This year marks the 160th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was originally published in 1865. Very few works of English-language children’s literature have had such a lifespan. 2025 also marks the 160th anniversaries of Mary Papes Dodge’s Hans Brinker, Mary White Sewell’s Mother’s Last Words, and Jean Ingelow’s Stories Told to…
WWAC Reads Books! Fantasy Romance Edition
We’ve got a wide array of fantasy and romance for you all this time around, with an epic historical tearjerker and a thoughtful piece of progressive nonfiction to round things out!
ESSAY: How Naomi Kritzer’s Science Fiction Strips Away Cyberspace
We have entered an era of AI slop. Periodicals are struggling with floods of submissions cooked up by ChatGPT rather than human imaginations, while readers downloading ebooks from Amazon are faced with the possibility of their latest purchase being the churned-out product of AI masquerading as actual creativity or scholarship. While science fiction is no…
REVIEW: Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory is a Space Opera for Today
Humanity has lost a war with the majoda, an interplanetary association united by an artificial intelligence called the Wisdom. Earth has been destroyed, and a space station called Gaea now houses a remnant of humanity in a rigid militaristic society. Valkyr, teenage niece of the station’s commander in chief Aulus Jole, is waiting for her…
A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The Mid Eighties!
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Archer’s Goon, The Skiver’s Guide, and Fire and Hemlock! I was especially excited to read The Skiver’s Guide, which I had never read before! And (so far) Archer’s Goon remains my favorite standalone of her work. It’s…
A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The Early 1980s!
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read The Magicians of Caprona, The Time of the Ghost, The Homeward Bounders, and Witch Week! This month’s reading was a roller coaster, as it included the book I consider the scariest of Diana Wynne Jones’s work, and…
2024 Ignyte Awards: The Saint of Bright Doors & Kill Your Darlings Among Winners
Friday, 8 November saw the presentation of the fifth annual Ignyte Awards. Originally attached to the virtual convention FIYAHCON, these awards, which celebrate science fiction, fantasy, and horror by diverse creators, have continued to take place every year despite the convention being on hiatus since 2021. Here are the highlights of the 2024 Ignyte Awards.
A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The Late 1970s!
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Charmed Life, Drowned Ammet, and The Spellcoats! Charmed Life is the first in the Chrestomanci series, and I found it fun to revisit the introduction to that world and family. Drowned Ammet and The Spellcoats are the middle…
WWAC Reads Books! Supernatural Gender Edition
Cozying down into fall, we here at WWAC have been indulging both in books with really interesting things to say about gender, and as usual, books across the speculative fiction spectrum. Everything from horror stories to sweet, queer retellings of Arthuriana, we’re enjoying it all!
ESSAY: Lestat’s Precursors: Four Faces of American Vampirism
Some readers may feel that, so far, the stories covered in this series on nineteenth-century American vampire literature have shown an insufficient quantity of fangs. The first part covered stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Ambrose Bierce that dealt with the theme of the seductive revenant – but, strictly speaking, none were about…
ESSAY: Lestat’s Precursors: Cora Linn Daniels and Sardia
Continuing a series examining the early days of American vampire fiction: Part 1 looked at the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Ambrose Bierce; part 2 discussed a story by James Kirk Paulding. Now, let us meet another author…
ESSAY: Lestat’s Precursors: The Vroucolacas in America
The previous post in this series examined stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Ambrose Bierce that explored the themes of macabre resurrection and twisted sexuality, thereby helping to pave the way for later generations of American vampire literature. However, none of these stories directly addressed vampire folklore.