Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe continue to produce excellent podcasts (and I don’t just say that because they sometimes say nice things about me in them). The latest episode includes a lot of wise words about reviewing, some discussion of why Charles was wrong about tie-in fiction, commentary on the forthcoming Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction, and the news that The Girl with the Hello Kitty Tattoo might become a real book.

If the latter point confuses you, the title came out of the recent Twitter meme — #lesserbooks — in which people came up with alternate titles for classic fiction that didn’t sound quite so imposing. (My contribution was Moby SUV, which I think may have been a bit subtle for many people.) Jonathan got a lot of positive response to the idea of The Girl with the Hello Kitty Tattoo, so he started thinking about what the book might actually be like.

He and Gary talk about the dearth of science fiction stories for girls. I suspect that they might have forgotten a few things. I’m sure that Ann Halam (a.k.a. Gwyneth Jones) has written some. Dipping into Farah Mendlesohn’s Hugo-nominated The Intergalactic Playground should reveal a few more examples (I don’t have my copy with me and the Hugo Voter Packet only contains part of the book). But we could certainly do with more SF aimed at girls. It would be a pleasant change from sparkly vampires.