In Things Invisible to See, Schimel combines his interests in
LGBT and fantasy themes, producing a collection of LGBT-themed magic
realism. In his introduction, Schimel acknowledges the difficulty in
defining a term as broad as "magic realism". In the case of Things
Invisible, however, it's fair to say that magic realism encompasses
the broad generic territory between what we acknowledge as genre
fantasy and "realistic" or "mainstream" fiction. In the realm of magic
realism, everything might seem perfectly realistic, right up until Aunt
Petunia discovers a miniature unicorn grazing on the carpet under the
setee.
In the far-future utopian Galaxy of Stone, pervasive
nanotechnology has eliminated disease and poverty. War is a distant
memory. Crime is unknown. Or rather, almost unknown: the only
criminal in all the known Galaxy is Ae, a viscious serial killer,
stripped of nanotechnology and left to wither and die, buried inside a
star. Ae has nothing to lose when a disembodied voice makes a
proposition: freedom from the impregnable jailstar in exchange for the
commission of genocide. But, once freed, once faced with the task of
genocide, Ae is haunted by unresolvable questions. In a utopian
empire, who could aspire to genocide? And why?
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Looking for something to read? Something with gay techno-mages or lesbian starship captains, perhaps? Here is my first attempt to provide you with a reading list that gives you the information you need to help you choose the book that's right for you. Click here to go to the reading list.