Book Review: The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
Pride month might be over, but it’s never too late for lesbian pirates and kaiju. However, don’t expect fluffy YA romance from The Abyss Surrounds Us. This is a post-apocalyptic YA sci-fi that follows a tradition of tackling darker topics. Where The Hunger Games looks at living under an oppressive regime and In the Dark Spaces addresses being the sole survivor of a massacre, The Abyss Surrounds Us tells a tale of emotional manipulation and abuse. It begins with climate change. The oceans have risen, the flood walls of New Orleans have fallen, and the governments of the world have split into smaller territories. Ostensibly, these splits were intended to make it easier to protect these smaller population clusters. However, some people always fall through the cracks, leading to a pirate problem in the NeoPacific. Cassandra Leung is a teenager from the Southern Republic of California. Her family is part of the world’s solution to the plague of pirates. They breed and train Reckoners: giant, genetically-engineered sea creatures created to protect their bonded ship. The Reckoners have proved a very useful solution thus far, albeit one that relies on a delicate ecological balance. The creation of Reckoners is carefully monitored so that enough food can be engineered to feed these monsters without disrupting the rest of the ocean’s ecology. In order to preserve both this ecological balance and the political power balance, Reckoner handlers are expected to protect the secrets of their industry with their life, if necessary.
Book Review: VELOCITY WEAPON by Megan E. O’Keefe
Over the last few months, I’ve rediscovered just how spectacularly fun a good space opera can be. Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire had me hooked from its start, and reading Laurence Suhner’s captivating Vestiges has me baffled that no publishers have picked up her Quantika series for translation from the French to English. In addition to those, space opera fans can now add Megan E. O’Keefe’s Velocity Weapon to the to-read list. You may already recognize O’Keefe’s name from her successful steampunk fantasy, the “Scorched Continent” series, or you may have already caught the interview with her by Paul and I for the Skiffy & Fanty podcast. Her first book in The Protectorate series, Velocity Weapon is a well-crafted interplanetary adventure full of twists and turns, compelling characters, and irresistible teases of an expanded terrain for the chapters to come.
Totally Pretentious #18. Cat People (1942) and The Seventh Victim (1943): The Terror of the Other and the Beast Within
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sandftotallypretentious18catpeopleandthe7thvictim/SandF–Totally_Pretentious–18_CatPeople_and_The7thVictim.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode, David and Shaun turn their attention to Cat People (1942) and its loose sequel, The Seventh Victim (1943). Together, they discuss the impact these films had on the development of the horror genre, the terror of the beast within, the treatment of cults and psychiatry in each film, and much more! Prepare yourselves for another foray into cinematic greatness. Enjoy the episode!
At the Movies #78: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sandfatthemovies78avengersendgame/SandF–At_the_Movies_78–Avengers_Endgame.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSBad haircuts, beer, and delicious pandering, oh my! Shaun, Alex, Trang, and Stina assemble to tackle one of the biggest films in cinematic history: Avengers: Endgame. This one is a spoilerrific podcast, y’all, which means we talked about some of the biggest permanent changes to the MCU, from who dies to who gets redemption and more. We also tackle some of the controversies about the film, including that scene and that other scene. You know what we’re talking about. So get yourselves ready. This one is a doozy! We hope you enjoy the episode!
Short Fiction Review: May 2019
My favorite stories from May all happened to be about resistance. They all had good and satisfying endings, although none of them had a clean ending where everything was wrapped up neatly with a bow. Then again, I don’t think resistance often works that way. First, I loved “Everything is Closed Today” by Sarah Pinsker. It’s delightful tale about skater girls, activism, and building community, and it appears in Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Victory in Defiance edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner. Next, I recommend Joe Ponce’s “Raices (Roots),” which appears in Issue 7 of Anathema: Spec from the Margins. It’s a powerful and important story about immigration, border justice, and political consciousness. Lastly, if you love academic scholarship and theory — or, for that matter, if you hate those things — you must check out “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island” by Nibedita Sen in Issue 80 of Nightmare Magazine. Now, on to the reviews!
Book Review: Do Not Go Quietly: an Anthology of Victory in Defiance edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley
What are you fighting for? Your space? More space? Your territory? More territory? Your reputation? A better reputation? A better outcome? The best possible outcome? — Bianca Lynn Springgs “Plot Twist” from Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Victory in Defiance Bianca Lynne Spriggs’ volume-closing poem “Plot Twist” challenges the reader with these provocative questions and many more, and had I been doing editors Jason Sizemore’s and Lesley Connor’s job, I would have been sorely tempted to put it first rather than last. However, since this poem’s challenges are as good a return to the real world we’re all stuck in as they are a microcosm of the themes this collection explores, I can absolutely see why they chose otherwise. Which is to say that Sizemore and Connor earned every nickle they could ever conceivably be paid for producing Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Victory in Defiance.
