it. Great story overall and very insightful.