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!
SF/F Links: July Link Pie
No, there will not be any more clever rhymes, but there will be some good links. Special thanks goes to Charles Tan, Matt Staggs, and SF Signal for pointing me to a few of these. Here goes: The Daily Scott Brown calls for some more realism in vampire fiction, particularly in relation to vampire strength. io9 digs through literature, movies, and television to see how science fiction imagines the future of the U.S. government. Some interesting selections here. Fandomania gives us ten fantasy summer reading recommendations. Some good books and some iffy ones, but a good list overall. The Dream Cafe wants suggestions for dark fantasy books. Head on over and leave a few comments! Andrew Wheeler tells us that science fiction does, in fact, involve characters, contrary to what some literary critics believe. Eat it. Alma Alexander talks about reviewing as a writer, and whether it’s okay to do so. Yes, it is, just so my opinion gets out there. The Atlantic has one hell of an article on geo-engineering the Earth. Fascinating stuff. Here’s a list of YA fantasy novels by people of color. A damn good list, and still growing, it seems. There’s also an addendum to this list. Scott Edelman reminds us how to take criticism by telling us a very personal story. Scientists have apparently discovered that a single ant colony as colonized the world. It’s wild and awesome! Here is a rather long-winded, multi-author discussion of whether to self publish or not. Interesting opinions there. Oh, and Gawker gives us the nitty gritty of that whole Alice Hoffman scandal. You know, the one where Hoffman got pissed at a critic, then provided her fans with the critic’s phone number and email and told them to harass said critic? Yeah. Sheila Finch discusses fantastic voyages, in space and otherwise. Interesting stuff! The Mumpsimus talks about mimetic fiction and SF. Interesting post. B&N has an interesting article on the death of science fiction and its continued existence. Read it, because I can’t break it into a single sentence without sounding confusing. How about some cross genre fiction? Here’s a massive list of them! And, because I feel like being helpful, here’s a page of medieval demographics made simple. Should be useful to you fantasy writers out there. And that’s it!
SF/F Links: Starting Off July
No need for introductions. Special thanks goes to Charles Tan, Matt Staggs, and SF Signal for pointing me to a few of these. Here goes: Help Orbit Books create the ugliest SF/F book cover ever. Seriously. This could be fun. Jonathan Strahan chimes in on the electronic vs. print submissions argument. You can see Scalzi’s thoughts here, and oldcharliebrown has a few things to say too. Oh, and Cheryl Morgan rants here, remarking on problems with standard manuscript format. The Galaxy Express tells us how to take a negative review. Good stuff. Jonathan Cowie makes an argument for the greatness of science fiction as a response to the question: Is it possible to be negative about SF? Quite long, but interesting. Rants & Ramblings talks about whether to write what’s hot. I agree with Rachelle on this one: write what you’re good at. The Elegant Variation wants us to discuss whether we’re writing more now than we were in previous generations. Yes, we are, but your thoughts are welcome too! io9 discusses Michael A. Stackpole and how online publishing will and currently is changing the methods of breaking into to the business. Read the article, because it’s impossible to break this damned thing down into a single sentence without making it sound weird. Good stuff. And here’s a list from io9 of fifteen science fiction movie sequels that don’t suck. Good list. Beyond Identity makes a fine argument for why scientific accuracy, and other things, are not the end-all-be-all for categorizing books as science fiction. I sort of agree. There are certain limits to what makes something science fiction, in my opinion, but the arguments made at Beyond Identity are interesting ones. My Five Best lists five best fantasy series. Mostly typical stuff, but I mention it because there’s one in there I’ve never heard of by a fellow named Joel Rosenberg. Unsearchable Riches asks “Why Fantasy?” It turns into a rant about why fantasy in almost any vein is perfectly safe for Christians, but don’t let that turn you off–it’s interesting. Smashing Magazine lists fifty resources to help you with your writing. Elizabeth Bear, one of my favorite authors, has a few good bits of writing advice. And last on this list is a WTF moment provided by Nnedi Okorafor. Apparently Penguin (the publisher) is offering up a new fiction prize for African writers, but it directly excludes science fiction and fantasy. Nnedi calls them out, as should we all. This is retarded. A lot of great African writers are not eligible. And that’s it! Hope you found them useful!