Category Archives: Uncategorized
Us Versus Them, or What Happens When SF Fandom Can’t See Past Its Own Blinders
Recap: a few days ago, Slate published an article by Laura Miller with a few good points and much more numerous flaws. SF/F writer Jason Sanford posted a response to the article and took to Twitter to counter it, focusing on its … Continue reading
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Fireside Report for 2016?
It’s approaching the point at which I need to start working on a 2016 follow-up to the Fireside report’s statistical analysis if such a thing is to have a chance of happening. That is, if the community needs and wants … Continue reading
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I Podcasted!
I was on the Cabbages and Kings podcast, where I wax poetic about short stories I love, talk about transformative literature and narrative voice, and bitch a lot about being alienated from the SF/F bookshelves by the overwhelming locker room … Continue reading
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Short Fiction Discussion: Apocalypses and Mythologies
Two stories I read recently are apocalypses told not from a human perspective but intelligent perspectives outside of it — an android and parrots, respectively — which I think achieve a distance that allows a certain critique of humanity that … Continue reading
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Tagged jenn brissett, science fiction, short fiction, ted chiang
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Review: The Beauty by Aliya Whitely
The Beauty, a 2014 novella by Aliya Whitely, takes place in a near-future in which a fungal disease killed off all women a few years prior. The characters are an isolated, self-sufficient enclave of men, and the nearby cemetery in which … Continue reading
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Tagged aliya whitely, novella, post-apocalyptic, review, science fiction, the beauty
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SFnal Linkspam
A selection of SFnal essays, reviews, and book recommendation lists that I’ve read recently and found poignant and interesting. (As well as one by me elseweb that is less “poignant” than typical “my-ass-is-so-chapped-that-I-must-rant” that I forgot to ever link here.) … Continue reading
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Review: Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher
…Maybe less a review than a calling attention to as I read this short novel weeks ago, and given the scarcity of my patience to focus on novels for the last several months, a book that I read in a … Continue reading
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Two Novelettes
I read two novelettes last week. “Fabulous Beasts” by Priya Sharma is a grim fairy tale about a snake-girl held captive in generational violent entrapment; Andrea Hairston’s “Saltwater Railroad” is a Caribbean historical fantasy about the matriarch of a community … Continue reading
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Tagged andrea hairston, fantasy, novelette, priya sharma, short fiction, short story
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Sexual Violence in Epic Fantasy Follow-up & Linkspam: Sansa Stark
My reaction to the Game of Thrones episode “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” is very personal and very meta. And I didn’t even watch it because similar problems rendered me unable to watch that show long ago, but witnessed my Twitter feed … Continue reading
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Tagged Game of Thrones, rape scene, sansa stark, unbowed unbent unbroken
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Manic Pixie Dream Worlds 