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thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble
@thehubble101.bsky.social
5.5K followers 760 following 1.6K posts

Aberystwyth-based writer, researcher, critic, academic. Nonbinary (they/them)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. Columnist, Vector: #SFFResistance. Blogs on SFF at Prospective Cultures - current topics: #ScottishSFF #CriticismForInterestingTimes. https://linktr.ee/nick_hubble .. more

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thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · Apr 21
I'm sitting in 'Who Runs the World? Feminism in SFF' at #Eastercon. Long discussion of how women SFF writers disappear. I'm starting a daily thread of reviews of books from a few years ago which still deserve to be read and discussed. First up, Tricia Sullivan's Occupy Me (2016). (1/-)
Tricia Sullivan’s Occupy Me (2016)
This review first appeared in Foundation 125 (2016): 112-115 [I’ve added additional links to this blog version] Tricia Sullivan, Occupy Me (Gollancz, 2016, 266pp, £16.99) Reviewed by Nick Hubble (B…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker, Nick Hubble

speculativeinsight.bsky.social
Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 1d
I am SO EXCITED to share this Fifth Saturday extra: @annleckie.com and @byzantienne.bsky.social in conversation about questions of empire and imperialism in their respective novels.

Read it now: www.speculativeinsight.com/extras/leckie-and-martine
Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine: in conversation — Speculative Insight
Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine have both written novels that focus on empires, imperialism, and colonialism, and how people react to and work within those structures. I asked them to chat with me, a...
www.speculativeinsight.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

strangehorizons.bsky.social
Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 1d
The reviews are in!

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
reviewed by Nick Hubble

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#speculativefiction #fantasy #bookreviews
Left cover of The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow featuring a swords with part of a face showing through and vines with flowers and leaves surrounding it. Right REVIEWS Quote "This is, quite simply, a beautiful novel that will reward reading and rereading... We should take this writing very seriously—because it holds open the slender possibility that we might live otherwise than we do if we’re prepared to keep fighting for that opportunity." reviewer: Nick Hubble 24 November 2025 Strange Horizons

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 1d
Thank you!

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 1d
Thank you!

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
There is a completely unearned romanticism associated with Starmer and Reeves on the cover of this week's New Statesman. Difficult to imagine a couple less like Butch and Sundance.
Cover of the latest issue of the New Statesman depicting Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the final still of that film.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
And reading too much Michael Moorcock... I think it was just that my destiny was never to be a zoologist. Also, I was an idiot from the suburbs who knew nothing but being there off and on for 5 years helped me realise that.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
The Smiths was a bit of an exception tbh - I'm pretty envious of your bands. I did, however, also see Anhrefn twice - in 1987 at Coleg Normal and then in the Jazz Bar in May 1988, last thing I did before leaving Bangor sans degree.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
Musing about reading this. The SH review was also intriguing.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts:

Girlschool, Hammersmith Odeon early 1980s
The Smiths, Bangor SU Nov 1983
Echo & the Bunnymen, Glastonbury 1985
Pavement and Belly, ULU 1992
Gruff Rhys, Caernarfon Castle 2023
speculativeinsight.bsky.social Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 2d
Five concerts:

Wolfmother
Foo Fighters (twice)
Capercaille
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The Lovers (in a tiny little space above a cafe, complete with harp… it was magical)

Bonus: Kim Boekbinder, at a house party, where I knew no one except her music. It was incredible.
stephanieburgis.bsky.social Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 2d
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:

The Bangles (I was 14 & ECSTATIC!)

Yo-Yo Ma (twice, and the two best live performances I have EVER seen)

The Cleveland Orchestra (many times)

Peggy Seeger

Iron Maiden (surprisingly often, since I married @patricksamphire.bsky.social !)

Reposted by Nick Hubble

speculativeinsight.bsky.social
Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 2d
Five concerts:

Wolfmother
Foo Fighters (twice)
Capercaille
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The Lovers (in a tiny little space above a cafe, complete with harp… it was magical)

Bonus: Kim Boekbinder, at a house party, where I knew no one except her music. It was incredible.
stephanieburgis.bsky.social Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 2d
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:

The Bangles (I was 14 & ECSTATIC!)

Yo-Yo Ma (twice, and the two best live performances I have EVER seen)

The Cleveland Orchestra (many times)

Peggy Seeger

Iron Maiden (surprisingly often, since I married @patricksamphire.bsky.social !)
mikebrooks668.bsky.social Mike Brooks @mikebrooks668.bsky.social · 2d
Introduce your self with five concerts you’ve seen

Polar Bear Club supporting Rise Against at Rock City
Polar Bear Club playing an acoustic set in my mate’s living room later that evening
The Silver Ginger 5 gig that set Rock City’s ceiling on fire
New Junk City
Pendulum

Reposted by Nick Clarke

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 2d
Cover reveal. Culture Wars in Britain. Coming out May 2026 (but the kindle edition will be available earlier). Currently £16.99 to preorder on Amazon.
Cover of Culture Wars in Britain: The Myth of Exceptionalism and the Reality of Division by Nick Hubble. This is in Emerald Press's Society Now series. Cover is red with white circle in middle and black lettering. There is a repeating motif of masks, which is a symbol for culture.

Reposted by Nick Hubble

danhartland.bsky.social
Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 3d
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while: here’s @davidheb.bsky.social on the incomparable Nina Allan’s latest, A Granite Silence:

“In her latest novel, Allan turns her attention to a historical murder case: The many worlds that spiral out from one tragic event.”
A Granite Silence by Nina Allan
In her latest novel, Allan steps in a different direction again.
strangehorizons.com

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 4d
Looking forward to this. Nicely coming out in close proximity to my birthday! I'm currently rereading the Ancillary trilogy for a thing I'm writing and noticing all sorts of stuff I missed first time round.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 4d
Maybe if we wrote criticism that read every novel as romantasy, we could exert massive cultural leverage and completely transform everything!

Reposted by Nick Hubble

niallharrison.bsky.social
Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 4d
"Death of the SF category but not SF content" latest: I count, I think, six science fiction novels in the NYT notable books list; none of them are categorised in the list as SF and none of them were published as SF. One was even marketed as Romantasy, it seems! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
NYT notable 100 listing for A Guardian and A Third by Mesha Majumdar, which sounds great. "Set in the near future" and categorised as "literary fiction." NYT 100 notable books listing for Silver Elite by Dani Francis. Categorised as "Romantasy" but described as "dystopian" with "Hunger Games vibes"; additional research does seem to suggest it is set in the future.

Reposted by Nick Hubble

danhartland.bsky.social
Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 4d
Good news: First review of the week!

Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!

“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
A critical discomfort with fantasy still remains a feature of public life.
strangehorizons.com

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
Good day for sitting in the warm watching chilly cyclocross. I predict Sara Casasola will win a world cup before end of season. Have both her and Brand in my fantasy cyclocross team so good weekend so far.
firstcycling.com FirstCycling @firstcycling.com · 6d
The Women's Elite Cyclo-Cross World Cup round in Tábor was won by Lucinda Brand.

firstcycling.com/race.php?r=1...

Reposted by Nick Hubble

firstcycling.com
FirstCycling @firstcycling.com · 6d
The Women's Elite Cyclo-Cross World Cup round in Tábor was won by Lucinda Brand.

firstcycling.com/race.php?r=1...

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
Yeah, but I'm on the side of the magic...

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
However, there are several moments where it mentions how history might have gone otherwise without this particular thread of destiny. In this respect, we could see the novel as a fairy tale.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
True but we still end up with something very different - two women celebrating Beltane while the wolves howl. There's a kind of disjunct in the book between middle-class liberalism (coffee date with eagles) and alternate lifestyles of Annie, Belinda etc. Lucy is interestingly poised between.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
.. change of social structures with no cultural shift. (That's not to say I find the political developments -rainbow coalition etc - in the novel especially likely but then I see their purpose as illustrative rather than the cause of the change).

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
This discussion depends a bit on how one views the relationship between culture and social structures. I think culture is upriver of society, so if the culture shifts enough then the structures will follow. So for me the novel is more radical because countercultural, than a novel depicting rapid ..

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
Yes, that's a great point. It all depends on how we conceive of change operating. A relatively sudden huge cultural change might take decades to work through institutional, social and state systems. At a systems level, the UK is still struggling to adapt to cultural change since the 1960s.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
having had three completely different tonal phases (season 1, seasons 2&3, season 4), it's consistently better paced than its competitors (which is a comment on how badly the other 3 have been paced). It's probably going to be the only one that makes it to 5 seasons *grunts*

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
Watched The Witcher season 4 and .., well, all sorts of things could be said about the dialogue - 'follow that bat' - but it's refusal to take itself entirely seriously (which was at its best in season 1) does work nicely to troll the other big epic fantasy series: WoT, RoP, HoD. Also, despite . 1/-

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
The radicalism of the book is disguised by the choice of viewpoint characters. If Lucy's friend Annie - radical activist and witch - was the protagonist it would look very different. Even so, the politics are radical, countercultural and feminist - more in line with peace movement than lib centre.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 9d
Just (belatedly) listened to this and having read it twice now and discussed it at my book group, want to say that When There Are Wolves Again is not so central liberalist as portrayed. The central political action is a protest camp and the dominant values are countercultural rather than liberal 1/2
danhartland.bsky.social Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 22d
Paul March-Russell on When There Are Wolves Again, in the latest episode of Critical Friends: “From a kind of Marxist revolutionary position, this book will really annoy you. But actually it is reaffirming a faith in legal, constitutional, democratic institutions.”

Radical reformism? Discuss.
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
www.strangehorizons.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

clhellisen.bsky.social
CL Hellisen @clhellisen.bsky.social · 11d
My first stories, and novels When the Sea is Rising Red, and Beastkeeper came out under Cat Hellisen.

My latest novel The Shape of Monsters is under CL Hellisen, and narrated by the fabulous Omari Douglas.

Also more stuff between those ends of the timeline

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Nick Hubble

matthewhodson.bsky.social
Matthew Hodson @matthewhodson.bsky.social · 11d
Cyclist turns down trans exclusionary honour for woman cyclists (and you can feel the BBC’s teeth grinding about it).

"If they don't want to ride with all women, then it's not the kind of ride I want to be part of".
Woman refuses Cycling UK award over trans women being left out
Claire Sharpe says she disagrees with Cycling UK only naming biological women in their top 100 list.
www.bbc.co.uk