Oren is a grumpy old man whose physical age hasn’t quite caught up with him, at least that’s what the kids who won’t get off his lawn keep saying. He’s been into roleplaying games since he was knee-high to a d10, and into prose writing for nearly as long. He loves stories and games that push the envelope of storytelling, like the Discworld series and the RPG Primetime Adventures. He’s also a huge Star Trek fan, though his rants on the mistakes of Voyager and Enterprise might make you think otherwise.
This week we’re sipping delicious tea and listening to beautiful poetry, all while trying to prevent our homeworlds from being devoured by an ever-expanding empire. That’s right, in our final Hugo episode (for now), we’re talking about A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. It’s … read more »
Speculative fiction writers argue about a lot of things, but I think we can at least all agree that what we’re writing is fiction. It’s literally in the name – who’d try to deny that? Well, a surprising number of authors will, with a perfectly … read more »
Hello, Mythcreants! I’ve been working on a futuristic adventure project, and largely thanks to your articles on worldbuilding and social justice, it’s going surprisingly well so far. However, I’ve come across an annoying roadblock. The characters communicate with cell phones (except much more advanced, with … read more »
Today’s Hugo nominee is a spooky tale of haunted castles and grotesque monsters. Or, wait, is it a comedic romp full of genre savvy jokes and spicy double entendres? Turns out it’s both, because this episode is all about Gideon the Ninth. That means sword … read more »
In this series on worldbuilding, I’ve looked at both science fiction and high fantasy worlds. Today, we’re combining the two with a look at Frank Herbert’s Dune, a book that sits firmly in the space fantasy subgenre. Dune is a classic, a book that has … read more »
Join us through the improbable download link to the impossible podcast, because on this episode of our Hugo series, we’re talking about Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame. It’s a novel of alchemy, family ties, and gruesome murder. Sounds like fun, right? You’ll have to listen and find … read more »
Character death is a contentious issue, and there are many stories out there that killed characters when they shouldn’t have. Today, we’re narrowing our focus to stories where a character death was called for but the author chose the wrong character. Which character dies can … read more »
Pay your corporate citizenship fees and suit up for war against the evil Martian freedom fighters, because today we’re talking about the Light Brigade, our third Hugo nominee. This book is a time-travel story, but please don’t run away: we promise it’s good time travel. … read more »
A character’s motivation is one of their most important aspects, right up there with agency and likability. Motivation is why a character does what they do. It’s what drives them to take difficult and costly actions. If a motivation is too weak, character behavior will … read more »
What is a story, really? Is it just words, or is it a door to another world? In the second week of our Hugo series, we’re looking at The Ten Thousand Doors of January, a book that is very interested in those questions. We explore … read more »
