Category: Tempest Challenge

Tempest Challenge #22 – Women are DESTROYING EVERYTHING

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

The “Women Destroy” issues of Lightspeed, Fantasy, and Nightmare Magazine are master classes in how women have always been important to all of these genres–yes, even science fiction. They’re really anthologies with a mix of original fiction, reprints, flash, essays, and author interviews.

In this video I talk about a few of my favorites and about the importance of these issues to the genre, both present and past. If you have ever wanted to introduce someone to SF, fantasy, or horror and give them a taste of modern as well as classic, this is an excellent place to start.

Would love to hear your thoughts on how women are destroying everything on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Women Destroy Science Fiction directly from the publisher, at Powell’s, or at Amazon. Buy Women Destroy Fantasy directly from the publisher, at Powell’s, or at Amazon. Buy Women Destroy Horror directly from the publisher, at Powell’s, or at Amazon.

 

TempestvChallenge Delicious Foods

Tempest Challenge #21 – Delicious Foods by James Hannaham

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Another guest challenger for this video: Gabriel Squailia, author of Dead Boys. Gabriel is actually taking the Tempest Challenge and this is the first book he read for it. Delicious Foods by James Hannaham sounds like a super intense book for many reasons, including the fact that Crack cocaine is a viewpoint character. “A silky, Satanic voice,” according to Gabriel. That’s deep.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Delicious Foods on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Delicious Foods from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge Ink

Tempest Challenge #20 – Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Last year at ReaderCon I asked some friends to be guest challengers for the Tempest Challenge and several said yes! Score. This is the first of those videos. Author Gabby Reed, who is the best, talks about why you should read Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias. It’s a book that deals with issues around immigration, which is in no way relevant to current events, right? Science fiction, oh you.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Ink on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Ink from Powell’s or Amazon.

TC Razorhurst

Tempest Challenge #19 – Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Razorhurst is set in Sydney, Australia 1932. The protagonists are women and the characters AREN’T all white. What. How can this be? It’s a sneaky plot by Justine Larbalestier to make her books realistic and relevant or something. Justine continues to eschew uncomplicated and simple narratives about young people with this amazing historical novel. If you haven’t read her other books, start here and work your way back and do not pass Liar or How to Ditch Your Fairy on your way to GO.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Razorhurst on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Razorhurst from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge Uprooted

Tempest Challenge #18 – Uprooted by Naomi Novik

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Next up on the Challenge: Uprooted. This novel is on the Nebula ballot for best novel and I am thrilled that this is so. The book deserves it. I’m still trying to figure out how Naomi Novik squeezed an entire trilogy’s worth of worldbuilding, plot, and action into a single book. It’s a thick book, sure. Not that thick, though! And yet it feels like in the hands of a less skilled writer this would be a sprawling trilogy with a middle book that leaves readers frustrated until they read the end. Skip all that and just read this.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Uprooted on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Uprooted from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #17 – Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

After many months away, the Tempest Challenge videos are back. I’m doing a bunch of new things around these videos this month and next, and the plan is to keep going on a regular basis for at least another year. I’ll need some help from you (yes, you!)–details on that to come.

Meantime, my latest challenge is Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Love is the Drug, a YA Mystery told from the perspective of a voice we don’t often see in fiction: an upper class black teen girl.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Love is the Drug on the #KTBookChallenge tag on Twitter and Tumblr or the comments here or on YouTube. And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Love is the Drug from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #16: Archangel by Marguerite Reed & Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Took a long hiatus, sorry! I wanted to get out the last of the Wisdom from WisCon suggestions. This week’s books feature characters that AREN’T isolated from their families and communities, plus gorgeous writing and awesome covers.

This week’s challengers: Margurite Reed and Gretchen T of A Room of One’s Own bookstore.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Archangel (The Chronicles of Ubastis) by Marguerite Reed from A Room of One’s Own, Powell’s, or Amazon; or Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett from A Room of One’s Own, Powell’s, or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #15: A Stranger in Olondria, Solitaire, Water Logic, Kindred, and the Parable series

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Lots of books on the list of recommendations this week, all courtesy of our guest challengers from WisCon. That dealer’s room is full of must reads. Another reason to go next year :)

This week’s books feature women in lead roles, queer characters, lushly drawn worlds, women of color wrestling with the future and the past, plus deep questions about the role of religion in human history.

This week’s challengers: Meghan McCarron and Chesya Burke.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar from Powell’s or Amazon; or Solitaire: a novel by Kelley Eskridge from Powell’s and Amazon; or The Elemental Logic series by Laurie J. Marks from Powell’s or Amazon; or Kindred by Octavia Butler from Powell’s or Amazon; or Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #14: Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith & Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

In this episode, WisCon Challenges You! There were so many amazing books for sale at the WisCon Feminist Science Fiction Convention that I couldn’t decide which ones to challenge you to read. So I got some of the amazing authors who attended the con to pick for me.

This week’s challengers: Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell.

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith from Powell’s or Amazon; or Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell from Powell’s or Amazon.

Tempest Challenge #13: The Woodcutter/Arilland Series by Alethea Kontis

By:  TempestTempest Challenge

Series Month continues on the Tempest Challenge. This week’s books are Enchanted, Hero, & Dearest by Alethea Kontis. And guess who helped me talk about these fabulous books? Alethea Kontis! Always awesome when I can get an author to talk to me about their books.

We didn’t talk about it in this episode since the video was recorded long ago, but the first book in Alethea’s parallel series is also out now! Trixter takes place during books two and three of the Woodcutter Sisters books. Read that, too!

And, as always, you can support me making Tempest Challenge vids by clicking the links below when you…

Buy Enchanted from Powell’s or Amazon; or Hero from Powell’s or Amazon; or Dearest from Powell’s or Amazon; or Trixter from Amazon.