Iryu and eir’s Master run a ship powered by pain magic. When a well known politician enters their ship looking for emergency transport, both Iryu and eir’s Master have no idea what the trip will bring them and their relationship.

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Why this story?: Once again, my friend Corey introduced me to this one. I knew the author from twitter, but had been looking for some of eir’s stories.

Note: The Need for Overwhelming Sensation is a story within Capricious, Issue #1. This review is only for Takács’s piece.

I hadn’t known how alluring Takács writing would be, but let me promise you this. When you open something e has written, you will be drawn in, and you won’t be released until you have finished. Takács will draw you in with eir’s writing style, building the world around you as you read. Once I opened the link to the story, I was done for. I kept telling myself: “you can read this tomorrow, it’s time to go to bed.” But the next thing I knew, the story was over, and it was much later in the night.

Takács didn’t waste time with lots of world building, instead deciding to build it up as you read. While it is confusing at first, you get the handle of the world as the story goes on, giving you the perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy. I wanted to know more, and Takács kept teasing me, giving more information, but holding so much more back. E gives you morsels, giving you laws and place names, and people, but never enough to satisfy me. It was cruel, and yet it was a clever way to draw someone into the story. 

I loved the characters as well. In honesty, The Need for Overwhelming Sensation was my first story with a character using neopronouns. What’s best is that Takács uses the same pronouns as Iryu, so you not only know eir’s portrayal is accurate, but also honest. Iryu’s Master was also an alluring character, with how little information was given about them, but also how they treated Iryu. I especially loved how Iryu’s Master defended Iryu’s use of e/em/eir pronouns when e was misgendered.

In addition to that–neutral pronouns were used for ALL characters unless it was revealed which pronouns they used. It really helped me visualize the characters for who they really were.

Final Rating: ★★★★★

Overall?

I was not disappointed by my first story of Bogi Takács. E is a wonderful, amazing author, and I cannot wait to read more of eir’s work. Not only does e use neopronouns in eir’s own story, but e also includes a multitude of other character with a variety of pronouns.

Would I Recommend?

If you’re looking for diverse science fiction/fantasy, then read this one. It’s short, it’s captivating, and you can find it easily on Capricious’s site. The world, the characters, and the writing are all so beautiful and riveting.

Trigger warning for brief misgendering and violence/gore (non-graphic).

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Additional Information:

Published: September 21st, 2015

Publisher: Capricious

Page Count: ~11

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: via prezzey.net/speculative-fiction/

Space magic and copious amounts of trans people!