We open on Dream’s realm looking very much like Mordor. Lucienne tells him she kept a journal for a while of what happened in his absence, but then the words faded out, the ink vanished from the paper of all the books in the library, and then the library vanished and Lucienne never found it again. You can tell Dream really appreciates that Lucienne stuck around, especially when she’s like “I knew you would return.” Of course he doesn’t thank her. That is not his Vibe. He tries to at least put his throne room back together, but without his…
Leave a CommentReading the End Posts
When I was eighteen years old, my godmother gave me $100 as a graduation present, and I very excitedly used that $100 to purchase the entire run of Sandman in trade paperbacks. This was a huge and terrifying investment for me. It was one of my first online purchases, and it must have been one of the most expensive purchases I’d ever made for myself to that point in my life. I had never read graphic novels before. I had tried to read Preludes and Nocturnes once and couldn’t figure out the mechanics of reading it even, because if you…
Leave a CommentI enjoyed Elaine Castillo’s first novel, America Is Not the Heart (in part because of my conviction that she has written fanfiction in her life; this is based on nothing), and I am ravenously excited to read her new book of literary criticism, How to Read Now. I will put the relevant link first so that y’all can share my excitement. Here are the links! “My issue with how we read is as much an existential grievance as it is a labor dispute.” Elaine Castillo addresses the foundation of white supremacy in the literary world, making me VERY excited to read…
Leave a CommentHI FRIENDS, I rejoice to report that I’ve got a new column at Tor, entitled Ships in the Night, that looks at fantasy and SF romance. My first post is up now, exploring the figure of the misfit heroine and Olivia Atwater’s debut novel Half a Soul. Enjoy! Say hi in the comments! Let me know what other books you think I should be covering! How to (Not) Fit In: The Misfit Heroine and Olivia Atwater’s Half a Soul
Leave a CommentI apologize in advance to everyone that I have included links about the Depp/Heard trial in this round-up. I would have loved not to, but it felt irresponsible as we witness in real time the misogynistic backlash to #MeToo, with people of all genders cheering on Depp for getting vicious public revenge on an ex (who had, by the way, a lot of clearly documented evidence for her claims). As much as I wanted not to pay attention to this trial, I think it’s important to bear witness to the fact that despite the eleventy-thousand “this woman from the 90s…
Leave a CommentThe answer to like, most of these articles is: more unions. Okay, not most of them. But some of them! Yay for labor organizing! I have made it through this week, a genuine miracle considering all the fuckshit this week has contained, and what I want to do this weekend is lie around and eat grapes and read about the British Empire’s many atrocities. But what I will do this weekend, probably, is lots and lots of stuff, because that’s who I am, fundamentally, as a person. TV is in a writers’ crisis and a showrunners’ crisis. What do book…
Leave a CommentIf you only knew how many times I’ve intended to post this links round-up and gotten distracted! It is twice! Twice I have meant to do so! Then time went on, and I didn’t post them, and everything was and is chaos. You know! You know how it is. So now here it is, a month since my last links round-up, and I have a crazy number of links, but that’s just how we’re going to have to live our lives now. Like if I told you how many times I have eaten popcorn for dinner in the last month,…
Leave a CommentLovely, lovely, wonderful listeners, the time has come. It is our last ever podcast. Over the course of the pandemic (as you will inevitably have noticed), we have had a harder and harder time getting podcast made, and we eventually realized that it was time to shut the thing down. We’ve had such a great time podcasting together and interacting with you fantastic people, and we will miss you a ton. This final episode features A GAME, a meta-chat about the podcast and what we’ve learned and how we’ve changed and why one of us is just deeply, deeply wrong…
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