Blog Posts

Blog Posts

Book Review: Ninth Step Station

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Ninth Step Station is an excellent collaborative effort which entertains and asks hard questions about crime, investigation, surveillance, and the future of technology in a well imagined near future setting. The locale is Tokyo in the 2030s. After an attack by China on Japan, much of Japan is under Chinese occupation, and half of Tokyo is held by them as well, with a border zone between occupied Japan and free Japan managed by ASEAN, led by the United States. Tensions are high in this divided Tokyo of the future. The peace seems fragile and ready to erupt at any moment, forces scheme to survive and thrive, and the day to day life of people on both sides of the divide is under constant stress.

Blog Posts

Korean Drama Review: Arang and the Magistrate

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Sometimes there are shows that fill you with excitement because they seem like they’ll give their female characters compelling motivations and genuine agency in the plot, only to completely disappoint you by reverting to the same old misogyny and conservatism found in any other show. Arang and the Magistrate was one such show for me. Although I enjoyed watching it in the beginning, I was left with bitterness at the end because the women in the series received such disappointing resolutions to their character arcs. (Warning ahead for spoilers!)

Blog Posts

Short Fiction Review: December 2018 – January 2019

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One of my favorite stories I’ve read recently is “The Thing About Ghost Stories” by Naomi Kritzer, which appears in Uncanny Magazine. It’s a ghost story about a folklorist who studies ghost stories. If you like ghost stories, classification systems, mother/daughter relationships, or academic scholarship, this is a story for you. “2086” by T.K. Lê, which appeared in Strange Horizons, is another ghost story of sorts. It’s an accessible yet difficult story about immigration, family, and who’s actually valued and wanted within society. I also loved “On the Origin of Specie” by Vajra Chandrasekera, which appears in Nightmare Magazine. It’s a dark, compelling, and claustrophobic examination of taxation, protest, and agency. Lastly, for an intriguing story that blends science fiction with mythology, I recommend you check out “One’s Burden, Again” by Natalia Theodoridou, which appears in Clarkesworld Magazine.

Blog Posts

Book Review: The Silver Scar by Betsy Dornbusch

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Betsy Dornbusch’s The Silver Scar distills her epic fantasy skills into a potent single-volume epic set in a post-apocalypse Colorado. Post-Apocalypse Colorado is a hell of a place. There are Wiccans and Indigos in the mountains, some of whom still engage in eco terrorism. The communities of Denver and Boulder, fortress cities in this fallen age, are bastions of a Christianity that has gained its taste for crusade against the benighted people around. There are slavers who come up from wealthy and powerful Mexico, an additional complication for whose would trade and travel in this fallen world. Technology has somewhat fallen—bullets are expensive, so medieval weaponry and armor are much easier to make. Horses are as common as solar powered motorcycles and trucks (drays).

Announcements and Errata, Awards Season

2019 Awards Season Eligibility: Our Things, Guest Things, All the Things

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It’s that time again! The time when so many of us tell you what we created that is eligible for an SF/F award in 2019. And as always, we’re going to tell you about all the eligible things that this podcast and/or its hosts created AND all the eligible things we covered, including movies, books, comics, and more! So hold on to your butts. This will be a monster post of delightfully awards-eligible beautificities! Here goes: 

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