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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · 3h

#Review of The Book of Queer Saints Volume 2, edited by Mae Murray
3.5/5
An improvement on the first volume, more daring and visceral in terms of subject matter. A tad larger as well, and there are a few what I'd call "filler" stories, but these don't overstay their welcome.
#booksky 🪐📚🩸

The cover of "The Book of Queer Saints Volume 2" edited by Mae Murray. Depicts two androgynous figures naked except for leather bondage straps, leather stockings, long-fingered leather gloves, and black high heels, slumped together. The figures have snake skeletons emerging from their necks instead of heads, which intertwine. They are in front of a green wood-cut illustration of trees and fire.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · 4d

#Review of Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
4.5/5
An extremely ambitious novel. The tone is bleak, loaded with very real horror, look up triggers. The narrative voice challenges the reader, is blunt but sophisticated, panic inducing. Looks into a festering wound in the UK's heart.
#boosky 🩸📚

Cover of "Tell Me I'm Worthless" by Alison Rumfitt. Depicts a woman's face with only the eyes and hair exposed, the rest bleeding in a dark brown background. On her head her hair blends into a run-down, decrepit gothic wooden house.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · 10d

#Review of The Book of Queer Saints, edited by Mae Murray
3.5/5
A horror anthology featuring queer villains, or at least antiheroes. Fairly good. A lot of experimentation with prose styles and narrative voices that don't always land. "Morta" and "The Last Disgrace" are the highlights.
#booksky 🩸📚🪐

The cover of "The Book of Queer Saints, Volume 1" edited by Mae Murray. Depicts two naked red human figures, heads replaced with snarling dog heads, reaching through each others' chests and pushing each others' hearts out the back. Entwined around them are two red serpents, ready to strike. Behind them is a black-and-white woodcut-style illustration of a fire.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · 15d

#Review of Red X by David Demchuk
5/5
A novel of queer horror, a community dealing with predators both real and ethereal.
When the horror shows itself it is folkloric and grotesque, the perfect blend of alluring and creeping dread.
Recommended if a looser structure isn't a problem.
#booksky 🩸📚🪐

Cover of Red X by David Demchuk. Displays a large Red X over-top of a mostly black background textured to look like the cover of a distressed book, with white crinkles and bits of paper texture showing at the edges

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · 27d

#Review of SS-GB by Len Deighton
9/10.
SS-GB executes a ruthlessly clever plot, half espionage thriller and murder mystery.
The men are varied, the women are doting ladies or tragic victims.
A thoroughly fulfilling read, it's a shame the author never really tapped into this vein again.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover of "SS-GB" by Len Deighton. Depicts a collage of Nazi officers from historical pictures in front of the silhouette of Westminster and Big Ben

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Sep 22

"Humans must learn climate to survive";
"it doesn't matter if the mailed fist is brandished openly or hidden in law";
"is your religion real when it costs you nothing, when you fatten upon it, when you commit atrocities in its name?" (paraphrased), are the most striking to me

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Sep 21

#Review of Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
4/5
Herbert's writing continues to be at his height. The first 70% feels gradual, a bit self-indulgent, mind-game focused. Then the pace picks up a lot, brings in a Deus Ex Machina. Still an enthralling read, ruminations remain ever-relevant.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover of Children of Dune by Frank Herbert. Depicts the main title in between two purple and orange canyon walls, one human figure on each side, with the outlines of a futuristic city and two moons in the background.

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · Sep 12

[norman rockwell guy] i think GFM should be reinstated for this comment so that she may be permabanned for one of the many other better examples to permaban a person she has provided

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Sep 6

#Review of Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
4/5
Compared to the original, this entry is smaller, which keeps things moving along at a steady pace.
Herbert's prose is stellar, the antagonists are well-developed, but the plot verges close to convolution. Brings a welcome perspective on Dune.
#booksky 📚🪐

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Aug 30

#Review of The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities
3/5
This is noticeably weaker than the disease guide, although the stories are stronger and are given more space.
Each section of the book has its own artist, which brings variety at the expense of stylistic cohesion.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover to "The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities" edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Displays a list of the contributing authors, and surrounding that and the title are black-and-white photos of medical devices, jars and odds-and-ends.

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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · Aug 6

I am going to be a massive humorless asshole about woo-woo shit, no matter how seemingly harmless, for the rest of my life due to this. astrology, homeopathic medicine, etc etc it's all bullshit and it's not fucking harmless. there are people who will die due to this who would have otherwise lived.

Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · Aug 5

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the beginning of a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development activities...."

cc: Sen. Bill Cassidy

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Aug 24

#Review of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases
4/5
Theming and Coulthart's art sew up an ambitious anthology. Entries aim for a wide variety, mostly succeed outside of comedy. Leaves on a sour note, putting AIDS deaths down to a cooky fake disease.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, an anthology edited by Jeff Vandermeer & Mark Roberts. Displays a beige cover, featuring a woodcut-style picture of a woman sticking her face into a bowel that is resting on a small table. Around the edges of the frame are anatomical depictions and medical instruments.

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Captain Shrieko @captainnikko.bsky.social · Aug 22

art and stories should be personal to the creator's experiences. sexuality should not be subdued. interests should not be tailored to people other than yourself. make what you want to make. the furry panopticon aren't paying your bills. twitter teens aren't paying your bills.

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Captain Shrieko @captainnikko.bsky.social · Aug 22

the puritanical attitude from younger people in the fandom/in general is extremely disheartening. it's not just whiplash from how hypersexual teen culture was in the 2000s, it's a profound gap in understanding and experiences. i implore everyone who has an issue with what i'm saying to go outside.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Jul 31

#Review of Rediscovery: Volume 2
4/5
The second anthology in the Rediscovery series, with stories from 1953-1957. An increase in quality, Griffith's being the standout. "Science fiction by women" is coming under a bit of strain, as almost a third of the stories are unequivocally fantasy.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover to "Rediscovery: Science Fiction By Women Volume 2 (1953-1957). Depicts a red-haired woman wearing a black leather catsuit and black heels with spurs, bending one knee on the floor, raising one hand and placing the other on the floor, both making arcane hand gestures. In front of her is a pentagon surrounding a star, both drawn in red, surrounding a green Klein bottle stoppered with red wax. Beside the woman is the list of authors included in the anthology.

Reposted by Mike The Speculative Page

Ana Valens | 🔞 | COMMS: (4/5) @acvalens.net · Jul 24

* Complain en masse to PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, etc
* Loudly and openly blame specific payment processors on social media
* Flood the replies of Visa, MasterCard’s posts

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hexplaceholder.bsky.social @hexplaceholder.bsky.social · Jul 24

Note: The people responsible for this, Collective Shout, list the names and faces of their leadership and board of directors on their own website.
www.collectiveshout.org/our_team

Just a moment...

Verifying you are human. This may take a few seconds.

www.collectiveshout.org

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Dale DiPietro @shotgungunshot.bsky.social · Jul 24

Also to note… VISA is an accredited Better Business Bureau company.

From firsthand experience, companies do take those complaints relatively seriously.

May as well add another Avenue of complaints, even if BBB is just Boomer Yelp

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Chris Franklin @errant-signal.com · Jul 24

And to be clear, this isn't (just) about access to smut - the literal stated targets here are marginalized queer folk. That's the play. And everyone in positions of power - from itch and Valve to Zombie Waypoint - are folding because bigots are fucking with the money.

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Chris Franklin @errant-signal.com · Jul 24

The fact that right now I can take my Visa card and buy something from Barely Legal Boobies Dot Com or whatever, but I can't take that same Visa card and buy an erotic visual novel on itch because Visa themselves told the platform to censor adult content is just outrageous, and they need to be told.

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Chris Franklin @errant-signal.com · Jul 24

The (ridiculously) long term answer is decentralizing as much of the internet as possible, including payment processors.

But in the short term I think we need to figure out how to apply very strong pressure on payment processors to reverse course on this flagrant bullshit.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Jul 24

#Review of Rediscovery Volume 1
4/5
A collection of old sci-fi stories from the late fifties to early sixties. Quality is good for an anthology, with the expected couple of duds here and there, but there's still something of interest even then. Scyoc's entry is grim, but mature, holds up
#booksky 📚🪐

Coveer of "Rediscovery Volume 1: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963). Cover depicts a woman in a jacket in front of a desk covered with books, and beside her head the contributing authors are listed.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Jul 17

#Review of A Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold
4.5/5
Fulfills every missed opportunity from the first. The mystery is more intricate, has more personal stakes, allows for more magical lore. Only one big bit of convenience mars this. A shame that this was the last
#booksky 🪐📚

Cover of "A Death at the Dionysus Club" by Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold. The cover depicts two men in tuxedos with black bowties, one sitting down on an ornate green Victorian chair, the other standing beside and behind it.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Jul 9

#Review of Death by Silver, by Melissa Scot & Amy Griswold
3.5/5
This is a gay historical fantasy Victorian mystery. There's not much wrong with this, the mystery compels, the characters are interesting. Problems include dangling thematic elements and magic feeling underutilized.
#booksky 📚🪐

Cover to "Death by Silver" by Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold. Depicts two white men, one in a top hat, the other in a bowler hat, wearing victorian three-piece suits, jackets, pants and black shoes. On the floor beside them is a candlestick laying on its side.

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Mike The Speculative Page @conumbra.bsky.social · Jul 3

#Review of Furnace by Livia Llewellyn
4/5
A collection of Dark Fantasy and horror, high-quality, only a couple lesser stories. Themes of civilization meeting an otherworldly nature, or in modernity itself seeming to deform. I also really like the cover, it lends a folk aesthetic.
#booksky 🪐📚🩸

A cover to the Book "Furnace" by Livia Llewellyn. The covers is a photographer of a woman in a dress sitting on a field with apartments in the background. Th woman is holding a rope attached to a goat-headed creature covered by a blanket and several nick-knacks, statues and other items.

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