dawn.vogel | November 20, 2024
Jamie Lackey’s Toil and Trouble (2024) is a delightful retelling of Pride and Prejudice that integrates witchcraft and LGBTQ+ characters seamlessly into the Regency setting, offering a fresh take on the Austen classic. The book opens with Mrs. Bennet making a deal with a witch–in exchange for her daughters Lizzie and Mary, her fifth child will be […]
dawn.vogel | November 13, 2024
So there I am, chilling out, when I get a message from one of my friends. Their sitter is ill. Is there any chance I can come over and kid-sit for them that night? My schedule was clear, so off I went! The kids in question are three very smart, very nerdy kids. The eldest was […]
dawn.vogel | October 30, 2024
Yaroslav Barsukov’s Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, 2024) is an expansion of his novella, “Tower of Mud and Straw,” which I reviewed previously. Now as a full length novel, the story expands beyond its earlier constraints and plays more with the theme of memories in this fantastical world! The original novella […]
dawn.vogel | October 23, 2024
I’ve gotten a ton of anthologies and novellas from Neon Hemlock, and now they’re running a Kickstarter for a new anthology, Shatter the Sun! The anthology will collect stories, a poem, a game, and a comic (and possibly more) in the queer sword and sorcery genre. You can back the Kickstarter for just this anthology or […]
dawn.vogel | October 16, 2024
Like many gamers, Jeremy picked up a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 pretty much as soon as it came out. In fact, I think that game was the impetus for him getting a new laptop, with specs that could handle the game. Since it’s on his laptop, rather than on a console, I hear it more […]
dawn.vogel | October 9, 2024
Alex Kingsley’s Empress of Dust (Space Wizard Science Fantasy, 2024) is an amazingly compelling post-apocalyptic fantasy novel with magnificent worldbuilding and wonderful characters, including several LGBTQIA+ and non-human characters! Harvard is a scavenger of the wasteland and “dusts” surrounding the walled city of Bastion, but he’s the weakest member of his crew, the Ivies, and […]
dawn.vogel | September 18, 2024
One of my favorite things about most of the video games Jeremy plays is the characters. Like, I don’t really care that much about the plot or the gameplay, but I inevitably have a character (or three) who I really glom onto. In the case of Saints Row the Third and beyond, that character is Kinzie […]
dawn.vogel | September 11, 2024
The Strange Locations anthology, edited by Marissa Van Uden (Apex Book Company, 2024), is a limited release collection of dark speculative travel guides told in microfiction format. Tiny and beautifully crafted, each of these thirty brief tales hints at a larger story of an unusual place. There were a few pieces that really stood out […]
dawn.vogel | August 28, 2024
Alex Jeffers’ A Mourning Coat (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a lushly written, cozy novella about what happens after the death of a loved one for whom you gave up much of your own life. Set in a world just slightly removed from our own, with a minimal bit of contemporary fantasy elements, the story weaves together […]
dawn.vogel | August 21, 2024
Rich Larson’s The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches (Shacklebound Books, 2024) is a brilliant collection of dark sci-fi flash fiction. With fantastic characters and killer twists, this collection is sure to delight fans of the genre and format! As with most collections, I have a number of favorites, but I enjoyed all of the […]
