Spear, by Nicola Griffith

This is a very good after-dinner read, a solid re-telling of one of the Arthurian stories, the tale of Percival (the afterword is very worth reading where Griffith goes into the naming). A historical name for Percival is Peretur, which our protagonist goes by. In this telling Peretur has a secret (though not a plot twist, so I'm not giving anything away)--Peretur started out as a girl, Dawnged or Tal depending on her mother's mood. Peretur's pronouns remain female throughout, she is simply built and destined to be a knight in a circumstance where women aren't knights.

Queer retellings still fill a void, though they are not as new and fresh as they were a decade ago. Now you have to seriously bring the narrative skills in order to expand the space. Nicola Griffith is a master and does this effectively.

Hild, by Nicola Griffith

I've been reading Hild, Nicola Griffith's novel that was nominated for a Nebula last year.  It tells the story of St. Hilda of Whitby as a young woman.  Not much is known about her, other than a very scant historical record, so Griffith made up a childhood and young womanhood worthy of St. Hilda.  Considering that she started as a younger child of a killed noble and ended up a key advisor to kings, she must have been pretty special.

Hild becomes a "seer", mostly by being very intelligent and observant.  She has a true feel for politics and guides her king (Edwin, overking of the Angles) through a lot of tough scrapes.  The book has both sex and violence, but isn't particularly dramatic.  It is, however, interesting, and held me to it all the way to the end.  I wouldn't say it builds, but it never lags.  The characters are strong and fully developed.  It's a good read.

What it's not is speculative fiction.  There are absolutely no fantasy, supernatural or speculative scientific elements in it anywhere.  It's historical fiction.  That's fine, but why a Nebula nomination?  The author?  Griffith is best known as a speculative fiction writer, so she has fans willing to vote for her work and get it an award nomination.  But if this is speculative, anything is.  Two stars for breaking category.

It Takes Two, by Nicola Griffith

Just finished another Hugo contender, It Takes Two by Nicola Griffith. This story mostly centers around the lead character and how she falls in love with an exotic dancer in Atlanta. The lesbian angle makes it very 21st century. And it is quite well crafted, a good read. The science part, about how an experimenter managed to induce that love, reads like something that would very much be possible today, for an unethical researcher. Pretty interesting, but it feels slightly gimmicky to me and I can't give it 3 stars.