Note: this post is about how I disagree with this comic, however funny.

When the TV station formerly known as “Sci-Fi Channel” changed its name to “SyFy”, there was a (small) outcry. Was this because science fiction wasn’t mainstream enough? They had to distance the channel from D&D-playing, Asimov-quoting, Firefly-watching nerds in basements?¹ Was it that they wanted to air shows that weren’t science fiction?

That last became the accepted answer: that many of their own shows were non-sci-fi and/or trash TV anyway, and so it didn’t really matter. My mom promptly dubbed the channel “siffy” and the matter…

(Continue reading…)

I just finished reading The Hunger Games, the new hit young adult speculative fiction book that’s basically Rite of Passage meets The Lottery meets Battle Royale. It’s fairly good, if not particularly original.¹

This post, however, is about something interesting I noticed: for the first fourteen pages of the book, I thought the protagonist was male.

(Continue reading…)

I got a Kindle for my upcoming trip to Cambodia. Actually, my parents got it for me as a delayed graduation present.

The logic went something like this: “Hm. I read a lot. I’m going to a place where the primary language isn’t English. They probably won’t have many English-language libraries there.” At that point a family friend suggested getting a Kindle (she already had one). “Hm…yeah!”

Like a good nerd I tried to feature-compare, but really there was only one contender besides the Kindle: Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The Nook has actually gotten better reviews than the…

(Continue reading…)