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erinys 's review for:
The City in the Middle of the Night
by Charlie Jane Anders
While the world and its turmoil are incredibly distracting nowadays, I am still reading as much as I can. Very glad that I am continuing to follow Charlie Jane Anders.
This is a hard science fiction narrative. What I found fascinating about this story was the in-depth, arcane world-building around several axes: language, culture and ethnicity, time and "historical" identity, economics and trade, travel and transport--all in an incredibly hostile environment which is very unlike earth, and sports an abundance of biohazards, especially dangerous megafauna.
The aliens in this one are very fun to read about, but I also found this story really interesting for its human perspectives. It is very much a queer narrative and a very explicitly trans narrative--physical transformation is a wonder and a path to enlightenment and joy in this book. And while some may condemn it, it is not depicted as innately bad or harmful, which is a welcome change from cis-het tropes around trans bodies.
Anyway. A big switch from her last book and a sign of her depth as an artist. I hope the SF fans here will check it out.
This is a hard science fiction narrative. What I found fascinating about this story was the in-depth, arcane world-building around several axes: language, culture and ethnicity, time and "historical" identity, economics and trade, travel and transport--all in an incredibly hostile environment which is very unlike earth, and sports an abundance of biohazards, especially dangerous megafauna.
The aliens in this one are very fun to read about, but I also found this story really interesting for its human perspectives. It is very much a queer narrative and a very explicitly trans narrative--physical transformation is a wonder and a path to enlightenment and joy in this book. And while some may condemn it, it is not depicted as innately bad or harmful, which is a welcome change from cis-het tropes around trans bodies.
Anyway. A big switch from her last book and a sign of her depth as an artist. I hope the SF fans here will check it out.