Wizards Vs Lesbians
@wizardsvslesbians.bsky.social
A podcast about books in which wizards fight lesbians.
Our home is on tumblr at wizardsvslesbians.tumblr.com. Inquiries can be sent there or to our e-mail, wizardsvslesbians@gmail.com.
Our home is on tumblr at wizardsvslesbians.tumblr.com. Inquiries can be sent there or to our e-mail, wizardsvslesbians@gmail.com.
Pinned
Post by @wizardsvslesbians
Podcast Episodes
Here are all our episodes so far, in one convenient place!
Gideon the Ninth
The Unspoken Name
Ninefox Gambit
The Traitor Baru Cormo…
www.tumblr.com
This pinned post is simply a link to another pinned post. We commit this algorithmic sin joyfully and intentionally, in the hopes that we may lead you away from error and back into the arms of the only good social media website.
That rarest of things on Wizards vs Lesbians, a review of a new release! We're glad we got to this one - it's really good.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY
It's magical gang warfare in Singapore, circa 1972. All the politics, history and gender you could ask for but folded into a plot that moves at breakneck speed and never lets you lose interest. We rea...
wizlez.libsyn.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:32 PM
That rarest of things on Wizards vs Lesbians, a review of a new release! We're glad we got to this one - it's really good.
You're living in a haunted house which is ruled by a monstrous old woman and you have to solve a mystery. How you will feel about this depends on several factors, such as: what genre is this? Are there sociopolitical ramifications? How many spiders are there? Do you think spiders are hot?
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: RADCLIFFE HALL and BUT NOT TOO BOLD
We bring you a pair of novellas, both of which are about living in a big creepy house which is haunted by an ancient woman. They go on to have very different opinions about how cool that would b...
wizlez.libsyn.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
You're living in a haunted house which is ruled by a monstrous old woman and you have to solve a mystery. How you will feel about this depends on several factors, such as: what genre is this? Are there sociopolitical ramifications? How many spiders are there? Do you think spiders are hot?
This is a poetic post-apocalypse ruminative road trip novel, but it's also good, in large part because it's interested in unpicking the stoic masculinity that usually underpins that kind of story. Thanks to Kerstin Hall for bringing it to us and for the discussion - read Asunder if you haven't.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: THE RAGPICKER
Kerstin Hall of Asunder fame joins us to discuss a book about aging and the end of the world. (It turns out aging isn't the end of the world, but the end of the world isn't the end of the world either...
wizlez.libsyn.com
October 19, 2025 at 4:56 PM
This is a poetic post-apocalypse ruminative road trip novel, but it's also good, in large part because it's interested in unpicking the stoic masculinity that usually underpins that kind of story. Thanks to Kerstin Hall for bringing it to us and for the discussion - read Asunder if you haven't.
A book about the collapse of faith in institutions both secular and spiritual, and about the nasty things one finds underneath them in times of desperation. Unfortunately, the social commentary is stronger than the story itself, which starts to wander after a promising start.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: THE STARVING SAINTS
Cannibalism season continues on Wizards vs. Lesbians, as this one's a story about how all of us would probably eat some human meat the second things get difficult, and how on a metaphorical level we d...
wizlez.libsyn.com
October 12, 2025 at 4:00 PM
A book about the collapse of faith in institutions both secular and spiritual, and about the nasty things one finds underneath them in times of desperation. Unfortunately, the social commentary is stronger than the story itself, which starts to wander after a promising start.
This one is about what the girlies get up to in the Brown (legally not Brown) MFA writing program, and what happens when a cool alternative girl arrives to judge them. It involves a surprising amount of exploding animal parts.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BUNNY
A novel about being in an MFA (but not necessarily an MFA novel) with all the horror that implies. What if your creative process involved doing unethical things to dumb animals, and what if you ...
wizlez.libsyn.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:04 AM
This one is about what the girlies get up to in the Brown (legally not Brown) MFA writing program, and what happens when a cool alternative girl arrives to judge them. It involves a surprising amount of exploding animal parts.
This book shows up with a fistful of pain and a fistful of silliness and hits you with the ol' one-two. It's like anime in that respect. You can fit all the symbols and ideas you want into an anime, and they don't necessarily have to work together - in the end, it's all about the spectacle.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: METAL FROM HEAVEN
A book about messianic communism, and also about obsessive childhood love, and also about microplastics. Inspirations cited by the author include Disco Elysium and End of Evangelion. Hang onto your ha...
wizlez.libsyn.com
September 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
This book shows up with a fistful of pain and a fistful of silliness and hits you with the ol' one-two. It's like anime in that respect. You can fit all the symbols and ideas you want into an anime, and they don't necessarily have to work together - in the end, it's all about the spectacle.
Our hero Tam Lin has to orient herself in a massively complex network of privilege and power and family ties while horrible things will not stop happening to her, even for a second. It's been like this since she was six. Ready to join her?
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: AUNT TIGRESS
Life is complicated for a Chinese-Canadian lesbian college kid with PTSD who is also half tiger - complicated enough, you would think, but complication invites complication, and soon she has to ask he...
wizlez.libsyn.com
August 31, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Our hero Tam Lin has to orient herself in a massively complex network of privilege and power and family ties while horrible things will not stop happening to her, even for a second. It's been like this since she was six. Ready to join her?
If your father writes a bunch of books about fatherlessness and faithlessness, and you read them under the covers when you're ten because you love your very-much-present dad, what happens when you try to continue his work as an adult?
We're very glad @byzantienne.bsky.social brought us this puzzle.
We're very glad @byzantienne.bsky.social brought us this puzzle.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: KARLA'S CHOICE
Arkady Martine joins us to discuss a new spy novel written by Nick Harkaway and starring a bunch of beloved characters created by his father, John le Carré. In doing this, Harkaway has set out what is...
wizlez.libsyn.com
August 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
If your father writes a bunch of books about fatherlessness and faithlessness, and you read them under the covers when you're ten because you love your very-much-present dad, what happens when you try to continue his work as an adult?
We're very glad @byzantienne.bsky.social brought us this puzzle.
We're very glad @byzantienne.bsky.social brought us this puzzle.
All the stories we cover in this one are available to read online - click through for the links. Our major takeaway is that you should keep an eye on Lowry Poletti, both to read what she writes next and in general.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #7
Today we cover by Ursula Whitcher, by Lowry Poletti, and by Sarah Pinsker.
wizlez.libsyn.com
August 17, 2025 at 6:34 PM
All the stories we cover in this one are available to read online - click through for the links. Our major takeaway is that you should keep an eye on Lowry Poletti, both to read what she writes next and in general.
Last time Kat brought us Pale Fire (20th c, short, meta) - this time she brings us Middlemarch (19th c, long, Major.) Next time we're going to make her do Story of the Stone (18th c, 5 vols, CLASSIC OF CHINESE LITERATURE.) In the meantime, enjoy our discussion of what turns out to be a horror novel.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: MIDDLEMARCH
Our classic literature correspondent Kat Weaver joins us for a look at George Eliot's masterpiece about small towns and bad marriages. We find some wizards in it.
wizlez.libsyn.com
August 10, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Last time Kat brought us Pale Fire (20th c, short, meta) - this time she brings us Middlemarch (19th c, long, Major.) Next time we're going to make her do Story of the Stone (18th c, 5 vols, CLASSIC OF CHINESE LITERATURE.) In the meantime, enjoy our discussion of what turns out to be a horror novel.
This book came out four years before The Matrix and nailed the gender/power/information/sexuality/control thing so hard that the rest of the genre is still catching up. Thanks to a recent translation, we English speakers finally get to find out where all of this is going.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: THE MEMBRANES
It's very easy to get caught up in the titular metaphor, here - this brief, gauzy cyberpunk novel, written in Taiwan in 1995 and only recently available in translation, peels itself back slowly, revea...
wizlez.libsyn.com
August 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
This book came out four years before The Matrix and nailed the gender/power/information/sexuality/control thing so hard that the rest of the genre is still catching up. Thanks to a recent translation, we English speakers finally get to find out where all of this is going.
There are no wizards and no lesbians in The Commodore. It's not even the best book in this beloved series. But there is a little girl with 19th century autism in this one, and that's one of our favorite secondary subjects: monstrous children, and whether they can be cured by becoming Irish.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: THE COMMODORE (AUBREY/MATURIN #17)
Our adventure correspondent Isaac Fellman joins us once again, this time to talk about Patrick O'Brien and the age of sail through the lens of the seventeenth book in the Aubrey/Maturin series. We cho...
wizlez.libsyn.com
July 27, 2025 at 4:40 PM
There are no wizards and no lesbians in The Commodore. It's not even the best book in this beloved series. But there is a little girl with 19th century autism in this one, and that's one of our favorite secondary subjects: monstrous children, and whether they can be cured by becoming Irish.
A deconstruction of wizard school stories, a deconstruction of competence porn, a deconstruction of one particular person's understanding of herself, and a really entertaining fantasy novel to boot. Heartily recommended.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: THE INCANDESCENT
What if the Scholomance was a British boarding school, and therefore had funding, prestige and a competent professional faculty that cared about its students? And what if we told the story from the po...
wizlez.libsyn.com
July 20, 2025 at 7:38 PM
A deconstruction of wizard school stories, a deconstruction of competence porn, a deconstruction of one particular person's understanding of herself, and a really entertaining fantasy novel to boot. Heartily recommended.
Reposted by Wizards Vs Lesbians
sometimes I think about the "eternal friends" xena trading card. just gals being pals
July 16, 2025 at 12:08 AM
sometimes I think about the "eternal friends" xena trading card. just gals being pals
Naked Bee joins us to discuss the Vows and Honor books, which are about a swordswoman and a sorceress who aren't dating but are married. We ask why that is, and why the author thinks that is, and then we ask whether there was always this much rape in these kinds of stories, and the force-femme, and
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: VOWS AND HONOR
At long last we contend with Mercedes Lackey. We are deep in the ancestry of books about girls with swords; so deep that they're not even gay for each other, even though they're married.
wizlez.libsyn.com
July 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Naked Bee joins us to discuss the Vows and Honor books, which are about a swordswoman and a sorceress who aren't dating but are married. We ask why that is, and why the author thinks that is, and then we ask whether there was always this much rape in these kinds of stories, and the force-femme, and
150-odd years of built-up curses - race curses, class curses, sex curses, gay curses, curses direct from the last of the four great novels of China - may seem like a lot to surmount, but there's always the possibility that this generation will finally get it right (if they're lesbians.)
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: THE MANOR OF DREAMS
The titular manor is lavishly, extravagantly haunted - there are layers upon layers of haunting, over a century's worth, and we get to peel them back one by one. Some of the haunting is inspired by Dr...
wizlez.libsyn.com
July 7, 2025 at 1:20 AM
150-odd years of built-up curses - race curses, class curses, sex curses, gay curses, curses direct from the last of the four great novels of China - may seem like a lot to surmount, but there's always the possibility that this generation will finally get it right (if they're lesbians.)
Strange Horizons invariably serves up peak Wizards vs Lesbians short fiction. Discounting all other reasons, for this they deserve your support
July 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Strange Horizons invariably serves up peak Wizards vs Lesbians short fiction. Discounting all other reasons, for this they deserve your support
Reposted by Wizards Vs Lesbians
I love Strange Horizons - endlessly one of the most inventive and important magazines in the field. Support their next year!
🚨LAST 8 DAYS 🚨🚨 of the annual Strange Horizons fund-raiser!
Still a host of rewards up for offer (see link), and we’re very close (under $2.5K) to meeting our base goal. If you’ve been intending to support us this year, then the time is now!
Donate here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/str...
Still a host of rewards up for offer (see link), and we’re very close (under $2.5K) to meeting our base goal. If you’ve been intending to support us this year, then the time is now!
Donate here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/str...
Strange Horizons 2026
A free weekly speculative fiction magazine with a global perspective.
www.kickstarter.com
July 5, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I love Strange Horizons - endlessly one of the most inventive and important magazines in the field. Support their next year!
Reposted by Wizards Vs Lesbians
When I was thinking about starting a podcast about speculative fiction, an honest question I was wrestling with was "should I just do a Cherryh podcast?" One year in, really psyched to talk about Cherryh's whole deal with the ever-insightful Arkady Martine:
At least 10% Cyteen by weight, & processed in a facility that also processes Dragonriders of Pern: @byzantienne.bsky.social joins us for a conversation on 40,000 IN GEHENNA, historiographical SF, thorny ideas, and Cherryh's style & influence. With a quick bonus @4thstreetfantasy.bsky.social report!
A Meal of Thorns 27 – 40,000 IN GEHENNA with Arkady Martine (and a 4th Street Fantasy Report)
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Arkady MartineTitle: 40,000 in Gehenna by C.J. CherryhHost: …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
June 30, 2025 at 6:32 PM
When I was thinking about starting a podcast about speculative fiction, an honest question I was wrestling with was "should I just do a Cherryh podcast?" One year in, really psyched to talk about Cherryh's whole deal with the ever-insightful Arkady Martine:
Also, if you're interested in lesbians, historical lesbians, and lesbians in historical fiction - and if you're here, I can't imagine you aren't - do check out the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast.
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast | Heather Rose Jones
A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.
lesbianhistoricmotif.podbean.com
June 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Also, if you're interested in lesbians, historical lesbians, and lesbians in historical fiction - and if you're here, I can't imagine you aren't - do check out the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast.
We were mixed on The Valkyrie (the last book of Kate Heartfield's we covered) and so we're grateful to our guest Heather Rose Jones for bringing us this one. It's tragic and hilarious and alien and familiar by turns.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: THE CHATELAINE
Heather Rose Jones joins us to discuss a delightfully strange book - hell is real, and it's a giant monster that lives underground, and the devil's wife tricked him and took his keys, so she's in char...
wizlez.libsyn.com
June 29, 2025 at 4:46 PM
We were mixed on The Valkyrie (the last book of Kate Heartfield's we covered) and so we're grateful to our guest Heather Rose Jones for bringing us this one. It's tragic and hilarious and alien and familiar by turns.
This is one of those cases where we reluctantly conclude that the book might have been better without the supernatural elements - it's a story about life and love in a small town which leaves the sff-inclined reader thinking about the mechanics of selkie-human hybridization.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: A SWEET STING OF SALT
This is a historical novel about life in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia in the 1830s, the options available to women at the time and what happens when a man takes an unwilling bride. In ...
wizlez.libsyn.com
June 23, 2025 at 12:43 PM
This is one of those cases where we reluctantly conclude that the book might have been better without the supernatural elements - it's a story about life and love in a small town which leaves the sff-inclined reader thinking about the mechanics of selkie-human hybridization.
This book delivers the "young hero goes to magic school" experience, but the magic school is a women-only boot camp in the woods. So there's a lot of grappling with feminism and sex and gender (and land reform?) but the plot of a pretty standard wizard kid YA novel is happening at the same time.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: THE SAPLING CAGE
A young adult novel about a trans girl who wants to be a witch. Witches in this world are feminist/anarcho-primitivist forest mercenaries, though, which doesn't complicate matters for our hero but doe...
wizlez.libsyn.com
June 8, 2025 at 8:46 PM
This book delivers the "young hero goes to magic school" experience, but the magic school is a women-only boot camp in the woods. So there's a lot of grappling with feminism and sex and gender (and land reform?) but the plot of a pretty standard wizard kid YA novel is happening at the same time.
All the books we read are either about kissing girls or going to grad school and there's no kissing in this one.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: BONUS: PIRANESI
This one's about a guy who gets stuck in a labyrinth. Lee joins us to discuss why the guy is there and what, if anything, it all means. We all agree it's a very good book but past that point things ge...
wizlez.libsyn.com
June 1, 2025 at 11:27 AM
All the books we read are either about kissing girls or going to grad school and there's no kissing in this one.
This one's not even SFF, probably. At least two of the people I forced to read it developed migraines. Beware the color yellow. But if you're the kind of person who thinks the revolution ought to include universal basic sachertorte, do I have a treat for you.
Wizards Vs. Lesbians: LOTE
A synaesthete vagabond who wants to live like the Bright Young People accidentally goes to grad school instead. It's like if Foucault's Pendulum was funny.
wizlez.libsyn.com
May 25, 2025 at 11:42 AM
This one's not even SFF, probably. At least two of the people I forced to read it developed migraines. Beware the color yellow. But if you're the kind of person who thinks the revolution ought to include universal basic sachertorte, do I have a treat for you.