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— A blog about about speculative fiction and other bookish things, written by a humanoid from planet Earth —
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Ancillary Justice – by Ann Leckie
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• What’s left of sentient warship develops her own individuality • Everybody gets she/her pronouns as the main character doesn’t really get gender • A very slow and pensive quest for revenge
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The Dowry of Angyar – by Ursula K. Le Guin
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• First introduction to the Hainish Cycle • Folk-tale themes in a SF setting • Space princess seeks her heritage, at a price
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If Found, Return to Hell – by Em X. Liu
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• Magic bureucracy isn’t any better than its real couterpart • Cosy found family vibes • Second-person narration can indeed work well
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The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere – by John Chu
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• Water falls out of nowhere and works as a lie-detector • A coming out story with a magical premise
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Night’s Slow Poison – by Ann Leckie
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• A short story set in what will become the Imperial Radch universe • A claustrophobic journey through space and memory
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Babel-17 – by Samuel R. Delany
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• Whorfian linguistic relativity – IN SPACE! • In the midst of an interplanetary war, they called a poet
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Sorrowland – by Rivers Solomon
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• A Black albino teenager runs away from a religious cult • Fungal superpowers as a metaphor for generational trauma • Queer joy is messy and beautiful
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The Lathe of Heaven – by Ursula K. Le Guin
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• If your dreams can shape reality, be careful what you whish for • Utilitarianism leads to unsettling consequences • And let’s not forget some Taoist wisdom
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Breaking the Ribbon, Cutting the Ice
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Inaugurations, so I gather, are meant to be celebrated by performing some kind disruptive activity. This post may not necessarily count as one, but it’ll have to do.
Aliens Artificial Intelligence Climate Fiction Cosy Dystopia Fantasy Fungi Gothic Horror Linguistics Magical Realism Novel Novella Philosophy Queer Queernorm Setting Retelling Science Fiction Short Story Space Opera Urban Fantasy