Hello, Rangers! In today’s exploration of Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, Trish Matson, Kate Sherrod, Alex Acks, Stina Leicht, and Paul Weimer take a stab at A Civil Campaign. Together, they talk about the novel’s exploration of gender roles, the wild world of regency romances, how the book feels like an endpoint for certain narrative threads, and butterbugs!

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss Winterfair Gift!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* A Civil Campaign

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* Winterfair Gifts

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page, and if you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Rock Thing” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! We’re back with everyone’s favorite Space Nancy Drew in Komarr! This time Stina, Paul, and Trish sit around the campfire to talk about women’s agency, budding relationships, whether or not Miles is “dad” material, how good intentions can go horribly, horribly wrong, the politics of isolationism, and more! Stina gets personal and, as is common when discussing Bujold, the team has lots of praise for her ability to write strong characters.

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss A Civil Campaign!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Komarr

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* A Civil Campaign

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page, and if you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Rock Thing” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Rangers Trish, Brandon, and Daniel are back after their long break to tackle an anthology that is near and dear to our hearts. To be fair, our very own Julia Rios is part of it. Plus, we’re big fans of John Picacio and his MexicanX Initiative, and some of the initiative’s participants contributed stories to said anthology.

That’s right! We’re talking about A Larger Reality: Speculative Fiction from the Bicultural Margins / Una realidad más amplia: Historias desde la periferia bicultural edited by Libia Brenda! The Rangers dig their heels into the stories to examine their styles and themes. They also discuss the thematic and tonal pairing of the stories and how they worked together to create the wonderful, FREE anthology from the MexicanX Initiative!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* A Larger Reality: Speculative Fiction from the Bicultural Margins / Una realidad más amplia: Historias desde la periferia bicultural edited by Libia Brenda

* The MexicanX Initiative

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Rock Thing” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! We’re back with everyone’s favorite Space Nancy Drew in Memory! Did you miss us? This time Paul, Trish, Kate, and Alex are joined by Trish’s lovely twin, Sarah Elkins! If you’ve been reading along, Miles Vorkosigan has been through quite a few ups and downs over the series, but things finally catch up to him and, after being caught in a big lie, Miles must come to terms with who he wants to be, Lord Vorkosigan or Admiral Naismith. The team discuss Bujold’s masterful differentiation between plot and story and how Memory acts as both a valediction and a bridge between the past and the future of the Vorkosiverse.

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss Komarr!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show!

Show Notes:

* Memory

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* Komarr

* Sarah Elkins on Twitter

 

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Rock Thing” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Rangers Trish, Brandon, and Daniel are back this month to discuss the English translation of the Brazilian Anthology, Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro and translated by Fábio Fernandes. The anthology includes Brazilian and Portuguese stories by Carlos Orsi, Telmo Marçal, Romeu Martins, Antonio Luiz M. Costa, Gabriel Cantareira, Daniel I. Dutra, André S. Silva, Roberta Spindler, and Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro.

The team discusses the anthology’s exploration of the political nuances of sustainable futures, the inevitability of political corruption, and the relationship between power and energy. The episode includes both a broad overview and specifics about each of the stories in the Anthology, so tune in and learn more about Brazilian concepts of a sustainable world!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro and translated by Fábio Fernandes

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! This month, we’re diving back into the Vorkosiverse with Mirror Dance! Our team of Rangers, Paul, Trish, and Kate, dig into one of the most life-altering books of the series:  a book which contains a major death, even more conversations on the ethics of cloning, some truly traumatic scenes, and much, much more.

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss Memory, which is Alex’s favorite book in the series (they’ll no doubt be making an appearance).

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show!

Show Notes:

* Mirror Dance

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* Memory

Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! Time to get back into the saddle after too long a wait to highlight the wonderful short story finalists from the 2018 Nommo Awards! The Nommo Awards are hosted by the African Speculative Fiction Society and “recognise works of speculative fiction by Africans.” They mean “mean science fiction, fantasy, stories of magic and traditional belief, alternative histories, horror and strange stuff that might not fit in anywhere else.” Trish, Brandon, and Elizabeth sit down to discuss each of the short story finalists. Be sure to go read the stories, and then check out this discussion to get the interesting perspectives of our international team of short story fans! (We also highly encourage you to check out the long list of short story nominees for The Nommos).

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* The Nommo Awards – Short Story Finalists

* “On the Other Side of the Sea,” Nerine Dorman

* “A Door Ajar, ” Sibongile Fisher

* “Read Before Use,” Chinelo Onwualu

* “Snake Story,” Henrietta Rose-Innes

* “The Regression Test,” Wole Talabi

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! It’s once again time to explore the Vorkosiverse with our intrepid Rangers. Paul, Alex, Stina, and Trish (safe from Hurricane Florence in the past), dig into what makes Brothers in Arms such a great addition to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Adventures of Miles Vorkosigan. It basically boils down to the fact that Bujold is willing to make big changes in order to propel her main character’s life forward and sideways and sometimes a bit upside-down. The team discusses new characters (hello, evil clone!) and old, a little bit about Earth as a construct within the Vorkosiverse, how Bujold lets things stick, why Miles is still terrible with women, and a lot more!

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss Mirror Dance! It’s possible there are some minor spoilers for this book in this episode as well, because the two are very closely linked.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show!

Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

Show Notes:

* Brothers in Arms

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* Mirror Dance

Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! We’re back to dig into the uhhh… I would say 6th book, but this is where things get a little complicated. We skipped Ethan of Athos, because the collective decision by the veterans is that it should be burned in the depths of hell, and went straight to Borders of Infinity, which includes the novellas Borders of Infinity, Labyrinth, and The Mountains of Mourning. In this novel, McMaster Bujold included a framing story in order to tie the trio of short stories together. Paul, Trish, Kate, and Stina (straight off a drop-ship) discuss the stories and why they’re an important addition to the Vorkosiverse, including rich world-building, excellent secondary characters, and some important character building motivations for Miles Vorkosigan himself. Have a listen!

Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll be discussing Brothers in Arms, a favorite of the vetarans! Will the newbies agree?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show!

Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

Show Notes:

* Borders of Infinity

* Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this)

* Brothers in Arms

Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello again, Rangers! We’re so excited about this new subcast of Reading Rangers! One of our most requested subjects from our annual listener survey was discussions of short fiction, and so we’ve decided to deliver with Reading Rangers: Shorts! Woohoo! On a bi-monthly basis, a rotating cast of team members will sit down and discuss language, themes, structure, and more about whatever short stories they feel like talking about, including award finalists, anthologies, magazine issues, and classic works.

In this first episode, Trish, Elizabeth, and Brandon dive right into the 2017 Nebula Finalists for Best Short Story! Stories of identity, marginalization, virtual reality, AI, robots, and wind-up dolls make up this year’s list of finalists, so strap on your hats, grab your binoculars, and lets range through some speculative fiction, shall we?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* 2017 Nebula Finalists

*

“The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard)” by Matthew Kressel is text only at Tor.com

*

“Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad is text only at Uncanny Magazine

*

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” by Rebecca Roanhorse is text only at Apex Magazine

*

“Utopia, LOL?” by Jamie Wahls is available as text and podcast at Strange Horizons

*

“Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand” by Fran Wilde is available in text and podcast at Uncanny Magazine

*

“Carnival Nine” by Caroline Yoachim is available in text and podcast at Beneath Ceaseless Skies

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.