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Brian Cowlishaw
Brian Cowlishaw grew up in rural Idaho, then earned his Ph.D. in English at the University of Oklahoma in 1998. He has taught and published on many areas of literature and popular culture, especially science fiction and fantasy. He is a Harper Voyager Super Reader, reviewing advance reader copies for the publisher. He is a professor of English at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He is an avid gamer and a big fan of all things related to India. Email: cowlishb@nsuok.edu. Twitter: @BrianCowlishaw. Blog: biggora.blogspot.com.
MAGAZINE CONTENT BY BRIAN COWLISHAW (24 TOTAL)
Review of The Lost Puzzler
(I am a Harper Voyager Super Reader: HarperVoyager gives me free advance copies of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy titles, and in return I write honest reviews. This one is spoiler-free; I reveal nothing you couldn’t… [more]
Review of A Study in Honor
(I am a Harper Voyager Super Reader: HarperVoyager gives me free advance copies of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy titles, and in return I write honest reviews. This one is spoiler-free; I reveal nothing you couldn’t… [more]
Advance Review: Vita Nostra
(I am a Harper Voyager Super Reader: HarperVoyager gives me free advance copies of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy titles, and in return I write honest reviews. This one is spoiler-free.) Vita Nostra easily wins the… [more]
Advance Review: Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence
(I am a Harper Voyager Super Reader: HarperVoyager gives me free advance copies of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy titles, and in return I write honest reviews. This one is spoiler-free.) Who in the world is… [more]
“Be Careful”: Dumbest Advice Ever
Some cinematic clichés just refuse to die. We’ve heard these lines a bajillion times, and yet still, “They’re everywhere!” (another cliché). “You just don’t get it, do you?” “Are you crazy?” “I’m getting’ too old… [more]
A Flying Jatt: A Superhero Movie a la Bollywood
No one knows better than Sequart’s readership that there are tons of superhero movies out right now. Especially now, in fact, as high “popcorn movie” season, a/k/a summer, is just beginning. If you know the… [more]
Advance Review: Blood of the Four
(I am a Harper Voyager Super reader: the publishing house HarperVoyager gives me free advance copies of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy titles, and in return I write honest reviews. This is my first such review… [more]
4 3 2 1: Paul Auster’s New Postmodern Masterpiece
First, turn off your computer or smart phone—yes, right now—grab 4 3 2 1, and plow straight through it. True, it’s almost 900 pages long, but trust me, you won’t want it to end. I’ll… [more]
Money and Trade at the End of the World
Every video roleplaying game has basically the same setup: shops offering increasingly powerful items and equipment accompany the path toward the final boss. You sell your junk there, make repairs, upgrade cloth armor to leather… [more]
Overwatch: The Pleasures of Not Giving a Damn about the Story
Overwatch, launched just a month ago, is a new MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) in which teams of six human-controlled players battle six-person teams controlled by humans or the computer, your choice. Each player chooses… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 3, Subsidized Time
The twentieth-anniversary rereading and discussion of the greatest novel ever written, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, has just ended. The discussion continues, and this is part of it. Many thousands of fans worldwide including me… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 2, Giant Feral Hamsters and Infants
A worldwide reread of the greatest novel ever written, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, is currently underway, celebrating twenty years since its first publication. “Infinite Winter” began January 31; readers consume about 75 pages per… [more]
Sid and Marty Krofft’s Wormholes to Hell
If you’re an American of a certain age, chances are you fondly remember the weird and wonderful worlds dreamed up by Sid and Marty Krofft—especially H. R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost. Those… [more]
Ernest Cline’s Armada: One Remove Too Many
At last, Ernest Cline, best-selling author of Ready Player One, has released his second novel, Armada. RPO was so fun to read, and so perfectly constructed, that its follow-up was bound to be disappointing. And… [more]
Superhero Fever Strikes India: Maharakshak Aryan on Zee TV
You can hardly swing an unconscious henchman without hitting a superhero in American popular culture these days. Solo and in teams, superheroes dominate our comics and movies; they’re making rapid inroads on television too, on… [more]
John Scalzi’s Lock In: Fifty Pounds of Story in a Twenty-Pound Sack
Lock In, the new science fiction novel by Hugo winner John Scalzi, boasts the density of a red dwarf. It’s a hardboiled detective novel, and a surprisingly plausible “future history,” and an exploration of identity… [more]
The Circle by Dave Eggers: Let’s All “Like” Our Transparent Dystopia!
[Note: This article contains many spoilers; it would be impossible to write without them. Also, The Circle was published a full year ago, and it explores social media’s effects on knowledge, socializing, privacy, and politics—as… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 1, Videophony
David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest is, for my money, the greatest novel ever written. It appears regularly near the top of “best novels of all time” lists such as Time Magazine’s. It has… [more]
Basic Instructions Creator Now Writes Novels
Many of you Sequart readers already know Scott Meyer from his popular webcomic Basic Instructions. The comic is thoroughly venerable by internet standards, having written and posted it since 2003. Here is a fairly typical… [more]
An Open Reply to Fantasy Author Patrick Rothfuss
Patrick, In your most recent blog post, you replied to an article that I wrote for Sequart, “Six Reasons Why the Kingkiller Chronicle is the Next Game of Thrones.” You wrote: “Over the years, I’ve been… [more]
Stunt Writing Yields a Brilliant Novel: Dave Eggers’s Newest
Imagine you’re a novelist who gambles. You lose a big bet, and the buddy you lost to decides to make your writing life incredibly difficult. He sets these restrictions for your next novel, and as… [more]
Sword-and-Sorcery Movies: They Just Don’t Make Them Like That Anymore
Remember films like Conan the Barbarian, Labyrinth, and The Sword and the Sorcerer? Fantasy movies of the late 1970s and early 80s with lots of swords and sorcery, where the good guys always won? Remember… [more]
Review of Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Joshua Ferris just released his third novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, and like his previous two, this one is insightful, fascinating, and just a hair’s breadth short of perfect. Better than any… [more]
Six Reasons Why the Kingkiller Chronicle is the Next Game of Thrones
Everyone knows about Game of Thrones – seriously, everyone. Fantasy fiction fans can gloat that they’ve known about it since 1996, when George R. R. Martin published the first Thrones novel. The HBO series has… [more]