Anyone read The Stars Are Legion?

submitted by writerlylesbian from self.Lesbians

I just finished this book, and thought I would mention it here since it's a very lesbian SF novel, and I ended up liking it quite a lot.

It's by an author called Kameron Hurley (think she's married to a dude, so not a lesbian herself). I had previously read another trilogy of hers called The Bel Dame Apocrypha, which I thought was okay-ish but had some elements that I either didn't like or found a bit annoying.

Stars Are Legion was definitely more my thing. It's quite a dark novel, and it's set during a war so there's a fair bit of violence and gore which may not be to everyone's taste, but it does have a hopeful thread running through it which I personally prefer in my grimdark stories.

Short summary:

-Female only society. Men don't exist

-Everyone is a lesbian

-Characters live on 'worlds' that are basically giant organic ships

-The women spontaneously get pregnant and give birth to things their ship/world needs

-There's a war going on which is pretty brutal.

I won't say too much about the plot since I went into the book basically blind and probably enjoyed it more that way. It was just so nice to have a book that was all lesbians all the time. Especially since the characters were also interesting, complex, believable etc. I wish there were way more like that out there.

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[–]reader 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (4 children)

"-Everyone is a lesbian." Politician lesbian dystopia or are they genetically modified? "-The women spontaneously get pregnant and give birth to things their ship/world needs." Do they manage to kill rapist ships and end slavery? No lesbian society would have forced pregnancy. Is is classic straight woman fantasy.

[–]mangofruit 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I read it and absolutely hated it. I had such high hopes but there wasn't a single character I liked. Also maybe it was just the fact that the universe was obviously nothing like ours but I really didn't connect with any of the characters as lesbians because how can you really be a "lesbian society" when there are only other women? At that point it's just....a society entirely made up of women? It's not clear that the ships are part of the reproduction aspect either so the pregnancies are more of a random thing that just happens because even in this universe women must provide for the population. Honestly it all felt so contrived and pointless I skimmed through a fair bit of the middle, maybe if an actual lesbian had written the book it wouldn't have read so shittily but I definitely felt it was a weird straight lady fantasy.

[–]VioletRemi 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

For some reason, your description reminded me about one polish "comedy" movie "Sexmission: The New Amazons".

There was nuclear apocalypse, and only women survived in bunker. They found a way to clone/produce children without men involved. Two main heroes are men who were frozen in cryocapsula before the nukes happened, and they are awakening now in this world. They are finding out that all community is run by man crossdresser who is afraid to come out as man, and afraid to say to all the women in bunker that outside all nuclear fallout is gone and it is possible to live there. Main heroes "saving" the day by spreading the truth about outer world and by adding "cloning now will produce men in 50% instead of women 100%".

It is comedy, but for me it is funny for all the wrong rasons. Not for reasons authors intended. And reasons are - it describes current situation with women rights and women spaces. Crossdressing men are trying to control women, and then other men are "helping" or "saving" lesbian/women communities by infiltrating and "now 50% there are men". And funniest part of this all, is that movie was released in 1984. Orwellian "ha ha".

[–]VioletRemi 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Heh, I literally thought the same!

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well, it's pretty normalised for the women to feel sexual attraction towards each other, so they're definitely not political lesbians. There's a lot about the origins of the world that are left obscure, and the characters themselves don't fully know how/where they came from. It seems more like they just evolved that way.

The relationship with the ship is pretty much symbiotic, so it's not really a 'violent rapist' situation. Having said that, the women do have options if they don't want the pregnancies, or don't want to get pregnant at all. But the ability/potential of women to be able to birth new life is kinda an important part of the novel, so I guess if that's not appealing then it's probably best to steer clear. And yes, part of the point of the novel is that the relationship between the women and the ships have deteriorated, so it's not clear whether the weird pregnancies would be happening otherwise (very few of them give birth to children, for example).

[–]VioletRemi 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

Sounds pretty interesting, I like dark fantasy and dark sci-fantasy. So should be pretty nice.

However,

-The women spontaneously get pregnant and give birth to things their ship/world needs

So our bodies again used just as property by someone else, not ourselves. That is dissapointing.

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Copying & pasting the reply I made to someone else on this: The relationship with the ship is pretty much symbiotic, so it's not really a 'violent rapist' situation. Having said that, the women do have options if they don't want the pregnancies, or don't want to get pregnant at all. But the ability/potential of women to be able to birth new life is kinda an important part of the novel, so I guess if that's not appealing then it's probably best to steer clear. And yes, part of the point of the novel is that the relationship between the women and the ships have deteriorated, so it's not clear whether the weird pregnancies would be happening otherwise (very few of them give birth to children, for example).

[–]VioletRemi 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

It doesn't change much, it is still same situation.

It is not big turnover, if any at all. It just dissapointing, that even in lesbian utopia women are still not free to belong to themselves.

And in general, story sounds interesting to check out!

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

The novel isn’t really intended as a lesbian utopia, just a world that is all lesbian. Some of them are good, some bad, and there’s a war so a lot of them are killing each other.

[–]VioletRemi 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

It is dark fantasy after all.

[–]MyLongestJourney 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

The women spontaneously get pregnant and give birth to things their ship/world needs.

Ok this it the WTFest thing of all.

Speaking of some enjoyable romance/SF. I recommend some of Windstar's work :

North Star

http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/windstar_northstar.html and it's sequels.Direct sequel is Southern Cross

http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/windstar_southerncross1.html

Windstar also wrote some fantastic supernatural novels like Long Nights and Flight of Shadows.

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The pregnancy thing does make sense in the context of the world and the themes of the novel. Thanks for the recs!

[–]reluctant_commenter 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

That sounds fascinating! Will check it out.

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was a great read. Just wish it had a sequel instead of being a stand-alone!

[–]SailorMoon2020 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

This does sound good but since there's violence and gore...is there rape?

[–]writerlylesbian[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There isn't any rape. Having said that, not every character is a good character. However, what I would say is that though there are various conflicts, power plays etc. going on between different characters, they can all pretty much hold their own.

[–]Philliy 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll give it a go.