SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #8
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
A particularly good crop of stories. The theme linking these is betrayal - of a lover, of one's family, of one's culture - and the part that desire, queer or not, plays in it. Read them here:
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BONUS: ANGELMAKER
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
Jake Casella Brookins of the Ancillary Review of Books and A Meal of Thorns joins us to discuss a novel by Nick Harkaway. We last encountered Harkaway carrying on his father's spy novel franchise, and this isn't that - it's more Neverwhere as directed by Guy Ritchie - but there's still a lot in there about legacies and dads.
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VOLATILE MEMORY
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
A cyberpunk novel about animal masks. This is a potently fertile symbol combo, a blend of metaphor-rich soils, so the only question is what conceptual seeds are being planted here. Look forward to a bumper crop of gender come harvest time, with a scattering of disability discourse (and the odd cracked egg.)
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TO THE RESURRECTION STATION
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
What have we here? A weird little gay novel from the late 70s, too full of energy to take itself seriously but too emotionally resonant to be dismissed, and it's an early work by one of our favorite authors? Absolute catnip.
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ONIISAMA E
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
For our 125th episode we discuss a foundational text in yuri manga in which an exclusive private girl's school is as byzantine and treacherous as the court of Versailles. Would you like to fall in love with the beautiful tortured poet or the noble revolutionary hero with a hidden hurt? They both play basketball. We're joined in our discussion by yuri experts Katherine and Amy.
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BONUS: BITING THE SUN
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
Rachel Swirsky joins us to discuss a book about a post-scarcity psychedelic utopia in which you remain a young hippie for centuries until you finally become complacent enough to be allowed the privilege of being Old. It's a book about a very specific place and time, but it's beautiful and weird enough that its poetry compels even when its satire doesn't.
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DIRECT DESCENDENT
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
We have here a bit of cozy horror set in a small town in Ontario - the reader can choose to focus on the cozy or on the horror, as they like, making it a versatile bit of kit. Unfortunately, the central romance is a bit of a clunker, and it's hard to read around that.
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WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
It's magical gang warfare in Singapore, circa 1972. All the politics, history and gender you could ask for but folded into a plot that moves at breakneck speed and never lets you lose interest. We really liked this one.
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RADCLIFFE HALL and BUT NOT TOO BOLD
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
We bring you a pair of novellas, both of which are about living in a big creepy house which is haunted by an ancient woman. They go on to have very different opinions about how cool that would be, even though the underlying metaphors are largely the same. You can read Radcliffe Hall here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/radcliffe-hall/
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BONUS: THE RAGPICKER
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
Kerstin Hall of Asunder fame joins us to discuss a book about aging and the end of the world. (It turns out aging isn't the end of the world, but the end of the world isn't the end of the world either.) There's also a lot of stuff about the internet, autism and knowing the names of plants, but more importantly it's a beautiful little book that is absolutely not afraid to get weird with it.
info_outlineJake Casella Brookins of the Ancillary Review of Books and A Meal of Thorns joins us to discuss a novel by Nick Harkaway. We last encountered Harkaway carrying on his father's spy novel franchise, and this isn't that - it's more Neverwhere as directed by Guy Ritchie - but there's still a lot in there about legacies and dads.