Fantasy

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

193. New Zealander Speculative Fiction w/ Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, & Stephen Minchin

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode193NewZealanderSpeculativeFictionWHelenLoweNormanCatesStephenMinchin/SandF%20–%20Episode%20193%20–%20New%20Zealander%20Speculative%20Fiction%20w%20Helen%20Lowe%20-%20Norman%20Cates%20-%20Stephen%20Minchin.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe World SF Tour continues with our discussion of New Zealander speculative fiction with Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, and Stephen Minchkin.  We discuss NZ publishing, the field of NZ specfic, themes and issues, and so much more. 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 193 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Helen Lowe is a fantasy author whose work has won the Sir Julius Vogel Award, the Gemmell Morningstar Award, and others.  She can be found on her website and blog; she is also on Twitter Norman Cates is president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand and is in charge of the 2020 New Zealand Worldcon bid, which will be updated soon. Like it via Facebook or sign up with e-mail address to get info for supporting it. Stephen Minchin runs New Zealand-based Steam Press, which has published award-winning works such as The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse by Fredrik Brouneus.  He can also be found on Twitter.

Blog Posts

A (World) SFF Film Odyssey: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) and Anime’s Excesses

Warning:  there are some graphic images in this post.  NSFW. Not too long ago, I set myself the goal of viewing every SF/F film released in 2010.  It figures that the first non-American film I decided to view would be one of the most ridiculous, violent, and bizarre films I have seen in a while.  After being bullied by her classmates, high school student Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) returns home to discover that her father is actually a humanoid mutant known as a HILKO (or hiruko — the subtitles use HILKO, but descriptions of the film use “hiruko,” so I’m not sure which one is correct).  But before she can take in this surprising news and its implications for herself, she and her parents are attacked by an anti-HILKO military unit.  What follows is an all out bloodbath as Rin tries to escape not only the military, but the blood-thirst of her home town.  Later, she is picked up by other HILKO members and trained and indoctrinated into a violent counter-revolutionary force run by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), who believes his pack of teen girl HILKOs are the perfect fighting force for making Japan a human-free zone.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

192. Australian Speculative Fiction w/ Tansy Rayner Roberts & Marianne de Pierres (the World SF Tour)

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode192AustralianSpeculativeFictionWTansyRaynerRobertsAndMarianneDePierres/SandF%20–%20Episode%20192%20–%20Australian%20Speculative%20Fiction%20w%20Tansy%20Rayner%20Roberts%20and%20Marianne%20de%20Pierres.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe World SF Tour continues with our discussion of Australian speculative fiction with Tansy Rayner Roberts (author and Hugo Award winner for Best Fan Writer) and Marianne de Pierres (author and Aurealis Award winner for Best Novel) 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 192 — Download (MP3) Show Notes:

Announcements and Errata

Saga (a Simon & Schuster Imprint) Picks Up Stina Leicht’s Flintlock Fantasy Series!

That title is a bit of a mouthful, but I wanted to make sure the gravity of the situation could sink in before you read the rest of this post. That’s right.  Stina Leicht — one of our lovely hosts — has just announced her two book deal with Simon & Schuster imprint, Saga.  And it’s a secondary-world flintlock fantasy.  From the author of Of Blood and Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain.  If that doesn’t entice you, then perhaps the description will: The future for the ancient Kingdom of Eledore is grim. A small pox epidemic is sweeping through the land. A decadent aristocracy employs immense magical powers to quibble with one another, and dominate the populace, the Regnum of Acrasia has declared a holy war against magic, and an ancient evil living beneath Eledore threatens to break free. Can Princess Suvi navigate her family’s deadly politics, create justice for her people, unify the survivors, and hold back a demon horde at the same time? Disowned and cast off, can her twin brother Nels successfully fight a war that no one is willing to acknowledge against a nation whose technology is far superior? You can read more about the books on Stina’s blog (including a little snippet). Needless to say, we’re super excited about these books and cannot wait for them to be in our hands!  Delicate, book-loving hands.  After all, Jen and I have spent the last three years handselling Stina’s previous books on the intergalactic scene, so we’re happy we’ll get to handsell some more of her work (this time to the Necrophages of Sirius, who are really into that whole flintlock thing). Congrats to Stina and to Simon & Schuster’s new imprint, which will clearly be successful because they have good taste.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Gregory A. Wilson

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 Gregory A. Wilson to talk about his paternal hilarity. —————————————————— A quick perusal of previous My Superpower entries on Skiffy and Fanty reveals one essential truth:  like rappers, for whom every other rapper is a sucker MC afraid to step to the mic and face the miraculous madness (I’m patenting that, by the way — it’s got just enough street cred to work), many contributors to this guest column are anxious to claim that their superpowers are more badass than everyone else’s — even when they involve creating apparently self-deprecating yet still awesome powers like (I quote) “a Non-Event Sphere” where nothing happens, or (again I quote) being “selectively stupid.”  So I wish to go on the record and say, right at the outset, that my particular superpower is not likely to trump anyone else’s.  You may well have this superpower yourself, and it may even be more powerful than mine.  I may be the sucker MC (I’m certainly afraid of the miraculous madness).  It’s not broadly applicable or particularly useful outside of one specific context.  But within that context, my superpower is completely MC-style legit. I am funny as hell.  To my six year old.

Blog Posts

Recommended Reads for January 2014

Recommended Reads is a monthly feature in which the Skiffy and Fanty crew tell you about one thing they recently read that they think you might like too.  (Note:  this is a tad late; sowwies) Here are our picks:

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