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Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

By John Folk-Williams

Babel An Arcane History

Babel, the new standalone novel by R.F. Kuang (author of the Poppy War trilogy), has the lengthy subtitle: or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution. It may seem strange to talk about violence, revolution and academic translators in one breath, but make no mistake, this is a compelling story […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: alternate history, colonialism, empire, friendship, identity, language, power, R.F. Kuang, racism, revolution

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

The Horizon by Gautam Bhatia

By John Folk-Williams

The Horizon by Gautam Bhatia

In The Horizon, Gautam Bhatia has written a masterful sequel to his first novel, The Wall, that brings together a close examination of the politics of radical change with the songs and stories that can sustain but sometimes also limit the imagination of what is possible in life. Directly following the climactic ending of The […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: city, Gautam Bhatia, language, memory, poetry, politics, power, religion, revolution, South Asian fiction, The Wall

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

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s tour de force, Elder Race, we first encounter Lynesse (Lyn), Fourth Daughter of the tough minded Queen of Lannesite, climbing the steep rugged slopes of a mountain to call forth a powerful wizard. As only the fourth daughter, Lyn is never taken seriously, but she is determined to change that by destroying […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, communication, fantasy, language, magic, science, science fiction, technology

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

By John Folk-Williams

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

With a cascade of luminous and psychologically intricate prose, Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace picks up shortly after the conclusion of A Memory Called Empire. It’s another brilliant book that I find even richer than the first volume of this series on the Teixcalaan Empire and its remote satellite, Lsel Station. The two novels […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Reviews, Space Opera Tagged With: alien minds, Arkady Martine, communication, galactic empires, identity, language, love, society

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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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