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Category: Books

Always Autumn
The mane of a white horse is seen from behind. Superimposed on the whole image, a large dark crack splits the a jagged vertical line.

…the History of Me

By Autumn Wright • July 5th, 2022

I was merely a college graduate dropped into a crippled market and a housing crisis, fleeing towards the suburbs of south Florida. It was not the land, but myself that felt alien.

Of Shadows

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • July 4th, 2022

Every book is a sourcebook, right?

Exploits Feature

Almost Ready to Face the Present

By Levi Rubeck • May 2nd, 2022

Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence has reminded us that we are more resilient than we often believe ourselves to be.

A sepia-toned close-up of the first stone tablet of Gilgamesh.

More Like Gilga-meh!

By Stu Horvath • April 21st, 2022

This supposed epic, this paradigm-shifting piece of literature, is just another flood myth! Do you know how many flood myths we already have lying around?

Collision Detection
A blurry photo of a clock reading quarter-to-twelve. It looks as if the viewer is the one with blurred vision.

Pressing Pause

By Ben Sailer • March 2nd, 2022

Ben gets his year-end wrap-ups from various entertainment services and has an unexpected epiphany.

Casting Deep Meteo
A fiery meteor cascades through an inky blue sky.

An Introduction

By Levi Rubeck • February 9th, 2022

A word of explanation on the particular alchemy of interests that fascinate and beguile our newest magazine columnist.

Past Presence
Tiny multicolored squares are arranged in larger blocks on a black background. Their orientation suggests a top-down view of a warehouse setup.

Unholy Aisles

By Emily Price • January 27th, 2022

In a new column, Emily Price sets out to examine media objects’ relationships to time and loss.

Exploits Feature

The Radium Age

By Noah Springer • January 10th, 2022

Science fiction from the early 20th century is often neglected. The Radium Age series seeks to fix that.

The Broken Sword

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • January 3rd, 2022

Heads pop off like bottle caps.

Self-Insert
Four people in casual clothing stand in a hallway, two of them have guns drawn and pointed out of frame.

Ultra-Long

By Amanda Hudgins • December 31st, 2021

Long fanworks are interesting both for their clear amount of dedication to the craft and how much of an outlier they actually are.

Best of 2021
Dark wooden bookshelves filled with leather-bound volumes.

The Best Books of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 27th, 2021

Pick up one of these books and disappear into a different world, maybe one not populated by new COVID variants.

A set of five pictures showing the covers for Winter's Orbit, Silent Reading, Love or Hate, Lost in Never Woods and Nothing but Blackened Teeth

I read over 100 books in 2021 and here are the 30 best

By Amanda Hudgins • December 22nd, 2021

What I’m going to do here is talk about the best books I read in 2021.

Self-Insert

Soulmate Goose of Enforcement

By Amanda Hudgins • December 1st, 2021

Geese exist to cause trouble. And honk. Or perhaps, help someone find the love of their life.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A tiny figure in a flowing cloak stands atop an enormous sand dune, the sun setting directly behind them.

What Lies Beneath The Sand

By Phillip Russell • November 30th, 2021

How deep into Dune is Hollywood willing to dig?

Feature Excerpt

Roleplaying Freedom: Joel Rosenberg and White Fantasies of Oppression

By Noah Berlatsky • November 23rd, 2021

Rosenberg’s depiction of liberation is less about those liberated and more about the moral awakening of the white liberator.

Rookie of the Year
A sun, superimposed with a crosshair, sets behind a craggy mountain.

The Summers Wind

By Matt Marrone • November 8th, 2021

Sometimes nostalgia is a gut-punch from the past. Sometimes it’s a nice breeze. More often than not? It’s both.

On a wooden surface sits a copy of Eric LaRocca's book Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and a Starbucks drink, viewed from above.

100 books in a year

By Amanda Hudgins • October 22nd, 2021

There are a few things no one actually wants to hear about: your dreams, your diet, and how many books you’ve read this year.

A close up of the cover art from Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful featuring a young Vietnamese woman with a stylish 20's bob looking down.

more genre fiction by people who aren’t cis white dudes

By Amanda Hudgins • October 15th, 2021

it seems very odd that we associate science fiction with near identical looking white guys when the first science fiction novel was written by a goth teenage girl who lost her virginity on her mothers’ grave.

Exploits Feature

“The Call of Cthulhu”

By Orrin Grey • October 1st, 2021

There are a million ways to read “The Call of Cthulhu,” but this one sure is the prettiest.

World Tour
A portrait of the poet Danez Smith.

Homie

By Oluwatayo Adewole • September 24th, 2021

It’s been a hell of a ride.

Self-Insert

Colonel Sebastian Moran

By Amanda Hudgins • August 5th, 2021

The man who wasn’t there

A Godzilla figure standing among some books.

The Seduction of Solitude

By Harry Mackin • July 14th, 2021

Harry Mackin discusses the long lost last year

Self-Insert
A photograph of sliced lemons and limes.

Lemon and Lime

By Amanda Hudgins • July 6th, 2021

A journey to the citrus grove scale of fanfic tags.

Stu Wrote a Book

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • July 5th, 2021

For a while now, Stu’s been writing a book on RPGs. That changed last Monday, cuz he finished it. Hooray!

Exploits Feature

Substack Dracula

By Noah Springer • June 30th, 2021

The horror of Dracula, right in your inbox.

A detail shot from Xiran Jay Zhao's book Iron Widow showing a black armor clad woman with her hair in an elaborate updo posing in front of images of flames

#AsianReadathon 2021

By Amanda Hudgins • May 31st, 2021

This year, I decided to once again participate in #AsianReadathon, an event run by YouTuber withCindy focused on getting participants to read books written by Asian authors.

Always Autumn
A ruined highway surrounded by rubble.

Post-Post-Apocalyptic: Come Along with Me (Part 2)

By Autumn Wright • May 4th, 2021

The concluding part two of Autumn’s exploration of the post-post-apocalypse.

Two covers from two different kpop novels: XOXO by Axie Oh, showing a young Asian woman held in the arms of a young Asian man on a city street, and the Comeback by Lyn Ashwood and Rachel Rose, which shows a bunch of boys from the boys from the back wearing casual clothing.

about 3000 words on K-pop novels

By Amanda Hudgins • April 14th, 2021

Despite these books having so little to do with each other – they vary wildly in terms of audience, genre, and quality – they have so much in common.

Antiracist Cosmic Horror

By Noah Berlatsky • April 13th, 2021

A companion to Noah Berlatsky’s March feature story!

Self-Insert
A word cloud of tags to describe Sheriff Stilinski.

Sheriff Stilinski’s Name is John

By Amanda Hudgins • March 25th, 2021

Stiles Stilinski’s name is definitely, unambiguously John. OK?

Always Autumn
A drawing of the rapture.

Post-Post-Apocalyptic: Come Along with Me

By Autumn Wright • March 23rd, 2021

What comes after what comes after the world ends?

Feature Excerpt
A poster of two people guarding against Morlocks.

Eugenics from Morlock to Shoggoth: The Origins of Cosmic Racism

By Noah Berlatsky • March 17th, 2021

What horror lies in the heart of men?

In a field of bifurcated blue is the cover for Jim Davidson's book The Next Everest, which has a picture of the mountain itself.

2600 words on the next everest

By Amanda Hudgins • March 15th, 2021

When Davidson brings up the idea of returning to the mountain to his wife he writes: “how unlike other husbands, I didn’t spend money on boats, motorcycles or fancy cars” as though there is anything more midlife crisis than spending over $50,000 on the chance to die on a very tall mountain.

Rookie of the Year
A black and white photo of the Chrysler Building at night.

Silence is Golden

By Matt Marrone • March 9th, 2021

Ten bucks if you can solve the mystery. Or don’t.

A detail from the cover art for The Valley and the Flood: A womans face in profile, the sun beaming down on it. in her blue hair is the remains of a town.

The Valley and the Flood Review

By Amanda Hudgins • March 8th, 2021

The novel The Valley and the Flood is Welcome to Nightvale meets Kentucky Route Zero meets Big Fish.

Self-Insert
A painting where a woman is attempting to escape the charm of a man.

Regency Era AU

By Amanda Hudgins • March 3rd, 2021

At somepoint, it is always Omegaverse, isn’t it?

Exploits Feature

What’s the Message of “The Ugly Duckling” Anyways?

By Raven Wu • February 28th, 2021

“It matters little to be born in a duck-yard when one comes from a swan’s egg!”

Appendix N: Peter Bebergal Interview

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • February 22nd, 2021

This week, we chat with Peter Bebergal, editor of the new anthology exploring classic Dungeons & Dragons-influencing fantasy fiction: Appendix N!

Two star filled silhouettes with text between that reads "one match light up an empire"

Winter’s Orbit, Fireheart Tiger, and the Empire

By Amanda Hudgins • February 5th, 2021

I started reading Aliette de Bodard’s Fireheart Tiger around the same time as I started finishing Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit and found overlap in both the temporal and literal sense.

Exploits Feature

RECOURSE: The Anthropocene Reviewed and Turtles All the Way Down

By Autumn Wright • January 31st, 2021

Like Green’s novels, mine is not a love story.

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