Episode 39: 'We See A Different Frontier' and 'Long Hidden'

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, begin by addressing listener feedback about high fantasy and narratives of power which followed on from the discussion at the end of the last episode recorded at Continuum 10. They would also like to draw your attention to some Links of Relevant Interest:

• Amberlin Kwaymullina's Guest of Honour speech from Continuum 10
• Jim C. Hine's Guest of Honour speech from Continuum 10
• An Indigenous Speculative Fiction Reading List provided by Amberlin Kwaymullina

Ian then provides a brief but thoughtful (and spoiler-free) review of War Stories: Modern Military Science Fiction, a crowd-funded anthology edited by Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak, which he highly recommends.

The two books up for critique on this episode are We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Fabio Fernandes and Djibril al-Ayad (beginning around 22:05) and Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older (1:01:35).



The reviews and articles mentioned during the discussion can be found via the following links:

• Review of Long Hidden by Katherine Farmer on Strange Horizons
• "Reviewing the Other: Like Dancing about Architecture" by Nisi Shawl on Strange Horizons
  
• "Inclusive Reviewing: A Discussion" on Strange Horizons
• "Escaping Ethnocentricity?" by Samuel R. Delany on Strange Horizons
• Response to "Literary Trick" comment by Troy L. Wiggins
• "MFA vs POC" by Junot Diaz on The New Yorker

If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:53:05 for final remarks.

For the next episode, Kirstyn has chosen We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler while Ian is recommending Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes. Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!