Pixel Scroll 11/18 Count Hero

(1) John Picacio’s thoughts about “The New World Fantasy Award: What’s Next”.

  1. THE FIRST QUESTION NEEDS TO BE THE RIGHT ONE. In this case, I would offer that the first question should not be, “Hey, World: what do you think this award should look like?” The first question should be, “Who are the best sculptors and who is the sculptor that can best elevate this award toward a new timeless icon? Who can carry this responsibility? Who can take us to a place we could not have imagined on our own?” The same respect that is given to a great novelist should be given to a great sculptor here.

The sculptor of this award needs to be an artist, first and foremost — someone who solves problems, conceives original thoughts, has unique insights, and visually communicates those thoughts, insights, emotions and intangibles into tangible form. If the plan is to take a straw poll of the most popular and familiar symbols and word pictures, or to concoct a preordained vision and then hire some poor sap to carefully sculpt to that prescription, then please hire a pharmacist, not a professional artist. However, the World Fantasy Award can do better than that, and I’m hoping it will. If I were a decision maker in this process, I would be sky-high excited about the amazing creative (and branding) opportunity ahead, and I would be vigorously searching for the right sculptor to cast a new icon, rather than casting a fishing line praying to hook an idea.

(2) Many others continue to discuss what it should look like, including Charles Vess on Facebook (in a public post).

Ari Berk (friend & folklorist) suggested this idea. Going back to the original story that it seems all cultures around the world share: the hand print on the cave wall. “I am here and this is my story”.

vess wfa idea

(3) Frequent commenter Lis Carey is looking for financial help. Her GoFundMe appeal asks for $3,000, of which $400 has been donated so far.

I’m in a major fix. I don’t have an income right now, but I do have some major expenses. The tenant’s apartment has no heat, and a leaky kitchen sink, and needs a plumber. I have outstanding gas,and electric bills, and water bills for both apartments. I’m looking for work and trying to hold things together, but I’m desperate and need some breathing space. Help!

(4) Sarah Avery delves into some reasons for the success of multi-volume fantasy in “The Series Series: Why Do We Do This To Ourselves? I Can Explain!” at Black Gate. It’s a really good article but not easy to excerpt because it is (unsurprisingly!) long. This will give you a taste, anyway:

I love an ensemble cast. Reading, writing, watching, whatever. In my imaginative life as in my personal life, I’m an extrovert. The struggles of a main character connect with me best when that main character is part of a community. The solution to the existential horror Lovecraft’s protagonists face had always seemed so obvious to me that I’d never articulated it fully, even to myself. The cosmos as a whole doesn’t prefer you over its other components? Of course not. Unimaginably vast forces that would crack your mind open if you let yourself understand them are destroying your world, and you are entirely beneath their notice? Well, that would explain a lot. So what do you do?

You take comfort in the people you love, you go down swinging in their defense, and you live your mammalian values of compassion and connection intensely, as long as it does any good — and then longer, to the last breath, if only in reproof of whatever in the universe stands opposed to them.

Or maybe that isn’t obvious. But I’m pretty sure it’s not just me.

For whatever reason, Lovecraft was not a person, or an author, who could go there.

But the man could write a shorter story than I could. I’ll go to school on anyone who knows something I don’t, including authors who stretch me beyond the bounds of easy sympathy. What could the thing that appeared to me to be a malady in Lovecraft teach me about the gap in my craftsmanship?

First, I tried sharpening the distinction between the main character and the secondary characters. Simplifying the supporting cast, making my protagonist the only one who got to be as vivid and three-dimensional as I prefer for every significant character to be, got me out of novella territory. I could get my stories down to about 10,000 words and still feel that my work hit my own sweet spots.

What about getting the count lower? Magazine editors tend to set their cutoffs at 4,000 words or 7,000 words. What kind of cast size can you fit into that length, and what can you do with it?

I really don’t think you can squeeze in much of a supporting cast, unless those secondary characters are functioning more as props than as people. At most, you can have two realized characters, but that second can only be squeezed in if you’ve got serious writing chops. More characters than that, and you’re down to tricks that, as Elizabeth Bear likes to put it, hack the reader’s neurology: one telling detail that leads the reader to do all the work filling in a character around it. Okay, that’s a cool skill, one worth having, especially if you can do it so that the reader forgets s/he did all the work and remembers the story as if you’d written the character s/he filled in for you. I think I’ve pulled that trick off exactly once. Man, that was strenuous, and not in the ways I find exhilarating.

Avery’s subtopics include “Is It Enough to Call a Novel Community-Driven When It Sprawls across Two Continents, Seven Kingdoms, Three Collapsed Empires, a Passel of Free Cities, and Two Migrating Anarchic Proto-Nations?” Her short answer is, “Nope.”

(5) Mary Robinette Kowal seeks to lock in real progress to keep pace with conversation since the World Fantasy Con with the “SF/F Convention Accessibility Pledge”.

Over the last few years, there have been numerous instances of SF/F conventions failing to provide an accessible experience for their members with disabilities. Though accessibility is the right thing to do, and there are legal reasons for providing it in the US thanks to the 25-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act, many conventions continue to have no trained accessibility staff, policies, contact information, or procedures for accommodating their members with disabilities. As Congress said in the opening of the ADA, these “forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem.”

…We the undersigned are making a pledge. Starting in 2017, to give conventions time to fit this into their planning, the following will be required for us to be participants, panelists, or Guests of Honor at a convention:

  1. The convention has an accessibility statement posted on the website and in the written programs offering specifics about the convention’s disability access.
  2. The convention has at least one trained accessibility staff member with easy to find contact information. (There are numerous local and national organizations that will help with training.)
  3. The convention is willing and able to make accommodations for its members as it tries to be as accessible as possible. (We recommend that the convention uses the Accessibility Checklist for SFWA Spaces as a beginning guideline. Other resources include Fans for Accessible Cons, A Guide for Accessible Conferences, and the ADA rules for places of public accommodation, which apply to US conventions.)

Many people have co-signed.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden also observed, “…When you put in the work on these issues, you find out how many people out there have been staying home.”

(6) Michael Kurland’s autobiographical essay “My Life as a Pejorative” is featured on Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine.

At fourteen I discovered mystery stories and couldn’t decide whether I was Rex Stout, Dorothy Sayers or Dashiel Hammett. Or maybe Simon Templar. Not Leslie Charteris, but Simon Templar. How debonaire, how quick-witted, how good looking.

I was 21 when I got out of the Army, enrolled at Columbia University and began hanging out in Greenwich Village. There I fell into bad company: Randall Garrett, Phil Klass (William Tenn), Don Westlake, Harlan Ellison, Bob Silverberg, and assorted other sf and mystery writers. This was my downfall, the start of my slide into genre fiction. I wrote a science fiction novel, Ten Years to Doomsday, with Chester Anderson, a brilliant poet and prose stylist who taught me much of what I know about writing, and followed that up with The Unicorn Girl, a sequel to Chester’s The Butterfly Kid, a pair of fantasy novels in which the two main characters were ourselves, Chester Anderson and Michael Kurland. These books, and The Probability Pad, a continuation written by my buddy Tom Waters, have become cult classics, known collectively as the Greenwich Village Trilogy, or sometimes The Buttercorn Pad.

(7) Today In History

  • November 18, 1963 – Push-button telephones made their debut.

(8) Today’s Birthday Boys and Girls

  • Born November 18, 1928: Mickey Mouse
  • Born November 18, 1939: Margaret Atwood
  • Born November 18, 1962: Sarah A. Hoyt

(9) John Scalzi makes “An Announcement Regarding Award Consideration for 2015 Work of Mine”. He asks people not to nominate him, and in comments indicates he will decline nominations that come his way.

But this year, when it comes to awards, I want to take a break and celebrate the excellent work that other people are doing, and who deserve attention for that work. My year’s already been, well, pretty good, hasn’t it. I’ve had more than enough good fortune from 2015 and I don’t feel like I need right now to ask for another helping…

But for work that was put out in 2015, please look past me. Find the other writers whose work deserves the spotlight you can put on them with your attention, nomination and vote. Find the works that move your heart and your mind. Find the writers whose work you love and who you feel a nomination can help in their careers and their lives. Look past your usual suspects — including me! — and find someone new to you whose stories and effort you can champion to others. Put those people and works on your ballots. 2015 has been genuinely great year for science fiction and fantasy; it won’t be difficult to find deserving work and people for your consideration.

(10) Bigger than your average bomb shelter. “Czech out the Oppidum, the ultimate apocalypse hideaway” at Treehugger.

We do go on about the importance of resilient design, the ability of our buildings to survive in changing times and climates. We are big on repurposing, finding new uses for old buildings. And if the greenest brick is the one already in the wall, then surely the greenest bomb shelter is the one that’s already in the ground. That’s why the Oppidum is such an exciting opportunity; it’s a conversion of a classified secret facility built in 1984 by what were then the governments of Czechoslovakia and The Soviet Union. Now, it is available for use as the ultimate getaway, deep in a valley in the Czech Republic. The developer notes that they don’t make’em like they used to:…

It has a lovely above-grade modestly sized 30,000 square foot residence, which is connected via secret corridor to the two-storey, 77,000 square foot bunker below, which has been stylishly subdivided into one large apartment and six smaller ones for friends, family and staff, all stocked with ten years of supplies.

(11) Former child actor Charles Herbert died October 31 at the age of 66. The New York Times obit lists his well-known roles in movies like The Fly and 13 Ghosts.

Mr. Herbert was supporting his parents by the time he was 5. He appeared in more than 20 films and 50 television episodes, in which he fended off all kinds of adversaries, from a robot to a human fly.

He shared the limelight with Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and James Cagney. He played a blind boy in a memorable episode of “Science Fiction Theater” in 1956, and appeared in a 1962 “Twilight Zone” episode in which a widowed father takes his children to choose an android grandmother.

(12) SF Signal’s latest Mind Meld, curated by Rob H. Bedford, asks Andrew Leon Hudson, Stephenie Sheung (The BiblioSanctum), Richard Shealy, Michael R. Fletcher, Mark Yon, and Erin Lindsey

Q: Who is your favorite animal companion (pet, familiar, etc) in SFF?

A significant number of genre stories features character’s pets or animal companions. From Loiosh of Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos books to Snuff from Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October to Hedwig from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, animals can be companions, pets, or near equals to their “owners.” Who is/are your favorite(s)?

(13) Bruce Gillespie invites fans to download SF Commentary 90, November 2015 — over 100 contributors and 70,000 words.

(14) A Christopher Reeve-worn Superman costume is available for bid until November 19 at 5 p.m. Pacific in a Nate D. Sanders auction.

Superman lot COMP

(15) Heritage Auctions reports a menu from the Titanic fetched a high price in a recently closed auction.

Ironically, the top two lots related to a major disaster and a national tragedy. The first was a first class dinner menu from the last supper on the R.M.S. Titanic, the evening of April 14, 1912. Five salesmen and retailers shared a meal, each signing a menu with their place of residence. Of the five, all but one managed to survive the sinking which occurred in the wee morning hours. We believe this to be the only signed example and the only one from the “last supper”. It sold for $118,750.

The second lot was the license plates from the limo President Kennedy was in when he was shot — which went for $100,000.

(16) And this weekend, Heritage Auctions will take bids on Neal Adams’ original cover art for Green Lantern #76, “one of the most important and influential comic books ever published,” as part of the company’s Nov. 19-21 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction where it is expected to bring $300,000+.

Adams’ iconic cover is striking and symbolic. This issue broke more than just the lantern on the cover! Adding Arrow’s name to the title and logo of the book was genius. It created the first “buddy book” in the comic industry… the equivalent to the “buddy movie” genre. It also allowed writer Denny O’Neil to launch into a 13 issue run that dove into political and sociological themes like no comic had before.

 

Green lanter green arrow

(17) Lovecraft’s mug has already been saved from awards obscurity (or permanently guaranteed it, depending on your view) by the administrators of the Counter Currents and the administrators of its H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature. (Which can also be reached using this handy Donotlink link.)

Last year, we at Counter-Currents saw this coming. Thus we have created the Counter-Currents H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature, to be awarded to literary artists of the highest caliber who transgress the boundaries of political correctness. Our first laureate is novelist Tito Perdue, who received the award at a banquet in Atlanta on March 7, 2015.

The prize bust is by world-famous porcelain artist Charles Krafft, whose own defiance of political correctness has just led to the cancellation of an exhibition in London.

Wikipedia has an entry on Tito Perdue.

More details about Krafft’s exhibit being pulled by a Whitechapel art gallery from Jewish News:

A fashionable Whitechapel art gallery has pulled the plug on an exhibition by an artist who has been described as a “Holocaust denier” and a “white supremacist,” after complaints and threats were made.

Charles Krafft, who denies both charges, was due to show his work at StolenSpace for the second time, but gallery bosses said they pulled out after receiving “both physical and verbal threats”.

Krafft’s controversial ceramics include busts of Hitler, swastika perfume bottles with the word “forgiveness” emblazoned upon them and plates covered in drawings of Nazi bombings. His work and attributed comments has led to him being labelled a white supremacist, a Nazi sympathiser and a Holocaust denier.

(18) Triple-threat interview with Ken Liu, Lauren Beukes and Tobias S. Buckell at SFFWorld.

Ecotones are the points of transition that occur when two different environments come into contact, and almost inevitably conflict. Can you describe for us an ecotone that has had personal significance for you?

Ken Liu: We’re at a point in our technological evolution where the role played by machines in our cognition is about to change qualitatively. Rather than just acting as “bicycles for the mind,” computers, transformed by ubiquitous networking and presence, will replace important cognitive functions for us at an ever accelerating pace. Much of our memory has already been outsourced to our phones and other devices—and I already see indications that machines will be doing more of our thinking for us. Not since the invention of writing has technology promised to change how we learn and think to such an extent.

The transition between the environment we used to live in and the environment we’re about to live in is going to be exciting as well as threatening, and we’re witnessing one of the greatest transformations in human history.

Tobias Buckell: Last year a deer walked on down through Main Street and then jumped through the window of the local downtown bar. They got it on security camera.

Lauren Beukes: The shared reality of overlapping worlds I live through every day – the schism in experience between rich and poor where everything works differently, from criminal justice to the food you eat, how you get to work, schooling, the day-to-day you have to navigate.

I saw this most clearly and devastatingly when I tried to help my cleaning lady get justice for the scumbag who fatally assaulted her daughter. The cops didn’t care. The hospital put it down as “natural causes”. The prosecutor had to throw the case out because there was so little evidence. This compared to an incident when a friend’s motorbike was stolen at night in the nice suburbs and five cops ended up on his balcony drinking tea, having recovered the vehicle.

(19) Sarah Chorn at Bookworm Blues wonders if her conflict of interest should bar her from reviewing two books.

I feel pretty weird about doing this, but I also think it has to be done. This year I was a beta reader for two books that are currently published (a few more that have upcoming publication dates). I have struggled a little bit with how to approach these novels. While I feel obligated to review them (and I want to review them), I feel like being a beta reader for them takes my objectivity out of it, which is a problem for me. Is it really a review if I can’t objectively judge it?

Am I pondering my navel?

I’m surprised her desire to ask the question didn’t lead to a built-in answer.

(20) The Ant-Man Gag Reel has a few bloopers, though it’s not all that funny.

(21) Marvel’s Agent Carter Season 2 premieres January 5 on ABC.

[Thanks to Kate Savage, Will R., Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]

320 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 11/18 Count Hero

  1. FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – FIFTH ROUND

    1. BLOCKBUSTER SMASHDOWN
    Spirited Away (2001)
    LOTR shaded by Ghibli on account of the former having too long a run time to be perfect

    2. FEZZIK AGAINST CATBUS
    The Princess Bride (1987)
    Have to rule against catbus here

    BONUS BRACKET – FINAL

    1. THERE IS NO COFFEE. NO BREAKFAST. ONLY ZUUL.
    The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, Barry Hughart

    2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
    If we are talking Kate Elliott, then I’d be keen to see ‘Crossroads’ as a blockbuster series.

  2. Late to the party, but Einstein from The Watchers by Dean Koontz. His dogs in general are awesome.

  3. Bonus Bracket – collected answers* to What Should Have Won

    The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, by Barry Hughart (snowcrash, Peter J, & Petréa Mitchell)
    The Cloud Roads, by Marth Wells (junego)
    Cold Magic, by Kate Elliott (Heather Rose Jones)
    Creatures of Light and Darkness, by Roger Zelazny (Aaron)
    Crossroads, by Kate Elliott (Ken Richards)
    Death: The High Cost of Living, by Neil Gaiman (Greg)
    The Deed of Paksenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon (Iphinome, Tasha Turner, &/or Tasha Turner’s Hubby)
    First Test, by Tamora Pierce (Meredith)
    God Stalk, by P. C. Hodgell (David Goldfarb)
    The Half-Made World, by Felix Gilman (Jim Henley)
    Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley (BethZ)
    Journey to the West, attributed to Wu Cheng’en (Xtifr)
    Kushiel’s Dart, by Jaqueline Carey (Kyra)
    The Man of Gold, by M.A.R. Barker (Joe H.)
    Pegasus and its sequel Ebon, by Robin McKinley (redheadedfemme)
    The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner (Tasha Turner &/or Tasha Turner’s Hubby)
    Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner (Doctor Science)

    *excluding “All of them” – a popular answer – and all the His Majesty’s Dragon votes since that, y’know, actually did win. 🙂

  4. A bit more belated than I’d have liked, but the pets round-up:

    Ace the Bat-Hound, from pre-Crisis Batman (Daniel Dern, Rev. Bob)
    Ace the Bat-Hound, from Batman of the Future/Batman Beyond (Meredith)
    Aineko, from Charles Stross’ Accelerando (Soon Lee)
    Argo, from Xena: Warrior Princess (Meredith)
    Argos, Odysseus’ dog (Brian Z)
    Ariel the unicorn, from Steven R. Boyett’s Ariel and Elegy Beach (redheadedfemme)
    Ash, from Robin McKinley’s Deerskin (LunarG)
    Battlecat/Cringer, from He-Man (Meredith)
    Bear de Hong, from Person of Interest (IanP, lurkertype)
    Bela, from Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson’s Wheel of Time (Johan P)
    Betwixt and Between, from Jane Kindskold’s Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls (LunarG)
    Bill the Pony, from JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings (Rob Barrett, Johan P, junego)
    Binx, from Hocus Pocus (Meredith)
    Boo the miniature giant space hamster, from Baldur’s Gate (RedWombat)
    Bortan, Conrad’s dog, from Roger Zelazny’s This Immortal (David Shallcross, Daniel Dern)
    Brain, from Inspector Gadget (Tintinaus)
    Bubo the owl, from Clash of the Titans (Harryhausen) (Meredith)
    The cats, from Anne Ursu’s The Real Boy (K8)
    The cats, from George R R Martin’s Tuf Voyaging (NickPheas)
    Chemistry, Ham’s ape, from Doc Savage (Simon Bucher-Jones)
    Chewie, from Captain Marvel (Daniel Dern)
    Cleo, Delanna’s scarab, from Connie Willis’ Promised Land (catrinket)
    Clockwork dragon (living, intelligent like a dog), from my wishlist for reality when it starts being cool (Meredith)
    Cloud, from C. J. Cherryh’s Rider at the Gate/Cloud Rider (Stevie, junego)
    Cloud, from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall (Meredith)
    Companion Cube, from Portal (Xtifr)
    Confuse-a-Cat’s confused cat, from Monty Python (Lauowolf)
    Daemons, from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Material’s (ULTRAGOTHA, Meredith, RedWombat)
    Diefenbaker, from Due South (Meredith)
    The Disreputable Dog, from Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom (Bruce Arthurs)
    Divine Endurance, from Gwyneth Jones’ Divine Endurance (Kyra)
    Dogmatix, from Asterix (Tintinaus, Peace)
    Dogmeat, from Fallout 2 (snowcrash)
    Dragons, from Anne McCaffrey’s Pern (Petréa Mitchell, Meredith)
    Dragons, from Naomi Novik’s Temeraire (Meredith)
    Drutt, Berk’s pet spider-thing, from Trapdoor (IanP, Camestros)
    Dug from Up (Meredith)
    Ein the super-intelligent corgi, from Cowboy Bebop (Meredith)
    Einstein, from Dean Koontz’s The Watchers (ildi)
    Errol the swamp dragon, from Terry Pratchett’s Guards Guards (IanP)
    Eustace the Battle Sheep, from Graydon Saunder’s The March North (Cassy B.)
    The familiar, from Ian Banks’ The Bridge (Steve Wright)
    The ferrets, from The Beastmaster (film) (Jamoche, BGHilton)
    Fess, from Christopher Stasheff’s The Warlock in Spite of Himself (Kyra)
    Fire lizards, from Anne McCaffrey’s Pern (Bruce Baugh, Meredith, Simon Bisson, Lydy Nickerson)
    Menolly’s fire lizards, from Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books (catrinket, Rob Barrett)
    Fizzgig, from The Dark Crystal (RedWombat, lurkertype)
    Flat Cats, from Robert A. Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones (Techgrrl1972)
    Fuzzybritches, from Robert A Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones (Techgrrl1972)
    Greebo, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Xtifr, Rose Embolism)
    Gromit, from Wallace and Gromit (Meredith)
    Gurgi, from Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain (rcade)
    Habeas Corpus, Monk Mayhew’s pet pig, from Doc Savage (BGHilton, Simon Bucher-Jones)
    Henrietta the giant chicken, from Daniel Pinkwater’s Hoboken Chicken Emergency (LunarG)
    Hen Wen, from Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain (TooManyJens)
    Hobbes, from Calvin and Hobbes (Meredith)
    Hoeg, from Ursula K. Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea (Hampus)
    Horace the cheese, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Rob Barrett)
    The horse, from Shadow of the Colossus (RedWombat)
    Horses, from C. J. Cherryh’s Rider at the Gate/Cloud’s Rider (Stevie)
    Iggy, from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Petréa Mitchell)
    Jasper, from Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars (Bruce Arthurs)
    Jiji, from Kiki’s Delivery Service (Tony Cullen)
    John Seavey’s tortie cat River, from Real Life IS Science Fiction (John Seavey)
    John Thomas, from Robert A. Heinlein’s The Star Beast (techgrrl1972, Rose Embolism)
    Jones the cat, from Alien (BGHilton, Jack Lint, lurkertype)
    Jorin, from P. C. Hodgell’s God Stalk (Kyra)
    Jump the dog, from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall (Meredith)
    K9, from Doctor Who (BGHilton)
    Kaboobie the magical flying camel, from Shazzan (BGHilton)
    Katsu, from Natasha Pulley’s The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Anna Feruglio Dal Dan, lurkertype)
    Keplians, from Andre Norton’s Witch World (redheadedfemme)
    The kodama, from Princess Mononoke (lurkertype)
    Kraken (friendly), from not-mythology (Meredith)
    Krosp, from Girl Genius (Xtifr)
    Krypto and Space Canine Patrol Agents, from DC Comics (BGHilton, Tom Galloway, Daniel Dern)
    Llyan, from Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain (KestrelHill)
    Lockjaw, from Ms Marvel (Rose Embolism, Daniel Dern)
    Lockheed, from X-Men (Rose Embolism, Daniel Dern)
    Loiosh, from Steven Brust’s Jhereg (Stevie, bloodstone75, snowcrash)
    Luggage, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Kyra, Meredith)
    Lying Cat, from Saga (eselle28, snowcrash)
    The mabari dog, from Dragon Age: Origins (RedWombat)
    Marsupilami, from Spirou et Fantasio and Marsupilami (Hampus)
    Maruman the cat from Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn (tintinaus)
    Matthew the raven, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (John Stick)
    Maximus/Max the horse, from Tangled (Cassy B.)
    Merv, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (John Stick)
    Miromurr the flying cat, from Jon Bing’s The Chronicles of the Starship Alexandria (Johan P)
    Mog, from Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski’s Meg and Mog (Tintinaus, Meredith)
    Mogget, from Garth Nixon’s Old Kingdom (Kyra, Bruce Arthurs)
    Moondisc, from Blake’s 7 (Meredith)
    Morph, Long John Silver’s pet, from Treasure Planet (Hampus)
    Murgatroyd, from ?? (rgl)
    Muttley, from Wacky Races (BGHilton)
    Narknon, from Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword (BethZ)
    Nero, from Danger Mouse (Kyra, Meredith)
    Nibbler, from Futurama (IanP)
    Nimitz the treecat, from David Weber’s Honorverse (Rev. Bob, Tasha Turner)
    The otters, from James H. Schmitz’s The Demon Breed (Xtifr)
    Peachblossom the horse, from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall (Meredith)
    Perry the platypus, from Phineas and Ferb (Soon Lee)
    Petronius the Arbiter/Pete the cat, from Robert A. Heinlein’s The Door into Summer (Lydy Nickerson, Techgrrl1972)
    Pikachu, from Pokemon (Meredith)
    Pintsize, from Questionable Content (Xtifr)
    Pip, from Alan Dean Foster’s Humanx Commonwealth (catrinket)
    Pixel, from Robert A. Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (Techgrrl1972, lurkertype)
    Porthos, Captain Archer’s beagle, from Star Trek:Enterprise (catrinket)
    Pounce/Faithful, from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall (Bruce Arthurs, Meredith)
    Proty, from Legion of Super-Heroes (Hampus, catrinket)
    Radar, from Alan Moore’s Supreme (Daniel Dern)
    Rafe, Tom Court’s cat, from Stephen King’s Cell (Bruce Arthurs)
    Reynardine, from Gunnerkrigg Court (Xtifr)
    Ryo-Ohki the cabbitship, from Tenchi Muyo (Meredith)
    Salem, from Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Meredith)
    Scooby-Doo, from Scooby-Doo (Meredith)
    Seymour, Fry’s dog, from Futurama (techgrrl1972, IanP)
    Shadowfax, from JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings (redheadedfemme)
    Sherman the boy, from Mr. Peabody and Sherman (Iphinome, Tom Galloway)
    Sirius, from Olaf Stapledon’s Sirius (Peter J)
    Slasher the dog, from Robert E. Howard’s Beyond the Black River (Rob Barrett)
    Smudge the firespider, from Jim Hines’ Goblin and Libriomancer (junego, Tasha Turner, lurkertype)
    Snoopy, from Peanuts (Meredith)
    Snowy from Tintin (Tintinaus, Peace)
    Snuff, from Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October (snowcrash, Soon Lee)
    Spot, Data’s cat, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (catrinket)
    The Star Beast/Lummox, from Robert A. Heinlein’s The Star Beast (StephenfromOttawa, Xtifr)
    Stark Dire Wolves, from George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Johan P)
    Streaky, from Supergirl (Daniel Dern, lurkertype)
    Sven the Reindeer, from Frozen (Techgrrl1972)
    Swift Wind/Spirit, from She-Ra (Meredith)
    Sybel’s forgotten beasts, from Patricia A. McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (Rob Barrett)
    Taggle, from Erin Bow’s Plain Kate (Kyra)
    Talat, from Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown (BethZ)
    Temeraire, from Naomi Novik’s Temeraire (Xtifr)
    Terry the hyacinth macaw, from David R. Palmer’s Emergence (redheadedfemme)
    Thomas the cat, from Susan Dexter’s Winter King’s War (Meredith)
    Throgmorten, from Diana Wynne Jones’ The Lives of Christopher Chant (K8)
    Tick-Tock, from James H. Schmitz’s Telzey Amberdon (catrinket, Xtifr, lurkertype)
    Tippy-toe, from Squirrel Girl (Daniel Dern)
    Tock the Watchdog, from Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth (Kyra)
    Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon (Rose Embolism, Meredith, lurkertype)
    Topo, from Aquaman (Daniel Dern)
    Totoro dust sprites/Susuwatari, from My Neighbour Totoro (Hampus)
    The Transcendent Pig, from Diane Duane’s Young Wizard’s (P J Evans)
    Tully, from C. J. Cherryh’s Chanur (Kyra, LordMelvin)
    Valadan, from Susan Dexter’s Winter King’s War (Meredith)
    Willis the Bouncer, from Robert A. Heinlein’s Red Planet (Simon Bisson, Lydy Nickerson)
    The wolverines, from Andre Norton’s Forerunner (Xtifr)
    Woola, from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter (John Lint)
    You, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Xtifr)

  5. @rgl

    Thanks! Google wasn’t co-operating for that one. 🙂 There were quite a few where people tossed out a name without context, but I think I got most of them in the end.

  6. I didn’t know we could name IRL tortie cats. Mine’s even named after a character in a Hugo winners’ book!

  7. I didn’t know we could name IRL tortie cats. Mine’s even named after a character in a Hugo winner’s book! (Like me, she does not use her real name online.)

  8. @lurkertype

    When no-one’s announced any rules, and I don’t have a particular need to apply them myself, I don’t use any. 🙂 Anything goes.

    Besides, I like thinking of the silly answers as a sort of Easter Egg.

  9. I missed something major at some point; pet round-up? LOL. I don’t even know who a lot of those are, but I’m happy to see Streaky’s there. 😉

  10. @Kendall

    People spent half of this thread picking favourite sf/f pets – with varying amounts of provided context mind you, so I think I was at sea with more than half, including a decent chunk of the ones from stuff I know. There was a lot of googling involved to be able to provide something beyond just the names. OGH suggested it might make a fun bracket at some point, so: List!

  11. @Meredith: (blush) I have a bad memory and can’t keep all these threads straight. I thought this was referring to something in another thread, so I didn’t even look at older comments here. My excuse is . . . uh . . . nope, that’s it. 😉 Thanks for ‘splaining!

  12. P.S. Wow, I know just over 30 of these (some appear to be repeats, and personally I wouldn’t count ingelligent creatures as pets) – I’m kinda surprised! Then there are a couple of names from books I know where I’m like “uh-oh, bad memory again, who/what was that?!” Er, maybe not all animals made an impression on me that should have. 😉 Anyway, cool.

  13. @Kendall

    Ah, no, if it was going to be in just any thread I would have put them in the most recent one. 😀 I wanted it findable for someone who remembered that there was a thread and went looking for it – so that they’d find this too, instead it being somewhere else. Perfectly understandable not to remember the exact contents of a thread from a week ago, especially since because of the brackets the conversational bit isn’t immediately visible on the current page of comments (and even if it was the correct conversational bit wouldn’t necessarily be there).

    Repeats though – I know there’s sort-of-one, because some people said “fire lizards” and some people had more specific wants and said “Menolly’s fire lizards” so I put both, plus there’s a couple which were the same general species but different books (unless the books got renamed or were part of the same series and I didn’t realise it?), but in case there’s a need to redo the list at some point, were there any repeats you noticed that don’t fall under those examples? Or books which are actually the same but I didn’t twig? I can’t edit this one, but I can edit the master for future reference.

    I sort of wanted to add Attila the Hen, but she isn’t really a pet… (Hidden perk of making the lists: You can add stuff as you put it together.)

  14. @Meredith: That was mostly it – the fire lizards, plus dragons from the Temeraire world and then later, Temeraire. Ignore my compulsiveness. 🙂 And thanks for coralling this list that I forgot was being created (blush)!

  15. @Kendall

    I try and err on the side of include-all-the-things when there isn’t a particular reason not to, and on this occasion I figured people had a reason for picking a specific version of a thing, but that people who’d been less specific wouldn’t be super thrilled to lose the generality, so I included both. If there’d been set rules (mine – I have some guidelines in place for anything Hugo-adjacent, for reasons of slate-avoidance – or a bracket runner’s) beforehand I would have stuck with those instead. For example: If possible-future-bracket-runner asked for a list with only specific characters rather than species, or no intelligent beings, or only pets with fur, I’d redo it with that in mind – probably while swearing at google a lot.

    Also, it just occurred to me that I don’t think the pets from McCaffrey’s Damia et al books made it in there, and they’re rather lovely.

  16. Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci books actually have several other cats. There’s Fiddle (I think), who was made into a cat from a violin. What was the name of that book? (Googles) Ah, Charmed Life. Then there’s the cat in The Pinhoe Egg who walks through walls. I don’t remember its name. And there are entire colonies of cats in The Magicians of Caprona. (Yes, I have read them several times. Why do you ask?)

    ETA: Tolkien is misspelled both times in the list. And Meredith, thanks for collecting these!

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