EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END
It's a novella which feels like a very long short story, and we struggled to get a full episode out of it. What happens when you make your hardboiled noir detective a magical lesbian? Anything?
Jun 11, 2023•51 min•Ep. 61
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
A queer sf review podcast about the emerging wizards vs. lesbians microgenre.
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Episodes
THE OUTSIDE
We really enjoyed this one - it's about being autistic and trying to follow the rules when you're an inveterate anti-authoritarian, and it's also about cyborgs and spaceships and tentacle monsters and AI gods. Featuring the world's worst graduate advisor.
May 28, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 60
CHAOS ON CATNET
In this episode we are unduly harsh on a sequel to a book we both liked, which is kind of par for the course with sequels. Take it as a study of the peril of high expectations. (This episode was recorded before we embarked on our ideological short novels series - apologies for any resulting continuity errors.)
May 14, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 59
BONUS: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
We are glad to live in a world where a movie as weird as this can win Best Picture, and we have a lot to say about it. Our guest for this episode is Soyi Kim, doctor of comparative literature and art history (and big fan of this film, more to the point.)
May 07, 2023•1 hr 3 min
TOMOE GOZEN
Swords! Sorcery! Nipponese Steel! I mean Naiponese Steel! Come see the medieval Japan that 1980s otaku dreamed of.
Apr 30, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 59
UNWIELDY CREATURES
It's Frankenstein! And just like in the original, the real monster is the doctor, who is a lesbian. This is the third in our series on highly ideological short novels, and this one involves a Creature who is raised in the woods entirely on leftist critical theory.
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 57
SAPPHO'S BAR AND GRILL
In Part 2 of our series on extremely ideological short novels we arrive at Sappho's Bar and Grill, holdover from an imagined heyday of lesbian culture where everyone was rough and tough and manly and did women's magic in the woods and absolutely nobody had a penis. In this book a professor of women's studies goes on a magical journey through women's history and learns the important lesson that she was right about the kids these days all along.
Apr 02, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 57
PAYBACK'S A WITCH
A Hallmark Christmas movie of a book, except it's Halloween and there are lesbians. This is a return to the world of chick lit and also the first in a trilogy of episodes about works which are extremely ideological, intentionally or otherwise.
Mar 19, 2023•1 hr 2 min
SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #3: OOPS! ALL TAMSYN
As a treat we decided to read three Tamsyn Muir short stories. Tremendous fun was had.
Mar 05, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 54
THE BOOK EATERS
What if vampires drank ink and ideas instead of blood? And what if there was an incredibly dumb book about it?
Feb 19, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 53
BONUS: 2ND ANNUAL WIZZLY AWARDS
We've made it through two years of this! Due to a series of circumstances we kind of had to throw this episode together at the last minute, but we had fun, and that's what matters.
Feb 12, 2023•1 hr 22 min
THE WICKED AND THE WILLING
What if British colonizers in early 20th century Singapore were literal vampires? And what if they wanted to have sex with you? And what does it say that this bit of ebook erotica is one of the strongest and most structurally creative novels we've read for this podcast?
Feb 05, 2023•58 min•Ep. 52
NONA THE NINTH
An extra-long episode covering the penultimate installment of the Ninth House series (assuming Homestuck denouement elongation syndrome doesn't strike. Pray it away.) You guys already know what this one's about.
Jan 22, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 51
ADOLESCENCE APOCALYPSE (THE UTENA MOVIE)
Well, we made it to 50 episodes, and as promised we will try to figure out what Be-Papas thought they were doing.
Jan 09, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 50
SLOW RIVER
It's a retro episode! (We will eventually make it through Nicola Griffith's entire catalog.) This is a book about celebrity, hereditary wealth, toxic relationships and the science of water reclamation, and even though it was written in 1995 it feels extraordinarily current. Recommended.
Dec 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 49
THE DAWNHOUNDS
In far-future biopunk (ecopunk? mycopunk?) New Zealand, a queer cop joins a pirate gang and ends up on a trip to the fireworks factory. It's all very first novel but it's got good politics.
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 48
SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #2
In this episode we discuss Our Souls To The Moon by Tamara Jeree, Onward by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, and A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Tune in for Isaac changing his mind completely about one of these stories midway through the podcast!
Nov 28, 2022•53 min•Ep. 47
SIREN QUEEN
A young girl growing up in interwar Los Angeles wants to be a star, which turns out to be alarmingly literal, since Hollywood is run by the fair folk. Because of course it is. A fantastically evocative book that solves the nativist magic problem we keep running into.
Nov 13, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 46
THE SAGA OF THE RENUNCIATES
This episode is about the Renunciates trilogy, but it is more generally about Marion Zimmer Bradley. We're talking about her because she and her ghostwriters pioneered the wizards vs lesbians genre, and also because it is important to remember that the old SF community harbored, protected and enabled predatory monsters when we consider the ways the community has changed.
Oct 30, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 45
UNCOMMON CHARM
A milestone for Wizards vs Lesbians - our first advanced review copy! That put us in a good mood but rest assured this one is great on its own merits. Think Wodehouse, Nancy Mitford, Utena, but with wizards, lesbians, communists, and sinister White Russians.
Oct 17, 2022•59 min•Ep. 44
SPEAR
Arthurian wizards vs lesbians! And it's by Nicola Griffith, one of the all-time greats. Find out why Percival's spear was so hard, and what she did with it.
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 43
FIREHEART TIGER and WHEN THE TIGER CAME DOWN THE MOUNTAIN
A pair of novellas, both of which have the word Tiger in their title, even though only one of them has real tigers in it. We had some audio issues with this one, but it does feature us discovering the work of Nghi Vo, who has since become one of our favorite authors.
Sep 19, 2022•55 min•Ep. 42
BONUS: THE SANDMAN
The Sandman may not be Wizards vs Lesbians but it is certainly Wizards vs Women Generally, and we had a whale of a time revisiting what to us is a formative childhood text. Featuring special guest Kiana, for whom it is decidedly not - check out her art at junkworldusa.tumblr.com.
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 4
LAST EXIT
In this book a gaggle of formerly gifted children drive off to look for America, only to find that this is not actually the best of all possible worlds.
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 41
BONUS: 2022 HUGO AWARDS
A whole bunch of wizards vs lesbians alumni were nominated for best novel this year, so we talk about it! Featuring Leora Spitzer, who has read more of the nominated works than either of us have.
Aug 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 3
AMATKA
A terrifying, hallucinatory parable about the breakdown of communism on an alien world, featuring settler colonialism, struggle sessions and lots and lots of goo. High SF in the tradition of Dick and Lem, and one for fans of Annihilation.
Aug 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 40
CATFISHING ON CATNET
A really good YA novel about found family, bad parents, small town schools and the power of a good Discord server to change lives. The selling point - that the server mod is an awakened AI - is the least interesting part of the whole thing, but hey, every book needs a hook.
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 5 min
AMONG THIEVES
A heist thriller set in fantasy Europe. The best we can say for this one is that it's like Foundryside - very like Foundryside - but much shorter.
Jul 17, 2022•58 min•Ep. 38
BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES
A novel-length parody of Ready Player One? Snow Crash meets World of Warcraft? Lucky Wander Boy, revamped for the mid-2010s? This book is all these things, and less.
Jul 03, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 37
TROUBLE AND HER FRIENDS
A blessed return to 90s Cyberpunk! Feels like home. Join us for a journey to far-future 1994, where cool lesbians fight cyber-corporations and grognard gatekeepers alike for the future of the internet itself (with help from sympathetic EU regulators.)
Jun 19, 2022•58 min•Ep. 36
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