Science Fiction

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My Superpower: Tsana Dolichva (Defying Doomsday)

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Tsana Dolichva to talk about how the power of dislocating her joints relates to Defying Doomsday. My superpower is being able to mildly dislocate my joints in my sleep. My genetic medical condition makes me double jointed — not enough to ever become a contortionist, alas — and some of my joints are a bit unstable. Let me tell you a funny story. A couple of months ago, when I was feeling tense for work-related reasons, I went to bed and woke up with a sore shoulder. Waking up in pain is pretty normal for me, and it usually fades (eventually) as I move around a bit. This time it didn’t, and, furthermore, I couldn’t actually lift my arm forwards and upwards (this doesn’t usually happen). When it didn’t go away by itself in a couple of days (or with me trying to push it back into place against the wall), I made a physio appointment. Unfortunately, I had to wait a week and a half to get a time. In the meantime, I just had to put up with using my other arm to reach high shelves and holding the hair-dryer at a very awkward angle … it was fine.

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Book Review: Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper

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When a set of post humans, the Next, long ago banished to the edge of their society’s solar system, start making aggressive moves down the gravity well, no one is safe from their maneuvers and machinations. Not Chrystal, living on the High Sweet Home with her four-part family, who is attacked by The Next. Not Nona, Chrystal’s friend, and descendant of the famous Ruby Martin of The Creative Fire, who would risk much to see to Chrystal’s safety. And not Charlie, Ranger on the ecologically devastated planet Lym. Post humanity clashes with humanity, and a solar system wide conflict is brewing, even as these three seek to find a way to survive the danger and find answers, for themselves, and each other. Edge of Dark is the first novel in the Glittering Edge duology by Brenda Cooper.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

#32. Agent Carter (Episodes 1-4) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast w/ Raven Oak

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB32AgentCarterEps14/ShootTheWisb32–AgentCarterEps1-4.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSClever gadgets, super spies, and awesome 1940s women, oh my!  Our “Women and Non-Binary in SFF” theme continues with this special discussion of the first half of the Agent Carter miniseries.  Raven Oak joins us to talk about the show, its influence, its themes, and all the reasons why it is just plain awesome. 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! Spoiler Alert:  the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

265. The Black Hole (1971) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” (Childhood Destruction Edition)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode265TortureCinemaMeetsTheBlackHole/SandF%20–%20Episode%20265%20–%20Torture%20Cinema%20Meets%20The%20Black%20Hole.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSRobot blenders, mad scientists, and snarky companions, oh my!  In this special “childhood destruction” edition of Torture Cinema, the crew tackles one of Paul’s favorite childhood movies, The Black Hole. 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 265 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: The Black Hole (1971; dir. Gary Nelson)(IMDB) The Listener Survey 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

Short and Sublime: March 2015 Round-Up

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March has been a month of unusual settings, stories of alienation and loss, and meditations on the nature of time. Tade Thompson’s “The Monkey House” (Omenana #2), dystopian horror, is a story about what it means to be trapped inside a system, and the horrors one must overlook to be a part of that system; what happens when the ability to ignore horrors both natural and fantastical is seized from you and you alone? The protagonist is an unreliable narrator — or is he far more reliable as a narrator than the characters that surround him? — and holds a banal job as a paper-pusher with an insidiously creepy company whose purpose is obscured. This dystopia is set not in the future but in the eighties and follows the Orwellian tradition while being rather Kafkaesque, but adds enough facets, from dark fantasy elements to the chronic illness of the protagonist, to create something entirely new.

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Book Review: Binary by Stephanie Saulter

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Several years after the events of Gemsigns (see my review here at Skiffy and Fanty), the integration of Gems into society has continued. The violent spasm of reaction to Gems in the form of the godgangs has given way, some years later, to society seeking methods to harness the talents the Gems have in modern society.  It hasn’t always been smooth, or easy, but society and people have started to move on and grapple with the consequences of the aftermath of the fateful Conference and the Declaration arising from it. As in Gemsigns, however, both Aryel Morningstar, leader of the Gems, and the industrialist Zavcka Klist find their paths crossing. However, rather than being overt adversaries, Klist has a proposition for Morningstar, an offer of a collaboration of talents and skills. Klist’s  proposition is  to use the power of a certain Gem to explore the infotech technologies that had been abandoned in the wake of the Syndrome over a century ago. That Gem, Harran, with extraordinary power to connect to computers on a fundamental level, might be just the Gem to lead the effort into exploring infotech, and safely.  However, when delving into computers, and ancient records, sometimes dark and long forgotten secrets are discovered. Secrets of the past of Aryel Morningstar … and secrets of Zavcka Klist as well.

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