Review: Reborn in Ash by Gabrielle Steele

I like to go into books blind. Many don't, so I will warn, this book has elements of tragedy.

It also has a very interesting item-based magic system, a protagonist worth spending time with, and while not everyone is queer, most of them are. Our protagonist, Ada, is sapphic, demisexual, and gender non conforming in a twist on the "woman dresses as a man" trope that leaves one wondering if she is hunting for a gender her society does not have.

Although this book leans towards the grimdark, it is not all the way there...it's not without hope, even if bad things happen to good people and nobody gets their happily ever after. I'd class it in the subgenre, but at the lighter end (and while there is mention of SA, there's nothing like that on camera). But I would put in content warnings for child death (off camera), trauma to children, and well, a lot of people die.

And I still couldn't put it down. I guess I'm over my grimdark aversion. Steele weaves a tale, and her prose is solid. Her worldbuilding is somewhat basic - we do have patriarchy land and matriarchy land - and some of the countries are queernorm, while others are not so much. The second part of that is a nuanced approach that allows the author to avoid homophobia. Queer people don't have problems because they're queer except for the obvious one in a world without reproductive technology (or reproductive magic).

All of this is to say that I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to everyone who likes their fantasy darker, but without that darkness being based on abuse of women or let's add homophobia.

Review: Salvagia by Tim Chawaga

And now for something completely different. Salvagia is a love affair with Florida and a mourning for Florida. It's climate fiction set in a world where much of the state has sunk beneath the ocean.

Triss (why is that name so popular in this kind of SF) dives for "salvagia." It's a portmanteau of salvage and nostalgia. She looks for items in the yoreshore and ocean that echo the time before and are valuable, like collectibles, for their story.

But lots of people have an interest in the yoreshore. What remains of the U.S. government and the corps have herded most Americans into arcologies. Many young people have essentially been conscripted into a reworking of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

And Kessler syndrome has not completely blocked off access to space, but made it decidedly difficult.

Salvagia is a book about a fallen Florida. It's a thriller. (And the boat is cute, and don't worry, the boat lives. Because a "semisent" boat that acts like a horse is...kind of adorable).

But it's also about who owns the past, who gets to exploit it, and who owns what.

Interesting read as a thriller, even more so if you dig (or maybe dive) a little deeper.