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Servant Mage by Kate Elliott – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

In a recent interview at Before We Go Blog, Ken Liu mentions Kate Elliott as one of the very best fantasy writers of today and Servant Mage, this gem of a short novel, reveals Elliott as a master story-teller. Servant Mage tells the story of a young woman raised in servitude and taught to despise […]

Filed Under: Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: class structure, demons, fantasy, mage, magic, power, self-worth, unmasking

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin – A Review for #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

The Dispossessed

For me, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed is a treasure — along with The Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven, I think, her finest work in science fiction. It brings together so many of her themes in a complex story that is beautifully written and deeply engaging. Themes like coming home, […]

Filed Under: Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: anarchism, capitalism, exile, exploitation, language, poverty, rebellion, science, society, Ursula K. Le Guin, utopia, wealth

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov – A Review for #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

The End of Eternity

Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity combines ideas about time travel with a questioning of the direction humanity could or should take over millions of years. However, the big issues about society, the development of humanity and the nature of Eternity are left to the end when a powerful turnabout occurs where expectations and assumptions […]

Filed Under: Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: eternity, future history, genetic change, governing the future, Isaac Asimov, society, time travel

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin – A Review for #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Cities of science fiction - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Ursula K. Le Guin wrote that Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We was the greatest science fiction novel that had yet been written. I’m not as well-read as she was, but We, so influential on later books like Brave New World and 1984, is definitely the greatest one in my experience. From the beginning, its narrator, known like […]

Filed Under: Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: 1984, dystopia, freedom, government, imagination, mathematics, rebellion, We, wildness

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick – A Review for #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick drew me in with one tightly written, deeply engaging scene after another. And like so many of Dick’s novels, it turns the protagonist’s life upside down and inside out in the first couple of chapters. It’s a must-read for any fan of Dick’s fiction. The […]

Filed Under: Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: dystopia, grief, identity, love, Philip K. Dick, privilege, reality

Lining Up My Vintage SciFi Month and the Winter TBR

By John Folk-Williams

Vintage SciFi Month - The Dispossessed

Vintage SciFi Month for 2022 is coming up fast, and I wanted to set out my planned reviews for this event. The great thing about this is its simplicity. You just use the tag #VintageSciFiMonth on Twitter or your blog or Instagram to post anything of interest about science fiction written before your birth year […]

Filed Under: Taking on My SFF TBR, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: Gareth L. Powell, Isaac Asimov, James S.A. Corey, Nnedi Okorafor, Philip K. Dick, Tochi Onyebuchi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yevgeny Zamyatin

Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen (Part 2 of The Graven) – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen

Essa Hansen’s Azura Ghost, second book in The Graven series, marks an enormous step up from her already impressive debut, Nophek Gloss. This new story takes us deeper into the mysterious multiverse of the Graven, an ancient race of vast accomplishments that disappeared ages ago but left numerous traces both in architectural and technological remnants […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Space Opera, Taking on My SFF TBR Tagged With: adventure, alien life forms, consciousness, Essa Hansen, family, memory, multiverse, power, space opera, transcendence

My 10 Favorite SFF Books of 2021

By John Folk-Williams

10 Favorite SFF Books of 2021 Pacific Storm by Linda Nagata

Is it just me or do others also feel that 2021 was an amazing year for great science fiction and fantasy? I don’t do that many list posts, but it’s especially interesting to look back over a year’s reading to put things in perspective. And yes, I do believe this was an incredible year. My […]

Filed Under: Favorite SFF Tagged With: Ada Hoffman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alastair Reynolds, Arkady Martine, Claire North, Lavie Tidhar, Linda Nagata, Nnedi Okorafor, Premee Mohammed, Susanna Clarke

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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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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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