752. S&F Clacks #5: Short Fiction, Private Equity, and Enshittification!
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-752-clacks-5/SandF_752_Clacks5.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSInternet shenanigans, bad companies, and library problems, oh my! Shaun Duke and Trish Matson join forces to discuss the encroaching influence of private equity on publishing and books, the future of libraries and problems that face them, the state of short fiction in SFF, and more! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Book Review: A Death at the Dionysus Club, by Amy Griswold and Melissa Scott
I really enjoy how A Death at the Dionysus Club builds out from Death by Silver, expanding the lives of the protagonists and connected characters as well as the worldbuilding. … the puzzles are intriguing, the perils are exciting, and it’s great how the lovers end up standing for and standing by each other.
Review: New Edge Sword & Sorcery, Nos. 0-2
There’s a huge variety of entertaining and illuminative content in New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine. Anyone who’s interested in the subject would be well advised to check the magazine out.
Book Review: Son of the Storm/Warrior of the Wind, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
The two books really feel like to me a study and critique of decaying imperial power, and what happens when that eroding power slips to the point where the imperium is visibly decaying, and starts to overcorrect and do truly shortsighted and ill-advised things in the quest to not only maintain the decaying status quo, but to reach back to a mythical golden era before that never really existed in the first place.
Short Fiction Review: October 2023
Often, there ends up being a common thread connecting my favorite stories for a given month. This month, however, the differences between my favorite stories seem more notable, particularly when it comes to structure.
Book Reviews: Ill Met and Well Met
I have to give Leiber a pass on the fridging in Ill Met in Lankhmar. But I don’t have to enjoy it.
One of the many reasons I still love Saber & Shadow is that its women don’t get fridged, because they are the protagonists. Their lovers don’t get fridged, either, because these women are into each other. It’s a joyful romp, albeit with a lot of tense moments, and a few traumatic memories for one character.
