Fiction and Beforeigners

Beforeigners is an HBO show set in Norway, 7 years after people from earlier time periods started appearing in numbers. Meret turned me on to it and it is amazing. Not only are there a ton of witty details about what life would be like, it also has a charismatic lead and some interesting things to say both about (1) immigration/anti-immigrant sentiment and (2) how people get inured to previously unbelievable and you-would-have-thought-intolerable situations, which has obvious relevance to the current situation. People are arriving from a thousand years ago! Ugh, is that still happening? The female lead was a Viking (but we don't use that term any more) shieldmaiden, and warriors aren't supposed to become police officers, so she just told them she was a farmwife, and they had no idea how to evaluate that claim so they believed her. Does have police work, but not US police work, so I hope it's tolerable?

My daughter and I also powered through the new She-Ra, which was great (though I think I still like Steven Universe better). Next up: new season of Lucifer, then probably Legend of Korra.


Veronica Roth, The Chosen Ones: ( after the victory )

K.M. Szpara, Docile: ( slavefic )

T. Kingfisher, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking: ( weaponized dough )

Stephen King, If It Bleeds: ( story collection/more Holly Gibney )

The Year’s Best Science Fiction 2019, ed. Jonathan Strahan. ( Good stuff )

Tasha Suri, Empire of Sand: ( desert magic )

Edited By, ed. Ellen Datlow: ( prolific editor )

Best of British Fantasy 2019: ( horror creeps into fantasy )

K.B. Wagers, A Pale Light in the Black: ( space adventure with games )

K.B. Wagers, After the Crown:( gunrunner turned Empress )

Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft:( mysterious keys )