Hugo, Girl!

This month we read A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. We had a ton of listener mail, so the book discussion starts around 10 minutes in. DM: Haley Music by Pets of Belonging Transcript library

Not exactly a Happy Hour (times are tough, y'all) but we kept recording after our Double Star episode. We tried a weird Capri Sun and talked about stuff.  Thanks to Raj for sending us his list of happy things!

This month we read Double Star by Robert Heinlein. Of all Heinlein's books, it was one of Connie Willis's three favorites! DM: Amy Music by Pets of Belonging Transcript library   Links: You will like this podcast about Octavia Butler

The Locus Magazine 2025 fundraiser has just a few days left! Friend of the show Billy explains why it's important to support Locus. Support Locus's 2025 Indiegogo campaign or donate any time!

More happy things!

This month we read Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. It was long! DM: Lori Music by Pets of Belonging Transcript library   Little Red Reviewer TV Tropes  

A new thing we're trying - occasional episodes in which we share 5 things making us happy lately. No genre content, just chatting.

We're 2025 Hugo finalists! Thank you so much to everyone who nominated us. Check out our voter packet submission . See the full list of finalists here . Hope to see you in Seattle!!

We're an opera podcast now, and you get to come with us to New York to see  Moby-Dick at the Met !  Bonus content: a Shamrock Shake tasting, boat facts at the South Street Seaport Museum , and documentation of every dog in Manhattan. Music by Pets of Belonging Transcript library - Many transcripts have not been edited. Anyone can edit them and make corrections, and we appreciate anyone who does!  

Miles is back at it.  DM: Haley Music by Pets of Belonging LINKS: Jo Walton's Review

Officially now a tradition, friend of the pod Anne joined us for another quiz on past episodes!

When you get to the end, you'll wander why you even read this. Terrible! DM: Amy Music by Pets of Belonging An unedited transcript is available in our transcript library . Anyone can edit it and make corrections, and we appreciate anyone who does! LINKS James Nicoll's review TIDES

Podcast bestie Ann Michelle Harris joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about her debut novel North , and all things publishing and writing. If you've ever wondered how stray thoughts can become a novel, now is your chance to find out! Ann Michelle is a published author, lawyer, and contributor to the Hugo-winning fanzine, Nerds of a Feather.  Want a signed copy of North? Join us for the book...

Y2K Hugo winner A Deepness in the Sky sure is long! And oh hey, happy new year! Skip ahead about 9 minutes from the start if you want to avoid a discussion of neighbor parking drama. DM: Lori CW/TW: SA Music by Pets of Belonging

Hey, you know what? This wasn't so bad! There's about 20 extra minutes of chitchat at the end, mostly about Endurance (the Shackleton Expedition). Feel free to ignore it! DM: Haley CW/TW: we discuss animal death in Endurance during the post-episode chitchat Transcript Library   Music by Pets of Belonging

It's a(nother) stressful week, so you can have little an early episode, as a treat. Hang in there.  This month we read and discussed Naomi Kritzer's Hugo-winning short story, Better Living Through Algorithms. You can  read it for free or listen to it thanks to Clarkesworld! This is a wide-ranging discussion where we used the story as more of a jumping-off point to talk about a lot of other things,...

It's showtime! Happy Halloween, listeners!

This month we read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. We were joined by special guest and delightful person and ambitopia expert, author Redfern Jon Barrett! We had so much fun chatting with Redfern that this is a bit of a maxisode. Digressions abound.  DM: Haley CW/TW: brief discussion of SA Redfern's website Purchase Proud Pink Sky Ambitopia: Futures Beyond the Binary Amy's guest appearance...

It was fun! It was windy! Lori and Kevin tell all. Boring warning : at about 17:45, you're gonna hear like 5 minutes of voice notes about dogs. Feel free to turn off the podcast.  Eating noise warning : if you make it this far, at 22:05-22:25, Lori will loudly eat a tea cake, so skip that if you can't stand mouth noises.  Want a mug? A sticker? How about a shirt? Check out our Redbubble shop .

Well, what else were we supposed to call it? This month we read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, suggested by listener Raj. Thanks, Raj! Amy is DM. Music by  Pets of Belonging Links: Jo Walton's review

Being gay and doing crime, all across space and time! Our long-awaited, most cursed episode is finally here. Requested by Haley and Raj. Lori is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging Links: Strange Horizons Review - Adri Joy Interview with the authors The Joy of Reading Books You Don't Entirely Understand The 12 Days of Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood  

Over five years ago, we test drove this thing. It's rough, but we hope you'll enjoy it! For various reasons, we had to push back our planned schedule. This is How You Lose the Time War will drop in August, followed by A Fire Upon the Deep in September.

Another attack of the clones. We liked it! DM: Haley CW/TW: rape, sexual abuse, transphobia, intersexphobia, fatphobia Music by Pets of Belonging Links: The Extractivism of Setting and the Traitor's Text - Vajra Chandrasekera Jo Walton's Review  

This month we read Arthur C. Clarke's perfectly fine novel, The Fountains of Paradise. It is fine! And it has an admittedly banger ending, if you can stand the first 200 pages. Recommended, maybe? Amy is DM. Music by  Pets of Belonging Links: Wikipedia - Sigiriya Sculpture and Poetry of Sigiriya

We discuss the hottest film romance in genre fiction: Twilight! We love it.  DM: Lori CW/TW: It's Twilight. Music by Pets of Belonging