Much of modern life revolves around someone providing goods or a service to someone else, and yet a good portion of speculative fiction ignores the work-a-day basics of a society.
The implication is not just that there is an ongoing counter-tradition to commercial fantasy but also that these writers represent in some sense the ongoing legacy of the modernist inward-turn.
One of Yaszek's goals in this volume is to provide a glimpse into the world of women science fiction writers between Mary Shelley—often seen as the writer who kick-started the genre—and the explosion of women and other non-cis-male science fiction writers in the 1970s and beyond.
The society of Before She Sleeps operates ostensibly through the enslavement of the female reproductive body, whilst also being obliquely bolstered by the commodification of intimacy and emotional labour.
In trying so hard to avoid dystopian and apocalyptic tropes, in focusing on the small, personal stories, it was easy to notice other absences in this collection—not least, in its attentiveness to the “big picture.”
The four-episode audio drama collection, Star Cops: Mother Earth Part 1, from Britain’s Big Finish Productions is both the beginning of a new, full cast, audio-only series, and part of the increasingly popular trend of resurrecting old programmes with much of their original cast, TV having seen recent revivals of The X-Files, Arrested Development, and Twin Peaks, among others. In addition to various original productions, Big Finish has built a sizeable stable of audio adventure series by reviving old TV series, starting with their flagship Doctor Who line. Some of their series reunite the original casts, while others reboot or reimagine the property entirely.
