Blog Posts

Blog Posts

Review: Assassin (2014; dir. J.K. Amalou)

/

You’d think from the cover copy for the Blu Ray release of J.K. Amalous’ Assassin (2014) that what you were about to watch was a character-driven crime thriller fed by crafty dialogue and compelling characters.  After all, by declaring that Assassin comes from the makers of Casino and Goodfellas, both Oscar nominated works, the copy implies a film of a certain quality.  It is unfortunate, then, that the film on offer is less like Goodfellas and more like a watered down Jason Statham movie. Danny Dyer plays Jamie, an assassin-for-hire who murders competitors and irritations on behalf of “reformed” criminals John and Lee Alberts (Gary and Martin Kemp, respectively).  On one such job, Jamie meets Chloe (Holly Weston), a drug-addled stripper, and falls for her.  Jamie soon discovers that his last target was Chloe’s father; when Chloe starts asking too many questions, she draws the attention of the Alberts, who demand Jamie kill her, too.  Failing to do so, they both become targets, putting Jamie in the sights of men just like him.

Blog Posts

Book Review: The Buried Life by Carrie Patel

/

The city of Recoletta is an artifact of the Catastrophe. Like the bomb shelters that saved humanity after the Catastrophe, most of the city is built underground, and most of its residents rarely see the surface. It’s a point of pride to those who manage never to do so. In this gaslight world of tenement and tunnels, the Council rules, openly in some ways, secretly in others. When murders and death stalk not the common man, but the high and mighty in Recoletta, the conflict and dangers run from those high and mighty to every aspect of society. Recoletta is a city, a world in miniature on the edge, and these murders are set to very possibly give it a very big push. Carrie Patel’s debut novel The Buried Life introduces us to Recoletta and its citizenry and gives us a picture of it and their lives in the wake of a series of shocking murders. Our points of view are primarily a pair of strong women characters.

Blog Posts

Guest Post: On sniping, women, and SF by Brenda Cooper

/

There’s a lot of sniping going on across genders in our field.  Vitriolic sniping.  Shame on us. Yes, science fiction is largely male dominated.  So are a lot of fields.  I know.  My day job is in technology, where I’m a c-level exec. It wasn’t necessarily easy to get here even though I live in the liberal bubble of the West Coast where it’s easier than it is in a lot of places.  I’ve been living this conversation my whole life across multiple fields of endeavor.  Yes, it sucks.  Yes, it needs to stop. But sniping isn’t the answer.  Mind you, I’d be fine with sniping if it worked.  It’s kind of fun.  But as far as I can tell, it’s not effective. Yes, there are truly evil men out there in the midst of the current social fights, like whoever issued the death threats to women writing about feminism in the game world.  This is not an article about how to deal with them.  Jail time would be a great start.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Carrie Patel (The Buried Life)

/

My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Carrie Patel to talk about how the power of making lists relates to The Buried Life. Once upon a time, I had the uncanny ability to down lots of mimosas without suffering any ill effects afterwards. I’d tell you my record, but my mother will probably read this. However, as I creep closer to thirty, I’ve traded in some of my youthful superpowers (infinite mimosas, staying up for two days in a row) for more grown-up abilities.

Blog Posts

Book Review: Use As Directed Review edited by Simon Petrie and Edwina Harvey (Peggy Bright Books)

/

Left over to review as part of last year’s World Tour of SFF, Use Only As Directed fits just as nicely into the Women and Non-Binary in SFF theme for Skiffy & Fanty this year. The latest anthology from Peggy Bright Books, edited by Simon Petrie and Edwina Harvey, Use Only As Directed features Australian and New Zealand authors – of whom over 50% are female – crafting short stories around the titular phrase that one commonly reads on instructions for everything from medicine to the latest gadget. The anthology’s predominant characteristic is its well-balanced diversity in authors and styles, with an array of female, male, and nonhuman characters and a range across genres from horror to fantasy to science fiction. Author nationality and the unifying theme bring the major constants — though given the Australian/New Zealand focus, racial diversity is not really present here.

Blog Posts

Around the Podosphere #7: Podcasts of Note for 3/2/2015

/

What nifty things dropped into our laps last week?  This week’s edition of Around the Podosphere has the answer.  Here’s what we’ve been listening to! On Literature: The fine folks at The Coode Street Podcast welcome Liza Trombi from Locus to talk about upcoming books, including a few we probably should read soon.  In a prior episode, they brought on Alisa Krasnostein, Sean Wright, and Tehani Wessely to discuss the Aurealis Awards. Doing justice to everyone’s childhood, The Book was Better crew discuss the novelization of the classic 80s movie, The Goonies.  Excuse me while I put that movie in my DVD player… Rocket Talk welcomes James L. Sutter and Mordicai Knode to discuss Paizo Publishing’s new relationship with Tor Books (hooray for positive changes!).  More recently, Ferrett Steinmetz and Monica Byrne discussed the Clarion Writer’s Workshop and the problem with genre classifications for authors. On Movies: Compelled by ghosts, the folks at We Hate Movies discuss the horror dud, White Noise. On Leonard Nimoy: The Incomparable crew offer some very fine words about Nimoy, his career, his influence, and his legacy.  A great man who will be sorely missed.

Scroll to Top