These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (2024, Tachyon Publications)
English language
Published April 9, 2024 by Tachyon Publications.
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart is a vignette about working through guilt and self-loathing toward self-forgiveness.
There's a lot going on in terms of themes: gender, transhumanism, anarchy and fascism, cloning, all mixed into a more standard crime plot.
Although the main thread is satisfactorily wrapped up, there's definitely room to explore the world further - I want more Dora!
This is a cyberpunk noir novella about a trans woman who returns to her anarchist commune in the decaying remnants of Kansas City. Dora is as unwelcome as her parting shots were when she stormed out years ago, but now she's the only one who can solve the murder of her ex. Caught between two warring pharmaceutical companies, Dora faces shadows of her past.
I thought this was a lot of fun and really had a good noir vibe to Dora's perspective. Given it's quite short, I think there was an opportunity to add a little more to make her a little more well-rounded, flesh out the supporting characters a bit and add more dynamics to the commune (as much as I feel this with every novella, I'm starting to like the simplicity that comes with brevity). I did nevertheless enjoy it and it was paced well for its length. …
This is a cyberpunk noir novella about a trans woman who returns to her anarchist commune in the decaying remnants of Kansas City. Dora is as unwelcome as her parting shots were when she stormed out years ago, but now she's the only one who can solve the murder of her ex. Caught between two warring pharmaceutical companies, Dora faces shadows of her past.
I thought this was a lot of fun and really had a good noir vibe to Dora's perspective. Given it's quite short, I think there was an opportunity to add a little more to make her a little more well-rounded, flesh out the supporting characters a bit and add more dynamics to the commune (as much as I feel this with every novella, I'm starting to like the simplicity that comes with brevity). I did nevertheless enjoy it and it was paced well for its length. Avoiding spoilers here, but I also liked the trans take on a particular old sci-fi trope and how it played into a good discussion about the nature of identity.
I haven't read a lot of noir, probably because it's always seemed just a bit too cynical. 'These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart' translates noir into a dystopian near future with an anarchist commune and a trans MC, still feels like it has a lot of the key components of noir, but has so much more heart as it wrestles with what it is to be human, particularly a flawed one trying to find one's way in the world.
