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Book Review: New Reality by Jessica Payseur

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New Reality by Jessica Payseur is a sweet and sensual gay romance that warms the heart.  It’s a relatively fast read at just under 50 pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I’d classify this novella as more of a romance that is sci-fi adjacent, but I enjoyed reading it for the characters and their love story.  With well-timed tension and a slight danger factor (this is mostly in space, after all), Payseur sets the stakes in her universe and follows through with them.  Her character-driven love story with a squee-worthy ending is worth a read.  It is NSFW at times, so you may want to be wary of anyone reading over your shoulder. This is the story of Connell, a tired courier of slightly less-than-legal goods, drifting across the stars alone after the sudden death of his former partner in smuggling and in bed, left bereft and abandoned in the middle of a world he’s not sure he wants to fit into anymore.  On his journey across the stars, picking up the odd job and the odd man, he somehow connects with a mysterious man through their seemingly shared dreams.  Wystan Kreeger has been stranded on a distant planet for seventeen years, trapped with no possibility of escape.  Their shared dreams send Connell on the haul of a lifetime: a lover, a planet, and a happiness that neither man could have ever predicted.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Signal Boost #26: A Conversation about All the Star Wars

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost26AllTheStarWars/Sandf–SignalBoost26–AllTheStarWars.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSOn today’s Signal Boosts, Shaun and Jen take a moment to squee about the fact that there are going to be THREE WHOLE NEW STAR WARS MOVIES AND A TV SHOW AND OMG! SQUEEEEEE!!! They’re moderately more coherent than that as they tackle what type of story Rian Johnson might tell. Then Jen moves them into both a squee about the new character, Rose, and a rant about jewelry. And then we get to our subliminal messaging mini-boosts! 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):

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

#64. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB64BladeRunner2049/ShootTheWisb64–BladeRunner2049.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSDigital loves, twisted techbros, and bees, oh my! Shaun and Paul join forces with special guest Marissa VU to discuss the long-anticipated Blade Runner 2049. They discuss the film’s “big questions,” what it means to love in a decaying world, Villeneuve’s remarkable ability to create visual spectacles, and so much more. Plus, we find out if Shaun could really love a non-human, why Paul likes a Vegas in ruins, and why Marissa thinks Jared Leto is just a bit strange in this movie. 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):

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Signal Boost #25: Mike Brooks (Dark Deeds) and S.A. Chakraborty (City of Brass)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost25MikeBrooksS.A.Chakraborty/Sandf–SignalBoost25–MikeBrooksS.a.Chakraborty.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to Mike Brooks about the third installment of his Keiko series, Dark Deeds. Mike gives us a recap of the the first two books, which he calls dirty space opera, and sets us up for the crew’s shenanigans as they try to pull off a heist and save a crew-member. He also discusses how he worked to make this series his own given its Firefly inspired origins. Then S.A. Chakraborty, debut author of The City of Brass, joins Jen to tell us about the medieval middle eastern inspirations of her novel, how it started out as historical fan fic, how a djinn (not the Disney version) might be influenced by a long-view of human history, and how Nahri is forced to make her way in Daevabad, the City of Brass. We also get a glimpse into how The City of Brass found a home through the #DVPit pitch process! (Apologies for the audio; sometimes the internet just doesn’t want to cooperate!) 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):

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

340. Ken Liu (a.k.a. The Imperial Paper-Pusher) — The Legends of Luke Skywalker (An Interview)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode340AnInterviewWithKenLiu/Sandf–Episode340–AnInterviewWithKenLiu.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSMonomyths, naval logistics, and porgs, oh my! Julia and Paul sit down with Ken Liu to talk about his new book, The Legends of Luke Skywalker! Ken shares how he first became a Star Wars fan as a child in China (bonus stories from Julia and Paul and how they became fans), somehow manages to make regulations and bureaucracy sound interesting, and talks about the differences between his work in the Dandelion Dynasty, his short stories, and the Star Wars Universe. 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):

Blog Posts

Book Review: Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers

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Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers takes a familiar idea, the fish out of water, from a distant part of a galactic empire, and updates it for a 21st century mentality and enlightened point of view. In not all, but many works past, the protagonist would be male, it’d be a patriarchal empire ruled by a King, Emperor, what have you. Women would have at best secondary roles, with even the occasional strong female character having a relatively unexplored interior life, and certainly not a full-on point of view that gives us her real story (I’m looking at you, Princess Leia). A man’s world, where men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. Some novels and novelists have tried to buck this sausage fest of space opera in the past. Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta series, for example. Some of Debra Doyle’s and James D. MacDonald’s Mageworld novels feature a strong female protagonist front and center. Even with these exceptions, Space Opera and space adventure have for decades  been overwhelmingly a male-dominated and male-catered affair. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo cast long shadows indeed.

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