Posted in Beyond Binaries Book Club, Gender, tagged Ancillary Justice, ancillary mercy, ann leckie, Imperial Radch, SFF, speculative fiction on 2016/02/06| Leave a Comment »
We tried this with discussion prompts this time!
This review contains MAJOR spoilers for Ancillary Mercy, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Justice.
For a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as Breq. Then a search of Athoek Station’s slums turns up someone who shouldn’t exist – someone who might be an ancillary from a ship that’s been hiding beyond the empire’s reach for three thousand years.
Posted in Beyond Binaries Book Club, Gender, tagged Ancillary Justice, ann leckie, bonus materials, Imperial Radch on 2015/06/09| 1 Comment »
For all your Ancillary Justice feels: music, fan art, texts, and reviews. Contains some spoilers. (For a spoiler-free version, see the prior post.)
Curious, Citizen? Check out the first chapter on Orbit Books.
“And then I fell to pieces” by theyoungdoley (link) [Image of a consciousness made of several bodies, fracturing]
Posted in Beyond Binaries Book Club, Gender, tagged Ancillary Justice, Imperial Radch, speculative fiction on 2015/05/25| 13 Comments »
Welcome to the inaugural posting of the Beyond Binaries Book Club! This is a review (with the mildest of spoilers) of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice (2013), which won the 2014 Hugo and Nebula Awards–and our hearts.
Our focus is on books (and media) about characters with sexualities, gender identities, or gender expressions that aren’t strictly male/female or gay/straight. That is, characters who are bi/pansexual/queer-identified, or whose gender expression or identity is not strongly fixed to the gender binary (may include agender, transgender, gender-nonconforming, gendervariant, genderfluid, intersex [as identity], non-binary, genderqueer, et al). We tend to read speculative fiction novels (as opposed to non-fiction, including autobiographies), but graphic novels, comics, and short stories may be on our list.
Overview: Ancillary Justice by Ann LeckieOn a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was Justice of Toren–a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose–to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.
Major themes: the intersections of gender, colonialism, religion, language, race/ethnicity, music
Posted in Beyond Binaries Book Club, Gender, Media, tagged Ancillary Justice, geek, gender expression, gender fluidity, gender non-conformity on 2015/04/25| 12 Comments »
Quick note: we used to be The Non-Binary Book Club, but in 2017, I changed the name to “Beyond Binaries” to better reflect our content.
It’s no secret that I’m enamored of the “cross-dressing and sword-fighting” genre, but I had a moment a few months ago when I got so fed up with a novel of that description that I almost threw it out the bus window.
You know the story: guy 1 (a straight cis man) meets guy 2 (a cis-identified woman in disguise as a man for Reasons); there’s an attraction; guy 1 has queer panic about his homoromantic inclinations; and then guy 2 reveals himself to have been the princess, sister of some lord, or heir all along! Boom, heterogamous marriage may commence! Heterosexuality is defended!
Some spoilers for The House of Four Winds below; basic plot for Ancillary Justice.
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The Lobster Dance 