Reviewed by ANON

Genre: fantasy (fairy tale)
Pairings: f/f, m/m
Queer Representation: cis gay, cis lesbian, aromantic, asexual, trans
Warnings: none
Rating: 3.5 stars

Review
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Generally, this was a decent anthology. It started slow, and some of the first stories had pacing issues and/or failed to grab me. The real meat of the anthology came at the end, where the stories got longer, better written, and had much better character arcs. It actually took me longer than usual to get through this book, due to the slower stories at the start, but it was well worth continuing. Some specifics on each story follow.
 
Coming Home by Jennifer Cosgrove
A M/M (cis) modern Cinderella. I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other on this one, likely because the writing was fine but I don’t generally get into m/m stories. I do always enjoy a good Cinderella retelling, though.
 
Snow Fox by Sara Codair
Modern Snow White (F/F, trans) with a neat social media bent. Rosa is a poor college student trying to make ends meet through ad revenue via her instagram and YouTube videos. Another social media darling wants her dead so she can be number one. Thank goodness for Cara, the hot EMT who is always around to do some saving.
I really enjoyed the very different take on this Snow White story. Unfortunately I don’t think I know enough about social media to really get all the jokes in it, but I was amused, nonetheless.
 
Deathless by Emmalynn Spark
M/M (cis) fairy tale of an origin I am unfamiliar with (or possibly a mashup). Vanya, third in line for the throne, is sent to rescue his betrothed princess from an evil wizard. He trades places with the princess (sort of Beauty and the Beast like), and in his confinement, falls for the wizard. This was one of the longer shorts in the book and the romance developed at an even pace. It had a good mixing of stock fairy tale elements and traditional imagery.
 
At Her Service by K. S. Trenten
F/F (cis) cinderella retelling, with a fun twist on the saint/slut narrative. Instead of the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, we get a ‘mistress’ Ariella (around the same age as Cinders, and it’s hinted they were raised together), and the Cinderella character. Some good twists in this one, and a number of good trope-turning changes. The romance was also very palpable, although the writing could have been tightened.
 
Shattered Glass by Lina Langley
This is one of the better written (and longer) shorts in the anthology, although I am not familiar with the fairy tale it draws from. M/M (cis). It didn’t capture my attention like some of the others, but it was a very smooth read.
 
Finding Aurora by Rebecca Langham
F/F, asexual (cis) Sleeping Beauty. Talia, a master spell caster, must accompany Prince Amir on a quest to find and wake Aurora Rose, and her kingdom, else he will be disinherited. Spirits, goblins, dragons, and magic pop up everywhere in this well-paced, well-written short that would have been far better served at the start of the book than at the end. Bonus–no damsels in distress in this short, and Aurora is just as much a hero as is our master caster.
 
Master Thief by Sita Bethel
M/M, but a fairy tale I don’t recognize. Tyv is one of three brothers who sets off to find his fortune, He falls in with a group of thieves, who teach him the way of things. Although this story was well written, I failed to connect with Tyv and found him arrogant and unlikable. This is the first short in the series to have erotic content, however, so if you’re reading for a sex scene, this is where you’ll want to start.
 
The True Love Curse by Tray Ellis
F/F, M/M,aro/ace (cis) fairy tale mashup (I think). This one is definitely my favorite. Smoothly written, intricate, and all the right fairy tale elements blended together to make a really enjoyable tale. The romance is brief but strong, the characters rounded, and just enough trope boxes checked to make this comfortable, but not silly.

Genre: science fiction - space opera
Pairings: f/f/f
Queer Representation: cis lesbian
Warnings: none
Rating: five stars

Review
All Alana has ever wanted is to be an engineer on a real live spaceship. A crippling, chronic illness for which she can barely afford medication, as well as her family's poverty (and the general lack of ship engineer jobs), has kept her from achieving her dream. When the intoxicating Tangled Axon comes to her repair yard--dripping seduction like THE SHIP WHO SANG--Alana takes a chance and stows away, hoping that the crew won't find her before they're too far from her planet to make a return trip. But the crew have their own plans, including kidnapping/coercing Alana's sister to save a dying crew member. Alana must find her place on the ship, save her sister and the crew she increasingly grows to love, all while trying to keep herself from succumbing to Mel's Disease.

General
Noting how well the catch-line 'lesbians in space' sells books, I'm really surprised there aren't more excellent lesbian space operas like this in the world. ASCENSION is evenly paced, and filled with wonder and action and all the right kinds of emotions. It's the Star Wars we all wanted, but will never get because Hollywood would implode if someone suggested black women leads (and heaven forbid one of them be struggling with a chronic condition). The elements of magic blend seamlessly with the tech, the secondary characters are well developed, and it has multiple layers of relationships. It is the quintessential space opera, but with enough lesfic elements and shoot-em-up moments to keep any reader happy.

Relationships
There are a number of strong relationships in the book. Central to the story is Alana's relationship with her sister, Nova (the 'Jedi' of the book), who is presented as a pretentious asshole with a fierce protective streak. The journey of the two sisters finding each other rang very true to sibling dynamics, and was immediately a hook for me. The second strong relationship was between Alana and Tev (the love interest), which was exactly the kind of slow burn I love in a book. The relationship develops slowly (but not so slow you want to throw the book into your window), and the eventual coming together of the characters is sweet but passionate. Tertiary relationships, between Alana and the other crew members, are engaging and do not in any way detract from the main two relationship plot threads. Every interaction pairing was intuitive and rewarding.

Parallels
Like any space opera, this one pulls from a number of familiar elements. Readers will find Tangled Axon reminiscent of THE SHIP WHO SANG, or, if you're a younger reader, the ship from THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET. Star Wars parallels saturate the narrative, from the Jedi-like sister (seriously, we aren't the fugitives you're looking for. Look! I have a tail!) to the 'just-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-law' semi-fugitives, to the scruffy pilot. ASCENSION blends these elements into a comfortable, familiar yet exciting narrative with far more diversity and marginalized voices than the mainstream book/cinema has managed to ever produce (Black Panther aside, cause that was awesome).
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Randoms
The engineer of the Tangled Axon is a wolf-man. Not a werewolf. A wolf-man. He has some type of wolf soul. I'm still sort of unclear on this but every time he was on page, I could only think about the 'dinosaur souls in buff men' book series by Nina Bangs. Full disclosure- they're not gay at all but they're...an experience. Yup. 
Anyone in the mood for excellent space opera can find ASCENSION: A TANGLED AXON NOVEL here in ebook. The book is out of print (ARGH!), so if you want a paper copy, you'll have to cough up $30 to get it used.

Reviewed by Rebecca

WARNINGS: Homophobic behaviour and comments, death, bullying

RATING: 3.25 stars

GENRE: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction (Australian)

NOTE - I discuss a huge spoiler towards the end of this review because I think it's a trope that some readers will want to know about, and I think we need to keep talking about that trope. Especially in books written for our youth.



I really wanted to give this story more stars as I moved through the really lovely middle chapters, but the opening and the ending influenced my overall thoughts. That said, 3 stars is still decent. It means I liked it, most of the time, but there were some things that came up that really made it difficult for me to love it. 

This is a pretty solid YA fiction set in a rural Australian town, something I applaud both the author and publisher for exploring. The depth of the homophobia in Twin Creeks was difficult to read about, and certainly a lot worse than I experienced living in Armidale as a student. Be aware that you're in for some discomfort at times - because homophobic bullying is definitely uncomfortable. The overall messages and themes are about hope and acceptance and - as it’s mentioned many times - personal truth. These are great themes, but I found myself forgetting about how powerful they were in the wake of how the story ends.

The atmosphere of the town, general characterisation, and writing is all very strong. Pantera Press is a publisher I’ll continue to look to for modern Australian voices and I hope that their future LGBTIQ+ projects are as well-written as this, but perhaps a little wiser in terms of their underlying problems.
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MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

It’s a tiny thing, but I don’t understand the rather American-Hollywood-Film style aspects set in the school. Australian teachers in a public school can’t just be suspended on the spot by a principal. I think even in a private school there would need to be some sort of process - but in a public school it's actually REALLY hard to fire a teacher, especially one that is permanent. Teachers also don’t make new students introduce themselves to the whole class when they turn up, nor do they tend to take students out for dinner and hug them, or tutor them privately on their own in a room without others around. All of that is a recipe for disaster for a teacher. This is all stuff that happens in movies set in the US (not even in schools, in movies) and I just find it mildly distracting in a book that’s looking to assert its Australian roots. I’m a high school teacher so that’s probably the only reason those details bothered me and, really, they’re minor.

EVEN BIGGER SPOILERS - DISCUSSION OF A TROPE THAT I WISH THIS BOOK HADN'T USED
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Really. It's a huge spoiler.
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The ending frustrates me because, in my opinion (and I'm not pretending to be right about everything), it seemed like unnecessary emotional turmoil to kill off Phoenix - and it served the purpose to undercut all of the messages about love and hope the novel was exploring. I know people die in real life, no matter their age, but deaths of gay characters are a topical issue in pop culture at the moment and it didn't seem worth it to do that with Phoenix.

There are already SO many books/films/TV shows that kill off our gay girls and the first LGBTI+ novel that Pantera prints adds another notch to the “bury your gays” trope. I was so disappointed.

I felt like I was reading ‘A Walk to Remember’ (Nicholas Sparks) in the last few chapters (and no, that's not a compliment from me, sorry...), when before that the book was really engaging and powerful. I wanted this to be a novel that Australian English teachers would order for their faculties, that I could run to my teacher-librarian and rave about as a new purchase for our students. But there must be something out there that has the same themes without the need to kill off ANOTHER lesbian in our fiction.

Let’s have more disabled characters, more women of colour, more diversity in every way...but the one thing we don’t need is more dead lesbians...there are disproportionate numbers of those in the world of popular culture and literature already and it just isn't necessary to keep doing it.

That said, if you can handle the death of a major character better than I can, I’d recommend the book. It’s a well-executed coming out story with some gorgeous moments of acceptance, realisation, and honesty both with one's self and with others. I feel like Willow when she watches Moulin Rouge, I just needed to stop a few chapters before the end and it would have been marvellous.