February 7, 2020
One of the great things about Science Fiction and Fantasy is that they are entertaining while offering a new social or political perspective or commentary. We love these books, movies, and TV shows because they get so much right, they tell a great story, they make us think, and of course they entertain us. But sometimes, there’s a character or…
October 15, 2019
The journey of the White Witch to the Beast’s Garden is a fraught and perilous trek through the beginnings of the realm of Faery, starting out at the dawn of humanity, with the first feminist fairy tale, that of the Animal Bride/Groom, in which, according to noted folklorist Terri Windling, “a human man or woman is married to an animal,…
July 23, 2018
They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with our first MFT repeat guest writer, Jason Ridler, whose latest…
July 17, 2018
Dystopias have been a part of the map since the start of the 20th century – a grim set of countries and worlds lying under a gray fog, ready to remind us of our potential follies. If utopias are our dreams, dystopias are our nightmare realms. Regular dystopian fiction focuses on the Everyman. If a feminist utopia imagines a…
March 26, 2018
They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with author Kate Jarvik Birch, whose forthcoming novel, Unraveled, comes out…
October 23, 2017
They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Speculative Chic contributor, book club host, and salt-miner Merrin. What…
March 14, 2017
This Month on Changing the Map Last year’s announcement that Hulu was remaking Margaret Atwood’s chilling tale of religious fundamentalism and female oppression couldn’t have been more timely. Her imagining of a takeover of the government and its impact on one powerless woman affected readers deeply when it was first published in 1986. Worryingly, elements of Atwood’s fantastical story are…
November 8, 2016
Even though I have enjoyed books since I was six months old (at least according to my mother), I used to be a snob about genre. When I thought about science fiction or fantasy, I thought about pimply teen-aged boys with Cheeto-stained fingers playing Dungeons & Dragons. I was a nerd, but I wasn’t that kind of nerd. After meeting…