Sunday, May 31, 2020

2020/061: Out of Office -- Gregory Ashe

“Do they cause trouble?”
“They’re a bunch of douchey white guys in a lesbian bar,” Bud said. “That is the trouble.” [loc. 96]

Four short stories and a set of vignettes featuring North and Shaw, the protagonists of the Borealis trilogy, at various points before, during and after the main arc of the books. The stories are mostly lightweight, comic relief, and three out of the four feature cute animals (goats, dogs).

This was a quick read and not wholly satisfactory. At some points Shaw's flakiness felt exaggerated; at another point, North exhibited a level of potentially-violent possessive behaviour that I wasn't entirely comfortable with.

Best story of the bunch was 'Bad Boys at the Radio Girls', about North and Shaw meeting their secretary Pari and helping her deal with a group of privileged white college boys who are causing problems at a local lesbian bar. The characterisation here is closer to that of the main trilogy, and it was fun to meet Pari outside the office.

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