Category Archives: Books

Woman-as-monster: Medusa, bronze medallion from Pompeii, photo Gary Todd via Wikimedia Commons

Reclaiming the Monster

Women can be monsters too. From snake-haired Medusa to the horrifying mama-alien of the Alien movies, female monsters have often embodied male fears of women’s ...
Starfish - really alien aliens are known as "starfish aliens"

Blobs, Orbs, and Starfish: Really Alien Aliens

Book blogger Shruti Ramanujam recently published a list of “oddly specific storylines” she loves in books, that made me laugh out loud. And it made ...
The Only Harmless Great Thing cover

Elephants and Radium Girls

In The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander has taken on two strange and disturbing events from the early 20th century: the willfully negligent poisoning of ...
The Broken Earth: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky covers

The Broken Earth Trilogy

Reading each volume of The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin left me electrified. The first two books, The Fifth Season and The Obelisk ...
Scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Coming out as a Fan

It’s time for me to come out as a member of sci-fi fandom. I love science fiction and fantasy. I’ve read the books, watched the ...
A 19th-century stone carved angel in a cemetery

American Bardo

As I read George Saunders’ daring first novel Lincoln in the Bardo recently, I was struck by its strangely close parallels with another memorable and ...
Image of Earth from space

Thinking about Gaia

In this month of Earth Day and marching for science and climate, I’m thinking about Gaia. A hashtag popped up on Twitter last week: #ifonlytheearthcouldspeak ...
Frozen Planet

Grieving for a whole planet

When I saw the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, I couldn’t get past that moment when Princess Leia sees her home planet, Alderaan, ...
An Alternate History reading list for this moment

An Alternate History reading list for this moment

Are we living in an alternate branch of history? I’ve been asking myself that question since waking up the morning of November 9, with the ...
Cloudbound and Barsk covers

Other Times, Other Worlds—Fran Wilde & Lawrence M. Schoen

I’m excited to be part of All But True’s next author event, “Other Times, Other Worlds,” with two award-winning science fiction authors: Fran Wilde and ...