books, enh

[psocoptera]

The Dragon And The Pearl, Jeannie Lin. A historical romance set in the Tang dynasty. I really wanted to like this - when was the last time you saw a historical romance set outside of the US or Europe (or somewhere colonized by Europe at the time of the story) - but the romance just did not work for me at all. I have no interest in taciturn alpha male heroes, for one thing - I either want funny, charming dudes eager to support the goals of the dubious heroine (Courtney Milan and Jennifer Crusie are great for this), or hardcore pining and genuinely fraught obstacles (Mary Balogh, Lavyrle Spencer).

A Thousand Pieces of You, Claudia Gray. I think I saw this recced somewhere out in fandom and got the impression the author might be someone in fandom, so I feel a little bit bad about panning it, but meh. I don't feel like I need my YA to "transcend" YA - I'm happy to enjoy perfectly good YA as YA - but it's often not a good sign when I'm saying "man, this is... really YA". There was some fun stuff in the last act (an action set-piece involving a mini submarine, and the question of whether, if you've fallen in love with someone, you're in love with all their alternate versions from alternate universes) but there was a lot of clunky exposition to wade through to get there. Also I am so over Which? Guy??!? plots. The one thing I really loved here was the main character complaining that of course she gets her period when she's in the slow-technology Imperial Russia dimension and not the futuristic dimension "where they probably had, like, miracle space tampons or something". I love it when fiction acknowledges the existence of menstruation as a thing some people have to take into account, and our heroine's mortification and culture shock over being helped by servants with it is a priceless scene. And it's just so clever and on-point - imagine if on Sliders every time they ended up somewhere with a modern tech level Wade was frantically trying to steal tampons, and then at some point she scores a moon cup and is like ha-HA, take that, primitive Earths. And now I sort of want all the menstruation fanfic - does Black Widow get periods? Does Wonder Woman? Does Supergirl? Is Pepper just permanently stuck in whatever part of her cycle she was in when they gave her the Extremis, or did it decide that a certain phase of it was "correct" and "heal" her to it? I'm thinking elves don't menstruate, but what about lady dwarves? What about Sif? Does Hermione magic her period away? In what space cultures (the Federation, the galactics in the Vorkosiverse, the Imperial Radch) do fertile-aged female-bodied persons typically not menstruate at all, or which handle it with the aforementioned miracle space tampons or other, uh, downstream solutions?

Comments

[sildra.livejournal.com]

I expect that no one menstruates in the Imperial Radch. I remember at some point it being mentioned that when someone wants to reproduce they have to have a routine surgical procedure first.

I expect that Hermione does not magic her period away, but rather has a magical old-style menstrual belt that Mrs. Weasley gave her, and tampons from her mother, and has to decide which is the lesser evil.

Lady dwarves definitely menstruate. Probably, like, a lot.

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

I assume--and we might have been explicitly told--that the Betan implant that goes with the earrings takes care of everything.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I likewise assumed that, but I've only read a few of those books (like, four, out of lots), so I didn't feel confident saying.

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

//obligatory mention of "Even the Queen"//

[aryky.livejournal.com]

I have to say, if you want to do a Menstruation fic series along the lines of the Thirty fic series, I would totally approve of this decision.

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

One of the first times I recall encountering menstruation in SF was a terrible-on-many-levels Harry Turtledove serial in Analog. Oh, yeah, and a Mary Caraker (sp?) story that almost succeeded in making the opposite point that it was trying to make. Which kind of cured me of hoping to see menstruation as plot point, though I remain delighted when it is slipped in naturally, almost as though it's a biological process fiftyish percent of the population just kind of deals with.