Join us for our shortest episode yet! We delve into Sanderson's first works of science fiction, two interesting short stories about space and failure.

Next month we'll be reading all of Warbreaker.

Content warnings for this episode: abandonment, ableism, betrayal, bleeding, blindness, broken bones, bullying, child abuse, classism, conspiracies, cults, death, empire, existentialism, failure, fascism, gifted kid syndrome, gulags, homophobia, human sacrifice, human supremacy, imprisonment, insanity, imperialism, JK Rowling, maiming, mental illness, mind control, murder, Nazi Germany, Orson Scott Card, prisons, self harm, self hatred, stabbing, suicide/suicidal ideation, torture, transphobia, wounds and infection

Defending Elysium: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/defending-elysium/

Firstborn: https://reactormag.com/firstborn/

Opening Scene to Cowboy Bebop: https://youtu.be/Z-4ImAf6qYk
I totally blanked and missed the opportunity to talk about Jet as a disabled character in the episode, but alas, we record these in the morning and sometimes the brain misses the connection.

Darko Suvin's Estrangement and Cognition: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/estrangement-and-cognition/ - I did an embarassingly bad job talking about one of the foundational texts of science fiction studies. If it's relevant again I'll do a better job talking about it, but for now I highly recommend reading it only to better understand some of the reasons a text feels like "science fiction".

If you're intersted in Star Wars or Grand Admiral Thrawn, I highly recommend A More Civilized Age, where Waypoint Radio Veterans Ali, Austin, Natalie, and Rob are going through Star Wars Rebels where he makes an appearance.

This show is created by Graham Gillman, Taylor Lane, and Jack McLaughlan.

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/grainofsanderson_pod/?hl=en
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/AGrainofSanderson

Our theme music is "goodnight kiss" by 2mello off the album midnight broadcasts. (https://2mello.net/)

We're confronted with our first sleeper hit, Alcatraz vs The Scrivener's Bones!

Next month we'll be reading the short stories Defending Elysium (2008) and Firstborn (2008), Episode Airs: August 13th

Content warnings for this episode: abandonment, ableism, betrayal, bleeding, body horror, broken bones, bullying, child abuse, child death, child endangerment, classism, conspiracies, cults, death, existentialism, fighter jets, foster homes, gulags, Harry Potter, human sacrifice, imprisonment, insanity, maiming, mental illness, mind control, murder, prisons, religious extremism, self harm, self hatred, stabbing, suicide/suicidal ideation, time loops, torture, transphobia, undeath, US Military, wounds and infection

So in the episode I mentioned that I would put a primer to disability studies in the show notes. I'd recommend starting with Beginning with Disability by Lennard Davis, and then if you're interested in the politics of care I can recommend Sunaura Taylor's Beasts of Burden and if you like disability as a product of environment, try Stacy Alaimo's Bodily Natures. There's a million more places you can go from those three books, so enjoy and happy reading.

Castleman, M. D. (2011). Alcatraz and Iser: Applying Wolfgang Iser’s concepts of implied reader and implied author and reality to the metafictive Alcatraz Smedry series. Children's Literature in Education, 42, 19-32.

Sorry for the late upload y'all, lost a bunch of editing in the export last night so I redid some work.

This show is created by Graham Gillman, Taylor Lane, and Jack McLaughlan.

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/grainofsanderson_pod/?hl=en
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/AGrainofSanderson

Our theme music is "goodnight kiss" by 2mello off the album midnight broadcasts. (https://2mello.net/)

Spoilers for Hero of Ages (the book and our episode)

This conversation is much less professional, we can only hope it's entertaining.

Content warnings for this episode: ableism, addiction, age gap, betrayal, bleeding, body horror, body modification, broken bones, child death, classism, death, decapitation, discussion of rape, discussion of sexuality, disembowelment, domestic violence, enemies to lovers, eugenic breeding, eugenics, fatphobia, gaslighting, genocide, hallucinations, human sacrifice, insanity, J.K. Rowling, maiming, mind control, misogyny, murder, mutation, mutilation, racism, rape, references to Nazis, religious conversion, religious extremism, self harm, sexual assault, sexual violence, slavery, stabbing, sterilization, strangulation, suicide/suicidal ideation, terminal illness, transphobia, undeath, wounds and infection

This show is created by Graham Gillman, Taylor Lane, and Jack McLaughlan.

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/grainofsanderson_pod/?hl=en
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/AGrainofSanderson

Our theme music is "goodnight kiss" by 2mello off the album midnight broadcasts. (https://2mello.net/)