September 28, 2018
A Note from the Editors: Welcome to Out of the Box! We’re all layered people. Having a special fondness for all things speculative doesn’t stop any of us here at Speculative Chic from enjoying hobbies, books, television, and movies that are rooted (at least mostly) in reality. Each month, one of our contributors will wax poetic about something non-speculative or…
September 19, 2018
The Innocents, aka The Innøcents (2018) Released by: Netflix Rating: TV-MA Created by: Simon Duric and Hania Elkington Number of episodes: 8 Why I Chose It: British accents are like catnip to me, as is the premise of body-swapping. Perhaps I watched the original Freaky Friday—the one starring Barbara Harris and a teenage Jodie Foster as the mother-daughter swapees—too many…
August 15, 2018
Detroit: Become Human (2018) Developer: Quantic Dream Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Written and directed by: David Cage (with additional writing by Adam Williams) Platform: PlayStation 4 Genre: Adventure/Role-Playing Game Mode: Single-player Why I Chose It: I have always been intrigued by what I think of as “the Android Question”: What would I/humanity do if we created beings that then gained…
July 18, 2018
Back in May, five months late, I joined Speculative Chic’s New Year’s Resolution Project. My goal was/is to read all forty-seven books and eight novellas in the In Death series by J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. Since then, I’ve been a little…preoccupied with the series. See my last two monthly posts examining the series. (For those keeping count: I’m on…
June 20, 2018
To quote myself, “So, back around the turn of the year, several of our contributors here at Speculative Chic made New Year’s Resolutions, committing to movies or books or authors that, at some point, they’d given short shrift, or moments in pop culture that had passed them by. At the time, I was at a loss for my own resolution.…
May 16, 2018
So, back around the turn of the year, several of our contributors here at Speculative Chic made New Year’s Resolutions, committing to movies or books or authors that, at some point, they’d given short shrift, or moments in pop culture that had passed them by. At the time, I was at a loss for my own resolution. But that was…
April 20, 2018
“April showers bring May flowers.” It’s an old saying, and one that got me thinking about the nature of storms in storytelling. Storms are perhaps one of, if not the most, versatile of narrative devices. First of all, there are plenty of storm flavors: thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, hail, hurricanes, etc. And in speculative fiction, they can be brought on by…
March 21, 2018
If you’ve read just about any of my previous posts, then you know I’m a total fangirl when it comes to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. But those aren’t the only games I play! Aside from the handful of mobile games I check in with on the daily (Where are my fellow Covet Fashion and/or Gardenscapes addicts?), I…
February 21, 2018
I’m pretty chill when it comes to my speculative fiction likes and dislikes. I understand there are things that I love but others might not. For example, Star Trek. Not everyone gets the awesomeness of Star Trek, and that’s okay. Or Harry Potter. I mean, it’s your loss, but if you’re not a Potterhead, we’re still solid. However, there are…
January 17, 2018
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel (2017) Written by: Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland Genre: Science Fantasy Pages: 754 (Kindle) Publisher: William Morrow Why I Chose It: Although I’ve never read anything by Neal Stephenson (I know!) or Nicole Galland, I’ve always had a weakness for both time travel stories and epistolary novels. The premise: From bestselling author…