Born to be Brave

I feel we don't talk about this moment in "Mabel's Guide to Color" enough. This is the smile of a very intelligent 12 yo that probably knows exactly how powerful this beam of light is and that this is a very bad idea. This is the same 12 yo that thinks revenge feels awesome, and when he thought someone stole his spaghetti said "this is a dark day" very ominously. This is, once again, the same 12 yo that has dealt with Grunkle Stan's ribbing all summer.

Dipper knew exactly what he was doing here. Look at that grin. Notice he's the only one here, besides Mabel inside, that has sunglasses on.

They're the pickiest because they only eat things they can catch by plunging into at least six feet of water feet-first and are as close to their maximum carrying capacity as possible, to maximize calories-per-trip.

They're the Least Picky because so long as something fits those parameters, Osprey will go for it.

Yeah, to put my money where my mouth is, here are some queer SFF writers from Asia and the Asian Diaspora in the Anglosphere that I really like and highly recommend:

Nghi Vo: probably doesn’t need an endorsement from me, hah, her The Empress of Salt and Fortune is one of the most perfect novellas I’ve ever read and well deserved its Hugo win. The whole Singing Hills cycle is great. It’s a fantasy world strongly inspired by Imperial China and Vietnam, and does clever things with fantasy, folklore, storytelling, and memory. Her novels are standalone historical fantasy set in 1920s-America-with-magic and are very much about Asian immigrant/diaspora experiences in the early 20th century US. With Magic.

Yoon Ha Lee: I love his Machineries of Empire. Would love to finish that trilogy someday. But seriously it’s creative, intense military sci-fi in a magic-science space empire and is very interested in what it takes to uphold such a system.

Simon Jimenez: The Vanished Birds is sooo heartbreakingly good and I need to read A Spear Cuts Through Water soon.

Isabel J. Kim: Short story writer. Runs the gamut of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and the weird stuff in between. Creative and vivid in really compelling ways. Her first novel is in the works and I am SUPER interested. She does funky and creative things with perspective and structure in her stories. Has several stories now that are about turning popular tropes or other iconic stories around like they’re in a kaleidoscope, but her first published story “Homecoming Is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self” is probably still the most affecting to me.

Michelle Kan: Has a trilogy of novelettes called Tales of the Thread, self-described as “aromantic Chinese fairytales” that take a deliberately aro approach to fairytale retellings and fairytale style fantasy. I recommend them. (Also has a superhero novel I haven’t read.)

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Haven’t read yet but they are on my TBR:

Aliette de Bodard: Her Xuya universe novellas, and the relationships between humans and AIs and spaceships, sound super up my alley.

Kai Cheng Thom: Author of Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir is a less traditionally sff entry but is a fabulist/surrealist take on the Trans Memoir… which I feel like I have to be in the right space for, but I do want to read it.

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Also he’s not out as queer or anything but I can’t not recommend Ted Chiang because he writes some of the best short stories In The World and has THE most interesting and unique and compelling ideas.

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Shelley Parker Chan: Author of a duology set in mythological China, starting with She Who Became the Sun about a peasant child who disguises herself as a man in order to seize political power. Lots of morally grey characters, lots of gender. The author has said that the theme of the books is, respectfully, "fuck Confucius"

Justinian Huang: first book was published this year, The Emperor and the Endless Palace. Twisty reincarnation romance tracking gay culture over centuries, riffing on Chinese history/literature

Victor Manibo: I've only read his novel Escape Velocity, but it's an excellent critique of the ultra-rich, set on board a luxury space hotel during the reunion of an elite boarding school. Good mystery, complex ensemble cast, a (perhaps controversial) ending I adored.

Tasha Suri: her Burning Kingdoms trilogy is an entry into the "morally grey queer women in stories about imperialism" subgenre. An imprisoned princess and the survivor of an imperialist massacre of priests must balance their conflicting goals against their growing feelings.

Ryka Aoki: more on the literary side of speculative, her novel Light From Uncommon Stars features a trans girl running away from home, a demonic violin teacher, and a doughnut shop run by a space refugee. I've seen some people find it a bit too fluffy and vague, but I deeply enjoyed it, particularly on reread. An absolute for violin fans, or people who really like food descriptions

Emma Mieko Candon: I bounced off their novel The Archive Undying pretty hard, but I've seen people love it. Not an easy novel but an ambitious one, where an unwise romance brings the onetime priest of an AI back into the conflict that killed his god.

S. L. Huang: I really liked her queer, feminist retelling of Water Margin. She also has some excellent short fiction

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