823. Furry Culture & Literature w/ Kyell Gold + Robert Lyle — SF At School
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-823-furry-culture-literature/SandF_823_FurryCultureLiterature.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGamer foxes, finding your people, and literature with fur, oh my! Shaun Duke is joined by Kyell Gold and Robert Lyle for a wide-reaching discussion of furry culture and fandom, furry literature, the Furry Writers’ Guild, and more! If you’ve ever wanted to know about this vibrant community, this episode will learn you a thing or two! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Book Review: The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, by Malka Older
Malka Older makes a rousing return to her acclaimed SF mystery/romance series, The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, with The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, coming out June 10. The novella that started the series, The Mimicking of Known Successes, was amazingly great (I reviewed it here), and I quite enjoyed the sequel, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. The latest book is the longest so far, but at 256 pages it feels just right. The mystery seems to have lower stakes than in previous books, but it also highlights previously unexplored aspects of the Giant (Jovian) society and returns to some elements of previous books that hadn’t exactly been resolved after all. The romance between Pleiti and Mossa undergoes some severe friction, but in the end … well, read it and see! I don’t advise jumping into the latest book if you’re new to Mossa and Pleiti; start with the first novella, since the relationship and the worldbuilding are complex and continue to develop throughout the series. However, it’s not necessary to reread the earlier works to pick up the series again at this point (especially if you’ve already reread in the intervals like me), since Older includes plenty of reminder-references and context clues to prior situations. (I think if you skipped the second book for whatever reason, you can still read the third without too much difficulty.) The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses opens with a prologue of Mossa lurking outside Pleiti’s quarters, oddly reluctant to enter. The action starts in Chapter 1 with Petanj, an old Valdegeld University schoolmate, asking Pleiti for help; Petanj’s cousin Villette, a rising scholar-star at rival Stortellen U. who’s scheduled to be honored soon with a donship that’s relatively early in her career, has been receiving nasty anonymous notes and a false accusation of plagiarism. Petanj thinks that Pleiti, as a fellow scholar, will be less official, less intimidating, and more familiar with academic environments than Investigator Mossi, but hopefully familiar enough with the investigative process (given Pleiti’s somewhat notorious participation in prior investigations) to help resolve this problem and growing scandal. Pleiti asks Mossi to investigate with her anyway, or at least consult with her, but Mossa, sunken into a deep apathy or worse, refuses to even listen to the case, and sends Pleiti away. For much of the book, Pleiti doesn’t see Mossa, and frequently asks herself What Would Mossa Do as she embarks on the investigation, wondering whether she should have stayed with Mossa instead to help lift her spirits, since she doesn’t seem to be making much progress as she chats with various associates of Villette (pretending to be a mere curious visitor who’d come for the donship ceremony). Libel escalates to sabotage and worse, but the university leadership is more inclined to blame Villette as a trouble-inciter than to find the culprit(s?). In many ways, this book reminds me of the wonderful academic mystery/romance Gaudy Night (1935), by Dorothy Sayers. In that, Harriet Vane, a mystery novelist, is asked to investigate various “poison pen” notes at her alma mater, a women’s college at Oxford; she begins to feel out of her depth when the attacks move from libelous taunts to violence, and writes about the case to her unsuccessful suitor, the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey. The Potency of Ungovernable Obstacles doesn’t address women’s roles in society the way Gaudy Night does, since the Jovians of the future appear to have moved beyond that (although I note that the highest leaders of both universities here are men). And Potency doesn’t address clashes between town and gown mindsets the way Gaudy Night does (although Imposition touched on that lightly), but it does talk quite a lot about the different, and sometimes opposite, mindsets of the Classicists (studying Classic pre-Giant works in order to try to reconstruct a sustainable biosphere for ruined Earth) and the Modernists (focusing on life here and now on the orbiting rail-ring platforms around Giant/Jupiter). Distant from Valdegeld, the Stortellans have heard little more than vague rumors about the stirring events from the climax of The Mimicking of Known Successes, and some of them wonder whether the conspiracy there may have been much wider-reaching than the news said — which sets Pleiti to wondering whether she and Mossa really had gotten all the culprits; certainly the major perpetrator there had a lot of sympathizers. As Pleiti confesses late in Potency, she has much less faith now in leaders and institutions than she used to have. Eventually, Pleiti finds her own way to analyze the case and come to a conclusion; eventually, she gets some more help, and the mystery is solved, although not without some collateral damage along the way. Obviously I don’t want to spoil the perpetrator or the motives here, so I can’t talk about the resolution much. However, on a side note, I did feel pleasantly vindicated when I was confirmed in my guess about a romantic subplot. For the major romantic plot, both Mossa and Pleiti both struggle a lot with their feelings of inadequacy, and their tendencies to hurt each other with inadvertencies, occasional emotional obtuseness, and even efforts to shield each other from harm. Somehow, Malka Older manages to write this in a way that mostly has me sympathetically groaning “Oh, Mossa” or “Oh, Pleiti” instead of snarling, “Oh, come ON!” Mostly. But they do, eventually, communicate better. (And the book isn’t all grim and moody! There’s a lot of snide humor, and comfort food, and some exciting action!) Speaking of communication, I’ll mention the word choices here. Language on the platform is an evolving thing, which is natural for a society of Earth refugees thrown together and mixing and building a new way of life together around another world. In this future, numerous words have crossed over from other languages into English (or whatever language the future story has been translated from into our 21st-century usages, ha!), and various words have evolved via dropping prefixes or suffixes, or adding new
Book review: The Mercy of Gods, by James S.A. Corey
I didn’t try to read The Mercy of Gods, by James S.A. Corey, when it came out last fall because I kind of felt like I should finish their The Expanse series first — not that finishing should have been hard, but there are so many books and shows, so little time! But then I heard a really interesting discussion of TMoG, and put myself on my library’s waitlist. I finally got the audio version, and it’s great! I’m now waitlisted for the novella Livesuit, and I hope to read book 2 in The Captive’s War series as soon as it comes out (expected this fall). The Mercy of Gods (and presumably the entire Captive’s War series) is science fiction about different types of resistance, and choices, under occupation and enslavement. It’s mostly told in third-person limited past tense, from the perspective of conquered humans, but the framing device is a partial summary/explanation by a conqueror librarian (or liaison) from the side of the alien Carryx, who laments not having realized the danger the humans posed. So although armed human resistance is swiftly defeated, and a lot of the book is grim, there is a spark of hope throughout. The humans in this space opera, who lived on a lost settlement world (obviously not their original homeworld, due to evidence of terraforming and lifeforms that are not biochemically compatible with them), never had a chance when their conquerors came from space and immediately killed off an eighth of their population as a show of force. After a few futile days of armed warfare, numerous humans are taken prisoner and transported offworld to be assessed for suitability as servants/workers/slaves (“animals” according to the Carryx). Most of the POV characters are members of a scientific work group that had been trying to find ways to make alien lifeforms compatible, for nourishment, pharmacology, and similar purposes; the conquerors see the potential value of this and keep the group together. Tommen, the brilliant scientist in charge, nearly gets himself killed arguing for more privileges for the group; researcher Jessyn Kaul focuses initially on personal survival after losing access to maintenance drugs. Dafyd Alkhor, a semi-slacking young research assistant who’d obtained his job through political/familial connections, uses his prior networking skills to closely observe the conquerors and other subject species to try to figure out what behavior is desired from them. Some might view Dafyd as a collaborator, but he’s playing the long game, believing the aliens who’d said humans would be judged for their usefulness and concluding that their survival depended on that (especially since it turns out that they’re in competition with other subject species). This inevitably brings him into quiet conflict with the people who long for revenge and think that violently demonstrating their utter unsuitability as slaves will lead the Carryx to simply leave humans alone. Eventually, Dafyd has to make a crucial choice. Also active in the plot is a secret infiltrator from another species that’s already fighting the Carryx. The reader meets the Swarm entity early, but it’s only much later in the book that they reveal themselves to Dafyd, to tip the balance in his internal argument of freedom-fighting vs. the long game by giving him hope for the future. Given the Swarm’s method of infiltration (taking a human host), I’m unconvinced that they’re a reliable ally, but they certainly strongly oppose the Carryx. I expect that later books will reveal more about their nature and goals. The Mercy of Gods reminds me a lot of a great 1990 book by C.S. Friedman, The Madness Season. That’s set 300 years after hive-minded aliens conquered the Earth; the main character is a man who faintly remembers the days before. After the aliens discover some of his differences and take him offplanet to study him, he starts remembering more about himself, and escapes; eventually, he meets an energy being who can assume human form. Meanwhile, there’s a group of human technicians who work for the aliens but are part of a long-term resistance plan, and there’s one aberrant hive alien struggling to understand individuality. This is a truly fascinating book that explores various concepts in amazing ways, including different methods of adaptation and survival under subjugation, and various forms of identity (self vs. species, and selfhood through evolutions of memory, ability, and purpose). The Mercy of Gods also explores identity, via the Swarm’s assimilations and through people deciding who they are under great changes and stress, but it also explores group dynamics in some ways I haven’t seen much, at least not in such depth. The people whom we follow after the invasion are perforce grouped together as captives, and they mostly try to take care of each other, as much as they’re allowed, but some of them also start forming resistance cells. Tommen retains nominal control of the research group’s activities (he’s enraged to discover that Jessyn has been working on a private project), but Dafyd gradually assumes leadership of their interactions outside the lab. People who’ve relied on others are forced to discover their own capabilities, and various other personal loyalties and associations undergo shifts as events unfold and enforce new priorities. The Mercy of Gods is definitely not for everyone; its generally grim tone, punctuated by extreme violence and body-horror issues, may make it harrowing for some. However, the ideas it explores are fascinating, and the way it upholds patience, careful observation, and critical thought, along with the hope of future victory, are encouraging. Despite the tight focus on characters, the worldbuilding is vast and leaves lots of room for more developments. I found it thoroughly engaging and compelling, and I look forward very much to the next installment in The Captive’s War. Orbit Books published The Mercy of Gods, by James S.A. Corey, on Aug. 6, 2024. It’s the first book in a planned trilogy, plus two novellas, called The Captive’s War. Content warnings: War, population decimation (well, an eighth, even worse than a tenth),
821. Martha Wells (a.k.a. The Raksura Amanuensis) — Murderbot and More
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-821-martha-wells/SandF_821_MarthaWells.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSFanbots, questionable eye contact, and steampunk adventurers, oh my! Shaun Duke and Paul Weimer are joined by the wonderful Martha Wells for a discussion about her career, Murderbot (and the new TV show on Apple TV+), the Emilie books, and more! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Movie Review: Signale – Ein Weltraumabenteuer (Signals: A Space Adventure)(1970; dir. Gottfried Kolditz)
About Signale – Ein Weltraumabenteuer (1970): In the middle of the 21th century, a spaceship loses its bearings, and the commander of another space crew, seemingly on a routine check flight, decides to investigate. The first and most ambitious of two epic space operas that prolific East German genre director Gottfried Kolditz (1922-1982) made for the state-run DEFA film studios, SIGNALS was DEFA’s cheeky attempt to outdo Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY behind the Iron Curtain. The film used many of the same tricks: expansive, visually stunning shots of the cosmos … gorgeous Futurist space-design with ergonomic chairs, IBM lookalike computers, Mod mini-dresses and “STAR TREK” space uniforms … even a copycat free-floating in tunnel sequence with a wild electronic Perry-Kingsley type score. Featuring breathtaking 70mm cinematography, recently restored in 6K from the original camera negative by the University of Massachusetts Amherst / DEFA Film Library for its first-ever world Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile. The Blu-ray is available via Deaf Crocodile along with Koldtiz’s Im Straub der Sterne (In the Dust of the Stars). Note: The film was adapted from Carlos Radsch’s Asteroidenjäger (1961)!
Short Fiction Review: March–April 2025
My favorite stories from March and April all lift up the importance of human connection in one way or another.
