Top 7 Fiercest Dragons
The criteria for this list is fairly specific. The dragons must be mean little (or big) buggers, and they must not, at any point, be cuddly, per my idea of what that word means. This may mean that certain dragons that might be particularly fierce will not make it on this list (such as Saphira from Eragon, who is rather fierce, but also has her moments as a loving, wonderful creature). With that in mind, here are my top seven fiercest dragons (in no particular order): Smaug (The Hobbit)I don’t know if you would consider this dragon to be particularly fierce so much as misunderstood, but Smaug did apparently destroy a village and take control of the mountain where all that lovely treasure was buried. I consider that to be rather fierce. Unnamed Dragon from BeowulfWhile it’s true that there is only one story of this dragon in existence, it’s still a pretty good story that reminds us how dangerous and powerful this creature really was. Not only did it destroy everything in sight, but it even managed to kill Beowulf, albeit after its own death. Considering that Beowulf was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread back then, that’s impressive. The World Serpent, or Jormungandr from Norse MythologyWhy on this list? Because according to Norse myth, this dragon is supposed to engage Thor in a final battle during Ragnarok (or Norse apocalypse, if you will), and in doing so he will poison the skies and the seas. While the World Serpent is supposed to lose to Thor, his poison will eventually destroy Thor and, well, you can imagine what other horrible things will occur after. It’s hard to survive in a world that has been poisoned, right? The Dragons from Reign of FireWhile the movie itself wasn’t all that good, the dragons were formidable enemies. These creatures breed like rabbits, lay waste to pretty much everything they come in contact with, and seem to have only two modes: kill and spit fire (which sort of go hand in hand, I suppose). Nasty beasts, for sure. Vermithrax Pejorative (Dragonslayer)I don’t know how many of you have actually seen this movie, or have even heard of it, but Vermithrax was a remarkably ruthless creature with a lust for virgins. His name actually means “the Wurm of Thrace who makes things worse.” Much like the dragons from Reign of Fire, Vermithrax is pretty much interested in only two things: killing (virgins) and spitting fire. There’s some reproduction and general desire to be mean thrown in there for good measure, too. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)While technically she’s a witch, the fact that she turns into the dragon at the end lets her be on this list. When I was a kid, that final fight scene actually scared the hell out of me. I don’t know why, because you’d think even kids would be able to tell the difference between cartoons and reality, but Maleficent was a terrifying, monstrous creature with astounding power. That’s good enough to put her on this list. Godzilla (from all the Godzilla movies)Terrible temper + ocean-side city = smash and crunch. How many Godzilla movies are there anyway? Something like thirty-eight, actually, each one involving this skyscraper-tall monster smashing cities or beating on other giant monsters. I can’t think of any moment in which Godzilla was even remotely liked by the poor people of Japan. Imagine having this guy as your next door neighbor! The Hungarian Horntail (Harry Potter)I’m not going to say anything at all. I’m just going to point you to the video below. That should show everything needed to be said as evidence of this creature’s fierce personality.Honorable mentions: The Eborsisk from Willow, Glaurung from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the dragon that Saint George kills from European mythology, Fafnir from Norse Mythology, and many others. It’s quite difficult to make a list like this! There are so many dragons both mythological and straight-fictional to choose from. Which dragons would you put on this list instead of the ones I have there and why? Feel free to disagree with me!
Giveaways (At the Edge of the Earth…err June)
No need for introductions. Here goes: Suzanne McLeod is giving away a copy of The Eternal Kiss, Mean Streets, and others. BSC Review has a copy of The Light of Burning Shadows by Chris Evans up for grabs. Patricia’s Vampire Notes is offering up a few copies of The Host. Melissa’s Bookshelf is tossing out the first seven Sookie Stackhouse books! Wands and Worlds is giving away books 5-7 of the Harry Potter series. If you don’t already have them, enter! The same giveaway is being held at Abby Librarian, at Well-Read Child, and at Brimful Curiosities. Ticket to Anywhere has a copy of The Maze Runner up for grabs. Review From Here is giving away a copy of the audiobook for Ludlum’s The Bourne Deception. A Bookworm’s Diary has the DVD collection for the History Channel’s Preshistoric series up for grabs. Might be interesting. More info about the collection can be found here. Other giveaways from A Bookworm’s Diary: the third season of Cities of the Underworld (more info here), a collection of the History Channel’s Military Combat stuff (more info here), the box set for America At War (more info here), and the third season of The Universe (more info here). Steph Su Reads is giving away a collection of Meg Cabot books (from the Mediator series). Fantastic Book Reviews is tossing up a whole bunch of books that she quite enjoyed. Some good reads there. She’s also got a copy of Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog up for grabs. J. Kaye’s Book Blog is giving away all three books of the Atherton Trilogy! And that’s all I got for now. Plenty of good stuff here, so enter while you can!
SF/F Links: The Last For June
Well, here are a few more for this month to keep things interesting. Enjoy! L. E. Modesitt, Jr. talks about the “golden age” of writing that everyone seems to refer to. Definitely eye-opening. Things weren’t all that great back in the day… A little history about my ancient relatives from many hundreds of years ago that might be interesting to some of you out there. I found it fascinating the other day. Bibliophile Stalker offers a fantastic argument for why the ebook industry is not like the music industry. The Torch Online asks why it’s called the “Science Fiction Section” when fantasy outsells SF. I don’t agree with the way the article ends, but it’s still interesting. Follow the Reader talks about the potential impact of Twitter and blogs on book sales. A bit inconclusive, but still interesting. An interesting prediction: reading and writing will peak in 2025 and then decline (like smoking did some time ago). Not sure I agree, but it’s an interesting prediction nonetheless. Here’s something interesting: a 35,000-year-old flute has been found and is the oldest musical instrument known to exist. How about some steampunk? Well here’s an interesting discussion on the intersection of race and steampunk. And don’t forget this history of steampunk. Seems like steampunk is the big things these day. Of course, that’s quite obvious. J. A. Brock asks whether fantasy is speculative fiction. It is, but his reasoning is worth checking out. The Cedar Lounge Revolution talks about the Guardian List of 100 best SF/F novels and literary fiction. A good bit of criticism about top lists. Here’s an informative article on dragons. Not sure if it was stolen from Wikipedia, but it’s still interesting. Fantasy Book Reviewers asks whether fantasy is more re-readable than SF. Is it? I don’t know. I’ve re-read 1984 a few times, but haven’t re-read any fantasy books. But that’s me.
SF/F Links: A June Roundup
I have way too many interesting links for you all, but it’s been a rather active month (May and June combined). So here goes: Yodle Local talks about some science fiction staples that are becoming real life. The invisibility cloak is particularly awesome. Warren Ellis rips on Asimov’s three laws of robotics. Pretty funny! Orion’s Arm lists some exceptionally useful worldbuilding links. You should definitely check them out if you’re interested in that sort of thing. KSU has an interesting chart and brief explanation of the various schools of literary criticism. Even if you’re not into that sort of thing, you might want to check it out anyway. Interesting stuff. Have Mac Will Blog lists ten words you probably don’t know. I don’t know any of them, that’s for sure. Really obscure and bizarre! PopCrunch lists the ten most disturbing books of all time. I haven’t read most of these, but some of the ones I have I don’t agree with. Still, it’s an interesting list of equally interesting books. Beer and SciFi lists ten science fiction movies for the thinking man. I now have a few more must-see movies on my list. Brown University puts together a host of articles about cyberpunk that might be worth checking out. Simon Haynes talks about plotting. Really in-depth, by the way. If you write novels, you might want to read that post. SciFi Watch lists five terms that science fiction coined. All good stuff. SciFi Wire lists seven unfilmable science fiction books. That’s not to say that Hollywood won’t try… And that’s it for this edition. Hope you found them useful!
SF/F Links: A Little Something For June
Well, I have more links for you all. No need to keep you waiting. Here goes: Want to know what those rejection letters actually mean? Here’s a post about deciphering them. The Magic District talks about objectification in fantasy. Good stuff. Widdershins Wizard offers a critique of fantasy and its cliches. Definitely worth reading. Topless Robot lists 10 blatant Terminator ripoffs. Wow, there are some really bad movies out there. The Torch Online lists the top eight fantasy villains. Darkness is a particular favorite of mine. io9 Lists 13 books that will change the way you look at robots. Some really good titles here. Beam Me Up asks: What is science fiction? They’re obviously not the first or only ones asking this and unfortunately it’s not a topic that will ever have a definitive answer… Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog lists five interesting Peter Pan books. If you like Mr. Pan, you might want to check those out! Pak Tea House links the Taliban to the Borg. Bizarrely amusing. io9 lists the 10 greatest libertarian science fiction books. Some good reading there! Check out the Save the Semi-pro Zine blog! Edward Champion points out some notable books not written by white people. There are some excellent suggestions there. And finally there is this recollection of a particularly horrible experience at a panel at WisCon. Read it. It deals with issues of rape in fiction and people being completely horrible human beings. Thanks goes to Mr. Tan of Bibliophile Stalker and John of SF Signal for pointing me to a handful of the links on this list.
Self-publishing Redux: The Good Books Three
In the aftermath of my criticism of self-publishing I thought it would be a good idea to point out some of those self-published books that I have enjoyed. Since no further introductions are needed, I’ll just dig right in: The Dark Dreamweaver by Nick RuthBy far one of my favorite self-published fantasy novels. With a cast of bizarre and fascinating characters, this one gripped me when I first read it years ago and it’s been in my library every since. It’s the kind of book I can see reading to my future children (when or wherever they happen to spring up).You can find my review of it here (warning: this is an exceptionally old review) The Tales of Tanglewood: The Lon Dubh Whistle by Scott KessmanI guess it’s somewhat strange that two of the best self-published books I have read also happen to be novels meant for younger audiences. Still, Kessman’s work is fun, a bit quirky, and magical; it’s another one of those books that I’d love to read to my kids one day. We’ll see!You can find a link to my review here. Honeycomb by Israel Del RioThe one adult novel that I found to be quite remarkable. While it’s not a perfect book, it’s premise is fascinating and the writing is generally pretty strong. Contains some interesting examinations of the afterlife and the complicated relationships between a series of connected individuals. Certainly worthy of a good read, in my opinion.You can find a link to my review here. There you have it! Evidence that I don’t hate all self-published novels. Have any of you read any particularly good SF/F novels that were self-published? Let me know in the comments!