psocoptera (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
psocoptera) wrote2023-02-02 09:29 pm
psocoptera) wrote2023-02-02 09:29 pm
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Across a Field of Starlight
Across a Field of Starlight, Blue Delliquanti, 2022 graphic novel. I started reading this back in the fall, and I got about halfway and it wasn't quite clicking for me somehow, and so I let myself get distracted by other things. And then I picked it up today and read it cover to cover and I loved it. I'm not sure what made the difference - just mood, or being able to focus better by being somewhat limited in options at present (our covid isolation situation is complicated and also I am the kind of sick where I have to pace myself really carefully in terms of housework). But, anyways, I'm glad I came back to it!
Delliquanti has described this book as a teen from a Star Wars society becoming pen pals with a teen from a Star Trek society - it's about cultural worldviews, and cultures coming into conflict, and also the more personal ways that you can know someone for a long time and still not get important things about their cultural context. It's about means and ends and the possibility of self-actualization in a society that guarantees basic needs and also the scariness of that as a sudden possibility. It's really beautifully drawn - Delliquanti's colors and backgrounds and character designs are all terrific - and it's queer in a sort of "obviously the future is hella queer" way while also making that important to certain character arcs and relationships. It's a neat story, we get to see interesting multi-dimensional conflicts while keeping a very personal focus, and there was a page that made me cry. I would love to see this sneak onto the Hugo ballot... the "On a Sunbeam/Mooncakes/Lore Olympus slot", you might call it?
Delliquanti has described this book as a teen from a Star Wars society becoming pen pals with a teen from a Star Trek society - it's about cultural worldviews, and cultures coming into conflict, and also the more personal ways that you can know someone for a long time and still not get important things about their cultural context. It's about means and ends and the possibility of self-actualization in a society that guarantees basic needs and also the scariness of that as a sudden possibility. It's really beautifully drawn - Delliquanti's colors and backgrounds and character designs are all terrific - and it's queer in a sort of "obviously the future is hella queer" way while also making that important to certain character arcs and relationships. It's a neat story, we get to see interesting multi-dimensional conflicts while keeping a very personal focus, and there was a page that made me cry. I would love to see this sneak onto the Hugo ballot... the "On a Sunbeam/Mooncakes/Lore Olympus slot", you might call it?
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(And more generally, thank you for all your posts about stuff you’ve read.)
One question: the publisher describes this as a romance, but the publisher also quotes a review that says “full of love yet aromantic.” Would you consider it to be a romance as such? (I ask for expectation-setting purposes—I don’t want to approach the book with a romance lens if that’s going to reduce my enjoyment of it.)
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Also thank you! Always happy if anyone is finding anything interesting in my recs. :)