The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley Tor, 2016 Kameron Hurley is one of a new generation of feminist SFF writers who began to publish in the 2010s, when social media began is phase of near-ubiquitousness, a cornucopia of hype, much of a geek-related. By geek I mean SFF in its many media — games, …
Author Madeleine L’Engle wrote a heckuvalotta novels. In addition to the Wrinkle in Time (or the Kairos series as she called it) books pictured above, she also wrote a second generation series about the same family, plus the Chronos series about the Austin family, the Katherine Forrester series, and the Camilla Dickinson series. One thing …
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle Dell Yearling, 1978 [Challenge # 4: A children’s book, middle grade or younger.] A Swiftly Turning Planet is a hot mess of a book, but not without its rewards. The third installment of the Murry family saga that began with A Wrinkle in Time, it features the insufferable …
Since it’s the week before Easter, here’s some more Lapine words with generated meanings. Lapine Words Airn Avathru Elnurd Elnarn Esclay Flayarn Flysith Fouthu Frainda Frowtha Hith-ru-Hrin Hliefrag Hlothlev Hlymbroi Hrussu Lembrath Ifrai Nolfai Norp Noospet Olief Oori-elth Piambre’ Pru-thaing Sith-Mo Sivra Slesayn Thivlal Thrap Thooflong Vrelthai Vulflay Vyloo …
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Paperback edition, Bantam, 2007 The Lies of Locke Lamora came out in 2006, but I only got around to it in 2019. I’m coming out of a long period where I did not read current science fiction or fantasy, only old favorites. It caught my attention at …
Steampunk, a term coined in the mid-1980s, is a catch-all term for artistic design and subject matter that harks back to the Victorian Age, when steam-powered machinery and clockwork mechanisms began to drive the Industrial Revolution. The term was invented by SF writer K.W. Jeter in a tongue-in-cheek reference to Cyberpunk. But the term and …
Tales of knights in shining armor don’t always end happily.
Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams Avon Books, March 1998 [Challenge # 39: A book with a non-human (animal or fantastic creature) main character] I don’t think any talking-animal story has ever come close to what Richard Adams accomplished with Watership Down, an epic tale of rabbits who flee their doomed warren. It had …
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemison Current, Penguin Group, 2013 [Challenge # 14: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety] Up to now, I haven’t read much current fantasy, that is, books published after 2001. In recent years I read fantasy YA …
The Thorn Boy by Storm Constantine Stark House, 2001 Better known as a fantasy novelist, Storm Constantine has also written a surprising number of short stories. This collection, published in 2001, features nine stories set in or around the fictional kingdom of Magravandias, which figures in her Sea Dragon Heir trilogy. The Magravandias world resembles …