Six Books with M. Darusha Wehm

M. Darusha Wehm is the Nebula Award-nominated and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning author of the interactive fiction game The Martian Job, as well as over a dozen novels including the Andersson Dexter cyberpunk detective series and the humorous coming-of-age novel The Home for Wayward Parrots. Darusha is a member of the Many Worlds writing collective and their short fiction and poetry have appeared in many venues, including Strange Horizons, Fireside, and Nature. Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Wellington, New Zealand after several years sailing the Pacific. Find them online at https://darusha.ca.

Today they tell us about their Six Books!

1. What book are you currently reading?

I’ve had it on my shelf since it came out, but only just started The Book of Flora by Meg Elison. It’s the third and final book in the “Road to Nowhere” series, which starts with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. The whole series is an incredible, post-apocalyptic saga of the struggles of communities in dark times. I’ve loved the two previous books in the series, but while the books offer stories of human resilience, they are also harrowing to read, so I’ve had to space them out in my reading time.  

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

I have a few series books on my pre-order list (The Ghosts of Trappist by K. B. Wagers and A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas) but the standalone book I’m most looking forward to is The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. I really enjoyed their previous books Autonomous and The Future of Another Timeline, and I can’t wait to see what Newitz does with a story about creating an entirely new world with new problems. And it’s got a moose. A moose!

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I read The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach when it first was published in New Zealand in 2019, and I loved the rich worldbuilding and lush prose. I’m really looking forward to seeing the changes to the 2022 Saga Press edition, and get to spend some more time in this wild, fungal, queer, piratey world.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about – either positively or negatively?

Friends had been recommending the Vorkosigan Saga to me for years, but I bounced off the military sci fi/galactic empire vibes. However, a few years ago repeated entreaties from members of my speculative fiction book club got me to read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold and I adored it. I realized that the militaristic setting didn’t preclude excellent (and funny!) character studies. I’ve now gone back to the beginning of the series and am currently ten more books in.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

I first read The Color Purple by Alice Walker as a teen, and it is the book I’ve reread the most times in my life. I’ve never not owned a copy. On every reread it reminds me of the empathic power of storytelling to allow us to experience a taste of another life, which is the thing I love most about fiction.  

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

Hamlet, Prince of Robots is exactly what it says on the cover — Elsinore is a cybernetics corporation and Hamlet is an android. It’s a beat-by-beat retelling, so fans of the original will have lots of fun seeing how this classic tragedy has been updated to a future, technological setting. But I also tried to make sure that it stands on its own robotic feet, so you certainly don’t need to be a Shakespeare scholar to enjoy it. 

Thank you!

NB: A review of Hamlet, Prince of Robots, will be forthcoming from NOAF later this month.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.