In 2019, author F.C. Yee brought the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender into the young adult fiction space, when he authored The Rise of Kyoshi. The first of the Kyoshi duology, readers got to explore one of Avatar Aang’s more notable previous incarnations in how she came to be one of the more hardcore Avatars.
Continue reading “From Kyoshi to Yangchen, F.C. Yee on Chronicling Stories of the Avatars”
Emma Mieko Candon likes to write stories that pull from her love for ‘90’s action movies. Being a fan of film franchises like The Mummy and Star Wars, she likes stories that can be quippy and fun, but she also cleaves on philosophical angst. As a new author on the scene, she wants to write action adventures, filled with a lot of queer people of color and an underlying current of a fraught metaphor.
Continue reading “Emma Mieko Candon on Continuing ‘Star Wars: Visions’ in New ‘Ronin’ Novel”
Last summer, the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra expanded with the release of The Rise of Kyoshi; the first young adult novel in the franchise. Written by F.C. Yee, it tells of the humble beginnings of the hardcore, justice-pursuing Avatar Kyoshi.
Now, Yee is capping off the Kyoshi duology with the release of The Shadow of Kyoshi. In the aftermath of establishing herself as a fully realized avatar, Kyoshi stumbles her way across the world, tending to her responsibilities as best she can, when a mysterious threat emerges from the Spirit World.
In an e-mail interview, Yee discusses writing The Shadow of Kyoshi following its predecessor’s positive reception, on writing a story set around the Spirit World, and also his thoughts on the recently resurged interest in the series that started it all. Continue reading “From ‘Rise’ to ‘Shadow,’ F.C. Yee on Deepening the Story of Avatar Kyoshi”
Rebecca Roanhorse is no stranger to writing worlds and realities beyond our own. A speculative fiction writer of both novels and short fiction, she is a recipient of both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Her work often features indigenous characters as the leads; such as her Sixth World series where a Dinétah monster slayer navigates a post-apocalyptic world filled with gods and monsters of legend. Continue reading “Author Rebecca Roanhorse Makes Her ‘Star Wars’ Universe Debut with ‘Resistance Reborn’”
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
These elements are known to kick off the beginning of episodes of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra. While fans everywhere seem to know Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra, they also know that there were many other avatars preceding them, all with stories of their own. While we’ve heard the stories of some of these other avatars like Roku and Wan, there is one that fans are familiar with, but by way of only a tiny bit of information: Avatar Kyoshi. Continue reading “From Fan to Writer: F.C. Yee on Developing the Story of Avatar Kyoshi”
With the successful weekend box office of Crazy Rich Asians, it’s safe to assume there might be a sequel in the works. Within five days of its opening, the film earned an estimated $35 million, making it number one at the box office and the best debut for a comedy this year. With the success so far, many have been predicting a sequel may be in the works.
Of course, Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan is very superstitious about the idea of sequels and told me days before the release that he hasn’t thought about it.
Continue reading “‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Kevin Kwan Doesn’t Want to Talk About a Sequel… Yet”
As the father of two daughters of color, finding reading material and other media that both reflect back at them and reflect the wider, diverse world of which they are a part is important to me. The discussion around what kind of stories get told about what kind of characters and who gets to tell them is, sadly, not relegated to the realm of speculative fiction literature or literary fiction. The dismal state of affairs in the world of children’s literature was recently put in stark relief by the good people at Lee and Low Books, whose tagline is “About Everyone. For Everyone.”
While this blog regularly gives voice(s) to the perspectives of self-proclaimed nerds of color on speculative media cinematic, televisual, animated, illustrated, and digitally interactive, we can’t forget that the pop-cultural expanse of fantastic worlds and stories we subsume under the rubrics of science fiction and fantasy, or speculative fiction more inclusively, or even nerd or geek culture more broadly, have their roots in the written. And so, this week on The Nerds of Color, we celebrate the written word. Literature. Books.
