All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders; TOR Books, $25.99
The speculative fiction genre of books received a welcome reinvigoration with last month's publication of San Francisco-based genderqueer and trans woman writer Charlie Jane Anders' debut science fiction novel All the Birds in the Sky. Her more mainstream coming-of-age novel Choir Boy, a Lambda Literary and Edmund White award winner, debuted in 2005 and was a hit among the YA crowd. It featured a 12-year-old boy named Berry who, as Anders did as a child growing up in New England, enjoys choral music and finds that performing such divine material brings much-needed joy to a life struggling with bickering parents. Berry's adolescent physical changes fire up a desperation in him to prevent his voice from changing, but the female hormones he begins to administer alter his universe both physically and socially.
Perhaps more impressive than Choir Boy is Anders' new book, a literary work which ingeniously crosses several genres and follows teenaged misfit best friends Patricia Delfine and Lawrence Armstead, who each discover magical gifts in their youth. These gifts �" good witch Patricia can communicate with animals, and budding tech-whiz Lawrence invented a two-second time machine supercomputer �" bond them when they are both sent away to a prison-esque private school.
The novel picks up an intensive amount of steam (and dark humor) when it becomes dystopian as both kids meet again as adults in their 20s at a dub step party in San Francisco, where they "infodump," puff on an "elf-shaped bong" on the couch, and collectively panic and match magical wits over the decimation of the Earth due to climate alterations, disease, and global food shortages.
Against all odds, Patricia and Lawrence fall in love and combine their efforts to save the world: Patricia and her witchy cohorts bend wills and sway personalities, while Lawrence joins a geek squad called the Ten Percent Project, which is busy toiling away to open an access wormhole to another planet to propel a 10th of the population into the interstellar environs as a rescue and revival effort.
With immense flair, it's a fantastical vision of the near-future, where Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City still manages to make it into shoulder bags, and super-smart cellphones called Caddies run on interpersonal serendipity and aren't just for "Mission hipsters" anymore.
As cerebral technology and magical forces intertwine and spark with some positive results, the problems surmount right alongside them. Anders strikes a mesmerizing blend of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural fun, while incorporating social and mechanical wizardry and mismatched romance to boot.
Professionally, Anders is a very busy writer, serving as editor-in-chief of science fiction and fantasy Gawker Media geek-tastic website io9.com, and as co-creator of Other magazine with her partner, the writer Annalee Newitz. She hosts the San Francisco monthly reading series Writers with Drinks, and boasts a highly interesting list of past works, including the crossdressing manual The Lazy Crossdresser (Greenery Press), which gives readers permission to properly and fearlessly crossdress. Anders has a two-book deal with her publisher TOR, so as this novel solidifies her place on the sci-fi map, fans will be eagerly awaiting what she comes up with next as a breakthrough San Francisco writer to watch.