Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kate Lechler

Romani (Gypsy) Power in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Welcome to another Expanded Universe column where I feature essays from authors and editors of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as from established readers and reviewers. My guest today is Jessica Reidy. Reidy attended Florida State University for her MFA in Fiction and holds a B.A. from Hollins University. Her work is Pushcart-nominated and her poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction have appeared in Narrative Magazine as Short Story of the Week, The Los Angeles Review, The Missouri Review, and other journals. She’s Managing Editor for VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts,

August 14th, 2015. Kate Lechler | Expanded Universe | 12 comments |

WWWednesday: August 12, 2015

On this day in 1990, Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota. Sue may be the coolest discovery ever to result from a flat tire.

Writing, Editing, and Publishing

Saga is reprinting Catherynne M. Valente‘s Six-Gun Snow White this November–exciting news!

One of Kat’s favorite authors, Robin Hobb, did a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything last week. Want to find out about Hobb writing in roller-skates?

August 12th, 2015. Kate Lechler | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

Bell Weather: Genre-bending adventure novel where the language is the star

Bell Weather by Dennis Mahoney

I had never heard of Dennis Mahoney before picking up Bell Weather, but the bright green ARC cover drew me in: a monochrome print of a woman framed by trees. A hummingbird with bat-wings flies overhead. And over this, in bold white letters, “Enter the world of Root.” Well, with an invitation like that, don’t mind if I do.

Bell Weather is an adventure story following a young woman named Molly Bell as she escapes from two dangerous men bent on controlling her.

Myth & Fantasy

Welcome to another Expanded Universe column where I feature essays from authors and editors of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as from established readers and reviewers. My guest today is Achala Upendran, a consulting editor, writer, and self-confessed “fantasy junkie” based in Hyderabad, India. She blogs extensively about fantasy literature, especially the Potter books at Where the Dog Star Rages. On her blog, you’ll find think-pieces about the women of THE LORD OF THE RINGS alongside analyses of Taylor Swift songs.

August 7th, 2015. Kate Lechler | Expanded Universe | 3 comments |

Speak Easy: Dark, scintillating Jazz Age fairy tale

Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente

I held off on reading Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente for a few weeks after it arrived because I knew once I started reading it, I’d want to do nothing else. When you look at the novella, this doesn’t seem like such a big problem. The advanced reader’s copy is a slim volume, thinner than my pinky finger (the signed limited-edition volumes for sale at Subterranean Press might be bigger; they are hardcovers, bound in cloth). But take a peek into the first page of Valente’s novella,

Exploration Blues

Welcome to another Expanded Universe column where I feature essays from authors and editors of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as from established readers and reviewers. My guest today is Carolyn Ives Gilman, who is a Nebula and Hugo Award–nominated writer and real-life historian at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Her novels include Halfway Human and the two-volume novel Isles of the Forsaken and Ison of the Isles. Her short fiction appears in many Best of the Year collections and has been translated into seven languages.

July 17th, 2015. Kate Lechler | Carolyn Ives Gilman | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 7 comments |

The Goshawk: Love the hawk, hated the author

The Goshawk by T.H. White

When I found out that T.H. White, the author of The Once and Future King, had written The Goshawk, a book about training a hawk, I jumped at the chance to read it. I love stories about birds of prey (probably fostered by a childhood obsession with My Side of the Mountain) and have often fantasized about becoming an amateur falconer.

Based on The Goshawk,

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street: A charming novel

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley is a charming character-driven novel that is just the sort I often love. I didn’t quite fall all the way for this one, but I absolutely enjoyed it despite a few niggling complaints and happily recommend it.

Mother of Eden: Birth pangs of a new human civilization

Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett

Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett’s sequel to Dark Eden, was thoughtful, complicated, and engrossing. Starlight Brooking lives with her people, the almost monastic Kneefolk, on Knee Tree Ground, a secluded island on Eden, a planet dominated by water. The Kneefolk make their living by trading bark boats with a few of the settlements nearby and staying out of the way of either Johnsfolk or Davidfolk, the two dominant, antagonistic human civilizations on Eden (the story of which schism is told in the first book).

Dark Eden: Lord of the Flies in Space

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett

Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden has a backstory to rival the book of Genesis. Several generations ago, two humans, Tommy and Gela, survived a crash-landing on a planet without a sun. The planet was not devoid of life or light, though; glowing plants and animals survived by feeding off of the planet’s thermal energy. On this new planet, which they called Eden, Tommy and Gela have children, becoming the Adam and Eve of a new race of humans.

Now, generations later, their progeny,

July 6th, 2015. Kate Lechler´s rating: 3 | Chris Beckett | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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