Shall Machines Bite the Sun

Machine Mandate #6

by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Thannarat Vutirangsee has won it all: she’s saved her world, married her perfect bride, and found her peace. She is meant to live the rest of her days in a fairytale.

But the machines are not done with her yet. Her wife Daji has breached the treaty between humans and machines, and for that she will be subjected to a punishment worse than execution.

Thannarat is not a hero. She is an artifact of war, a force of devastating annihilation. All she knows is how to fight. But to save Daji, what she will need the most will not be her gun or her might at arms . . . it will be a confrontation with her past, her mistakes, and a proof that she is more than an engine of violence.

Genres: Queer, Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Space Opera, Ebooks

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 4, 2022

About the author

Science fiction, fantasy, and others in the between. Cute kissing ladies? I write those. Ruthless genocidal commanders? Got that covered too! 2014 finalist for Campbell Award for Best New Writer, 2015 BSFA finalist for Best Short Fiction (SCALE-BRIGHT). I like beautiful bugs and strange cities.

Reviews

[Meishuu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a perfect way to end this series. After the obligatory monthly “let women be feminine and kind” vapid discourse, I can always count of this author to scratch my itch about powerful, competent women that help or require help from other powerful, competent women. Combat ready, not afraid of violence, loving other women, trying to reclaim their humanity. No man in sight.

Benzaiten schemes. The universe will march on. Stars shall bloom and fade. War will shatter and remake worlds in eternal cycles. Xe will find humans to raise up and break down, to guide and entice in xer countless plots and double-plots. But I have my one constant. I have what matters to me, whatever Benzaiten might say of the absence where my ambition should be; whatever xe might have wished to turn me into. I tuck my wife close to me.

It’s like coming home.

[Anne, V · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shall Machines Bite the Sun" was one of the most lovely books I have ever read. I loved the action (so exciting and gory!) and I loved the quieter, domestic scenes. It was great to see the direction that the characters are headed into at the end of the story. It was also really cool to discover the AI's master plans. This book is the last (for now) of the Machine Mandate series. It is not strictly necessary to read the prior 5 books in the series, but I would recommend reading them to get the full emotional impact of this book.

[Esca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benjanun brings down the curtain on her Machine Mandate series with its most incredible opus, both in terms of writing and characterization.

I will not reveal how many tears I shed but let's just say it cemented my undying love for Daji.

(She can kill 1000000 enemies and cook breakfast. What a woman 🤌)

I shall miss her and Thannarat very much!

[Yev · Rating 3 out of 5]

This final book, though possibly not, is an interquel that takes place between the 4th and 5th books. Reading this one before or after the 5th doesn't really matter. Thannarat returns as the primary character and her motivation remains the same, I want to reunite with my wife. If there's one thing all these books in the series have in common, aside from sex, it's: I worship her, therefore the plot. It's not an awful thing if the characters and motivations are similar from book to book, especially when an author is intending to do so. One could call it variation on a theme.

Surprisingly, the sex isn't the focus this time. What could've been sex scenes are skipped even. Instead this is closer to a romance story. There are what passes for scenes of domestic bliss, but most of it is reclaiming a lost love and winning them over again. Though, as with most of its ventures, it only commits halfway to the bit so that there aren't any lasting consequences. Sometimes it takes a considerable amount of contrivance to make it Happy For Now, but it gets there someway or another. I find that to be preferable to the the Doomed Lesbians trope, which I've read too much of from stories included in anthologies. I find Star-crossed Lovers in general to be annoying.

Now I know what the books are like when they aren't relying on sex. It's not so bad, but overall I was definitely less interested in this one. Eventually I'll give the author's next series a try and see how that differs, if it does even. That may be a long while off though. Probably not until I have need for something relatively shorter to read again.

There's not all that much I want to say about this. The series does well enough with what it's going for most of the time. I have complaints, but none of them are worth writing about, if only because they'd lead to unproductive arguments. So, with that, here's the final excerpt: There is a particular taste to her flesh, savory-sweet, that makes me wish I could core her like a fruit and taste what’s underneath.

[AmEricaNo · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

I love Thannarat and Daji, so I audibly screamed when I realized they were getting a sequel after Shall Machines Divide the Earth.

When Daji is taken into custody for committing one too many war crimes as an AI, it’s up to Thannarat to retrieve her wife, along with her ex-work partner (who used to have a crush on her, but now hates her) and her dead first wife (who her current wife revived as a simulacrum).

A dream team made in heaven.

It's great.

[FC1966 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. Great book.

[Ace Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monogamy is weird but good for them! I love my vicious women and the promise that Bee will come back to this universe one day.