NOTE: This post was originally published on the Feminist SF blog in 2006 or so. It was pretty popular at the time, but has been difficult to find these days, so I dug up the cache and am re-posting here. Despite being tempted (the “terrorism” bit is… interesting), I have left it unedited. Almost without […]
LeGuin, Boys’ Own Adventure, and the Fine Art of Genderfucking Read More »
I would not call a lot of books “brilliant,” but OSAMA is pretty effing brilliant. I thought this book was going to be nigh unreadable, based on the concept – a world where Osama bin Laden is the character in a series of pulp novels, and a private eye is tasked with hunting down the guy who
Books You Should be Reading Read More »
A couple years back, I had an old high school classmate email me out of the blue and ask if I could offer him some tips on writing, because he really wanted to be a writer so he could “Work from anywhere and make money typing on the beach in Hawaii.” No, really, that’s what he
In an ideal world, I’d write up whole blog posts about each of these, but for the sake of brevity, here’s some great books I’ve read this year that you may love, in no particular order: Ian Tregillis’s Bitter Seeds is… a great book. The Nazis have invested in a
Books you Should be Reading Read More »
I was reading a well-known science fiction author last night and found myself repeatedly bumped out of the story by all the techno-babble. I’m not averse to techno-babble, mind, it’s just that I didn’t buy that this POV character viewed the world through techno-babble glasses. If you’re staring at a sunset, it’s highly unlikely that
Swords and Sociology, Redux Read More »
For reasons various and sundry, I have just now released a draft of RAPTURE to my editor, agent, and first readers (yes, the book was due 4/30, and I finished it 4/30, but I had to hold onto it due to Boring Business Things). I’ve been toodling around with it, of course, since I finished
On hitting deadlines, writing a book a year, and subverting the limits of make-believe Read More »
Remember your favorite Sword and Sorcery novel? Disappointed when you went back, ten or fifteen years after you read it, and realized the writing kind of sucked and it was pretty sexist and racist? Did you wonder, then, why it was nobody was creating less crappy S&S these days? Well, maybe you didn’t. But I
Monster Fights & Mayhem: Thoughts on Throne of the Crescent Moon Read More »
At Epic ConFusion this weekend, I was on a couple of panels where we also gave some reading suggestions to the audience. Afterward, I had an attendee come up and ask if I could actually write up my list somewhere so she could access it later. Well, folks – you ask, I deliver. Below is
Epic ConFusion Reading Lists – Race/Gender/Class & Non-western Fantasy/SF Read More »
Remember when you were 9 and or 10 or 12 and you stayed up until all hours reading your favorite fantasy novel? Remember that strangely comforting feeling of slipping neatly and completely into some other place and so totally embracing the story of another person that you were engrossed until the sun came up? You
Remember When Fantasy Books Were AWESOME? Thoughts on The Cloud Roads Read More »
I don’t even know why I started reading this book. My publisher sent it along with a stack of others I had requested, and I couldn’t figure out why. I took one look at the cover and made a terrible face. “What the hell is this?” I said. My husband, J, grabbed the book out
NO HERO: Brain squid, explosions, and yes – chicks with swords Read More »