So I picked up Ancillary Justice, with a little more research this time prior to purchase. Female author who won the Nebula award for it last year. I think it's her first book too.

At any rate in the first chapter what stood out, she uses "she" as the pronoun for everything, even going so far as to have her character (an AI) describe not being able to distinguish male from female. This is a non-earthen story so of course any liberties can be taken, but I always find things like this a bit forced. Maybe it'll serve the story in someway. Like when LeGuin did similar it was because the beings weren't male or female until mating season and (I think) even then they could go both ways from one season to the other.

There were no Jemisin books at B&N :( Also despite being the Nebula winner Ancillary Justice was tucked away on the shelf with only one copy. You'll also note on Amazon there's like a two week waiting period for the book.

Another thing I noticed, and I'd seen this before, but there's a whole separate teen fantasy (not sci-fi btw). It has some serious billing in the store. Shit like that didn't exist when I was coming up. Like there were no writers specifically writing sci fi and fantasy for kids. I wonder what that priming is like. Is the leap to adult stuff happening. And who are writing for these kids?

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."