Blog Posts

Blog Posts

Around the Podosphere #4: Podcasts of Note for 1/19/15

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The holidays are long over, but there’s still time to catch up on some of your favorite podcasts!  Here are some of our favorites from the last week or so: On Genre: The latest Coode Street Podcast features legendary author Guy Gavriel Kay as a special guest to talk about writing and genre history. The first episode of a brand new podcast entitled The Adventures of Yellow Peril and the Magical Negro just dropped. It’s all about representation and sf/f media, so it’s sure to provide the fix you’ve been craving. Interviews: The fine folks at Sword and Laser talk to Daniel H. Wilson about his new story/app, Mayday: Deep Space. Lev Grossman joins the Speculate! podcast to talk about his trilogy of novels and writing genre. Susan Jane Bigelow joins Julia on The Outer Alliance Podcast to talk about her latest novel, The Seeker Star. Justin Landon uses his magic to interview Brian Staveley on Rocket Talk. The latest episode of Midnight in Karachi features an interview with Megan Abbott, the Queen of Noir. On Movies: The latest episode of We Hate Movies tackles the film adaptation of Winter’s Tale. On Games: The Incomparable dedicates an entire episode to a discussion about Portal.  A whole friggin’ episode! On Comics:  Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men have as a guest G Willow Wilson, creator of the Ms. Marvel comic. And there you have it.  What are you listening to?

Blog Posts

Partial Book Review: Dangerous Games edited by Jonathan Oliver

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(This is a partial review, as I did not read the entire anthology for Reasons*.) Dangerous Games, edited by Jonathan Oliver, is a 2014 horror and dark fantasy anthology whose stories are united by gaming. The games featured are pretty diverse; I initially thought (for some weird reason) it’d be all western gambling, which I find pretty boring, but not so much. There are games from all over the world, as well as several stories revolving around RPG’s (of course, silly me). I found three stories conceptually very interesting. “The Yellow Door” by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia is a Lovecraftian story. While it ended a little abruptly, it does what only great horror writers can do in rendering the completely innocuous — things you cannot fathom being creepy — frightening. In this case, it’s the generic westernized Chinese restaurant — and component parts thereof. This I found more interesting than the Cthulhian element, not being a Lovecraft person. Though I must say, shoggoth soup. Ahem.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Nicholas Kaufmann (Die and Stay Dead)

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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 Nicholas Kaufmann to talk about how the power of patience relates to Die and Stay Dead. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly which of my innate mutant abilities is my true superpower. Is it my unerring talent for arriving on the subway platform at the exact moment the train I need is pulling away? Is it my almost creepy aptitude in recalling all manner of trivia related to Doctor Who, the classic series? (Go on, ask me who knit the Fourth Doctor’s scarf, or why the Fifth Doctor keeps a stalk of celery on his lapel, or how Davros lost his only remaining functioning hand. I dare you. How many hours do you have?) Or perhaps my superpower is actually a curse in the form of a last name that is almost constantly misspelled, sometimes even in print by professional publications.

Blog Posts

Book Review: The Genome by Sergei Lukyanenko (Translated by Liv Bliss)

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Sergei Lukyanenko’s name gained popular recognition outside of his native Russia with the translations of his fantasy/horror novels, Night Watch and Day Watch, and their equally successful film adaptations and remakes. It’s not surprising then to see reader interest in translations of his other work, including his science fiction. However, when it comes to The Genome, diving in simply due to author recognition is not advised. This is a novel where it pays to know not just the author and plot, but also a little about its style and designs. Lukyanenko intended The Genome to be playful, encoding in the final pages a hidden message that translates as: “This novel is a parody of space opera and cyberpunk. The author values your sense of humor.”

Awards Season

Awards Eligibility: Our Stuff and All the Stuff We Covered in One Handy Place of Awesome

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It’s that time of year.  Awards Season.  For us, that mostly means the Hugo Awards.  And since everyone is posting their eligibility posts, we decided we’d do one, too.  But instead of just telling you where we’re eligible, we’re going to do that and tell you about the cool stuff and peoples we talked to throughout the year who are eligible for something, too.  If we missed anything, let us know! Note:  to nominate works for the Hugos, you need a membership to this year’s Worldcon in Spokane by Jan. 31st. Full memberships are $140 until Jan. 31st. Supporting memberships (i.e., non-attending; mostly just for those that want to nominate and vote) are $40. If you were registered for last year’s Worldcon in London, you can nominate works for 2015, but you won’t be able to vote w/o at least a supporting membership. If you’re not attending, do consider getting a supporting membership so you can vote for your favorite sf/f stuff. It’s definitely worth it. Thanks to Gareth Kavanagh for the reminder. So, here goes:

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