"letting the days go by / water flowing underground / into the blue again / after the money's gone"

[larryhammer]

Reading, reading, who's got the reading? I do, I do, stories for the seeding.

Finished:

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, which I'd been saving for a rainy day, which it wasn't when I put a hold on this in preparation for The Shepherd's Crown, but my library unexpectedly popped a copy loose with at least two months to wait on the sequel -- ah, well. Anyway, it's very good, like all the Tiffany Aching books, but not quite as good as Wintersmith, which is an extremely high bar indeed. Structural weakness: too many difficulties were resolved before the climactic big resolution, instead of being resolved with it. I'm not sure the epilogue was fully earned, either. But still, quite satisfying.

Ancillary Mercy by Anne Leckie, and despite the (possibly essential) structural wonkiness I feared it might have, a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The examination of privileges on multiple levels is especially welcome.

And now that I'm done with the series, I can ask: do we ever get clues for the gender of Breq's body? As an (spoiler) AI who declares herself another species, it can be argued human genders are irrelevant, but what gender does she present as to those who don't recognize her as an ancillary? I think we get something for most of the main characters, otherwise.

Outbreakers by Mercedes Lackey -- undemanding, generally unobjectionable fantasy, because needed.

Star Guard by Andre Norton, which I think is the first Norton I've actually finished? When humans achieved space travel, the existing galactic Powers That Be decided their proper role was as mercenaries, and a recruit on his first gig, who is burning to change this, runs into a conspiracy to enforce the status quo. If someone were to rip off the plot and retell it with contemporary skiffy sensibilities (and updated political analysis) it could be a moderately successful YA novel. (This is praise.)

In progress:

Another chapter or two of Outlaws of the Marsh -- taken slowly because Li Kui can eat flaming death ANY PAGE NOW. He is singlehandedly ramping up the Ninja Replacement Score, as every character he interacts with would VASTLY improve the story if they ninja'd out and took this asshole down. That Song Jiang, the closest person to a hero in this this, is generally amused by Li Kui's "antics" Does Not Help. I'm trying to stay with this, but some Action Girls need to show up STAT to keep me much longer.

---L.

Subject quote from "Once in a Lifetime," Talking Heads.

Comments

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

I thought Breq was referred to as female in another language with masculine/feminine markers. But I could be wrong!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

In Ancillary Justice, very early on, person on "barbaric" planet refers to Breq as "little girl."

Seivarden, of course, is a penis-having genderless citizen. And frequently acts like it.

Interesting that we have to know gender in order to visualize, or relate to, a character.

[larryhammer]

Oh, that's right --- now I remember that incident. And yeah about the distinction between male/female bodied and gender among the Radch.

Seivarden does, yes, have a penis.

---L.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

And often is one.

Some of the characters seem quite genderfluid to me. Could go either way. Awn being one. Tisarwat another.

The point of course is that gender is not relevant. When we struggle to fix it for our own comfort, we're saying a great deal about our heavily gendered culture.

[larryhammer]

Yup, and yup.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Besides the evidence that your other commenters mentioned, there's She Commands Me And I Obey (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2014/20141110/commands-f.shtml), the ... novella? ... with the backstory behind that idol Breq carries around. Breq is a character in the story, viewed from an outside perspective. Her body (at least that particular body) is indeed female by our standards.

Some characters I always imagine with the same gender (by our standards): female for Awn and Tisarwat and Ekalu and Basnaaid, male for Seivarden and Vel Osck. But I realize that I could easily be wrong about any of these besides Seivarden. I try to reimagine Basnaaid as male sometimes, but it doesn't stick in my head. I keep changing my mind about Skaaiat Awer. I know what body type Anaander Mianaai generally wears, but I also don't think of Anaander as having any gender at all, really. (Why do I think of the other characters as having gender, then?)

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Since I imagine male for Awn and Tisarwat, and undecided for Basnaaid. The others, the same.

[larryhammer]

I see most of those as you do, except Awn is provisionally male-bodied to me.

---L.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had not known about this story. That was a very pleasant half-hour.