I've been having several conversations over the past couple of weeks about world-building, character-building and "philosophical" topics of speculative fiction, and it's exciting to hear so many different takes on seemingly typical issues in the genre. For example, I've been wanting to see sci-fi stories that center around the experience of children (not in a plot-device manner) in all sorts of futuristic contexts; there's been some very interesting stories that focus on the rituals and habits humans will either keep, or shed, in the future (I'm thinking of a lot of Becky Chambers' work, while not focusing on that, it's always in the background; or for example the persistence of tea and ceremony in Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy). Habits and rituals make us as a people, and it's interesting what we'll carry into the future and what we'll shed.
In other news, we're starting our very own
Every couple of weeks you'll get to hear conversations I have with writers in the genre, talk about their influences, their inspirations, and musings all around. First one will drop in early March and then every two weeks from there! We hope you enjoy our conversations!
Bag of Giving
This showed up on our Twitter feed and found several SFF authors who partake. Writers, illustrators, and other creatives get together and play games with the added benefit that those who want to watch, can enter for giveaways by donating to their preferred charities.
Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series
Palmer's series is...sprawling, both in plot and concept. Her last book in the series came out in November 2021, and it concludes an epic that highlights Palmer's main beliefs about human future: it's going to be messy, unclear, and as multi-layered as human history has been. As a professor of history specializing in Renaissance history, she brings her academic rigor to bear on her stories. Case in point, her post on Octopus Civil Rights (an actual issue in her stories) is very detailed and plausible.
Wired recently profiled her, as did Cory Doctorow on Medium.
James Webb Space Telescope sends a picture
The thought of a lonely, tiny (compared to...space) machine taking a picture is humbling and amazing.
~Illustration by the amazing Sarah Hofheins