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Space Unicorn Blues by TJ Berry
Dec. 3rd, 2020 10:25 pmSpace Unicorn Blues by T.J. Berry
2/5. Science fantasy about a half human, half unicorn (fantasy creatures are aliens, you see) making his way through a corrupt human imperialist society where he is threatened with slavery and exploitation at every turn as his horn is a priceless resource.
A book full of things I like (queer disabled women, anti-imperialism, shitty mediocre white guys that the author knows are shitty and mediocre) that I collectively did not like much at all. The project of this book is to tell a fun story about surviving exploitation and slavery. And I don't mean to say that's an inherently bad project. It's not. You can tell fun – or at least funny – stories about the worst of things. But this one, with its graphic scenes of medical torture and exploitation and its cheerful meme jokes, yeah no. This is just a tonal splat that was always heading in the wrong direction from where I was, emotionally. Tamsyn Muir is much better at walking this high wire, though TBF the project of the Locked Tomb books is quite different.
But that's the beauty of having more than one book about queer disabled people in an anti-imperialist story to choose from: you cannot like one and that's okay.
It's a great title, though.
Content notes: Imprisonment, slavery, institutionalization, torture, etc. etc.
2/5. Science fantasy about a half human, half unicorn (fantasy creatures are aliens, you see) making his way through a corrupt human imperialist society where he is threatened with slavery and exploitation at every turn as his horn is a priceless resource.
A book full of things I like (queer disabled women, anti-imperialism, shitty mediocre white guys that the author knows are shitty and mediocre) that I collectively did not like much at all. The project of this book is to tell a fun story about surviving exploitation and slavery. And I don't mean to say that's an inherently bad project. It's not. You can tell fun – or at least funny – stories about the worst of things. But this one, with its graphic scenes of medical torture and exploitation and its cheerful meme jokes, yeah no. This is just a tonal splat that was always heading in the wrong direction from where I was, emotionally. Tamsyn Muir is much better at walking this high wire, though TBF the project of the Locked Tomb books is quite different.
But that's the beauty of having more than one book about queer disabled people in an anti-imperialist story to choose from: you cannot like one and that's okay.
It's a great title, though.
Content notes: Imprisonment, slavery, institutionalization, torture, etc. etc.