QSFer Erika Erickson Malinoski has a new queer sci-fi book out (gender fluid, non-binary): Pledging Season.
On a world long-lost to Earth, brilliant scientist Ya’shul has everything a man could ask for: the honor of caring for his family, the opportunity to help conceive children, and a groundbreaking chance to prove he’s just as good at science as any woman. Despite the matriarchy he lives in, he’s poised to have it all—until the woman he loves gets sole credit for the discovery that should have made his career.
Only one person truly values what Ya’shul can do. Wanderer Andeshe knows the looming solar storms will destroy her people’s nomadic way of life—unless she and Ya’shul can work together to save the giant pterosaurs her family depends on. But as the unlikely allies plunge deeper into a web of shifting loyalties, ruthless politics, and fragile trust, they must wrestle with the toughest question of all. When is the price of success too high to pay?
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Excerpt
Chapter One
Ya’shul
Blindfolded, I can’t see the dawn, but I can hear it. Drums keep time until the sun rises, their pulsing sound vibrating in my bones and drowning out the noises that would normally reassure me I’m not alone. In reality, the rocky outcrop that serves as the fairground stage is crowded—debuting men kneel at the front, debuting women pound the giant heartbeat drums anchored behind us—but the drumbeats wash all that away. All that’s left is the feeling that the entire community is staring at me. I wipe sweaty palms on my pant legs, then catch myself and return my hands to my lap. Somewhere in the audience, my family is watching. I try not to shift as the rock beneath my knees pushes little thumbs of granite into my shins.
A shout cuts through the drumbeats, and their cadence quickens. Another shout, and a last thunderous roll sends echoes reverberating into the distance. In the following quiet, it seems as if all sound has vanished. Even the echoes of drums from neighboring mountaintop cities fade into silent anticipation.
There! A horn sounds, barely audible across the distance separating us from the capital’s mountain. Like a bursting dam, horns on other ridges take up the call, sound cascading across the range until our head priestess sounds ours. The notes fade, and our thousands of voices begin the hymn of thanksgiving sung at every spring equinox. I pour my heart into the traditional words: thanks to the winter rains for giving us food and thanks to the winter darkness for giving us respite from the desiccating heat of the sun. Thank you, Goddess, that this day is finally here.
At the end of the song, my heart is racing. Finally. Here. A cane taps on stone as Priestess Wekmet shuffles forward. “Welcome to this day!” The priestess’s words carry across the crowd, the amplification so subtle that their firm voice seems to come from the mountain itself. “Today, we give thanks for the winter that has nurtured us and prepared us to withstand the summer’s heat. We give thanks for our foremothers. Let us not forget their deeds.” I bow my head, as everyone does, and the priestess begins the recitation.
“When the waters of Earth rose, flames and storms scoured the land and drove our foremothers from their homes. They appealed for compassion, for justice, for a place where they could raise their children in safety, but they were cast out. They were cast out again and again until finally their last hope of welcome lay in the space colonies far from Earth. But they did not arrive at the colony that had grudgingly promised to take them in. Instead, they were stranded on this sun-scorched world, this dwelling place of monsters. Marooned, they forged a new life, carving a future out of this hostile planet through their perseverance and talent. For our foremothers, we give thanks.”
Author Bio
Erika Erickson Malinoski grew up in Michigan and now lives in New Jersey with her multi-generational family. In between, she earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan, taught secondary math and sex ed in California, and realized that the universe is very strange. She is a devout Unitarian Universalist.