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[lucymonster]

Books

I read Translation State by Ann Leckie, but tbh, I should probably have DNF'd it. I kept pushing on because I've loved Leckie's other work so much - the Imperial Radch trilogy is up there with my absolute favourites of all time - but I really was not the target audience for this book, which was basically just a heavy-handed YA simplification of themes (gender diversity, consent, autonomy) that Imperial Radch handled with far more nuance. It had three protagonists, but they were all kind of samey, despite the fact that one of them was a Translator and should have been utterly unhinged by human standards. All three were underqualified nobodies thrust unwittingly into an adventure of galactic proportions, for reasons just a bit too contrived for my taste, and the ultimate outcome was telegraphed so far in advance that the tension just wasn't there for me. I'm disappointed because I was really motivated to like this book, but I think I'm probably just going to discard it from my personal Radch canon.

I'm currently about halfway through A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, which I'm enjoying much better, though still not quite as much as I wish I was. I picked it up because I was desperate for more space lesbians after finishing the Locked Tomb books, but I think it suffers unfairly for that - my space lesbian expectations are just too sky high at the moment. But the worldbuilding is really fun, with lots of linguistics details and tidbits of in-universe meta at the start of each chapter. 

TV

I've been seeing a lot of hype about Deadloch on my flist - fiachairecht and delphi, looking at you - and holy shit you guys were right, this show is brilliant. It’s an eight-part Aussie crime drama/black comedy about a buttoned-up lesbian cop and a crass, douchey, delightfully gender nonconforming detective who team up to solve a series of grisly murders in a small Tasmanian town. The cast is chock full of complicated women, the humour is dry and daggy in a quintessentially Australian way, the atmosphere is tense and spooky, and the feminism pulls no punches. I talked my sister into watching it as well and we both went absolutely feral for it. 10/10 would recommend to everyone.

Music

I’ve been seeking out new music for a playlist I’m calling ‘metallic goth’. If gothic metal is metal that draws inspiration from goth, this is the opposite: a true goth rock sound, with heavy metal influences. Some faves so far:

• Cemetery Echo - I've been loving their EP, Come Share My Shroud, which uses a really compelling range of vocals: heartfelrt cleans, blackened screams, and gravelly spoken word.
• Babylon Whores - Sol Niger has made it onto the very short list of songs that Mini willingly lets me play in the car! Variety! Yay!
• Horror Vacui - atmospheric deathrock with heavy, driving rhythms. Mini does not let me play In Darkness You Will Feel Alright in the car even though it has everything in common with some of his favourite music, but I sneak it into rotation sometimes when he's asleep in the back.

Comments

[spookykingdomstarlight]

Agreed with you re: Translation State sadly. I also just kind of ignore it and prefer to imagine better Translator takes. I also kind of wish I hadn't slogged through it, alas.

[lucymonster]

HOW do you make a Translator sound that much like a slightly edgy human teenager in their first relationship? So disappointing. I think if it had been marketed as YA I’d have been more okay with it, but expecting meaty adult sci-fi and getting that instead was a bit of a letdown.

[fiachairecht]

YES YOU WATCHED DEADLOCH I AM SO HAPPY IT IS SO GOOD!!

I keep telling myself I should read Nona and finish out TLT before going to A Memory Called Empire but I have ... so little desire for Nona ... perhaps I should just skip ahead ...

[lucymonster]

Deadloch was one of those rare, perfect works that almost made me want to go on a binge of similar works except that there’s no point because NONE of them will even halfway live up to it.

I’m biased towards Nona because it’s my favourite TLT book, but yeah, my first instinct is that it’s probably not as much your thing. It’s VERY tonally different from Harrow in a way that really de-emphasises what I suspect are your favourite elements.

[fiachairecht]

Yes exactly!! I barely even want fic for it, both because it was soso good as a self-contained story and also because the overall fanon takes on Cath are uh. Real bad. But rewatching it and thinking abt it and talking abt it are so rewarding!!

And yeah like. On the one hand I am so here for the horror of the soul of a planet shoved despairingly into the shape of a girl that cannot hold it while its cousin's corpse hungers and hunts and mourns! On the other if I hear the phrase 'found family' again I might just stick the book in a little free library and never look for it again simply out of spite! also i heard there was cam+pal bodysharing which i uhhh hate ://

[lucymonster]

Oh noooooo I don’t even want to know what the fanon takes on Cath are, do I. I haven’t been brave enough to touch the fandom at all yet, though I’ve been thinking more than is healthy about Eddie/literally any female character. Very rude that in a show full of lesbians, my favourite lady had to be straight. >:(

You are right about both the found family and the body sharing, and they are major MAJOR elements. But going by the title, I’m assuming Alecto will be a lot more soul-of-planet-horror-focused, so hopefully it’s worth just skimming a wiki summary of Nona and holding out for the next book?

[fiachairecht]

Not really, they're all variations on a theme of 'she's stupid and selfish and Dulcie should dump her to be with Eddie instead' (the nicest of them tack on a 'but she could probably be an okay girlfriend to someone else I guess!!' at the end) and it's all very 'tell me you ditch everyone in your life the second a relationship requires work without telling me', yknow?

Anyway my three recs are this bit of Eddie/Holly precanon and this hilarious post-canon road trip bit and this post-canon 'everything is complicated but we don't need to name things to be happy' bit ... there's a couple other good ones but these are the links I had on hand! Now u can put off going into the tag and dealing yourself unimaginable amounts of psychic damage by seeing Margaret Carruthers/Reader fluff.

[lucymonster]

Ughhhhh fandom why? Relationships with realistic flaws, what are they, we just don’t fucking know.

I want you to know that the mere sight of the words “Margaret Carruthers/Reader fluff” nearly gave me an aneurysm, but I’ve been reading the fics you recced to help me convalesce and they’re amazing, ta much. :D THE ROADTRIP. ❤️

[fiachairecht]

I think a huge part of it comes from how the show goes SO hard on the fact that Cath & Dulcie can't repair their romantic relationship until they (re)learn how to be better friends to the women around them (Cath with Nadiyah and Dulcie with Eddie and to some extent Skye, actually forever bitter there was no Duclie+Skye in the epilogue) and people who watched it because 'look, lesbians' don't actually know what to do with that. If they recognise it in the first place, which uh. Is a really big 'if'!!

That and no matter how quick fandom is to point to 'it's a SATIRE of cop shows' when reccing it (cynical me is like 'ok do u actually know what that means or are u just purity-signalling I Promise I Hate Cops' but mmm) I guess 'cop partners' is ... an irresistible shippy dynamic? Even though 'your cop partner is the only person who understands you and you will inevitably fuck them' is also very much part of the genre being poked at? IDK!! I have many feelings and apparently this is where they are all going atm since the writing brain does not want to cooperate re: fic.

SHARING IS CARING, LUCY, FRIENDSHIP RULES SAY I GOTTA SHARE THE GOOD AND THE BAD <3

[lucymonster]

The show’s take on friendship was SO GOOD and I’m devo (but not particularly surprised lol rip) that it’s gone under the radar. One day I will make peace with the fact that fandom just does not do romance and shipping the way I want them done, but it is not this day. >:( Anyway im so there with you about the lack of Dulcie+Skye and actually just Skye in general like??? Her quiet weird bakery friend who she took the time to teach about feminism went full fucking Texas chainsaw about it and killed her abusive dad and tried to kill her son??? Girl deserved some more screen time at the end there, that’s all I’m saying.

GDI this is really making me want a rewatch. So glad and so mad that you inflicted this on me, I DO NOT HAVE TIME for a new fandom and yet here I am. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that the takes are bad, so I can just yell at you about it in comments rather than me feeling tempted to dive in. 😂❤️

[fiachairecht]

One day I will make peace with the fact that fandom just does not do romance and shipping the way I want them done, but it is not this day. >:(

It took me years to get there!! And really only because my immediate fannish circle is very much people who do get it the way I do.

...Well my very normal reaction to Deadloch was to watch the whole thing five times through in two weeks so I'm not going to tell you not to rewatch!! I will also not tell you to watch it five times in two weeks because that was Insane Behaviour on my part, but ... what harm could one rewatch do, yknow?

[pauraque]

I just got Ancillary Justice out of the library and am looking forward to checking it out! I've heard great things about the main trilogy, though I've also heard from others that they were disappointed in Translation State.

[lucymonster]

I hope you enjoy Ancillary Justice! I love all the books, but the first is definitely the strongest - it blew my mind the first time I read it.

(And luckily the trilogy stands alone, so disappointing side novels don’t ultimately spoil it.)

[theskywasblue]

If you're looking for more Sci-fi Lesbians, I would suggest my current read: Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta. Personally I liked A Memory Called Empire, but I did find myself wanting to like it more in the beginning. I found it a bit more engaging as it neared its conclusion. I'll have to pick up the sequel at some point.

[lucymonster]

Ooh, thanks for the rec! I’ll definitely give it a go. :D

I put A Desolation Called Peace on reserve at the library and it came in sooner than expected, so hopefully I’ll be done with the first one in time to read it before it’s due back.

[walgesang]

Aaaaaaaaaaahh Deadloch was SO good. I binged it just over a day (oops). So damn good. (I really need to stop watching so much TV and read books)

[lucymonster]

I could only manage an ep or two a day because babies, and I was going INSANE. Honestly can’t remember the last time I was that sucked into a piece of tv.