As you can tell from the sidebar, I’ve recently started publishing material on Substack that I might formerly have published here. While there isn’t too much point in publishing the same pieces in two different places, I want to make sure that visitors to this website have easy access to anything I publish elsewhere. Consequently, Read More »
Substack Posts for March Read More »
(Caution–spoilers ahead!) Superficially, Better Than Us, the science fiction series currently on Netflix, is a typical robots-could-take-over-the-world story. A lot of people have already been pushed out of jobs by bots, and the government is floating a plan to lower the retirement age to 45, with bots taking up the slack. Of course, once that happens, Read More »
Better Than Us: Dystopia with a Twist Read More »
Introduction The idea of a school for magic is far from being a new thing in literature. We all immediately think of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which are certainly the most well-known modern examples. Some of us will remember Ursula LeGuin’s Wizard of Earthsea as well. But the idea goes back much earlier. Chiron the Read More »
The Academy: New Approaches in Fantasy Literature Read More »
One of the aspects of Netflix that I like is the availability of a wide variety of international programming. Particularly in genres like fantasy, the differences in the underlying mythology in which the fantasy is rooted lead to some interesting takes on familiar themes. The idea of teenagers fighting supernatural creatures with the help of Read More »
