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Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James, A Review for Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Moon Witch Spider King

Marlon James’ Moon Witch Spider King (second book of the Dark Star trilogy) impressed me at first as everything I had missed in the first novel, Black Leopard Red Wolf. There was a story of emotional depth I could link into and a brilliant character I could care about, as opposed to the strangely alienating […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: fantasy, identity, immortal, Marlon James, memory, power, story-telling, supernatural

Amazing Cities in SFF – 3

By John Folk-Williams

The Wall Sumer Cities in SFF

To round out for now this series on cities in SFF, I’m revisiting a few novels that capture the importance of how people experience urban environments and how the massive structures affect their language and thought. A city, after all, is not just buildings and a way of physically organizing dense populations, but also a […]

Filed Under: SFF Cities Tagged With: Arkady Martine, city, culture, Gautam Bhatia, language, Lavie Tidhar, memory, myth, poetry, power, religion

Five Favorite Fantasy Novels Read This Past Year: Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Wyrd & Wonder 2022

It’s Wyrd & Wonder time again and, though I’ll have other kinds of posts this month as well, I thought I’d start with this Fantastic Five meme. I’ve read a lot more than five great fantasies since last May, but here are the most recent ones (actually six) that haven’t yet been in any other […]

Filed Under: Favorite SFF, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gautam Bhatia, Kate Elliott, Nicola Griffith, Rebecca Roanhorse

Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

By John Folk-Williams

Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I love a space adventure that lures me on with the promise of revealing the fundamental nature of a fictional universe, preferably through a dazzling experience that only the hero has earned the right to have. Well, no one can really explain the nature of everything, at least not very clearly, so far, but Adrian […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, alien life forms, alien minds, altered minds, communication, consciousness, reality, space colonies, universe

Belladonna Nights and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds

By John Folk-Williams

Belladonna Nights by Alastair Reynolds

Belladonna Nights and Other Stories is a great way to get into Alastair Reynolds’ short fiction. Ever since reading the beautiful “Nightingale” in Galactic North, set in the Revelation Space universe, I’ve been alert to a theme of personal loss and grief caused by separation from a loved one or because of the imminence of […]

Filed Under: Short Fiction Tagged With: Alastair Reynolds, alien life forms, galaxy, grief, loss, revelation space, spaceships, war

Fevered Star and Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

By John Folk-Williams

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

Fevered Star is the second book in Rebecca Roanhorse’s brilliantly imagined series Between Earth and Sky. Picking up directly after the conclusion of Black Sun, Fevered Star pushes its central characters in new directions while building on their gods-driven purposes played out in a richly imagined setting that draws together elements of many pre-Columbian American […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Great Series Read Project Tagged With: avatar, city, gods, human emotion, indigenous culture, power, Rebecca Roanhorse, religion, sacrifice

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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  • Moon Witch Spider KingMoon Witch Spider King by Marlon James, A Review for Wyrd & Wonder
  • The Wall Sumer Cities in SFFAmazing Cities in SFF – 3
  • Wyrd & Wonder 2022Five Favorite Fantasy Novels Read This Past Year: Wyrd & Wonder
  • Eyes of the Void by Adrian TchaikovskyEyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Reading: "Fear chews at you, though, and some artists don’t even realize they’re experiencing it until it overwhelms them." Business Musings: How Writers Fail (Part 2): Fear (Established Writer Edition) https://shar.es/afm95x via @KristineRusch

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Reading "His politics ..: in opposition to empire, racism, poverty, patriarchy, Christian dogma, and the emerging global capitalism of his time." William Blake: The Remarkable Printing Process of the English Poet, Artist & Visionary https://www.openculture.com/2022/05/william-blake-the-remarkable-printing-process-of-the-english-poet-artist-visionary.html via @openculture

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Hey @WashingTECH, Thank you for the follow!

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@LindaNagata is a writer I discovered last year, and have not looked back. Whether it’s SF or fantasy, she is a go to author on my short list. Check out her upcoming “Needle,” the third in the Inverted Frontier series. #writingcommmunity https://twitter.com/LindaNagata/status/1525939289866981376

Linda Nagata@LindaNagata

So—amidst all the grimness of the world—I have a new book coming out. NEEDLE is the third volume of my far-future series, Inverted Frontier. It’ll be out on July 12, with gorgeous cover art by the amazing Sarah Anne Langton (@xHelloSarahx).
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About the Author

A late-comer to the worlds of science fiction, John Folk-Williams circled around it, first by blogging (primarily through Storied Mind) about inner struggles and the mind’s way of distorting reality. Then he turned directly to SFF as an amazing medium for re-envisioning the mind and the worlds it creates. He started this blog as a way to experiment with writing science fiction and to learn from its many masterful practitioners.

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