Pro-Military Propaganda (but Queer?) | A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers

Far be it from me to tell other queer people what an empowering, affirming society should look like for them. The LGBTQ community is not a monolith with a unified vision for a single Queer Utopia. I get that. And the point of this review is not to wag my finger at K.B. Wagers and say “well, since this isn’t my idea of queer joy, your book is shit.”

Rather, my premise is this: A Pale Light in the Black portrays a future society so far removed from present reality that it tiptoes over the line from “upbeat and naïve” into the realm of “willfully, myopically privileged.”

My initial reaction to this book was did a gay Republican pretending to be a queer leftist write this? That sounds harsh, I know, but for reasons to become clear…I still gotta wonder.

I. Oblivious, Tone-deaf, & Propagandizing

The first problem I found with A Pale Light in the Black is that Wagers’ world-building is so shallow as to become nonsensical—and, at times, outright offensive. The year is 2435, and humankind is recovering from a near-extinction event (which is never fully explained). Space travel and wormholes are now a thing, and a science has developed a way to extend human lifespans through the aid of a very expensive serum. (Said serum is not just a cool future tech, either—lengthened lifespans are the reason that humans were able to save their population from extinction.)

Right, so let’s talk about this life-extender serum, for starters. The propriety technology and formula behind this treatment are owned by a single family-run corporation, which is entirely in control of who has access and at what cost. This serum also requires constant booster injections, or it stops being effective. Obviously, this corporation isn’t giving shit out for free at your local community health center. So how does the Average Joe get some? Simple! They either go to work for the corporation, or they sign up for 40 years of military service.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the protagonist of the book, Maxine, is the granddaughter of the serum’s inventor and sister to the current CEO.

…what.

To recap: life-saving medical treatments are being held hostage by an all-powerful business entity in exchange for indentured servitude to an imperialistic war machine. And at no point does this book meaningfully challenge this concept.

Which brings me to my next point of contention:

A Pale Light in the Black is 100% uncritical of the military or of its legacy. Every single character in this book is in the military—either the Near-Earth Orbital Guard (United States Coast Guard with rocket ships) or their “rival branch,” the navy. The vibe is meant to be very Found Family, Band of Brothers, etc., etc., which is lovely, but Wagers fails to critical engage with what the military actually is.

Conveniently, world peace (seems) to have been achieved. As I’ve indicated, this book’s world-building is incredibly bare bones, so there’s no explanation given. But it appears that Earth has been united under a single government, so there are no other humans for the global armed forces to fight against. Instead, the navy is just a giant Space Exploration Group with a lot of combat training, and the coast guard acts as Space Cops, chasing down smugglers and rescuing stranded ships. I have no clue what the army or air force do, because Wagers doesn’t tell us. Regardless, because there is no actual combat—or threat of combat—present in the text, the book gets to present its military characters as a noble, self-sacrificing bunch with no need to critically engage with the fact that, historically speaking, professional soldiers are tools of oppression.

Again, I get it. Just because I have a problem with the way the United States has used its armed forces to bully weaker nations doesn’t mean everyone cares about violent neocolonialism. And just because I have personally witnessed the way the military treats its members as faceless, disposable toys only to dump them in the gutter as soon as they crack under pressure doesn’t mean that everyone shares my view that it’s a toxic institution. And just because I am outraged that American teenagers are recruited straight out of high school to become participants in state-sanctioned genocide doesn’t mean that everyone is likewise concerned about the literal babies we are asking to die in pursuit of an alleged “liberty for all.”

But, respectfully to K.B. Wagers: if you aren’t cognizant of what the military means to people outside of your privileged white American bubble, where is your sense of perspective and intersectionality? And do you genuinely think that writing about a queer brown woman who’s given up her home and security to ensure that her family receives important medical treatment is a good fucking look for you? REALLY?

Oh, and I don’t even want to begin with the way the government in A Pale Light in the Black apparently keeps files/records of everyone’s gender and sexuality, and nobody sees why this could perhaps be very problematic.

Oh! Oh! And! For funsies, this book also features a futuristic offshoot of “evangelical Christianity” that seems just as horrible as the present iteration, and there’s a minor subplot involving a person telling their 5-year-old grandchild that they’re going to burn in hell forever if they stop going to church. Does Wagers meaningfully address the trauma associated with this kind of family dynamic? Of course not.

A Pale Light in the Black screams “queer space cops! fun! exciting! pew pew pew!” even as it desperately tries to sweep the larger implications of its premise under the rug.

II. Haphazard, Disorganized, & Irrelevant

Changing gears, it’s now time to share my grievances with the more technical aspects of this book, AKA the completely incoherent plot. This is caused by two main issues: (1) a dual storyline narrative where the two arcs never combine to create a unified novel; and (2) one of the storylines is completely pointless, in every sense. I’ll tackle #2 first, because it segues neatly into #1.

When A Pale Light in the Black begins, Wagers makes it immediately clear what the Important Goal for her characters will be: winning the annual Boarding Games after a humiliating defeat in last year’s competition. The Boarding Games, the reader learns, are a globally popular televised war exercise wherein teams representing the various branches of the military compete to prove they are the best. (Like the Hunger Games, except the author wants readers to support the pageantry of violence-for-entertainment.)

Aside from the fact that I have no idea why practicing battle tactics is important when universal world peace has been achieved, this is nevertheless an engaging hook. But the issue is that K.B. Wagers never shows their reader why it’s necessary for the protagonists to win the Boarding Games. What makes each member of the crew so motivated to win? The narrative repeatedly tells me that it’s Very Important that they win, but never tells me why it is so.

Thus, fully one-half of the text is watching characters train madly for a competition that doesn’t seem to matter, either in a personal sense or a global one. The only prize received by the winner of the Games is bragging rights and a sense of superiority over the other military branches. Which is not a worthwhile goal to spend hundreds of pages reading about. In real life, petty rivalries between similarly-situated teams are absolutely valid. But this is fiction, and “showing the world that the Space Coast Guard is better at punching things than the Space Navy” is boring as hell. This entire segment felt like pro-military propaganda. Honestly, just play the chorus of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and call it a day.

The actual plot of this book is infinitely more exciting and worthy. It involves corporate espionage, smugglers, and family secrets. If Wagers had focused solely on this angle, they would have been far more successful. But instead, the story keeps cutting back and forth between the actual life-and-death stuff and…scenes where the characters sing the coast guard fight song with tears in their eyes?

This is a messy, messy book.

In conclusion: Nope

I certainly do not wish to be elitist, but A Pale Light in the Black feels hopelessly ignorant. This book has the same vibe as an author writing a book about life in the Jim Crow South without conducting any research beyond the inaccurate accounts presented in a high school textbook. Is K.B. Wagers a stupid person? Probably not! Are they well-intentioned? Likely yes.

Regardless, A Pale Light in the Black fails to apply a modicum of critical thinking to its portrayal of gender and sexuality, the military industrial complex, religious extremism, and privatized healthcare. In addition, the book is poorly written, with a jumbled and nonsensical plot.

What I’m saying is, this is a really horrible book. In my opinion.