I’ve seen a number of recent articles discussing Westworld, asking whether or not it can ‘do for science fiction what Game of Thrones did for fantasy’. The idea being that Game of Thrones brought the fantasy genre into the mainstream ...
Read More »Arrival: What is your purpose?
The best science fiction is philosophical and thought provoking. I don’t mean to suggest that good science fiction has to be as mind-numbingly slow and boring as 2001: A Space Odyssey, but really good scifi is rarely just explosions and ...
Read More »Lazarus: I’m a dying man who can’t die
Penned by the late David Bowie and playwright Enda Walsh, Lazarus is about as weird and nonsensical as you would imagine. I had done no research into the play before seeing it and avoided all reviews to the point that ...
Read More »Sexually charged feminine villainy in SFF
From witches to succubi to super-powered femme fatales, female villains in SFF have long been defined by their sexuality. With skimpy outfits and powers derived from their sexuality or used to enhance their sexual attractiveness, these villainous women seem incapable ...
Read More »Dominion by Peter McLean: Diabolists, angels, and archdemons
Peter McLean’s first Burned Man novel, Drake, was my idea of the perfect holiday read. It was fun, easy to read, and just a bit unsavoury. A while ago, I read somewhere that people who swear a lot are generally considered ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: The Man Who Fell to Earth
This hasn’t been a good year for me. Two of my idols have died (Prince and Bowie). If there can be a silver lining to the death of an admired genius, it’s that Bowie’s films are being remastered, The Man ...
Read More »Ingrained prejudice: How do we change our defaults?
When talking to Gollancz’s Publishing Director, Gillian Redfearn, at Nine Worlds (you can listen to the full conversation here), I’ve been mulling over something she said. Gillian posited that we may have a gender default – where we automatically default ...
Read More »Paper Girls: Newspapers, Walkmans, and time travel
The 80’s are in. Nostalgia has made cassette tapes, mullets, and neon hair ties positively fashionable. Brian K. Vaughan has lucked out with the timing of Paper Girls; with Netflix’s Stranger Things and the next Black Mirror season also being set in the 1980s, the comics’ setting ...
Read More »The fallacies of YA fiction
YA fiction has always bothered me, but not for the reasons you might suspect. Don’t worry, this isn’t about how adults should grow up and read real literature. I’m a YA fan, from The Hunger Games to Paper Towns. You’ll find ...
Read More »The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp
I’d never even heard of Jason Arnopp or his debut novel (outside writing for franchises) before hearing him talk on a panel about unreliable narrators. Ever since I read Poe’s The Telltale Heart as a teenager I have had an ...
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