Pixel Scroll 2/5/19 Recycling Day: Leave Your Blue Bins On The Shoulders Of Orion Tomorrow

(1) FANTASY LIST. ReedsyDiscovery offers its list of “The 100 Best Fantasy Series Ever”. It’s in alphabetical order by title – I was briefly worried, because if somebody wanted to put A Song of Ice and Fire in first place for some reason that could make sense, but it took me a moment to understand why Lord of the Rings was down around number 60.

I’ve read a dozen of these – you’re bound to do better!

(2) NEW BOOKS OUT. Vulture features “A Conversation With Marlon James and Victor LaValle”.

The other day, Victor LaValle, a Queens-born author who employs the form of the fairy tale as a barbed hook to lure readers into serious treatments of race, parenting, and the internet, ordered dim sum with Marlon James, a Jamaican author of sweeping social epics that delight in challenging all the conventions of narrative. Both have book projects out this week. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is James’s highly anticipated follow-up to the Man Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings. LaValle has co-edited a new speculative anthology, A People’s Future of the United States, prompting 25 of today’s biggest SFF writers to contemplate the future — and dark present — of the country….

MJ: I gotta say, that’s maybe the first time anybody’s ever mentioned that I write about sex. I actually kinda screamed.

VL: Did you feel all right with me talking about that aspect of it?

MJ: Absolutely! I don’t mind people writing about the violence, but it tends to be all they write about.

VL: For a black writer writing about gangsters, violence is almost the go-to. But sex is absolutely a part of your work in such a big and vital way, as another form of — not just violence but as communion, communication. I was talking about this with my wife, and she pointed out that none of the reviews of your last book mentioned sex at all. So as I was reading this one, I was like, It’s here, too. I just need to say, people should talk about sex.

MJ: Literary realism has this sort of indie-film attitude toward sex. Violence is violent, but sex isn’t sexy. It’s compulsive; nobody’s happy; they enjoy the cigarette way more than the sex. Sometimes I read these novels, none of which I’ll name, and I go, It’s not that hard to enjoy sex, people.

(3) KLAGES INTERVIEW. Juliette Wade and her team take another Dive Into Worldbuilding with “Ellen Klages and Passing Strange”. See the interview in video (below) or read the synopsis at the link.

I asked Ellen what had been the initial seed of this novella. As it turns out, the novella has a very long history! Ellen told us that she started writing a novel or a short story or something in 1977 when she was 22 or 23, and had just moved to San Francisco, and just figured out that she was queer. She ended up wandering around a lot, learning about Mona’s and many of the other locations that appear in the novella. She did a lot of research and did what she described as cosplaying Haskel and Netterfield with her love of the time. She told us she thought it would be a novel. She had four scenes typed, and would read the scenes every few years and say to herself, “Damn, I should do something with that.”

Then, years later, Jonathan Strand asked her for a novella for Tor.com. By that point, Ellen says, she had four or five folders full of notes and photographs put together from all her years of research. At that point she did 3 1/2 more months of research before writing. She read about a dozen books on Chinatown. She said she started there because it was “the thing I knew I had to get right.” She filled eighty pages with notes, most of which didn’t get used. One page, which she showed us on video, was filled with Haskel’s signature. She explored the gay and lesbian historical archives about Mona’s.

Three of the characters in the story, Babs, Polly, and Franny, have appeared in other works of Ellen’s fiction. In “Out of Left Field,” Babs and Franny appear as relatives of the main characters. Polly appears in “Hey, Presto!” and Franny in “Caligo Lane.”

(4) EARLY MERLIN. Text of a source probably used by Malory when writing his Arthurian legends has been found: “Centuries lost ‘Bristol Merlin’ uncovered at city’s Central Library”

A chance discovery, hidden away in a series of 16th-century books deep in the archive of Bristol Central Library, has revealed original manuscript fragments from the Middle Ages which tell part of the story of Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from Arthurian legend.  

Academics from the Universities of Bristol and Durham are now analysing the seven parchment fragments which are thought to come from the Old French sequence of texts known as the Vulgate Cycle or Lancelot-Grail Cycle, dating back to the 13th century.

Parts of the Vulgate Cycle were probably used by Sir Thomas Malory (1415-1471) as a source for his Le Morte D’Arthur (published in 1485 by William Caxton) which is itself the main source text for many modern retellings of the Arthurian legend in English, but no one version known so far has proven to be exactly alike with what he appears to have used.

(5) ONE FOR THE FILES. Colette H. Fozard, Co-Chair of the DC in 2021 Worldcon bid, writes:

I wanted to let you know that we made our bid filing with Dublin 2019 Site Selection and it has been accepted as complete by the Site Selection Administrator.

(6) ANNIE BELLET 10 YEARS IN SFF. Celebratory thread starts here.

(7) EMSHWILLER OBIT. Author Carol Emshwiller (1921-2019), winner of World Fantasy Con’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2005) has died. The SFWA Blog has an obituary:

Author Carol Emshwiller (b.Carol Fries, April 12, 1921) died on February 2nd, 2019.   Ms. Emshwiller began publishing science fiction in 1954, with the story “Built for Pleasure.”  Emshwiller built a reputation as a short fiction author and Ursula Le Guin said that she had “one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction.”

…SFWA President Cat Rambo remembers,

Carol Emshwiller was one of the greats of short story writing, right up there with Grace Paley, James Tiptree Jr., Ursula K. Le Guin, and R.A. Lafferty, and she pushed its edges in order to do amazing, delightful, and illuminating things–just as she did with her longer work. As a short story lover, I am gutted by this loss to the writing community and plan to spend part of today re-reading Report to the Men’s Club and Other Stories, with its beautifully incisive and unflinching stories.

This photo from Melissa C. Beckman shows the author in front of a portrait of her painted by her late husband Ed Emshwiller.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born February 5, 1904 William S. Burroughs. I’m going to confess that I’ve read nothing by him so everything I know about I’ve absorbed by reading about him and seeing his fiction turned into films. So though ISFDB lists a number of his works as SF, I’ve not a clue what they’re like. So educate me please. (Died 1997.)
  • Born February 5, 1922 Peter Leslie. Writer in a number of media franchises including The Avengers, The New Avengers (and yes they are different franchises), The Man from U.N.C.L.E.The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and The Invaders. ISFDB also lists has writing in the Father Hayes series but I don’t recognize that series. (Died 2007.)
  • Born February 5, 1934 Malcolm Willits, 95. Author of The Wonderful Edison Time Machine: A Celebration of Life and Shakespeare’s Cat: A Play in Three Acts which he filmed as Shakespeare’s Cat. He also co-edited Destiny, an early Fifties fanzine with Jim Bradley.
  • Born February 5, 1940 H.R. Giger. Conceptual designer in whole or part for Aliens, Alien³Species and Alien: Resurrection to name a few films he’s been involved in. Did you know there are two Giger Bars designed by him, both in Switzerland? And yes they’re really weird. (Died 2014.)
  • Born February 5, 1964 Laura Linney, 55. She first shows up in our corner of the Universe as Meryl Burbank/Hannah Gill on The Truman Show before playing Officer Connie Mills in The Mothman Prophecies (BARF!) and then Erin Bruner in The Exorcism of Emily Rose. She plays Mrs. Munro In Mr. Holmes, a film best described as stink, stank and stunk when it comes to all things Holmesian. Her last SF was as Rebecca Vincent in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

(9) LEAPING V. LOOKING BEFORE. Jason Heller tells other dreamers not to wait. His thread starts here.

https://twitter.com/jason_m_heller/status/1092832459719200769
https://twitter.com/jason_m_heller/status/1092840756589383682

A bunch of sff authors begged to differ.

(10) ON THE RADIO. Genre was shut out at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2019 but there’s the link in case you want to see the results. However, the winner in the Best Actress category is known to fans from her work on Torchwood.

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER: Eve Myles, 19 Weeks, director Helen Perry, BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Radio 4

(11) KLINGON CUTLERY. Police in Northwest England raided the home of a teenager and seized a cache of weapons including one that was … more esoteric. The BBC reports “A replica of a weapon wielded by a race of alien warriors in the sci-fi TV show Star Trek has been seized by police from a 17-year-old boy’s bedroom.” They did not, however find a ChonnaQ or D’k tahg. “Star Trek Klingon blade seized from Widnes teen’s bedroom”

The Widnes Police also posted about the raid on their Facebook page — some of the comments are quite amusing:

Nina : This is what happens when you remove Kahless from schools and everything else! Thoughts and prayers.

Michael Z. Williamson: Remember when young British males were REQUIRED to have a longbow? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

(12) OH, THE HUMANITIES. “Ursula K. Le Guin Was a Creator of Worlds” by Julie Philips is the cover story on the new issue of Humanities, published by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

When she found her way into science fiction and fantasy, those genres turned out to be well suited to her imagination, her curiosity, and her subversive suspicion that man was not the measure of all things. From the very beginning, in interviews and essays, Le Guin championed science fiction’s literary value. She did it most memorably in a 2014 speech when she accepted the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (or what writer China Miéville in the documentary calls “the welcome-to-the-canon award”). In that speech, she described herself and her colleagues as “realists of a larger reality.”

(13) I FEEL PRETTY. Call it a more modern take on the Island of Misfit Toys (SYFY Wire:Second trailer for musical UglyDolls movie feels like a mix of Trolls, Toy Story, and Inside Out”).

STX Entertainment has unveiled the second trailer for its animated UglyDolls movie via The Ellen Show, and the message of what looks to be a Trolls redo is actually very resonant for us all: Don’t shy away from what makes you different; embrace it.

The new trailer also explains where the singing UglyDolls come from — they’re factory rejects compared to the “normal” dolls of our world, and are left discarded in a town all their own. They’re all pretty much happy until a renegade by the name of Moxy (voiced by Kelly Clarkson) wants to explore the wider world and find the kid who will love her. Along with her friends, Moxy will travel to the Institute of Perfection, which pairs dolls with humans.

[Thanks to JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Juliette Wade, Cat Eldridge, Olav Rokne, John King Tarpinian, Alan Baumler, rcade, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day microtherion.]

61 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 2/5/19 Recycling Day: Leave Your Blue Bins On The Shoulders Of Orion Tomorrow

  1. (11) This is what happens when you remove Kahless from schools and everything else! Thoughts and prayers.

    This wins today’s internet. 😀

  2. (1) I’ve read some or all of 15 of these series (with more on my To-Read Stack of course).

    (11) Hmm.

    P.S. Mote in God’s Eyechart (now cover your right eye – better or worse?)

  3. (1) As an avowed SF fan, I am shocked to be able to say that I have read 18 of those series (though only one book for a couple of them).

    In other news, the part of me which worked as a part-time librarian while I was at university wishes to point out that A Song of Ice and Fire should properly have been alphabetized somewhere around #89.

  4. (1) That’s how they alphabetized it? With “A Song of…” in first place? Oy. Maybe they’re using a fantasy alphabet.

    edited to add: (This is what I get for writing a comment and then reading the rest of the scroll before I hit “Post Comment.”)

  5. 1) Parts of 17 here, with an emphasis on the older ones.

    4) To me, Malory appears to have used more than one source. Thus both the sword from the stone and the sword from the lake are called “Excaliber” at one point or another.

  6. Ursula’s response to Mr. Quit Your Day Job:

    https://twitter.com/UrsulaV/status/1092868686334050304

    One thing he omitted from his Horatio Algernon tale of SF self-realization is that he has a spouse who has been employed by a public library for 20 years.

    It’s cruel for him to stand at the top of Full-Time Writer Mountain and tell every other writer they can quit their day job and make it to the peak, even though he knows some are going to fall into a crevasse.

  7. rcade: One thing he omitted from his Horatio Algernon tale of SF self-realization is that he has a spouse who has been employed by a public library for 20 years.

    Oh, so his “throw yourself off the cliff and see if you can learn how to fly on your way down” was actually a ride in a tram car paid for by his wife. Why am I not surprised? 🙄

  8. JJ on February 5, 2019 at 5:43 pm said:

    (1) As an avowed SF fan, I am shocked to be able to say that I have read 18 of those series (though only one book for a couple of them).

    You beat me, I’ve read only 4 1/2 (Discworld, Harry Potter, Sookie Stackhouse, His Dark Materials and the first three or so Dark Tower.) A few others I wouldn’t be opposed to reading, but most don’t stir up any intetest at all.

  9. 1) 17

    3) I think that should be Jonathan Strahan not Strand. Strahan is credited with editing Passing Strange. (It’s Strand at the linked article.)

  10. @1: I count 25 by adding a few partly-read series to make wholes — but there are enough conspicuous duds (Codex Alera? The Sword of Sha-na-na?!?) that I’m not inspired to try anything more from the list.

    @3: Great story about a great story.

    @ULTRAGOTHA: Jones is so diffuse; it’s hard to call (e.g.) Chrestomanci a series rather than a universe. I note the list omits Bujold’s Five Gods books, which I would certainly put on any list of fantasy multi-sets with that many entries. OTOH, it lists Recluce, which IIRC is several small groups in a common history — so I’m not sure what the assembler was aiming at.

    @rcade: why does it not surprise me he’s a phony? IME, that sort of attitude rarely has substance behind it. I remember Niven thanking the late ?uncle? whose money let Niven do nothing but write for at least a year, ~”making all the mistakes it takes writers with other livings 10 years to make.” Harrison managed it with a family by (according to his autobio) living first in Mexico (cheap) then in IIRC Denmark (free education and health care).

  11. 11
    Why is that recurve bow (it’s not a longbow) strung, when it’s not in use? (It’s bad for the bow and the string.)

    (The kid really had an impressive collection of things that he didn’t need.)

    @Chip – I think it was Larry’s great-grandfather who made it possible.

  12. (9) It’s all fun and games until somebody gets laid off from their day job, like me. I’m definitely going to be looking for a new one (unless my $1 lotto ticket investment pays off). That’s what I get for making a computer system so simple that normal people can figure out how to use it.

    I’m fortunate enough to be able to spend February doing Nothing But Writing, just to see how that feels. Will I love it so much that I stop writing weirdness and learn to create commercially viable work product? Or will I decide I can’t live without a steady diet of legalese and office meetings? Only time will tell. I’m in the home stretch of my trilogy, my cover art is progressing and looking amazing and my fridge is full of things I can cook in thirty minutes or less. Planning on leaving the house as seldom as possible.

  13. 1) — 39/100, although that’s not to say I read every book in those 39 series. As usual for these lists, some good, unexpected choices (Acacia, e.g., and Oath of Empire) and a few head-scratchers (such as [REDACTED]; and what were they THINKING when they included [REDACTED]?!?!?).

  14. (1) Counting unfinished series’ (ones that either I haven’t finished for one reason or another, or are actually still incomplete *side-eyes Rothfuss*) I’ve read 28. Higher than I thought. Some weird choices though (like a bunch of series’ that are currently unfinished! Kingkiller, Lightbringer, ASoIaF, others?)

  15. 1). 1 series (Potter, of course) and books from three others but not the whole series(Rivers of London, Sookie Stackhouse and Dresden Files). I enjoyed the books but not enough to hunt down any more.
    9). Read his book but the concept was more interesting than the reality. And I don’t really consider Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix as ‘pop music’. I described it to a friend as something for woke-bros and retro-vinyl rockers. But i can see where some people would enjoy it.

  16. (1) Some strange choices in that list, some I’ve nver heard of. I’ve read 24 of them and dipped into 11 more (most of which I gave up on, but a couple I’d like to finish one day).

    Nice to see Daniel Abraham getting some recognition for his fantasy work.

  17. I’ve read at least one book for 32 of those fantasy series; if you raise the bar to “read all or a significant percent”, the count goes down to 24. And I agree that World of the Five Gods is a glaring omission. Either Christopher Paolini or Stephenie Meyer could have gone, to make room.

  18. 1. I`ve read at least the first book in 30 of the series. I don’t believe that I would claim that they were all good, let alone top 100.

    8. I enjoyed the movie Mr. Holmes but I`m no Holmesian.

  19. (1) 20 that I’ve read at least “enough” of, with an additional couple that I read a book or two from as a kid and never got around to tracking down the other volumes.

    “Enough” being inherently subjective, of course (especially for the likes of Earthsea and Abhorsen where new books came out a while after the series could have been seen as “done”), and harder in the case of the incomplete series listed (special note must go to Legacy of Orïsha, which only has the first book out).

  20. 1. 30 for me, though a number are partial.

    Amber? Obscure? EXCUSE ME?

    @Chip: Sword of Shanana isnt good, but it IS massively influential. IIRC, that’s the author who really discovered they could make money doing cheap Tolkien riffs, and so the era of Extruded Fantasy Product was born.

    Jones is so diffuse; it’s hard to call (e.g.) Chrestomanci a series rather than a universe.

    I would be willing to call the Dalemark Quartet a series, as it has a very consistant ongoing theme. Besides “parents suck” of course. Of course I’m biased, because “The Spellcoats” is one of my all time favorite fantasies, with a wonderfully innovative magic system based on a usually neglected art.

  21. 1) I have read – or at least started to read – 37 of those series. Liked a bit more than half of them, so not that impressed by the list. I still have around 10 of them waiting on my Mount Tsundoku.

  22. 1) 31 / 100 (maybe as many as 33, there are some that I think I might’ve read, based on the author, but I couldn’t verify by reading the capsule description). I’m happy that Trudi Canavan did get a nod, but sad that only one of her series did so.

    @ JJ:
    Have I told you about the time I had my book shelves sorted alphabetically? By the third page of the book?

  23. 21 series here, some not in their entirety.

    Jones is so diffuse; it’s hard to call (e.g.) Chrestomanci a series rather than a universe.

    The Pinhoe Egg is about the only sequel she ever wrote that has a recurring major point-of-view character. (The short story “The Stealer of Souls” also qualifies.)

  24. 1) Read all or part of 25 of them; several others are on the Unread Pile; others, based on familiarity with author’s other works or general reputation, aren’t going to get within sniffing distance of the Unread Pile. Tastes vary. (Notable omissions, for me, would include E.R. Eddison’s “Zimiamvian” books and Karl Edward Wagner’s “Kane”.)

    9) Looks like a comment by someone who’s never had to go hungry.

  25. Oh a list!!
    Part-read 43 of them – surprisingly high. I suspect that means it’s a poor list.

  26. (1) I have read at least half the books in 25 of these series. I started to run out of Massive Multi-Book Series Immersion energy sometime after the seventh Wheel of Time book was published, and wish I could get back the time I spent obsessing over the Sword of Truth novels back in my twenties and early thirties.

  27. (1) 28/100, as long as at least a single book in each series counts. And some of them I went WTF about. I also think that authors like Lois Bujold, Diane Duane, and Jo Walton belong on such a list, and one can certainly make strong cases for authors like Anne McCaffrey, Katharine Kerr, Katherine Kurtz, Barbara Hambly, and many others.

    (11) So like the mundanes to focus so much on what is probably the least dangerous weapon in the mix.

  28. (1) 24 from there I have read at least some of. Some of them only one book. Some DNF that one book. In one case my eReader decided that killing itself was the only response to the Wheel of Time.

  29. 1) 17, which surprised me, because series longer than three books generally make blood gush from my ears (things like Wild Cards, which are a bit different, are typically exceptions).

    7) *SIGH* I recommend Carmen Dog, The Mount and Report To the Men’s Club. This one hurts as much as Le Guin for me.

    9) Oh really? Eres un pendejo sinverguenza (Spanish is much more useful for me when insults are desired).

    Here in 6312, Carol Emshwiller is still read, we still have feline overlords and day jobs are still useful.

  30. @P J Evans:

    Why is that recurve bow (it’s not a longbow) strung, when it’s not in use? (It’s bad for the bow and the string.)

    Perhaps the owner cared only about amassing and not care; perhaps the police thought that display would look better with the bow strung. Contrariwise, the pistol crossbow is not strung, which I’ve never seen when one was not actively being repaired.
    And correct on Niven’s rich relative, according to Wikipedia — but the base point remains. (I also remember when Niven’s bio spoke of his being descended from the Doheny after whom the Drive was named, rather than mentioning Teapot Dome.)

    @11: I can’t see the comments; is there a way to get to them without having an account? (ISTR this being possible with other Facebook posts.)

    @Charon Dunn: That’s what I get for making a computer system so simple that normal people can figure out how to use it. I hear you. Did they make you train someone to maintain the system? (I spent Christmas Eve doing that.) Good luck on your writing — but do try to get out of the house more than “absolutely necessary”; exercise, sun-vs-SAD, and just not staring at the same walls all the time are Good Things.

    @Rose Embolism: the responsibility for EFP can be charged to various people, although Shanana is an obvious example — but the lead said “best”, not “most influential”. I also choked on Amber being obscure — then I started thinking: I was an active fan, with ~15 years of reading and 2 term papers on SF, by the time it started, so I’m not a good reference point. Given that the 1st series was over ~40 years ago and 2nd series was ~meh (on average?), it is probably not as well-known today as most of the examples. I see that Amazon has an omnibus published 9 years ago; how many of the other series have none of (1) a movie, (2) more-recent publication, (3) similar more-recent publications that keep the author’s name visible?
    I keep hearing how great Dalemark is; the one or two I read did not impress me despite my really liking most of Jones’s work. I’ll have to try them again sometime.

    @Karl-Johan Norén: Hambly should definitely have been on the list; the sets she first made her name with (Darwath, Sun Wolf) are rather old, but Asher/Ysidro is both good and still live. (Amazon says #8 is due 1 March 2019). That about wraps it up for this lister’s credibility.

    (re @11): How do you compute “probably the least dangerous weapon in the mix”? I’d say a long weapon that can also defend against short-range attacks is more dangerous than the assorted knives — let alone the bow, which would take considerable skill to be effective with after arrows (not shown) were supplied.

  31. @Chip — that’s a particular brutal way to spend Christmas, you have my condolences. I spent an afternoon training a lady with minimal computer confidence, and she was too overwhelmed to deal with Part 2 the next day. She’s also dealing with grief after losing a family member, so I hope she’ll be okay and I’m a little worried about her. She did manage to navigate through my nice clean word processing system without too much trouble, so maybe the databases are straightforward too — crossing my fingers.

    I have adjusted my curtains so that sunlight occasionally falls on me, and my staring wall is covered with colorful art. I paid for my Muni pass so I can go anywhere in San Francisco, and I have allowed room in my budget for occasional $15-or-less restaurant meals with pals. But I am not allowing myself to buy any new books until I finish reading Mt. Tsundoku. After a decade of dealing with tight deadlines and stress and horrific injuries at a trial lawyers firm I’m ready for something a little different. I’m not too worried about locating my next gig, litigation is a very reliable industry.

    Like sitting around in my nightie throwing a birthday party for my Credential, which is my plan for today. I wonder if this counts as a business expense.

  32. (1) around 10 or so, Im not sure, with some series if I read them in German (as a student). I like Fantasy, provided its a bit more original then the usual. And I dislike having to commit to a full series. This disqualifies a lot of Fantasy, I guess.

    A virtual song of Black Ice and Firewall

  33. (1) I’ve read at least a piece of (18) of the series on the list.
    Out of those I’d recommend (11) with the balance being not inspiring enough to continue. And there are another (3) that are on my TBR pile.

    FWIW.

    I also agree that there are any number of series that are oddly missing from the list.

    Regards,
    Dann
    Me on Goodreads.

  34. (1) Of all time? It doesn’t have the Iliad/Oddysey/Aeneid, nor the Matter of Britain, nor the Matter of France. No pulp era series. (Was Conan really worse than all of the listed series?) No Harold Shea. No Lord Darcy.

  35. (1) Wow, in my circle of family and friends I am the reader and I have only read 5/100. In my defense I don’t think any of the listed books have spaceships on the cover. Do I get any credit for having read Lord Of The Rings a dozen times?

  36. (1) all or part of seven of them. Not much into fantasy….

    It’s 3757. These are ancient.

  37. 1) I got 44/100 for series where I read at least one book. That’s a lot more than I thought I would get, because I’m more of a science fiction than a fantasy fan. But then, there are a lot of urban fantasy series on the list and I read a lot of urban fantasy for a while, when other SFF subgenres continued to disappoint me.

    @Standback
    I like the “Rent” pastiche quite a bit, but I do understand your point. Especially since SFF fans are what is keeping the CBS All Access service alive at the moment. Star Trek Discovery made the subscriber numbers for CBS All Access go up, since not enough people liked The Good Wife so much that they were willing to pay for a spin-off and pretty much nobody is willing to pay for umpteen old episodes of NCIS, CSI and their assorted spin-offs, because those shows are in perpetual rerun anyway. But enough Star Trek fans were willing to pay for more Star Trek, even if it wasn’t very good Star Trek, that CBS took notice. And now we’re suddenly getting two more live action Star Trek shows starring fan favourites and two animated Star Trek shows plus a new take on The Twilight Zone, all of them on CBS All Acces rather than on regular CBS and all of them aimed at the same demographic, so charmingly referred to as nerds.

    Because SFF fans have a higher than average income, they’re very engaged with their favourite properties and they’re willing to pay for their favourite entertainment rather than settle down and watch the umpteenth rerun of NCIS or the latest reality show. There’s money to be made with SFF fans, almost as much as with sports fans, and the big entertainment companies have noticed, hence the sudden Star Trek deluge at CBS, Disney’s new streaming service with plenty of Marvel and Star Wars content planned and the fact that every second new SFF show seems to debut at Netflix, who just raised their prices. It sucks for those of us who don’t want or cannot afford to pay for streaming services or who at least don’t want to pay for umpteen different ones.

  38. (1) 21 read, either in full or in (substantial) part with every intention of completing. 7 more read in part which I’m content to leave that way (in some cases because, you know, so many books, so little time …) And Mt. Tsundoku includes complete sets of two more, and at least the first book of seven others.

    And so many others that could be there. No E. R. Eddiso. No Cabell (not really surprised there, just disappointed). No journeys to Lankhmar or Viriconium, Aegypt or Ryhope Wood. No meetings with Conan or Elric, Master Li or Harold Shea. And no T. H. White.

    * goes off muttering to self *
    * returns *

    Dial M for Murderbot

  39. I’ve read at least one book for 34 of them. A very mixed list, including some books for 4th graders and some very R rated ones. With a range in quality also

  40. bookworm1398: A very mixed list… With a range in quality also

    Yeah, at least 3 of the ones I’ve read I would not recommend, and several others I have deliberately not chosen to read because of what I have been told about them by other readers who have tastes similar to mine.

    But that’s what make these sorts of clickbait “Top x” lists so successful: everybody wants to argue about which entries are wrong and which are missing.

  41. @Chip: the bat’leth is just a wildly impractical and silly weapon to actually use – I don’t think you have a good range of motion with it, and because all the weight is sticking weirdly out of the side of it, it’s going to want to twist around in your hands and point downwards, at which point it’s really not a threat to anything except your own legs. There’s reasons that no ancient weapons are designed like that. It’s also very conspicuous to carry around. Those short knives are probably the absolute worst of the bunch, being easily concealable and with those wicked little blades on them. People carrying those aren’t looking for a fight, they’re looking to completely fuck someone up before they know what’s happening.

  42. @Oneiros
    I read one murder mystery where the killer used a linoleum knife, so, yeah.

    Here in 6455 we still don’t have any weapons as silly as a bat’leth.

  43. About 28/100 for me. (I’m more of an SF fan than an F fan, though I consume a reasonable amount of both.) And yeah, very weird list. I don’t want to pile on to the widespread bashing of something that gets too much online bashing as it is, but…Twilight??? The inclusion of that does raise some questions about the people who put the list together–especially when you factor in some of the notable omissions. Still, it’s not like I was expecting this to magically be the first such list I actually agreed with. That’s never going to happen unless I make the list myself, and then everyone else will still complain! 🙂

    Birthdays: I actually just got around to reading some W.S. Burroughs for the first time recently. Of course, I’ve been reading people who were influenced by him for years. And in some ways, I’d have to say that I found him more readable than some of his imitators might have lead me to expect. Although, not necessarily more comprehensible!

    Anyway, I read The Soft Machine, which is the first book in his Nova trilogy. These are the books most often described as SF, so it seemed like a good place to start. It was…an uncomfortable read. Not all that shocking by today’s standards, but certainly darker–and more violent–than I was expecting. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. It was definitely an artifact of its time, and one I think was probably needed–at the time.

    But I would definitely classify it as SF. Whether I’d recommend it? I’m still not sure. I suspect I’ll probably read the sequel, but it’s going to have to wait till I’m in the right mood.

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