Science Fiction – Page 9 – Made of Stardust and Stubbornness

“Seeds for the Swarm” Review

Posted on March 26, 2023October 14, 2024 by Jen

“Seeds for the Swarm” by Sim Kern

Rylla McCracken dreams of escaping her family’s trailer in the Dust States to go to college, but on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, her mother demands she drop out of school to work for Lockburn chemical refinery instead. When Rylla learns Lockburn is planning to dam the Guadalupe River-the last flowing water in Texas-she defies her mother to protest in the state capital. The protest ends in disaster, but her ensuing viral infamy gains Rylla an acceptance to the mysterious Wingates University.

Review

First I want to say I really enjoyed this book. However I wish I had known going in that it was actually part one in a series and the ending doesn’t actually resolve any of the various plot points that come up in the story. It’s not a hard cliffhanger where someone is about to die horribly, but it is a story that needs resolution that won’t happen until the next book. This is more about me though – when I read a series I like it best when each book mostly stands on its own with a resolved plot at the end. Anything else is just frustrating – especially when I don’t know when the next part is coming. I may have gone ahead and read the book anyway knowing this but I would have liked to know what I was getting into.

However all that said – the book is worth reading, especially if you don’t mind unresolved endings, because the characters are great. Sure they’re teenagers and the main character Rylla, makes some ridiculous choices but she is a teenager, and going through a lot of changes. It should be noted I was always a rule follower so don’t have any awareness of what is actually reasonable when it comes to teenage shenanigans. It’s also a book where kids or teenagers have to save the world which I’ve gotten a bit tired of but it felt realistic given our current world. The book may be set in the future with even worse damage from climate change but it’s a future we could very easily end up in. The emphasis on how rich white people will always able to survive comfortably while everyone else suffers is exactly how it is now.

And yes, it’s likely I’ll read the next book as soon as it comes out…

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Seeds for the Swarm”.

Book Details

Book cover for Seeds for the Swarm. a person with shaggy light brown hair and white skin is on the cover sideways looking up in. In the background are various colors and green flying bugs at the top of the cover.

Author’s Website: Sim Kern
Publisher / Date: Stelliform Press, March 2023
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Page Count: 440
Completion Date: March 26, 2023

Books Finished so far in 2023

Posted on March 12, 2023October 5, 2024 by Jen

Below are the books I’ve read so far in 2023, not necessarily in order within the month of completion.

Books Finished in January

Nophek Gloss The Graven #1, by Essa Hansen: I liked the characters though the plot was a bit confusing and sometimes frustrating, but I still enjoyed it. I will need to check out the next book.
Black Sun – Between Earth and Sky #1, by Rebecca Roanhorse: This was a really interesting book. I enjoyed the different points of view characters their stories as things progressed. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jonny Sun as Jomny Sun: A surprise graphic novel! It was a fun read.
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Zelda Knight, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spiritand Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, edited by Joshua Whitehead: This applies to the above two because I’m saying the same about both. I really enjoyed the stories in both anthologies. They each have a lot of interesting characters and stories about the characters. As with any anthology I read I look forward to looking up the various authors and seeing what else they have written.

Books Finished in February

Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: This was an interesting read – some history I already new about and some I did not. There was a lot of stuff I would say is important for us to know.
The Vanished Birdsz by Simon Jimenez: The way this story unfolded took some getting used to but I really ended up enjoying it. There’s a lot going on and a single paragraph can span several years which makes things even more interesting. The characters make it all wroth it.

Books Finished in March so far

Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor’s Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11 by Lila Nordstrom: I really enjoyed reading this and I feel like I learned a lot about the aftermath of 9/11 from the point of view of people like Lila – people who lived near the towers. There’s a lot I had never heard about or realized. Also a lot comparisons to be made about what is going on now with COVID

Disability in Science Fiction

Posted on July 16, 2022October 5, 2024 by Jen

Note: Originally posted on https://jenrohrigdesign.com/

I wanted to include Science Fiction as a subject for this blog because it is my favorite genre and has been since I was very young. It’s also always been something I’ve wanted to see more and better disability representation in. Everyone wants to see themselves in media portrayals, including disabled people. Unfortunately the quality of disability portrayals is often lacking, Science Fiction for example, favors the idea of curing everything. It’s not that cures are always bad but often it ends up seeming like it’s more about convenience more than need. Take Geordi La Forge on Star Trek The Next Generation for example. He was Blind and used a VISOR to see. In one episode he visits Doctor Pulaski to find out there was a way to update his VISOR because it was causing headaches. It starts off reasonable – he’s having pain so he should see if there’s a solution. But Doctor Pulaski seemed to just jump to the idea of giving him “real” eyes instead of fixing the VISOR. There’s some additional details and it could have been something Gordie was interested in but it ended up feeling like she cared more about giving him “real” eyes instead of improving his quality of life. There’s a difference between someone choosing something for themselves and having it encouraged by a doctor for convenience. There’s many other examples if disability in Star Trek that are just as frustrating. Its annoying have my favorite TV show franchise do things so badly when it comes to disability. Even when the get some things right they ultimately fail at it.

But I don’t want to spend this entire post talking about Star Trek and it’s issues. I’d rather talk about some books I’ve read that had good portrayals of disability, written by disabled people. Here’s the thing about disabled people – we figure a lot of things out on our own because often no one will do it for us, or only focuses on what they think is important. So of course we’ll write our own stories and when we write our own stories they’re not all doom and gloom or about pity. They can be angry and scared and painful but there’s also hope and fighting for what we need. And survival, because that’s what we’ve always done.

Fiction

“On the Edge of Gone” by Corinne Duyvis – an apocalyptic science fiction story with an autistic main character (written by an author who is also autistic), set in 2035 and it begins with a comet about to hit Earth. The main character, Denise, is trying to deal with the fact that her sister is currently missing and a mother who doesn’t seem to understand or care about the urgency of the situation. Once they do reach safety it’s all about Denise trying to find her sister while also dealing with the assumptions of everyone around her.

Note: I’ve used the author’s stated language preferences. The author has a few other science fiction novels that I haven’t yet read and co-founder and editor of Disability in Kidlit. Check out the author’s website here: https://www.corinneduyvis.net/

“Accessing the Future: A Disability-Themed Anthology of Speculative Fiction” edited by Kathryn Allan and Djibril al-Ayad. The book contains stories by fifteen disabled authors and nine artists. There are a lot of different types of stories in the book with a lot of different ideas about how to do things. Be sure to read both the preface and introduction for some good information about the intent of the book.

“Defying Doomsday” and the follow up “Rebuilding Tomorrow,” anthologies edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench – In a lot of media about the end of the world disabled people are usually left behind die or end up sacrificing themselves to save others. It’s usually seen as noble because the disabled person would slow everyone down or be a burden. In these stories the disabled characters save themselves and keep on going. Again there are a lot of different kinds of stories here. The follow up book has both sequels to stories in the previous book and new stories.

Non-Fiction

“Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism” by Elsa Sjunneson. Written mostly during the pandemic and released late last year. She mixes personal stories with deafblind history and criticisms of portrayals of disability in various mediums.Note: deafblind or DeafBlind is intentionally written without the space and is the preferred way for many in the deafblind community.

“Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space” by Amanda Leduc – this one is about fantasy portrayals of disability more than science fiction but the point is still the same. Disfigured is a collection of essays that Amanda has written detailing several different types of disability portrayals in media and the stereotypes and assumptions that often go with them.