City on Fire and Days of Atonement author Walter Jon Williams has a eulogy up at his blog for Fred Saberhagen, who died a little over a week ago. Williams writes about Saberhagen’s unacknowledged influence on fantasy, science fiction and horror. And he tells a couple of nice […]
For the last nine months, I considered myself a non-gamer. Not a reformed gamer, mind you, but someone who just hasn’t had the time to dedicate to playing games or keeping up with the industry. I had been adapting to the life of a new parent; I had […]
Gamers With Jobs looks at the pendulum that’s swinging from fantasy back to science fiction: “After ten years of elves and magic, I could use a bit of a change.” And The Escapist is the new home of Shoot Club! Awesomely nerdy dialogue reproduced faithfully, and some insights […]
Fantasy novels are filled with war, and maybe that’s a default because human history is also filled with war. And violence is exciting, right? But I start to wonder: can’t we imagine a different way of telling a story? Fantasy is an imagined world after all. After reading […]
This has been the biggie: I’ve started re-reading the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Wow, talk about a trip! I had almost completely forgotten the series and its impact on me years ago. I think this was due to the excessive sequels that tarnished the creativity of the […]
After some quite excellent fantasy novels, Lois McMaster Bujold goes for (mostly) romance: “But with this one, she’s just gone the Lifetime Channel route.”
Find t-shirts, mugs, totes and more at our new Guttermart location at Teepublic!
The Cultural Gutter 