Browsing all articles by A. M. Justice.
Annihilation – Movie Review
Spoiler Warning: This review contains minor spoilers for the movie Annihilation. Please read with caution if you have yet to see the movie. You can find our review of the book Annihilation, on which the movie is based, here. Annihilation is one of those rare films where the writer/director tossed a whole lot of science fiction […]
The Problem with Abandoning the “Strong Female Character”
Yet another descriptor has been caught in the verboten term net. Recently, several essays have appeared arguing that people should stop using the term “strong female character” (SFC) or “strong female protagonist” because a) The SFC has become just another trope in speculative fiction, providing authors with another cardboard token with which to people their […]
La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
How many times have you read something that made you gasp aloud? I’ve cried pretty liberally over events—Dobbie’s death and burial (HP and the Deathly Hallows), the duel between Ammar and Rodrigo (Lions of Al-Rassan), Frodo’s departure for the Blessed Lands (Return of the King)—but I can’t remember gasping aloud at a single word uttered […]
Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien contains echoes of Romeo and Juliet, Rapunzel, and the Orpheus and Persephone myths. In it, Lúthien—a demigod elf princess whom Tolkien refers to both as a “mere maid” and “the greatest of the children of Iluvatar”—singlehandedly defeats Morgoth, the Big Bad of the First Age of Middle Earth. The story […]
