SF/F Links: Some More April Goodies
I have a few more links for you all, including some book reviews. Here goes: Self-Published Reviews has a discussion of self-publishing that isn’t exactly rosy. WebEcoist has a list of 12 dystopian science fiction films you should all check out. There are a few in there I’ve never heard of, but now want to see. David Steffen asks: What is “literary?” He makes some great points worth considering. ShareWorlds (a world-building workshop for teenagers) is back for 2009. Mary Robinette Kowal has a top ten list of evil queens. It’s a bit old, but still cool. The Plenty Principle asks if science fiction is finished as a genre (from a reader’s perspective). OnlineColleges.net has an interesting list of fifteen of the strangest college courses in America. Some of these courses really are completely pointless, but a handful I’d take in a heartbeat, because they sound fascinating! And some book giveaways: J. Kaye’s Book Blog has a copy of Once Bitten by Kalayna Price to giveaway. She also has a copy of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams to toss out there. Reviewer X has a copy of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon to giveaway. And there you go. Enjoy!
Uberman Superhero
Some of you I’ve been applying to scholarships for graduate school. This post is actually for one of my scholarships: TheUberman.com “I AM a superhero” Scholarship. I thought I’d go with something a bit, well, humorous for this. In any case, enjoy: I am Gauisus, the United Nation’s designated superhero. The problem with being like me is that you’re always the butt of someone’s joke. You see, my name means “happy” in Latin, because I can fabricate happiness out of thin air. And I don’t mean the hearty chuckle variety of happiness, or even the hippy, high-as-a-kite kind. I mean the kind of happiness you find in a laughing child: that pure, innocent, and unimaginable sensation forgotten by adulthood, concentrated into a thick, happy syrup and injected straight into the veins. It’s like an adrenaline shot of happiness, but without the side effects. I’ve stopped wars by turning grumpy politicians into crying bundles of hugs and apologies; selfish oil barons, isolationists, and xenophobes have turned into environmentally and socially conscious progressives. Everyone I target has an experience, a moment of clarity in which they begin to realize that things really do need to change. But this is all standard superhero fare. The more interesting stuff occurs at the UN. I’m not welcome there anymore, because the politicians are unable to get riled up, to toss insults or argue relentlessly about things they think are important–distributing happiness like crack to politicians can have that effect. Most of the meetings end in people hugging and some superpower vowing to solve a humanitarian problem–poverty, disease, theft by monkeys, you name it. My ability doesn’t always work, but that’s life. Injecting happiness into people is at least changing the dynamics of the world, creating new generations of people willing to pay attention, rather than stick their heads in the sand. All the hugs and laughter are making people see the world through someone else’s shoes and bring to reality why it doesn’t matter that we’re all different: because we’re all human beings.
The iTunes Meme
(Discovered here) This has been making the rounds, so I thought I would jump in. I don’t have iTunes, so I will be using my Creative Zen Vision:M, since I think the former is an evil piece of hardware placed on this planet to destroy mankind. Here are the rules: 1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle. 2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. 3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS. 4. Feel free to steal this for your blog (just link to whomever you stole it from). 5. Have Fun! IF SOMEONE SAYS ‘ARE YOU OKAY’ YOU SAY?“The Wardrobe” from The Chronicles of Narnia (apparently gay jokes are in order). HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF“If Baseballs Had AIDS” by David Cross (not kidding). WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?“Voyager” by Immediate Music (I’m sure that’s some sort of metaphor…). HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?“Exhale” by System F (apparently I feel like breathing, which is good). WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?“The Breakdown” by trance[]control (not exactly glorified, now is it?). WHAT’S YOUR MOTTO?“I Don’t Know” by Lostprophets (well that fits). WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?“The Beat Goes On” by trance[]control (that seems fitting). WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?“All of My Life” by Aluna (which also seems fitting, since my mother can’t get rid of me.) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?“Loose Lips Sink Ships” by A Change of Pace (sounds wrong to me). WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day (oh man, what a wonderful way to put it). WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?“Prom Night With Melinda” by David Cross (I don’t know what that means). WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?“Hands Up” by Lagoona (yeah…). WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?“Sunrise at Palamos” by M.I.K.E. (not a bad tune for that). WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?“Darkpop” by The Higher (if you can tell me what a Darkpop is, please do). WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?“The Quest” by Immediate Music (well that’s crap; I totally want to go on quests). WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?“Social Suicide” by Carl B (ain’t that the truth). WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?“Waking Up Inside My Own Paralysis” by Funeral For a Friend (apparently that’s what I’m doing instead of this). WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?“Hymn” by Immediate Music (so, I think that they are a religious tune). WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?“Atrophy” by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (wonderful). Well, there you go. This is sort of hard when you have over 2,000 songs on one little mp3 player, but so be it. Maybe I’ll redo this in the future and only use rock music. Anywho!
A Fun Fantasy Quiz
(Found over at Fantasy Book Reviews) 1) Lord of the Rings: Movies or books?In all honesty, I prefer the movies. I respect the books for what they are, but I hate reading them. The movies managed to take an exceedingly dull story and bring it to life. I’ll always take the movies over the books. 2) Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms?Dragonlance. I never got into the Forgotten Realms stuff. 3) Online bookstores or physical (local) bookstores?Depends on the situation. If I’m buying books for school, I’ll use Amazon. If I’m buying books for myself, I prefer physical stores because I get to actually touch the books and see them in real life. You can learn a lot about a book by actually touching it with your fingers (or smelling it). 4) Hardcover or paperback?This depends too. I prefer hardback to trade paperback, primarily because the latter has a tendency to end up bent or in shoddy shape. But I prefer mass market paperback to hardback because I can get three mass markets for the price of one hardback. Seems logical, right? 5) Secondary World or Real World?Hmm. Now this is a hard one. I don’t think I can properly answer this. Are science fiction worlds representative of the real world? Or are they secondary? Or neither? If neither, then I’d have to say I prefer secondary worlds, even though I do happen to enjoy a lot of contemporary fantasy that takes place in our own world. If the real world is meant to be science fiction, then I prefer that to the other. It’s a bit of a dilemma. Well, there you go! Feel free to answer the questions in the comments or turn this into a meme and write a blog post!
Meme: The Guardian List of Best SF/F
Peggy over at Biology in Science Fiction brought to my attention this meme of the Guardian’s list of 149 best science fiction and fantasy novels. Being the good little bookworm, I decided to join in on the fun: 1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)5. Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)6. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)7. J.G. Ballard: The Drowned World (1962)8. J.G. Ballard: Crash (1973)9. J.G. Ballard: Millennium People (2003)10. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)11. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)12. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)13. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)14. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)15. Greg Bear: Darwin’s Radio (1999)16. William Beckford: Vathek (1786)17. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)18. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)19. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)20. Charles Brockden Brown: Wieland (1798)21. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)22. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)23. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)24. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)25. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)26. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)27. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)28. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)29. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)30. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)31. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)32. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)33. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)34. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)35. Angela Carter: The Passion of New Eve (1977)36. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)37. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood’s End (1953)38. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)39. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)40. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)41. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)42. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)43. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)44. Samuel R Delany: The Einstein Intersection (1967)45. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)46. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)47. Thomas M Disch: Camp Concentration (1968)48. Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum (1988)49. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)50. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)51. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)52. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)53. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)54. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)55. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)56. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)57. M John Harrison: Light (2002)58. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables (1851)59. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)60. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)61. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)62. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)63. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)64. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)65. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)66. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)67. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)68. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)69. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)70. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)71. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)72. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)73. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)74. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)75. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)76. CS Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56) (not all of them)77. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)78. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)79. Ursula K Le Guin: The Earthsea series (1968-1990)80. Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)81. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)82. MG Lewis: The Monk (1796)83. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)84. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)85. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)86. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)87. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)88. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)89. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)90. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)91. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)92. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)93. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)94. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)95. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)96. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)97. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)98. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)99. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)100. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)101. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)102. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)103. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993) (part of it)104. Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)105. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)106. George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four (1949)107. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)108. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)109. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)110. Frederik Pohl & CM Kornbluth: The Space Merchants (1953)111. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)112. Terry Pratchett: The Discworld series (1983- ) (A few of them)113. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)114. Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials (1995-2000)115. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)116. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)117. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)118. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)119. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)120. Geoff Ryman: Air (2005)121. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)122. Joanna Russ: The Female Man (1975)123. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)124. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)125. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)126. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)127. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)128. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)129. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)130. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)131. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)132. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)133. JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit (1937)134. JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)135. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court (1889)136. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)137. Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto (1764)138. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)139. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)140. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)141. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)142. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)143. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)144. Angus Wilson: The Old Men at the Zoo (1961)145. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)146. Virginia Woolf: Orlando (1928)147. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)148. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)149. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924) And another list where I did poorly! Twenty novels from this list (well, twenty three if you count
SF/F Links: More April Goodies
Here are a few more lovely links for you all! LocusMag has an article on why science fiction fails to predict the future. Some interesting points made here. Here are some really pretty moleskine drawing things. Definitely worth a look if you like nifty fantasy artwork and moleskines. Speculative Fiction, Damaged Genre? I don’t know if I completely agree, but it’s and interesting point of view. This is not exactly the best or most accurate list of subgenres I have ever seen (and not just in science fiction, but in all genres). Actually, I can’t say this is a good list at all. It’s blaringly obvious the writer doesn’t really know what he or she is talking about… Jim C. Hines talks about writing rape scenes. Interesting stuff, if you’re curious about a writer’s perspective on the subject. Giveaways: Shhh I’m Reading has two copies of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane up for grabs. Jenn’s Bookshelf has a whole bunch of audiobooks up for grabs. And that’s it!