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Translation State by Ann Leckie

By John Folk-Williams

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie has written a strange and compelling story in Translation State that is set in a part of her Imperial Radch universe different from what we know from the Ancillary novels. For all its trappings of space opera and bizarre species, it’s very much a captivating story about family, loneliness, friendship, and the need […]

Filed Under: SciFi Mystery-Thriller, Space Opera Tagged With: alien life forms, Ann Leckie, family, friendship, gender, human, politics, self-worth

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

By John Folk-Williams

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Emily Tesh set herself a difficult task in Some Desperate Glory. Present the reader with a young protagonist raised in a militaristic society who is all about duty, war-breeding, xenophobia, homophobia and worse, then draw her through enough world-shattering experiences to make her interesting, flaws and all, from start to finish. And Tesh hits the […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: alien life forms, artificial intelligence, coming of age, family, identity, multiple worlds, spaceships, trauma

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

By John Folk-Williams

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

Kelly Barnhill’s The Crane Husband is, in many ways a companion piece to her longer work, When Women Were Dragons. In both, the desire of a woman to break free of the normal bounds of life takes literal form, but at great cost to others. In one case, they become dragons – at times on […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: art, coming of age, family, Kelly Barnhill, obsession, robots, shapeshifter, transformation

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

By John Folk-Williams

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Set primarily in an alternative version of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, Kelly Barnhill’s magnificent When Women Were Dragons tells many stories. There is the story of the mass dragoning of April 25, 1955, when over 642,987 mothers and wives stepped out of their human skins to live as dragons, and of […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: dragons, family, human emotion, Kelly Barnhill, liberation, memory, oppression, sapphic love

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny – #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

I had intended to write about a new science fiction novel this week, but that turned out to be a disappointment. So I’m eagerly diving into Nine Princes in Amber, the first book in Roger Zelazny‘s epic 10 volume fantasy series, The Chronicles of Amber. This rounds out my contribution to the great not-a-challenge of […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: battle strategy, epic fantasy, family, imagination, memory, multiple worlds, power, Roger Zelazny, time travel

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

By John Folk-Williams

The Spear Cuts Through Water

Impressed as I was by Simon Jimenez‘ beautiful and moving first novel, The Vanished Birds, I have to say I’m just staggered by his second, The Spear Cuts Through Water. Using the second person, the narrator lures “you” with intensely lyrical but dramatically apt prose into a world between worlds. One of several story tellers […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: dreams, epic fantasy, family, gods, magic, myth, shape-shifting, Simon Jimenez

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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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