Nick Hubble
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thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble
@thehubble101.bsky.social
5.4K followers 760 following 1.6K posts

Aberystwyth-based writer, researcher, critic, academic. Nonbinary (they/them)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. Columnist, Vector: #SFFResistance. Blogs on SFF at Prospective Cultures - current topics: #ScottishSFF #CriticismForInterestingTimes. https://linktr.ee/nick_hubble .. more

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thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · Apr 21
I'm sitting in 'Who Runs the World? Feminism in SFF' at #Eastercon. Long discussion of how women SFF writers disappear. I'm starting a daily thread of reviews of books from a few years ago which still deserve to be read and discussed. First up, Tricia Sullivan's Occupy Me (2016). (1/-)
Tricia Sullivan’s Occupy Me (2016)
This review first appeared in Foundation 125 (2016): 112-115 [I’ve added additional links to this blog version] Tricia Sullivan, Occupy Me (Gollancz, 2016, 266pp, £16.99) Reviewed by Nick Hubble (B…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 1d
Looking forward to this. Nicely coming out in close proximity to my birthday! I'm currently rereading the Ancillary trilogy for a thing I'm writing and noticing all sorts of stuff I missed first time round.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 1d
Maybe if we wrote criticism that read every novel as romantasy, we could exert massive cultural leverage and completely transform everything!

Reposted by Nick Hubble

niallharrison.bsky.social
Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 1d
"Death of the SF category but not SF content" latest: I count, I think, six science fiction novels in the NYT notable books list; none of them are categorised in the list as SF and none of them were published as SF. One was even marketed as Romantasy, it seems! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
NYT notable 100 listing for A Guardian and A Third by Mesha Majumdar, which sounds great. "Set in the near future" and categorised as "literary fiction." NYT 100 notable books listing for Silver Elite by Dani Francis. Categorised as "Romantasy" but described as "dystopian" with "Hunger Games vibes"; additional research does seem to suggest it is set in the future.

Reposted by Nick Hubble

danhartland.bsky.social
Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 1d
Good news: First review of the week!

Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!

“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
A critical discomfort with fantasy still remains a feature of public life.
strangehorizons.com

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 3d
Good day for sitting in the warm watching chilly cyclocross. I predict Sara Casasola will win a world cup before end of season. Have both her and Brand in my fantasy cyclocross team so good weekend so far.
firstcycling.com FirstCycling @firstcycling.com · 3d
The Women's Elite Cyclo-Cross World Cup round in Tábor was won by Lucinda Brand.

firstcycling.com/race.php?r=1...

Reposted by Nick Hubble

firstcycling.com
FirstCycling @firstcycling.com · 3d
The Women's Elite Cyclo-Cross World Cup round in Tábor was won by Lucinda Brand.

firstcycling.com/race.php?r=1...

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d
Yeah, but I'm on the side of the magic...

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 5d
However, there are several moments where it mentions how history might have gone otherwise without this particular thread of destiny. In this respect, we could see the novel as a fairy tale.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
True but we still end up with something very different - two women celebrating Beltane while the wolves howl. There's a kind of disjunct in the book between middle-class liberalism (coffee date with eagles) and alternate lifestyles of Annie, Belinda etc. Lucy is interestingly poised between.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
.. change of social structures with no cultural shift. (That's not to say I find the political developments -rainbow coalition etc - in the novel especially likely but then I see their purpose as illustrative rather than the cause of the change).

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
This discussion depends a bit on how one views the relationship between culture and social structures. I think culture is upriver of society, so if the culture shifts enough then the structures will follow. So for me the novel is more radical because countercultural, than a novel depicting rapid ..

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
Yes, that's a great point. It all depends on how we conceive of change operating. A relatively sudden huge cultural change might take decades to work through institutional, social and state systems. At a systems level, the UK is still struggling to adapt to cultural change since the 1960s.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
having had three completely different tonal phases (season 1, seasons 2&3, season 4), it's consistently better paced than its competitors (which is a comment on how badly the other 3 have been paced). It's probably going to be the only one that makes it to 5 seasons *grunts*

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
Watched The Witcher season 4 and .., well, all sorts of things could be said about the dialogue - 'follow that bat' - but it's refusal to take itself entirely seriously (which was at its best in season 1) does work nicely to troll the other big epic fantasy series: WoT, RoP, HoD. Also, despite . 1/-

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
The radicalism of the book is disguised by the choice of viewpoint characters. If Lucy's friend Annie - radical activist and witch - was the protagonist it would look very different. Even so, the politics are radical, countercultural and feminist - more in line with peace movement than lib centre.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 6d
Just (belatedly) listened to this and having read it twice now and discussed it at my book group, want to say that When There Are Wolves Again is not so central liberalist as portrayed. The central political action is a protest camp and the dominant values are countercultural rather than liberal 1/2
danhartland.bsky.social Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 18d
Paul March-Russell on When There Are Wolves Again, in the latest episode of Critical Friends: “From a kind of Marxist revolutionary position, this book will really annoy you. But actually it is reaffirming a faith in legal, constitutional, democratic institutions.”

Radical reformism? Discuss.
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
www.strangehorizons.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

clhellisen.bsky.social
CL Hellisen @clhellisen.bsky.social · 7d
My first stories, and novels When the Sea is Rising Red, and Beastkeeper came out under Cat Hellisen.

My latest novel The Shape of Monsters is under CL Hellisen, and narrated by the fabulous Omari Douglas.

Also more stuff between those ends of the timeline

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Nick Hubble

matthewhodson.bsky.social
Matthew Hodson @matthewhodson.bsky.social · 7d
Cyclist turns down trans exclusionary honour for woman cyclists (and you can feel the BBC’s teeth grinding about it).

"If they don't want to ride with all women, then it's not the kind of ride I want to be part of".
Woman refuses Cycling UK award over trans women being left out
Claire Sharpe says she disagrees with Cycling UK only naming biological women in their top 100 list.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Nick Hubble

clhellisen.bsky.social
CL Hellisen @clhellisen.bsky.social · 7d
Self promo is my bane; it makes me feel like an immense tit when I post stuff about my writing (thanks to upbringing - never blow your own horn), but it is increasingly apparent that all it means is that I'm utterly invisible as a writer...

So, anyway.

I have books and stories out there.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 8d
I'm not surprised by but still processing the racist asylum and refugee policy announced by the UK's Labour Government & the way this was reported on BBC News at 10 yesterday. Meanwhile, the Spectator is keeping a list of Labour politicians, including Dubs, who speak out against. Open intimidation.
Asylum changes seek to use children as a weapon, says Labour peer Alf Dubs
Dubs, who was a child refugee, says Shabana Mahmood’s ‘shabby’ plans will increase community tensions
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

bethkesh.bsky.social
E.M. Faulds / Beth @bethkesh.bsky.social · 8d
Another thing today!
My story "Love, Scotland" gets a new life in ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction from Apex Books / Violet Lichen, out TODAY 🎉
The anthology received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly! 🥂 More here, including the lush ToC:
www.apexbookcompany.com/products/eco...
ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction
Preorder and save 30%! Release Date 11/18/25 "A triumph. 23 stellar tales offering creative and varied takes on the book's themes. Every entry is equal parts thought-provoking, insightful, and impactf...
www.apexbookcompany.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

bellacaledonia.bsky.social
Mike Small @bellacaledonia.bsky.social · 8d
These are the 10 Steps that have led Britain to Fascism | Facing the Unthinkable open.substack.com/pub/fiftysix...
Facing the Unthinkable
How Did We Get Here?
open.substack.com

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 10d
Excellent review of excellent novella, which I've just read. Now trying to think my way out.
Making History by K. J. Parker
Making History is a meta-narrative revolving around the story of history itself, and how historians shape the boundaries of discourses on the past.
strangehorizons.com

Reposted by Nick Hubble

speculativeinsight.bsky.social
Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 10d
Subscribe now to read this new essay from Priya Sridhar, going deep into the weeds on two fabulous Kelly Link short stories.

AUD30/year (~GBP15 or USD19) gets you an extra essay /month, plus 6-month compilations & exclusive content!
www.speculativeinsight.com/subs

Tag @priyajsridhar.bsky.social
Purple background, white text, which says Kelly Link's work remains a mystery to avid readings, reviewers, and writers. Like Henry James in the 1920s, narrative surfaces aren't always what they seem. "Why Kelly Link is the Henry James of Speculative Fiction" -- Priya Sridhar

Reposted by Nick Hubble

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 16d
Yes, excellent point, I've been thinking that generally for a while, even the previous album too was in line with the mood of the leading edge of current SFF. Also, yes, The Everlasting is seriously good.

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 16d
LRT: Not that I was a fan of current BBC management anyway. This just further pushes mainstream media into solely being a political tool. I can't see anyway 'back' to an objective national media in UK.

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Jane Suiter, Nick Hubble

petergeoghegan.bsky.social
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 16d
This is absolutely nuts

Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event

When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
Davie says
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Nick Hubble

amalelmohtar.com
Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 16d
I bought airplane wifi so I could tell you that @alixeharrow.bsky.social’s THE EVERLASTING is a perfect goddamn book, also if you can see her on tour you absolutely should

thehubble101.bsky.social
Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 17d
I just meant 'modern' not 'modern modern' ... but maybe 'modern modern' has possibilities.
thehubble101.bsky.social Nick Hubble @thehubble101.bsky.social · 17d
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
dimitrafimi.bsky.social Prof. Dimitra Fimi @dimitrafimi.bsky.social · Oct 1
If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:

fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social