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Confluence: A Person-Shaped Story
Wielder and blade. One heart together.
Spring 2011. Surveying the ruins of her wife's hometown, River Victoria Eginian felt useless. Still adjusting to her cybernetic prostheses—the result of career-ending combat wounds—amid coming out as trans, life was already a challenge. She hated being on the sidelines of the recovery efforts spearheaded by the Japanese and US militaries, but soon she met the local combat dolls—cybernetic beings honed in both softness and sharpness—leading the way in clearing debris and finding survivors in places that no human could reach. River felt envious, but she also saw a path to new wholeness and purpose.
River’s wife, Dr. Isawa Kasu—the daughter of a long, proud line of warrior-scholars from Japan’s northern Tohoku region—was raised to be her demanding father's heir apparent as both head of family and director of the powerful Santaku Group. Abandoning the crushing role to be true to herself as a trans woman, she wore the name kasu—“dregs”—as a badge of honor. A brilliant cyberneticist and hands-on leader, Kasu leaped headfirst into helping her wife remake herself as a blue-haired combat doll with a new name: River M59A1.
Spring 2022. Yui め-633, a retired combat doll, runs a bakery with her spouse in Sendai. With a chassis made by the defunct Nogami Corporation, Yui struggles to keep herself alive and her doors open. With no continued support or maintenance from her manufacturer and the rising costs of Nogami parts, which only appear from time to time in unseemly aftermarkets, it seems inevitable that Yui and thousands of other Nogami-type combat dolls will eventually be forced out of existence.
Embracing their roles—Kasu as Wielder, River as blade—the couple fight as one heart together to bring justice and wholeness to those most in need.
Spring 2011. Surveying the ruins of her wife's hometown, River Victoria Eginian felt useless. Still adjusting to her cybernetic prostheses—the result of career-ending combat wounds—amid coming out as trans, life was already a challenge. She hated being on the sidelines of the recovery efforts spearheaded by the Japanese and US militaries, but soon she met the local combat dolls—cybernetic beings honed in both softness and sharpness—leading the way in clearing debris and finding survivors in places that no human could reach. River felt envious, but she also saw a path to new wholeness and purpose.
River’s wife, Dr. Isawa Kasu—the daughter of a long, proud line of warrior-scholars from Japan’s northern Tohoku region—was raised to be her demanding father's heir apparent as both head of family and director of the powerful Santaku Group. Abandoning the crushing role to be true to herself as a trans woman, she wore the name kasu—“dregs”—as a badge of honor. A brilliant cyberneticist and hands-on leader, Kasu leaped headfirst into helping her wife remake herself as a blue-haired combat doll with a new name: River M59A1.
Spring 2022. Yui め-633, a retired combat doll, runs a bakery with her spouse in Sendai. With a chassis made by the defunct Nogami Corporation, Yui struggles to keep herself alive and her doors open. With no continued support or maintenance from her manufacturer and the rising costs of Nogami parts, which only appear from time to time in unseemly aftermarkets, it seems inevitable that Yui and thousands of other Nogami-type combat dolls will eventually be forced out of existence.
Embracing their roles—Kasu as Wielder, River as blade—the couple fight as one heart together to bring justice and wholeness to those most in need.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2022
10 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Nyri A. Bakkalian
6 books48 followersDr. Nyri A. Bakkalian is an author, journalist, historian, and accomplished raconteur. She is a staff writer for Unseen Japan, and the author of Grey Dawn: A Tale of Abolition and Union (Balance of Seven Press, 2020) and Confluence: A Person-Shaped Story (Balance of Seven Press, 2022). She hosts the podcast Friday Night History and co-hosts the podcast Cleyera: Conversations on Shinto. The secret to her success is Arabic coffee. She misses Sendai daily.
You can support her work by subscribing at patreon.com/riversidewings
You can support her work by subscribing at patreon.com/riversidewings
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 9, 2023
I loved so many things about this book. The cyber punk world building was detailed and seamless. The cybernetically enhanced humans, known as dolls, were so deftly and gracefully introduced that I just immediately embraced them and kept reading. The way these details were woven into both modern and ancient Japanese locations and customs left me feeling like I was immersed in that world.
The theme of rebellion ranged from the deeply intimate and personal to literal armed rebellion. The journeys of growth that the characters embarked on together acknowledged that breaking and healing is a part of life and is not a neatly contained affair, but rather an on-going process that the rest of life does not stop for. The relationships were complex, nuanced, and touching. They demonstrated that interdependence is not a weakness, but is rather a doubling down of strength and talents. The Wielder and Blade relationship took this dynamic up several notches while still keeping one foot firmly planted in reality via glimpses of cozy everyday domesticity.
Aside from all the intrigue and action, there were beautiful moments of silence and stillness. So often, authors push the narrative from one big plot point to the next and the next. No one ever talks about how real people need to recharge and refuel, be it alone or with a trusted partner, to be able to face the world and make all the action happen. Those misty morning walks, long car rides, morning coffees and trips to the bakery...those are real life. That's what ultimately made this story so relatable and enjoyable for me.
The theme of rebellion ranged from the deeply intimate and personal to literal armed rebellion. The journeys of growth that the characters embarked on together acknowledged that breaking and healing is a part of life and is not a neatly contained affair, but rather an on-going process that the rest of life does not stop for. The relationships were complex, nuanced, and touching. They demonstrated that interdependence is not a weakness, but is rather a doubling down of strength and talents. The Wielder and Blade relationship took this dynamic up several notches while still keeping one foot firmly planted in reality via glimpses of cozy everyday domesticity.
Aside from all the intrigue and action, there were beautiful moments of silence and stillness. So often, authors push the narrative from one big plot point to the next and the next. No one ever talks about how real people need to recharge and refuel, be it alone or with a trusted partner, to be able to face the world and make all the action happen. Those misty morning walks, long car rides, morning coffees and trips to the bakery...those are real life. That's what ultimately made this story so relatable and enjoyable for me.
April 16, 2024
This book is a bit tricky to rate, as it feels like multiple things interwoven.
There's a deep, deep love of Japan at its core and carried throughout the book. So many nods to the culture, nods to bushido and related, honestly I couldn't keep up with all the reference there were so many. In that sense, the book had a deep flavour of Japan. For that aspect it would have 5 stars.
Another aspect is as a cyberpunk. Much of the story grows from the idea of "dolls", a kind of cyborg entity that is fitted into modern Japan, backdating into the middle 1800s. This culture actually comes from corollary in real Japan, and it gives it heft and weightiness. That said, the action aspects of the cyberpunk felt lackluster and directionless. Mostly, we're working with the emotions rather than the actions. Which is fine, though multiple times it feels like the book is setting you up for something more viscerally engaging.
There parts of the book I found enthralling, heart-warming while other parts felt unnerving or unevenly paced.
That said, it's such a love letter that you have to just embrace it for that alone. Few authors would be able to pull something like this off. It requires such a deep understanding of the language and culture of multiple peoples, that made this feel awe-inspiring.
There's a deep, deep love of Japan at its core and carried throughout the book. So many nods to the culture, nods to bushido and related, honestly I couldn't keep up with all the reference there were so many. In that sense, the book had a deep flavour of Japan. For that aspect it would have 5 stars.
Another aspect is as a cyberpunk. Much of the story grows from the idea of "dolls", a kind of cyborg entity that is fitted into modern Japan, backdating into the middle 1800s. This culture actually comes from corollary in real Japan, and it gives it heft and weightiness. That said, the action aspects of the cyberpunk felt lackluster and directionless. Mostly, we're working with the emotions rather than the actions. Which is fine, though multiple times it feels like the book is setting you up for something more viscerally engaging.
There parts of the book I found enthralling, heart-warming while other parts felt unnerving or unevenly paced.
That said, it's such a love letter that you have to just embrace it for that alone. Few authors would be able to pull something like this off. It requires such a deep understanding of the language and culture of multiple peoples, that made this feel awe-inspiring.
March 9, 2024
This cyberpunk story is set in an alternate present where cybernetics began development in late 19th century Japan. Its protagonists are an endearing T4T lesbian couple one of whom is transhuman. There's a layer of consentual D/s to the relationship of River and Kasu, wielder and blade, human and cyborg doll which, despite the power dynamic, is shown to be an equal partnership, though the status of dolls in this world relative to unaltered humans is not always so, which forms part of the central conflict of the novel. Another recurring element to the story is the desire to be a mom and to do so as a trans woman.
October 30, 2024
Cyberpunk Thriller with a spousal romance at its heart
Enjoyable novel that somehow is both a conspiracy thriller and a contemplative meditation on daily life, its rituals, and the presence of history in the everyday. Set in a cyberpunk contemporary Japan, the story focuses on the spousal romance of two women, one of whom is a combat doll, and their struggle to free other cybernetic people from the abuses of the free market and the powerful. Suspenseful, heartfelt, thoughtful.
I loved how the spousal relationship between the main characters was developed. The everyday movements, the give and take, together in absence.
Enjoyable novel that somehow is both a conspiracy thriller and a contemplative meditation on daily life, its rituals, and the presence of history in the everyday. Set in a cyberpunk contemporary Japan, the story focuses on the spousal romance of two women, one of whom is a combat doll, and their struggle to free other cybernetic people from the abuses of the free market and the powerful. Suspenseful, heartfelt, thoughtful.
I loved how the spousal relationship between the main characters was developed. The everyday movements, the give and take, together in absence.
November 17, 2023
This book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! The love story. River Finding her place with the perfect woman. I was originally attracted to this story because of it dolls. I love Ghost in the Shell. The story she wrote is so not that.
It is a story of strength, love and Finding a way to save the Dolls they are trying to phase out. Please read!
It is a story of strength, love and Finding a way to save the Dolls they are trying to phase out. Please read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews