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Book Review: Hammer of the Witch by Dakota Chase

Dakota Chase continues her young adult series, Repeating History, with Hammer of the Witch, returning to a contemporary world featuring magical, time-traveling shenanigans surrounding two teenagers. To recap: In the first novel, The Eye of Ra, we met up with Aston and Grant at an unfortunate time in their lives.  After a visit to juvenile court both boys are sentenced to a year at the Stanton Boys School, where their shenanigans intertwine after an incident in their history teacher’s office (which they manage to set fire to, destroying several priceless artifacts housed within).  And it just so happens that their history teacher is the esteemed wizard Merlin.  He-who-ran-with-King-Arthur, Merlin.  Why the man would want to teach high schoolers is beyond me, but maybe he enjoys it.  Aston and Grant have never been in this much trouble before, but an unlikely solution is found when they are tasked with going back in time and retrieving some of these artifacts for Merlin.  In the first book Aston and Grant traveled back to Ancient Egypt in the times of King Tut, but the second book sends them back to medieval Europe, in the midst of the witch hunts.  

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SEA Quest: Listening To My Ancestors (Reprint)

Joyce Chng is currently at ICFA 2018. This is a reprint from June 2014, but still relevant. Recently, I was rocked by a wonderful and startling revelation from my dad about his grandmother. My great grandmother was a herbalist and a travelling physician. From his tone, I could tell my dad admired her. She had “ben shi”, ability, talent. She could do stuff. Yet, my grandmother, my great grandmother’s daughter, wasn’t that forthcoming. She let out her stories in weak spools. She didn’t talk about things that made her sad. According to my dad, she quarreled with her mother who forbade her to leave for Nanyang (the Chinese term for Southeast Asia). My grandmother left for Singapore soon after that. Imagine the wounds still unhealed, the words left unsaid, unvoiced. My grandmother passed away last year.

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The Intersection: Context, Honor, and the Strong Female Character™

I told myself I wouldn’t write this essay. I’m not a fan of publicly criticizing another writer’s work, particularly a living author’s work. I’ll never do that to anyone. It’s not cool, and it’s definitely not professional. However, there’s a distinction between criticizing a work in order to make yourself look bigger and genuinely criticizing a work because it’s a culturally significant piece requiring extensive deconstruction in order to examine its effect upon those who it is supposedly supporting. I’ve had this discussion with other authors who happen to be women—and well…it’s time, guys. I’ll add that if you’re a fan of the novels I’m about to discuss, no matter your gender, good for you. I’m happy you found something you enjoy. That’s what SF fandom is all about: finding the thing you love. I don’t disrespect fans for their fandom. Therefore, the following is not a personal attack. It doesn’t mean the author is a bad person, either. It doesn’t even mean that the series in question should never have gotten published.[1] Got it? Cool. [deep breath] Now, let’s do this.

SF in Translation, The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Speculative Fiction in Translation #2: Biohorror and Dwarves

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SFiTEpisode2BiohorrorAndDwarves/Sfit-Episode2-BiohorrorAndDwarves.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn which Rachel fills you in on all of the SFT-related goodness since last month, including stories and novels out in February and March (February 14 – March 15), what Rachel’s currently reading and translating, and more. While February offered us slim-pickins, March gives us some great reads to look forward to, including Japanese biohorror from Haikasoru and Catalan science fiction from Wesleyan University Press. And with new stories and books coming to our attention each week, check the SFT website for updates. Enjoy, and keep reading! A bientôt!

Blog Posts

Book Review: Jade City by Fonda Lee

In an alternate world where a small island carries both a magical material and the scions who can wield it, the aftermath of a world war that consumed and wrapped up even the island is a tricky and dangerous time.  The city of Janloon on the island of Kekon is a fraught place, with the clans that helped liberate the island kingdom from foreign occupation now the temporal behind-the-scenes powers that rule Janloon and the island of Kekon itself. After years of quiet small scale conflict, however, a change in leadership of the No Peak clan provides their stronger rival, the Mountain Clan, with a chance to push and push their advantage, to do to the No Peak what they have done to several of their smaller rivals already—to conquer it.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

At the Movies #67: Black Panther (2018) w/ Faridah Gbadamosi, Justina Ireland, and Brandon O’Brien

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/AtTheMovies67BlackPanther/AtTheMovies67–BlackPanther.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWe know Black Panther has been out for a month, but we wanted to make sure you had a chance to see it at least two or three times before you listened to our amazing line-up of guests discuss the film. In this episode, Jen and Trish are joined by Faridah Gbadamosi, Justina Ireland, and Brandon O’Brien to discuss everything from how Black Panther deals with the African Diaspora, how Nakia and the rest of the women are always right, what kind of villain Killmonger is, how the film fits within the MCU, and as much other stuff as we could fit in (given how many important conversations that Ryan Coogler and his team managed to infuse Black Panther with). (Wakanda Forever!) We hope you enjoy the episode!

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