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Book Review: The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu

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After being bonded with the alien Tao, making good strides against the Genjix, and becoming a better man in the process, physically and otherwise, you’d think Roen Tan would have it made. Instead, several years after the events of The Lives of Tao, Roen and Tao have self-exiled themselves not only from Jill and their son, but also from the remainder of the Prophus. It’s a particularly painful separation. And,  sidelined as they have made themselves out to be, Roen and Tao’s side are in a relatively weaker position now, and the stakes are higher than ever. The Genjix are winning their long secret war against the rebellious Prophus. More and more of the countries of the world are falling under covert Genjix control. It’s everything Jill (and her own Quasing Baji) can do to keep things from slipping too badly. In The Deaths of Tao, though, that might not be enough, as the Genjix have a new rising star in their ranks and a seemingly tantalizing approach to an old, old dream. Not the ancient dream to escape Earth, but a different desire entirely…

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Listening To My Ancestors

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Author’s note: This blog post will be a little bit different from the usual SFF in SEA variant. 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. My paternal grandparents came from Hui’ An, Fujian. Isolated from the mainland, Hui’ An still retains characteristics of a minority group in China:  the women’s clothing are unique and more reminiscent of clothing from Indo-China. The Hui’ An people are nominally Han Chinese. They are a coastal people, fishing and harvesting/farming oysters as part of their livelihood. At the same time, the women folk work at granite mines. Still deeply patriarchal, Hui’An society has women working at the coast and at the workshops while men idle away at tea houses. As a result, the women are tough, resilient and innovative.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

209. South African SF Roundtable w/ Alex Latimer, Lauren Beukes, and Sarah Lotz

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode209SouthAfricanSF/SandF%20–%20Episode%20209%20–%20South%20African%20SF.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTerrifying malls, time traveling serial killers, and renegade spaceships, oh my!  Authors Alex Latimer, Lauren Beukes, and Sarah Lotz join Julia and Shaun for an in-depth discussion about South African SF, from the influences of Apartheid on contemporary SA literature to the film industry to fandom and publishing.  You won’t want to miss this one! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 209 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Our Guests Alex Latimer (Author of numerous picture books and The Space Race, which involves apartheid, nuclear weapons, and a race to the moon) Sarah Lotz (Author of The Three, which is about plane crashes and creepy kids. Also writes under other names) Lauren Beukes (Author of several books including The Shining Girls, which is about time traveling serial killers, and the forthcoming Broken Monsters) Additional Notes: Nick Wood has written a lot about South African SF http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/?page_id=530 J.M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/?page_id=530 (Lauren has judged the short story contest) rAge gaming convention (where Lauren went dressed as Cheetara from Thundercats): http://www.rageexpo.co.za/ Another South African Gaming Site: http://www.rpg.co.za/ http://www.roomtoread.org/page.aspx?pid=320 claims that 80% of schools lacked Libraries in 2012. Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human (zombie apocalypse entertaining novel, but also political) The Mall by S.L. Grey (one of Sarah’s pen names) and Louis Greenberg dealing with consumerism and the divide between rich and poor. World Reader gives free tablets to people to encourage reading (not SA based, but a very cool idea!) Night Drive is a South African horror movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610394/ (This is really gross and culturally insensitive, so approach with caution) short film based on Charlie Human’s short story… No More Heroes (not sure where to find this) South African nuclear weapons information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction South African Space Program http://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/155 South African Rocketry: http://www.sarocketry.co.za/index.html Lauren’s fact checking Twitter bananza (literacy rates, etc.)(check this out if you want accurate stats for some of the things we discuss in the episode) Where to buy SA books: booklounge.co.za — you can order South African books from here. Author recommendations: Diane Awerbuck — Home Remedies (recommended by Alex) Louis Greenberg — Dark Windows set in future South Africa Something Wicked magazine Bloody Parchment anthology and Bloody Harvest anthology Jungle Gym magazine Andrew Solomon — Tokolosh Song Edyth Bulbring Henrietta Rose-Innes Alex Smith SA Partridge Nerine Dorman Liam Kruger Miranda Sherry Black Dog Summer (like The Lovely Bones, but set in South Africa) Sam Wilson You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

This Katamari Feels Limericksish

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(That’s probably because you rolled up nothing but Limericks about exciting things!) I’ve been like a magpie lately, collecting shiny things from here and there. There’s no unified theme to this post, except everything in it is an awesome idea. So I decided to force a theme in a way that will likely yield terrible results:  Limerick writing! I am making these all up on the spot, and giving myself no more than 5 minutes to do each one. So, hang on tight; this may be a bumpy ride! Gears for Queers

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

208. Usman Malik (a.k.a. Mr. Marvel) — An Interview at ICFA

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode208AnInterviewWUsmanMalikAtICFA/SandF%20–%20Episode%20208%20–%20An%20Interview%20w%20Usman%20Malik%20at%20ICFA.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSUrdu literature, the wild world of translation, and Pakistani speculative fiction, oh my!  Author Usman Malik joins us at ICFA to talk about his literary influences, Urdu literature, spirituality and religion, and a whole lot of other amazing stuff. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 208 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Usman’s Twitter Usman’s Posts on Desi Writer’s Lounge “Pinned and Wriggling on the Wall” by Usman Malik (Daily Science Fiction) Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī The Adventures of Amir Hamza by Ghalib Lakhnavi (translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi) Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s website Farooqi’s columns on Dawn.com Mazhar Kaleem The Imran Series Ibn-e-Safi You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

Book Review: Reach for Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan

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Jonathan Strahan’s third “Infinities” anthology, Reach for Infinity, changes focus yet again for the series. While Engineering Infinity and Edge of Infinity explored solid Solar System-set science fiction, Reach for Infinity’s stories and mission concern the attempts of man to get into the solar system, pulling back even further from the more grandiose hard science fiction in the first Infinities volume, Engineering Infinity. However, even given the more narrowed and tight focus, the stories are no less full of wonder, characters, science and excellent writing. The previous volume, Edge of Infinity, felt in some ways like a manifesto from the editor, as if it had been curated and created to advance an argument. Reach for Infinity eschews that sort of editorial point of view and instead presents a set of excellent stories.

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