My Life As A Weapon - Nyxnissa so Dasheem

[bookgazing]

“You hate everything I am,” Nyx said softly. “But you’re still out here with me. Is that it?” … “Is it that you have to take care of her out there? But out here–” she carefully moved her hands to his neck, lightly, as if by accident. It was freeing, really. She figured they’d all be dead by morning. “Out here I take care of you.”

It’s putting it mildly to say that I have strong opinions about Nyxnissa so Dasheem, the protagonist of Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocraphya trilogy. In an interview with Liz Bourke Hurley said that ‘at some level, Nyx acknowledges that she’s monstrous. And so do the people around her.’ I have a hard time leaving monstrous ladies alone. Without fail, I want more time with these characters than their stories want to provide. Finding a trilogy where I could spend hours basking in the SFF story of a tough, tired, morally compromised woman was a great literary gift.

( There be monsters (and spoilers for the whole trilogy) here. )

Supplemental Materials

SFF in Conversation: Kameron Hurley on A Complexity of Desires: Expectation of Sex & Sexuality in Science Fiction
The first three chapters of "God’s War", "Infidel" and "Rapture"
Free Short Fiction from the "God’s War" Universe
Sleeps with Monsters: Kameron Hurley Answers Six Questions
Lady Business+ - Episode #1: God’s War