Potential Energy

February 14, 2022
This heartfelt sci-fi romance from Fielding (Teddy Spencer Isn’t Looking for Love) follows Haz Taylor, smuggler and erstwhile Coalition navy pilot, as he fights his way out of a political trap in a queernorm far future. Haz is desperate to fly again, so when a former superior from the Coalition hires him to transport an artifact to a distant world, he doesn’t ask questions. But when his “cargo” turns out to be Mot, a naive young man being treated as a holy relic, and the routine job is revealed to be a setup to cement Coalition power, he and his crew—navigator Njeri and engineer Jaya—find themselves in over their heads. As Haz and Mot grow closer and Haz experiences emotions he thought himself incapable of, he is faced with a choice: defy the Coalition and join the fight for the greater good, or do what he’s always done and put himself first. While the sci-fi adventure follows predictable beats, Fielding populates her world with endearing characters, and the romance plot is satisfying. This will please fans of diverse space opera and queer romance alike.

April 1, 2022
When Haz Taylor, a broke spaceship captain and sometime smuggler, accepts a job from an old colleague that's too good to be true, he regrets it almost immediately when it turns out that the stolen religious artifact he agreed to courier back to its remote home planet is actually a person. Now Haz must navigate not only the perils of traveling through a dangerous sector but also his angry two-woman crew, his surprisingly independent ship AI, and the "artifact" himself, whom Haz dubs Mot and begrudgingly introduces to small joys like eating for pleasure and watching videos. And when Haz learns the fate that awaits Mot at the end of their journey, the whole game changes. Romance writer Fielding (Teddy Spenser Isn't Looking for Love, 2021) deviates slightly from her norm in this fun space opera, the slow-burn romance between Haz and Mot taking a backseat to Haz's journey toward healing old wounds and rediscovering a life worth living with a chosen shipboard family. Readers who enjoy sf with strong queer themes will find a lot to like.

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