No. 69. Lorraine Wilson, The Salt Oracle (2025). A complex mix of genres and different symbolic & political themes. 'For me, reading The Salt Oracle perfectly encapsulates the pleasure to be had from following an author through her career. It’s also a genuinely exciting book!' #ScottishSFF 7/-
Moving on to the fourth book on this year's shortlist for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, here is my review of Lorraine Wilson's The Salt Oracle. Beautifully written and psychologically complex near-future thriller (with added dark academia) and the Finnish coastline. I loved it. #BSFA #ScottishSFF
No. 68. Lorraine Wilson, This is Our Undoing (2021). A strong debut which marked out Wilson as a writer to follow. 'A feral threat of unpredictable danger permeates the proceedings and creates a memorable atmosphere for this tense, psychologically claustrophobic thriller'. #ScottishSFF 6/-
Another great round-uo from Lisa Tuttle. I'm particularly pleased to see the new edition of Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light included here. #ScottishSFF
One of my blog posts is in the list of sources for this. There has been a huge uptick in interest in Mannin in recent years. Of #ScottishSFF interest, she was the model for the heroine of Three Go Back (1932) by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell).
Definitely contemplating this. Anyone interested in doing a panel on Scottish SFF. I'm thinking modern modern or contemporary but always open to ideas. #fantasy #sciencefiction #ScottishSFF
Not technically on 'the road' as I'm sitting in the hotel in Perth, where I have just finished this #ScottishSFF post on Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction. An Elflandish take on what happened to the revolution! Remember, it's all about the practices it codes for...
Nearly time to head north for PictCon 1. I'm also still on my journey through #ScottishSFF. Margaret Elphinstone's The Incomer (1987) is a very rich and rewarding account of a post-collapse rural matrilineal society, founded on principles of nonviolence but nonetheless still subject to change.
No. 60. Jane Alexander, The Flicker Against the Light and Writing the Contemporary Uncanny (2021). This began life as a PhD and was published under Luna Press’ academic imprint. Stories that 'linger, as a kind of question’ followed by a really good essay #ScottishSFF (78/-)
I wrote about Margot Bennett for SF Caledonia. Better known as a crime writer, she wrote two SF novels: The Long Way Back (1954) and The Furious Masters (1968), both of which I discuss here. I also write about her service with the British Medical Unit in the Spanish Civil War. #ScottishSFF
No.45. Naomi Mitchison, The Blood of the Martyrs (1939). Mitchison’s most openly Utopian novel. Nero as contemporary dictator still works today : ‘The music. The spectacles. Strength through joy! They ought to be crazy about me. To love me. They ought to do more than love me!’ #ScottishSFF (60/-)
No.43 in this bi-weekly thread. Naomi Mitchison's Beyond This Limit - a collaboration with Wyndham Lewis, who did the illustrations. That this even exists seems so unlikely. Also, I love Lewis's portrait of Mitchison, which isn't in the book but I've included it here anyway. #ScottishSFF (57/-)
Here is a slightly expanded version of the paper I gave at the @bacls.bsky.social conference last week at the University of Stirling: '"the Situation is Nominal": Ken MacLeod's Critique of the Scottish Programme'. #ScottishSFF #AcademicSky
No.34 in this thread. Naomi Mitchison, Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962). 'Drawn into this seductive alien world of radical difference, with its promise of release from the tired old binaries of human existence, Mary merges into an all-encompassing relationship with the radiates...' #ScottishSFF (47/-)
No.32. Naomi Mitchison, We Have Been Warned (1935). Back cover blurb of 2012 reissue says 'this NM's worst novel, don't read it'. She put everything into it. Fought to get it published. Lost her literary reputation. Had to move back to Scotland. It was worth it! This is THE NOVEL #ScottishSFF (45/-)
No.21. A personal favourite from recent years, Lorraine Wilson's The Way the Light Bends (2022). I love the way this novel breaks up linear time to reach the land of Scotland. It's a different kind of politics. An interesting writer to think through career building today. #ScottishSFF (33/-)
Ground's eye view through yellow daffodils of the imposing facade of the National Library of Wales. Very blue sky overhead.
Popped into the NLW @librarywales.bsky.social for a bit of research into Margot Bennett #ScottishSFF
Just pre-ordered. Another essential helping of #ScottishSFF!
My #ScottishSFF blogpost series continues with a post on two novellas by Naomi Mitchison: When the Bough Breaks (1924) and Travel Light (1952). Travel Light (1952) is one of Mitchison’s better-known works. It’s a fun feminist fairytale reworking of the Oedipus myth w/ talking bears and dragons (1/).
Some brief thoughts on the BSFA Awards longlists and 2024 as the year of #ScottishSFF, Gold SF and Newcon's Polestars. Also: what I've voted for to be shortlisted.
Getting the #ScottishSFF project back on track with this review of Ken MacLeod's A Jura for Julia (2024), which first appeared in ParSec. I'm keeping going with this throughout 2025, so there should be time to finish working through Ken's back catalogue and cover some other writers too.
The Essential Robert Duncan Milne, edited by Keith Williams & Ari Brin. 19th century #ScottishSFF writer who was based in California. Great to see Uni of Dundee working on this.
I'd love to be in Edinburgh for the celebration of Nova Scotia 2 tonight but it's a bit far to come for the evening, so I hope it goes really well for all involved! (I was at the Worldcon launch). Here is an extended version of my review which appeared in the latest issue of ParSec. #ScottishSFF
New post on Ken Macleod's Descent (2014), This is part of my #ScottishSFF project and, in particular, of my reread through of MacLeod's novels (only the Fall Revolution quartet to go now). Again, this one is much more predictive of today's political situation than I realised when first reading it.
Latest in my blogpost series on the fiction of Ken MacLeod: The Restoration Game (2010). This is another one that I now understand much better than when I first read it - although, as I note, I enjoyed it very much then too. Now, more than ever, an important writer. #ScottishSFF #RoadFromGlasgow2024
Latest in my ongoing series of blogposts on the work of Ken Macleod and #ScottishSFF more broadly. This is a long discussion of the Engines of Light trilogy, which I've come to see as perhaps his key work in terms of bringing all the themes together. Also some notes on the Scottish Programme.
I had to do this post today for obvious reasons as it's the tenth anniversary of the Scottish Indyref. However, I would have liked to write more and will do so in the future: The Politics of Modern Scottish SFF. #ScottishSFF #RoadFromGlasgow2024 #Glasgow2024 #Indyref
Been too busy to post since getting home from Scotland, but here is some utopian musing on Sgiath: Amazon Queen of Skye. More political musings on Scotland to follow soon, hopefully. #ScottishSFF #RoadFromGlasgow2024
We sold out at Worldcon! But don’t worry, you’ve got another chance to see us. Waterstones Thursday 29th August. #Gallus #BookLaunch #ScottishSFF #AuthorTalk
