LGBTQ+ Archives – Page 2 of 3

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Mossa is an investigator who is in charge of a missing persons case. Or maybe it's a suicide. Or murder. Any which way, a man disappeared from a sparsely populated platform at the edge of the colonized portion of Giant (Jupiter). Turns out the man was on faculty at the University at Valdegeld, as is Mossa's former girlfriend from her college years, Pleiti. So of course, Mossa reconnects with Pleiti and asks for her help. The world was interesting. Humans ruined Earth, so they colonized Jupiter. I liked that it had almost a gaslamp feel. Yes, they're living on platforms above a surfaceless planet, but our characters bundle up against the cold, walk through the swirling storm, have tea and scones on a regular basis. I liked Mossa and Pleiti and their slowly rebuilding relationship. Mossa is our Holmes, brilliant, but a bit emotionally distant and not one to share her theories. Pleite, our narrator and Watson, is loyal and resourceful. I...

Fadeout by Joseph Hansen

March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Dave Brandstetter, insurance investigator, is looking into the death of local radio star and mayoral candidate Fox Olson, who crashed his car through a bridge railing on a rainy night. Fox's body has not yet been found, and Brandstetter finds more than one reason to be suspicious. As Dave spends time interviewing the Olson family members and gathering evidence, he comes to the conclusion that Fox is still alive. Brandstetter is a tough, smart detective. He's openly gay and mourning the loss of his long-time partner to cancer. He's a good character, with strengths and flaws. The story moves along quickly and we get several unlikeable suspects and a bit of local politics. The writing is spare but the author does a fabulous job at painting pictures and describing characters with few words. Fadeout is not a fun book with its underlying sadness, but it is engrossing. I will probably listen to more in the series. It doesn't hurt that they're...

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

January 12, 2023March 21, 2023 by Carol6 Comments

Seven years ago a ship, the Atargatis, sailed to the Mariana Trench looking for mermaids. Imagine Network planned to make a huge amount of money off the planned mockumentary. Instead, the entire crew was lost at sea and only raw video footage to show what happened. They had found mermaids - and mermaids are not friendly. Now, the entertainment company is planning a second voyage. A film crew and a large group of diverse scientists are going back to find out what happened and to prove mermaids exist. Diverse in disciplines - marine biologists, cetologists, chemical biologists, cryptid hunters, and diverse in backstories - sexual orientations, disabilities, financial resources, and cultural backgrounds. Some of the scientists have personal reasons for going, like Tory whose sister died on the Atargatis and Dr. Toth whose life's work has been centered on Sirens. Others are approaching it as a cruise where they get to do their own research, not believing in the mermaids. I...

Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen

January 9, 2023January 12, 2023 by Carol6 Comments

Lavender House was a satisfying mystery, but the characters and setting made it outstanding. San Francisco, 1952. Andy was a police detective until he was caught in a raid with his pants down at a gay bar. Fired, disgraced, and shunned, he is contemplating throwing himself into the Bay. Then he is approached by Pearl, who asks him to investigate the murder of her wife, Irene Lamontaine, the head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene was killed at Lavender House, the family estate which is also a haven for the queer Lamontaine family and their staff. The mystery is fairly straightforward, although there are reasons to suspect most of the members of the household. The author does a good job with the historical part of the mystery, really setting it in its time and place, And the characters are fabulous - loving, hopeful, damaged, afraid, confident. I listened to the audiobook and while the narrator was sometimes a little...

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

June 28, 2022June 27, 2022 by CarolNo Comments

First, go read A Memory Called Empire if you haven't yet. It's a fabulous book and I'm not sure you can fully understand/ enjoy A Desolation Called Peace without it. It's where we are first introduced to the Teixcalaan Empire, which spans across galaxies. It's an empire full of political intrigue and poetry. We also met Mahit Dzmare, the ambassador to Teixcalaan from Lsel Station, a small, independent mining space station with its own culture, identity, and most importantly technology. Lsel creates imagos, memory imprints that are designed to meld into the personality of the wearer and preserve the preceding generations of knowledge. This time around we meet the aliens, the ones killing people on the edges of the Teixalaan Empire. There is so much I could say about this book. The world-building is amazing and the aliens interesting, although maybe not unique. The main characters, and there are several, are each fully drawn with strengths and flaws and...

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

May 17, 2022 by CarolNo Comments

There are several short stories set in the same world as A Master of Djinn and I do wish I had read them first. A Master of Djinn does a fabulous showing us this Cairo and introducing the character, but the events from at least two of the stories are mentioned and I think reading them would have given me a better background. I may actually go back and read them now - I did love the world. A Master of Djinn is more or less a murder mystery set in a steampunk alternate 1912 Cairo where djinn live and work among mortals. Our investigator is Fatma from the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The dead men and woman are members of an Al-Jahiz Secret Brotherhood, all found murdered, their bodies, but not their clothes, burned to a crisp. Turns out an imposter claimant to be Al-Jahiz returned is running around town causing all kinds of havoc. Clark...