…other than that? Frost, Azazel and Magneto versus Banshee and Havoc? No contest). They also have the coolest suits: the yellow tight-fiting body suits just look dumb compared to Magneto’s cape and helmet… Other than that… Well, what can I say? It was a deeply sexist movie–not exactly surprising, but my (female) neighbour and I watched in growing horror the series of Emma Frost’s flimsier and flimsier costume. And every single woman in the movie en…

…ed houses of Xuyan gentlemen-scholars contrast with the grime of Inca clan-compounds. Transportation is done by aircars and maglev trains; and technologies such as network sockets, communicators and weapons are routinely implanted into human bodies. In this bewilderingly foreign world, PI Jonathan Brooks is desperately looking for a way to fit in. His latest gamble was to rent a flat in one of the posher Xuyan areas of town–but it backfired with t…

…ok at Japanese actions during the invasion of China in WWII, and asks hard questions about what history is, and whether it belongs to the victims or the historians. You can read an excerpt here (I’m not a big fan of the pseudo science that opens the story; in fact, I almost skipped to the next one when reading the ARC; but trust me, the story gets infinitely better after that, and hits really hard). Pretty much worth the price of the antho on its…

…p for WFC, which includes several recordings of panels as well as reports. Really annoyed I missed it this year, especially as it didn’t conflict with Utopiales (which I end up missing for another reason entirely, mind you). Ah well, maybe next year. Toronto sounds nice. -Several people, including Kate Elliott, Juliet McKenna, Sherwood Smith, report on the WFC “The Glass Ceiling” panel about women vs men in the field. Nothing very new, sadly, but…

…on the following crits were done on a full stomach. They involved people becoming one with nature and giant mechanical quetzal birds, and the crits were good and thoughtful. By common agreement, the collaboration was abandonned, having diverged too far on all sides to still make sense and remain a short story. It was replaced by a roundtable of craft questions, followed by a discussion of best markets, involving much scribbling and ordering. Then…

…ion for moving my entire website to WordPress: https://www.aliettedebodard.com. I’m a php and WordPress novice, so not everything might be lined up yet. I’ve worked out the livejournal crossposting, at least… What do you think? Feedback very much welcome, though I can’t promise I’ll be capable of taking everything into account, since all I did was tweaking the colour scheme of an existing theme… PS: incidentally, does anyone know how to create a n…

…dge of Impossibility, holding each other’s hands, and went into the temple complex. The girl’s hand reached towards a small statue of a demon, touched it — setting off a coloured lightstrobe which illuminated the statue from within. Normally, Chen should have snatched the statue away, and pointed out to her, in a firm voice, that you didn’t touch the wares unless you paid. But the girl was so young: skeletally thin, her skin taut over high cheekbo…

…r new assistant who kill monsters in a world where the Navajo monsters are real and the First Nations reservations have become beacons of civilisation. Sergey and Marina Dyachenko’s Vita Nostra: so I originally read a self-published version of this, and it was already pretty awesome. I’m so glad that this book has got a large editor behind it and the cover and buzz it deserves. It’s dark Harry Potter on steroids, with bonus metaphysics, and it nev…

…ested. If you want to read any of the stories below that are not available online, feel free to contact me, and I’ll be glad to provide a copy (whether you’re a SFWA member or not). Novelettes “On Horizon’s Shores”, Intergalactic Medicine Show, issue 14, September 2009 (SF) “Healing Hands”, Fantastical Visions IV, July 2009 (Pseudo-Greek Fantasy) “Beneath the Mask”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 8, January 2009 (Aztec fantasy/mystery) “Butterfly,…

…“Father’s Flesh, Mother’s Blood”, Dark Futures, September 2010 –“Melanie”, Realms of Fantasy, February 2010 –“Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 45, June 2010 -“The Shipmaker”, Interzone, issue 231, September 2010 Novelettes: “Eye of the Destroyer”, Blood and Devotion, Spring 2010 “Fleeing Tezcatlipoca”, Space and Time, issue 111, Spring 2010 “Silenced Songs”, Music for Another World, August 2010 “The Church of…