BOOK REC (Sci-Fi with PoC and wlw)
Why you should read The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers:
IT HAS A HUGE EMPHASIS ON FOUND FAMILY and also on moving forward and how you sometimes need different people at different stages of your life
The alien cultures, man, they are like nothing I’ve ever seen before on this scale. It’s not just surface stuff, it’s down to the belief systems and social interactions and how they view things like motherhood and violence and even board games! Also, FEMALE ALIENS WITHOUT BREASTS WHO ARE CONSIDERED VERY ATTRACTIVE TO HUMANS CAN I GET A HELL YEAH
Gender and sexuality are definitely way more fluid, one of the crew members is a species that changes gender across their lifetime (plus there is a crew member that goes by they pronouns, though not exactly in a nb way, it’s hard to explain)
Imagine Firefly, except in a universe full of aliens like Guardians of the Galaxy, and the crew aren’t criminals (for the most part) and are just generally a bit nicer. And by nicer I mean, as someone else more eloquent than me said about this book “they’re not all good people, but most of them are trying to be”. They care about each other despite all the cultural differences that sometimes have them screaming
most of the humans on the crew are not white
TWO FEMALE MEMBERS OF THE CREW BECOME A COUPLE I’m not gonna say which because it totally took me by surprise and that was an incredible thing cos I already adored this book and then it gave me the one thing it was missing that I hadn’t dared hope for
polyamory is discussed frequently and is a base part of one of the alien cultures and it’s very normalised and respected
seriously everyone does their hardest to be respectful of each other’s culture and all the differences and even though sometimes they fail or really struggle they really TRY and that’s what makes it so great
the book is genuinely hilarious (“What do your crazy speciests do?” “Live on gated farms and have private orgies.” “How is that any different than what the rest of you do?” “We don’t have gates and anybody can come to our orgies.”)
there’s plot but it’s very character driven in a way that works really well
Kizzy - my favourite character who is just a joy (imagine Kaylee Frye if she was Chinese, hyped up on extreme amounts of caffeine, and totally eccentric)
REALLY AMAZING PLATONIC MALE/FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS
like seriously every damn relationship in this book is so incredible and important and well done
I’ve never done a book rec on here before and the fact that I feel the need to do this should in itself say something about how amazing it is
SPACE GIRLFRIENDS NEED I SAY MORE
amazing and compelling alien cultures
a crew/found family that are so beautiful in their differences and how they do their best to respect and accommodate them
it’s really fucking funny
“Ninety percent of all problems are caused by people being assholes.” “What causes the other ten percent?” “Natural disasters.”
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
discoholicmusic
