A walk through the presidio and science-fiction murder mysteries

Hi friends,

I wrote a new blog post that you might enjoy. I also realized that the newsletter I sent last week didn't have a working link. Oops! Sorry about that. So this week, you get a double issue.

Not exactly wild, not exactly abandoned: A walk through San Francisco’s Presidio

Take a walk with me through my favorite park in San Francisco, Park Presidio, as I reflect on 20 years of getting lost in its in-between spaces. Once a military base, now an experiment in habitat restoration, it’s still changing and still pleasantly strange. Read more

The Moon Moth and Rose/House: Science-fiction murder mysteries by Jack Vance and Arkady Martine

If you joined this newsletter back when it was called Angry About Literature, well, here's one where I'm happy about literature. I read two fun short fiction works recently and it inspired me to think about the overlaps between murder mysteries and science fiction. This post is also a review, but for once I don't include spoilers. So you can read it safely and then go read the novelette and novella. Here's a little excerpt:

Part of the fun of science fiction is figuring out how the world works. Writers can hold back some information about the world and let you figure it out from clues to fun effect. And here’s where I think there’s a neat structural overlap between a murder mystery and science fiction. In a mystery, the writer of course knows who-done-it (or alternatively, how they will be caught) but they skillfully reveal enough to let you start figuring it out and lead you to a satisfying ending, if not necessarily a neat conclusion. So if you can combine the unfolding mystery of the world with the unfolding mystery of the murder, ideally having the protagonist use elements of the revealed world to solve the murder, that works very well. Read more

Thanks for reading and see you on the internet!

AK