December 27, 2017
In 2016, your Editor-in-Chic had what she thought was a brilliant idea: why not make New Year’s Resolutions, but make them spec-fic related? So I asked my contributors: What’s something you’ve always wanted to read/watch/play/attend that you keep putting off? A handful answered me, and so, The Resolution Project was born. The plan was to write up our own individual…
July 11, 2017
This Month On Changing the Map As we’ve discussed in previous columns, the upside of using fantastic fiction as a forum for feminist thinking is that readers are so immersed in a strange world that they don’t realize they’re learning something important. The downside? That whatever an author might write about women and their struggles may seem dated and irrelevant…
June 13, 2017
This Month On Changing the Map This month we return to Justine Larbalestier’s excellent collection of feminist science fiction stories and essays, Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century. Three stories in her anthology perfectly illustrate one of the most compelling themes in fantastic feminist fiction of the 1970’s and 1980’s: sex, and how it affected women then,…
May 15, 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, a weekly column where we gab about the greatest in geek. This week we have two video game selections- including an old favorite, and a MMORPG perfect for people who don’t normally like MMORPGs. On…
May 9, 2017
This Month On Changing the Map Last October, I woke to the news that much-loved feminist spec fic author Sheri S. Tepper had died. It hit me hard, not because her death was untimely (87? Hardly.), but because at one time she’d been my favorite author but I didn’t even know she was still alive. How could I lose track…
April 26, 2017
Holding Smoke (2016) Written by: Elle Cosimano Genre: Paranormal Thriller Pages: 322 (Hardcover) Publisher: Hyperion Why I Chose It: As much as I try to keep up on new Horror, a lot slides by me, including this Stoker-nominated YA novel. It caught my eye for its premise — a paranormal thriller set inside a prison facility. Now THAT’s a unique setting and…
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…
March 13, 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, a weekly column where we gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we’re talking about dimension-hopping mad scientists, the latest installment in the Zelda video game franchise, a biography for one of the…
February 14, 2017
This Month On Changing the Map It’s not often that you pick up a nearly fifty-year-old novel only to find that it mirrors your current political climate with uncanny precision. It’s a bit like hearing a sermon at the precise moment you need it. You’re grateful for the enlightenment, but vaguely unsettled that the good lord or the universe knew…
February 13, 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, a weekly column where we gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we have two fabulous books for you to check out. One is a brand new graphic novel adaptation of a…