@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-27 03:00:46
Day 30: Elizabeth Moon
This last spot (somehow 32 days after my last post, but oh well) was a tough decision, but Moon brings us full circle back to fantasy/sci-fi, and also back to books I enjoyed as a teenager. Her politics don't really match up to Le Guin or Jemisin, but her military experience make for books that are much more interesting than standard fantasy fare in terms of their battles & outcomes (something "A Song of Ice and Fire" achieved by cribbing from history but couldn't extrapolate nearly as well). I liked (and still mostly like) her (unironically) strong female protagonists, even if her (especially more recent) forays into "good king" territory leave something to be desired. Still, in Paksenarion the way we get to see the world from a foot-soldier's perspective before transitioning into something more is pretty special and very rare in fantasy (I love the elven ruins scene as Paks travels over the mountains as an inflection point). Battles are won or lost on tactics, shifting politics, and logistics moreso than some epic magical gimmick, which is a wonderful departure from the fantasy norm.
Her work does come with a content warning for rape, although she addresses it with more nuance and respect than any male SF/F author of her generation. Ex-evangelicals might also find her stuff hard to read, as while she's against conservative Christianity, she's very much still a Christian and that makes its way into her writing. Even if her (not bad but not radical enough) politics lead her writing into less-satisfying places at times, part of my respect for her comes from following her on Twitter for a while, where she was a pretty decent human being...
Overall, Paksenarrion is my favorite of her works, although I've enjoyed some of her sci-fi too and read the follow-up series. While it inherits some of Tolkien's baggage, Moon's ability to deeply humanize her hero and depict a believable balance between magic being real but not the answer to all problems is great.
I've reached 30 at this point, and while I've got more authors on my shortlist, I think I'll end things out tomorrow with a dump of also-rans rather than continuing to write up one per day. I may even include a man or two in that group (probably with at least non-{white cishet} perspective). Honestly, doing this challenge I first thought that sexism might have made it difficult, but here at the end I'm realizing that ironically, the misogyny that holds non-man authors to a higher standard means that (given plenty have still made it through) it's hard to think of male authors who compare with this group.
Looking back on the mostly-male authors of SF/F in my teenage years, for example, I'm now struggling to think of a single one whose work I'd recommend to my kids (having cheated and checked one of my old lists, Pratchett, Jaques, and Asimov qualify but they're outnumbered by those I'm now actively ashamed to admit I enjoyed). If I were given a choice between reading only non-men or non-woman authors for the rest of my life (yes I'm giving myself enby authors as a freebie; they're generally great) I'd very easily choose non-men. I think the only place where (to my knowledge) not enough non-men authors have been allowed through to outshine the fields of male mediocrity yet is in videogames sadly. I have a very long list of beloved games and did include some game designers here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many other non-man game designers I'd include in the genuinely respect column (I'll include at least two tomorrow but might cheat a bit).
TL;DR: this was fun and you should do it too.
#30AuthorsNoMen
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-10-21 01:35:43
Everett Randle, a former partner at Kleiner Perkins, joins VC firm Benchmark as general partner, following a slew of personnel departures at Benchmark (Natasha Mascarenhas/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/benchmark-names-ev…
@seav@en.osm.town2025-10-25 23:12:53
Today, #TimorLeste 🇹🇱 becomes the #ASEAN’s 11th member when the 47th summit begins in Kuala Lumpur later. 🎉
To mark this occasion, I decided to create a mock Philippine historical marker commemorating the body owing to the
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-24 00:38:36
Donald Trump issued a pardon for the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Thursday.
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in late 2023 to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program and stepped down as CEO of Binance,
which paid $4.3bn to settle related allegations.
He was sentenced to four months in prison.
Zhao, who is often referred to by his initials CZ, is one of the world’s richest people and biggest names in cryptocurrency.
@45names@mastodon.social2025-12-22 17:20:17
@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2025-10-21 14:15:43
ProSiebenSat.1 appoints MFE-MediaForEurope CFO Marco Giordani as its new CEO, succeeding Bert Habets, as MFE integrates the German TV group into its business (Nick Vivarelli/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/global/prosiebensat-sha…
@PaulWermer@sfba.social2025-11-10 02:49:00
Exactly this. I was politically naive, and excited by Pelosi's win, and donated a (for me) significant amount her campaign & PAC.
and ended up feeling disappointed and betrayed.
https://48hills.org/2025/11/rep-nancy-pelosis-real-legacy/
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.social2025-10-18 13:29:08
Have a joyful #DayOfDionysos here at Erotic Mythology! 🍇
"Goatherd Pan cried out: ‘I wish my father had taught me the trick of that matchmaking wine! I wish I could be lord of the mindtripping grape, like Bakkhos [Dionysos]!’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 16.289
🏛 Dionysos and Pan, 50-150 CE
@45names@mastodon.social2025-11-21 06:20:17
@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2025-12-06 19:16:04
A look at Paramount's culture shift under David Ellison, where the focus is on male-driven action movies, and not on prestige films seen as critics' darlings (Pamela McClintock/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business
