The Triumphant Queerness of "The Last Hero"

The conclusion Linden A. Lewis' "The First Sister" trilogy is a queer masterpiece of speculative fiction.

When I read The First Sister, the opening volume in Linden A. Lewis’ trilogy of the same name, I was hooked. They managed to create such a fascinating universe, populated with such compelling characters, and raising such fascinating and vexing questions, that I found myself racing along, desperate to read just one more chapter. Even though they put their characters through a hell of a lot, they never lost sight of the beauty and the triumph of the human spirit, of the ability to brave men, women, and others to fight for what’s right, even if that meant giving up everything and enduring the severest of injuries. And, perhaps more importantly than all of that, it was also unabashedly queer. It’s not just that Lewis has included a multitude of queer and nonconforming characters in the story; they have made sure that the entire universe in which they live has queerness woven into its very fabric. Again and again, Lewis reminds us that the future is queer and, just as importantly, that there are many queer stories remaining to be told within the frame of speculative fiction 

Now, at last, I’ve finished the concluding volume, The Last Hero, and it is fair to say that Lewis has brought this trilogy to a very satisfying conclusion. Though there is much sacrifice and heartache and loss in the novel, almost everyone gets the happy ending that they deserve which, in addition to being narratively satisfying for me as a reader, is also a refreshing change from the torment (and death) that far too many queer characters have often suffered in speculative fiction. In my humble opinion, this is the space opera for our time. 

As the novel begins, the various characters are contending with the chaos that is slowly engulfing their lives and their worlds. Astrid continues her efforts to cleanse the Sisterhood of its corruption, Luce continues to be selfless and courageous, despite the grievous injuries done to her body, and Hiro works to bring about the downfall of her father and his nefarious designs. Of all of the characters, however, Lito’s situation is perhaps the most grave. Having perished in the previous volume, he has now become one of the Synthetics, a race of AI beings connected to a single entity known as the Singularity. As such, he has a key part to play in the AI’s efforts to keep humanity from destroying itself (even in the future humanity can’t seem to help itself when it comes to its collective death-drive).

With each chapter, Lewis skillfully builds the tension, even as they also allow us into the character’s minds. Because the novel is told in the present tense (which is very hard to do well), there is an immediacy to the action that really sweeps you along with a powerful, propulsive momentum. By the time that the climactic battle happens at the end, you almost find yourself wondering just how we got there. It’s to Lewis’ credit that they manage to keep the various elements of the story, and the various characters’ perspectives, in such a delicious tension. It’s like watching a tapestry take place right before your eyes. 

In some ways, The Last Hero is vaster in scope than the two preceding volumes, and this makes sense, as the conflicts that have been brewing since the first book are now reaching their climax. There are some nice set-pieces here, with lots of action and breathlessly-paced fight scenes that are designed to keep you on the edge of your seat. At the same time, there are also some quiet and introspective moments, instances in which you get to see how the various characters’ lives and experiences have led them, inevitably, to this one point in time, with all of its consequences. Though we may not always agree with the actions that the characters take as they confront what could, in fact, be the total annihilation of the human species, they are nevertheless actions that make sense within the horizon of expectations Lewis has already established.

Like all great speculative fiction, The Last Hero wrestles with some of the big questions haunting the human imagination. In particular, it asks what it means to have agency in a universe in which the great powers are constantly waging war against one another, in which a father can subject his children to all sorts of tortures, out of a belief that he knows what is right and that what he is doing is in the service of humanity’s future? Fortunately, these are individuals who are never willing to back down from a fight, even when it means that they might lose everything, including their own lives. Each of them, in their own ways, strives to make their worlds a better place for everyone, from the most powerful to the most subaltern. 

All of this isn’t to say that there isn’t love and beauty here, too. All of the characters do what they do out of love, whether for an individual or for society as a whole. For this very reason, it’s easy to cheer for them, to cherish their dreams, and to feel our hearts break along with theirs when humanity shows itself to be far uglier, and far more violent, than anyone would like to admit. These days, it’s hard to escape an ever-present sense of cynicism, and this is as true in the world of speculative fiction as it is in the real world. Fortunately, there are works like The Last Hero, which not only give us heroes that we can love and care about, but also allow them to live and build lives for themselves in the aftermath of a near-apocalypse. Such endings are particularly important for queer people who, for far too long, have repeatedly been denied the possibility of a future, even in universes not our own. 

Though I’m sad to have finished this trilogy, I very much look forward to whatever Lewis has planned for us in the future. May it always be queer.