#A Closed and Common Orbit

[confusion-doodle]

If my Tumblr blog is anything, please let it be a love letter to the autistic trans robots/AI of the world

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 4

Book summaries below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Science fiction, adventure, series, adult

[lebagelgirl]

Currently reading a book about a robot girl figuring out how to exist in a human body and is terrified of the prospect of not being able to know or remember everything and is constantly overwhelmed by her surroundings everytime she leaves the house while also under the threat that if anyone finds out she isn't human she will be murdered...

I'm going to be soooo normal about this

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Tak- A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Shesheshen- Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

Oxnard “Ox” Matheson- The Green Creek Series by TJ Klune

Kelly Bennett- The Green Creek Series by TJ Klune

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

THE WAYFARERS by Becky Chambers. This is one of my all-time fave go-to fluffy comfort series (with just enough heart crimes to keep things intense), and therefore is also my first ever Illumicrate order. I am Weak™ for painted edges.

[ieafy]

I’m reading Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series and this is (sort of!!) how I would imagine Pepper and Blue in my head 🥺

[genderfluid-druid]

having a minor, routine identity crisis about the difficulties of handling a social life while autistic because you always feel like you're programmed wrong for the situation? why not put on an audiobook about an AI struggling to pass as human despite having been programmed to run a ship, which is not at all the same thing as being a person--

[a-mymble-that-mumbles]

I know that a Wayfarers fandom exists somewhere. SOMEWHERE.

AND I CANT FIND IT.

Hear me now

I will find you

I will join you

And I will never be seen again.

Thank you for your time.

*i know it exists but not as much as I want it to*

[specialagentartemis]

the spectrum of AI characters’ experiences with Gender:

5. Bubs Spacesweepers: this robot is TRANS and we LOVE HER FOR IT

4. Data: constrained by the gender norms of 90s tv.  tragic

3. Hera, Sidra: [shrug] sure, I guess.  Assigned female at bootup and went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2.  Breq: fuck that’s right I keep forgetting gender exists for other people.  wack.  anyway  

1. Murderbot: Do Not Gender Me Or Else

(The scale, by the way, is YES!, Yes, Eh, No, and NO!)

[plumberrypudding]

scifi book so good it gives you robot gender dysphoria.

[libraryspectre]

[do-not-go-gentle]

ROBOT THAT HAS GAINED SENTIENCE?? COUNT ME THE FUCK IN.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 5

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Endorsement from submitter: "The modern space opera, includes gays in space, found family, and delightful discussions in the social customs of different species"

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Science fiction, adventure, space, series, adult

Angels in America by Tony Kushner

Endorsement from submitter: "Sweeping epic play. 100% excellent read even if you can't get to a performance."

The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple roles for several of the actors. Initially and primarily focusing on a gay couple in Manhattan, the play also has several other storylines, some of which occasionally intersect.

Play, classics, AIDS crisis, adult

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

I love the format of putting the past and present next to each other in a book and telling two stories at once that each add to the other. Project Hail Mary. A closed and common orbit. Etc. It sucks when one side is less interesting (I remember having read the lost apothecary at some point and being kind of bored by the present day parts) but when it’s done well it’s incredible

[land-of-violets]

Animated scene of Sidra and Pepper from A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers when Sidra scans her new room. Sidra is a copy of a ship AI who was placed inside an artificial body after a catastrophic failure deleted her predecessor, Lovelace. She must learn how to blend into society on Port Coriol as a human or risk being arrested and destroyed.

Still under the cut!

Sidra often feels like she does not belong in her human body as her mind was made to run a ship. She has trouble viewing the world through her two eyes instead of through various cameras aboard the Wayfarer. She finds comfort in being able to view her room the way she would as an AI through a camera in the corner. This scene always stuck with me as someone who experiences dysphoria and feels a disconnect between my body and mind.

To make this animation, I created different versions of the same image in Clip Studio Paint. They were then uploaded into PowerPoint, animated, and saved as a gif. This process was very fun and I hope to make more animated scenes!

[the-ocean-is-trans]

i love almost everything about the world building in the wayfarers universe but the decision to have almost all humans be different variations of mixed brown people with no specific cultural heritage is aggravating as hell actually. it's great that becky chambers wanted to make the majority of humans in her universe people of color, and that does in fact reflect the global majority of humans now!! but it does add to the whole nat geo "in the future everyone is mixed race!" cultural erasure messaging. there have, in fact, been mixed race people as long as humans have existed. we exist now, and we will in the future. but we are NOT all the same, and for once i would love a sci fi story that includes people of color in a way that doesn't also strip us of our cultures. aesthetically the wayfarers universe is full of brown bodies, but we don't see any vestiges of their heritages blending into exodan culture. are any exodan foods related to any of the foods one might have eaten on earth prior to the creation of the fleet? what cultural artifacts would have survived and which ones wouldn't have? what root languages was ensk formed from?