BONUS: Q & A 3
We answer questions about stuff we've read, and also stuff we haven't. Is the author still dead?
Apr 21, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Wizards Vs. Lesbians
A queer sf review podcast about the emerging wizards vs. lesbians microgenre.
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Episodes
EX-WIVES OF DRACULA
Could small-town football hero Coach Bakula not be what he seems?? A campy clusterfuck, three teen movies at once, and very enjoyable.
Apr 14, 2024•57 min•Ep. 83
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS
A support group for failed messiahs, a device to torture grad students by making them look at a door, the world's funniest surface to air missile - all this and more in a first novel that has no business being this good.
Mar 31, 2024•1 hr 19 min
THESE BURNING STARS
There's a good book in here! A real noir psychodrama in space. Unfortunately there's also a lot of stuff about space jews.
Mar 17, 2024•54 min•Ep. 81
SANTA OLIVIA & SAINTS ASTRAY
Two books starring a sexy supersoldier and her hot girlfriend. The first one is a melodrama with Politics, and the second is a teen movie that might actually achieve Minus Politics.
Mar 03, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 80
THE WITCH'S HEART
In which Angrboða and Loki get Extremely Divorced. Featuring the most canonically monstrous children of narcissistic parents yet - but despite all this, nobody gets monstered by the narrative, not even the world's most useless excuse for a husband.
Feb 25, 2024•58 min•Ep. 79
BONUS: THIRD ANNUAL WIZZLY AWARDS
Our shameless self-celebration returns once again, with full panel of judges in tow. But there's a twist!
Feb 18, 2024•1 hr 29 min
BONUS: TRAVEL LIGHT
P.H. Lee joins us to discuss another masterpiece. Read it if you haven't, it's short.
Feb 12, 2024•1 hr 8 min
THE VALKYRIE
We continue our three-part series on books inspired by Norse mythology with The Valkyrie. This one wonders what would happen in Fafnir teamed up with Attila the Hun but is mostly about what a schmuck Siegfried was.
Feb 05, 2024•52 min•Ep. 78
BONUS: RELATIONSHIP ADVICE, HUGOS
I think we slipped some good advice in here amidst the silliness?
Jan 29, 2024•57 min
VALHALLA
A violent girl in a milquetoast world gets to go to Autism Heaven, where she can be torn apart as much as she wants. We love this book, despite everything. Thanks to Fabian for the intro! His music can be found at: https://fbgtz.bandcamp.com/ https://toyoudeary.bandcamp.com/
Jan 22, 2024•48 min•Ep. 77
BONUS: TRANSLATION STATE
We have struggled to fit Ann Leckie's books under our remit because there are usually too many genders in them for something as pedestrian as lesbianism to take place. Luckily for us this one fits neatly under Narcissistic Parents of Monstrous Children.
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 13 min
I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF
A psychological horror story about the delusions of a narcissistic parent. (We aren't sure the book knows that's what's happening but it is what it is.) It's like the Book Eaters - to the extent that we think they constitute their own emergent genre - but possibly worse.
Jan 07, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 76
BONUS: Q AND A EPISODE 1
As an end of year treat (for ourselves, exclusively) we asked for questions and then answered them. Thank you for indulging us.
Dec 31, 2023•1 hr 3 min
STAKES (ADVENTURE TIME)
We've made it to 75 episodes, and as has become the custom for these milestones we're watching cartoons. We've run out of Utena so we're moving on to one of Isaac's favorites, and we've chosen the most Wizards vs Lesbians part to talk about.
Dec 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 75
THE WATER OUTLAWS
It's one of the great novels of China, With Lesbians! The contemporary moral framework the author brings to the story sits uneasily atop the chaotic and bloodthirsty original but it's still a good time.
Dec 10, 2023•59 min•Ep. 74
HE WHO DROWNED THE WORLD
Oh, this is a good one. Sequel to She who Became the Sun, follows the continuing adventures of a bunch of ruthless moral lacunae who want to become Emperor, features the most tender BDSM relationship between a trans man and a eunuch ever committed to paper.
Nov 26, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 73
WE KNOW THE DEVIL
This was going to be a bonus episode but it turns out this is perfect wizards vs lesbians, so it's our first mainline episode with a guest! Joelle guides us through this extremely gay visual novel and we talk about the 90s a lot.
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 9 min
MORTAL FOLLIES
A late entry in our anglophilia arc. A sneaky smart regency romance involving curses, fourth wall jokes and a mysterious lesbian aristocrat known as The Duke.
Oct 30, 2023•53 min•Ep. 71
THE BABYLON EYE
A delightfully weird book about tracking a cybernetically enhanced doggie through an interdimensional transit hub. The first properly grungy modern cyberpunk we've read so far, and very satisfying.
Oct 15, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 70
THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES
A limp Sherlock Holmes pastiche on Victorian English Jupiter. The plot is nonsensical, the setting is impossible, but the lesbians certainly are lesbians.
Oct 01, 2023•51 min•Ep. 69
THE LAST UNICORN
Isaac, Alexis and Lee discuss a masterpiece.
Sep 24, 2023•1 hr 14 min
THE BREATH OF THE SUN
Mountaineering, colonialism, survivor's guilt, toxic relationships, the world's worst technopriest, and Literary Techniques - this is a very good book with a lot going on in it.
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 68
SOME DESPERATE GLORY
It's a sprawling space opera about being a child soldier (an emerging WL theme!) It also feels like it wants to be a movie, with all that that entails. An ambitious failure.
Sep 03, 2023•57 min
HIGH TIMES IN THE LOW PARLIAMENT
We conclude our anglophilia arc (for now) with this weird little book about fairies, Brexit, drugs and the power of interpretive dance.
Aug 20, 2023•51 min•Ep. 66
A RESTLESS TRUTH
The anglophilia arc continues! This one's on a boat. A silly gay murder mystery featuring a parrot and a suitcase of porn which is better than it needs to be.
Aug 07, 2023•52 min•Ep. 65
BONUS: THE NIGHT-BIRD'S FEATHER
Full disclosure: the author is Alexis' former housemate. That being said, even those of us who do not have a personal stake think you should read this book if you have an interest in fairy tales, existentialism or the drama of the gifted child.
Jul 30, 2023•1 hr 12 min
THE RUTHLESS LADY'S GUIDE TO WIZARDRY
It's the anglophilia arc! We're starting on a series of books which are fantasy British - we set out initially to critique teaboo tendencies in sf but we accidentally picked a bunch of good and fun books, of which this is one. Or maybe we're both just weak to this stuff, having been raised on a diet of Terry Pratchett. This specific example involves charming old ladies, Victorian drug labs and the requisite terrible mom, and is very funny.
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 64
SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP #4
The theme of today's episode is supernatural short fiction from Southeast Asia: " The Terracotta Bride " by Zen Cho " Lay My Stomach On Your Scales ," by Wen-yi Lee "Margo Lai's Guide to Dueling Unprepared ," by Alison Tam...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 63
THE FALLEN and THE INFINITE
We were so delighted with The Outside that we decided to cover its sequels! We probably shouldn't have.
Jun 25, 2023•58 min•Ep. 62
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