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Synthesized Sunsets is a magazine and podcast about speculative fiction, romantic art, and the evolution of popular culture. Every few months, the magazine will rebrand to reflect a new “season”, complete with an aesthetic theme.
When we say speculative fiction, we mean fiction that is centered around novel ideas of what could be or what could have been. In general, we think that the best speculative fiction tends to come from those who infuse their non-literary academic perspectives into literature: think Greg Egan with math or Ursula K. Le Guin1 with anthropology. However, good speculative fiction can obviously come from all sorts of places.
The project is run by Kevin Kodama (Seattle) and Gordon Anderson (Chicago), two Gen Z speculative fiction enthusiasts who want to see the genre evolve. In general, Kevin focuses more on cultural criticism and literary sci-fi, while Gordon focuses more on fiction and high fantasy. However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule, and most posts in the magazine are written collaboratively.
The essays on Synthesized Sunsets can generally be divided into reviews, reflections, surveys, speculations, and surveys:
Reviews are either more conventional X/10 “this is a review” posts, or more stylized essays about a particular work or author that Gordon or Kevin loves.
Reflections are stylized personal essays about childhood experiences with some speculative fiction themes mixed in.
Speculations are pieces that try to imagine the future of literature and popular culture, particularly as it relates to the Internet and other digital technology.
Surveys are comprehensive breakdowns of what speculative fiction is out there right now and/or how it came to be this way.
In addition to essays, Synthesized Sunsets also publishes occasional fiction and biweekly-ish podcast episodes. A good starting point for all of these pieces is this regularly updated listing of some of our best posts:
Best of Synthesized Sunsets: Start Here!
Synthesized Sunsets is a magazine and podcast about speculative fiction, romantic art, and the evolution of popular culture. Every few months, the magazine will rebrand to reflect a new “season”, complete with an aesthetic theme. The current season of the magazine is SUMMER 2025: THE SOLAR ISSUE, and we will be hi…
Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you in the comments section! If you have any questions (or if you would just like to chat), feel free to shoot us an email at synthesized.sunsets@gmail.com.
Ursula K. Le Guin wasn’t technically an anthropologist by training, but given her writing and the fact that her father was famous anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, we think she deserves to be considered an honorary one.
