Genre Fiction

Blog Posts

This Katamari Feels Scientifashionable!

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(That’s probably because you’ve rolled up some weird outfits!) It seems Fashion is on the old SFnal brain lately, and I enjoy a good sartorial debate as much as … well, as much as the average person, at least. Which is to say, not enough to follow Project Runway, but enough to relish a well-rounded and amusing critique of pageantry at least. And what can be more fun than the meeting of SF and couture? Angry Trousers: So, Tansy Rayner Roberts won best fan writer at the Hugo Awards this year, and it’s pretty much because she’s awesome. I love her blog because she’s intelligent and passionate about genre, and she posts things like this list of 25 awesome urban fantasies, AKA The Angry Trousers Treatise. I love the idea of women in angry trousers as a catch all term for a certain subset of urban fantasy. Even before I read the treatise, I

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

175. Religion and Genre Fiction w/ Max Gladstone & David Levine (A Discussion)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode175ReligionAndGenreFictionWMaxGladstoneAndDavidLevine/SandF%20–%20Episode%20175%20–%20Religion%20and%20Genre%20Fiction%20w%20Max%20Gladstone%20and%20David%20Levine.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGods, moral dilemmas, and deus ex machine, oh my!  Authors Max Gladstone and David Levine join David (Dave) and Shaun to talk about religion in genre fiction, how they all have used religion in their work, religious conflicts in fiction, and 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 175 — Download (MP3) Show Notes Max’s Website David’s Website Max’s Books (Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise — buy them!) Old Mars edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (David’s story is in this!  Get it!) You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

LitBits: The Politics of Author/Work Separation

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I’ve been thinking about this problem a lot recently, firstly for some obvious reasons (a certain movie) and secondly because of some of the things I’ve been discussing with my students in my American Literature course.  And one of the questions that keeps coming up for me is this:  how do we know when we have crossed the line by holding a writer accountable for the controversial things they write? As an example, I am currently teaching Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Wild Meat and Bully Burgers.  This particular novel is not all that controversial, though it certainly has its issues, but her later book, Blu’s Hanging, was the cause of much controversy in 1997/1998.  The Asian American Studies National Book Award she received was later annulled after public outcry; many critics and academics have written about the incident since.[1]  One of the problems Asian American (and other) critics had with the book was its representation of Filipinos in Hawai’i (they are dirty, morally questionable, violent, and/or pedophiles) and the complete absence of indigenous Hawaiians in the novel.  Effectively, critics charged Yamanaka with failing to self-censor herself in a stereotypical context; in

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

174. Cassandra Rose Clarke at Worldcon (an Interview of Sorts)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode174CassandraClarkeAtWorldcon/SandF%20–%20Episode%20174%20–%20Cassandra%20Clarke%20at%20Worldcon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSMad scientists, assassins, and publishing, oh my!  Cassandra Rose Clarke joins Jen and Shaun in a mysterious San Antonio restaurant to talk about her novels, writing, the fantasy genre, galactic empires (well, Shaun talks about that), and much more!  Plus, there may be a few half-truths in here.  We’ll leave you to figure them out! 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 174 — Download (MP3) Show Notes Cassandra’s Website Angry Robot Books You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

Out-Brutalling the Last Guy: “Grim and gritty, yes … but make sure it’s doing some honest work” by K.V. Johansen

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I’ve written some reasonably grim stuff. The hero of Blackdog does tend to go for the throat on the battlefield and the assassin hero in my forthcoming series, Marakand, has a past that is decidedly Not Nice (his present just gets worse). Violence, horror, fear, pain, death — these are all part of epic fantasy, which almost by definition is going to deal with war at some point along the way and will certainly throw its characters into nasty situations, both as active doers of deeds and as suffering victims. Sometimes detailed physical description is what you need to do what the story needs done. Sometimes it isn’t. When it is, the detailed physical description alone shouldn’t be the point of the exercise. I was talking about this just last night with the Spouse, and then, while procrastinating on Twitter this morning, I wandered into a conversation with Juliet E. McKenna and Tom Lloyd that touched on the same ideas. This led me to wonder if, as we see the increased brutality inflicted in books praised as some kind of standard that is supposed to be achieved, we fantasy writers don’t sometimes get the feeling that we’d

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

173. The Gate (1987) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” (the Halloween Special)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode173TortureCinemaMeetsTheGate/SandF%20–%20Episode%20173%20–%20Torture%20Cinema%20Meets%20The%20Gate.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSBackyard demons, claymation creeps, and geodes, oh my!  Shaun, Julia, and Paul return to form with a special Halloween-themed torturous review of The Gate.  Needless to say, they had a bit of fun tearing this one apart! 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 173 — Download (MP3) Show Notes The Gate (1987)(IMDB) You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

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