Wednesday, March 15, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bang Bang Bodhisatva by Aubrey Wood

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC Audiobook (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 9 2023 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


Bang Bang Bodhisatva is the debut novel of trans Kiwi (from New Zealand) author Aubrey Wood. The novel features a cyberpunk world that is just a decade beyond our own somehow but which includes a ton of geek references that are very in your face - subtlety this book is not. It also features a trans woman protagonist in a world that has only gotten worse for people who don't fit the cis white gender norm, with fascist police still prejudiced as hell even despite technology perhaps making changing your body even easier than ever before. It takes this world and pairs that protagonist with an older private eye for a sort of buddy-cop-esque atmosphere (young hacker "kid" (age 30) and older former cop PI!) as they deal with a serious of strange murders that pull them in.

And parts of the novel work better than others - for example, the lead duo work really well as characters, especially geeky hacker trans woman Kiera, as she tries to be who she really is amongst a world that makes that incredibly hard, finds a possible love who turns out missing or dead, and winds up on the run with a man who feels way too often to be from an older generation. Kiera's great and her story is really well done, and second lead Angel is solid as the gruff noir-ish detective who is somewhat old fashioned while also being open to the new (and being Ace himself), even if less of a highlight. But the constant geek references kind of are offputting and sometimes threw me out of the narrative, as the novel at times wants to feel far in the future cyberpunk and at other times wants to feel like its set basically tomorrow, and it makes things very awkward. The result is a novel that I enjoyed but didn't quite love.

Trigger Warning: Police Brutality, Homophobia, Transphobia and Deadnaming, Racism, Suicide as backstory, Self-Harm.


-----------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------

Kiera was just looking for some extra cash when she agreed to put her hacking skills to work helping Herrera, an older out of date (well to her anyway) PI on a mission to discover some dude cheating. She didn't expect to get shot at or to get a broken nose, and so she refuses to work for him again. But paying the costs of her underground hormone therapy and for her transition and to keep the homophobic landlord from evicting her and her polycule-mates Sky and Jinx is rough, so when she gets an offer from Herrera for one more job for a lot of money, she can't turn him down.

For Angel Herrera, the job seems simple and tangled in his own personal past: a job from his ex to look into the shady dealings of her husband Malcolm, Angel's old friend and partner. But when Herrera and Kiera look into it they find a stunner: that Malcolm has been murdered by a killer leaving a special signature at the scene, and that Malcolm had a connection to Kiera as well.

Soon a prejudiced as hell cop is chasing Kiera and Herrera, believing them to be the natural suspects, and they discover a second mystery - a missing new lover of Kiera's and a severed bloody hand at the crime scene. The only way to survive is for Kiera and Herrera to work together to figure out what's going on here...and even that might not be enough to stop the fascist cops from ruining their lives.....

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Bang Bang Bodhisattva is a book that's ostensibly set in 2032, although its world always feels rather weird in terms of time - the cyperpunk setting feels far future, like at least 30 years in our future, but the references being made by the characters are to our time and before, with Kiera being 30 years old and Herrera being about 15 years older and both making references to our time or beyond (in Herrera's case). The references, usually to geek material, are very overt and sometimes feel like out of place in the tone of this novel, where you might expect newer games and ideas to take their place in Kiera and her friends' dialogue...although to be fair the book does feature a brand new high tech World of Warcraft-like analogue in VR as a plot point even among the references which fills some of that category (although the frequent references made me think that the fake new sci-fi game was an old game I hadn't heard of for a bit).

This is also a world where two trends from our current present has increased - the system has gotten increasingly unfriendly to those who diverge from the norm, with cops being more powerful, transitioning being more expensive and privatized, and homophobic/racist people in power having more free reign and at the same time people who don't fit in with the norm like trans, LGB, otherwise queer people have become more and more willing to be out there, even in the face of that prejudice and all the mental stress and pain it causes. And so we have Kiera who is openly transitioning after realizing she was a girl from playing her VR game (and seeing a friend who was pressured by homophobic parents commit suicide) and her polycule openly trying to be themselves (complete with Kiera having modified ears to be elf ears) and yet also have Herrera, who doesn't know his own queerness and legally changed his name and adjusted his skin a bit to make himself appear more White to avoid such prejudice.

Once you get through the geek references, this world and its two main characters work really well, especially with Kiera. Kiera is a fascinating lead for how all over the place she is due to the struggles she faces in this world: she may have a polycule of two others she loves in Sky and Jinx, but she's also struggling with the costs of hormones and transitioning (like vocal surgery to adjust her voice), with having lost her best friend with who she discovered her true self in a VR game, and with her finding a new crush at a party in a fellow trans/non-binary gamer...who then goes missing. She's got a strong fear and hatred for fascist cops, who are prejudiced as hell against her for being trans (and in a sign of how she learned she was trans, how she had her ears modified into elf ears), and so the plot finding her on the run as a result of those cops wanting her as a suspect for murders of people she cares about is the utter worst. And it doesn't help that Herrera is clearly from an older generation, and is in denial a little bit about how the world is even as he tries to make it possible for himself to adapt, and is the only one Kiera can trust to help her.

For Angel/Herrera meanwhile, like I said, there's a lot of denial. He knows the world is shit and how awful the cop - a former squadmate - on their tails is, but he has tried to cope with it all...he legally changed his name to a more White sounding Jones and even changed his skin, and when he deals with the ex he once had (and might still have) feelings for, he's in a bit of denial over what she may have done. And he doesn't quite understand his own sexuality and why he doesn't like sex (he's ace) or why that ruined part of his past relationships. That and his older likes and lack of full understanding of new elements of the world frequently gets him into trouble, and prevents him from fully understanding Kiera.

And the plot does some really interesting things with the two, particularly in how it resolves things like the Murder Mystery at the book's heart. A simple explanation of a murder this is not, nor is the revealed murderer obvious (at the start) or their motives non-complex...nor is how Kiera and Herrera wind up dealing with them (not to spoil) something you might expect. Our characters here are good people but they're complex and have problems, and the situation here isn't black and white...which leads to some pretty interesting and curious choices near the end...but ones that work.

The result is a novel whose plot and characters are fascinating, where there's some really excellent explorations of sexuality and gender and more and the struggle against a growing worse society, but is a bit undermined by the geek references being overboard at times. There's a really good novel here undermined by some choices, but this is still a strong debut and one I recommend giving a try if you want Queer Cyperpunk Lit.

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