Yeonsoo Julian Kim is a game designer and cultural consultant who designs tabletop RPGs, LARPs, card games, and writes interactive fiction. Some of their games include the interactive horror novel The Fog Knows Your Name published by Choice of Games, and the card game Battle of the Boybands published by Game and a Curry. Other games they have contributed to include Kids on Bikes, Teens in Space, Magical Kitties Save the Day, Mutants and Masterminds, and they are currently working on Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Their game about using food metaphors to talk about BDSM in secret, Pass the Sugar, Please, can be found in Honey & Hot Wax: An Anthology of Erotic Art Games.
We are delighted to present to you our second special issue of the year. This one is devoted to ageing and SFF, a theme that is ever-present (including in its absence) in the genre.
Gladys was approaching her first heat when she shed her fur and lost her tail. The transformation was unintentional, and unwanted. When she awoke in her new form, smelling of skin and sweat, she wailed for her pack in a voice that scraped her throat raw.
Here, I examine the roles of the crones of the Expanse space in Persepolis Rising, Tiamat’s Wrath, and Leviathan Falls as leaders and combatants in a fight for freedom that is always to some extent mediated by their reduced physical and mental capacity as older people. I consider how the Expanse foregrounds the value of their long lives and experience as they configure the resistance for their own and future generations’ freedom, as well as their mentorship of younger generations whose inexperience often puts the whole mission in danger.
In the second audio episode of Writing While Disabled, hosts Kristy Anne Cox and Kate Johnston welcome Farah Mendlesohn, acclaimed SFF scholar and conrunner, to talk all things hearing, dyslexia, and more ADHD adjustments, as well as what fandom could and should be doing better for accessibility at conventions, for both volunteers and attendees.
