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Jun 21, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Jenny Hamilton |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
For your pleasure and consideration, I have brought you a review that is also a drinking game. We will be taking a drink every time we spot a reference to a play or musical; we will be taking two drinks if we spot a reference specifically to The Phantom of the Opera (1986); and we will be finishing our glass if we are sufficiently off-book on Into the Woods (1987) that we can finish a lyric quoted in the book at a crucial moment. That last bit will be the final exam of this book review.
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Jun 19, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Aishwarya Subramanian |Dan Hartland |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan discuss what happens when books make you work. How does a reader know whether to persevere with a book when at first they're not sure of it? How can we decide if a book really isn't working on its own terms—or whether we're missing something and need to pay closer attention? And how can a critical reader check their own expectations to assess a text fairly?
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Jun 19, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Shannan Mann |Simo Srinivas |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Content warning:This page contains: Death/dying Murder Pregnancy Violence/combatWho conjured dreams for the devil when he fell in hell? He slept well because he knew there is no hell in hell. I do not know how I am cold around your burningviolin—a song is but fire for those who dwell in hell. You are glowing like an angel lit by a red-light district. Beg, borrow, bribe, or steal—prayers do not sell in hell. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
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Jun 19, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Leah Bobet |Simo Srinivas |Shannan Mann |Aishwarya Subramanian
Content warning:This page contains: Ableism Disregard for personal autonomy Violence/combati also want to challenge police forcesto keep me contained: jails handcuffschains ropes straitjackets. magicians knewspectacle was struggle reframed: the chanceof a man drowned in a milk can, like a kitten,spilled past the footlights. the papers called himself-assured, imperious: short sharp bowlegged man,Rabbi’s son, thrice renamed, a boy trapeze flyer,cross-country runner, with lockpicks hid in his hand.
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Jun 19, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Simo Srinivas |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Cassiopeia Fung’s sitting services are in demand. Who conjured dreams for the devil when he fell in hell? He slept well because he knew there is no hell in hell. i also want to challenge police forces / to keep me contained: What are the tools that we apply to figure out why the glaciers are melting in this novel? Wednesday: Apollo Weeps by Xian Mao Friday: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
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Jun 17, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Simo Srinivas |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Who conjured dreams for the devil when he fell in hell? He slept well because he knew there is no hell in hell. i also want to challenge police forces / to keep me contained:
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Jun 16, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian |Dan Hartland
Victor LaValle has done it again, and by “it” I mean “turned H.P. Lovecraft upside-down so that the result is the right way up.” LaValle’s latest novel, Lone Women, is a Black feminist, gender-swapped version of “The Dunwich Horror”—and also so much more. The epigraph is a phrase from Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977)—“Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down”—and this sets the tone for the whole plotline, in both a metaphorical and a literal sense.
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Jun 12, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Mary Lee |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Content warning:This page contains: Spiders/insectsI, Universe, regret much—the demise of the dodo,the demotion of Pluto,your inability to graspwave-particle duality. I, Universe, admitmosquitos were a mistake,black holes lack circumspection,that the incompleteness theoremis rather discouraging. I, Universe, acknowledgeyour complaints and lamentations,and offer in my defensethe mitigating factthat I gave you cat.
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Jun 11, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | Paul Kincaid |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Whatever genre we encounter—by which I am not speaking of SF or crime, but more broadly of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama—the author needs to engage with us, the readers, on multiple levels. We need to connect with the written word through our emotions, our senses, our imaginations, and our intellect. Yet, and here’s the rub, we employ different languages for each of those needs.
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Jun 11, 2023 | 
strangehorizons.com | G.E. Woods |Shannan Mann |Leah Bobet |Aishwarya Subramanian
Content warning:This page contains: Death/dying║●1 half-rotted black boot. Initial inferred usage: fashion. Final inferred usage: survival. (Note: the phrase“The crumbling signs of material wealthfrom an ineffectual speciesbent on effortless luxury. But we ended beautiful. We ended beautiful”added into recordpost-collection by unknown entity)║●●1 gas mask,attached to glass dome painted black,tiny fissuresaround points of contact. Conclusion: fatal.
