for science, you monster

Ok, before I say anything about baking, the coming winter, reading or my job, I need you to run, not walk over to Kameron Hurley's website and pick up your free e-copies of God's War and Infidel. coffeeandink offers a non-spoilery summary which I agree with:

"Brief note: Nightshade is offering the first two books of Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame for free until tomorrow. I like these a lot; I think of them as Cherryh + Gwyneth Jones + bugs. They have an all POC and majority Muslim cast, and there is a precision and sometimes a black wit to the observations. I have some reservations about the world-building: a desert planet in a state of perpetual warfare seems to be drawing on some problematic Western stereotypes of the Middle East. But my overwhelming impression from reading them is not "Muslims are fucked up and also way too fond of violence" but "humans are fucked up and also way too fond of violence." It's notable -- and frequently noted -- that for Hurley this means women just as much as men. She has a story collection called Brutal Women and it could just as well be the Bel Dame series subtitle."

Other than Melijan Brook's Iron Sea novels, which I find highly enjoyable despite their foul, colonial aftertaste, Hurley offers us a world where Islam as religious focal point and Muslim society as cultural frame of reference are the mainstream, but there is no oppressed, white class or christian minority that has to be liberated or which forms a narrative counterpoint. (Atheists yes, but Nyx isn't exactly a role model or known for her healthy life choices).

Go, look, download, spread the word!