Some heavy metal and some lesbians

[lucymonster]

Unfortunately the two are unrelated; I have no heavy metal lesbians to rec at this time. If you happen to have a favourite heavy metal lesbian then please do tell me about her! I wish to know!

Moonlit Cross by The Night Eternal is occult-themed goth/heavy metal with irresistible riffs and gut-wrenchingly emotive vocals. They have a newer album which is also fucking excellent, but I'm linking this one because 'Deadly as a Scythe' has been on loop in my head for the last two days and I honestly don't want it gone.

Bloodmoon by Kerrigan is energetic, catchy, and leans into its heavy metal cheesiness in a way that's honestly just so much fun.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, which landed in like-but-not-love territory for me when I read it last year. Despite my mixed feelings on the first book I couldn't get the story out of my head, so I went ahead and borrowed the second from the library. It was actually, I think, a much stronger book. It still suffered from some of the same problems as the last one - slightly weak character voices, worldbuilding that stretched my suspension of disbelief on small details (and thus undermined my trust in the big ones), and prose that is honestly just a bit dull. But I'm inclined to forgive all that for two major reasons:

1) The way the alien species is written is just so fucking good. Several short sections are written from an alien point of view, and their voices are deeply, unsettlingly weird and confusing in a way that I was completely convinced by. They properly felt like an intelligent life form that had evolved entirely without reference to humanity, while still having juuust enough of a fine thread in common with us that (rudimentary, mutually bewildered) communication is still possible. This book healed the part of me that was let down by Leckie's Translation State. It's so well done.

2) The main ship gets a LOT messier in this book, in all the best ways. Book one was quite friends-to-lovers-ish, which is a perfectly cromulent dynamic that just doesn't really quicken my pulse. But in this one they have lots of conflict of the juicy 'you both have a point' kind, are obliged to keep working with each other under extreme high-stakes conditions, and also this time they get to fuck and it's extremely hot! Basically the romance element was just so much more to my taste this time. The book leaves them in a good place but with some tantalising points of unresolved tension, so if a third book is forthcoming I will absolutely be reading it as well.

Comments

[pauraque]

"Some heavy metal and some lesbians" sounds like a truly awesome weather forecast.

I think A Memory Called Empire is still on my TBR list but it's been close to the chopping block because I've seen so many mixed reviews. (Same with Translation State, actually.)

[lucymonster]

Truly, my favourite weather event! 😁

I think, if any element of the elements I’ve mentioned in my reviews sound particularly appealing, then A Memory Called Empire is worth not chopping - for me personally, the combination of female-focused + queer + in-depth anthropological worldbuilding + in space does enough heavy lifting to make it worth persevering through the frustration. But if there’s nothing there that makes you salivate, or if other things on your list check the same boxes with better reviews, then - yeah. It took more gnawing to get the meat off than I wish it had.

Translation State I would honestly jettison without looking back. I’m a HUGE Radch and Presger fan and SO badly wanted to like it, but it just. Wasn’t very good.

[theskywasblue]

I definitely agree that Desolation is the stronger book - and I found it more interesting as well. Not that Memory was uninteresting, exactly, but sometimes that purely political stuff without much external threat can get a little overwrought for me.

The "also they get to fuck" is definitely a point in the book's favour as well ;) I enjoyed there being a lot more tension in their relationship dynamic.

[lucymonster]

See, I feel like I WOULD have loved the purely political stuff if it had been done better. Politics in space is so my thing! But it was so ... idk, wishy-washy? It would always be just "oh, we're doing this because Politics" without explaining what the characters' actual motives were or what these political maneuvers were supposed to achieve. I found Desolation better about that - maybe having a concrete thing for all the characters to focus on (ie the big alien war) helped make it all feel a bit less arbitrary.

But yeah, the relationship dynamic was so good in this one. :D

[rhoda_rants]

Oooh, I like the title track for "Bloodmoon!" This is fun. Definitely old school and cheesy. Which is my favorite kind of metal, lol.

Sounds like I need to add these books to my list! I kinda wonder if books are sometimes like television series, in that Season 1 has some flaws to work out, but if you can stick with it, it gets better? I have seen that happen before, but not often. The detail about the alien POV has me intrigued though.

[lucymonster]

Old school and cheesy, you get it! :D I love it when a band leans all the way into its gimmick like that.

If the alien perspective stuff tempts you, then this rec goes from tentative to FUCK yes you should read it! Those sections are far and away the best part of the book, and even when it's not from the aliens' POV, their anthropology is super interesting and well thought out.

[cosmicjellyfish]

I’m reading Desolation right now, approximately a million years after the first book! I enjoyed Memory a lot (admittedly, a huge chunk of that enjoyment came from the memory/identity issues baked into the imago worldbuilding - that kind of thing is always catnip to me), but do think this one hangs together a lot better. The main ship felt like a lot of nothing to me the first time around - I was much more interested in a different (noncanon) f/f pairing - but I’m very here for the messy, painful conflict in an extraordinary situation they’ve got going on now. Also yessss the alien perspective is a delight and I need so much more of it.

(Tempering my expectations for Translation State when I get around to it, too. :/ I own a copy I might as well read at some point, but don’t think I’ve seen a single unequivocally positive review.)

[lucymonster]

Ooh, what was your noncanon pairing, can I ask? Did it involve Nineteen Adze? I am honestly so hot for Nineteen Adze and if she'd romanced Mahit instead of Yskandr I would have been a million more times into the book than I was.

Yeah, Translation State was just straight-up disappointing imo. I was so hyped for more about the Presger and really didn't like the direction it took them, but maybe if you go in with low expectations you'll end up liking it better? Sometimes that works!

[cosmicjellyfish]

Yesss, it was Mahit/Nineteen Adze! I think I would also have been a million times more into it if they’d got together instead - the setup was absolutely there and they were SO hot. Three Seagrass and Yskandr just couldn’t compete, for me.

Sometimes that does help! I’ll file it under “just reading for completionist reasons”.