iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

As well as essays, Speculative Insight posts "Fifth Friday" conversations: Arkady Martine & Ann Leckie. Suzan Palumbo and Kate Elliott. Garth Nix & Frances Hardinge. Freya Marske & Celia Lake. Angela Slatter & GennaRose Nethercott October has a fifth Friday... www.speculativeinsight.com/extras

speculativeinsight.com

Extras — Speculative Insight

Occasional extras that supplement and complement the essay published on Speculative Insight.

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Julia Is Waving, Not Drowning @booktweeting.bsky.social · 20h

do you love Ann Leckie? do you love Lois McMaster Bujold? have you somehow never read C. J. Cherryh? you have an enormous treat ahead of you in this Humble Bundle! #BookSky 💙📚

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 19h

I realize that this thread is about something that is only glancingly, if at all, taught in schools. Just, so often "they didn't teach us that!" turns out to be "they did you just forgot/were asleep/thought it was stupid"

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 19h

Whenever anyone does the "they didn't teach this in school they should!" I remember Bart Simpson in the room full of doors with Roman numerals on it. "They didn't even try to teach us this in school!" and flashback to him ignoring the Roman numerals lesson.

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

when I tell you this made me so proud to have once been a nurse.

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 22h

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1444: Don't waste time trying to identify trends. Publishers have whole departments to do this, and are still routinely surprised by "surprise bestsellers." Instead, write what you love, and hope other people will love it, too...

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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 30/09/2026

BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 30/09/2026

I know! And in my experience, lots of Romance readers read other genres, cause they just love to read! She's probably insulted some of her own fans to their face.

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 30/09/2026

Sure, just write off the genre with the highest sales and the largest readership, why don't you. You're obviously so much better than those silly people, and you don't need to actually *read* the stuff to know anything about it. /s

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 30/09/2026

The idea that "of course AI could do Romance novels they're just paint by numbers" is so incredibly wrong and so incredibly, baselessly snobby, that I'm just sitting here blinking, trying to process what kind of ignorance produced it. (Yes I know what kind.)

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 30/09/2026

Like Sturgeon said, 90% of everything is crap. That remaining 10% still exists. (Do not ask me which is part of the 90 and which the 10, you decide for yourself. That does, of course, require actually reading some of it.)

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 30/09/2026

Why do people always have to be sneering at Romance novels? (Don't answer that, I know why.) They're not my thing, though I enjoy them when they have historical or magical (or historical AND magical) settings. But its obvious that some are great and some less great--like everything!

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Oh we're doing Romance novel discourse again?

Fred from Scooby Doo unmasks a ghost in two panels. In the first, the masked ghost is, "HERE'S WHY THIS GENRE I HATE IS BAD." In the second, the ghost is unmasked to turn out to be, "I HAVEN'T READ OF IT BUT"

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Kyle Orland @kyleor.land · 30/09/2026

[SENATOR ERIC SCHMITT]: So you’re telling me under oath that you've never played World of Warcraft? [JACK SMITH]: Correct [SCHMITT]: WELL THEN *unveils poster* please explain this picture of you farming gold in Eversong Woods! [SMITH]: That is Elden Ring, sir.

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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One of the most underappreciated unforeseen consequences of the smartphone/streaming/social media era is the elimination of boredom as a key driver of creativity. Without boredom, there just isn't enough impetus for most people do go out and learn and do things.

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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

up next eric schmitt is going to confront billionaire bruce wayne and make him admit that he is secretly superman

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 30/09/2026

My third novel, HERO COME HOME, officially has a cover! Preorderable from the usual places us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

The cover of my third novel, HERO COME HOME. Four human figures centred, the main image being that of a bearded man looking back over his shoulder (that's Oro, the protagonist), with a circle of symbols behind him. We can see a swan and a key. In the foreground are three people: two women, one with a mysterious marking? scar? who knows!? on her cheek and the other carrying a sword, flanking an older, balding man holding up a pistol. The possibly-scarred woman looks ever so slightly amused, and that is certainly very like her. Everybody else is not happy to be here, or indeed, anywhere

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm kinda fully over that "the British conquered the world for spices and don't use any of them" joke because for one, you cannot recycle material for 5 straight generations and get a laugh worth a damn but also because in order to make it you have to agree with Tommy Robinson about who is British

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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Never actually talked to a parent. I know this post is about America. I don't fucking care. When the small one hit three and was finally eligible for the three-hours-a-day five-days-a-week 2/3 of the year government-funded playschool here in Ireland? I stopped slowly dying of exhaustion.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 29/09/2026

It’s Launch Day, darling! This one is not cozy or for the faint of heart, please note the warnings, but it’s here at last! And while you should read in the way you like the best—dude, Neil Newbon’s narration knocks it out of the PARK. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/813073...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion by T. Kingfisher: 9798217298594 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

The roguish charlatan Astarion will free himself from a centuries-long fate of servitude or die (a second time) trying—in this decadently dark fantasy adventure by award-winning author T. Kingfisher.....

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Stina Leicht @stinaleicht.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

iced coffee bit hit npr. my take: after years & years of being told it's important to appear to not need the job you're applying for (hence the idea that you should dress up for the interview.) i really don't get the "this interview is just one of my errands." employers, make up your damned minds.

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T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Never sell anyone out. In fact, if you're asked about banning 12-year-olds from softball, just say, "You're asking me to sell out kids for my political career. I'm not going to do that. Let's stop demonizing people in tougher circumstances than you or I will ever experience. They have guts."

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Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

🚨 KINDLE UK DAILY DEAL 🚨 Don't miss out! Grab @pennyvixen.bsky.social 's belovéd fantasy classic THE GOBLIN EMPEROR and enter the court of reluctant ruler Maia as he learns to navigate his distant father's complex realm and builds bridges along the way. Snap it up for only 99p! 👉️ buff.ly/dnkFJbc

Against a black and gold patterned background, an eReader with the UK cover for Katherine Addison's THE GOBLIN EMPEROR. White text: "Amazon UK Kindle Daily Deal" 99p.

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

*mid-eulogy, looking down at casket* you’ve read your last free article

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Amanda Rutter @alrutter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

As the weather starts to turn, I actually can't think of a much better book to snuggle up and read - this fantasy novel is standalone (although you can then pick up the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy, which is also brill), incredibly kind, has stunning world-building and prose, and is cheap today!

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WRONG or METAPHYSICAL IN NATURE @jsthrill.modphi.com · 28/09/2026

Remember that Kobo does price matching on Amazon if you are a kobo person

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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 28/09/2026

As with spoilers, I just generally oppose telling people they're having fun wrong. If someone wants to reload to get the narrative they wanted: let them! Who cares? What does that do, invalidate someone else's gold medal in Having Fun Right? It does not actually matter. Let people enjoy things.

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eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 27/09/2026

really hope that the message people take away from all the EA sex parties stuff is "don't import inherently coercive real life employer/employee or mentor/mentee dynamics into your edgeplay kink spaces" and not "THEY DO THE IMMORAL KIND OF SEX DISGUSTING"

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The snails They destroyed their cage Yes YES The snails are out

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 28/09/2026

Any time we hear "AI did this and this", it's not proof programs are becoming sentient, but that the humans deploying said AI did this (which is generally failing to deploy proper sandboxing measures to prevent an AI from going against security) It's not the AI that's rogue, it's the company

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Cat Rambo @catrambo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've got a new short story collection coming out this November from Hydra House Books. If you're interested in reviewing it, please drop me a message!

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026

As a former pretentious little shit who grew out of it, rationalists (et al) annoy the piss out of me because they are adults with the mentality of tweens - they are somehow still convinced they are the greatest geniuses who have ever walked the earth. It is the worldview of an arrogant baby.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026

like I suspect many of you on This Website, I think a core reason why I find Eliezer Yudkowsky and his rationalist and effective altruist satellites so intensely annoying is because I had a VERY similar “being a super weird, pretentious, hyper-literate kid” experience - I just, you know, grew up.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27/09/2026

reading this, it does seem as if “rationalism” is an elaborate intellectual architecture designed primarily to support the idea that if you were born white, male and clever then you are the genetic elite and entitled to rule.

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Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

What I know from being Black my whole life, and poor for the majority of it, is that politely ignoring a root issue to attend to one closer to the surface is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s a band-aid on a gaping wound, and it will not hold your flesh together for long. The US needs stitches.

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Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I can't believe I have to keep doing this, but time to tap the sign again. Emily Bell, who also edits Atthis Arts under the name E.D.E. Bell, is still harassing me and others. Read my original report for details. New details in following thread. 1/ www.patreon.com/jasonsanford...

Emily Bell, who also edits Atthis Arts under the name E.D.E. Bell, is still harassing Jason Sanford. Read Jason's original report for more details. https://www.patreon.com/jasonsanford/posts/genre-grapevine-161758874

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Waverly @waverlysm.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

even passive exposure to msscribe would have killed these people I swear

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Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oof. Definitely worth reading.

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 25/09/2026

Oh, that was the deal I had with Puddin, rest her soul. She wanted to sit on my lap while I wrote, so I would give her some skritches and then put her on a cushion in the desk drawer next to me. She helped me write Ancillary Justice that way!

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I reviewed it for Lightspeed! It was really good, I just hope people aren’t put off by the level of effort they’re going to need to put into it

lightspeedmagazine.com

Book Review: Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee - Lightspeed Magazine

Reviewer Chris Kluwe recommends Code and Codex for a book to really sink your teeth into.

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This Machine Kills Hair Bands @she5los.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Hey, YOU! Do you want REALLY GOOD FAR-FUTURE SCIFI? Do you want ORIGAMI SPACESHIPS and HONOR DUELS and COURTLY INTRIGUE in the aftermath of a coup? Do you want a story that assumes you have a large vocabulary, but also tone-switches suddenly to be funny? Of course you do! Read Code and Codex!

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W. Ethan Duckworth @weduckworth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’ve read it! It had a very new feel to me: partly science fiction (space ships, planets), partly magic (the space ships are covered in, and partly depend on spells and a sentient life form). There’s a little gender bending, a little mind control, and a little romance.

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 25/09/2026

Yeah, I'm not here to kinkshame, but "nebula award" and "sex toy" in the same sentence made me go "OUCH" just thinking about it.

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Joyce Park @troutgirl.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 24/09/2026

You don't have to add that you're a sad, pitiful excuse for a bully, we can already see that. Action is character.

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 24/09/2026

And whether you encourage others to follow your example, or use sockpuppets to make it look like The Lurkers Support You In Email, you might as well just take a sharpie and write "I am a bully" on your forehead.

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