If you’re looking for a fun one-sitting read, why not pick up this trans lesbian “mech rom-com graphic novel,” as the blurb describes it? I feel like you’re already sold, but I’ll keep going anyway. LSBN is a project to develop a mech suit to battle the giant, monstrous aliens that have descended to Earth. But just as it’s ready to launch in earnest, the war ends: Arrival-style, someone has learned how to communicate with the aliens and negotiated peace.
That leaves Commander Sugimoto’s LSBN project in limbo, and her attitude has made her basically unemployable elsewhere. Mischa Polyakov is an engineer on the project and idolizes Sugimoto—both for her technical brilliance and for being a role model for trans women in this profession. On their last day, they impulsively take the mech out for a joy ride… and some other impulsive activities.
This is only 80 pages, so there isn’t enough space for a lot of sci-fi worldbuilding. Instead, it focuses on these two characters and their relationship with each other. Despite the page count, they both feel like fleshed out characters, and their romance is believably complicated, even awkward at times. Romances between two trans women are still pretty difficult to find in fiction, so it was nice to read a comic that celebrated their relationship (including sex scenes).
I thought it was an interesting choice that these two feel like side characters in the world of the novel: I would imagine that the woman who deciphered the alien’s language and negotiated peace would be the main character. It’s a fun twist to instead be following the characters left adrift after this sudden change.
This graphic novella is a quick but satisfying read. How can you go wrong with a lesbian mech rom-com?
