Wizards Vs. Lesbians

A queer sf review podcast about the emerging wizards vs. lesbians microgenre.

THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN 03/02/2025

THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN This book is about whether murdering antisemites is a good idea or not, morally and strategically, and as such it's about Israel without ever discussing Israel, which as a rhetorical gambit has its advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that it's therefore a New York Novel and it comes with all the problems that implies. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/35499140

BONUS: 4TH ANNUAL WIZZLY AWARDS 02/23/2025

BONUS: 4TH ANNUAL WIZZLY AWARDS We persevere through technical issues to bring you this, our annual extravaganza of self-indulgence. Is it possible four years in that we're actually worse at this than when we started? /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/35396185

A DARK AND DROWNING TIDE 02/09/2025

A DARK AND DROWNING TIDE In fantasy Germany a fantasy Jewess and her fantasy Aryan forest princess must go up the river to save the cat, or something. Not as much blood as you'd expect in this one but there's plenty of soil. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/35210390

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE 01/26/2025

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE We're dipping our toes into Dark Academia here. This book asks the question: what if your abusive academic advisor was literally a vampire? And the answer is it would be kinda cool. A classic example of horror elements blunting the actual horror, down to a 1960s setting that elides all the worst parts of the era. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34824965

THE LYREMOUTH CHRONICLES (BOOKS 1 & 2) 01/12/2025

THE LYREMOUTH CHRONICLES (BOOKS 1 & 2) This one takes a while to get going - at first it seems like a genderswapped swords & sorcery novel, but it turns out that's only one part of a much larger world. Recommended for Steerswoman fans. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34824885

THE MINISTRY OF TIME with Vajra Chandrasekera 01/05/2025

THE MINISTRY OF TIME with Vajra Chandrasekera A book about empire, memory, historical trauma and the consequences of dating your blorbo. Huge thanks to Vajra for suggesting this one and for coming on to talk about it! /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34724655

BONUS: THE SUMMER PRINCE 12/29/2024

BONUS: THE SUMMER PRINCE Our esteemed pal P.H. Lee joins us for a rundown of this charming bit of YA. It's Brazilian! It's Really Brazilian! /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34646845

THE SCORPION RULES 12/22/2024

THE SCORPION RULES We return to the schools that resemble the prisons for a book that predates the Ninth House but has a couple of startling similarities, including a proto-John Gaius Gen-X godhead. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34571280

BONUS: Q & A 4 (100 EPISODES!) 12/15/2024

BONUS: Q & A 4 (100 EPISODES!) On the occasion of our 100th mainline episode we treat ourselves by answering your questions. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34458955

KILL LA KILL 12/08/2024

KILL LA KILL In perhaps our most controversial take yet, we posit that this anime is good, actually. Your tolerance for breast collision physics will factor in whether you agree. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34335335

THE SEEP 11/24/2024

THE SEEP Helpful alien friends take over the world and make everyone immortal and kind of chill, man. It's a metaphor for something or other. Maybe AI, maybe legal weed. Maybe california in general. It doesn't amount to much. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/34127741

BONUS: SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM 11/17/2024

BONUS: SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM We have fandom historian and BL expert Naked Bee on to discuss this extremely charming bit of gay metafiction. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33961122

AMMONITE 11/10/2024

AMMONITE We return to Nicola Griffith to get a more measured take on the lesbian space colony genre, written if not in direct response to Daughters of a Coral Dawn then to books like it. (We know this because of a helpful author's note.) /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33867667

BONUS: PALE FIRE 11/03/2024

BONUS: PALE FIRE We get to do a literary classic - significantly, an extremely funny literary classic - in the company of the excellent Kat Weaver. A joy. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33763217

DAUGHTERS OF A CORAL DAWN 10/27/2024

DAUGHTERS OF A CORAL DAWN Vintage lesbian separatist science fiction from 1984. It's almost charming until the implications set in - since women can't commit sexual assault and men can't not, pederasty for the one and extermination for the other only makes sense. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33630872

DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS 10/13/2024

DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS A lazy, racist, sexist, ahistorical wankfest of a novel. At least we got a podcast out of it. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33437802

DAUGHTER OF MYSTERY 09/29/2024

DAUGHTER OF MYSTERY Come with us to fantasy Liechtenstein for some feel-good classic yuri. The society is high, the stakes are low and the names are terrible. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33251912

BONUS: THE SCHOLOMANCE TRILOGY 09/22/2024

BONUS: THE SCHOLOMANCE TRILOGY After Ann Leckie brought us Foreigner we decided to invite some other authors whose work we've enjoyed to bring us books to talk about. Jenna Moran has elected to bring us the Scholomance, which is highly entertaining, and silly, and incidentally a highly detailed study on the phenomenon of the tsundere. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33159347

SPIRITS ABROAD (JUST THE LESBIAN PARTS) 09/15/2024

SPIRITS ABROAD (JUST THE LESBIAN PARTS) You already know we love Zen Cho, so we decided to do an easy breezy runthrough of the gayer stories in her ever-expanding short story collection. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/33060217

SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #5 09/01/2024

SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #5 It's another short story roundup! Featuring: Miss Bulletproof Comes Out of Retirement: (or ) Selkie Stories are for Losers: Nuca: /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32853587

THOSE BEYOND THE WALL 08/18/2024

THOSE BEYOND THE WALL The Space Between Worlds got itself a darker, angrier sequel. It has a really strong character study at its heart, but the further afield you go from that anchor point the fuzzier it gets. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32630497

BONUS: DISCO ELYSIUM 08/11/2024

BONUS: DISCO ELYSIUM This one got away from us - with returning champion Leora in tow we spend a good two hours mostly gushing. You should play this game if you haven't. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32532387

SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN 08/04/2024

SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN You are a horrible man-eating goo monster. You grew up alone, with nobody there to teach you right from wrong. But somewhere deep in your ooze there slumbers an entire tumblr-approved lexicon of therapy speak, consent theory and minute identity parsing which allows you to become the ethical human chaser. This is thankfully funny on purpose - at least initially. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32431282

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER 07/21/2024

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER It's witches versus gay boys this time around! It's a richly-textured epic journey through fantasy Southeast Asia and there's a whole metatextual second-person out of time narrative framework and it all adds up to less than the sum of its parts. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32233192

CARMILLA (CARMEN'S VERSION) 07/07/2024

CARMILLA (CARMEN'S VERSION) A 150-year-old sexy vampire story, re-released and given a kinda-sorta makeover by Carmen Maria Machado. None of it feels particularly necessary, but the illustrations are cool! /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/32037582

THE BOOK OF LOVE 06/23/2024

THE BOOK OF LOVE A debut novel from a short fiction specialist. How'd it go? The review writes itself, unfortunately. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/31855327

ALL GOOD CHILDREN 06/09/2024

ALL GOOD CHILDREN So, the horrible vulture monsters have emerged from hiding deep within the earth, and they have read Nietszche, but good news: the US Government has figured out the most efficient way to appease them! It involves summer camp. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/31669122

NIGHT IN THE WOODS 05/26/2024

NIGHT IN THE WOODS Kiana joins us to discuss one of Isaac's favorite games. We talk about furries, murder and a decidedly pre-Trump vision of rural Pennsylvania. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/31469022

CAMP DAMASCUS 05/12/2024

CAMP DAMASCUS It's Chuck Tingle's debut novel! It's not great! /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/31251947

BONUS: FOREIGNER 05/05/2024

BONUS: FOREIGNER We discuss a series which is arguably foundational to the wizards vs lesbians microgenre (despite a distinct lack of lesbianism) with special guest Ann Leckie. /episode/index/show/wizlez/id/31131443

Wizards Vs. Lesbians

TOPICS