@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
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-01-25 16:21:02
I’ve had this contingent of the language police show up in my replies a few times now over the word “cosplay,” and look…
OK, I get it, I get the instinct to say “Don’t drag me into this!” and I applaud the effort to push fascists out of communities, yes to all that…
…and also we need to recognize that what ICE is doing absolutely •is• cosplay. The word means “costume play.” It refers to assembling and wearing costumes that are not necessarily functional, but show affinity for a particular subculture by reproducing characters from that subculture’s popular narratives.
ICE are cosplaying Call of Duty. That is an accurate description of what’s happening. (Listen to “Gear.”)
I make software and I make music. I don’t think either one of those things •should• be about violence. I don’t •want• them to be about violence. But both are used in the service of violence, like it or not. I shout the violence out whenever it shows up. But would be ridiculous for me to point at what Palantir does and say “That’s not software!” Unfortunately, it •is• software. To deny that would be beyond self-defeating; it would be irresponsible.
ICE •is• doing cosplay, and we hate it. It’s an insult to the cosplay subculture. It is an insult to the whole of humanity. Fascism creeps into all of our spheres, into every beloved craft and community, and the response is never to pretend it’s not there. The response is to drive it out.
@…
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@wildrikku/115956545807535535
@UP8@mastodon.social2026-01-26 00:21:02
💸 Why the price of coffee has skyrocketed: from Brazilian plantations to specialty coffee houses
https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-12-28/why-the-price-of-coffee-ha…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-01-26 22:40:46
Tim Cook attending a private White House screening of the documentary Melania hours after ICE killed a man suggests horrible judgment, or worse, cowardice (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
https://spyglass.org/tim-cook-captured/
@cheryanne@aus.social2026-01-26 18:08:41
Lyrics Of The Lost
A series of unfair and wildly speculative investigations, critiques and interpretations exposing the hidden meanings of overplayed smooth radio pop songs...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/lyrics-of-the-lost/
@cdarwin@c.im2026-01-26 03:09:57
A recently leaked DHS memo told immigration agents they have the authority to break into people's homes to conduct immigration operations,
The memo ignores parts of DHS training materials related to the Fourth Amendment,
according to David Kligerman,
the senior vice president and special counsel of Whistleblower Aid.
Kligerman discussed the memo with Adam Klasfeld on the "Legal AF" podcast on Sunday.
He said the "dangerous"
memo …
@aral@mastodon.ar.al2025-11-26 08:42:40
“As we consider these three risks, we don’t have to speculate about how AI data centers might affect Massachusetts. Consider Ireland, a country with a similar population size, where AI has driven a data center boom. Warehouses full of servers are on pace to use one-third of Ireland’s electricity, drawing from fossil-fuel power plants and wind farms alike. That keeps old, dirty plants on the grid, sucks up renewable energy that otherwise would help replace fossil fuels, and drives up costs fo…
@karlauerbach@sfba.social2026-01-26 18:14:44
Just in case anyone out there wants a job ... The requirements are so low that I think I qualify!!
" Special Vacancy Announcement: Interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d) "
https://www.
@benb@osintua.eu2026-01-26 16:03:46
Ukrainian Special Operations Forces COMPLETE the cleanup of KUPIANSK #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/26/ukrainian-special-operations-forces-complete.html…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-12-27 02:01:02
The Groq deal secures key talent for Nvidia, including CEO Jonathan Ross, creator of the TPU, and keeps them from companies that may try to make their own chips (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
https://spyglass.org/nvidia-groq-deal/
