In the Triangle, every year is a banner year for local science fiction, fantasy, and genre fiction. 2020 was no exception.
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Posted inBooks
Our Year in Speculative Fiction
Our speculative-fiction expert runs down the best sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre books the Triangle produced this year.
Posted inBooks
Women Have Toppled the Patriarchy in The Bond, Robin Kirk’s Cautionary Tale of Genocide
Kirk, an accomplished nonfiction writer and human-rights advocate, launches her debut YA novel at The Regulator on Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Posted inCulture
In Raleigh, a New Speculative Fiction Star Bursts Into Being: Get to Know Empire of Silence Author Christopher Ruocchio
Christopher Ruocchio Friday, Jul. 6, 7 p.m., free Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh You may not have heard of the young Raleigh author Christopher Ruocchio yet, but science fiction and fantasy readers around the world now know his name. Just last year, Ruocchio finished an MFA at N.C. State under the tutelage of John Kessel, whose […]
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Though the Triangle Produces All Kinds of Books, Its Genre Writers Make the Most Noise. Here Are Some of Our Favorites of 2017.
There was plenty to love about the year in speculative fiction by local authors, especially for those whose thoughts turn toward the stars. Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes sets interstellar sail for a distant colony with a motley crew of clones at the controls. Unfortunately, all six wake up in the cloning bay surrounded by their […]
Posted inArt
Love and Biotech Coexist in Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne
JEFF VANDERMEER: BORNE Saturday, July 22, 5 p.m., free Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill www.flyleafbooks.com In the phantasmagorical fiction of Tallahassee-based novelist Jeff VanderMeer, people are often rendered as both occupier and occupied, both parasite and host. While alienation, infection, and corruption have long been his themes, it was the surreal, fungal world of 2009’s Finch […]
Posted inCulture
Interview: Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway Puts an Optimistic Spin on the Disaster Novel
Cory Doctorow: Walkaway Friday, May 5, 7 p.m., free (signing line with book purchase) Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill In his new book, Walkaway, the writer, activist, and digital polymath Cory Doctorow envisions a quasi-utopian future in which people walk away from a corrupt society that has ignored climate change and allowed inequality to rise, making […]
Posted inArt
Sabaa Tahir and Renée Ahdieh Ply Young-Adult Fantasy With Middle Eastern Lore
Sabaa Tahir in Conversation with Renée Ahdieh Tuesday, September 6, 7 p.m., free Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh The roots of Arabian science fiction run as deep as those of the golden age of Islamic science and mathematics, which gave us algebra, algorithms, and names for the numeral zero and the star Aldebaran. Ibn al-Nafis wrote […]
Posted inCulture
Roman Vampire Lords, Telepathic Trees, and Smartphone Witch-Hunting Apps at Quail Ridge Books
Tony Daniel: The Dragon Hammer Thursday, July 28, 7 p.m. Thomas Olde Heuvelt: Hex Monday, August 1, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books just celebrated its grand reopening in North Hills. Two events there this week also basically reopen the Triangle’s speculative-fiction events calendar after a quiet start to the summer. […]
Posted inCulture
In Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Science-Fiction Writer Lawrence M. Schoen Poignantly Probes Our Relationship With Death
Lawrence M. Schoen Flyleaf Books, Thursday, Feb. 4, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Friday, Feb. 5, 7 p.m. When was the last time a science-fiction novel made you cry? Until recently, I would have said it was Cormac McCarthy’s emotionally devastating The Road, which I read as a new father. But then I read Barsk: […]