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Crossing the Line

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock: “How do people handle age of consent in scifi and fantasy? Hell, even in the US of A we have differing ages of consent depending on the state you’re in. How do people feel when a 13 year-old character in a fantasy setting is having sex, or a 14 year-old alien is selling their body on the streets (when adulthood for those aliens is at a younger age). Where’s the line in spec fiction? How about how this relates to current LGBT issues (see Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Beau)? What if you … Read more

Announcement: First Love, by Andrew Q. Gordon

Andrew Q. Gordon has a new free fantasy read out from Dreamspinner, a prequel to his book “The Last Grand Master”: On a visit to Yar-del with Grand Master Heminaltose to celebrate his age of majority birthday, Farrell catches the eye of Lieutenant Cameron, a handsome young officer in the Queenʼs Guard. But having spent most of his life cooped up at Heminaltoseʼs school for wizards, Farrell is clueless as to palace intrigue. He is unaware that his access to the queen is something others would greatly prize. When the queen points out that his suitor is the son of … Read more

Making Organs

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Cari Zee: “My husband’s been working on making cell scaffolds in bioreactors, the sort of thing you could use to make new joints and organs if you seeded/implanted them right. I love the concept of meta-materials, both organic and inorganic–how one base can become many different things depending on placement and stimulation.”. There are so many possibilities here – both positive and negative. Think of the diseases we could curer? Or think of the abuses we have made against animals (see the photo above) in the name of the advancement of the medical sciences. So … Read more

Review: “Psychic Storm” by Aasheim, Andrijeski, Chase, Ellisson, Hunter, MacDonald, Mayer, Price, Ryan, Wood

Note: This bundle was mainly MF Spec Fic Romance, but I was asked to do a review because it does have one MM book in it.  I wanted to support the fact that a MM novel was included in a MF bundle.  I would like more people to read LGBTQ+ fiction, and I think that this is a great idea.  Let’s keep a watch on how this goes…  Here’s to the future!   I love psychic abilities in my speculation fiction, and this bundle had everything from dream-walkers to life-stealers to clairvoyants, and yes, a few of our protagonists can … Read more

Announcement: Knight Moves, by Various Authors

Amber Quill Press has a new collection of five stories about MM knights: Against A Wounded Landscape by Vivien Dean Description: New from Vivien Dean, author of the Amber Allure best-sellers A Soul Remembered and Aria Of The Eclipse. Sir Tanash, the greatest knight Tasora has ever known, has one quest–to rescue his king’s only son. Fifteen years ago, Princy Liseny was kidnapped, and in the time since, Tasora has crumbled. By bringing the prince home, Tanash hopes to return the kingdom to its former glory. As captive in a rival land, Liseny has spent most of his life locked … Read more

Announcement: Recipe for Magic, by Agatha Bird

Dreamspinner author Agatha Bird has a new MM fantasy out: Connor Roth is a fire mage who’s going places. He’s powerful, popular, and he has a plan. But his plan for fame and glory is disrupted when the Oracle sticks him with Landyn Glendower for Senior Trial. This is an act unprecedented in their school’s history. Landyn is a water mage, and everyone knows mages with opposing elements can’t work magic together. Connor is left with a choice: work alone and fail or swallow his pride and work with Landyn to find a way to combine their magic in a … Read more

Anouncement: Firestorm, by Rory Ni Coileain

QSFer Rory Ni Coileain has a new Fantasy MM romance out: Rian Sheridan is a foundling, a Northern Irish Catholic corner boy whose world was destroyed in fire, and reborn the same way, beside an Orangemen’s bonfire last July the Twelfth. A consuming, dimly-remembered pain in his past calls to him, taunting him, daring him to find it and lose himself to it in the S&M underground of Belfast. Cuinn an Dearmad is the last surviving Fae Loremaster, and he’s just seen the beginning of the death of the Realm, the haven of the Fae race. The only hope of … Read more

The Drugs of Tomorrow

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock: “How about drugs in a fantasy or scifi setting. Should they be different than drugs we are familiar with, or the same – with weird names to make them sound different.” I thought Angel covered this topic really well in Vassily the Beautiful, where a futuristic drug that’s near-impossible to kick was used as an important plot element. So what will future drugs look like / do? How might they be used in LGBT storylines? A new type of testosterone? A drug that can switch your orientation (or gender) for a night?

Announcement: Untrustworthy, by JR Gershen-Siegel

QSFer JR Gershen-Siegel has a new sci fi book out: Tathrelle is the only liberal in the Cabossian government, representing the will of the people, and responsible for communicating with them how the war with the Cavirii is going. She has a pregnant wife and all seems well. The future seems promising, until she meets her new assistant. Something is off with the man. But when Tathrelle wakes up the following morning, subtle changes have happened overnight. She shrugs it off. Then it happens again. And again. Someone, somehow, is changing all of that, as Tathrelle begins to wonder if … Read more

Hormones and Misspent Youth

QSFer John Allenson provided today’s topic of the day: “If you want to see what happens when a male is driven insane by an onslaught of hormones observe any teenage boy. Males hit their hormonal peak at age 17 while the part of the brain that controls impulse doesn’t finish developing until the early twenties. Any of the Transmen that I know will talk about how the first few injections of Vitamin T (testosterone) gives them roid rage.” Peter Hamilton explored this a bit in his sci fi book Misspent Youth – where the first man to undergo a rejuvenation … Read more