I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to read one of Octavia E. Butler’s novels, but I’m glad I finally chose this one to start with. The woman was an icon of science-fiction, winning four Nebula Awards, two Hugo awards, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame posthumously, so I
My extensive reading into apocalyptic fiction (three massive short story collections edited by John Joseph Adams and one novel – Station Eleven – all read over the course of fifteen months) shows that when it comes to ways for the world to end, accidentally-engineered plagues outnumber alien invasions, but only just slightly. But what about an apocalypse that’s
You can listen to this episode on our Binary System Podcast channel at Anchor.fm! What do horrifying growls, unexplained power-outages, and two collections of indescribable figures coming together mean? Why it must be the grand opening of the new Skating Rink at the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex! And it’s adorable. There’s
I don’t wish to brag, but really, folks, the day that I don’t have a plan is the day Hel freezes over. There are a lot of stories about the Norse god Loki, his jokes, his mean-spirited pranks, his betrayals followed by begging for mercy and then secretly plotting revenge. But they’ve all been a
No one, Lucy realized. No one is in charge. Picture the worst devastation you’ve ever seen on the news: gang violence, war refugees, famine, people dying while trying to escape into another country. Now imagine that what people are fighting and dying over isn’t oil, or land, or even drugs, but water. Imagine it’s happening in the United States.
You can listen to this episode on our Binary System Podcast channel at Anchor.fm! There’s a really interesting lecture going on at Night Vale’s Museum of Forbidden Technologies (which Elizabeth and Kathryn will now refer to as “MOFT”, because we’re easy to amuse.) Unfortunately the lecturer has removed his burlap sack and disabled the white
My wedding is going to be awesome. In two short weeks, I’ll walk down the aisle with a man I don’t love, flanked by friends who aren’t speaking to me, and, afterward, I’ll celebrate by killing my stepmother. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to come… The main characters of Camille Griep’s first novel
You can listen to this episode on our Binary System Podcast channel at Anchor.fm! It’s another week and still no Night Vale, but that’s okay because we’ve got X-Files! The twins break down the first episode of the new X-Files series, with all the conspiracies, explosions, and the complete lack of anybody making out with anybody
“I, for one, have no interest in being tortured, imprisoned, or experimented on. Again.” The story begins in a school for assassins in the Himalayas, so at first it looks like this will be a tale of deprivation and physical training. But then it switches to two brothers leaving the temple for their summer vacation, looking