Welcome to the Munchkyn Zone

I'm Sarah Stegall, and I write novels and reviews. I write in practically all genres; I review mostly science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fiction, but I might branch out into other genres if something really appeals to me. My reviews have been cited in academic television and cultural studies such as Cult Television, Escape Into the Future, Aliens In America, The Philosophy of The X-Files, Convergence, and Reality Squared (which called these reviews "among the best critical commentary available on the Web"). Many of them are also available on IMdB.

Books

	My latest novel, Deadfall, has been released by Wavelength Books. Private investigator Claire Turnbull meets the ghost of Old West lawman Wyatt Earp over a cooling corpse in San Francisco, and is dismayed to discover that only she can see or hear him. Reluctantly, she teams with the ghost to solve a murder mystery that threatens her own life: who killed a bigamous thief and stole a 150-year-old ship's log? Was it just another in a long string of cons, or is there really a hoard of gold hidden in San Francisco? The hunt takes Claire and Wyatt from the high rises of the modern city into a murky past buried under the city. E-book version available now; print version will debut in Spring 2012. Available in e-book format from all online retailers.
	Orpheus A short story in the tradition of early cyberpunk. In a future society that has reduced most humans to drones, a musician launches a revolution that spans worlds, but pays a high personal price. Available in e-book format from most online retailers. FREE
	Deus Ex Machina This is a short story in a light, fantasy vein. It's hard for a good magician to find work when the rest of the world is abandoning magic for technology. One young mage has to find a way to bridge the worlds. Available in e-book format from all online retailers.

News

Reviewing two new shows this spring:

• New J. J. Abrams series, Alcatraz, which purports to tell us that the former inmates of the infamous prison just vanished one day, and are now re-appearing (which raises all sorts of statute-of-limitations questions).
• Lost Girl, a Canadian drama about a bisexual woman who discovers she is not human, she's a succubus.

I'll also be taking a look at some new shows:

• Awake showcases one of my favorite actors, Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter fans know him as Draco Malfoy's father) as a detective who awakens from an accident in a parallel universe.
• Touch stars Kiefer Sutherland as a man trying to communicate with his autistic son, who appears to be a savant who can predict the future; while it may be borderline genre, it still has some intriguing possibilities just because it's another take on Numbers.
• Steven Spielberg continues to back interesting genre work on television: The River debuts this year as a story about a family looking for their father, an explorer who got lost in the Amazon River basin six months earlier; it's supposed to be a horror story and stars Bruce Greenwood.

Reviews

We tend to treat popular culture as ephemera, but I choose to treat it as the artistic expression of our times, and as such I try to approach these entertainments from the attitude that some of what they say matters. These are the art forms of our day, and deserve as much intelligent critique as any painting or symphony. How intelligent or useful these opinions may be is entirely left to the reader. 

What you will find here are not "recaps" of shows, which summarize the plot, but critiques. These reviews contain spoilers. I'm more interested in how and why a particular entertainment succeeds or fails (in my opinion) so I tend to get a tad analytical and more than a bit philosophical. That's how I roll. I hope you enjoy it.

Which TV shows am I reviewing?

Here's a rundown of SF/Fantasy shows I am reviewing. All times are Pacific.

Contact me at reviews at munchkyn dot com.

Thanks for stopping by!