A speculative book club, where critics, writers, and scholars join us to talk about thorny, interesting titles. A podcast from the Ancillary Review of Books.
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/amealofthorns/
A Meal of Thorns
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Weekend crowd, in case you missed it:
Such a strange and compelling fever dream of a novella. Saving for later!
Episode 52! @danhartland.bsky.social returns for a discussion of John Brunner's cynical yet sympathetic STAND ON ZANZIBAR, what it's like to read it today, and how its failures of prescience might be the best thing about it:
I talk about Amberspire!
It's always good to talk the talk with @casella.bsky.social, even when it's about something as sticky as Stand On Zanzibar.
I *think* we came out feeling it had been worth hacking away at it. We certainly covered a lot of ground in and around what is a troublesome book.
How well? You decide ...
oh my god š
It's not entirely a surprise to me that the Critical Friends episode about established writers has attracted less discourse than the one about debut writers, but it's probably a topic I worry about more.
NEW EPISODE
We talked about every AI chatbot creating a fictional guy named Elias Thorne, "modernizing" old children's lit, and more
soundcloud.com/printrunpodc...
Join us as we read the Clarke Award shortlist! Alison and Liz judge Johnās own judging, and then they ask him questions about his judging and judge his answers. We hope you judge that this is a good episode. The word ājudgeā looks weird now.
Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/161-you-pa...
Brunnerās prescient classic about overpopulation: is it about overpopulation? Was it prescient? And, for that matter: what does it mean to be a classic? Reviewer and editor Dan Hartland joinsā¦
A week out from recording our next episode: on rereading #Tolkien ā and weād like to hear your thoughts and experiences! Email us at [email protected] or post a reply to this post if youād like. Hereās a thread from today on doing a reread if youād like a handy example.
This week we catch up on two pieces that caught our eye: one on the modernization of older childrenās literature to match contemporary culture, and another on how every LLM chatbot keeps telling stori
Episode 52! @danhartland.bsky.social returns for a discussion of John Brunner's cynical yet sympathetic STAND ON ZANZIBAR, what it's like to read it today, and how its failures of prescience might be the best thing about it:
Brunnerās prescient classic about overpopulation: is it about overpopulation? Was it prescient? And, for that matter: what does it mean to be a classic? Reviewer and editor Dan Hartland joinsā¦
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
š§ NEW PODCAST TO PUT IN YOUR EARS. š§
In this monthās Critical Friends, @kateem.bsky.social and Duncan Lawie talk about reading writers with back catalogues: how to start, how to you think about them, what to do when they publish another new book?
On oeuvres (with apologies to the French language):
Author @premeemohamed.com is on the latest episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, discussing Gene Wolfe's THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS: a tricky novel with lots to say (ambiguously) about oppression, colonization, and identity. Listen wherever you find your podcasts:
Author @premeemohamed.com is on the latest episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, discussing Gene Wolfe's THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS: a tricky novel with lots to say (ambiguously) about oppression, colonization, and identity. Listen wherever you find your podcasts:
A Meal of Thorns
And the Nebula Award for Novella goes to... š
The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia) š„³
Congratulations to ALL our novella-writers. Your work moves mountains in genre!
#61stNebulas #SFWA
Kate Macdonald and Duncan Lawie join Dan Hartland to tackle the question of the back catalog.
Science fiction readers love a mechanism, they love a bit of world-building and mystery-solving. Premee Mohamed joins us to discuss Gene Wolfeās The Fifth Head of Cerberus, a book that asks: ā¦
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
Science fiction readers love a mechanism, they love a bit of world-building and mystery-solving. Premee Mohamed joins us to discuss Gene Wolfeās The Fifth Head of Cerberus, a book that asks: ā¦
I just re-read Lord of the Rings, and at 58, I rethought my impression of the book. In previous readings, I felt like it was all about decay and decrying change, and that every day that passed took us farther from some not-mythical ideal previous way of living. But it is not so.
