Genre: Sci-Fi, Spy; Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Lesbian, Non-Binary, Poly, Trans MTF
Reviewer: Beáta
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About The Book
Ismat’s dating life is terrible, and a lot of it has to do with honesty. Not that he doesn’t want to be honest, he just can’t – or it will ruin his life. He can’t tell anyone he works for the Dominion Security Bureau counter-terrorism division; he can’t tell his date who his father is, even if he knows them, and he most definitely can’t tell them how he actually feels about the gender he has to wear.
A possible security breach in the Bureau means that he and his immediate boss are the only people who can be trusted with a case. Things rapidly become more complicated as the Bureau’s Director pulls two foreign agents into the mix. More complicated than others because Ismat finds one of them very attractive, something which he would rather the agent not know. Unfortunately – she’s telepathic.
When the investigation leads them to a women-only charity event, Ismat finds some use for the dresses kept in the back of the closet and finds out that having a partner who knows what you think is not such a bad thing.
The Review
Ismat works for a secret organization focussing on domestic threats, and this pretty much takes up his entire life. When a deep-seated terrorist plot is discovered only a few moments before it’s too late, he, his boss, his boss’ boss, and two foreign agents set out on a race against the clock to uncover the plot and stop the terrorists in time. In order to do so, Ismat needs to go undercover as a woman, and work closely with one of the agents, an incredibly attractive telepath.
… and that is the plot of the book. What is missing from it, is everything that makes this novel interesting: The futuristic society it is set in, that is, however, very deeply eugenist. The way that they have technology that can keep them from ageing, and even rebuild their bodies overnight to be a different gender, but where the gender binary is still very much enforced. The eugenics, oh dear, the eugenics. The other nations, and the ways that their views on sex and gender differ from the one that the book is set in. Heck, even the brain implants that augment their thinking speeds, and the fact that some of these people have genetically inherited superpowers would be very much worth talking about.
Unfortunately, much like me, the author didn’t inform us of these things from the get-go. Instead, the reader is left to figure them out along the way. Here, I need to stress that 1) this book is part of a series, 2) it is being sold as a standalone novel within that series, and 3) in my personal opinion, a basic introduction of the world should be an automatic part of every new book, even when the reader has probably read the ones that came before. Even if you disregard 3), the way that this novel has been marketed is bound to attract some new readers. (Me being one of them.)
I needed some exposition at the beginning, telling me about the world that this is set in. Or at least some extratextual documents. This way, getting into the story is extremely difficult, as you don’t understand the context that these characters exist in, and, therefore, cannot fully understand their motivations, why they react to things the way that they do, and the stakes of the mission, either. On a more personal note, I should mention that Bialik has managed to create a society that for me, personally, would be an absolute Hell to exist in, and then dropped me in the middle of it to figure out the rules for myself.
Long story short, it was not a smooth reading experience.
That having been said, around halfway through, I really sped up. So I am going to assume that I did get into the story eventually (I still don’t quite understand what is going on with the Director’s family, though). And I don’t really have any further complaints. The world looks interesting from what I did understand, the science fiction background gave the author the possibility to play around with both sex and gender quite freely, the action was nice, the cover is very beautiful, the writing style nice to read.
I am very sorry that I could not like this book. But there was simply too much information missing for me to connect with it. By the time I figured out more or less what the world looks like, it was already too late.
The Reviewer
Beáta Fülöp is an aspiring filmmaker and writer. She identifies as aromantic and asexual, and has an autistic Special Interest in the representation of minorities. One day, she will use this knowledge in her own stories. Until then, she is happy to sit here and give her opinion on other people’s hard work.