#Is this a supernatural SFF where you can travel both ways or is it a surreal coming-of-age tale where the “real” world is the critical one?

[allieinarden]

The generation that grows up with Over the Garden Wall will never understand how funny it was watching like 70% of the base flip from Team Beatrice to Team Sara when they watched it a second time.

[ghelgheli]

17! but also using the opportunity of the ask game to get to know more about the effortless worldbuilding in sff :)

from the end-of-year book ask

17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I think Three Body Problem is the only one meeting this condition this year so I'll have no trouble staying on topic :> but I'm gonna specifically talk about "hard" SF as I conceive of it—I haven't read any analysis so this may just be a jumble of improvised thoughts.

SF, being "speculative" fiction, of course has to take on the problem of speculating and of presenting things that don't (and perhaps cannot) happen. On average this is accomplished thru a healthy combination of scientific grounding and good-natured handwaving: I drop a few sentences about "quantum entanglement" and you go along with my ansible, or you tell me about "positronic circuits" and I agree that you can make a brain with them. This is the compact that makes SF work because you fundamentally cannot expect speculation without, well, ceding ground on reality.

But at least a subset of SF readers are of the kind to really want to grok how it is that this or that scientific feature of the world works or may come about. Every contraption and novel technology is like a puzzle to be riddled out. This is the place where speculation becomes sincere mechanical prediction, and it's why I love hard SF.

This subset of readers can be matched to a subgenre of writers who commit fully to filling in as many blanks in their technological, biological, etc. speculation as possible. The rows of astronomical data can't be left vague—tell me what frequency of light we're dealing with here—xenobiology isn't taken for granted—what is the neurology of your aliens??—and so on. The dots are connected, the rest of the owl is drawn for real, the image is made crisp. Like fireworks for the reader's brain.

When this kind of worldbuilding is executed well imo it looks effortless. Looks, not is, because behind every explanation of near-c travel is hours of research into at least special relativity and time dilation, along with calculations by-hand. Behind every account of an exoplanet's atmosphere is probably a few papers perused on the subject and several articles on scientific american. Peter Watts, in the note at the end of Blindsight, includes a fucking bibliography of a hundred or so references as well as thank-yous to many an academic he split handles of liquor with. And this is only the visible fragment of what has to be a library of knowledge accumulated both passively and actively to make a speculated world feel as concretely plausible as possible.

None of this is necessary for good SF. The aforementioned compact means any author can opt out of this commitment at any time. But it's what it takes to make tightly-written hard SF, where your conceptual hands are kept diligently at your side, waving an idea through maybe once every five chapters when you have no other choice.

So anyway, Three Body Problem is a tour de force in doing this and doing it cleanly. It uses a storytelling device a lot of hard SF employs to make it work: rather than stuffing dense exposition into narration (at which point, just read the source papers) it deploys a cast of characters who more than anything else, really know their shit. We get exposition trickle-fed through experts who are trying, along with us, to make sense of their novel environments and unfamiliar technologies using their knowledge of the present limits of human understanding. This is what Watts does in Blindsight too, by the way: a claustrophobic ship crewed by technical specialists makes first contact, so everyone has something encyclopedic to say about everything and it's only natural.

What astounded me about Cixin Liu's writing is that he made it work just when I least thought he would be able to. I was sure I was being shown things completely inexplicable and necessarily supernatural until he went and explained them in plain terms; better yet, he explained them in ways that made so much sense in retrospect that I was kicking myself for not seeing the answer. This has exactly the flavour of a good puzzle.

The trade-off hard SF makes is that you are often limited in the metaphorical/thematic work you can do through your speculation. I think the contrast between "calendrical science" in Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series and Asimov's "psychohistory" illustrates this well.

Yoon Ha Lee has mathematical training, and calendrical science is a speculative field consisting of theorems, conjectures, proofs, etc. in the language of mathematics that stand in for cultural hegemony and power projection. This makes for a great operationalization of soft power: space is filled and distorted by the quantifiable effects of whatever regime is dominant there (the "calendar" here being synecdoche for culture writ large). But obviously he can't fill in the blanks of how a calendar causes spacetime distortions that specifically make one side's weapons more effective, or provide certain formations with shielding effects. This is, I guess, semi-hard (lol) SF—you can see how it's supposed to work, but it's clear that it just won't. What you get in return is pretty politically interesting storytelling.

Psychohistory is the converse: a deterministic-enough lovechild of economics and sociology explained in the Foundation series as using all the familiar methods of linear algebra and differential equations together with unfamiliar innovations of just how to quantify human behaviour in order to make reliable predictions. There are entire chapters dedicated to explaining the conceptual nuance that went into developing psychohistory ("the hand on thigh principle" from prelude to foundation is just about how the theory resolves divergence by reducing insignificant terms to zero) and an entire book to exploring one of its limitations. It's fascinating to read. But you also get little narrative depth out of it, because hard SF, even when done well, is not guaranteed to make a story thematically interesting or politically compelling. This is the Three Body Problem problem too: its political commitments are threadbare and unserious because that's just not what it's about. I couldn't recommend it on those terms, but that's not what I like so much about it. I will say the conceptualization goes a little off the rails in the final chapters, but I think most SF authors were in some kind of string theory inspired fugue state at the time.

What I would love to see (and I'm sure exists) is hard SF that also has interesting politics. Unfortunately that's an intersection of two already-narrow intersections.

ty for ask✨🐐

[faireladypenumbra]

A Life Thoroughly Lived: Review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (Spoilers Ahead)

(Cover, Titan Books UK). I have this distinct memory from when I was twelve: sitting in a McDonald’s after a morning in my homeschool e-learning program, eating french fries and reading the school’s library copy of Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart. This book was groundbreaking for me for a multitude of reasons, but one of its quotes became firmly stuck in my mind. Meggie’s father and secondary protagonist, Mo, reflects on books through this line: “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” This line becomes entangled with my 12-year-old psyche, and I never quite let it go. The idea fascinated me: not only the novel idea of comparing books to nourishment, but the point that some books are not made to be read quickly and once. Some books are chewed and digested thoroughly.

I read that quote in 2005, and even then, at the cusp of the digital tipping point and prior to the smartphone, you could feel the inglorious pressure to consume anything you read if you read for pleasure at all. Conversations with my peers about books were rare, and what bonds I did have about creative writing were made over the internet via fanfiction.net: that wouldn’t change again until Twilight hit it big a few years later. To enjoy a book was to binge it and consume its content only, and so this quote wasn’t entirely understandable until I entered college- and became a writer myself, when I discovered the merit of craft.

This feels like a long way of saying I enjoyed one book, but I cannot stress the rarity of true craft in fantasy fiction. Genre fiction in general has a history of shaving off literary merit and form in favor of YA-style writing and clipped, action-oriented narration. It is what’s popular and there’s nothing wrong with this style of writing, but it is a style of writing made to be devoured. I often hoped to encounter that one modern fantasy novel, made to by chewed and digested slowly.

This brings me to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

If you exist on the internet’s writing/reading spaces, you probably know V.E. Schwab, whose prolific career now spans a decade. Her most popular works, including her Villains and Shades of Magic series, tower over the 2010s as important entries to the SFF world, alongside a young generation of female authors— Naomi Novik, Leigh Bardugo, Seanan McGuire, N.K Jemisen, to name a few, who have helped change the definitions of SFF and what it means for women to participate in male-dominated writing spaces.

This is perhaps what makes Addie LaRue so visibly important, because its role as a serious, literary work as well as a groundbreaking fantasy novel, fully cements Schwab’s role as an important author of the 2010s.

The story of Addie LaRue is simple enough: in a small French village in 1714, Adaline LaRue finds herself at odds with her world: her desire to travel, her attraction to the old gods, and her want to experience life are combated by a world that expects her to marry and have children, living and dying in the same plot of land. With an arranged marriage at her heels, Adaline only desires freedom, adventure, and more time in a dwindling, small life. Against the advice of her village’s wise woman, Estele, Adaline prays to any god that will offer her a means of escaping this cruel fate.

Her desperation attracts the wrong god, who agrees to take her soul in exchange for a life without limits. This grants Adaline immortality, neither aging nor dying. But at the cost of her presence: anyone who encounters Adaline LaRue forgets her, the moment she is out of view. Any mark that Adaline leaves is erased, any suggestion of her past life is smeared from existence. The god— or Devil, erases her being in hopes of making her give up her soul. Adaline spends the next 300 years in limbo, forgotten and invisible to the world, until a New York bookseller catches her stealing from his shop and remembers her face.

The story itself oscillates being Addie’s present: New York in 2014, and her past, reaching back to pertinent flashbacks about her life in rural France, out onto the wider world over 300 years of life. Rather than clashing, these two timelines compliment each other, allowing Addie’s past to compliment the unending road that is Addie’s future. And unlike some immortal characters, the weight of the 300 years can be felt in Addie’s character while she wanders the labyrinth of a modern New York.

While heavily populated with 300 years-worth of characters, the novel uses most of its time on Addie, her infernal deal broker, a supernatural being she calls Luc, and Henry Strauss, a bookseller in New York with his own set of secrets and heartbreak. One might argue that the relationships between Henry, Luc, and Addie constitute a love triangle label, but their dynamics are far more complicated given the “magic” and sexual identities involved.

One refreshing element about Addie LaRue is that both main characters, Addie and Henry, are explicitly bisexual in a way that feels humanistic and real. Addie’s view on relationships is complex, simply because she cannot maintain a relationship beyond first encounters. Her liaisons, modern and historical, become a conversation with her personal relationship with eternity. Her relationship with Luc is also complicated, evolving from lustful daydream about the “perfect stranger,” to willful tormenter across her deathless existence, and finally, a troubled companion in a lifetime where only Luc understands Addie’s painful existence.

Henry Strauss comes to Addie’s life as the first human to remember her in over 300 years: their romance is sweet, passionate, but forever marred by the fact that both parties are somehow cursed. Their existence together is fragile, and as presented by the novel, a tenuous moment in a long life. Henry changes Addie’s trajectory, simply because his existence feels so short in the scope of her eternity.

With all that said, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRueisn’t so much a love story about Henry Strauss or Luc, as it is about Addie LaRue understanding herself. It is a love letter to a young woman, forever trapped in her early 20s by a single, impulsive choice. 500 pages (at least, on my edition) and most of book is spent on Addie’s life: the evolution of her moral justifications for theft, prostitution, and overall survival. Her strained views on humanity as her lovers and acquaintances age and die around her.

A particularly interesting, recurring flashback is Addie’s annual trip to her childhood home, Villon-Sur-Sarthe, in which she returns to witness the passage of time in the village. Like Dorian Gray and his portrait, Addie’s home withers and folds into the extended woods before it is bulldozed into modern land, all while she remains the same. Her family is buried, her friends are gone. Addie attempts to leave signs of her ghostly existence in the village by planting a tree, only to discover it struck down in a storm during her final visit. When she blames Luc for the destruction, yet again, her reminds her: “I know I can be cruel, but nature can be crueler.”

Unlike Dorian Gray, this is no polite justice to strike down Addie LaRue, which complicates the morals of the novel. Addie LaRue’s narrator is not interested in moral judgements or rounded poeticism as we observe the long life of this immortal woman, instead exploring Addie’s personal, sexual, and internal changes as a matter of an existence beyond the shackles of normal humanity. The narrative choice of third person, present tense lends itself considerably to this fact, allowing the reader to experience Addie’s life in real time and alongside her present and past selves. One very interesting narrative choice, during flashbacks, is the occasional intrusion of the narrator by way of the word “will.” Moments of tragedy and difficulty will flash through past-Addie’s life, only for the narrator to gesture elsewhere and let us know what impact this choice “will” have on Addie’s life later.

It is a very clever slight of hand, since it keeps the audience moving between past and present without distracting away from the story overall. Rather than tipping its hand too heavily, the narrator offers breadcrumbs to the audience in an overfolding adventure, encouraging us to follow Addie from rural France, out to Paris, Venice, Berlin, over into the Americas, from Chicago to New Orleans. These locations and details would feel massive and glossed over, if not for the narrator’s active participation as a storyteller.

This narration also helps the reader comprehend the scope of Addie’s growth, offering a more mythical perspective on a woman who is human— but not quite. Addie is cursed, yes, but finds strength and power in weaponizing the curse against Luc. She plants herself in the minds of artists, musicians, and writers who find ways to pepper her presence along history, as delicate as the seven freckles that constantly appear in her portrayals. Addie LaRue is forgotten but reaches across history in a deep desire to be remembered and ageless.

The novel’s end, without spoilers, arguably accomplishes this goal. I’m not sure yet if the ending is supposed to be happy or not, which is perhaps why I enjoyed it so much. The book required more thought than the average fantasy piece: it was written with the idea that it should be read slowly and digested thoroughly. Every word, detail, and choice are made with reason, like a cog that helps move a clock’s gears. Nothing is wasted in this novel, both craftsmanship and good storytelling coming together for a truly enrapturing experience. I will try to revisit The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in the near future, to draw more magic from its well. I hope you’ll consider exploring its pages too, and I have high hopes for the future career of V.E. Schwab.

[cthulhubert]

Thoughts, not even a review, of Terra Ignota

recently finished Will to Battle.

(Book 3 of Terra Ignota, preceded by Too Like the Lightning and Seven Surrenders. The sequel and finale, Perhaps the Stars, is expected in 2021.)

So I wanted to post some thoughts, not even a review, really.

The take away is that despite many of its major, fundamental features leaving me cold or even actively repulsing me, I overall very much enjoyed reading it.

This is perhaps a higher recommendation than unalloyed praise. The more I like something, the more I complain. For one thing, it's a kind of eustress: the perfect thing has no flaws to catch interest; for another, if I just plain dislike something, I wouldn't spare much thought on it to begin with, much less linearize so many of them into words.

So my mostly negative venting (consisting of immediate and thorough spoilers) beneath the cut

So right off the bat: I HATE the genius serial killer trope; and I detest SFF trolley problem analogs.

I was so irritated by the one-two punch of these big reveals in the first book that I actually let my hold on Seven Surrenders and read several other books in the interim. (I knew I'd be back though, I put a new one on both 2 and 3 next.)

Mycroft Canner... one who believes themself "free" merely because they can kill. It reminds me of something that's stuck in my mind for a long time: a guy calling other peoples cucks because they used alarm clocks to wake up. "I can't believe you let a machine boss you around."

Because I otherwise liked the writing so much, I kept trying to dredge up another layer of meaning to the treatment of Mycroft as torturer-rapist-murderer. For instance: "Oh, so many people around him being sympathetic and liking him is actually the narrative sneakily reminding us that the core trait of serial killers like this is a manipulative personality, which his savant abilities would only feed." Carlyle Foster even brings this up specifically in the scene where we first learn the specifics of Canner's crimes, but of course, their portrayal in that scene (which, reminder, is literally by Mycroft) is of one hysterical and unreasonable.

Palmer did achieve one of most author's highest goals in emotionally transporting me to one of their scenes, but it just really made me wish I was in Carlyle's shoes. To react with, rather than panic, the cold disdain merited by a creature so broken it is wrong about the ways in which it is broken. To spit on them and denigrate their feelings of uniqueness and specialness, arising both from the murders and from their oh so pitiable martyrdom and servitude now. "If only we could mercifully lobotomize away your personality and still use the savanthood modules so unfortunately stapled to them."

Mycroft: "Everybody seems to have one murder they thought was the worst. I thought yours would be []" Me instead of Carlyle, snidely: "Is that a fun game for you, that speculation?"

(In another scene, the Major's sympathy to Mycroft and Saladin as "fellow killers" somewhat raised my hackles; my experience is military people expressing exaggerated disgust for "civilian" killers, perhaps as a way of mental separation between their acts. Though the revelation that the Major is Achilles, with an ancient's attitudes, perhaps ameliorates this.)

As for OS... if you've invented prophecy, there will be heaps upon myriads upon multitudes of miraculous ways to reshape the world before you reach a best value intervention of cold-blooded murder. I was, at least, amused by considering the linear combination of this limitation between the author and the characters. Palmer was quite clever in making sure that the mystical demographic math must be facilitated by humans (and the very odd set-set humans at that).

I admit I hold this philosophy a bit more strongly than my time investment in the fields merit, but I see it this way:

In physics, infinite, friction-less planes in perfect vacuums occupied by inelastic, spherical cows are a useful tool. They approximate things that are theoretically possible, absent the various extra forces.

In ethics, and in any system that is so truly complex, everything you remove makes for a completely different system. None of the elements are basically orthogonal to the circumstances the way air resistance is to a bullet.

These philosophical sorts of thought experiments are, at best, emotional exercises. They are not simplified tools to build a foundation for more complex issues, they're figments born of the phantasmal conditions possible only in the interior of the brain, and too much work with them will only foul both logic and intuition with garbage data.

As for what merely fell flat:

While I deeply enjoyed so much of the speculation about cultural changes brought about by technology, and travel technology specifically, the "no proselytizing" law felt quite forced. I can definitely believe such a law would be passed after the Church Wars described, but holding so strong for centuries?

There are all kinds of supernatural thoughts and beliefs people accept, and there simply isn't a neat threshold between those and religion. Even in the counterfactual world where there was one, it would be quite concealed by the sophistry that's metastasized through the entire discussion space around it.

I can think of a dozen questions off the top of my head that they'd have to decide. And while flipping a coin or an attempt at a definitional framework could answer them, it couldn't do it in a way that's strong enough to stand the test of time. Imagine Laurel/Yanny, the Dress, or if a hot dog is a sandwich, but with material-security level of investment in them!

I'm areligious (to put it... mildly) but for personal, psychosocial reasons, when I sit down to eat I spend a moment in mindful gratitude towards the plants and animals that gave their life for mine. Is that religious? Are ghost hunter shows illegal because they're proselytory for any animistic religion? Would acupuncturists be able to work, or is that a daoist superstition? Could my neighbor's still paint the ceiling of their porch haint blue? Are scientists allowed to register trials for psychic powers? Can schools teach the arguments for dualism?

That doesn't even get into the subjects that, in real life, yank out all the stops on linguistic-conceptual inventiveness! Europe has had a pestilential outbreak of sophistry around head scarves! Would the Alliance ban them for being religious garb? If so, would they ban clothing that covers the ankles as Calvinist religious garb? Or that covers the nipples? (Oh wait, showing the nipples is of significance in some religions! can't allow that!) Should they ban clothing that contains unmixed fibers for being a religious display!? They don't seem to do any of these things, but that's just as much a choice about the First Law as doing so.

Someone proposes personhood begins at conception; I claim that this is fundamentally a supernaturalist belief. Is one of us in violation of the first law? If a hive outlaws birth control, how are they investigated for whether this is a cultural or religious condition? What happens when, I dunno, a Cousin run campus has somebody that wants to put Intelligent Design in the biology textbooks? Most people (well including the people pushing it) know that it's religion wrapped in plausibly deniable words. So is that proselytizing, or is someone pointing it out proselytizing atheism?

Speaking of, there's a pretty good correlation of peace and prosperity with movement to non-religioun. It honestly doesn't seem like sensayers should have much work.

But we meet Bridger and his miracles right at the beginning of the book, before we know a thing about the Church Wars etc. And it's obviously a central tension of the story, intended to be coequal with the brewing war, and yet it quite failed to rouse my interest. The book would've been stronger without it.

Perhaps this *is* just a me thing, since my mind has held miraculous intervention as a solved problem for most of my life. If I were convinced of an event's miraculous character, the most parsimonious explanation is in the vein of, "We're in a simulation that's only been running for a week or so, either as a game or as an experiment, and now we're running under different rules than the ones our (artificial) memories imply." The probability of that happening is too low to waste time processing any other ramifications or possibilities ahead of time.

There is another, related layer of enjoyable consideration, which is of course the reliability of the narrator and his evidence. In Will to Battle, our author is revealed as explicitly delusional, suffering regular, presumably PTSD (and/or anti-sleep drug) related hallucinations. I wish I'd had the patience to do a very close read, or to do a second read—especially given the revelation that 9A edited some of the delusions out of the first two books. Diegetic skepticism is a regular part of the narrative. And there are lots of "rhymes" in the text to mundane circumstances. We're told Bridger looks like Apollo and Seine, and shown the artificial, parentless children, Ganymede and Danaë (crafted to be such a degree of hyperstimulus that among other things, Ganymede has an entire school of art dedicated to him). We're shown that perceptions are malleable, with Thisbe's "witchcraft" and Cato's magician like showmanship. We're constantly exposed to griffincloth and know that just its presence at JEDD's assassination spread skepticism. We're told that scientists proclaim Achilles to have Ancient Greek DNA and an adult's bone structure, but we're also constantly shown an incredible variety of artificial animals and related wonders, and told Apollo was a great scientist.

And yet, over and over the narrative rebukes skepticism. 9A endorses most of what Mycroft has written, and if we go so far as considering them (along with, eg, the officialese headings and warnings) as Mycroft's delusions too, we're at the point where we have to step back so far that the unreliable narrator is actually this "Ada Palmer" character, who is writing about things that don't exist in a year we haven't reached yet!

I was bothered that nobody who learned about it seemed ready to express the proper amount of disgust at the extra-incestuous politics of the world leaders, and honestly find it simply hard to accept that their consortium worked so altruistically.

Finally, ultimately, the central themes of the novel, about peace and war and complacency seem awfully poorly considered for the current era, where voting age children have never known a world without an official war, and the just grown generation is the first since the industrial revolution to be poorer and less healthy and more stressed than their parents. Not just this novel, but the world in general seems to be sorely missing the concept of the important qualitative differences between distress and eustress.

[bellabooks]

10 Lesbian, Bi and Queer Women in Sci Fi and Fantasy TV Right Now

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer erasure has pretty much always existed in media, but it has seemed pronounced lately, especially in Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF) movies. We’ve seen Valkyrie straight-washed, as well as Wonder Woman, Constantine, Harley Quinn, Iceman, and Mystique. (I’ve barely scratched the surface. The list goes on and on.) In SFF TV, though, queer women are showing up in force. They’re super-powered and super-smart. We still need more and better representation, particularly for queer women of color, trans and nonbinary folks, queer women with disabilities, and every other member of the queer community who do not see themselves represented on TV.   Jeri Hogarth, Jessica Jones Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a powerful, intimidating lesbian, lawyer, and counsel to the super-powered in Hell’s Kitchen. (Moss also played Trinity in The Matrix so you already know she’s one attractive lady.) In the comics, Jeryn Hogarth is a sort of dumpy lawyer and confidant to heroes. He’s more of a side character than an antagonist, while the Hogarth from the Jessica Jones TV show (and the other Netflix adaptations) is anything but a sidekick. She’s manipulative, conniving, and ruthless. In one of the eerier choices she makes, she salvages the potentially powered aborted fetus of the child of Kilgrave, a super villain who can make anyone do anything he wants just by saying so. She takes the cell tissue to see if she can find a way to harness his powers. She even helps Kilgrave escape from Jessica so he can help her with her own divorce negotiation. In the end, Kilgrave supercharges himself with tissue samples from the aborted fetus, which make him that much harder for Jessica to defeat. In Iron Fist, Hogarth helps Danny Rand prove his identity and get reinstated with his family’s company after he returns, and she hires Daredevil’s best friend, Foggy Nelson. She has him represent Jessica when she gets caught up in another huge case in The Defenders. You may not like Jeri, but her tenacity is admirable. Check her out in season two of Jessica Jones, which is set to release on Netflix on March 8th.   Anissa Pierce/Thunder, Black Lightning Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) recently started feeling strange. In times of great stress, she has exhibited supernatural strength and the ability to create shockwaves when she stomps. Unbeknownst to Anissa, her father, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), the principal of the school where she works, is the superhero vigilante Black Lightning. As Jefferson comes out of vigilante retirement, Anissa begins exploring her powers and finds that she is frighteningly strong. The first time she uses her powers on humans, she worries that she might have killed the drug dealers she was trying to scare. In a community plagued by police brutality, gang activity, and racism, Anissa starts to believe her powers are not just a gift, but a responsibility. Time and again, throughout the show, we see Anissa assuming the role of protector. One of the best things about Anissa is the fact that she’s just out. There’s no coming out story in the TV show, though her parents do reference her coming out at one point. She lives her life as a lesbian without remorse or regret. She has a girlfriend she breaks up with and meets the very cute Grace Choi. To see her manifest her powers on top of all her confidence and power is a sight to behold.   Grace Choi, Black Lightning Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy) is a cute comic book nerd who Anissa meets in a library. They immediately connect and start flirting while talking about genetic mutation, which Anissa is researching. When Grace is knocked unconscious by a gang member, we see Anissa express her powers more drastically than ever before. Later, while she’s holding Grace, she wonders aloud if someone who could do something to right the wrongs of the world should. Grace affirms that they should. Grace has Anissa’s back and believes in her, even though she doesn’t yet know about her powers. Grace is out and open with her bisexual identity, even joking about it with Anissa. We don’t know if Grace will exhibit the powers she has in the comic books yet, but the first season has just begun. Power Coupling: #Thundergrace So far in the TV show, Anissa and Grace are just getting started as a couple and as heroes, but their attraction and support of one another has me really rooting for them. They are an extremely rare example of a relationship between queer women of color and we need more positive examples out there. Bring on #Thundergrace! You can see Anissa, Grace, and the whole Black Lightning team on Tuesdays on the CW.   Sara Lance/The White Canary, Legends of Tomorrow After surviving a horrific boat accident, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) is recruited to the League of Assassins, naturally, and becomes a lethal force. While living with the League, she falls in love with Nyssa Al Ghul, daughter of the leader of the League. Sara, who made her first appearance in Arrow, fights alongside and dates the Green Arrow (or Arrow or Hood, or whatever Oliver Queen is calling himself at the time), survives her own death by use of a magical hot tub, and is recruited to join a team of time traveling vigilantes. A typical tale. She assumes the identity of the White Canary for her new role and as she travels through time, Sara flirts with and kisses nurses, a female Merlin, and her teammate, Leonard Snart. In the second season of Legends of Tomorrow, Sara becomes the ship’s captain and leads with humor, grace, and many, many stunning fight scenes. She tempers the ragtag team of heroes and damn, it’s nice to see a woman in charge. Season three of Legends of Tomorrow is still in progress, and things are heating up with Ava Sharpe. You can catch my favorite bisexual time traveling captain on Mondays on the CW.   Alex Danvers, Supergirl Agent of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (D.E.O.) and member of her sister Supergirl’s team, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) comes out of the closet in season two of Supergirl. Some of us might be sick of coming out stories, but for a show created for a younger audience, this coming out story is powerful. Alex describes herself as always feeling like something was wrong with her, as if she didn’t want to date, until she met Maggie (Floriana Lima). An out and proud cop, Maggie assumes Alex is gay, which helps Alex out of the closet. The two begin dating, while fighting super villains and teaming up with heroes from other universes. Ultimately, Alex and Maggie split because Alex wants to have kids and that doesn’t work for Maggie. In the end, the actor, Lima, decided not to return to the show, so the split was inevitable. Decisive, powerful, loyal, and quite the fighter, Alex is a credit to queer women. You can see her on season three of Supergirl which is currently airing on Mondays on the CW.   Waverly Earp, Wynonna Earp The younger sister of the heir to the Earp Curse, Waverly Earp (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) is whip smart, adorkable, and an irreplaceable member of her sister Wynonna’s team. When we first meet Waverly, she’s wielding a shotgun, which is aimed at her sister Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano), who she believes is currently hooking up with Waverly’s boyfriend. Over the first season of the show, we see Waverly begin to question her relationship and her sexuality, as she comes into contact with the very sexy police officer, Officer Haught. When Officer Haught kisses Waverly for the first time, it is powerful, sensual, and blows Waverly’s world right open. As Waverly explores her sexuality, we see her transition from a shy woman testing the waters to a powerful woman who goes after what she wants. The second season also finds Waverly questioning her relationship to her family and her future.   Officer Haught, Wynonna Earp Officer Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell) is an unshakeable force for good on Wynonna’s team. At first, the group keeps Officer Haught in the dark, but she’s a great detective and figures out that something is amiss in the Ghost River Triangle. When the supernatural happenings are confirmed for her, she doesn’t freak out. She’s just relieved she’s not the only one who knows something is wrong. She fights heterosexism, small town politics, and demons throughout the show. In the second season, Officer Haught is wounded by a demon-widow and falls into a coma. The audience feared the worst for Haught, but she comes out of the coma and lives to fight another day. Power Coupling: #WayHaught Officer Haught and Waverly are both awesome on their own, but together they make cute-sexy-funny-loving relationships seem natural. Things aren’t always easy—they make it through their own fair share of supernatural mishaps—but they’re an example of what love between two women can look like. You’ll be able to watch #WayHaught’s evolution in season three of Wynonna Earp, which is slated to air on SyFy sometime in 2018.   Karolina Dean/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Runaways What do you do when you find out your parents are super villains? Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner) and her friends try to answer this question in season one of Runaways. While sleuthing and being a hormonal teenager, Karolina also finds out that she has superpowers. She can manipulate solar light and fly. When the bracelet she was given as a child isn’t inhibiting her abilities, she shines like an iridescent rainbow. Can she get any queerer? In fact, she can! As they prepare to act like normal kids for a night at the high school dance, Karolina finally makes her feelings known and kisses Nico, her friend and eventual leader of the Runaways. They go on to kiss again later in the season and share a very sweet moment complete with eye batting and sly smiles.   Nico Minoru/Sister Grimm, Runaways Nico Minoru (Lyrica Okano) is a bad witch you do not want to mess with. She can do anything, but she can only do it once. (It’s a limitation of her magical powers.) She’s a member of the all-female Avengers called A-Force, and a general badass. Long before her reign as bad witch, though, Nico was just a kid in California–a kid with super villain parents–but a kid nonetheless. This is where we meet her in the TV show Runaways. She’s emo, she’s angry, and she’s mourning the death of her sister. When she and her friends find out that their parents are evil, she starts investigating her connection to a family heirloom, the Staff of One, which gives her the ability to manifest anything she can think of. During this confusing time in Nico’s life, she kisses Alex, another teammate, but after she finds out that Alex has been keeping secrets about her sister’s death, she rejects his advances. She and Karolina share a passionate kiss and this sets Nico down an entirely new path of self-discovery. Power Coupling: #Nicolina One of the best things about Karolina and Nico’s relationship is how far it deviates from the comic books, which are filled with off-hand heterosexist remarks and Nico distancing herself from Karolina when Karolina expresses an interest in her. In the TV show, we see two young women acknowledging their attraction. We’ve barely seen either use their powers and I’m really looking forward to what happens to #Nicolina in season two. You can join me in watching their relationship to each other and their parents evolve in season two of Runaways, which has been renewed for a second season on Hulu. Given when the first season aired, we might see the second season as soon as fall 2018.   Cassandra Cillian/The Librarian, The Librarians  Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth) is a genius with a brain tumor, which essentially gives her super powers. Recruited by the mystical Library to preserve magical artifacts, Cassandra is one of the three librarians who is new to the game. For much of the show’s run thus far, the show seems to flirt with the idea of Cassandra’s queerness. She gets enchanted and becomes a female Prince Charming. All the ladies in the town start fawning over her and she likes it. She flirts with a diplomat and gets her phone number, while also stealing her earrings, which are magical artifacts, so it’s totally fine. And, on more than one occasion, she makes eyes at her Guardian (not that kind of guardian, gross. It’s a magical thing.), played by Rebecca Romijn. I also make eyes at Romijn in this TV show. At one point, Cassandra makes advances toward an older male character and seems to have some sexual tension with another librarian who is male. After three seasons, the show finally lets Cassandra be out. When Cassandra’s life-threatening tumor is removed, she realizes how close to the end she was and rushes to see her friend, who is a vampire that she has been relentlessly flirting with the entire episode. They share a passionate kiss and boom, Cassandra’s out of the closet! The season finale of season four of The Librarians just recently aired. We’re waiting with baited breath to see if TNT will renew the show for a fifth season. http://dlvr.it/QJKcGZ

[ktliterary]

What I'm Looking For: Aida Z. Lilly

I’m excited to be open to queries for speculative fiction in upper middle grade, YA, and adult; in YA and upper MG contemporary, I am exclusively looking for stories from LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and other marginalized groups; graphic novels for upper middle grade, YA, and adult from author-illustrators with a unique story; fresh, modern, and original contemporary adult fiction that fits in with my wishlist; and narrative non-fiction (but no true crime).

Across all genres, the writing, voice, and characters have to hook me and make me feel something. I want stories about the good, bad, and ugly of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I’m also interested in cults, the occult, mental health, and magic. I’m looking for the kind-of-weird and completely amazing! Good writing is the most important aspect for me. I love great ideas, but I really need the execution of those ideas to be brilliant. I want to be drawn in within the first few pages, and I’m okay with not having all the answers (at first anyway). I want to read the story only you can tell. I want to accidentally learn things only you can teach me.

I love all things speculative—well, except horror (touches of it in other spec fiction are fine though). What really catches my eye is SFF with real issues tackled in thought-provoking ways, like Grossman’s MAGICIANS series (and show). This shouldn’t be super shocking since I grew up loving the ANIMORPHS series. I like a big, diverse cast with love in their hearts and problems in their lives. Even though these kids had to save the world, they still dealt with familial strife, romantic problems, the failings of adults, and the emotions that accompanied the war and the “normal” lives they had to lead. So give me ANIMORPHS for adults with even more diversity.

On that note, I want feminist projects (especially where feminism is unexpected) and books written by and about people from marginalized communities. As a first-gen Middle Eastern American, I enjoy hearing other people’s immigration tales. If you have written the next KIM’S CONVENIENCE, EMAIL ME RIGHT THIS SECOND BECAUSE I LOVE YOU.

I want ALLLLLLL the queer SFF please! There is so little of it, and it is so needed!

I like mythology (especially when it’s written as beautifully as Madeline Miller does it), music (Juliet, Naked and Daisy Jones & The Six are some of my faves), unreliable narrators, multiple viewpoints, stories that take place at college/grad school, flawed characters, a sense of humor, friendships (complicated ones, too), L.A. stories, tales of NYC, puzzles (think more Dan Brown, less National Treasure), and the atmosphere of Carnivàle, Darren Shan’s CIRQUE DU FREAK, Euphoria, and New Orleans. Magic and superheroes are some of my favorite things, especially when those characters act in a very human way and have very human problems (The Boys, Hancock, Super Ex-Girlfriend). I love a good origin story (even if I’ve seen Peter Parker have three of them onscreen…)

My taste veers from AMERICAN PSYCHO to HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (and lots in between). Engage me enough to make me laugh AND cry. Give me humor and heart (like Handler’s LIFE WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME); give me a character like Dr. Cox from Scrubs or someone Gordon Ramsay-esque, who secretly has a soft center. Conversely, I also want ALL THE DARKNESS. Because while I love the cuteness of Detective Pikachu, I also live for authors like Leïla Slimani, Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk, who capture the ugly sides of human nature in sharp, acerbic light. I won’t shy away from your THREE WOMEN, TWEAK, EDUCATED, or MY DARK VANESSA.

Shows and movies I love: ALL THINGS STUDIO GHIBLI, Kim’s Convenience, Pose, American Horror Story: Coven, The L Word (both), Big Love, Fresh off the Boat (the book and show), Guardians of the Galaxy (and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe), Supernatural, Lost, Modern Family, anything Mindy Kaling touches (books and shows), Workin’ Moms, Abrams’s Star Trek reboot, The Affair, South Park, Dexter (the books and show), Broad City, The Last Man on Earth (I nearly cried when they canceled this), Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Crash, What Dreams May Come, Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned, Death Note, Straight Outta Compton, Monsters University, The Sopranos, How to Get Away with Murder, Stepbrothers, Zoolander, The Boondocks, Little Nemo, Selena, Shin Chan, Rent, Sweeney Todd, Dope, The Halloween Tree (the book and the movie), The Office, American Housewife, For Colored Girls, LotR, Mad Men, Mystery Men, Sons of Anarchy, Fringe, The King of Queens, Cloverfield, Super 8, Blade Runner 2049, Good Will Hunting, Adventure Time, Detective Pikachu, Good Boys

Books and authors I love: The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell (and his standup), Mira Jacob, Daisy Jones and the Six, There There, Eat a Peach, Convenience Store Woman, Double Cup Love, Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines, Born a Crime (and Noah’s standup), Tranny, The Hate U Give, Warcross duology, Leïla Slimani, Rainbow Rowell, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, The Time Traveler’s Wife, I Am Legend (the movie, too), The Amory Wars (and the music about them), Saga, Deadendia, The Devil Is a Part-Timer, Chuck Palahniuk, Kid Gloves, Zatanna and the House of Secrets, Sing, Unburied, Sing, The Wheel of Time series, Hyperbole and a Half, Bret Easton Ellis, Harry Potter (but not Rowling), Artemis Fowl, Riordan and friends, Life Will Be the Death of Me, The Interestings, Station Eleven, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me, Hey Kiddo, The New Kid, Furious Thing, Number One Chinese Restaurant, The Girls at 17 Swann Street, Ready Player One (and the movie), Wildwood, Red at the Bone, Juliet, Naked, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Fun Home, American Housewife, Madeline Miller, Gaiman, Christopher Moore, Haruki Murakami, Patrick Rothfuss, The Goldfinch, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Kevin Kwan, Dave Eggers, My Dark Vanessa, All of us with Wings, Graveyard Shift, Life of Pi, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, America for Beginners, The Storyteller’s Secret, Never Let Me Go, Priestdaddy, Educated, Three Women, Augusten Burroughs, Furiously Happy, Okay, Fine, Whatever, Fights: One Boy’s Triumph over Violence, The Usual Suspects (Maurice Broaddus), V.E. Schwab, The Silent Patient, Uprooted, Pierce Brown, The Enderverse, Blake Crouch, The Hunger Games, John Dies at the End

Maybe not the best fit for: Political thriller Gross out Horror (some touches are okay in SFF) Picture books Chapter books Animal protagonists Flowery language in fantasy Very technical or math-heavy sci-fi Historical fiction WW2 or cops or Civil War/antebellum “Inspirational”

What I’m Looking For: Aida Z. Lilly was originally published on kt literary

[aion-rsa]

The Best Online Serial Fiction

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If there was a golden age of serial fiction, it might have been the era when Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mark Twain were publishing their stories-in-installments in print periodicals, with their readers desperately waiting for the next part of the tale. But if that’s true, right now might just be the platinum age of serial fiction. The digital medium is perfect for publishing stories as episodes, and modern readers who are used to receiving stories in an episodic format, thanks to television, may appreciate the medium in a more nuanced way than their historical predecessors.

Modern serials make use of both styles of writing. Some rely on a single author who publishes their novel bit by bit, keeping readers hooked. Others are developed in a television-style writer’s room. Some feature added features like music or illustrations, making use of transmedia opportunities made possible in the digital world. These stories span genres, including near futuristic sci fi (The Vela or Machina), urban fantasy (Ilona Andrews’s “Innkeeper Chronicles”), heart-pounding stories that will keep you guessing (C. D. Miller’s Dark Heights, Ray N. Kuili’s Eden Can Wait, or Casey Lucas’s Into the Mire), your favorite comics or television characters in prose (Black Panther: Sins of the King and Doctor Who), and illustrated (Twice) or audio only (Hope and Red) fantasies. Whatever you enjoy reading, there’s a serial for you to enjoy.

Find out more about where you can read online serial fiction here.

Ongoing Serial Fiction

While the science fiction and fantasy genres have the lead as far as the number of individual serials available for purchase, the serial format has always included realistic fiction and intrigue, as well as expanding into erotic novels. Take a peek at what’s new and what’s ongoing!

Hope and Red

Jon Skovoron’s Hope and Red was originally published in 2016, but the author is back with a serialized version—delivered straight to your podcasting app, narrated by the author. As the story that launched Skovoron’s “Empire of Storms” series, the novel introduces warrior Hope and thief Red, who must team up to take down a corrupt empire. This fast-paced fantasy has all the right cliff-hangers to keep you waiting for the next episode.

The Vela 

One of my favorite recent space operas is The Vela, a Serial Box original written by powerhouse team Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and SL Huang. The story centers on soldier-for-hire Asala Sikou, who’s more worried about taking care of number one than she is about the imminent death of her star system. But when she takes a job to find a missing rescue ship, The Vela, she and her teammate, Niko, the child of the inner planet’s president, find themselves embroiled in endgames that will decide the fate of the universe. The season one conclusion had me sobbing at the end. (Check out my review of The Vela here.) Season two, The Vela: Salvation, is posting episodes right now, and I will be hanging onto my seat for each week’s new episode.

Doctor Who

This summer, Serial Box partnered with The Big Finish to release their full-cast audio dramas of Doctor Who to the serial audience. Two collections of stories, The Tenth Doctor Adventures and The Tenth Doctor Chronicles, feature the adventures of the Tenth Doctor and his companion Donna Noble, voiced by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in one and narrated by Jacob Dudman in the other. Four other offerings focus on earlier Doctors, crossovers with multiple Doctors, and the enigmatic Lady Christina. Fans of the television series are sure to find something to enjoy in these companion tales to the program, and listeners who have never watched the show (as rare as those may be!) have the opportunity to dip their toes into a very complex and well-loved world.

Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire

In Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire, Jessica transitions from comics and small screen to a prose serial—written by Lauren Beukes, Vita Ayala, Sam Beckbessinger, Zoe Quinn, and Elsa Sjunneson. She’s focusing on developing some healthier coping mechanisms (not drinking so much) and trying to take some cases less likely to kill her. But when a simple, cut-and-dry case has more lurking beneath the surface, Jessica can’t let it go, even when the stakes get dangerous. This is sure to be a hit with fans of the Netflix series, and it’s great to see a frequently underused Marvel superhero get more air time.

The 18th Century Man

While the conceit for The 18th Century Man, a serial on Medium by Dan Morrison, seems simple enough—a young man, conceived during a power outage, negates electricity—the first chapters indulge in a hefty dose of social and political commentary that let readers know they’re in for something that aims deeper. James grows up on his grandmother’s farm in Woodstock, Vermont, as the focus of speculation. Everyone wants to know how he became the way he is—including James himself. Reading on Medium requires either using a limited number of stories for free or becoming a subscriber; to help his readers, Morrison posts chapters into the same story, with email alerts that let them know when the next one is added. Readers just picking up this serial can easily binge the first seventeen chapters—and then keep a watch on Morrison’s email list or Facebook group for the next installment.

The Innkeeper Chronicles (and others) by Ilona Andrews

Husband-and-wife team Ilona and Gordon Andrews have been releasing a series of free novellas on their website as a reward to loyal readers. They’re fantastic at providing new content, some in the serial specific world of The Innkeeper Chronicles, which has now produced several novellas. Each weekly installment is a partial chapter, typically readable inside of fifteen minutes, and enough of a bite sized chunk to whet your appetite for whatever comes next. 

They’re currently posting a new novel, Blood Heir, set in the world of Kate Daniels, featuring an adult Julie—Kate’s adopted daughter—in an Atlanta eight years after the original series concluded. For readers who weren’t ready to let the series go with Magic Triumphs, this brilliant relaunch is just the reward we needed for surviving a pandemic.

“The Innkeeper Chronicles,” the more frequent ongoing serial series, revolve around Dina, an Innkeeper, host for interstellar travelers that include familiar mythological figures like werewolves and vampires, as well as more outlandish aliens. Her inn feeds magic into her, so she can change reality on her inn’s grounds to better accommodate–and defend against–her guests. In Clean Sweep, the first novella, a supernatural danger threatens Dina’s non-magical neighbors. Dina isn’t supposed to get involved, but she’s not the type to let what she’s supposed to do stop her from doing what’s right. While most of the stories center on Dina, one focuses on Maud, Dina’s sister, navigating the intergalactic politics of space faring vampire civilization while keeping her half-vampire daughter, Helen, safe. Meanwhile on Earth, a holiday celebration at the inn is complicated when a cosmically powerful being needs a safe place to meet her amoral human uncle. The series is a fantastic hybrid of space action, swordplay, and romance, and shows that the series has plenty of room to grow.

Team Andrews creates a very cool world mixing fantasy and science fiction tropes and populates it with a fully realized cast, including not only Dina and her sister, but also the local (hunky) werewolf, a temperamental Quillonian chef, and Dina’s struggling inn’s only regular guest, a vampire noble claiming asylum on earth due to her previous ruthless acts. Can’t wait for the next installment? Andrews is updating the main blog with chapters of a new project in the world of Kate Daniels, which should tide you over!

Into the Mire 

In this dark fantasy in a post-war world, a badass mercenary captain leads her crew on a hunt for the missing heir of a baron—who happens to be her old commanding officer. Unfortunately, the marsh into which they must travel is populated by carnivorous trees—and human enemies who may be even more dangerous.

Riss Chou, the head merc, is appealingly snarky; her second-in-command is a posh bisexual sorcerer who, on first read, reminded me of one of my favorite characters from Kill the Queen; and another team member is a blood sorcerer hiding his talent (because it’s illegal). While the first few chapters hint at the much larger world, the narrative never overwhelms, keeping the main quest story line at the forefront, and building the world in the background.

Launched April, 2018, the serial has completed its first full novel and is deep into book two. In 2020, the serial was nominated for New Zealand’s top literary prize in SFF: the Sir Julius Vogel Award. Author Casey Lucas updates the serial weekly on Wednesdays, New Zealand Time.

Twice

Matthew Rhymer is not what he seems—even those who know him best don’t really know his story. When his estranged friends receive a letter intended to be delivered to him, they become privy to an unbelievable story, which has to do with the Lady, her rule, and the hungers of a mysterious enemy. The newly launched illustrated serial “Twice” parcels out the mystery a tiny bit at a time, each episode giving a little more for readers to piece together. Each episode features a gorgeous painting from author/illustrator Mark J. Ferrari. While Ferrari has a tip jar on the site, subscriptions to the ongoing serial are free, and each episode can be read on the website, or delivered directly to your email. Season one concluded earlier this summer, but season two promises to bring readers even deeper into Rhymer’s world.

Dark Heights

If the audio experience is important to you and you’re looking for something for a mature audience, you might be interested in checking out music-enhanced serial Dark Heights by C. D. Miller, with music composed and performed by C. D.’s brother, Chris Miller. The music and prose are developed in tandem, so that they are intentionally intertwined. This indie serial is available at its original website but Part One was picked up by Serial Box, and is available through their app.

The story is of a town, Park Heights, where supernatural forces in a war of shadows converge. Caught in the chaos are town native Tess Bellamy and drifter Gabriel Majeaux. The series features an HBO-level of graphic content (so it’s not for young readers) and bends genres and genre expectations. If you’re a fan of psychological horror, this unique music and prose blend might be right up your alley. Just… be careful of those shadows.

Lady Victoria Howard

One of the reasons some readers may prefer a serial subscription to a paperback is that they can read bite-sized fiction discreetly on their phones. That’s one of the goals of the Lady Victoria Howard web app, an erotic serial written for women, by women. Billed as the world’s first serialized erotic novel, the web app has subscriptions available for the first three seasons (39 episodes), which are delivered weekly depending on when you start your subscription. The story follows Lady Victoria Howard, sister to a modern duke, whose past heartbreak has led her to a sexual awakening, that allows her to explore her sensuality—and live her life to the fullest.

Amazon Original Stories 

Amazon Original Stories produces one-sitting fiction reads, such as their premiere releases Joyce Carol Oates’s novel The Sign of the Beast and nonfiction book Crown Heights by Colin Warner and Carl King. Their most recent collection, “Hush,” is a series of contemporary thrillers from authors like Oyinkan Braithwaite and Jeffrey Deaver. Other recent releases include the “Disorder” series of short stories, designed to keep you awake at night, and the “Inventions” series, which explores the true stories from the age of innovation. The imprint has also published “The Real Thing Collection,” six nonfiction essays about relationships including pieces by Fresh off the Boat author Eddie Huang and Pretty Little World coauthors Elizabeth LaBan and Melissa DePino; and the recent “Inheritance” collection, with stories from Alice Hoffman, Julie Orringer, Alexander Chee, and others. Other authors who have written for the imprint include Jennifer McMahon, Lisa Unger, Edgar Cantero, Emily Raboteau, Adam Haslett, Brandi Reeds, Dean Koontz, Nick McDonell, Susan Straight, Jeffrey Deaver, and Janice Y. K. Lee. 

The stories are available for free to Prime and Kindle Unlimited subscribers; other readers can purchase the books for $1.99.

Ninth Step Station

In Ninth Step Station, a future Tokyo is torn, divided between the invading Chinese and the supposedly peacekeeping Americans. Disaster after disaster have kept Japan from recovering, and their police are short handed and short supplied.

When Metropolitan Police Detective Miyako Koreda is paired with US Peacekeeper Emma Higashi as her new partner, neither of them is pleased with the arrangement. But despite their hesitations, they solve a series of crimes that feature espionage, rebellion, and humanity at its worst, many of which revolve around the war.

Created by Malka Older, Ninth Step Station feels at once like great near-future sci-fi and a modern police drama in which both of the main detectives are, refreshingly, women. The second season, with writing team Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen, just wrapped—but the cliffhanger indicates the solid possibility of a third season in the works.

Coming Soon

The Haunting of Beatrix Greene

What happens when a medium and a scientist are at odds in Victorian England—and a vengeful spirit enters the mix? That’s the premise of this forthcoming serial: scientist James Walker hires spiritual medium Beatrix Greene to host a seance. She’s worried he intends to prove that she’s a fraud, and she’s determined not to let that happen. Neither of them expect to have to banish a ghost—or to be so attracted to each other. The first episode is live (and free) at Serial Box, and the second releases just in time for Halloween chills and thrills.

The Co-Founder

One of two Serial Box titles in development for television, The Co-founder is a contemporary drama set to launch later in 2020. When two women, Val and Jules, create what could become the next big thing in gaming, they face a hurdle: they’re women. In order to fit in with the Silicon Valley tech-bro culture, they hire barista and failed actor Toby to act as their third co-founder. It’s a plan that might just work—until Toby tries to steal their gaming platform out from under them. The season, written by Alexis Wilkinson, is available for preorder.

Marvel’s Black Panther: Sins of the Father

It’s difficult waiting for news about the MCU’s Black Panther 2, but fear not: there’s a serial to tide you over! With a sneak peek released in August 2020, the full serial won’t release until January 2021, but I’m already ready to keep hitting refresh until it launches. Led by Ira Madison III, the writing team (Geoff Thorne, Mohale Mashigo, Steven Barnes, and Tananarive Due) take readers to a Wakanda plagued by undead. T’Challa, striving to be both a good king and an Avenger, must turn to his long-lost father to find out how to stop the supernatural onslaught—and face the demons of Wakanda’s past. With Emmy-nominated William Jackson Harper announced as the narrator, this one is going to be a fantastic read—or listen—when it releases.

Serials You Can Binge

These serials, which are not currently updating, are worth checking out, especially as some of them may later get a second season.

Marvel’s Black Widow: Bad Blood

We might not yet have a fully official release date for the Black Widow movie, but fans who can’t get enough of the Russian assassin/Avenger can get a fix with this recently released serial, which just wrapped its first season in July. As the second collaboration between Marvel and Serial Box, Black Widow follows Natasha Romanov as she tries to track down whoever stole her blood—because they also stole the blood of Bucky Barnes. There’s no good reason for someone to take the blood of two secret operatives, especially when there’s a possibility that the someone responsible is trying to develop their own brand of super soldier serum. A Barnes/Romanov team-up is something we’ll never really get to see in the MCU, but pairing these two is sure to hit all the right spy movie tropes. Serial Box veterans Lindsay Smith (lead writer for The Witch Who Came in from the Cold) and Margaret Dunlap (Bookburners) are joined on the writing team by feminist writer Mikki Kendall, urban fantastist L.L. McKinney, and thriller writer Taylor Stevens.

Knox

This recently completed serial is set in 1930s Manhattan, where a serial killer is on the loose, and Knox is the PI on the job. Both she and the murderer, John Craddock, served in World War I; the experience left Knox with the unenviable ability to see the paranormal. And the case with Craddock is anything but what it seems. Elements of Lovecraftian horror infuse this story of a badass Afro-Latina detective, and New York noir combines with queer romance to give the story a while different flavor from anything else in this genre. Let K Arsenault Rivera, Brooke Bolander, Gabino Iglesias, and Sunny Moraine take you on a trip of horrors beyond space and time—and try to hold onto your sanity while you’re reading.

Machina

The world is a mess, and the future lies off-planet if humanity is to survive at all. Machina is set after a climate apocalypse ravages Earth. In the first episode, readers meet a group of dreamers—best friends Trey, Stephanie, and Smits—who intend to save humanity from their crumbling planet, ravaged by earthquakes and worse, by creating AI that will terraform Mars. Skip forward a few years, and those Trey and Stephanie are feuding, running rival tech companies both striving toward the same goal. Although Trey’s company focuses on a more traditional style of programming—where the AI is guided at every step by humans at the helm—Trey is innovating with the help of AI anthropologist Noor Venable, whose understanding of AI may change the way everyone thinks. Stephanie’s group, determined to give their AI more independence, is led in part by ace-programmer Cameron—who finds themself as charmed by Noor as Trey’s AI. The competition is being covered by intrepid “kid-reporter” Hiro Watanabe, who steals every scene he’s in. With the writing team of Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Curtis Chen, and Martha Wells, all of whom have followings beyond their serials, this is one tech corporate drama that readers will be happy to binge—and hope for a second season.

Thor: Metal Gods

One of my favorite bits in the MCU is when Thor and Loki team up in some old-school “Road Movie” style comedy. This prose serial, the audio version of which is narrated by Daniel Gillies of The Vampire Diaries, doubles down on the fun of the Loki-Thor duo. Here, the at-odds brothers voyage through the galaxy to track down a dangerous artifact. But the cast doesn’t stop with familiar faces: new characters include a Korean tiger-goddess, Frost giant mercenaries, and a charismatic, gender-fluid space pirate.This is the first prose serial collaboration between Serial Box and one of the big comic publishers, featuring the writing team of Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Jay Edidin, Brian Keene, and Yoon Ha Lee. If you love it (or prefer a different hero), keep an eye out for Serial Box’s other Marvel titles!

Orphan Black: The Next Chapter

If you were among the fans who lamented the end of the Canadian SF show Orphan Black, celebrate the return of the Clone Club—eight years after the conclusion of the show! (Den of Geek chatted with Tatiana Maslany about continuing the series as the audio book narrator.) The first Serial Box season has concluded, but fans can keep hoping for more time with the Clone Club.

Other Half of the Grave

This may not be the vampire romance POV swap that everyone’s been talking about, but The Other Half of the Grave has some of the same appeal! Fans of Jeanine Frost’s “Night Huntress” series encouraged her to write scenes from the male lead of her first “Night Huntress” novel, One Foot in the Grave, for behind the scenes goodies. It’s not an entire book—readers would do best to read the original novel first—but the bite sized installments are a huge reader perk.

Foreshadow

After a hugely successful IndieGogo campaign, editors in chief Emily X.R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma have launched what they term a YA Serial anthology. Contributors include Dhonielle Clayton (in Issue 0), Malinda Lo (in Issue 1), Justine Larbalesteir (issue 10), and more. A print edition of some of the stories is due out in fall, 2020, but the original 12 issues remain available online.

Born to the Blade 

High fantasy meets political intrigue in Born to the Blade, a serial that combines elements from Game of Thrones, Avatar the Last Airbender, and The West Wing. Duelist-diplomats fight for the fate of not only the neutral Twaa-Fei islands, but the world. Rumor has it there’s no second season yet in the plans, but if you’re like me and can’t handle the cliff-hanger from season one, spread the word!

Gods and Lies

Billed as American Gods meets The Maltese Falcon, Gods & Lies follows investigator Justix Iris Tharro, a human agent of the goddess of Justice. In order to solve the bizarre murder in the Temple of Wind, she has to team up with Andy, a disgraced demigod, trying to win back the favor of his divine parent.

First Street

First Street delves into contemporary events by focusing on four young clerks working in the Supreme Court. Recommended for fans of The West Wing and Shondaland series, who are sure to get drawn into the intrigue.

The Understudy

A dance school is the unlikely setting for this social thriller, where a group of moms must team together to protect their daughters from a series of brutal attacks—all of which began when new dancer, Imogen, started attending the same dance academy. 

Alternis

In a not-too-distant future, the world’s governments have agreed to allow their standings in an MMORPG to determine their share of the world’s resources. A game designer has a choice: join Team USA or have her life’s project taken away. (We chatted with the writing team for Alternis in an exclusive cover reveal and with Summer Glau, who narrated the audio book.)

The Triangle 

A covert group travels to the Bermuda Triangle to investigate disappearances, only to be stranded on an uncharted island… where they discover they aren’t alone. Secrets are slowly revealed in Michael Crichton style suspense, with a healthy dose of television’s Lost.

False Idols 

FBI crime thriller False Idols pits Layla el-Deeb against a terrorist network operating via Ciaro’s art scene. Her entry into the world of Cairo’s financial elite is complicated by her impoverished childhood in Cairo’s slums, and going undercover in her home city comes with greater challenges than she expected. 

Tensorate

JY Yang’s Tensorate novellas tell a technology-vs.-tradition tale of two twin siblings, Mokoya and Akeha, drawn to opposite sides of a rebellion. A prequel reveals the history of the Protector’s rise, and a continuation of the original duology, The Descent of Monsters, features a female inspector trying to solve a mystery that involves a cover up, an escaped experiment, and strange dreams she can’t define.

The Witch Who Came in From the Cold

This Cold War with witches spy saga had two seasons—and ended on a cliffhanger. If you like a good KGB vs. CIA story, definitely let Serial Box know you’d love to see a third season! 

Silverwood: The Door

Continuing on from stories originally introduced in the Black Box TV series Silverwood by Tony E. Valenzuela, this serial offers a Lovecraftian creature driving people to madness, and nods to splatterpunk and slashers. (Check out our interview with the writers.)

Bullet Catcher

Imma Moreno’s dead-end life changes directions when she decides to apprentice herself to a bullet catcher—mythical warriors whose heroics are told in hushed voices, but who were supposed to have been slaughtered by the gunslingers long ago. Tales of Jedi and the series Avatar: The Last Airbender inspired this weird western by Joaquin Lowe.

The Fisher of Bones

Sarah Gailey’s The Fisher of Bones is a fantasy novelette in twelve parts released by Fireside Fiction, with an audio version produced by Serial Box. It’s a beautiful and desolate fantasy story filled with trials of faith, and the short chapters make it a quick read–but the chapters will linger in a reader’s thoughts much longer.

Dead Air

College senior Macy Walker is obsessed with death, and in her on-air show, “Dead Air,” she airs out the old case of horsewoman Peg Graham’s murder. But though she starts reporting her own findings—and realizing that plenty of people would like Graham’s case to stay buried. 

ReMade

Twenty three teenagers, all of whom died in the same minute, become the last hope for humanity when they awaken in a brand new world. Here, there are robots that hunt humans, a dangerous jungle, and the ruins of an ancient civilization. 

Geek Actually

This contemporary fiction piece focuses on a circle of female friends whose careers revolve around their geeky passions. The focus on powerful and healthy female friendships is a delight, and the diversity of the cast is wonderful.

Bookburners

Bookburners, the flagship series for Serial Box (and one of my personal favorites on this list), is the story of a team of Vatican-employed agents trapping demons in books—until they realize that magic is too big to be contained. The story finished its fifth and final season, and the collected episodes are too good to miss.

Tremontaine

This completed serial is a prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Riverside fantasy series, and the the swashbuckling and political intrigue kept readers hooked through the serial’s ultimate conclusion. Series creator Ellen Kushner has posted a guide to the Riverside novels and the order in which they occur chronologically for readers wanting to delve more deeply into that world.

1776

The Associated Press series 1776: The World Turned Upside Down was originally published for the bicentennial of the United States in a hardcover, large format book for news organizations. The serial features dramatized audio narration with voice work by Clint McElroy as Alexander Hamilton, Bob Garfield as Thomas Paine, Chris Jackson as Washington, Nicholas Christopher as John Adams, and Robin Miles as the narrator. (We talked with CEO Molly Barton about the project.)

A Most Dangerous Woman

Brenda Clough takes up the mantle of Wilkie Collins in creating a sequel to what many critics consider the first and finest example of the modern mystery genre, The Woman in White. 

Exquisite Corpse and Embodied

You’ve heard of the game: several authors create a story together, writing a chapter at a time and then handing it off to the next, so that none of the authors really know where it’s going to end up until the last moment. Serial Box took the concept and turned it into a serial format, with two event serials: Exquisite Corpse and Embodied.

Royally Yours

Looking for something a little lighthearted for your bite-sized reads? In honor of the real royal wedding in May, Serial Box released a short, mini-series of love stories, not about the bride and groom, but about couples involved in the day’s events. 

Whitehall

In the mood for courtly drama, full of machinations, intrigue, and fantastic clothing? Settle in for the turmoil of the romance of Queen Catherine of Braganza, her husband, King Charles II of England, and his mistress, Barbara. This is captivating historical fiction, vividly set in the 17th century.

Belgravia

Fans of Downtown Abbey will gravitate to this story, written by Julian Fellowes, of the Trenchant family. Belgravia integrates real historical details into the text through hyperlinking; the setting is viscerally described, and the characters presented with an open eye to their flaws as equally as their virtues.

Conclusion

The best part about serials is that they’re happening live — and if enough people are reading them, they make great Internet water-cooler conversation. So if you’re catching up on the latest episode of The Vela, or the most recent installment of whatever Team Andrews is writing, and need to gush — or just want to make sure I know about the hot new serial you’re reading — come on over and find me on Facebook.  

The post The Best Online Serial Fiction appeared first on Den of Geek.

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New Release Roundup, 24 November 2018: Fantasy and Adventure

Samurai struggle with honor in civil war, dragons soar over nuclear wastelands, and Louis L’Amour, Andre Norton, and David Drake return in this roundup of the newest releases in fantasy and adventure fiction.

Blade of Retribution (Blood Samurai #3) – Lynn Francis 

An emperor’s wraith from the grave that would see the fall of a dynasty and the rise of the samurai.

At great cost to his soul and sanity, Riku believes he has the demon Sutoku under control. With the aid of the witch Takiyasha hime the demon Sutoku is no longer a separate presence but a part of Riku – a part that demands the blood of those he seeks his vengeance upon.

The war that had been brewing has been in stalemate and a supernatural famine is tearing apart the land. Before it reaches it’s breaking point the Taira move against the Minamoto and the Minamoto will be ready.

For they have also made a pack for power and as betrayal after betrayal comes, the dark forces that threaten to consume the land grow stronger and stronger.

Will Riku be able to overcome his past and stop both his and his country’s descent into madness?

Cirsova: Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction #10 – edited by Cirsova Publishing

Cirsova Magazine is for readers who want exciting tales of daring heroes up against impossible odds in exotic settings. It’s also for authors of adventure SFF.

Novelette

Crying in the Salt House, by B. Morris Allen

Short Stories

Jeopardy Off Jupiter IV, by Spencer E. Hart

The Best Workout, by Frederick Gero Heimbach

A Song in Deepest Darkness, by Jason Ray Carney

Amsel the Immortal, by Lauren Goff

An Interrupted Scandal, by Misha Burnett

The Sword of the Mongoose, by Jim Breyfogle

When Gods Fall in Fire, by Brian K. Lowe

Poetry

My Name is John Carter (Part 7), by James Hutchings

Dragon Mage – Andre Norton and Jean Rabe

Shy realizes that she is lucky to be taken in by her grandparents after her father dies–but life above an antique store in Slade’s Corners, Wisconsin is not exactly the place a teenage girl wants to be.

One day while going through boxes of her father’s boyhood stuff, she comes upon a rare old set of dragon puzzles … all of which are missing pieces. Her grandmother recalls the fantastic tales Shy’s father would tell about his travels to lands of dragons and adventure. She always thought that these fantasies were inspired by the puzzles Shy has found.

Shy realizes that by mixing and matching the different sets she can complete a single dragon puzzle that combines all of the others. Upon doing so she is whisked away to ancient Babylon where she must continue the duties of her father’s legacy as a servant to the dragon and a savior of the world.

  Iron Garland (Harbinger #3) – Jeff Wheeler 

For three years, Sera Fitzempress has been a pawn in a gilded prison—the floating manor of Pavenham Sky. Disgraced and exiled from society, she has been isolated from the downtrodden she’s determined to liberate. But although Sera may seem subservient on the outside, the stubborn princess has only become emboldened.

Now in charge of her family’s estate, Cettie Pratt has grown into an independent young woman, although she continues to be tested by the high society of the clouds. Advancing in the magic of the Mysteries, Cettie is also a useful tool of defense during turbulent times. However, as more of Cettie’s mysterious past comes to light, her greatest challenge may be a reckless stranger with a dark secret.

The fog of war is drawing in, and with it comes a startling new enemy who may unravel secrets that both women would prefer stay hidden. But their secrets may be the only way to stop the coming darkness…

The Minstrel and the Mercenary – David Scoles 

For Dafydd ap Gwilym, Welsh poet and minstrel, a life composing poems of chivalry and courtly love while enjoying the patronage of the Black Prince of Wales felt like the dream of every poor second son – until he found himself caught up in the siege of Caen and needed to be rescued by the dangerous Radu the Black, a hardened mercenary of Transylvania.

Forced into an unlikely partnership by the King of England, Gwilym and Radu must solve a murder while hunting down a band of killers led by a mercenary known only as the Nachzehrer, but there is more to this murder than Gwilym suspects…

The fate of Europe is the balance as Radu and Gwilym race to uncover a conspiracy, but can a minstrel and a mercenary find a way to trust one another even as the past comes back to haunt them both?

No Traveller Returns (Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures #2) – Louis L’Amour and Beau L’Amour

As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying eighty thousand barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous, with the entire crew aware that one careless moment could lead to disaster.

But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day existence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has his own history, dreams and jealousies, longing and rage, all are connected by a deadly web of chance and circumstance.

Some are desperately fleeing the past; others chase an unknown destiny. A few are driven by the desire for adventure, while their shipmates cling to the Lichenfield as their only true home. In their hearts, these men, as well as the women and children they have left behind, carry the seeds of salvation or destruction. And all of them—kind or cruel, strong or broken—are bound to the fate of the vessel that carries them toward an ever-darkening horizon.

Radioactive Evolution – Richard Hummel

How far would you go to change humanity’s fate?

Jared Cartwright has spent the last two years delving into the twisted, scarred wastelands of an earth ravaged by nuclear war. The rich and powerful have taken to the oceans and skies on floating utopias, escaping destruction and leaving the rest of humanity to fend off the mutated creatures that roam the earth.

To face his new reality, Jared must become an apex predator if he hopes to survive. He must evolve beyond human limitations to confront those that left mankind to die.

Jared’s quest takes a new turn when he discovers dragons are real.

Red Skies (The Valens Legacy #11) – Jan Stryvant

With the President on his side and the failure of the Vestibulum’s last-ditch attempt to stop him, it seems that Sean’s goal is almost complete. Until, that is, the First moves up Sean’s timetable to deal with Canada and Mexico. Also it seems that a group in Congress is starting to push back against the President’s executive order, but no one really seems to know why. Or even who’s behind it.

Canada proves to be full of unexpected surprises, but when events start heating up in Washington D.C., Sean is forced to switch gears and reassess his priorities. Things are not always what they seem, of course, and things that didn’t make sense before start to take on an ominous meaning as Sean begins to learn about the real enemy that he is facing.

And he’ll be facing them much sooner than anyone suspected.

The Spark (Time of Heroes #1) – David Drake

In the time of the Ancients the universe was united—but that was so far in the past that not even memory remains, only the broken artifacts that a few Makers can reshape into their original uses. What survives is shattered into enclaves—some tiny, some ruined, some wild.

Into the gaps between settlements, and onto the Road that connects all human reality and the reality that is not human and may never have been human, have crept monsters. Some creatures are men, twisted into inhuman evil; some of them are alien to Mankind—and there are things which are hostile to all life, things which will raven and kill until they are stopped.

A Leader has arisen, welding the scattered human settlements together in peace and safety and smashing the enemies of order with an iron fist. In his capital, Dun Add, the Leader provides law and justice. In the universe beyond, his Champions advance—and enforce—the return of civilization.

Pal, a youth from the sticks, has come to Dun Add to become a Champion. Pal is a bit of a Maker, and in his rural home he’s been able to think of himself as a warrior because he can wield the weapons of the Ancient civilization. Pal has no idea of what he’s really getting into in Dun Add. On the other hand, the Leader and Dun Add have no real idea of what might be inside this hayseed with high hopes.

Web of Eyes (Buried Goddess Saga #1) – Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle 

The kingdom’s only hope against evil is a rotten thief.

Self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Thief”, Whitney Fierstown, has yet to find a trinket or treasure he couldn’t steal. He nearly pulls off the heist of the century by snatching the Glass Crown off the dying king’s head until rotten luck throws him into the path of Torsten Unger, a steadfast knight determined to save his vulnerable kingdom.

Torsten offers this ultimatum: rot and die in a dank cell or join him on a dangerous expedition and put his skills to good use. The Queen’s treasonous brother has cursed the Crown Prince by taking a piece of his soul and hiding it in the haunted Webbed Woods. Only a master thief can steal it back.

Rebellion building in the south. Madness seated upon the throne. Famine and death spreading throughout the land. The kingdom is in peril.

If this unlikely pair is to thwart their devious target, save the prince, and survive the horrifying monster lurking in the darkness, they must first put aside their differences…or die trying.

New Release Roundup, 24 November 2018: Fantasy and Adventure published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames