In Case You Missed It, So You Don't: Virtual Edition!

Hey readers! Hope you are holding up okay. Some things to have on your radar:

• If you somehow missed my shouting and muppetlike waving of arms about it, I just completed a big report on reading patterns in the Chicago SF club scene. Charts and graphs galore!
• The bookstores page has also been updated a bit. A lot of of indie bookstores are doing delivery or curbside pick-up, and it's a great time to support them.
• Upcoming Events are still being updated--definitely check with the club/organization if you're interested in attending, but a lot of them are shifting to online meetings.

Some noteworthy online things coming up:

• Flights of Foundry: May 15-17. A virtual con hosted by Dream Foundry, a nonprofit that supports speculative artists in a variety of media. They have a great roster of talks, panels, and readings.
• Tolkien Symposium on Fantasy Literature: May 16. Really great list of speakers, including Kij Johnson, V.E. Schwabb, and Rebecca F. Kuang.
• Michael Zapata is doing two virtual talks for Chicago bookstores on May 21: one for Bookends & Beginnings, and another for City Lit. The Lost Book of Adana Moreau is a seriously great read, one of my favorites so far this year--worth checking out.
• Wiscon is online this year, still waiting on details! May 22-25.
• The Cyberpunk Culture Conference is online (with a really global approach) this year: July 9-10.
• There are LOADS of virtual author talks going on, I have not yet really started trying to list them.

Finally, a couple fun links:

• "Knowing Uncertainty: How Science Fiction Helps us Make Sense of the Pandemic" by Dr. Anastasia Klimchynskaya from the University of Chicago.
• Saw this one making the rounds a bit this week: "Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers" by Esther Jones at the Conversation.
• At the last Think Galactic meeting, Josh MacPhee's articles on SF covers and graphic design came up--they're really good! Check out, for instance: Penguin SF, Philip K. Dick, or "We".

"The Tea Master and The Detective" by Aliette de Bodard

(This was the February 2019 Think Galactic selection.)

The Tea Master and The Detective is set in the Xuya universe, a space-opera setting from a history where Chinese, Vietnamese, and Mesoamerican cultures predominate. A Sherlock Holmes homage, the novella (novellete?) follows a traumatized ship AI, The Shadow's Child, who plays a reluctant Watson to Long Chau, a "consulting detective" looking into a murder. Straightforward in its Holmes-structure, I found it most interesting for its focus on trauma, as well as all the snippets of Xuya worldbuilding we get.

The characters here are engaging, the work's main strength. That's unfortunate, since it's so short! Shadow's Child and Long Chau's interactions are great, odd imbalances of personality and power grafted onto the Doyle formula: Shadow's Child is a superhuman AI, but shy and traumatized; Long Chau has those Holmes-like powers of observation and deduction, but is secretive, shaped by the past in ways she doesn't want to acknowledge. I liked the way that Long Chau's abrasiveness feels genuine, largely unintentional, not overplayed, so Shadow's Child's opinion and interactions with her also feel more genuine.

Think Galactic- Iraq +100

For the December meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Iraq+100, edited by Hassan Blasim.

The aim of this project was to get Iraqi writers—not necessarily science fiction writers—to set stories 100 years after the American invasion. The result is an interesting spread of stories.

As usual with our anthology discussions, we focused our conversation on a few pre-selected stories. At this meeting, we also picked our next 6 books for 2018. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Everfair

For the November meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Everfair by Nisi Shawl.

An alt-history of the Belgian Congo with steampunk & utopian elements, the novel follows a fairly large cast of characters over several decades. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Certain Dark Things

For the October meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

We've had kind of mixed results for our "spooky October reads" for the last few years, and, while light, this novel about warring vampire clans in Mexico City was a fun read. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Borders of Infinity

For the September meeting of Think Galactic, we read Borders of Infinity, a collection/fix-up by Lois McMaster Bujold, set in her expansive Vorkosigan universe, and centered on Miles, its primary character. Extremely brief notes below!

Think Galactic- When the Moon was Ours

For the August meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. A YA story in a fairy-tale or magical-realist mode, it's the love story of a girl who grows roses from her wrists and a trans boy who paints magical moons. When the Moon was Ours is also the most recent Tiptree Award winner, so we were pretty jazzed to read it. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- The Traitor Baru Cormorant

For the July meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. This is a book I've been raving about for a bit, and it was great to get some Think Galactic analysis.

Set in a fantasy world a bit more complicated than the usual pseudo-medieval setting, Baru is a tale of empire and the attempt to break free of it. The titular character is a woman from a small island culture that is crushed by the Empire of Masks; she sets her sights on changing (or betraying) it from within, as her savant status allows her to rise within their ranks. She's sidelined to a norther province, however, where she becomes embroiled in their own nascent rebellion.

We had some great arguments about this one. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- All the Birds in the Sky

For the June meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. The much-lauded novel (it's on a serious awards streak) follows two characters from childhood through early adulthood, as they find themselves on opposite sides of a magic vs. technology war in a very near future.

Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Kelly Sue DeConnick & Amal El-Mohtar

For the May meeting of Think Galactic, we read selections from the Guests of Honor at the upcoming Wiscon: Kelly Sue DeConnick and Amal El-Mohtar. For DeConnick, we read Bitch Planet, and for El-Mohtar we read a selection of short stories and poems.

Think Galactic's original formation was inspired by Wiscon, and there's usually a good number of us in attendance, and these two creators have a lot of interesting work.

Brief notes and discussion below:

Think Galactic- A Taste of Honey

For the April meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson.

Set in the same sci-fantasy world as Wilson's Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, the novella follows a young man, minor nobility in the kingdom of Olorumi, as he has an affair with a soldier from a distant land. These chapters alternate with scenes from Aqib's life years and decades later, as he lives out a very different life than he would have had if he'd fled with his lover.

We generally quite liked this! Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Too Like The Lightning

For the March meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Too Like the Lightning (2016) by Ada Palmer.

Too Like The Lightning's been getting a lot of attention (we reviewed it pretty glowingly just a few months ago), with the added bonus that Dr. Palmer is Chicago-based, teaching history at the University of Chicago. She'd actually given a talk at 57th Street Books the day before our meeting, speaking about Too Like The Lightning and its just-released sequel, and a couple of us were able to make that.

In brief! Too Like the Lightning is set in the 25th century, with a few big science-fictional ideas (flying cars, non-geographic political bodies) and jammed to the gills with sociological & philosophical ideas, including doing some really cool things with gender and narrative style.

We really dug this! It was a small group, however, due to unexpected schedule conflicts, and we may be working in some brief Palmer discussion at our April meeting—so I'll keep the notes below extremely brief! Spoilers unlikely but possible:

Think Galactic- Diamond Dogs Outing

This past Saturday, I joined some other members of Think Galactic for a theatrical outing—The House Theatre of Chicago's performance of Diamond Dogs at the Chopin Theater.

Diamond Dogs is a stage adaptation of the Alastair Reynolds novella of the same name: a kind of horror-survival story set in the far future, transhuman space opera world of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe. Saturday's production also featured a pre-show discussion with Reynolds himself, as well as playwright Althos Low (pen name for Steve Pickering & others) and director Nathan Allen.

I've been meaning to see more of the SFF-allied theater in Chicago, and I am *so glad* I made it out to see this—really quite a spectacle, not shying away even slightly from the science-fictional elements, and with some pretty brilliant tech—props, costumes, puppetry, light & sound—it pulled them off surprisingly well.

More discussion, and possible spoilers, below:

Think Galactic- Uprooted

For the February meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Naomi Novik's 2015 novel Uprooted. The Nebula-winning story is a kind of classic fantasy with much inspiration from Polish fairy tales, following a young witch as she learns about magic and tries to fight off an evil Wood that's creeping over her land.

We really quite liked it, and had a top-notch discussion. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Lizard Radio

For January's Think Galactic meeting, we discussed Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz.

One of our YA picks, Lizard Radio takes place in a vaguely dystopian world that seems like it might be a alternate Earth (not clearly a near-future or otherwise tied to the our timeline). The story follows Kevali, aka Lizard, who is a 15 year-old sent to "Camp", a kind of vocational-training-slash-indoctrination facility. While there, Lizard learns a bit more about this world's system of control, sparks some localized acts of rebellion, and explores the mysterious "lizard radio" (and other mysterious phenomena).

Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- Sisters of the Revolution

For December's meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed selections from Sister of the Revolution (2015), edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer.

As usual, when we discuss an anthology, we had a handful of stories that we focused on, a few bonus stories, and then of course a few of us read more/all of the collection, as well. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Belated thoughts on Arrival

Okay, it's been out for almost a month now, but I really wanted to get down some thoughts on Arrival, the recent film by Denis Villeneuve. An adaptation of Ted Chiang's 1998 Story of Your Life, the film follows a linguist and her team as they try to communicate with some decidedly non-human aliens.

A couple things to note right off the bat. Firstly, if you're an SF fan, you need to go see this. It's one of those incredibly rare science fiction films that doesn't just look science-fictional, it's actually powered by ideas. That's a very small family—Garland's Ex Machina last year springs to mind.

Secondly, if you haven't read Chiang's story, that is also a thing you should really do. Chiang is among the absolute best short SF writers, full stop, and Story of Your Life is one of those works that is already a touchstone for the field, tackling two heavy ideas—the relationship of language & cognition, and determinism & the nature of time—in a story that is still intensely human, and stylishly-written to boot.

Taylor Clark had a great piece on Chiang leading up to this film in the California Sunday Magazine, by the way. Recommended.

My thoughts below are pretty critical of the film, but please remember that I really enjoyed this film, I want to see more like it. It's an interesting case-study, though, in how adapting really science-fictional (i.e., cerebral) ideas from print to film is problematic, and it also showcases a few tendencies in current block-buster-y film that bug me, perhaps the more so because of all the things this does right.

Spoilers likely for both film & story below. Also, I should note that I saw this with other Think Galactic members, and a lot of thoughts below came out of our discussion.

Think Galactic: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

November TG notes brought to you by Michael Tax.

This month, Think Galactic returns to familiar territory: horror. Although the reading list states clearly the Victor LaValle novella The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) as the TG November selection, LaValle’s Ballad is inextricably linked with it’s intellectual, if not ideological, progenitor: H. P. Lovecraft’s The Horror at Red Hook (1927). The works share kinship in setting and characters, but could not be more different in artistic intent. Black Tom is written by a person of color, and LaValle’s perspective can be assumed to be diametrically opposed to such as that espoused by Lovecraft. In the dedication of his novella, LaValle attributes this: “For H. P. Lovecraft, with all my conflicted feelings.”

It is in this very same spirit that virtually all participants at Think Galactic’s November group meeting have taken on both works, and we realized the tremendous opportunity presented of a side-by-side comparison. Our progressive feminist sensibilities of necessity bristle at the outright objectification of person that informs the plot of Lovecraft’s classic novella. But I was fixated on how its horror is not coexistent with, but seems to be dependent on the author’s xenophobic point-of-view, and wouldn't stop until everyone in the group either agreed or told me to cool it. Ultimately, we think the horror of The Horror at Red Hook actually originates precisely with this perspective of an incomprehension of other cultures. This view must be truly horrifying for one such as H. P. Lovecraft, given his novella’s multicultural melting-pot setting of contemporary 1924 Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Think Galactic- My Soul to Keep

For the October meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed "My Soul to Keep" (1997) by Tananarive Due.

The novel is pitched as a vampire story (though we had some debate about that), and reads as kind of a thriller/relationship drama. Discussion points and possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic- Buffy Season 8

For our first graphic novel discussion since "Saga", Think Galactic discussed "Buffy: Season 8" (2007-2011) by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty & many more writers/artists.

Taking place a bit after the events of the television show (which ended with Buffy & co. empowering thousands of other young women to have Slayer strength & abilities), "Season 8" follows the Scoobies in a much more global conflict with new villains. Possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic- Kabu Kabu

For the August convocation of Think Galactic (all meetings of Think Galactic are august convocations, FWIW), we discussed stories from "Kabu Kabu" (2013) by Nnedi Okorafor.

This collection spans most of her career to date, and those who read the whole thing reported that it works best to think of it that way—shows Okorafor and her worlds developing. A number of these stories are also the seeds or extracts from larger works, sometimes obviously so: weren't complete as short stories, though they might compellingly introduce us to bigger stories.

We had a surprisingly short conversation on this collection; most of us didn't have particularly strong reactions to it. We griped about some weak editing and little writerly things, but also praised the atmosphere in some of the stories, as well as the different tone and folk-tale-like distance in a few.

Think Galactic- Blindsight

For July's Think Galactic discussion, we talked about "Blindsight" (2006) by Peter Watts.

This book is awesome (says I) and this discussion was awesome (so say we all). So much so, in fact, that it's been a psychic block clogging up my Positron posting schedule, because I despair of trying to flesh out everything my notes record us saying without it turning into a book-length meditation. SO, without further ado, mostly unvarnished notes:

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Thursday, August 25th, 7pm

Open Books, 651 W. Lake St.
(Facebook Event Page)

For our second Megatext discussion, we're going to be talking about Octavia E. Butler (1946-2008), who's had a powerful impact on the genre. This discussion is being supported by Open Books, who are hosting, and by Think Galactic.

The idea behind the "Megatext" book club is that we talk about an author as a whole, rather than one specific book. Feel free to come if you've read everything Butler's written, if you've only read one book, or if you're just interested!

photo via Joshua Trujillo

Think Galactic- The Fifth Season

For our first post-Wiscon gathering, Think Galactic once more filed into the Upper Chambers of Myopic, this time to discuss N.K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season".

Jemisin's novel has been getting a lot of well-deserved recognition (shortlisted for the Nebula & Hugo awards, among others). It's set on a world beset by cycles of cataclysmic natural events, where humanity has only survived by a combination of "prepper" culture and the magical abilities of "orogenes", who can control seismic events. Through three different storylines, "The Fifth Season" explores this world and the way the orogenes have been oppressed. Spoilers below!

Last Wiscon 40 thoughts

It's hard to believe Wiscon's already two weeks in the past. It's such an experience-rich, though-provoking event. Combined with hectic work-weeks before and after, Wiscon does strange things to my perception of time.

I already posted some recaps of the Book Reviewers and Hive Mind panels, which were a blast. I don't have time to do in-depth recaps of the other three days of that glorious event, but I wanted to share a couple highlights and notes.

Friday evening, Think Galactic hosted a delightful party. TG was formed by Chicago folks inspired by Wiscon, and a good number of the group goes every year--we usually read at least one of the guests of honors' and Tiptree Winners' works.

So this year, we wanted to host a party, and it was a treat! Our theme was "Sci-Fi Saved My Life", and we encouraged people to bring meaningful quotes from SFF works, or to share positive stories about their engagement with speculative literature and culture.

Rousing success! We covered part of the wall in quotes, we had good beer on tap, the chocolate fountain was a hit, and the room decorations and lighting made for a great space. Also, we got to introduce many Wiscon-goers to Malort (Letherbee's Besk, actually), the infamous Chicago liqueur.

For the rest of the weekend, I bounced between academic panels, Guest of Honor events, and a few panels I was speaking on.

Think Galactic- Get In Trouble

Way back in May, before Wiscon, Think Galactic discussed Kelly Link's short story collection "Get In Trouble" (2015). Which is just darn tootin' good, you should read it.

As is our custom with collections, we pre-selected a few for focused discussion, although in this case we did wind up talking about most all of the stories. "Summer People", "Secret Identity", "Two Houses", and "Light" were our focal stories.

Lots of questions of reality & identity, lots of interweaving of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and even superhero elements throughout this collection. All delivered in this style that's kind of Lethem crossed with O'Connor crossed with...someone who writes sexy stuff. Brief discussion sketches and possible spoilers below:

My Wiscon Schedule

Just about ready to head to scenic Madison, WI for Wiscon! Here's my agenda thus far:

Friday Night, you should really come to Think Galactic's party: "Sci-Fi Saved My Life". We encourage everyone to bring quotes or passages from SF/F works that have inspired you; we're going to have post-it notes to share with. Rescue-or-savior-related costumes are encouraged! There will be drinks! The party gets going at 8:45pm in Room 627.

"Expanding the Lexicon of Fantasy: The Works of Sofia Samatar" is Saturday, 2:30pm in Conference 4. I'm very excited to be on this panel, we've got so much to talk about. Highly recommended, Samatar is one of the best and most intriguing writers right now, and all of us on the panel have been talking about a whole slew of diverse topics we want to examine and celebrate.

Sunday, I'm on the panel "Why I'm Ashamed to Call Myself an Atheist", which is a bit weird--I'm not ashamed to call myself an atheist, and neither are any of the other folks on the panel. We're spinning the discussion a bit from the original panel description, still looking at issues within various atheist/secular groups and movements (Dawkins' racism/sexism, for instance), but focusing more on positive, intersectional directions and figures. I was more than a bit wary of this panel at first, but after some reassuring back-and-forth with the moderator and other panelists, I'm looking forward to it (especially since lack of secular representation was a concern of mine last year). 4pm in the Caucus.

And finally and most excitingly, I'll be presenting my academic paper on Cherryh & Levinas as part of the "Alien Intimacies and Alternative Worlds" panel, Monday at 8:30am in Conference 3. I am incredibly stoked about this; the paper I'm presenting is a part of, really the heart of, the work I've been doing on Cherryh for a little over a decade now. I'm also looking forward to my co-panelists' talks: Kate Fruend-Heuer's "Families as (Re-)Defined by Octavia Butler" and Alexis Lothian's "It's the Future, But It Looks Like the Present: Queer Speculative Imaginaries".

Seriously, Wiscon is the best. If you're going this weekend, please say hello if you'd like! I'm Jake Casella, it'll say so on my badge!

So much good stuff on the schedule! And really, just a wonderful environment, wonderful folks. Look for site updates and live-tweeting as time & technology allow; Positron will resume normal service next week!

Think Galactic- Souls

For the last meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Joanna Russ's 1982 novella "Souls". Fairly brief notes and minor spoilers below:

Megatext 1: China Miéville

I'm very pleased to announce an exciting book discussion series that we're calling Megatext, where we won't talk about only one book--instead, we'll discuss an author, digging into themes and topics. The idea here is that you needn't have read everything, or even more than one book, but you're interested in their work and ideas as a whole.

This discussion is being supported by Open Books, who are hosting, and by Think Galactic, who have been talking about this idea since gushing over the fictional SF/F club in Jo Walton's "Among Others". Besides having an insightful discussion, however, one of my goals for this group is to bring together some readers from as many of the other SF/F groups of Chicagoland (and there are many) as we can, and perhaps also bring in some new folks.

Megatext 1: China Miéville

Thursday, March 24 6:30pm

Open Books, 651 W. Lake St.
(Facebook Event Page)

 Discussing Marxism & Halloween.

For the first meeting, we're going to discuss China Miéville! Here's how this works:

1. Read one or more things that he's written. I have some suggestions below.
2. Come to the meeting!
3. We'll have a little bit of structure--a quick introduction/overview and some comments. Possibly some Provocative Remarks or Questions. We liked the idea of having one or more moderators/discussion leaders for these Megatext meetings, and I will be trying that hat on for Miéville.
4. Then we'll go around and discuss! The format of this will depend a bit on how many people show up, and what we want to talk about. Feel free to just listen in if you don't feel like discussing.
5. Afterwards, possibly a jaunt to a local pub of some kind.

 Some ideas on what to read, and what we might discuss, below:

Think Galactic- Elysium

For the March convocation of Think Galactic, we discussed "Elysium" by Jennifer Marie Brissett.

This novel is *really* difficult to describe without spoiling. And also just difficult to describe...The key feature that strikes one first is the gender-swapping of all the main characters, from chapter to chapter, sometimes from sentence to sentence. As it goes on, there are elements of dystopia, alien invasion, and AI.

Spoilerific and intriguing discussion points below:

Think Galactic- Liar

Last time at Think Galactic: we discussed "Liar" (2009) by Justine Larbalestier. It's a YA novel with lots of twists. I can't say anything about it without entering spoiler territory. Huge spoilers after the jump:

Think Galactic- Stations of the Tide

For January's Think Galactic, we discussed Michael Swanwick's 1991 novel "Stations of the Tide".

The novel is set an indeterminate but considerable time in the future. Humans have colonized other solar systems, and our action mostly takes place in the Tidewater region of the planet Miranda, which is periodically flooded. Our protagonist, a nameless bureaucrat, has been sent from the advanced space-borne societies to track down Gregorian, a Mirandan who may have stolen some dangerous replicating technology.

On one level, it's a straightforward science-fictional riff on the noirish detective tale, flavored with some bureaucratic spook business. Despite its relative brevity, though (250ish pages), there's a surprising number of levels here, threads and allusions and alternate plot interpretations constantly seeping in.

So, as you can imagine, a nice discussion. Spoilers below!

Think Galactic- Octavia's Brood

For the last Think Galactic meeting of 2015, we discussed the collection "Octavia's Brood", edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown.

The collection brings together writers who are active in social justice movements, many of who don't normally work in the short SF/F form, to pay tribute to the kind of "visionary fiction" embodied in the work of Octavia Butler.

We were a bit split over the collection as a whole. We all agreed that we liked the idea of the project and the ideas being engaged with. However, some of us found the execution extremely weak in many (though not all) of the stories. An interesting discussion.

We closed the discussion by making our own list of transformative or visionary fiction, and also selected books for the first half of next year.

Think Galactic: Saga

For the last meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed "Saga" (2012-), the comic series by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples. We focused on the earlier volumes, but a few of us had read out as far as Volume 5/Issue 30 or so.

Fun discussion. We were pretty forthright about not being terribly versed in the current state of comics and graphic novels, which made it a little interesting. One of the more interesting parts of our discussion was looking at reading strategies when visual art is present, some of us noting that we missed details in the imagery while rushing to the next text-bubble.

We definitely mostly liked it. Definitely mostly. Much discussion of the core themes of parenthood, violence, sex, and the nature of open-ended serial works. Possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic Extra-Special Un-Book Meeting

This week we had a bonus Think Galactic meeting: not a book discussion, but just to hang out and discuss some possible group improvements. We met at Geek Bar, which we were delighted to learn is soon graduating from "Beta" to "Release" versions, and we were able to acquire the most conspiracy-worthy booth in the place.

I'd brought up the idea of the meeting last time, after discussions with some other members--basically wanting to see if we could build in some more socializing time somehow.

Success! Three main points being:

1. Pre-book club dinner, on a casual/drop-in/show-up basis. Location will be picked at the previous meeting and/or communicated out through Wordpress/Facebook/Goodreads/crude handbills.
2. Meetings will wrap up at 9:30pm, to allow us
3. To grab a post-meeting drink if we desire.

We're going to keep this stuff on the same night as club to make it easier for folks with busy schedules/long transit times. Also keep an eye out for the Think Galactic Hat, Sash, and Staff/Stick of Non-Hierarchical Non-Authority, signalling Our Presence.

We also talked about possibly bringing back the tradition of snacks at club, which predates me, but about which everyone got rather excited.

We discussed a number of local/less local cons that we go to or are interested in going to--Windycon, Gen Con, and ValorCon, and the DePaul one-day conferences they've been doing.  Also brought up Worldcon--in Kansas City, MO this year, and thus unusually-easy to get to. I'm planning on going and am hoping to meet up with "Traincon" (con folks who travel by train).

Think Galactic has a lot of resonance with Wiscon, having been inspired by it and with many of us attending--so we're planning to do a room party next time! And otherwise up our visibility slightly--we know that there must be Chicagoans attending Wiscon who aren't aware of Think Galactic, which is a tragedy!

Think GalactiCon came up again...I'd like to think that this is very, very slowly gathering momentum. We were all a bit dismayed by the idea of the work involved though, especially given that Think Galactic as is does a wonderful job of providing what we actually want: talking about books. Still. Hm.

Finally, two things about book club. Firstly, we discussed (without a firm resolution) occasionally having a club meet at a different location (perhaps North along the red line, perhaps something South or West) to make it easier for folks to get to a meeting--Chicago transit being oddly difficult along certain directions (particularly NE/SW diagonals).

Secondly, something we've been kicking around since reading Jo Walton's "Among Others"- an occasional "Megatext Book Club" that focuses on an author or a theme rather than one particular book. I'm pretty psyched about this, actually. Points:

• Won't replace or conflict with the usual Think Galactic book clubs.
• Probably to be held quarterly or less, at least to start.
• Each meeting will have at least one organizer/discussion leader to structure it.
• Will meet someplace centrally-accessible. Open Books and Harold Washington Library are our two main ideas right now.
• Will try to pull together new folks--from other existing book groups and beyond.

 Much excite! Look for a likely first run in February or March.

Very glad we had this discussion--Think Galactic in particular, and the Chicago SF scene more generally, have been one of the most positive things for me since moving here, and I'd really like to hang out more with these folks, do some more word-spreading (the whole point of Positron, really), and maybe set up some other activities.

Balkanization abounds! Follow this conversation on TG's site, Facebook, and Goodreads (and thanks to John for notes in that thread).

Think Galactic: Vampire Junction & Annihilation

For October's meeting of Think Galactic, we had a Monster Mash: a double-header book-club featuring S.P. Somtow's "Vampire Junction" (1984) and Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" (2014). Spooky stuff.

While we had a fairly low completion rate for "Vampire Junction", we had a pretty interesting discussion, especially qua horror novel.

"Annihilation" generated a ton of discussion--it's a really engaging novel from a literary angle, and doing a lot of interesting things with genre as well. We got pretty far out on some possibly shaky but definitely fruitful theoretical branches for this one.

Probable spoilers, Monster Mash MIDIs below:

Think Galactic: The Girl in the Road

Meeting once again amidst the erudite shelves and, if our cellular devices are to be believed, Faraday-cage-lined walls of Myopic Books, the ornately robed members of Think Galactic cast back their cowls, exchanged a few cryptic, sweeping gestures, then sat at the circle to discuss Monica Byrne's 2014 novel "The Girl in the Road".

Girls and roads plural both, as it turns out. Byrne's novel weaves together two different stories. Mariama is a refugee girl whose travels take her to Ethiopia, while Meena is a young Indian woman who, fleeing violence, decides to walk "The Trail"--an ocean-spanning tidal generator that stretches from Mumbai to Djibouti.

We none of us quite knew how to summarize our reaction to this book. It's well written--with the caveat that neither narrator is completely reliable. And the characters are well-drawn--but we found it a little hard to sympathize with them nonetheless.

It's definitely a powerful book, and--one doesn't want to say haunting, but definitely a little hard to get out of the mind. One can easily see why it was awarded the Tiptree. More of our thoughts and, most definitely, SPOILERS, below.

Silence and Bright Flashing Lights: A Brief Look at Irrationality in Earthsea and VALIS

John Lodder

At least one version of my paper starts with a joke that if Aristotle secretly wrote science fiction and fantasy as well as philosophy, and the scholastics recovered it and translated it along with De Anima and the Nicomachean Ethics and everything else, would we still have the same persistent notion today of humans as the distinctly rational animals despite the ancient and fantastical stories of space aliens and talking dragons, of intelligences human and otherwise?

Think Galactic: Station Eleven

Most stations only go to ten.
This is one more.

For the last convocation of Think Galactic, we discussed "Station Eleven" (2014) by Emily St. John Mendel.

"Station Eleven" is, partially, a post-apocalyptic tale, of the survivors-making-do-in-the-aftermath variety. But it's written more from the tradition of what we were calling "high", "modern", or "literary" fiction, and has a lot of focus on art and memory, among other things.

Definitely a good read, well-written, and we all rather liked it; we did, however, have some criticisms of the novel qua post-apocalypse. While there's nothing off-puttingly unrealistic about the world of "Station Eleven", those of us who have spent more time reading/watching/thinking about apocalyptic scenarios wound up pulling at loose threads pretty hard.

Possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic: Feed

Last time at Think Galactic, we discussed Mira Grant's "Feed" (2010), a novel that has in it: zombies. Also journalism? It was a fun if somewhat aggravating read, and we had a good discussion.

"Feed" takes place a few decades in the future, and a bit after a zombie infection has taken a big chunk out of the world population, and remains an ongoing threat. Our protagonists are a team of bloggers--independent journalists/entertainers, really--who follow a contender for the presidential nomination as he begins the election trail. Along the way: zombies.

I took a ton of notes at this one--our criticism leans towards the madcap at a times. Which, befitting the ravenous unlife being resisted, I shall record with LOTS OF BULLETS. IN QUOTES are CLEVER THINGS that PEOPLE SAID. Almost certainly, there are spoilers below:

Think Galactic: Mothership

The full version of this John Jennings cover is worth sharing.
Via collection contributor Rochita Loenen-Ruiz.

For the last meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed some selections from "Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond", edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall, and published by Rosarium. It's a really diverse collection, and Sara picked us a good handful of stories to focus on:

Lots of Upcoming Events

Just a quick note that the Upcoming Events list is looking very fleshed out for quite a while--particularly thanks to Think Galactic, Forest Park Speculative Fiction, and the Lisle SF & F Club, all of whom make their selections in glorious, calendar-sweeping chunks. Special shout-out to Lisle for also including books that sounded great but didn't quite make the cut on their website (page one & page two).

I've also updated some con & other information on the calendars. I try to include some of the major academic & fannish cons at the national level, regardless of location, if they're significant to the readerly population; for Chicagoland and nearby I try to keep a more comprehensive/inclusive list.

Keep checking back, as many groups don't select until the month before, so the calender is always getting populated with more. And let me know if I'm missing anything at positronchicago@gmail.com. Happy summer reading!

Think Galactic: Ancillary Justice

Much overdue on this one: Wiscon etc. happened right after. Apologies in advance, have a handful of writeups to knock out before we're caught up.

Also this has been a much-discussed book, including a number of discussions at clubs I didn't attend or before Positron started.

But! Ancillary Justice! Ann Leckie! Think Galactic!

This Hugo-winning novel certainly created a lot of buzz; it's one of those books that an unusually high percentage of SF/F folks have read and have opinions about. Which is cool! Canons are problematic, but having a set of touchstones in common is, I would opine, extremely valuable for any community, and helps to prevent some of the cultural balkanization that can otherwise occur.

But I digress! Possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic: The Summer Prince

Alaya Dawn Johnson's "The Summer Prince" (2013) is set a few centuries after some nigh-apocalyptic events: a "Y plague" that wiped out greater than two thirds of the male population, some kind of massive nuclear exchange that has left large swathes of the planet radioactive, and the resulting nuclear winter that seems to have made most of the temperate zones too cold for dense human civilization. Oh, and it's a YA work, set in a utopian (or is it DYSTOPIAN?! DUN DUN DUN) mega-city-structure in Brazil, where elected kings (I'm not sure that's what king means but whatever) reign for one year before being ritually sacrificed as they select the queen, who's the real ruler.

Yep, that's the gist of it. Oh and also there's a lot of stuff about art and art-as-politics and fame and fame-as-politics. I found myself enjoying the book quite a bit, as long as I remembered to do some eye-ball stretching so as not to strain anything with occasional YA-induced rolling. And we had a pretty delightful discussion of it at Think Galactic. Possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic: A Stranger in Olondria

A book is a fortress,

a place of weeping,

the key to a desert,

a river that has no bridge,

a garden of spears.

Oh my goodness, "A Stranger in Olondria" (2013). I was unprepared for how this book was going to sweep me away. Indeed, I reverted to a reading pattern from my youth that I haven't done in a long time: I simply devoured the book in a few sittings over a day or two, then immediately went back to the beginning and read it more slowly.

Sofia Samatar's first full-length novel and most recent winner of the World Fantasy Award, "Stranger" is a very unusual fantasy. At a plot level, it's unusual, though not terribly complex--a wealthy young man visits a much larger and cosmopolitan nation, is haunted by a ghost (which has religious/political ramifications), goes through a lot to be exorcised, goes home. The texture, details, and themes of the story, though, are incredibly rich, and I can already tell this is a book I'll be revisiting a lot.

We had a wonderful discussion of the book at Think Galactic, and were very pleased to welcome a new member who also attends the Classic Sci-Fi Meetup. Possible spoilers below, although I don't really think this is the kind of novel that can be spoiled:

Think Galactic: 40,000 in Gehenna

Perhaps the least-bad
of the cover illustrations.

So it's no secret: C.J. Cherryh is one of my favorite authors, and I've read, re-read, and written about her work pretty extensively. Thus, I felt a little trepidation leading up to the last Think Galactic meeting-- not everyone is a fan of Cherryh's style, and as the book-suggester (and lover) I was worried about how the group would receive it. Then, I started reading "40,000 in Gehenna" (1983) for the nth time, and forgot all my fears, because it's really an excellent novel, rich in themes and ideas. We had a great discussion about it, ranging all over the place.

"Gehenna" is a great example of "future history SF". Rather than following a particular character or plot, the novel instead explores a place and situation over a good deal of time--in this case, the founding, foundering, and evolution of the Gehenna colony over about three centuries. It's set within Cherryh's large, consistent, but not very series-based "Alliance-Union" universe. Union's settlement of Gehenna, composed primarily of the cloned "azi" workers, is designed to fail--but Union doesn't account for the intrusion of the supposedly non-intelligent native life, the pseudo-reptilian calibans. When the planet is ceded to the Alliance government, they find human cultures that have developed in strange directions. That's just a rough synopsis, and there are likely to be SPOILERS BELOW:

Think Galactic: A Wizard of Earthsea (and some lengthy YA digressions)

Thursday was a truly delightful discussion of Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" (1968) with Think Galactic. While we spent a lot of time talking about things we were struck by--the language, the Taoist influences, the unusual handling of race but the shockingly (especially for Le Guin) patriarchal handling of gender--we also seemed to feel more comfortable than normal jotting sideways to talk about other works. "Earthsea" is a contemporary of so many other "early" fantasy works, it's had a clear influence on YA fantasy, and we also talked a bit about sources and pre-"Earthsea" fantasy.

*fair warning: I digress a bit on YA below. But only as inspired by our lovely discussion! I should also probably restate the general disclaimer on these posts:inspired by group discussions, and I try to bring in & attribute the group's & individual's thoughts and comments as much as I can without recording everything, but the write-ups are my own response and thoughts on the work. So, please, read any wrong/offensive/whacked-out statements as no one's but my own, and don't give me too much credit for any of the good bits: might be accidentally ripping off someone else at the table!*

TG: Beyond Binary

Last night Think Galactic discussed "Beyond Binary", a collection of genderqueer/sexually-fluid SF/F edited by Brit Mandelo.

We liked the collection, particularly the 4 stories John selected for us to focus on (“Fisherman” by Nalo Hopkinson, "A Wild and Wicked Youth”‘ by Ellen Kushner, “Spoiling Veena” by Keyan Bowes, and “The Metamorphosis Bud” by Liu Wen Zhuang).

TG: Rupetta

This last Thursday Think Galactic discussed Nike Sulway's 2013 novel "Rupetta", which is the most recent winner of the Tiptree award. A good read, and a good discussion!