Once upon a time two years ago, we started a podcast series tackling Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr's "The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction," a work of actually readable literary theory which attempts to find new ways at describing and understanding what even this science fiction thing IS, anyway.

The fifth beauty has everything to do with the science fictional sublime. What IS the sublime? Can it be ... playful? Or is it always grotesque? What is the DEAL with inverted expectations? CAN WE EVEN SURVIVE THIS EPISODE OH MY GOD.

Ahem. It got a little rough in there for a while. More ramshackle gallivanting to follow!

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

There's something in the Latin that you should know, something sneaky and delightful that will revolutionize your understanding of the word "invasion" and the invasions so common to science fiction and fantasy works. From classics like "War of the Worlds" and middle-aged classics like "DUne" to modern brain-teasers such as "Annihilation" and "The Expanse," we're here to unpack what, exactly, an invasion can do for you and your planet. Or, well, someone else's planet. After all, we humans aren't such shabby invaders ourselves, now, are we?

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

What are space operas, and what is their relationship to science fiction? Join us this episode for a long talk on the ins and outs, the ups and downs, and the future significance of this--what, subgenre? Mode? Cat?

CATS!

We open with a quick reading from Catherynne Valente's new breakout hit, appropriately titled "Space Opera" and featuring, appropriately, one super serious feline threat. We then talk about a number of other, less obviously named space operas, including the immortal "Hitchhiker's Guide," some Kim Stanley Robinson, "Star's End," and Ian McDonald's "Luna" series. We give a quick hat-tip to fan favorites such as the MCU (especially "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Thor: Ragnarok"), "Star Wars," and "Star Trek." We're interested in modes and media, stakes and science, and what makes a blockbuster versus a flop. It's all here, and it's all SUPER DRAMATIC!

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

Want to know what we've been reading this year? A lot. A lot of books. So many books. TOO MANY BOOKS HELP

No, just kidding. About needing help. We have indeed read many, *many* books in the first seven months of 2018, and we're here to give you the highlights of the top half of the year, as well as a bit of a preview of what's to come. After all, not every book can win an Imaginary Award ... but every good book deserves its moment. And here we are. Giving moments away. Like funnel cakes at a fair. Or perhaps kettle corn, depending on your preference.

The full list of our 2018 reads will be going up on our website in the coming weeks! (As well as lots more reviews. Kend has a brief break from grad school coming up.) So keep an eye on the Interwebs for that.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

Summer brings a lot of things, including a brief hiatus as Tony travels and Kend wraps up a summer of intensive graduate classes. While you wait for their return in the coming weeks, enjoy this episode on "beige" writing in science fiction and fantasy ... and some authors who seem to know what they're about, with nary a whiff of beige to be found.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

In this, the third and final installment of our "Enclosed Spaces in sFF" series, we tackle the city. The city on our planet, the city on other planets, the city in worlds of strange makings. Cities have long been a construct familiar to the reader of science fiction as well as the reader of fantasy, just as they have been familiar to the authors who put them to many diverse purposes.

Here, we discuss the city in such texts as "Lord of the Rings," Nnedi Okorafor's "Akata" series, in "City of Stairs," "Harry Potter," "Crossroads of Canopy," the works of China Mieville and Adrian Tchaikovsky, Kim Stanley Robinson and Omar El Akkad, NIcola Griffith and Patrick Rothfuss, Chris Beckett and Octavia Butler ... among many, many others.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

We are so excited to celebrate #TowelDay this year with a special episode dedicated to Douglas Adams ... and, more importantly, whales. Whales in space, space whales, whales with attitude. All the whales! We also make mention of dolphins and petunias, because, well, they've earned it, poor sods.

Just so we're on the same ... wavelength ... here, Kend had no idea that there were so many whales in science fiction and fantasy. Tony did, but then Tony is a magical unicorn of a human being and capable of truly exceptional things. His science fictional and fantastical whale collection is sizeable, and his observations on what they do for our favorite genre are profound.

One item of boilerplate: the audio volume on this file varies some. We've done our best to minimize the problem, but there may still be some residual issues.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

What exactly IS camp, and why does it matter to those of us who love science fiction and fantasy? What role does camp play in the queering of the genre, and why are we talking about it now? If you grew up loving "The Fifth Element" and "Doctor Who," you're already an expert on camp, and you're probably also used to defending the campy against those who equate camp with "poorly made" or "low budget" or "lowbrow." We're here to enliven that struggle, to advocate for camp and all campy things, and to uncover what exactly it is which makes it so important, now and always.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

What's the big deal about space stations? What's the big deal about any locked room mystery? What's the big deal with any science fictional thing that is also a SCIENCE FACTUAL thing? They're hospitals in space. They're prisons in space. They're cities in space. They're ... in space. Which is pretty cool.

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!

Plenty authors of science fiction trace their literary DNA back to Mary Shelley and her masterwork, "Frankenstein." What does it mean for science fiction to trace its origins back to a woman of a certain time and place and class? What does it mean for these authors we know and love (or don’t) today to bring her back into the conversation? What does it mean to claim Mary Shelley as an influence at all? These are just some of the questions we set out to answer in this week's podcast.

You can find a list of works inspired by Frankenstein at: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/22661.Frankenstein_revisionist_novels (our thanks to the list's creator) as well as some thought-provoking essays on Shelley's legacy at https://www.themarysue.com/lita-judge-mary-shelley/ and https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/women-science-fiction-authors-mary-shelley-frankenstein-200-ursula-k-le-guin-sci-fi-writers-female-a8177556.html. Many thanks to those authors as well!

You can find our back episodes on YouTube. Our Twitter handle is @imaginary_pod, our website www.imaginaries.net, and our email [email protected]. If you would like to help support our work, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/imaginaries. And don't forget to vote on on our "What Should We Read Next?" lists on Goodreads! See our Twitter for more information on that.

Thanks for listening!