Wizards Vs. Lesbians

This episode is about the Renunciates trilogy, but it is more generally about Marion Zimmer Bradley. We're talking about her because she and her ghostwriters pioneered the wizards vs lesbians genre, and also because it is important to remember that the old SF community harbored, protected and enabled predatory monsters when we consider the ways the community has changed.

A milestone for Wizards vs Lesbians - our first advanced review copy! That put us in a good mood but rest assured this one is great on its own merits. Think Wodehouse, Nancy Mitford, Utena, but with wizards, lesbians, communists, and sinister White Russians.

Arthurian wizards vs lesbians! And it's by Nicola Griffith, one of the all-time greats. Find out why Percival's spear was so hard, and what she did with it.

A pair of novellas, both of which have the word Tiger in their title, even though only one of them has real tigers in it. We had some audio issues with this one, but it does feature us discovering the work of Nghi Vo, who has since become one of our favorite authors.

The Sandman may not be Wizards vs Lesbians but it is certainly Wizards vs Women Generally, and we had a whale of a time revisiting what to us is a formative childhood text. Featuring special guest Kiana, for whom it is decidedly not - check out her art at junkworldusa.tumblr.com.

In this book a gaggle of formerly gifted children drive off to look for America, only to find that this is not actually the best of all possible worlds.

A whole bunch of wizards vs lesbians alumni were nominated for best novel this year, so we talk about it! Featuring Leora Spitzer, who has read more of the nominated works than either of us have.

A terrifying, hallucinatory parable about the breakdown of communism on an alien world, featuring settler colonialism, struggle sessions and lots and lots of goo. High SF in the tradition of Dick and Lem, and one for fans of Annihilation.

A really good YA novel about found family, bad parents, small town schools and the power of a good Discord server to change lives. The selling point - that the server mod is an awakened AI - is the least interesting part of the whole thing, but hey, every book needs a hook.

A heist thriller set in fantasy Europe. The best we can say for this one is that it's like Foundryside - very like Foundryside - but much shorter.