Book Review: The Devil’s Guide to Managing Difficult People by Robyn Bennis
The Devil’s Guide to Managing Difficult People is an urban fantasy that deceptively starts off as a lighthearted take on a relationship with a supernatural being and eventually turns into a meditation on deeper explorations of a character’s pain, personality, choices, and mistakes. It tempts the reader with the fun and goofiness of its initial premise and gradually sucks the reader into a study of the main character and their history in a deep and sometimes painful dive. This latest book by Robin Bennis leverages and leavens Bennis’ droll sense of humor seen in the Signal Airship series and turns it onto a fantastic urban fantasy story.
#Booktube – May 2019
Because it’s proving difficult for us to do this on a consistent basis, we’ll just be doing monthly wrap-ups! May was a bit light, as was everything around here, but hopefully you’ll enjoy some of the fun content we produced! We were super excited when we got to 100 subs last month because it means we now have a unique url for our Youtube channel! It’s Youtube.com/skiffyandfanty, so head on over there any time and subscribe if you haven’t already. Another way to make sure you don’t miss these is to sign up for our newsletter. These are in the order we posted them, not by show (because they do occasionally reference one another!)
At the Movies #77: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFAtTheMovies77GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters/SandF–At_the_Movies_77–Godzilla_King_of_the_Monsters.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSNuclear families (hyuck, hyuck), boat-cars, and Transformers, oh my! In today’s episode, Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, Alex Acks, and Jen Zink tackle the giant roaring beast(s) that is Godzilla: King of the Monsters! There are definitely opinions in this episode, y’all. LOTS OF OPINIONS! We basically took the Kaiju plot of King of the Monsters and turned it into a podcast. In today’s episode, Shaun is the evil Ghidorah and Jen is the good and kind Godzilla. Yep. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Listen as the team discusses their disappointments, why the movie is a bit of a mixed bag, what really pissed us all off, how white liberalism makes an appearance, how the scale of the monsters didn’t always work, MOTHRA, and more! Lots and lots more because this is a team with OPINIONS! Footnote: David Annandale was missed terribly. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Screen Scouts #19: Babylon 5 (Season 3; Episodes 9-12)
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFScreenScouts19Babylon5S3E912/SandF–ScreenScouts19–Babylon5–S3E9-12.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSDystopian shenanigans, busted councils, and Centauri rivalries, oh my! The Babylon 5 re-watch of Season 3 continues! Shaun, Mike, and Paul tackle episodes 9 through 12. This podcast is packed with big reveals, terrifying prospects, and disturbing ideas. We tackle the collapse of Earth Federation, the echos of the Nightwatch, the development of our favorite characters, and the show’s approach to imperialism and racism. And that’s just scratching the surface! So climb aboard the the White Star and join us on our adventures in the B5 universe! We hope you enjoy the episode!
Book Review: A SECRET GUIDE TO FIGHTING ELDER GODS edited by Jennifer Brozek
The return of the Lovecraft mythos to fiction and popular culture has been a burgeoning tendency in modern day fiction and culture. From Charles Stross’ Laundry Files to plush Cthulhus, the idea of the Mythos is more well known in popular culture than ever. There has also been a surge and rise in the popularity of YA as a subgenre, with teenagers and young adults navigating some rather perilous territory. It makes sense to me that the perilous territory that YA protagonists face might include encounters with Deep Ones, the Dreamlands, Ghouls, and the other terrors inherent in the Mythos. In addition, many of the stories in Lovecraft’s oeuvre are centered around familial concerns — learning one’s heritage, coming to terms with it, rejecting it, or even being possessed by it. Of course, such family dramas can underpin many YA stories, too. Thus, in A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods, editor Jennifer Brozek marries these two concepts with a selection of stories from a wide range of authors. Like any anthology, the quality and interest of an individual story and author varies for me. Some of the stories stood out for me and showed the promise and possibilities of the form. Overall, I found that the authors and the stories embraced and lived up to the challenge of introducing YA protagonists and themes into the Mythos. The Mythos, upon reflection and after reading these stories, seems to me now like a natural sub-subgenre of fantasy for YA writers to consider.
Book Review: RADICALIZED by Cory Doctorow
Radicalized, the new collection of four novellas by Cory Doctorow, features an uncommon structure for a book. Authors tend to release either standalone novels or collections of short stories. Sure, sometimes they’ll release a standalone novella or include a novella or two in a collection, but I’m not sure I’ve ever read another book composed solely of a handful of novellas before. However, I really enjoyed this structure, and I wish more authors would release books like this. Although the novellas are unconnected and each stand on their own, their interweaving themes of technology, activism, politics, and society work together to make Radicalized a cohesive and powerful collection. And it’s timely too. In a recent interview, Doctorow said that he “didn’t intend to write ANY of these — they got blurted out while I was working on another book.” The stories deal with refugees, police brutality, terrorism, preppers, and other elements of our increasingly dystopian modern world. Since there’s so much to talk about here, I’m going to explore each story individually.
