SF/F Link: End of August Catchup!
No need for introductions, except this one. It’s time to dive right in: The Independent lists the 100 favorite fictional characters, as chosen by literary luminaries. It’s an interesting list, if not a little flawed. Imagination Investigation gives us the Reader Contract. Ignore the bit at the end about God and what not, but the rest of it is really interesting. These are really what readers expect. Polenth talks about names in a multicultural world. Some interesting points and observations made there. Here’s a list of the 500 greatest books for teens. Huge list. I’ve read a few on it, but…it’s a huge list. And how about this? 50 resources that will improve your writing. Might be useful, right? There’s also a similar list for resources that will revolutionize your note-taking (or anything close to note-taking, at least). If you’re a Thomas Pynchon nut, like me (though I can’t explain why), then you might find this list of articles by, about, and of interest to him rather, well, interesting! According to the USA Today, one in four people read zero books last year. That’s not as bad as it could be. That’s technically an improvement! Dear Author lists ten online promotional don’ts for writers. Good stuff! Damsels in Regress talks about time travel. Informative and somewhat different than normal talks on this subject. Natania Barron has a few requests from the fantasy genre. Good requests too. Futurismic mentioned a long time ago that stem-cell contacts can restore eyesight. That’s right. Stem-cell research works. We should all dance now. And there we go! Enjoy!
GFTW’s SF/F/H Book Reviewer Meme, 2nd Edition
John Ottinger of Grasping For the Wind has posted an updated version of his famous SF/F/H book reviewer meme. And now I’m posting it here so you all can check some of these great reviewers out. You’ll have to click the read more in order to see the list, because the darn thing is too long for me to post on my homepage. Anywho, here goes:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZRomanian French Chinese Danish Portuguese German A 7 Foot Shelves The Accidental Bard A Boy Goes on a Journey A Dribble Of Ink Adventures in Reading A Fantasy Reader The Agony Column A Hoyden’s Look at Literature A Journey of Books All Booked Up Alexia’s Books and Such… Andromeda Spaceways The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. Ask Daphne ask nicola Audiobook DJ aurealisXpress Australia Specfic In Focus Author 2 Author AzureScape B Barbara Martin Babbling about Books Bees (and Books) on the Knob Best SF Bewildering Stories Bibliophile Stalker Bibliosnark Big Dumb Object BillWardWriter.com The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf Bitten by Books The Black Library Blog Blog, Jvstin Style Blood of the Muse The Book Bind Bookgeeks Bookrastination Booksies Blog Bookslut The Book Smugglers Bookspotcentral The Book Swede Book View Cafe [Authors Group Blog] Breeni Books C Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist] Charlotte’s Library Circlet 2.0 Cheryl’s Musings Club Jade Cranking Plot Critical Mass The Crotchety Old Fan D Daily Dose – Fantasy and Romance Damien G. Walter Danger Gal It’s Dark in the Dark Dark Parables Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews Darque Reviews Dave Brendon’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog Dead Book Darling Dear Author The Deckled Edge The Doctor is In… Dragons, Heroes and Wizards Drey’s Library The Discriminating Fangirl Dusk Before the Dawn E Enter the Octopus Erotic Horizon Errant Dreams Reviews Eve’s Alexandria F Falcata Times Fan News Denmark [in English] Fantastic Reviews Fantastic Reviews Blog Fantasy Book Banner Fantasy Book Critic Fantasy Book Reviews and News Fantasy By the Tale Fantasy Cafe Fantasy Debut Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings Fantasy Literature.com Fantasy Magazine Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin’ News and Reviews Feminist SF – The Blog! Feybound Fiction is so Overrated The Fix The Foghorn Review Follow that Raven Forbidden Planet Frances Writes Free SF Reader From a Sci-Fi Standpoint From the Heart of Europe Fruitless Recursion Fundamentally Alien The Future Fire G The Galaxy Express Galleycat Game Couch The Gamer Rat Garbled Signals Genre Reviews Genreville Got Schephs Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review Grasping for the Wind a GREAT read The Green Man Review Gripping Books H Hasenpfeffer Hero Complex Highlander’s Book Reviews Horrorscope The Hub Magazine Hyperpat’s Hyper Day I I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending Ink and Keys Ink and Paper The Internet Review of Science Fiction io9 J Janicu’s Book Blog Jenn’s Bookshelf Jumpdrives and Cantrips K Kat Bryan’s Corner Keeping the Door King of the Nerds L Lair of the Undead Rat Largehearted Boy Layers of Thought League of Reluctant Adults The Lensman’s Children Library Dad Libri Touches Literary Escapism Literaturely Speaking ludis inventio Lundblog: Beautiful Letters M Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review Mari’s Midnight Garden Mark Freeman’s Journal Mark Lord’s Writing Blog Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars Martin’s Booklog MentatJack Michele Lee’s Book Love Missions Unknown [Author and Artist Blog Devoted to SF/F/H in San Antonio] The Mistress of Ancient Revelry MIT Science Fiction Society Monster Librarian More Words, Deeper Hole Mostly Harmless Books Multi-Genre Fan Musings from the Weirdside My Favourite Books My Overstuffed Bookshelf N Neth Space The New Book Review NextRead Not Free SF Reader Nuketown O OF Blog of the Fallen The Old Bat’s Belfry ommadawn.dk Only The Best SciFi/Fantasy The Ostentatious Ogre Outside of a Dog P Paranormality Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Patricia’s Vampire Notes The Persistence of Vision Piaw’s Blog Pizza’s Book Discussion Poisoned Rationality Popin’s Lair pornokitsch Post-Weird Thoughts Publisher’s Weekly Pussreboots: A Book Review a Day Q R Ramblings of a Raconteur Random Acts of Mediocrity Ray Gun Revival Realms of Speculative Fiction Reading the Leaves Review From Here Reviewer X Revolution SF Rhiannon Hart The Road Not Taken Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff Robots and Vamps S Sandstorm Reviews Satisfying the Need to Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics Science Fiction Times ScifiChick Sci-Fi Blog SciFiGuy Sci-Fi Fan Letter The Sci-Fi Gene Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews] SciFi Squad Scifi UK Reviews Sci Fi Wire Self-Publishing Review The Sequential Rat Severian’s Fantastic Worlds SF Diplomat SFFaudio SFFMedia SF Gospel SFReader.com SF Reviews.net SF Revu SF Safari SFScope SF Signal SF Site SFF World’s Book Reviews Silver Reviews Simply Vamptastic Slice of SciFi Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Solar Flare Speculative Fiction Speculative Fiction Junkie Speculative Horizons The Specusphere Spinebreakers Spiral Galaxy Reviews Spontaneous Derivation Sporadic Book Reviews Stainless Steel Droppings Starting Fresh Stella Matutina Stuff as Dreams are Made on… The Sudden Curve The Sword Review T Tangent Online Tehani Wessely Temple Library Reviews Tez Says things mean a lot Tor.com [also a publisher] True Science Fiction U Ubiquitous Absence Un:Bound undeadbydawn Urban Fantasy Land V Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic Variety SF Veritas Omnia Vincula W Walker of Worlds Wands and Worlds Wanderings Wendy Palmer: Reading and Writing Genre Books and ebooks The Weirdside The Wertzone With Intent to Commit Horror The Wizard of Duke Street WJ Fantasy Reviews The Word Nest Wordsville The World in a Satin Bag WriteBlack The Written World X Y Young Adult Science Fiction Z Romanian Cititor SF [with English Translation] French Elbakin.net Mythologica Chinese Foundation of Krantas The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [with some English essays] Yenchin’s Lair Danish Interstellar Ommadawn.dk Scifisiden Portuguese Aguarras Fernando Trevisan Human 2.0 Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm Ponto De Convergencia pós-estranho Skavis German Fantasy Seiten Fantasy Buch Fantasy/SciFi Blog Literaturschock Welt der fantasy Bibliotheka Phantastika SF Basar Phantastick News X-zine Buchwum Phantastick Couch Wetterspitze Fantasy News Fantasy Faszination Fantasy Guide Zwergen Reich Fiction Fantasy A B C D E
Top 5 Science Fiction Leading Ladies
In fashioning this list I decided to set some ground rules. When I say leading ladies, I mean leading ladies, not sidekicks, or other characters who are overshadowed, even slightly, by male characters. Considering that means drastically minimizing my options, since instant favorites, such as Princess Leia, can no longer be included. Narrowing things down in this way makes this list fairly difficult to create. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of great female leads in science fiction, something I hope will be remedied in the coming years (girls are awesome too, you know). So, without further delay, here are my top ten leading ladies in science fiction: Ellen Ripley / Sigourney Weaver (The Alien Series)What list could be complete without Ripley? She is the quintessential science fiction leading lady. If you don’t believe me, then you need to see the ending for Aliens. Taking on the Queen Alien in a mechanized loading vehicle is pretty ballsy. But I’m sure the Queen got what she deserved. Sarah Connor / Linda Hamilton (The Terminator)She becomes a stronger character, physically, later in the series, but her first appearance is a memorable one. After all, she falls in love with a man who technically doesn’t exist yet and manages to defeat the Terminator in the nick of time! And don’t forget that her character grows into a bit of a badass later on. Evey / Natalie Portman (V For Vendetta)I think Evey’s psychological progression in the movie (and the comic) is a powerful and relatively unique portrayal in science fiction. It’s not often that we see movies that are well aware of the mental states of the characters. V For Vendetta does a fine job turning Evey into a complex female figure worth remembering. Captain Kathryn Janeway / Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager)I’ve always been a fan of Voyager. My love for this Star Trek derivation comes from its unique characters. From Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway, Voyager is one of the few Star Trek series that, I think, really tries to push the envelope. Maybe I’m wrong, but Janeway is one of the top captains in Star Trek, only rivaled, in my opinion by the two biggest names in Star Trek (Picard and Kirk). It would be interesting to see Janeway make an appearance in a movie somewhere, because her character deserves more than just a television show. Laura Roslin / Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)You’d have to be a fan of BSG to know why Roslin is on this list. For a character who became President by a string of seemingly random deaths, Roslin is pretty much the ultimate of badasses. She’s not afraid to chuck someone out of an airlock for pissing her off and she tends to get what she wants, even if nobody else wants it. That, and Mary McDonnell managed to turn this character into one of the most astonishingly complex figures in science fiction history. More so than any other. But that’s BSG for you: a show that is about characters, that knows it’s a good show and isn’t afraid to show it. And that’s that. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of any good female figures in literature, so it seems this list will be primarily about film and television. But if you know any awesome female leads in science fiction literature, let me know in the comments. The same goes for anyone I might have missed that deserves to be here!
Eight Guilty Pleasures in Science Fiction and Fantasy
There are some things we all read and watch that we feel guilty for loving. It can’t be helped. As terrible as 80s music is, hearing it on the radio sparks a ridiculously happy feeling within me. Science fiction and fantasy can sometimes have this effect too. And here is my list of what I consider to be my science fiction and fantasy guilty pleasures: Eragon/Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Books)I’ve heard the arguments for while Paolini is terrible, and I have to admit that he’s not exactly the greatest of writers, but I can’t help loving these two books. The movie was terrible, but the books have always been entertaining for me. Maybe it has to do with listening to the audiobook for Eragon before actually reading it, but whatever the reason, I love these books even if I shouldn’t. Total Recall (Film)This movie has, perhaps, gained some traction in the science fiction community in recent years due to its somewhat pulpy, if not campy, feel. True, the film is ridiculous (primarily in its science) and features the Governator doing his generally poor attempt at actual acting, but yet the film is strangely enjoyable for me. It could be because of the violence, or the lady with a certain extra body part, but maybe the reason doesn’t matter, because so many other people enjoy Total Recall too, and feel just as guilty about it. Hackers (Film)Talk about campy and outdated. Hackers is one of those ridiculous computer hacker movies that is both ridiculous and incapable of keeping up with the real world. But, to be fair, it has a cult following, so perhaps it’s not such a guilty pleasure after all. Oh, and it has a young Angelina Jolie in it, which some people think is a good thing. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (Book)Though not technically fantasy, this romance novel is both incredibly sappy and strangely enjoyable for me. Considering I tend to avoid romance like the plague, liking The Notebook is certainly uncharacteristic for me. I suppose if you’ve read the book you’d understand, but if not, don’t make fun of me for putting this Sparks novel on this list. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (Book)I’m not sure why I like the first book of this Bible-inspired fantasy series (yes, it’s fantasy, deal with it). I tend to avoid religious mumbo jumbo like the plague due to my tendency to light on fire when exposed to Biblical teachings. Regardless, I read the first book on a whim and loved it. I guess that makes me a bad person, right? The Chronicles of Riddick (Movie)I suppose The Chronicles of Riddick isn’t nearly as much of a guilty pleasure as Eragon or some of the other things on this list. Still, I thought the movie was great and always have, despite what others have said. It’s not every day that someone can take an already pretty cool character and turn them into an epic grey hero. Riddick is pretty much the most badass figure in science fiction film next to Boba Fett; hence why The Chronicles of Riddick is awesome. Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes (Movie)Don’t get me wrong, the remake of Planet of the Apes is quite terrible, but it’s also quite enjoyable. The makeup and stunts are phenomenal in this movie. I also love Paul Giamatti, who has a great part as an orangutan-man. I still re-watch this movie from time to time, because I think it’s good. Sue me. Signs (Movie)It seems like everyone hates this movie. I’ve always thought that nobody understood Signs, but I suppose arguments for or against this movie are relatively pointless. Signs is one of those movies that I think is cute and re-watchable. I might be the only one, though. And that’s it! What about you? What are your guilty pleasures in science fiction and fantasy? Let me know in the comments!
SF/F Links: Mid-July Links
Here we go: Futurismic has a really elaborate image that maps out the various scientific disciplines based on published papers, etc. It’s astonishing and hard to describe. Also at Futurismic is news that humans are naturally optimistic. Apparently a lot of people think things will get better. Dystopias are out! (Well, not really, but it’s fun to say, I suppose.) Wired lists 10 strange species discovered in 2008. And by strange, I really do mean strange. Ideas are already swimming in my head from this list. io9 lists 10 eco-catastrophes from early science fiction. Lots of stuff I’ve never read, and all interesting. I’m not sure I linked to this edition of Grasping For the Wind’s Inside the Blogosphere about relatively unknown SF/F authors. Good stuff there. NextRead asks: How do you choose what NOT to read next? SF Signal wonders what the dream price for eBooks is. Me too, actually. Personally, I think under $5 for new “mass market” editions (or at least 40% off cover price). That would make them appealing, I think. Theological Scribes asks why there are hardly any Christian science fiction tales. I think the better question is why there are hardly any Biblic retellings in science fiction format, because there are a heck of a lot of books that look at the future without necessarily violating a “Christian” worldview. Christopher Morris makes some interesting observations of NYT Bestseller’s lists from today and way back when. Funny how so much of what sells is genre fiction… Metaphysical Fantasy lists some subgenres of the fantasy genre with decent descriptions. A good list to acknowledge. Publetariat offers a pros/cons discussion of royalty-based indie publishing. Good stuff! John C. Wright wonders which science fiction and fantasy books we would read to our children. He goes into a great discussion of the various books he’s considered and tried, and even talks about Harry Potter in some detail. Great post. Jesse’s Blog makes some interesting observations about how we perceive the Other. Definitely worth reading if you’re interested in such discussions. The Launch Pad asks whether kids are reading enough science fiction these days. Good observations here and certainly a question that needs to be asked. Incredible Things has a list of twenty incredible bookcases. Simply stunning. And that’s it! Enjoy!
Top 7 Science Fiction “Sidekicks” (in Film)
Comic books may have the sidekick thing down, but science fiction has had a fair share of excellent sidekicks. This list is primarily focused on clear science fiction (in a loose sense and not based on my definitions here and here), so you won’t see any comic books or fantasy titles represented. Without further delay, here are what I consider to be the top seven: Chewbacca (Star Wars)I would argue that Chewbacca is the greatest science fiction sidekick in film history, but I’m sure those reading this will disagree. But, given that he’s a walking carpet with fangs, speaks in a bizarre grunting language that only Han Solo and Yoda seem to understand, and can pop the head off a grown man with his pinkie finger, I think he deserves to be here. Chewbacca is kind of like what a wolf would be like if it walked on two legs. Awesome? I think so. Spock (Star Trek)The only true rival to Chewbacca, in my opinion, Spock is sort of like the science fiction version of Legolas, only not nearly as cute. It would be hard to imagine Star Trek without Spock. What would Captain Kirk do without his half-human, half-vulcan, logic-spouting machine? He’d probably be dead and we wouldn’t be talking about the guy as if he were real. Spock is like Kirk’s exact opposite, and that seems to be why he functions so well as a character. Zoe (Firefly)There’s something astonishing about Zoe as a character. While some have criticized Whedon for making her a subservient woman, I see a strong, loyal female figure who follows Reynolds not because he’s a man, but because he is and always has been her superior in military rank. And she seems to know exactly how to put up with Reynold’s crap, like all good sidekicks should. Smart, witty, and damn good with a gun, Zoe is one of the best female sidekicks in science fiction history. Professor Arturo (Sliders)John Rhys Davies is amazing. If that isn’t enough to put Professor Arturo on this list, then consider that Arturo was, by far, the best character on the show, so much so that his death drove the quality of Sliders right into the garbage bin. Arturo was smart, opinionated, and yet strangely lovable. His death was a shock for a damned good reason. Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica, the new version)Some may argue with me about whether Starbuck qualifies as a sidekick, but she needs to be on this list due to how awesome of a character she was in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. Not only is she a hell of a pilot and a bit of a badass, but Starbuck also has a remarkable fate that leads her on an emotional roller coaster to discover Earth. Watch the show and you’ll understand why she’s awesome. Al Calavicci (Quantum Leap)I wonder what it would be like to have a holographic projection of my best friend following me around as I’m thrust through time into other people’s bodies. Would it be fun? Maybe. If Al were following me, though, I suspect it would be an interesting journey. This show is one of my Grandmother’s favorites, and I can see why. Al is a fun character played by and equally fun actor (Dean Stockwell, who actually plays Caval on Battlestar Galactica). Dana Scully (X-Files)Last of this list is another character who might not be considered to be a sidekick. Scully has a remarkable independent attitude in the series, but makes it on this list primarily because she does act as a logic machine for Mulder–sort of like Spock does for Kirk. She knows how to deal with dead bodies, gets abducted by aliens, and sees a heck of a lot of strange stuff, but still manages to be a disbeliever right up until two steps from the end. That takes guts. And there you have it. Anyone you disagree with? Who would you replace and why? Let me know in the comments!