#(the book is bang bang bodhisattva)

[lowercasebreezy]

BANG BANG BODHISATTVA releases May 9th, 2023.

Okay, I think it’s time I made a full roundup post.

An edgy, queer cyberpunk detective mystery by an exciting new trans voice from New Zealand. Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet?   It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.   Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit... A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up, and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.  

You can read the first chapter here.

ARCs are currently available for reviewers through Netgalley.

Preorder links should start to appear soon through retailers here--please note that the release date is currently showing erroneously as 2022, due to an error. I am working to get this fixed.

I am on Goodreads.

“I am ecstatic to be working with Rebellion Publishing, the home of JUDGE DREDD, to bring my hopelessly queer cyberpunk-buddy-comedy-noir-mystery to print. If you’re a fan of 80s anime pinup girls, Daft Punk, Robert Patrick as the T-1000, hormone replacement therapy, the Nintendo Virtual Boy, a neat whiskey or a fruit-flavored cocktail, Philip K. Dick, lo-fi hip-hop beats to chill/study to and/or the prospect of hope for humanity beyond the next seven to ten years–I hope that Bang Bang Bodhisattva will hit just right.”

[rad-roche]

i picked up a few books today and started on one and was like wow, this has a lot of elements i'm primed to like. i hope i enjoy my time with it. and in chapter 1 a woman named gloria walks out and starts bickering with her anachronistic retrofuture wisecracking cyborg-detective sort-of-boyfriend-but-it's-complicated. and i'm sitting here like

[transbookoftheday]

Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood

An edgy, queer cyberpunk detective mystery by an exciting new trans voice from New Zealand.

Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet?

It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.

Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...

A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up, and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.

[libraryleopard]

I'm reading Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood right now (about halfway through) and it is sooooo fun. It's a cyberpunk noir novel about Kiera Umehara, a down-on-her-luck trans hacker-for-hire, and Angel Herrera, a technophobe private investigator, who are thrown together when a mutual friend is murdered and one of Kiera's friends disappears under similar circumstances. It feels very aware of its genre influences (I've caught references to Neuromancer, Blade Runner, and Humphrey Bogart so far), but also very fresh and snappy in its own right.

[qbdatabase]

Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!

[bee-dazzle]

Adding to this, @lowercasebreezy 's book Bang Bang Bodhisattva

Post about it here:

You like cyberpunk? Queer and trans polyamorous relationships? Tough decisions and high stakes?

I read this book in a single sitting, which I never fucking do any more. Something about it grabbed my brain by the collar and didn't let go until I was done.

SFF Polyamory Recs Part 1

2024 seems to be the year of polyamory in literature and movies, and I've been wanting to read some books featuring polyamory lately, so here is a non-exhaustive list of sci-fi and fantasy books that feature polyamory!

Evocation, by S.T. Gibson - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/m/m

Running Close to the Wind, by Alex Rowland - fantasy. standalone. m/m/nb

Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao - sci-fi. first in a series. f/m/m

A Dowry of Blood, by S.T. Gibson - gothic fantasy. standalone. sapphic

Silver Under Nightfall, by Rin Chupeco - fantasy. first in a series. seems to feature f/m/m

In the Ravenous Dark, by A.M. Strickland - fantasy. standalone. seems to feature f/f/m

True Love Bites, by @joydemorra - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/m/m

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers - sci-fi. novella. pairing unknown

The Door Into Fire, by Diane Duane - fantasy. first in a series. pairing unknown

Heliacle Rising, by C.C. Davie - fantasy. first in a series. pairing unknown

[lgbtqreads]

I'm hungry for more lgbt scifi (esp space operas) .... but I've read a lot already lol. I've read everina Maxwell's books and really enjoyed them. also the teixcalaan books, once & future (and its sequel), Emily skrutskie's bloodright trilogy, the darkness outside us, light from uncommon stars, a complicated love story set in space, the space between worlds, this is how you lose the time war, the disasters, Empress of forever, a strange and desperate glory, unconquerable sun, the locked tomb series... just to name a few. I think more recent books (published 2023-2024) and upcoming books are less likely to be on my radar, and I really enjoy romantic drama in my space operas but it's not necessary, and I also really enjoy when there's a major surprise twist. the wayfarers series is on my list but it doesn't seem to be available on Libby unfortunately

Try Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot, Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, The Starmetal Symphony by Alex White, the Xuya Universe Romances by Aliette de Bodard, the NeoG series by K.B. Wagers, The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie, Persephone Station by Stina Leicht, The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis, Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood, A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares, and if you like mystery, The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older!

[dee-the-red-witch]

You want a cyberpunk detective noir story that feels like you're reading the next modern Gibson or Russo? GRAB. THIS. BOOK.

https://www.amazon.com/Bang-Bodhisattva-Aubrey-Wood-ebook/dp/B0BQL36DNC/ref=sr_1_1

You're still reading this? No. Scroll back up and click buy. I'll wait.

Okay, you need more convincing. You want a rich, thickly built world that's a cyberpunk extension of out current (and I mean current) late capitalistic hellscape? This has it. Wit and humor that'll delight the crap out of all the Locked Tomb Fans? This has it. Real, believable characters just as queer, trans, poly and strange as ourselves? Check. Elegantly telegraphed twists, setups, and red herrings, plus a few extra of each that you won't see coming? Check. It's got all of it, and I'm really looking forward to see what comes Aubrey Wood in the future. (More Kiera? PLEASE?!)

Regardless, get this book.

[kadoore]

May 2023 Queer Adult SFF Books!

ORPHIA AND EURYDICIUS by Elyse John 5/1/2023

bi MCs, m/f

Orphia is the warrior who would write verse, Eurydicius the shield-maker she's drawn to protect

both draw the ire of the gods

gender-swapped Greek myth with a twist

DRAGONFALL by L.R. Lam 5/2/2023

bi, pan rep

chosen one story, but make the chosen one a dragon hellbent on revenge

just have to convince this human to trust him long enough so they can both betray all of humankind

oh no

i think I love the human

SEASON OF SKULLS by Charles Stross 5/16/2023

bi MC

third in a trilogy in the Laundry Files universe, where the Prime Minister is an eldritch horror and everyone's manifesting powers

and Eve still has to deal with her ex-husband, whom she murdered

BANG BANG BODHISATTVA by Aubrey Wood 5/9/2023

trans MC

hacker-for-hire framed for murder must clear her name with the help of a stuffy PI

come for the dystopian cyberpunk, stay for the stubborn defiance

TRIALS OF THE INNERMOST by Jonathan Fuller and Kristina Kelly 5/26/2023

bi, gay, and ace MCs

the world was shattered into 3

regular trials of their best warriors keeps the peace

but when one of those warriors might harbor a consuming darkness,,, well

THE BATTLE DRUM by Saara El-Arifi 5/23/2023

f/f

myth and conspiracy merge in a blood-caste-segregated empire

they've succeeded, but their world still threatens to unravel

war is coming

sequel to THE FINAL STRIFE

[erintoknow]

just finished reading it yesterday

to give the pitch: it's a cyberpunk noir thriller following down on her luck 30s something transwoman Kiera, trying to raise enough money to raise her polycule's social score so they aren't evicted from their apartment. in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kiera and her on-again off-again friend/employer Angel Herrera, a luddite private investigator, are framed for two separate murders. they have to work together to avoid the fascist police in order to clear their names and find the real killer.

i loved this book. It's fast-paced, heartfelt, and sincerely queer. It feels like proper cyberpunk but free of all the weird anti-Asian and ableism that plagues the common cultural conception of 'classic' cyberpunk while keeping the scathing critique of capitalism with a picture of a future that's more of a fun-house mirror of our present.

bang bang bodhisattva is such a good book goddamn

proper queer cyberpunk story centering a 30s something trans woman loser (affectionate)

cracking it open really helped re-energize my own enthusiasm for writing

[aroaessidhe]

Hey Laya! I have another recommendation for you aro/ace book database–I just finished reading Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood and one of the protagonists is asexual (probably biromantic). It's not a huge part of the book, but he has a small subplot of realizing over the events of the story and I hadn't seen anyone mention it in reviews before I read the book, so I thought it might not be on your radar. (There's a little romance in both POVs but I would say the main relationship is the platonic partnership between the two protagonists.)

Oh interesting! I hadn't heard of it, thanks! and the author is from nz. the audiobook is available so I will check that out soon !!

[lowercasebreezy]

here is a thing.

We are now also available on Netgalley.

[rebeccadumaurier]

2023 Books in Review

a tiered ranking of all the books i read in 2023! originally i was going to write up my commentary on each one but then i was like hahaha.....no, so below the cut is just a list of the titles/authors in each tier instead.

changed my brain chemistry

The Idiot, Elif Batuman

Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang

The Borrowed, Chan Ho-kei (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (trans. Ken Liu)

The Membranes, Chi Ta-wei (trans. Ari Larissa Heinrich)

Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng

Severance, Ling Ma

He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan

Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Network Effect, Martha Wells

top-tier stuff

Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell)

Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt

The Door, Magda Szabo (trans. Len Rix)

The Lover, Marguerite Duras (trans. Barbara Bray)

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

Strange Beasts of China, Yan Ge (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu

Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt

Bliss Montage, Ling Ma

How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemisin

If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin

My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

good, well-written

Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu

Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Yellowface, R. F. Kuang

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

Assassin of Reality, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Witch King, Martha Wells

Tokyo Ueno Station, Miri Yu (trans. Morgan Giles)

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

Peaces, Helen Oyeyemi

Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

The Pachinko Parlor, Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Fugitive Telemetry, and System Collapse (Murderbot #1-4, #6-7), Martha Wells

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee

The Dry Heart, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Frances Frenaye)

Gods of Want, K-Ming Chang

Paradais, Fernanda Melchor (trans. Sophie Hughes)

The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing

Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced An Emergency, Chen Chen

The Hurting Kind, Ada Limon

Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, Lauren James

Upstream, Mary Oliver

The Art of Death, Edwidge Danticat

Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison

alphabet, Inger Christensen (trans. Susanna Nied)

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

flawed, but enjoyable

The Wicker King, K. Ancrum

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

Flux, Jinwoo Chong

Bang Bang Bodhisattva, Aubrey Wood

The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray

Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Likeness, Tana French

The Cabinet, Un-su Kim (trans. Sean Lin Halbert)

The Kingdom of Surfaces, Sally Wen Mao

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, Franny Choi

good, well-written, but not my cup of tea

The Good House, Tananarive Due

The Transmigration of Bodies, Yuri Herrera (trans. Lisa Dillman)

Roadside Picnic, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (trans. Olena Bormashenko)

The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan

At Night All Blood Is Black, David Diop (trans. Anna Moschovakis)

Family Lexicon, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Jenny McPhee)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier (trans. Harriet de Onís)

Against Silence, Frank Bidart

flawed, less enjoyable

Tenth of December, George Saunders

Counterweight, Djuna (trans. Anton Hur)

Authority, Jeff VanderMeer

Comfort Me with Apples, Catherynne M. Valente

Babel, R. F. Kuang

The Genesis of Misery, Neon Yang

Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid

not ranking

These are nonfiction and they aren’t literature-related, so it just felt weird trying to rank them.

Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin

On Web Typography, Jason Santa Maria

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (trans. Cathy Hirano)

[cosmosrebellion]

Fantasy Recs:

The Book of Jhereg by Steven Brust (Dragaera) Black God's Kiss by C.L. Moore (Jirel of Joiry) Waylander by David Gemmell (Waylander) The Blacktongue Thief and Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (Blacktongue) Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (Realm of the Elderlings) The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The First Law) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire) The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (World of the Five Gods) The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook (The Black Company) The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham (The Dagger and the Coin) The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (The Masquerade) Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard (Johannes Cabal) The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker The Devourers by Indra Das Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) City of Bones by Martha Wells The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia A Woman of the Sword by Anna Smith Spark Those Above by Daniel Polansky (The Empty Throne) The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford Books of Blood by Clive Barker Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay The Chatelaine by Kate Heartfield The Etched City by K.J. Bishop The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera Gormenghast by Meryn Peake Viriconium by M. John Harrison Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (The Dark Star)

Horror Recs:

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron The Wingspan of Severed Hands by Joe Koch A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature by Christopher Slatsky Negative Space by B.R. Yeager A Natural History of Hell by Jeffrey Ford We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson Furnace by Livia Llewelyn Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt Queen of Teeth by Hailey Piper Leech by Hiron Ennes

Sci-Fi Recs:

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin Rosewater by Tade Thompson (Rosewater) Ammonite by Nicola Griffith Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis) A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood

AHHHHH!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! All go on The List!! Can't wait to check all of them out!

[wildcards1407]

Travel Documents 129: Bang Bang Bodhisattva

by Aubrey Wood

Genre:  sci-fi, near-future, cyberpunk, bio-punk

Publication Date: May 9 Pre-Order At This Link

The Dust Cover Copy

Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet?

It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.

Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...

A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up, and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.

Quick heads up: this book is in pre-release, so this is a spoiler-free review. There’s more depth I’d love to dig into, but I’m hands-off until more folks have read it!

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Hooooo BOY. Buckle up. Here we go.

A high-octane story in the cultural tradition of Snow Crash, Minority Report and Blade Runner, Bang Bang gives folks in the queer community what they’ve been waiting for: a look at the cyberpunk world through their eyes.

In worldbuilding, Wood has taken cues from all your favorite wouldn’t-live-there-if-you-paid-me futures: the tech that argues with you has shades of The Fifth Element, the use of bionics and implants is reminiscent of Repo Man. And the harsh reality of gigging for a living and running on ice? Well that, we’re living right now. Mixed together, they make for a world I really enjoyed reading, but definitely don’t want to visit.

The Crowd

Characterization

Wisecracking, fast-moving Kiera is the POV character we’ve been waiting for. She’s clever, quick-tongued, a little bit of a spaz and an absolute sweetheart. She’s the type of quick-thinking trans girl who’ll yell ‘I got a dick!’ when a skeez wolf-whistles, just to watch him walk into a wall. She’s thirty years old, sick of the grind, and sweet-natured under the armor her world impels her to wear. Her foil is Angel Hererra. No wait, sorry, he changed that name, and that face, to get the world to give him a bit less of a hard time. It sort of worked…sort of. But it cut him off from part of himself too. And that’s never a good thing. On their side are a clever assortment of allies: the android studying law, the classy dame with all the threads to the underworld in her hand, and the indentured servant who really just wanted a better life. Underpinning the story is the sweet support of Kiera’s polycule, waiting at home with snuggles and bingeable TV. Cueing up the ominous music for this piece are Detective Flynn, who gives new meaning to being a dick, and several other impressive baddies. The characters, even those who aren’t fleshed out, are well-written and interesting. The ones who get more time on the page are rounded into wonderfully whole people. Most of them don’t fit society’s definition of ‘people’ for some reason. And with every move, they prove why they should.

Writing Style

Fast paced and sometimes brutal, this work is full of bright one-liners and witty zings. Like it says on the dust cover, it definitely has echoes of The Big Sleep going on, along with Snow Crash and similar zany takes on a dark future. But the author pulls on this setting like a favorite coat and wears it with style, making it fresh. I particularly enjoyed the showcasing of authority using legalism as a weapon against people who don’t fit: it’s a nasty part of the LGBT and minority experience that needs to be addressed. But I enjoyed watching our characters find their way around it even more!

The Moves

Plot

I’ll say this up front: I was not expecting these twists and turns. And I bet you won’t see what’s coming either, not until it’s right on top of you! Or, in most cases, right on top of Kiera. Poor kid.

(cue Kiera shouting ‘I’m thirty, dammit!’ in the background) In the classic neo-noir style, you have your crime, you have your slueth, and you have your unknown criminal. But the twists and turns that take us from ‘oh crap a dead body’ to the last page are nothing like you expect, and everything you want to read.

Overall Rating

A high-octane race through Cyberpunk City, with pit stops for queer love and solidarity.

[delagar]

My reviews in Asimov's May/June 2024 issue -- among others, I review Martha Wells' Witch King and Justin C. Key's The World Wasn't Ready for you. Also Aubrey Wood's Bang Bang Bodhisattva, which honestly why haven't you read that already?