Dave Emmerson
/
RSS Feed
This month CM Lowry is talking to author Zilla Novikov, about Cascade by Rachel A Rosen in ‘This Book I Read…’
Topics covered include:
- The premise of the book, which is that people are trying to affect change and fight against an impending crisis from within the existing power structures and, unaspiringly, this doesn’t go too well.
- The use of dark humour in Cascade to deal with the serious socio-political issues of our times such as the rise of fascism and climate nihilism.
- The use of magic to help the protagonists fight off these evils.
- Rosen’s includes of characters from various indigenous and marginalised people groups as a way to highlight their plight.
- Zilla shares a quote, that really helps to illustrate how timely Rachel’s writing was. None of us are out of harms way, we all need to be aware of changes going on in our world and how they can affect us.
- The beauty of how human the characters in Cascade are, and that they live daily lives, like all of us. This helps to fight against the dehumanisation and ‘otherness’ that often causes people to hate each other.
- The cool way that magic works in Cascade, and it’s limitations. Instead of being liberating, magic can be incredibly frustrating. Rosen brings a certain sense of realism to the ways magic would affect everyday life, for example, being able to see every possible outcome causing the character huge amounts of anxiety and crippling their love life.
- Zilla explains Fix Fiction, what it is, and how it comes about. She wrote fix fiction for Cascade, specifically for the character who could see the future, their self doubt and it’s effect on social interactions.
- People should read Cascade because it is aggressively hopeful!
- Zilla recommends ‘Another Dinner is Possible‘, a vegan cookbook. Food is so important to all aspects of life as well as social change.
Links to things we discussed:
- Cascade by Rachel A Rosen
- The Sad Bastard Cookbook by Rachel A Rosen and Zilla Novikov
- Query by Zilla Novikov
- Climate Nihilism
- The current rise in global Fascism
- The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold
- What is Roleplay Podcast
- Another Dinner Is Possible
- Rachel A Rosen’s appearance on This Book I Read Podcast
More about Zilla Novikov
- Twitter – @zillanovikov
- Tumblr – @zillanovikov
- Website – Night Beats
More about us
- CM Lowry on Twitter – @cmlowryauthor
- CM Lowry’s website – All About Chris
- Website – beyondcataclysm.co.uk
- Patreon – Patreon.com/beyondcataclysm
Music by CM Lowry. Editing by Dave Emmerson
