The description of High Times in Low Parliament sucked me in. However, I was expecting something more akin to a political thriller or fantasy adventure. What I got was a "fantasy stoner comedy." I guess I missed that from the title. It was not for me. I do hope this book finds an audience with people who enjoy this humor.

I loved the idea of a world made entirely of women, and I wanted to really peel back the layers and understand it. Alas, it was merely a backdrop for the antics of the main character.

Representation: It's great to see lesbian characters front and center in fantasy!

Lana Baker is sent against her will to be a scribe at Parliament by an angry fairy. Lana knows that humans don’t last long in Parliament, but she befriends a fairy, BugBite, while she lusts after a human deputy. Will Lana survive in Parliament when the fairies are out to get the humans?

After I finished this novella, all I could think was what the heck did I just read?? It fell a bit flat for me. While the main character was quite likeable, she was also confusing and sort of annoying. Most of the time things moved too quickly to follow and I felt like the world building was lacking – I wanted more explanations of the world and the fairies vs human history. I don’t read novellas often, but I think this book could have been a bit more polished or edited. That being said, if you want a stoner lesbian book about a fictional European parliament, then this book is for you.

Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for the ARC!

Oh, where to even begin with this book review. I am struggling to even find words.

Ultimately this book was a huge miss for me. I found myself just wanting this 160 page novella to be over. When the publisher reached out to me asking if I would be interested in reviewing this, I was stoked. I saw it was a low stakes, kinda weird fantasy which is my absolute bread and butter. Dare I say it, but maybe this book was even a little too weird for me.

I think my ultimate complaint with this book is that it felt like way too may ideas and things shoved into a novella. This novella knew what it wanted to be, but just didn’t quite hit the mark. I think if it had been a novel and we had more time to develop the world and these characters, we could have been left with this hilarious sapphic stoner novel. Overall I was pretty disappointed and honestly do not know who I would suggest this book to.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the e-ARC.

The strengths of this novel lies in the world-building and character of Lana. She's flirty and laid back and was a good character to read. Bugbite was also nice to read, although her character arc was a bit too convenient.

The plot had so much potential, but I was really let down by how narrow and flat it ended up being. I was hoping for political intruige, or even more on scribing and archiving, but all I got were convenient ways out to a 'happily ever after.'

High Times in the Low Parliament was a fun read, but overall it just felt like this would have worked better if it were shorter — or a small slice in a larger story. The world building felt as if it were somewhat wasted on a character who didn’t want to look around or really move through the world. I would have loved this book as a spin-off to a longer series, but as a stand-alone, though I was entertained, I did finish with a feeling of disappointment that ultimately there wasn’t more to the story.

Lana Baker is a talented scribe with much greater interest in flirting than doing any hard work, but after she is tricked into delivering a letter, she is sent to the Low Parliament to serve there as a scribe.
This is fantasy. There are no men in this world. After the Great Fire of London, 250 years ago in 1666, bad-tempered fairies seem to have taken over control and suppressed the Industrial Revolution. Their efforts to preserve a peaceful, bucolic world are threatened, however, by the inability of an argumentative human parliament to pass any legislation, however reasonable, and their patience is running out. Lana remains a cheerful slacker, but she is practical enough to recognize problems and good at making friends. Together, they avert the looming disaster.
This is a clever and entertaining romp, filled with delicious irony and satiric insights into the self-destructive follies of human nature and political systems. Nor is it difficult to recognize examples in our own world.
Strongly recommended.

This book is a legit "romp" with no dudes. They don't exist in this world! There's drinking, political intrigue (meant to mirror Brexit it seems), fairies, more drinking and some drug/bread use? It's fun but don't think too hard. Just enjoy the ride.

I had a feeling that I was following the comic relief instead of the main character. Like there’s an interesting story somewhere else. But the main character is too addled from drugs to care.

Lana has to scribe for the Parliament, who has to decide anything or the fairy overlords will Parliament.

Considering this intriguing premise, not much happens except trying to kiss Eloquentia and run around with fairy Bugbite. I wanted to understand the world. Fairies are in charge. What was the catalyst for this? Why are there no men?

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by Tordotcom Publishing for an honest review.

High Times in the Low Parliament is a weird novella through and through. There's certainly chaotic fun to be had with the main characters, but with that comes a constant sense of confusion. The lack of clarity on what is going on is definitely part of the satire of politics as nonsensical and opaque, but that still doesn't make for enjoyable reading. As a work of satire, I find it very hard to pinpoint its viewpoint or its precise politics, because the parallels to reality are vague or distorted. In particular, the fact that this is an all-female world for no apparent reason is bizarre at best, and a little concerning at worst (can feel like a quite outdated political lesbian ideal). Not a terrible read, but certainly a puzzling one.

High Times in the Low Parliament is an incredibly quick read. It’s not even 200 pages, so you’ll plow through this one if you’re anything like me. So…did I like it? Yes, and no. It’s kind of middling, for me. High Times in the Low Parliament is not a book that takes itself seriously. The main character, Lara, peddles and does drugs for most of the story, describing the hallucinogenic effects while dealing with what’s going on plot-wise. She’s also frequently flirting with whoever is nearest to her. — Lara does nothing seriously the entire book. There’s some rather funny moments, however — I caught myself laughing out loud a few times while I read.

But despite laughing, I think my struggle with this book is that I don’t really understand what the point was. It’s not really a feel-good story, it’s not a love story, it’s not a real “fantasy” — by which I mean there’s no quest, no big baddie. And no, stories don’t need a point to be worth telling, but at the end of this one I was just left a little aimless.

The world building done by Robson in High Times in the Low Parliament is fascinating. There are no men in the entire world presented in this novella. Children are conceived when a woman asks for blessing from the natal fairy. Women do literally everything else. I thought this was a unique aspect of world-building, but I’m not sure why this choice was made. Did men ever exist? I did wonder while I read, but answers are not forth coming in the text.

I think High Times in the Low Parliament was just not really for me. I just didn’t get it.

So this was a book that I didn't request but the publisher sent me. It is right up my alley though so thanks' TorDotCom Pub!

I didn't love this book. I think it had a lot of promise but the story opens in such a way that it read like a sequel of which I hadn't read the first book. The world and world building seemed rather established and I found myself confused. After looking up to see if this was in fact a sequel (and learning it was not), I was able to sort of figure most of the world out. You just have to embrace the chaos and eccentricities of the world building.

I also struggled with the pacing of this story. I kept reading a few pages and putting it down and that's not a good sign for a novella. This was a very short read and it took me several weeks to finish because I was not engaged with it until the end.

However, I did like the characters. Lana and Bugbite were very fun characters and again, I applaud the representation.

Overall, this one wasn't my favorite but it was a fun read. I think my initial confusion and the fact that I kept putting the book down detracted from my enjoyment. But, I'd give this author another try in the future.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m a simple woman, I hear “lesbian stoner buddy comedy” and dive right in. Part political satire, part romance, and part high-stakes fantasy, High Times in Low Parliament is a bite-sized treat. Lana, a down-on-her luck playboy scribe is conscripted into a global governing body known as Parliament, where deputies must pass decisions of risk being drowned by angry fairies.

The protagonist Lana, swaggering and suave, makes a great duo with the impulsive enforcer fairy by day, hallucinogenic mushroom farmer by night, Bugbite. I thoroughly enjoyed the version of fairies in this story; they lean more towards the puckish, being small and loud and distasteful of humans. I also found the human society to be fascinating: while never directly explained or referenced it seems that men do not exist a newborn children are somehow gifted to prospective mothers by the fairies themselves. This leads to a society built entirely by women. Related to this, my one frustration was the frequent lack of motivated world-building. The island of Parliament itself was well-established but the rest of the world existed only in theory, despite the stories reliance on Parliament being a coming together of representatives from around the world.

This novella was a fun read! Light-hearted fantasy is right up my alley. So a scribe is forced to go to Parliament and has to deal with grumpy fairies and their threat to drown everyone if they can’t start coming to decisions.

It was a quick, enjoyable book. I haven’t read anything else by this author, but now I want to. It comes out August 9. Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom, and NetGalley for my copy.

It's hard to know how to start with this review. The blurb drew me in, as it sounded like an interesting premise and a story with plenty of action, but it failed to meet my expectations. The world building was minimal and I had so many questions about the setting and background of the tale that were never satisfactorily answered. Lana never captured my heart as a character; I found her annoying and her relationships with Bugbite and Eloquentia unconvincing and forced. And by the time the book ended, I couldn't see what the point of it had been, as the story never seemed to really go anywhere and I never once felt any tension or excitement over the potential flooding of Parliament: the stakes just never felt real or came across well. I am giving this book 2.5 stars. There was potential in the idea, but I think a longer page count with more detailed world building, deeper development of the characters beyond drug-taking and flirting, and a little more action and tension were needed to see that potential realised.

A novella with an interesting idea, but without the grounding to bring it all together. We follow Lana, a scribe assigned to work at the Parliament. Aside from transcribing politicians' bloviating speeches, she spends her time pestering her fairy companion Bugbite and getting high on yeast.

Parliament (and the rest of the world?) is under control of the fairies and carries burden that if the humans cannot rule accordingly, the fairies will drown them all. Quite the motivator. However, Lana finds that politicians act the same regardless of the consequences, and is struck by the inanity. Maybe another yeast dust will take the edge off. Instead of delving deeper into this magical world and the unique reasons behind this deadlock, the story mostly flits by, with Lana flippantly flirting with everyone and the stakes never understood.

High Times in The Low Parliament was not exactly what I expected, but I enjoyed what the book proposes and I would like to read more stories in this world.

Lana is an icon with wrong priorities (or the right ones, since she has nowhere to run?), anytime is a good time to flirt, if a beautiful woman is going to start a conversation to ask the time or ask for political opinions, she already takes advantage of the proximity to flirt and hope for kisses. Bugbite is a grumpy fairy who should only be giving orders to Lana, but it was nice to see a friendship develop between the two, in which they became a team and confidants for everything.

The title of the book is justified not only in the way I imagined it since I thought it would only be lots of adventures in the parliament but also in the way they get high to deal with all the politicking, the exhausting work hours, and the possible imminent death.

This is a tough book to review, because it’s hard to disentangle my feelings about the book from the fact that this was likely a mismatch for me as a reader due to some mistaken assumptions about the content on my part. I somehow missed that the author referred to this book as a “lesbian stoner buddy comedy” and was expecting something more akin to a bite-size Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – a sharp, witty fantasy of manners. Alas.

High Times at the Low Parliament takes place in an alternate England called “Angland”, where many things have stayed the same, but also there are absolutely no men and now everyone’s a lesbian. None of this is really explained, so you just have to roll with it. Various Angland constituencies are also represented in an EU Parliament (consisting of a collection of real and fake jurisdictions I couldn’t quite get my head around) that’s monitored by vicious fairies, and – like many real parliaments – the debate is pretty acrimonious. So acrimonious, in fact, that if they can’t agree, the Parliament will flood and everyone will go back to endless warfare between nations – and the fairies will also suffer as war inevitably destroys their territories.

Into this mess wanders our narrator, Lana, a scribe who isn’t particularly interested in politics, but is interested in getting drunk and bedding other ladies.

Putting aside the utterly ludicrous world-building, which I found far too convoluted and nonsensical for such a short piece, Robson isn’t the first author to take on Brexit via fantasy fiction, and I’m sure she won’t be the last. There are plenty of moral lessons and endless seeds of stories to come from that political calamity.

In one sense, there is a really interesting Brexit metaphor here; most of this book is taken up by Lana getting high on psychadelic mushrooms and arguing/flirting with her fairy companion Bugbite and one of the politicians, while Parliament disintegrates into chaos around her and rogue parliamentarians slowly undermine the institution without anyone at first noticing. On the other hand, that metaphor is mostly lost because the reader can’t make sense of why this parliament even exists in the first place, or what’s at stake in this version of united Europe. By setting this story in a fake “Angland” with a completely different social structure to the country we know, any connection to England and therefore the politics of Brexit is severed, and it feels like the politicians are just fighting in the background over hypothetical ideas, while Lana spends all her time distracted, elsewhere.

That said, I did like the idea of an alternate world where sexism and misogyny are not a key issue plaguing politics (particularly having just survived the recent Australian election campaign), and I always appreciate books where characters are openly queer and explicit about their intentions in that regard, but those ideas didn’t really mesh neatly with the rest of this book at all. If you just want a fun romp, you might well still enjoy this book, but if you’re expecting a treatise on parliamentary democracy – or even just a parliamentary system that actually makes sense – you might want to look elsewhere.

Oh boy this book. It was definitely a ride I will say that.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The beginning of the book is incredibly engaging and the worldbuilding very interesting. For example: There's no men in this book. They just don't exist. Babies are brought by the Natal Fairy. Weird at first but you get used to it. And it's lovely to see so many female characters. It is therefore also a book with all lesbian relationships. Love it.

In the beginning everything happens really quickly and our main character Lana is friendly and lively and just a good time.

The problems begin once she arrives at Parliament. Because nothing happens. And Lana does nothing. She just gets high and flirts with everyone she meets. And I mean everyone. It gets really tedious.

The ending is also just really meh. Just didn't excite me at all.

The writing was really good though.
I also liked the message of the book. It can kind of be either a climate change or a Brexit comparison but no matter, the message in thee end is that if we humans don't get our shit together and work with each other for once, we're all in big trouble.

Oh and I liked that Lana ended the book in a polyamorous relationship. I was worried we'd get a jealousy sub plot but it worked out great in the end.

Definitely not a bad read, just not great either.

“Lana Barker was the finest scribe in Aldgate, but it won her little praise”
“Kisses will be your downfall”
“Why can’t you humans get your shit together?”
Wow this book was complicated but so entertaining !!!
I wasn’t expecting to read what I read but I enjoyed more than anything!!
It’s a fast paced book, easy to read but with a twisted and complicated world building!!
With faeries and humans living together and a sapphic romance and with a main character that is an interesting one to say the least !!!
A story about what it means to be at the service of others and living in a prison, no matter the role you have in it!!
But it’s also a story of un uncommon friendship that … well is not so far away from everyone else’s.
I really liked this book and I’m glad I had the chance to read it!!
“Don’t you dare get fond, because Parliament is going down”
“They say all politicians are liars”
“They say drowning is a kind death”
“It’s up to you. You’re going to save the Parliament”

There's a lot of interesting ideas in this book, but i'm not sure how well it all came together. Lana Baker is a talented scribe who find herself in the middle a major problem after being sent to parliament as replacement for a girl too injured to go. Parliament is a mess, between the delegates and fairies, no one can reach a decision and each hung vote brings the parliament closer to a drastic conclusion: the building will be flooded, drowning all non-fairy occupants. In the midst of all this, many of the human occupants are trying to leave if they can, and Lana....is trying to woo one of the delegates, Eloquentia. Alongside her fairy friend Bugbite, Lana finds herself getting way too involved in parliament as she and her lady friends try to find a way to force a vote that'll work. I liked the idea of the story, but the plot often took a backseat to Lana and Bugbite getting high and chasing after Eloquentia, which is fine, but felt like it wasn't as pressing as the threat of mass drowning at parliament. There was also little explanation for the world and how it is set up, making it hard to follow. I think there were a few too many ideas in such a short story to really come together well, but what we do see of this world is interesting and fun to read.