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Book review: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

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As I mentioned back in June, whenever I attend a convention I always like to review something by one of the Guests of Honour. Last week my home con, Conflux, played host to Ambelin Kwaymullina, author of The Tribe series. The Tribe begins with The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf. An environmental catastrophe called The Reckoning has visited our world. 300 years on, society has reconfigured itself, striving to preserve the Balance with the natural world. However, some people argue the Balance is upset by the presence of individuals possessing special powers—those with the ability to heal, control the elements or see potential futures. These individuals are assessed and either granted an Exemption or deemed an Illegal and kept in Detention Camps.

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Signal Boost #43 — A Conversation about Black Speculative Fiction Month at Skiffy and Fanty

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https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost43BlackSpeculativeFictionMonth/Sandf–SignalBoost43–BlackSpeculativeFictionMonth.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWe know, we know. It’s been an age and a half since Shaun and Jen sat down to have a conversation, but we’re back to let you know about a very special month at Skiffy and Fanty — Black Speculative Fiction Month! October was designated Black Speculative Fiction month in 2013 by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade (who also co-edited the anthology Steamfunk), and after hearing about it, we knew that we had to celebrate it. In consultation with Tonia Thompson of Nightlight Pod and our very own Teri.Zin (who has a new amazing essay over at Uncanny Magazine that you should go read immediately), we’re working on some amazing content for you guys. In addition to discussing our upcoming month of awesome, we also explain why we’ve been gone and briefly tackle the mess over at Goodreads regarding how they deleted two magazines, Fiyah and Anathema, by and for people of color. And, as always, we share some awesome things for our mini-boosts. We hope you enjoy the episode!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

353. Rebecca Roanhorse (a.k.a. The Lightning Wielder), Trail of Lightning

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https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode353RebeccaRoanhorseTrailOfLightning/Sandf-Episode353-RebeccaRoanhorseTrailOfLightning.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSCoyote, road trips, and ghosts, oh my! We’re very excited to start out Black Speculative Fiction Month with a fantastic interview with the Hugo, Campbell, and Nebula award winning Afro-indigenous author, Rebecca Roanhorse. Jen and Becca figuratively sit down with Rebecca to discuss how the Navajo creation story inspired the world-building of her debut novel, Trail of Lightning, how she created a space that was wholly absent of whiteness, why representation of Indigenous people in pop culture is particularly crucial, what her version of Coyote looks like, how Trail of Lightning fits into indigenous futurism, and so much more! We hope you enjoy the episode!

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Guest Post: Stay With Your Story by Betsy Dornbusch

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Today on Skiffy and Fanty, Betsy Dornbusch, author of  the Books of the Seven Eyes trilogy and the soon-to-be-released The Silver Scar, talks to us about the books that influence us and how writers have to find their own stories. “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” Most American readers will recognize that as a climactic line from The Outsiders by SE Hinton, which happens to be my favorite book. I met SE Hinton when she came to Oak Park Elementary in fourth grade. My recollection was that we talked about that book a lot and that she was nice enough, but also that her books were about teenagers, so they had nothing to do with me. My brothers were teenagers, and they were WAY older. Never mind that Nancy Drew was a teenager, and the Hardy Boys, and the older Pevensies, and really, when you get down to it, Frodo in his way. But as life goes, I didn’t actually read The Outsiders until 7th grade. Reading it changed me into a writer.

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Signal Boost #42: Rhonda Parrish & Greg Bechtel (co-ed. Tesseracts 21: Neverthless) & Peter Tieryas (Mecha Samurai Empire)

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https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost42ParrishBechtelTieryas/Sandf–SignalBoost42–ParrishBechtelTieryas.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to to Rhonda Parrish and Greg Bechtel, the co-editors of Edge Publishing’s anthology Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless. They discuss how each got involved with this collection of optimistic speculative fiction stories, how the theme was impacted by the 2016 US election, how persistence, specifically, became a dominant message, and a little bit about how an editor of anthology comes up with a title and an contents order (hint: it might involve beer). Then Paul speaks with Peter Tieryas about his new stand-alone novel in the United States of Japan universe, Mecha Samurai Empire. They discuss the influence that Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle had on Peter’s books, delve into the main characters of Mecha Samurai Empire, explore how Kaiju play a roll in a surprising way, and hint at the connection to the Records of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese history. Also, Mecha!!! We hope you enjoy the episode!

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COMICS REVIEW: Everything gets worse and it’s beautiful – Monstress Volume 3

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Welcome to the latest installment of my comics review column here at Skiffy & Fanty! Every month, I use this space to shine a spotlight on SF&F comics (print comics, graphic novels, and webcomics) that I believe deserve more attention from SF&F readers. This time out, I’m taking a look at a work that certainly isn’t exactly under everyone’s radar, but that most definitely deserves more attention, if only because of the eldritch abominations that’ll eat you alive if you don’t stay sharp — Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress Volume Three. (This review contains spoilers!)

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