Posted on

Turning the Cyclopean Up to 11: Fiona Maeve Geist’s “Red Stars / White Snow / Black Metal”

This post is by Anne M. Pillsworth, Ruthanna Emrys from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading Fiona Maeve Geist’s “Red Stars/White Snow/Black Metal,” first published in Robert S. Wilson’s Ashes and Entropy anthology in 2018. Spoilers ahead, but it’s worth reading on your own.

“So Kelsey grasps the thread and finds herself across the Atlantic, stuffing her hands into the worn-out pockets of her black denim vest—the sharp, white, goetic scrawls metled in alignment by lighter-touched dental floss announcing her arrival: a black sun strangled by the coils of skeletal snakes emblazoned across her back as she lights a cigarette from a black box.”

Journalist Kelsey wakes from troubled dreams in the bathroom of a Moscow hostel, where she pukes empty-stomach bile. If flooding memory serves, what a long ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Ninety-Six

This post is by Lyndsey Luther, Alice Arneson from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Hey! Hey, listen! (If you want a chuckle, check out Sanderson’s latest tweet about Legend of Zelda.) Welcome back to the Oathbringer Reread, for an excursion into international politics. Will the coalition come together, or will it disintegrate into squabbling before it ever accomplishes anything? And what does your choice of seating say about you? All this and more as we join Navani in the council chamber at the top of Urithiru.

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread – if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

No spoilers from other Cosmere works this week. You’re safe!

Chapter Recap

WHO: Navani

WHERE: Urithiru (Lyn: In the below map, I’ve marked out the various nations represented in the meeting with simple circles to better highlight specifically where everything they’re talking about is, ...

Posted on

The Stars Are Right but the Cultists Need Coffee II: Necronomicon 2019

This post is by Ruthanna Emrys from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



A chalkboard easel on a sidewalk, proclaiming "More like Ne-CUTE-nomicon, am I right??" There's a kitten in a summoning circle saying, "No."

Welcome back to the Lovecraft Reread! Anne and I have been busy traveling with the Mi-Go going to too many conventions (me) and undergoing obscure and unnatural distortions of the human form  dealing with medical foo undergoing obscure and unnatural distortions of the human form (Anne). I’ve returned this week to report on Providence’s revels celebrating the rightness of the stars. Next week, Anne will join me once more to explore some of the cosmic secrets hinted at during those unholy rites author recommendations from the con.

I like a lot of things about Necronomicon, but one of those things is that it’s among the few cons where I meet at least as many Reread fans as people who enjoy my books. Thank you to all our readers who came up to say hi (and thank you to the vendor of mysterious maps who put up with a sudden ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Chapters Ninety-Three, Ninety-Four, and Ninety-Five

This post is by Lyndsey Luther, Alice Arneson from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Get out your bottles (small or otherwise), because this week’s a long one. And a difficult one, if we’re being honest. Adolin and Kaladin are both struggling with some pretty heavy issues in their own ways, and Past!Dalinar is deep in the throes of alcoholism. It’s not easy to see our favorite characters in such hardship, but of course they must hit bottom before they can start clawing their way back up.

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread—if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

We actually don’t have spoilers from other books this week (for the first time since Nightblood and Azure showed up). There are a few little mentions of Warbreaker, but nothing that we’d consider a spoiler. So even if you’ve never read anything else from the Cosmere, you should ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Ninety-Two

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Oathbringer reread, where the questions of the hour are morality and just what the heck is going on with Nightblood? And Nightblood means Szeth, and Szeth means Skybreakers, and Skybreakers mean… what the heck is going on up there by the Purelake?

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread—if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

In this week’s reread we also discuss some things from Warbreaker in the Squires & Sidekicks and Cosmere Connections sections, so if you haven’t read it, best to give those sections a pass.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Szeth
WHERE: The Purelake
WHEN: 1174.2.4.5 (later the same day as Chapter 90)

Szeth arrives at a small town on the north shore of the Purelake along with the rest of the Skybreaker trainees and squires. ...

Posted on

No Mask? No Mask! — Mira Grant’s In the Shadow of Spindrift House

This post is by Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading Mira Grant’s In the Shadow of Spindrift House, released just this summer as a standalone novella from Subterranean Press. Spoilers ahead, really a lot of spoilers, go read the thing first. We’ll wait.

“Humanity has sacrificed so much on the altar of geometry, sacrificing eons untold to the mathematical aberration of the straight line, the perfect angle. Perhaps one day, they will see the error of their ways.”

Nature is made of curves and spirals, “an interconnected web of compatible shapes.” Only three things truly approach the straight line and sharp angle: lifeless crystals, mindless viruses, and the works of deluded humanity. Nature rages at mankind’s betrayal but realizes mankind’s ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Eighty-Eight

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



This week, we launch into Part Four, titled “Defy! Sing Beginnings!” We’ll attempt to figure out what that means, if anything, over the next weeks. Today, though, we go back in time with Dalinar, who has developed some serious issues with life, the universe, and everything.

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread – if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done. There is also a brief mention of the magic systems in Warbreaker and Mistborn (Stories & Songs), so if you haven’t read those… it’s not exactly spoilery, but kind of weird-hinty. Beware.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Dalinar
WHERE: Kholinar – Gavilar’s palace
WHEN: Eight years ago – late 1165 or early 1166

Dalinar leaves a political meeting that Gavilar is holding (where his only duty was to stand and loom menacingly) and goes ...

Posted on

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reread — Avatar, Book One

This post is by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Star Trek: Deep Space Nine celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. A rough cut of the Ira Steven Behr- and David Zappone-helmed commemorative documentary, What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, premiered in select locations; the finished version was shown theatrically this year, and has just beamed down to Blu-ray and DVD. While the series finale, “What We Leave Behind,” resolved the final season’s central Dominion war arc with genuine thrills and panache, it left the fate of key characters—most significantly Captain Benjamin Sisko, a.k.a. The Emissary—unresolved. Keith R. A. DeCandido quite rightly points out in his rewatch review that “the end of the war is not the same as the end of the show,” and that one of the series pilot’s major themes, namely Bajor’s entrance into the Federation, “was totally ignored” by the finale. Here’s DeCandido’s summary of the ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Interludes 10 and 11

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Oathbringer Reread! This week we’ll be hunting rats on the Herdazian border, then storming around the edges of Kholinar, as we cover the last two interludes in the third section before diving back into the main story next week.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Sheler; Venli
WHERE: Herdazian border; near Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.2.2.5 (same day as Chapter 74, when Shallan was invited to the Revel); 1174.2.6.5

Sheler, a commander formerly in Amaram’s army, is captured by a force of Herdazians and given a choice of how he should die.

Venli has arrived outside of Kholinar, but isn’t allowed in. She’s kept outside, giving her “sermons” to dozens of groups of singers a ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Interludes 10 and 11

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Oathbringer Reread! This week we’ll be hunting rats on the Herdazian border, then storming around the edges of Kholinar, as we cover the last two interludes in the third section before diving back into the main story next week.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Sheler; Venli
WHERE: Herdazian border; near Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.2.2.5 (same day as Chapter 74, when Shallan was invited to the Revel); 1174.2.6.5

Sheler, a commander formerly in Amaram’s army, is captured by a force of Herdazians and given a choice of how he should die.

Venli has arrived outside of Kholinar, but isn’t allowed in. She’s kept outside, giving her “sermons” to dozens of groups of singers a ...

Posted on

My Laugh is an Evil Laugh: Michael Chabon’s “The God of Dark Laughter”

This post is by Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading Michael Chabon’s “The God of Dark Laughter,” first published in The New Yorker in April 2009. Spoilers ahead.

“Damn you, Ganz,” I said, though I was not in truth addressing the poor fellow, who, I knew, would not be able to answer my question anytime soon. “What’s a dead clown doing in my woods?”

Summary

Edward Satterlee has been district attorney for Pennsylvania’s Yuggogheny County for twelve years, and has seen more than his share of bizarre cases. Today he’s writing about one of the weirdest; his report will also serve as his resignation letter.

Thirteen days after the Entwhistle-Ealing Bros. circus left Ashtown, boys find a dead man clad in ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Interludes 7, 8, and 9

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Well, now that we’re done recapping Parts 1-3, we’re excited to dive back into the story proper! This week we’ll be covering the first three interlude chapters of this section. We’ll spend most of our time with Venli, with a brief stop to see how laundry is best done. Thrilling, I know. It’s worthwhile to note that, though we’re all super excited about the reading Sanderson did at SDCC, we will not be discussing it or any aspects of it here in the reread (and we ask that you don’t in the comments, either). Many readers enjoy going into the next book of the series entirely blind, and we wouldn’t want to spoil anything for them. So please be considerate and keep your comments about unreleased material to the Tor postings specifically regarding them!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Interludes 7, 8, and 9

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Well, now that we’re done recapping Parts 1-3, we’re excited to dive back into the story proper! This week we’ll be covering the first three interlude chapters of this section. We’ll spend most of our time with Venli, with a brief stop to see how laundry is best done. Thrilling, I know. It’s worthwhile to note that, though we’re all super excited about the reading Sanderson did at SDCC, we will not be discussing it or any aspects of it here in the reread (and we ask that you don’t in the comments, either). Many readers enjoy going into the next book of the series entirely blind, and we wouldn’t want to spoil anything for them. So please be considerate and keep your comments about unreleased material to the Tor postings specifically regarding them!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t ...

Posted on

A Massage From Beyond the Veil of Night: T.E.D. Klein’s “Nadelman’s God”

This post is by Anne M. Pillsworth, Ruthanna Emrys from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading T.E.D. Klein’s “Nadelman’s God,” first published in the Dark Gods collection in 1985. Spoilers ahead.

All gods yielded before the implacable urgings of habit.

Summary

The first witch Nadelman ever met, in an NYC S&M bar where he and future wife Rhoda were slumming, sported a beer belly and a silver pentacle earring. Drawing on his college occult kick, Nadelman conversed with witch Lenny about paganism, Crowley, and Lovecraft. Lenny insists Lovecraft was no fiction writer—you’ve just gotta read between the lines.

Years later, Nadelman realizes the reason the beer-bellied witch scared him was “his certainty that knowledge was concealed to all but him.” Nadelman himself has given up esoterica and ...

Posted on

A Massage From Beyond the Veil of Night: T.E.D. Klein’s “Nadelman’s God”

This post is by Anne M. Pillsworth, Ruthanna Emrys from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading T.E.D. Klein’s “Nadelman’s God,” first published in the Dark Gods collection in 1985. Spoilers ahead.

All gods yielded before the implacable urgings of habit.

Summary

The first witch Nadelman ever met, in an NYC S&M bar where he and future wife Rhoda were slumming, sported a beer belly and a silver pentacle earring. Drawing on his college occult kick, Nadelman conversed with witch Lenny about paganism, Crowley, and Lovecraft. Lenny insists Lovecraft was no fiction writer—you’ve just gotta read between the lines.

Years later, Nadelman realizes the reason the beer-bellied witch scared him was “his certainty that knowledge was concealed to all but him.” Nadelman himself has given up esoterica and ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Parts 1-3 Review

This post is by Lyndsey Luther, Alice Arneson from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



We’ve finished Part Three (::sob::), so we’re going to do something different with the Oathbringer Reread to celebrate the occasion. We’ll take a look back at what we’ve covered so far, starting with the “recap” parts in the beginning and then going on to discuss the epigraphs in depth, major themes, unanswered questions and theories, and interesting tidbits we came across. Batten down the hatches, folks. It’s about to get intense up in here!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

In this week’s reread we also discuss a lot of things from all over the Cosmere. There will be spoilers for all of Sanderson’s works scattered throughout the reread this week, so proceed with caution.

Book Recap

Part One

Part One technically starts after ...

Posted on

Bantha Milk and Durian: Ng Yi-Sheng’s “Xingzhou”

This post is by Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading Ng Yi-Sheng’s “Xingzhou,” first published in the July 2019 issue of Clarkesworld. Spoilers ahead—but read it yourself first; you won’t be sorry!

The very ground burned him as he set foot in the harbor. He thought of his family, his starving brothers and sisters, and gritted his teeth.

Summary

Unnamed narrator recounts the histories of his grandparents, a diverse lot indeed.

Grandfather leaves China at sixteen, with no way to support himself and his family other than to become a laborer in distant Xingzhou. He and other impoverished youths board a steamer that carries them out of Earth’s friendly atmosphere, through the frigid rigors of space to a radiant new home. Xingzhou, ...

Posted on

Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Eighty-Seven

This post is by Alice Arneson, Lyndsey Luther, Aubree Pham from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Reread! We were planning to do a big “the book so far” wrap-up post this week in addition to chapter Eighty-Seven, but… it was a little too big, so we’ll have an entire article next week dedicated to that. In the meantime, we’ll discuss Chapter Eighty-Seven all on its lonesome, as well as discuss a few points that people requested in the comment section last week. Batten down the hatches, folks. It’s about to get intense up in here!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread—if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

No spoilers for other works this week. You’re safe!

Chapter Recap

WHO: Adolin
WHERE: Shadesmar!Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.2.3.3 (immediately after Chapter 85)

The Oathgate control building shakes and shifts its platform into Shadesmar, dumping Adolin ...

Posted on

Jobs From Hell Would Be An Improvement: David Liss’s “The Doors that Never Close and the Doors that Are Always Open”

This post is by Anne M. Pillsworth, Ruthanna Emrys from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading David Liss’s “The Doors that Never Close and the Doors that Are Always Open,” first published in 2015 in Aaron J French’s The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft anthology. Spoilers ahead.

“It is devastation,” Jacks told him. “The devouring of worlds. Things that have abstract value or don’t yet exist or are entirely unnecessary being bought and sold and bet on or against. It is ritual.”

Summary

Artur Magnusson despises Wall Street, but he also needs a job badly. So when his previously tepid employment agency waxes enthusiastic about CapitalBank, he goes for an interview. Things start unpropitiously: He has trouble finding the building; the security guard locks him in an imposingly secure ...

Posted on

The Spirit of the Century: Fritz Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost”

This post is by Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth from Tor.com Frontpage Partial - Blog and Story Content


Click here to view on the original site: Original Post



Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howard’s sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn.

This week, we’re reading Fritz Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost,” first published in the October 1941 issue of Unknown Worlds. Spoilers ahead.

But he always saw it around dusk, either in the smoky half-light, or tinged with red by the flat rays of a dirty sunset, or covered by ghostly wind-blown white sheets of rain-splash, or patched with blackish snow; and it seemed unusually bleak and suggestive, almost beautifully ugly, though in no sense picturesque; dreary, but meaningful.

Summary

Miss Millick is worried about Catesby Wran, her boss at the advertising agency. He keeps making the strangest remarks while she takes dictation, like this morning when he suddenly asked if she’d ever seen a ghost. Oh, not a misty white ...