Akiva Reads

by John Joseph Adams, An Owomoyela, Mari Ness, Haris A. Durrani, Tora Greve, Seanan McGuire, Wole Talabi, Tim Pratt, Elizabeth Hand, Hugh Howey, Gabrielle de Cuir

Still trying to think what to say about this. The narrative hums along, very readable (or listenable, in this case). The premise---what if there was an actual test you could (or had to) take to prove your gender?---is an interesting one, as long as the reader keeps in mind that it's an oversimplification of how our culture assigns genders.

I think, at the end of it, I'm just incredibly annoyed that I thought this was a story about two trans women, one who passes and one who doesn't want to, and how they navigate a mostly cis female environment. Also, the narrator is tough and wants to be a badass and doesn't always think first, and you never get female characters like that. Actually, the narrator's a straight trans man and John is a gender non-conforming cis man who just reallllly wants to be a nurse. ARGH!! It came off as All About The Menz, and I'm not sure what conclusion we're supposed to draw from John's experience. The whole thing just doesn't work the way the author probably intended it to.