I just read Rocannon's World by #UrsulaKLeGuin

It was a quick read and I enjoyed it. It was her first published novel. It's elves and dwarves and men by another name. Heroic fantasy set into a small corner of a much larger science fiction universe.

Thoughts on @margaret.bsky.social The Sapling Cage.

SPOILERS

Magic in fiction is a metaphor for power. Witchcraft in particular has subversive connotations as a symbol of feminine power outside of traditional structures. Their magic is a free entity that ebbs and flows and cycles with the seasons.

I just finished reading @margaret.bsky.social's The Sapling Cage. I was hooked from the very start!

It's vibrant, thought provoking, and I'll be spoiling it in another post with all my various thoughts about it.

Unfun fact that I just learned: Tribal governments in the US largely do not have jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-tribal members within their reservations and are instead reliant on the federal gov. This creates a massive legal loophole that leaves their communities more vulnerable.

I don't find writing advice useful past a certain point. What I do like are authors' thoughts about writing and storytelling itself, the rare essays and blog posts that have really worth listening to beyond the usual lists of advice that you can find everywhere.

“Once you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic, because that means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice, and a third, a fourth, and then what happens?”

A feature film is worth at least a billion words.

Currently reading The City We Became by @nkjemisin.bsky.social

Only a quarter of the way through, but I love the imagery of how these avatars of the city can bend reality in ways according to the history of the city.

What is there in new's litterature?