@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-09-01 18:13:52
Aufschrieb zu meiner (nicht nur) SF-Lektüre im August.
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2025/08/29/science-fiction-und-fantasy-im-august-2025/
@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-09-01 18:13:52
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-08-03 06:10:20
Call for Papers: Religion and AI in Science Fiction and Horror
https://ift.tt/vpiHcUx
Book Title: A (Holy?) Ghost in the Machine: Religion and Artificial Intelligence in Science-Fiction…
via Input 4 RELCFP
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-11-02 13:10:56
Series D, Episode 07 - Assassin
NEBROX: Well, that's hard to say. Until this woman turns up, I suppose. Or until they get tired of waiting.
PIRI: Who is this wretched woman anyway?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/407/327 B7B3
@salrandolph@zirk.us2025-10-30 14:21:13
A tale for these days when we enjoy being spooked by what haunts us.
#fiction #flashfiction
https://salrandolph.substack.com/p/gho…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-03 11:09:16
Day 10: Stacey Mason
Another academic, but this time one of my compatriots; we overlapped at UC Santa Cruz as advisees of Michael Mates, and even collaborated on a Twitch stream called ScholarsPlay for a bit, although we never coauthored any papers. We did chat about our research, and I had many good discussions with her about agency in interactive fiction, a topic we both published on. Her paper "On Games and Links: Extending the Vocabulary of Agency and Immersion in Interactive Narratives" (#20AuthorsNoMen
@fluchtkapsel@nerdculture.de2025-11-01 23:19:44
Gestern habe ich zwei Filme gesehen: Das Cloverfield Paradox und Alien Romulus. Und es war kein guter dabei.
Cloverfield, also den ersten Film, den mit dem Monster, mochte ich eigentlich ganz gerne, aber was war denn Cloverfield Paradox jetzt bittesehr? Prämisse, Worldbuilding, Charaktere — das alles war doch nix. Es wirkte wie Event Horizon, aber ohne ein Konzept, was es eigentlich sein will. Science-Fiction oder Mystery oder Horror?
Und Alien Romulus? Warum dreht man so einen F…
@kexpmusicbot@mastodonapp.uk2025-08-30 21:41:41
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Little Dragon:
🎵 New Fiction
#LittleDragon
https://littledragon.bandcamp.com/track/new-fiction
https://open.spotify.com/track/3xQX97hHd5uXPKlCyyjIfp
@chpietsch@fedifreu.de2025-09-28 15:50:58
@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-09-30 10:11:54
Aus Gründen, und weil es zur aktuellen Debatte um die deutschsprachige SF-Szene auch irgendwie passt, dieser Text aus dem April. (Ja, vordergründig geht's um anderes, trotzdem ...)
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2…
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-03 12:57:13
Speculative Design of Equitable Robotics: Queer Fictions and Futures
Minja Axelsson
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01643 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.01643
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-31 15:54:48
It is hard to count all the different ways ICE lied throughout this case.
In a truly extraordinary document
Judge Rodriguez throws out the indictment because
"the Government’s conduct is so shocking to the universal sense of justice that it should be deprived of the opportunity to prosecute the Defendant."
@vform@openbiblio.social2025-10-01 12:58:16
Momo: Wie ein Black-Mirror-Film von Michael Ende
https://www.golem.de/news/momo-wie-ein-black-mirror-film-von-michael-ende-2510-200666.html
Das klingt ziemlich gut.
@cjust@infosec.exchange2025-09-30 20:08:37
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-02 15:15:12
Series B, Episode 11 - Gambit
AVON: - and I was assuring him that the whole idea is an absurd fantasy.
ORAC: On the contrary. It is neither absurd, nor is it a fantasy.
AVON: Are you suggesting that you know more about the subject than I do?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/211/115 …
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-03 06:08:48
#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
VILA: They'll murder us!
AVON: Blake, they might be protected.
BLAKE: I don't think so. And even if I'm wrong we still have a slim chance.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/2…
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social2025-09-28 16:49:05
"People notice that while AI can now write programs, design websites, etc, it still often makes mistakes or goes in a wrong direction, and then they somehow jump to the conclusion that AI will never be able to do these tasks at human levels, or will only have a minor impact. When just a few years ago, having AI do these things was complete science fiction!"
@BBC6MusicBot@mastodonapp.uk2025-11-01 09:56:06
@goebelmasse@det.social2025-08-30 18:46:41
Was ist denn heute mit der 20-Uhr-Tagesschau los? Normalerweise beginnt die Sendung mit einem Zoom durch die absurde Vorlesebühne im Stil mieser Science-Fiction, während im Hintergrund die schlimmsten Verbrecher des Landes und der Welt durchrollen. (Also die aus den sechs Meldungen.)
Das haben die heute weggelassen. Jingle, Ansage, harter Schnitt zum Sprecher (heute Thorsten Schröder).
Wollen die etwa wieder seriöser aussehen? Da will ich mal hoffen, dass es nicht bei der Optik …
@UP8@mastodon.social2025-10-29 19:01:11
❤️🔥 Heat-rechargeable design powers nanoscale molecular machines
#nanotechnology
@qurlyjoe@mstdn.social2025-10-29 02:00:18
Content warning: Muddled maunderings of a doddering fool.
#muddledMaunderings caveat emptor.
Details within.
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-02 06:05:57
[NeMLA 2026 Panel] Kafka's Fiction
https://ift.tt/ULpAyon
updated: Monday, September 1, 2025 - 3:11pmfull name / name of organization: Northeast Modern…
via Input 4 RELCFP https://
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-11-03 10:04:39
Series A, Episode 09 - Project Avalon
BLAKE: Does it support any intelligent life?
AVON: Does the Liberator? [Blake and Jenna exchange looks.] There are humanoid creatures called subterrons. They live in caves. Quite what that says for their intelligence, I really wouldn't know.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/109/24
@NFL@darktundra.xyz2025-08-19 12:56:42
Is Vikings' J.J. McCarthy struggling or thriving? Playing fact or fiction with NFC North's newest starting QB
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/is…
@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-09-15 13:22:00
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-11-03 07:02:13
#Blakes7 Series C, Episode 12 - Death-Watch
DEETA: What do you think?
MAX: It's all been according to the rules.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/312/161 B7B1
@outer@mas.to2025-08-21 23:52:25
"Everything is Tuberculosis" by John Green is a 2025 non-fiction book everyone should read.
Tuberculosis kills more people each year, once again, than any other disease. Now that
John was a chaplain at a children's hospital before he became famous, after he and his brother Hank Green invented vlogging. This is his second non-fiction book. Everything he writes is GREAT.
#BookRecommendations
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-28 10:06:00
Day 5: Robin Wall Kimmerer
I'm taking these liberty of changing my hashtag and expanding the intent of this list to include all non-men, although Kimerer is a woman so I'll get to more gender diversity later... I've also started planning this out more and realized that I may continue a bit beyond 20...
In any case, Robin Wall Kimmerer is an Indigenous academic biologist and excellent non-fiction author whose work touches on Potawotomi philosophy, colonialism (including in academic spaces), and ideas for a better future. Anyone interested in ecology, conservation, or decolonization in North America will probably be impressed by her work and the rich connections she weaves between academic ecology and Indigenous knowledge offer a critical opportunity to expand your understanding of the world if like me you were raised deeply enmeshed in "Western" scientific tradition. I suppose a little background in skepticism helped prepare me to respect her writing, but I don't think that's essential.
I've only read "Braiding Sweetgrass," but "Gathering Moss" and her more recent "The Serviceberry" are high on my to-read list, despite my predilection for fiction. Kimmerer incorporates a backbone of fascinating anecdotes into "Braiding Sweetgrass" that makes it surprisingly easy reading for a work that's philosophical at its core. She also pulls off an impressive braided organization to the whole thing, weaving together disparate knowledges in a way that lets you see both their contradictions and their connections.
The one criticism I've seen of her work is that it's not sufficiently connected to other Indigenous philosophers & writers, and that it's perhaps too comfortable of a read for colonizers, and that seems valid to me, even though (perhaps because I am a colonizer) I still find her book important.
An excellent author in any case, and one doing concrete ideological work towards a better world.
#20AuthorsNoMen
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.social2025-08-11 10:54:33
@cdarwin@c.im2025-09-28 17:13:53
On November 5th, Trump will keep trying to blur truth and fiction through his staged shadow hearings.
Our answer will be simple:
Circles of light around our local government buildings.
Testimony shared openly and honestly.
A united message: The people are watching.
Some will stand silently in person.
Some will speak through livestreams and digital testimony.
Together, we will form a national chorus of truth.
@raiders@darktundra.xyz2025-09-17 13:23:44
Why the Vikings Need to Show Patience With J.J. McCarthy https://www.si.com/nfl/why-vikings-need-to-show-patience-with-jj-mccarthy-fact-or-fiction
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-01 15:18:08
Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
BLAKE: [Rubs his stomach and neck] Zen, check systems status.
ZEN: Confirmed.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/204/94 B7B4
@laurentperrinet@neuromatch.social2025-08-27 05:58:00
« Friends Don't Let Friends Prompt » : teaching others and yourself to not fall too easily into over-using #LLLM
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-t…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-02 18:19:38
Series A, Episode 02 - Space Fall
BLAKE: Check the outer hatch in case someone decides to try and join us.
RAIKER: I want a boarding crew kitted out and ready to follow me over.
[Technician nods.]
[Switch to Blake, trying to push/pull the hatch closed.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/102/651
@arXiv_csCY_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-08-29 08:27:01
Composable Life: Speculation for Decentralized AI Life
Botao Amber Hu, Fangting
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20668 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20668
@stargazer@woof.tech2025-10-30 15:47:49
#WritersCoffeeClub
22-23-24. I gave a gnawing deja vu. I have answered these before.
25. Does 'destiny' have a rôle in modern fiction?
26. How culturally diverse do your casts tend to be?
27. Recommend a book that had an impact on your prose.
---
25. It is now a trivial plot device. As such, it — or its denial/deconstruction — begs for originality. Warcr…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-02 09:11:04
Series A, Episode 12 - Deliverance
MEEGAT: I will await your return.
VILA: You'll wait up there by the door?
GAN: If we make it, we'll be back.
MEEGAT: The Lord Avon will protect you. [Vila gives Gan a skeptical look and the two of them go on ahead.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/112/398
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-27 12:50:15
Matrifocal Narratives in Indian Fiction #acrel https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/09/25/matrifocal-narratives-in-indian-fiction
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-02 12:09:10
Series D, Episode 13 - Blake
AVON: Does it matter?
TARRANT: Well, it might. There's still a price on our heads from the old days.
SOOLIN: Not on G-P, there isn't.
VILA: G-P?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/413/95 B7B3
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-11-02 22:19:11
Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
JENNA: I'm sorry. I went to sleep.
BLAKE: No, it's all right, it was my fault. We should have both stayed awake.
[LIBERATOR - The tired crew are watching the screen. Avon gets up.]
VILA: Have you thought of another plan?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/108/400
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-08-30 01:40:19
Just finished "Concrete Rose" by Angie Thomas (I haven't yet read "The Hate U Give" but that's now high on my list of things to find). It's excellent, and in particular, an excellent treatise on positive masculinity in fiction form. It's not a super easy book to read emotionally, but is excellently written and deeply immersive. I don't have the perspective to know how it might land among teens like those it portrays, but I have a feeling it's true enough to life, and it held a lot of great wisdom for me.
CW for the book include murder, hard drugs, and parental abandonment.
I caught myself in a racist/classist habit of thought while reading that others night appreciate hearing about: early on I was mentally comparing it to "All my Rage" by Sabaa Tahir and wondering if/when we'd see the human cost of the drug dealing to the junkies, thinking that it would weaken the book not to include that angle. Why is that racist/classist? Because I'm always expecting books with hard drug dealers in them to show the ugly side of their business since it's been drilled into me that they're evil for the harm they cause, yet I never expect the same of characters who are bankers, financial analysts, health insurance claims adjudicators, police officers, etc. (Okay, maybe I do now look for that in police narratives). The point is, our society includes many people who as part of their jobs directly immiserate others, so why and I only concerned about that misery being brought up when it's drug dealers?
#AmReading
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-31 15:25:34
Series D, Episode 07 - Assassin
AVON: No, but we can try a sweep in the general area. That is, unless someone has a better suggestion.
VILA: You want to introduce us to your friend?
[Later]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/407/209 B7B4
@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-10-18 16:19:02
RE: https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2025/10/08/science-fiction-und-fantasy-im-september-2025/
Katabasis - eine Empfehlung.
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-03 12:24:49
Series B, Episode 06 - Trial
AVON: Define alive. All planets are by some definition.
ORAC: I am not referring to a complex ecosystem. I refer to a single organism. A planetary life form. Fascinating, don't you think?
VILA: I doubt if Blake does.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/206/346
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-03 06:20:23
@NFL@darktundra.xyz2025-08-06 21:31:42
Caleb Williams fact or fiction: Should Bears be concerned with second-year QB's up-and-down training camp?
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/caleb-w
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-08-26 16:05:52
Call for Papers: Religion and AI in Science Fiction and Horror
https://ift.tt/NxBAFwV
Book Title: A (Holy?) Ghost in the Machine: Religion and Artificial Intelligence in Science-Fiction…
via Input 4 RELCFP
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-03 09:11:03
Series D, Episode 08 - Games
BELKOV: I wouldn't do that if I were you.
SERVALAN: Go ahead. [guard opens a panel and is electrocuted]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/408/236 B7B2
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-25 09:51:34
In any case, day 2: Ursula K Le Guin.
As I've said elsewhere, part of her science fiction thesis is that "human" can encompass much more than what we mere Terrans think of it as, and that moral standing extends broadly throughout the universe. This is the antithesis of Tokens fantasy, wherein "race" is real and determines moral standing. For Le Guin, it's barely okay to intervene in complex alien politics unless you carefully ensure you're not causing systemic harms; for Tolkien, it's okay to ambush and murder orc children, because they are by nature evil.
Add to her excellent politics Le Guin's masterful worldbuilding and unparalleled range of plots, and you have the one author I loved as a decidedly liberal and naïve teen and love even more now that I'm an adult. She's an absolute legend and deserves a very high place on any list of women authors (or list of authors, period.).
For a short story, try "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" which you can read here: https://www.utilitarianism.com/nu/omelas.pdf
For fantasy "A Wizard of Earthsea" (also has a nice graphic novel adaptation), or for science fiction, "The Left Hand of Darkness" or if you want a more anarchist flavor, "The Dispossessed."
I'll close this with an amazing quote from her:
"""
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.
"""
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-11-02 10:08:22
Series C, Episode 08 - Rumours of Death
AVON: A name?
SHRINKER: I had to question a controller from Central. When I was with the rebels ...
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/308/281 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-02 06:04:36
#Blakes7 Series A, Episode 04 - Time Squad
JENNA: It seems to me it should have taught us something. Something about the wisdom involved in bringing aliens aboard.
BLAKE: Seven of us can run this ship properly.
VILA: Six surely.
BLAKE: You forgot Zen.
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-09-27 10:31:10
Postcolonial Spaces in Indian Science Fiction #acrel https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/09/25/postcolonial-spaces-in-indian-science-fiction…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-02 15:11:20
Series C, Episode 10 - Ultraworld
AVON: [Moves next to Tarrant at Main pilot's console] Anything on the star charts?
TARRANT: Not within this quadrant. Nothing listed, not even a Federation beacon.
AVON: It couldn't be that?
TARRANT: Why not?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/310/6
@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-10-08 17:22:28
Meine SF- und Fantasy-Lektüre: mit Magiesystemen, Arcane, dem akademischen Höllenritt von Katabasis und einem leider enttäuschenden Solarpunk-Zeitreise-Buch.
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2025/10/08/science-fiction-und-fantasy…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-26 17:02:50
Day 3: Octavia Butler.
Incredibly dark, graphic, and disturbing near-future science fiction, which has proved absolutely prophetic. In the 1990's she was writing about a charismatic Conservative Christian and white nationalist president elected in 2024, and the horrors his paramilitary followers would unleash, including forced labor & indoctrination camps. Did I mention those books include ebikes & pseudo-cellphones too? Characters fleeing north from a disastrous social collapse in Loss Angeles? This is "The Parable of the Sower" and "The Parable of the Talents" and the later was tragically rushed to an end because of Butler's declining health.
Her work deals unflinchingly with racism and the darker parts of society, and to those who might say "her depiction of social collapse is overblown," I'd say that while it's not literally the world we live in, it's *effectively* the world that the poorest of us live in. If you're a homeless undocumented latinx person in LA right now, I'm not sure how meaningfully different your world is from the one she depicts.
Her work comes with a strong content warning for lots of things, including racial violence, sexual abuse and slavery, including of children, animal harm, etc., so it's not for everyone. Reading it in 2023 was certainly an incredible trip. Her politics are really cool though; with explicit pro-LGBTQ themes and tinges of what might today be considered #SolarPunk.
#20WomenAuthors
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-30 18:12:55
Series C, Episode 03 - Volcano
CALLY: Nothing.
AVON: Keep trying Servalan is down there.
CALLY: Servalan!
AVON: And a patrol.
VILA: Why?
AVON: Ask her, but something big is happening. Tarrant and Dayna are probably prisoners.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/303/305
@_tillwe_@mastodon.social2025-10-04 14:00:35
Ich habe mir die verschiedenen Postings und Threads zu Empfehlungen deutschsprachiger progressiver SF und Fantasy mal in meinem Blog gebookmarked - wenn es noch mehr Listen gibt, die ich da erwähnen könnte, nehme ich Ergänzungen gerne auf.
https://blog.till-westermayer.d…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-24 13:52:52
Day 28: Samira Ahmed
As foreshadowed, we're back to YA land, which represents a lot of what I've been enjoying from the library lately.
I've read "Hollow Fires", "This Book Won't Burn", and "Love, Hate, and other Filters" by Ahmed, along with "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know" which is quite different. All four are teen ~romances with interesting things to say about racism & growing up as a South Asian Muslim, but whereas the first three are set in small-town Indiana, the third is set in France and includes a historical fiction angle involving Dumas and a hypothetical Muslim woman who was (in this telling) the inspiration for several Lord Byron poems.
Ahmed's novels all include a strong and overt theme of social justice, and it's refreshing to see an author not try to wade around the topic or ignore it. Her romances are complex, with imperfect protagonists and endings that aren't always "happily ever after" although they're satisfying and believable.
My library has a plethora of similar authors I've been enjoying, including Adiba Jaigirdar (who appeared earlier in this list), Sabaa Tahir ("All my Rage" is fantastic but I'm less of a fan of her fantasy stuff), Sabina Khan ("The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali"), and Randa Abdel-Fattah ("Does My Head Look Big In This?"; from an earlier era). Ahmed gets the spot here because I really like her politics and the way she works them into her writing. Her characters are unapologetic advocates against things like book bans, and Ahmed doesn't second-guess them or try to make things more palatable for those who want to ban books (or whatever). Her historical fiction in "Mad..." is also really cool in terms of "huh that could actually totally be true" and grappling with literary sexism from ages past.
#30AuthorsNoMen
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-31 16:22:30
Series A, Episode 10 - Breakdown
KAYN: At last.
RENOR: Sorry, professor. [to Cally] Hello! This place is full of pretty girls.
KAYN: Prepare for immediate surgery, please.
RENOR: Right.
JENNA: I'll get out of your way.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/110/455 B7B4
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-01 09:13:56
Series B, Episode 07 - Killer
BLAKE: What's happened?
BELLFRIAR: Well, it's standard drill with a space death. The autopsy's carried out in a sealed mortuary in case there are any alien micro-organisms around. Are you all set, Dr. Wiler?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/207/286
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-01 12:38:33
Series B, Episode 01 - Redemption
CALLY: Treatment unit. He tried to reconnect one of the servo links and it burned his hand.
BLAKE: Right, sit down. [All but Vila sit at a small table to the left of flight consoles] No one is to attempt to repair any equipment till the computers are back under our control.
https://blake.torpi…
@relcfp@mastodon.social2025-08-19 16:06:08
Call for Papers: Religion and AI in Science Fiction and Horror
https://ift.tt/RtP9Bci
Book Title: A (Holy?) Ghost in the Machine: Religion and Artificial Intelligence in Science-Fiction…
via Input 4 RELCFP
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-27 00:02:59
Just finished "Low Orbit" by Kazimir Lee.
It's an excellent graphic novel about a queer Malaysian immigrant kid in small-town Maine, the unexpected friends she makes, and the science fiction author who happens to be her landlord. It reminded me a bit of the also excellent "Navigating With You" because of its interwoven fictional sci-fi novel (with really good writing!). CW as predictable for queer family trauma, although it doesn't get too bad and has a happy ending.
#AmReading #ReadingNow
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-01 09:15:40
Series D, Episode 11 - Orbit
VILA: You really think things through, don't you, Avon? If we do need it, we won't have time to get it.
AVON: Well then, let's hope we don't need it. [Smiles]
[Scene: Scorpio]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/411/84 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-31 19:25:00
Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
ZUKAN: Where is the other one?
DAYNA: What other one?
ZUKAN: That came with you to Betafarl.
AVON: Tarrant.
ZUKAN: Search the base.
SOOLIN: If she is here, presumably she wants to be. She's not a child. [Vila nods.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/132
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-27 12:26:53
Day 4: Adiba Jaigirdar
Thought I'd mix things up a bit in terms of intensity & genre. Jaigirdar has written several lovely sapphic teen romances that grapple with parental acceptance in Muslim Bengali immigrant culture, along with racism and other aspects of second generation immigrant life in Dublin.
I've discovered a few other Southeast Asian authors at my local library who will appear on this list, but I'm putting Jaigirdar first because of just how enjoyable her books are, and because I generally find queer romance to be more engaging than non-queer romance. Jaigirdar's characters are sympathetic and convincing, and their problems are both dramatic and a little funny. "Hani & Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating" is probably my favorite by Jaigirdar, but I also enjoyed "The Henna Wars" and "Rani Choudhury Must Die." "A Million to One" is a bit of a departure from her other books, as historical fiction with a heist plot, but it still engages with Irish culture, immigrants, and queer romance.
#20WomenAuthors
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-20 11:16:23
Day 26: Emily Short
If you know who Short is, you know exactly why she's on this list. If you don't, you're probably in the majority. She's an absolutely legendary author within the interactive fiction (IF) community, which gets somewhat pigeonholed by stuff like Zork when there's actually a huge range of stuff in the medium some of which isn't even puzzle-focused, and Short has been writing & coding on the bleeding edge of things for decades.
I was lucky enough to be introduced to Short's work in graduate school, where we played "Galatea" as part of an interactive fiction class. Short uses a lot of clever parser tricks to make your conversation with a statue feel very fluid and conversational, giving to contemporary audiences a great example of how vibrant interaction with a well-designed agent can be in contrast to an LLM, if you're willing to put in some work on bespoke parsing & responses (although the user does need to know basic IF conventions). While I didn't explore the full range of Galatea's many possible outcomes, it left a strong impression on me as a vision for what IF could be besides dorky puzzles, and I think that "visionary" is a great term to describe Short.
If you'd like you get a feel for her (very early) work, you can play Galatea here: #30AuthorsNoMen
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-30 19:30:36
Series C, Episode 13 - Terminal
ZEN: Confirmed.
[Teleport room. All but Avon are present. Avon enters.]
AVON: You can take the watch now, Vila.
VILA: Wonderful. I've been looking forward to that.
TARRANT: Where are we going, Avon?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/313/86
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-29 21:15:00
Series D, Episode 01 - Rescue
TARRANT: [Enters] You all right?
DORIAN: How many more of you are there?
AVON: [Enters, weapon levelled at Dorian] Just one. Stand still. Drop the gun. Now move away from it. Slowly.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/401/114 B7B6
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-29 18:12:58
Series A, Episode 11 - Bounty
VILA: We don't want to do anything hasty.
AVON: [V.O.] Vila!
VILA: Yes, I'm standing by. [Avon and Jenna are in the teleport room.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/111/118 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-30 15:11:03
Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
BLAKE: Right, wake me when you're tired.
[Up a different tree: Travis and Mutoid]
TRAVIS: Tell me something, do you remember who you were?
MUTOID: I don't understand the question, Commander.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/108/375 B7B4
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-31 13:20:02
Series D, Episode 02 - Power
VILA: Eleven minutes!
TARRANT: Yes, but what about the others?
PELLA: There aren't any others. Last week we were five. This morning, three. And now we are two.
VILA: Ten and three-quarter minutes!
TARRANT: Let's go.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/402/472
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-28 13:23:03
Series B, Episode 12 - The Keeper
ZEN: Main detectors report Federation pursuit ship, bearing one three two, course two seven six, leaving the planet and entering orbit.
AVON: Put it on the main screen.
ZEN: Affirmative. [pursuit ship appears on screen]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/212/31…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-29 19:12:27
Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
MUTOID: Time Distort Six.
TRAVIS: Minimum scan, their sensors mustn't register the beam.
MUTOID: Scan complete, identification confirmed.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/108/12 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-28 18:18:29
Series D, Episode 05 - Animals
ARDUS: I, I cannot say, Commissioner.
SERVALAN: Very well, I await your information.
ARDUS: I think it would be improper of me to release it unless authorised by the High Council.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/405/196 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-30 10:22:30
Series B, Episode 01 - Redemption
BLAKE: It's all right, Vila. I think we've lost them.
VILA: How'd you know?
BLAKE: We're still here. Cut the auxiliaries. Get back to primary drive. [To Avon] Are you all right?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/201/124 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-29 06:03:43
#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 03 - Weapon
JENNA: Maybe IMIPAK is another Orac. If we captured it perhaps we could breed from them.
BLAKE: What a disgusting idea.
JENNA: [Smiles] Well, despite Orac's lucky eavesdropping, we're not much wiser, are we?
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-29 12:08:01
Series C, Episode 12 - Death-Watch
VINNI: You're not good enough to get past me, Tarrant.
DEETA: You're going to look pretty silly flat on your back with a face full of footprints.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/312/213 B7B3
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-30 13:24:54
Series D, Episode 08 - Games
GERREN: Told you, there was no time. Besides, from what I've heard, she might be more than a match for you.
AVON: Well now. Just who are they sending?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/408/87 B7B3
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-29 15:17:57
Series C, Episode 02 - Powerplay
TARRANT: It was an even bet.
AVON: Quite.
TARRANT: I still don't know who the girl is, though.
AVON: Her name is Dayna, she's not one of us. Where is she, by the way?
TARRANT: Do you care?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/302/352 …
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-28 16:25:53
Series C, Episode 07 - Children of Auron
SERVALAN: Manual only, I'm afraid.
PILOT FOUR-ZERO: I'll manage.
DERAL: With reduced power?
PILOT FOUR-ZERO: Auron isn't so far off. Can you supply me with the course coordinates.?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/307/48 B7B4…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-28 06:10:02
#Blakes7 Series A, Episode 09 - Project Avalon
GUARD: Down, it's Blake! [He shoves Blake and Vila into the other guard and takes off down the hall.]
BLAKE: Chevner! [A fight ensues.] Jenna!
COMPUTER: Detention block seven - condition red. [Alarm starts.]
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-29 12:15:51
Series C, Episode 07 - Children of Auron
AVON: You are forgetting that the Aurons rejected her. They sent her into exile.
TARRANT: You were exiled from Earth.
AVON: I go back as an executioner.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/307/194 B7B3
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-28 19:28:12
Series A, Episode 13 - Orac
BLAKE: All right, put us down.
[Scene: The planet's surface. Blake and Cally land near the obelisk.]
BLAKE: Some sort of obelisk, I suppose.
CALLY: Well, what should we do now?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/113/170 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-28 18:27:28
Series C, Episode 05 - The Harvest of Kairos
JARVIK: Woman, you're beautiful. [grabs and kisses her]
SERVALAN: Guards! Take this primitive to the punishment cells! Move!
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/305/93 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-29 09:13:42
Series C, Episode 11 - Moloch
CHESIL: Done to who?
DORAN: My pal, that's who. What have they done to my pal?
CHESIL: Your pal? I don't know who you mean.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/311/496 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-28 09:11:58
Series C, Episode 13 - Terminal
TARRANT: Avon, where is the ship headed?
AVON: To tell you the truth, I haven't the faintest idea.
[Flight deck. Tarrant, Vila, Dayna, Cally enter.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/313/94 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-29 13:07:14
Series A, Episode 12 - Deliverance
ENSOR: I'm on three-quarter boost as it is. She's not responding! I'm going to maximum. It's all right. It's all right. She's slowing. Compensators beginning to hold. [Ship starts to steady.] Come on, come on, that's my beauty. That's...come on. Pull us back, pull us back. All right, she's coming back. We're all right.
MARYATT: Don't do that too often, will you? I'm a very nervous passenger.
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-27 18:25:58
Series B, Episode 10 - Voice from the Past
JENNA: The power's changed.
CALLY: Meteorite storm.
AVON: I'll go and check. [Blake is seen as door closes]
AVON: Blake! Blake! [Blake is destroying the door opening mechanism]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/210/223 B7B5
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-23 06:18:31
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-27 22:13:59
Series B, Episode 10 - Voice from the Past
BLAKE: Guilty.
ORAC: No. Conditioned under hypnosis.
BLAKE: No. No.
ORAC: Yes, Blake. Standard hypnotic procedure, audio pulse signals with visual support...
BLAKE: False.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/210/139 B7B6
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-28 10:20:43
Series A, Episode 05 - The Web
BLAKE: Blake.
[Flight deck of the Liberator.]
CALLY: Cally.
BLAKE: [V.O.] Tell Avon I need two fully charged flutonic power cells.
CALLY: I will tell him.
[In the laboratory complex.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/105/365 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-26 18:10:22
Series A, Episode 04 - Time Squad
VILA: Could I read yours?
CALLY: You could receive my thought if I wished you to.
BLAKE: Cally, how do we contact the resistance force?
CALLY: There is no resistance force. They're all dead.
BLAKE: All of them?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/104/377
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-26 21:12:20
Series C, Episode 07 - Children of Auron
VILA: Um, welcome aboard.
DERAL: Sit down. [points gun at Vila]
VILA: Over here? [sits at teleport console]
DERAL: Mnn hmm.
DAYNA: [Enters with gun on Deral] Keep still! [takes his gun]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/307/453 B7B…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-21 09:14:37
Series D, Episode 13 - Blake
TARRANT: Oh, surely you're not that naive.
BLAKE: You're wasting your breath, Tarrant. [The intercom beeps.]
DEVA: [Into Intercom] Yes?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/413/428 B7B2
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-27 06:15:43
#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 03 - Weapon
VILA: Why didn't you suggest it to us?
CALLY: Because I knew how you'd react.
AVON: Auron may be different, Cally, but on Earth it is considered ill-mannered to kill your friends while committing suicide.
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-27 15:21:56
Series B, Episode 09 - Countdown
RALLI: That's Provine! That's his service record. [She picks up the card] That's the man I got to go with Blake!
VILA: Which way did they go?
RALLI: The rocket silo. [Vila runs to door, then back]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/209/414 …
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-27 12:21:04
Series A, Episode 12 - Deliverance
GAN: That's Jenna's.
AVON: Obviously somebody, or something, attacked her.
VILA: And obviously it won.
GAN: She might have made a run for it.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/112/117 B7B3
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-09-26 06:00:55
#Blakes7 Series C, Episode 01 - Aftermath
AVON: So you have very little to fear from Servalan. There is no real Federation anymore. It's unlikely that anyone will come looking for you. You won't have to hide any longer.
MELLANBY: It's odd. For the last twenty years that's all I've dreamed of, freedom to do what I want, go where I want. Now that I've got it,…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-10-27 13:06:42
A10 - Breakdown
AVON: It's a space laboratory. A permanent research facility financed by a consortium of neutral planets. Two specialist fields: weaponry and space medicine. An interesting combination, don't you think?
JENNA: How do you know all this?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/110/113…
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net2025-08-26 15:28:19
Series C, Episode 01 - Aftermath
LAUREN: That's the north shore.
MELLANBY: Nothing there. Try the west. Nothing there either.
DAYNA: [Enters] What's happening, father?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/301/264 B7B4
