Liz Femi is the primary narrator of this meta-narrative about a paraplegic Nigerian American woman and her unexpected rise to fame. Suddenly unemployed, Zelu risks writing a novel unlike any she’s ever written before, a futuristic sci-fi epic about androids who exist after humanity becomes extinct. Femi’s distinct voices complement each character’s personality, thoroughly enriching this audiobook.
NORTH IS THE NIGHT: The Tuonela Duet, Book 1
by Emily Rath | Read by Khaya Fraites, Emily Lawrence
Khaya Fraites and Emily Lawrence give spirited performances in this introduction to a rich duology based on Finnish fantasy. Aina and Siiri have been separated by the death gods as they work to survive a very harsh winter. Aina is sent to endure Tuonela, the underworld, and Siiri travels to save her. Action scenes are plentiful and strongly performed, creating anticipation for the next installment.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrates an immersive fantasy set in post-WWII London. When Dennis Knuckleyard suddenly and violently learns there is a second London alongside the one he knows, it causes his entire worldview to reshape itself. Holdbrook-Smith depicts Dennis as naïve and somewhat feckless, mostly harmless, and truly out of his depth. The vast scope of characters Dennis encounters is matched by Holdbrook-Smith’s incredible performance.
Susanna Clarke’s spellbinding performance of this enhanced audiobook brings out the alluring beauty of this mystical tale. Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scot is most at home when she’s walking in the woods with her dogs and Apple, her pig. Evocative sound effects and music add to Clarke’s haunting narration, highlighting Merowdis’s deep connection to nature. The theatrical sensory experience intensifies the mystery of Merowdis’s encounters with a blackbird, a fox, and a strange figure, all of whom foreshadow a life-transforming vision.
WIND AND TRUTH: Stormlight Archive, Book 5
by Brandon Sanderson| Read by Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
The endearing husband-and-wife team of Kate Reading and Michael Kramer continue their stunning narration of the Stormlight Archive series. Reading and Kramer switch off narrating—with both bringing special touches to their performances. The story is nuanced with complicated characters, and Reading/Kramer imbue every one with intriguing nuance. This series offers thrilling action, sparring conversations, and a sense that the world is vibrant and evolving. The narration coupled with the fascinating fantasy epic is a must-listen for series fans.
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AudioFile’s 2024 Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Audiobooks all make for excellent listening escapes, whether you’re looking to the stars or delving into a dark academic fantasy. Skilled narrators bring all the dramatic tension and world-building to life for listeners.
AudioFile also will be featuring exclusive interviews with narrators from this year’s Best Audiobooks on their podcast, Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine. You can follow the podcast here. Moira Quirk’s podcast interview about Blood Over Bright Haven will be airing on December 11.
In addition, Moira Quirk recorded a video on narrating Blood Over Bright Haven which can be viewed on YouTube.
BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AUDIOBOOKSFOR 2024
BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN by M.L. Wang | Read by Moira Quirk [Random House Audio | 15.5 hrs.]
Narrator Moira Quirk shines in this dark academic fantasy, which explores the ripple effects of colonization. Quirk delivers a stand-out performance, bringing immersive emotion to every scene. This is a story about how revolutions arise, and Quirk is the perfect leader.
THE CRONE OF MIDNIGHT EMBERS: Myrtlewood Crones, Book 1 by Iris Beaglehole | Read by Bethan Dixon Bate [Podium | 8.25 hrs.]
Bizarre things keep happening to 60-ish Delia Spark. She travels to remote Myrtlewood, where she meets a strange group of older women. Witches? A magical mafia? Delia’s adventures are fast and outrageous, some psychedelic and some painfully real, and Bethan Dixon Bate makes this delightful audiobook choice listening.
THE MERCY OF GODS: Captive’s War, Book 1 by James S.A. Corey| Read by Jefferson Mays [Recorded Books | 15 hrs.]
Stellar narrator Jefferson Mays and bestselling author James S.A. Corey are in warp drive as they launch the first book of a planned trilogy set in the far future. The narration matches the action; conversations are realistic; personalities are vibrant and distinct. Add Mays’s crystalline enunciation and agreeable timbre—and this is a winner.
THE STARS TOO FONDLY by Emily Hamilton | Read by Vico Ortiz [Harper Audio | 11.5 hrs.]
Vico Ortiz narrates a raucous space adventure rom-com with infectious energy. It’s 2061, and Cleo and her three best friends—all scientists—sneak aboard to explore a neglected rocket. Ortiz’s considerable acting talents bring each character—human and otherwise—to life. They bounce between each voice with skill, especially shining in scenes packed with banter.
THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden | Read by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, Katherine Arden [Random House Audio | 11.5 hrs.]
January LaVoy and Michael Crouch perform this historical novel with a supernatural twist. Laura is a nurse who has recently returned from a WWI battlefield to her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia; her brother, Freddie, has gone missing in the cold, wet trenches of Belgium. LaVoy’s and Crouch’s deeply moving and captivating performances work together to create a must-listen audiobook.
WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth | Read by Helen Laser, James Fouhey, Tim Campbell [Macmillan Audio | 4.5 hrs.]
Helen Laser, James Fouhey, and Tim Campbell bring depth to their performances of a trio seeking an audience with the legendary witch Baba Jaga. The world-building, based on Polish folklore, in modern Chicago is epic. This explosively addictive dark fairy tale examining cultural heritage makes for an engaging listening experience.
Marc Vietor narrates a dark fantasy epic about a family of merchant bankers and the prince who is poised to take over the kingdom. Davico di Regulai, armed with an ancient dragon eye and his own wits, steps up to control a vast banking empire. He soon learns that kindness is a weakness that will get him killed. A slow build follows Davico from childhood to adulthood. As Vietor smoothly shifts from accented dialogue to intense narrative, he imbues Davico with earnestness, deep empathy, and a lack of ambition, despite his political position. Vietor maintains the dramatic irony as Davico heads blindly into complications the listener can see coming. Vietor’s narration illuminates an epic story of power and wealth in a dynamic world.
ALIEN CLAY
by Adrian Tchaikovsky | Read by Ben Allen (AudioFile Earphones Award)
Ben Allen performs a thought-provoking science fiction story about a political dissident who is trying to survive on an alien planet that serves as a tyrannical empire’s prison. Anton arrives on the planet nicknamed Kiln to discover humanity was not the first sentient lifeform to visit. Kiln’s ecosystem is chaotic, hungry, and hiding several enticing secrets. Allen makes the immersive and imaginative story one to get lost in.
THE STARS TOO FONDLY
by Emily Hamilton | Read by Vico Ortiz (AudioFile Earphones Award)
Vico Ortiz narrates a raucous space adventure rom-com with infectious energy. It’s 2061, and Cleo and her three best friends—all scientists—sneak aboard to explore the neglected rocket PROVIDENCE I. The friends grew up fascinated with the story of its failed launch 20 years earlier. But when Cleo inadvertently starts the dark matter engine, they’re launched into a seven-year mission with only Billie, the prickly holographic computer, to guide them. This lively story of friendship and queer romance is full of interdimensional danger and is heaps of fun on audio.
SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA: Cerulean Chronicles, Book 2
by TJ Klune | Read by Daniel Henning (AudioFile Earphones Award)
Narrator Daniel Henning brings his signature versatility, emotional connection, and perfect comedic timing to the latest in the acclaimed Cerulean Chronicles series. The magical children cared for by Arthur and Linus on Marsyas Island are joined by a new child, the yeti David, who is voiced with a nasally growl. A new social worker is determined to find a reason that Arthur cannot safely care for his children, and he will need the help of his entire family, along with his community, to resist her.
JUMPNAUTS
by Hao Jingfang, Ken Liu [Translator] | Read by Catherine Ho (AudioFile Earphones Award)
Catherine Ho is an excellent storyteller for this first installment in the Folding Universe series. Set in 2080, this space thriller is steeped in Chinese philosophy. Archaeologist Yun Fan, military researcher Qi Fei, and astronomer Jiang Liu realize an alien race is returning to Earth. The trio join forces to meet the aliens in space before the organized governments of Earth can complicate matters. Ho creates complex personas for the three young people and conveys the tension in their relationships with each other and their families.
“AudioFile Magazine New Favorite SF and Fantasy Audiobooks” was curated by AudioFile. To subscribe to the AudioFile Magazine newsletter subscription click here.
Tell us about a memorable character you’ve given voice to. And please name a couple of your favorite performances.
This is a difficult question! I really enjoyed creating a first-person narrative for Noa, the main character in A COMPLICATED LOVE STORY SET IN SPACE by Shaun David Hutchinson. He is a scared teenager with a bit of a sardonic edge. I also find myself thinking about THE COST OF KNOWING by Brittney Morris and THE BOOK OF FATAL ERRORS by Dashka Slater a lot, and how grateful I was to record those titles. The reads I have done of Brandon Taylor, F.T. Lukens, and Hilton Als change my life every time. And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot is the gift that keeps on giving!
(2) MAGNIFICON REPORT. Marcin Klak celebrates “20 years of Magnificon”, a Polish manga and anime con, at Fandom Rover. He comments on two major changes for the early days:
…Magnificon is now run by a company and is a commercial event. The dealer’s hall is one of the most important aspects of it. And in this regard a lot has changed. Firstly I was sad that there were no publishers or book stores selling manga. I would love to browse a bit and buy something interesting. On the other hand there were many booths of artists and I appreciate it a lot. I managed to buy a paper version of Yaoi Market. It is a Polish comic that mocks both cliches in yaoi manga and supermarkets in Poland.
Another big change (when comparing to “ages ago”) is related to guests. For years having a guest from Japan was a dream for M&A cons. At Magnificon there were guests from Japan (plural form!) including Mika Kobayashi. I didn’t listen to any of the concerts but am quite happy that we finally can invite Japanese guests including some very well known artists!…
(3) GIVERS GRANT THANK YOU. Black Science Fiction Society founder and administrator Jarvis Sheffield thanked SFWA in a Facebook post for awarding the organization a 2023 Givers Grant.
…Receiving this grant is a tremendous honor for our organization. It validates the tireless efforts of our members in advocating for underrepresented voices in the speculative fiction genre. With this support, we can continue to foster a thriving community that celebrates and amplifies the narratives of Black creators, nurturing their talents and providing a platform for their imaginative works to shine.
The impact of this grant goes far beyond the financial assistance it provides. It serves as a beacon of encouragement, inspiring us to push boundaries, challenge stereotypes, and explore uncharted territories in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. The recognition from esteemed organizations like yours fuels our determination to break down barriers and ensure that the genre reflects the rich tapestry of human experiences….
(4) EASTERCON BELFAST UPDATE. [Item by James Bacon.] The 2025 Eastercon, which will be held in Belfast, N.I has delayed its membership rate increase until July 2.
Tommy Ferguson, Jo Zebedee and myself met for multiple meetings over the weekend. We are behind, so apologies for that from us as that is on us as chairs.
Tommy hurt his spine, while work has been busy for us all, and so we have fallen behind with some of our tasks that we expected to have had completed by now, the time of our first price rise.
So with that in mind we are going to pause our price rise until the 2nd of July.
Our Accessibility team and Code of Conduct team have signed off on those polices, and we are preparing our website.
We will have these policies up and live soon, and will let you know when they are live, shared on our site.
We are thinking about space allocation, which is important, and have had quotes from a local child minding operation.
We will be at Qcon in Belfast and Enniskillen comic fest to promote the con, and getting members, which is a priority for sure and as both these events are in June, we will take the price rise delay as a sales tactic to those events. Finding the positives as we can.
So once, again, our price rise will occur on the 2nd of July and we will share our website when it is ready, our apologies for the delay, we as chairs fell behind.
(5) LEARNING WHO’S WHO IN FANHISTORICAL PHOTOS. UC Riverside’s Andrew Lippert reports nearly 6,000 digitized images from the Jay Kay Klein photographs collection are now more accessible thanks to new, more descriptive and contextual information in this article from September 2021: “Klein photographs collection now more accessible”. One of the big issues when these photos from Worldcons of the Sixties and Seventies first went online is how few people had been accurately identified.
…“Special acknowledgement is also due to the FANAC Fan History Project and Fancyclopedia 3; they were both invaluable resources for this project,” Lippert said. “It is difficult to say that this work will ever truly be ‘finished,’ as there are always more identifications to make and more contextual information to add. However, this new version of the metadata will certainly make these photographs more accessible by orders of magnitude.”
“Working on this project was a labor of love that immersed me in science fiction fandom and convention culture spanning several decades from the 1950s through the 1970s,” Lippert added. “Engaging with a single large archival collection on a daily basis always creates a sense of familiarity with the individual(s) and the subject matter that make up that collection; it was no different with Klein’s photos.” Lippert came to feel that he was getting to know some of the mainstays of the SF scene of that era as he found them in photo after photo at convention after convention. “My work on this project led me down countless rabbit holes, paths of discovery, and gave me so much invaluable context for the varied materials of the Eaton Collection as a whole,” he added….
(6) THE DEFINITIVE RANKING OF ANIMATED MOVIES. With the premiere of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, JustWatch offers fans this ranking of all of the animated movies by their popularity and where the Oscar-winning animated film starring Miles Morales fits in.
It’s not surprising that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse takes the first place, as the movie won Best Animated Feature and was an unexpected box office success. Right after the newcomer ranked the hits of 2001: Shrek and Spirited Away. A small waste-collecting robot WALL-E wins 6th place, scoring twice as many points as the movie Up.
(7) MEMORY LANE.
1986 – [Written by Cat Eldridge from a choice by Mike Glyer.]
Leigh Kennedy’s The Journal of Nicholas the American is the Beginning this Scroll.
American, she moved to Britain where she’s lived for over three decades. She was married to Christopher Priest from 1988 until 2011, they have twins.
She has two Nebula nominations, one for her “Her Furry Face” short story and the other for this novel. She’s written one other genre novel, Saint Hiroshima, and a generous amount of short fiction, most of which is collected in Faces and Wind Angels.
And now our Beginning…
17 February 198—
Papa visited me last night. I am thinking that I may have to hide now.
Once again, someone has discovered us–he’s looking for the family, looking for the pozhar-golava. When I was small, a man came looking for old scandal. He didn’t know that dealing with Fyodor Nicholaevich was like trying to fool yourself. Grandfather (my Papa told me once) had him figured out in a moment; he knew he could lie to him, and he did. No, the Dais were city people, from Petrograd–oh, no, we must call it Leningrad now, eh? The man was a refugee from the Hungarian Uprising in 1957, still new to America. Grandfather snowed him with political talk, but if he had been from the Soviet Union, all the lies would have been transparent.
The search for pozhar-golava was forgotten–obviously our family had nothing to do with strange powers and bloody nights.
When I got home from class yesterday, I knew that Papa was in my apartment, I felt him there as I wheeled my bicycle into the garage. I picked up the vodka bottle that I had tossed down onto the grass from the top of my steps last week when I’d been drinking. My landlady never seemed to notice such things, but I felt guilty.
As I got out my key–I don’t know why I always pretend ignorance about my father’s presence–he was already saying hello in his way.
“Papa,” I said, and set my texts on the bookshelves inside the door, then carried my package to the kitchen.
“How are you, Kolya?” “
“Fine, fine.” I opened the cupboard in my tiny kitchen and took down two glasses.
My father stood in the doorway. “Can’t we talk first?”
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born May 31, 1895 — George Stewart. Author of Earth Abides which won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It’s worth noting that his novel Storm which had as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms. (Died 1980.)
Born May 31, 1897 — Christine Hartley, better known as Christine Campbell Thomson. Best known for her horror anthologies published in the 1920s and 1930s. The first, Not at Night gave its name to the whole series, which ran to eleven volumes. In all, there were 170 stories including ones by Howard and Lovecraft, and, according to bibliographer Mike Ashley, a hundred of these came from Weird Tales. All of the fiction she wrote was done under the pen name of Flavia Richardson. Neither the anthologies or her fiction appear to be in print currently. (Died 1985.)
Born May 31, 1907 — Peter Fleming. Elder brother of that Fleming. Among his works is a novel written in 1940, The Flying Visit about an unintended visit to Britain by Adolf Hitler. It’s apparently a comedy. The Sixth Column: A Singular Tale of Our Time is also genre. (Died 1971.)
Born May 31, 1918 — Bryce Walton. Writer on Captain Video and His Video Rangers though I can’t tell you exactly what that means as IMDB lists the numbers of episodes he did as unknown. He also wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents including “The Greatest Monster of Them All” which is definitely genre. He wrote one SF novel, Sons of the Ocean Deeps, and has one collection of stories, “Dark of the Moon” and Other Tales. (Died 1988.)
Born May 31, 1930 — Gary Brandner. He’s best known for The Howling trilogy. The first book was adapted quite loosely into The Howling. Brandner’s second and third Howling novels have no connection to the movie series, though he was involved with writing the screenplay for the second Howling movie, Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. Who came up with that title? Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is actually the most faithful adaptation of his first novel hence the title. (Died 2013.)
Born May 31, 1946 — Melisa C. Michaels. Author of the Skyrider series, which starred hotshot belter pilot Melacha Rendell, and a handful of other books, mostly genre. Her short story, “In the Country of the Blind, No One Can See” was included in Terry Carr’s Best SF of the Year 9 anthology. She was SFWA’s webmaster for several years, and received a SFWA service medal in 2008. She also ran a couple of small presses over the years, including Embiid Publishing, one of the very first small-press e-book publishers. (Died 2019.) (Xtifr)
Born May 31, 1968 — John Connolly, 55. Best known for his Charlie Parkernoir crime series where his character solves mysteries by talking to dead. His Chronicles of the Invaders written with Jennifer Ridyard, his wife, are more traditional SF as is the Samuel Johnson series.
Born May 31, 1979 — Sophia McDougall, 44. She has a very well crafted alternative history series, the Romanitas series, In which Rome did not fall and rules the world today. She has two SF novels —Mars Evacuees is sort of YA alien invasion novel; Space Hostages reminds of a Heinlein YA novel.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
Mother Goose and Grimm shows two figures from horror experiencing a moment of unexpected terror.
(10) FEAR THE INVISIBLE MAN. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] There’s a behind the scenes short for Fear the Invisible Man.
Looks like that despite some key changes to the novel, they are very much keeping in with the spirit of the novel. There is also a nod to James Whale version with Claude Rains costume near beginning.
…A film studio called the Japanese American Film Company made the movie, Khor said. The film had a mostly Japanese cast, a rarity in an era when white Americans used yellowface in other films. The studio portrayed a respectable Japanese man in the U.S. at a time of growing anti-Japanese sentiment, Khor said.
Japanese-Americans in the 1910s were trying to claim a place in the burgeoning U.S. film industry, Khor said. Anti-Japanese attitudes and small filmmaking and marketing budgets blocked their way.
L’Abbate, from the Eastman Museum, said the surviving 1914 film reels came from an unknown source. A donor gave them to the museum between 1950 and 1975, when the museum began collecting old film reels. They were placed for safekeeping in the museum’s frigid vaults in Chili, N.Y., outside Rochester….
(12) THE LAST MEN ON EARTH. Biosphere comes to theaters and VOD on July 7.
Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown) are lifelong best friends, brothers from another mother – and the last two men on earth. Their survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed a domed structure with all the systems necessary to sustain life on a planet that could no longer support it. Their custom biosphere is outfitted with basic necessities and creature comforts that make it possible to retain a sense of what life used to be like. A hydroponic garden provides fresh vegetables and a carefully managed fishpond supplies essential protein. Recently, however, fish have begun dying at an alarming rate. With a mere three fish remaining, Billy and Ray face an ominous future. But life may yet find a way.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Rich Lynch, James Bacon, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]
This year File 770 is partnering with AudioFile to announce the winners of the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Audiobooks of 2022. They are listed below with links to AudioFile’s review.
Left: January LaVoy. Photo by Todd Cerveri. Right: Bahni Turpin. Photo Linda Posnick.
AudioFile’s 2022 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy audiobooks are full of out-of-this world listening. Read on to discover a new take on a beloved classic, rich worldbuilding with outstanding full-cast narrations, or a captivating noir fantasy full of otherworldly beings.
BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AUDIOBOOKSFOR 2022
THE ATLAS SIX: Atlas, Book 1 by Olivie Blake | Read by Steve West, David Monteith, Damian Lynch, Caitlin Kelly, Andy Ingalls, Munirih Grace, Siho Ellsmore, James Patrick Cronin | AudioFile Earphones Award. Macmillan Audio | 16 hrs.
Six exceptional individuals are recruited to join the mysterious Alexandrian Society. Listeners hear from prospective initiates from alternating points of view as the competition unfolds, all performed by a talented ensemble of narrators.
A COURT OF MIST AND FURY: A Court of Thorns and Roses, Book 2 by Sarah J. Maas | Read by Melody Muze, Anthony Palmini, Henry W. Kramer, Jon Vertullo, Amanda Forstrom, and a Full Cast |AudioFile Earphones Award. GraphicAudio | 8 hrs.
Melody Muze inhabits the role of this story’s narrator, along with Feyre, a mortal in an immortal body who lives in the land of Faerie. Sound effects, background music, and an imaginative cast enhance this magical battle between good and evil.
EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END by C.L. Polk | Read by January LaVoy | AudioFile Earphones Award. Recorded Books | 3.75 hrs.
January LaVoy’s captivating talents are on full display as she narrates a romantic, fantastical noir mystery. Helen Brandt has sold her soul to a demon, but now faces a chance to earn it back, save her city, and have a future with her girl.
MAXINE JUSTICE: Galactic Attorney by Daniel Schwabauer | Read by Aimee Lilly | AudioFile Earphones Award. Oasis Audio | 9 hrs.
There can be no doubt that narrator Aimee Lilly is having fun portraying Maxine Justice, who is feisty, resilient, and a bit down on her luck. Lilly captures all of Max’s dry wit, which makes this whimsical sci-fi story full of humans, robots, and aliens even more effective.
MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING: Dark Star Trilogy, Book 2 by Marlon James | Read by Bahni Turpin | AudioFile Earphones Award. Penguin Audio | 30.75 hrs.
Bahni Turpin shows extraordinary range in her expert narration of this sprawling fantasy, the second installment of the Dark Star Trilogy. Listeners are treated to the fascinating and tumultuous 177-year life story of the witch Sogolon—from her painful childhood to her rise to power.
WITCHES ABROAD: Discworld, Book 12 by Terry Pratchett | Read by Indira Varma, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy | AudioFile Earphones Award. Penguin Audio UK | 9.75 hrs.
This highly amusing new recording of a classic in Pratchett’s beloved Discworld series, primarily narrated by Indira Varma with distinct British voices, introduces listeners to a godmother-witch, Magrat. She must stop the servant Emberella from marrying the prince, which (surprisingly) would destroy the kingdom.
(1) DRACULA DAILY. AudioFile’s Audiobook Break podcast has been sharing Dracula with audiobook listeners over the last weeks.
Embrace spine-tingling chills and vampiric horrors with AudioFile’s Audiobook Break podcast! In October, narrator Gildart Jackson and Dracula Daily’s Matt Kirkland joined AudioFile’s Michele Cobb to chat about the lasting impact of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA in pop culture, why they both loved serializing the timeless vampire story for their audiences, and more. Watch their discussion below—and start listening to DRACULA today.
Gildart Jackson narrates hisFireside Reading of Dracula with undisguised delight, letting listeners enjoy a masterpiece of horror on audio. Gildart has narrated more than 300 audiobooks and won multiple awards, and since Covid lockdowns began, he has been offering free daily Fireside Readings of classic books on Instagram and YouTube. Gildart’s entire family works on Fireside Readings—Gildart reads, Melora directs, Rory draws the illustrations, and Piper writes and performs the songs. It’s a true family affair.
Matt Kirkland’s Dracula Daily email newsletter has become “the internet’s biggest book club.” Matt shares how during the early days of Covid, he and his daughter realized how Bram Stoker’s epistolary tale is told through letters and diary entries throughout a summer and fall, and Dracula Daily was born. Now fans check their email messages with bated breath hoping for missives from all of Dracula’s characters, reordered as they occur chronologically in the novel.
The audiobook will be ending on the podcast mid-month, but will stay up for people to listen to all the way through the end of the year. Listeners can follow along with DRACULA on our FREE Audiobook Break podcast now, with new chapters arriving every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Subscribe here.
(2) GUNN CENTER VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB. The Gunn Center for the Study of SF’s (CSSF) monthly virtual book club will meet on November 18. For Native American Heritage Month, the Center has chosen Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun, the first of the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, a high fantasy epic inspired from histories and civilizations from pre-Columbian America.
To join their virtual meeting on November 18th at noon (Central Time), register here. This programming is running all year, click here to see what’s in the Book Club’s future.
(3) RECREATIONAL POETRY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times, behind a paywall, Tom Faber reviews Poetry Games, an exhibition at the National Poetry Library (nationalpoetrylibraryorg.uk) through January 15.
Writers have long experimented with games as part of their practice, notably the Francophone Oulipo group, whose member Georges Perec wrote his 300-page 1969 novel La Disparition without using the letter ‘e’. Now, however, everyone can participate in the playfulness of writing. There’s a poetic spin on Jenga by Astra Papachristodoulou, where you pull out blocks bearing words to construct a poem. And Jn Stone and Abigail Parry’s Adversary, which asks players to build poems out of word cards. Just try to avoid the Writer’s Block’ card which says, sympathetically, ‘It happens to all of us.’
There are also digital games such as Gemma Mahadeo and Ian McLarry’s If We Were Allowed To Visit, a navigable 3D space where every object is made of words, poetic fragments that shift as you move. Philippe Grenon’s Émile Et Moi is a simple platformer in which you jump between words to build a poem. After hopping around for a while, I had made, ‘another day swells air-bridged and downy/golden the night and glittering my works/dream rai sways alongside.’ Not bad, but perhaps not great poetry.
(4) MANCHESTER ENGLAND ENGLAND. Rob Hansen has added a section on “SUPERMANCON (1954)”, the British National SF Convention, to his fanhistory website THEN with a lot of old photos.
The 1954 British National SF Convention was held at the Grosvenor Hotel in Manchester, over the Whitsun weekend, Saturday 5th – Sunday 6th June (after this, the national convention would be held over Easter weekends).
(5) THE VERY “SPACIAL” FRIENDSHIP OF BUSTER CRABBE. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] When I was a little kid, prior to the Civil War, I had an imagination as fertile and as wide as my large brown eyes, dreamily filled with awe and wonder. My dad brought home our first television set in 1950.
Here is an affectionate remembrance of the Saturday Matinee and 1950’s Philadelphia television when classic cliffhanger serials thrilled and excited “children of all ages”… when careening spaceships and thundering hooves echoed through the revered imaginations and hallowed corridors of time and memory…and when Buster Crabbe lovingly brought “Flash Gordon,” “Buck Rogers,” “Red Barry,” and “Captain Gallant Of The Foreign Legion” to life in darkened movie palaces, and on television screens, all over the world.
Kevin O’Neill, co-creator of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Marshal Law” comic books, died last week after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to longtime collaborator Gosh Comics. He was 69.
… He started working in the comics industry at age 16, first as an office assistant for children’s humor comic Buster. He eventually made his way to publisher 2000 AD, where he was both a writer and illustrator. Its stable of titles includes Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock, which O’Neill created with Mills.
The British artist worked as a Disney Comics colorist among other jobs before joining DC Comics. It was at DC that he began getting recognition with a stint on “The Omega Men.” He also worked on Alan Moore’s stories for the “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual” in 1986….
(7) MEMORY LANE.
2008 — [By Cat Eldridge.]Doctor Who’s “The Unicorn and The Wasp”
Ok, this is simply my look at a favorite episode of Doctor Who which aired in May of 2008.
If you haven’t seen this episode, go away now. Really. Truly. Everything that follows is spoilers in the extreme.
SPOILERS ALL THE WAY DOWN
One of my favorites of the newer episodes of this series is a country house mystery, “The Unicorn and The Wasp”, featuring a number of murders and, to add an aspect of meta-narrative to the story, writer Agatha Christie at the beginning of her career. It would riff off her disappearance for ten days which occurred just after she found her husband in bed with another woman. Her disappearance is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily answered to this day. Or it has depending on your viewpoint.
Needless to say, the Doctor and Donna Noble arrived in the TARDIS at the grounds of the country house just before afternoon cocktails. The Doctor (David Tennant, my favorite of the new Doctors) uses his psychic power to convince The Lady of The Manor that she has met them previously and invited them for the weekend.
A murder will soon happen when Professor Plum is killed in The Library with a lead pipe. Yes, a Clue board game reference which his plucky companion (Catherine Tate) gleefully notes. And so it goes for the entire episode in a rather delightful manner. It’s silly, it’s fast-paced, and it’s one of the most British episodes that the new Who does. And it’s one that shows how clearly this series is fantasy, not SF.
The Unicorn of the title is simply the code name of an infamous jewel thief, but The Wasp of the title is a wasp, a bloody big one on that. A wasp that’s the love child of a shape shifting alien who made Her Ladyship pregnant in India forty years ago. A wasp that’s so big that it couldn’t survive in Earth’s gravity, but this is fantasy after all. (I firmly believe that almost all science fiction is fantasy — some are just more blatant about it.) And do keep an ear out for the many, many references to the novels Christie wrote.
A delightful romp which fits very nicely into the genre of Manor House mysteries which of course the future Dame Agatha would write a few herself. Oh and Agatha Christie was played by Fanella Woolgar, who was cast at the urging of Tennant who may or may not have known that the actress had appeared in the Poirot series several years previously.
Unfortunately it is now streaming only on Disney +, isn’t it?
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born November 9, 1921 — Alfred Coppel. Have I ever mentioned how much I love pulp? Of course I have. Everything from the writers to the artwork to the magazines themselves are so, so cool. And this writer was one of the most prolific such authors of the Fifties and Sixties. That he was also a SF writer is an added bonus. Indeed, his first science fiction story was “Age of Unreason” in a 1947 Amazing Stories. Under the pseudonym of Robert Cham Gilman, he wrote the Rhada sequence of galactic space opera novels aimed at a young adult market. Wiki claims he wrote under the A.C. Marin name as well but I cannot find any record of this. (Died 2004.)
Born November 9, 1924 — Larry Shaw. A Hugo Award-winning fan, author, editor and literary agent. In the Forties and Fifties, Larry Shaw edited Nebula, Infinity Science Fiction and Science Fiction Adventures. He received a Special Committee Award during the 1984 Worldcon for lifetime achievement as an editor. (Died 1985.)
Born November 9, 1938 — Carol Carr. Fan and writer of note. Her participation in the so-called secret APA Lilapa, and articles in the Innuendo, Lighthouse and Trap Door fanzines is notable. She wrote a handful of genre fiction, collected in Carol Carr: The Collected Writings. Mike has an obit here. (Died 2021.)
Born November 9, 1947 — Robert David Hall, 75. Best known as coroner Dr. Albert Robbins M.D. on CSI, but he has quite as few genre credits. He voiced Dinky Little in the animated Here Come the Littles, both the film and the series, the cyborg Recruiting Sargent in Starship Troopers, voice of Colonel Sharp in the G.I. Joe series, Abraham in The Gene Generation, a biopunk film, and numerous voice roles in myriad DCU animated series. He was the voice of Colonel Sharp in the G.I. Joe series, Abraham in The Gene Generation, a biopunk film, and numerous voice roles in myriad DCU animated series. Interesting note: in Starship Troopers he has no right arm, but in real life he lost both of his legs at age thirty-one when they had to be amputated as a result of an accident in which an 18-wheeler truck crushed his car.
Born November 9, 1954 — Rob Hansen, 68. British fan, active since the Seventies who has edited and co-edited numerous fanzines including his debut production Epsilon. And he was the 1984 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate. His nonfiction works such as Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK: 1930-1980, last updated just a few years ago, are invaluable, as is his fanhistory website.
Born November 9, 1971 — Jamie Bishop. The son of Michael Bishop, he was among those killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. He did the cover illustrations for a number of genre undertakings including Subterranean Online, Winter 2008 and Aberrant Dreams, #9Autumn 2006. The annual “Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English” was established as a memorial by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. (Died 2007.)
Born November 9, 1988 — Tahereh Mafi, 34. Iranian-American whose Furthermore is a YA novel about a pale girl living in a world of both color and magic of which she has neither; I highly recommend it. Whichwood is a companion novel to this work. She also has a young adult dystopian thriller series.
Born November 9, 1989 — Alix E Harrow, 33. May I note that her short story with one of the coolest titles ever, “Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, won a Hugo at Dublin 2019. Well I will. And of course her latest novel, The Once and Future Witches, has an equally cool title. It won the BFA Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
(9) OH NOES! Oh no for the “oh no” comic. Twitter thread about the litigation starts here.
Since 2019 I’ve been in an expensive, stressful legal battle to protect Webcomic Name (my “oh no” comics). It’s a relief to finally talk about this publicly! I’m launching a crowdfunder to pay my remaining legal fees to end this. 1/8 https://t.co/1XcihGB885
I haven’t posted as much recently. This is why. All my energy and money goes into fighting this. As you can imagine, this has been devastating to my mental health, and a massive struggle for the past 5 years. I have never been through anything like this before. 3/8
The “oh no” comics are my favourite creation! I spent years developing the style and voice before launching the series in 2016. I feel so lucky to have found my perfect format- that is fun to make, and popular with readers. I have and will put everything into defending it. 5/8
The document says there was an agreement to make a board game and plush toy based on Webcomic Name and nothing more. Then it says the company went on to claim ownership of the comic completely by registering it's copyright in the US, sending cease and desists to Alex.
Lin-Manuel Miranda will have a key guest-starring role on Disney+’s upcoming series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on Rick Riordan’s bestselling book series. Deadline reported that Miranda, who, along with his son, is a fan of the Percy Jackson books, “will play Hermes, the messenger god who looks out for travelers and thieves, and is a bit of a trickster himself.”
The neighborhood is a wild card, and moving there is bound to be expensive. But one of the best options for shelter when humans finally make it to the red planet will be subterranean caves. These rocky hollows, which exist in droves on both Earth and the moon, are natural buffers against the harsh conditions of Mars.
In a presentation this month at the Geological Society of America Connects 2022 meeting in Denver, researchers pinpointed nine leading cave candidates worthy of future exploration. All of these grottos appear to extend at least some distance underground, and they’re close to landing sites accessible to a lightweight rover.
These structures would offer a respite from the challenging Martian environment, said Nicole Bardabelias, a geoscientist at the University of Arizona. “Everything at the surface is subject to harsh radiation, possible meteorite or micrometeorite bombardment and really large day-to-night temperature swings,” she said.
To home in on Mars’ most sought-after real estate, Ms. Bardabelias and her colleagues consulted the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog. This compendium, based on imagery collected by instruments aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, inventories over 1,000 candidate caves and other peculiar-looking features on Mars. (Think of it as the first Martian multiple listing service.)…
(12) YOU MAY THINK YOU KNOW THIS STORY. So the cricket says. Netflix dropped this trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio today.
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Hampus Eckerman, Steve Vertlieb, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
Guest Post By Jennifer Dowell, Managing Editor, AudioFile: No one was more surprised than author and narrator Travis Baldree when his cozy fantasy novel Legends & Lattes became a runaway hit—even before it was published. “I feel like I accidentally held my bucket under the right storm cloud,” Baldree says. He wrote it during National Novel Writing Month—something he’d tried before, but this is the first book he’d finished that way. “I narrate lots of action-adventure stuff. It’s always big stakes and the world’s going to end. And I’m also usually reading stuff that’s from the perspective of a guy. So I just wanted to write something that wasn’t that at all.”
Then he decided to self-publish the book and audiobook, which he narrated himself. “Because I work with all these indie authors, I was like, you know what? I want to go through everything that they go through because I like to learn stuff and I’m just curious what their side of the equation is.” Baldree got the book edited and commissioned a cover illustration. When he shared the cover art on Twitter, fantasy author Seanan McGuire retweeted it to her 74,000 followers. “Later on, she also read the book and said nice things about it. She added a whole lot of fairy dust to the proceedings.” The book continued to go viral on TikTok and Instagram. “It’s really rewarding because it’s a book about people mostly being nice, so if people like it, that’s what they liked. It’s a really pleasant feedback loop.”
Legends & Lattes was such a success that agents came calling, and Baldree ended up with a book deal. “It was all very not planned and not expected, and I’m kind of humbled by the whole thing,” Baldree says. Tor/Macmillan will re-launch the book in November, and Baldree, who’s now working on a sequel, will embark on a book tour in the U.S. and the UK. Luckily, audiobook fans don’t have to wait—Baldree’s Earphones Award-winning performance is available now.
Baldree’s day job as a narrator keeps him busy. “I think I do about 70 hours of audio a month,” he says. He was a video game developer before he was a narrator. Then he started narrating audiobooks “on the side, for fun.” More and more narrating work came his way. “At some point, a couple of years ago, I said, I actually like this better. So I retired from game development and switched to doing it full time and kind of haven’t looked back.” Now he narrates fantasy and GameLit titles, many for authors who are independently publishing their audiobooks. One of his favorites is Will Wight’s Cradle series, which Baldree calls an indie phenomenon and “absolute fun.”
When he’s not narrating or writing, what does Baldree do with his time? “Weirdly, I still like to read for fun. I read a lot of novellas. I like short, concise stories that I can finish in between sessions or on a break day. Liking words and liking writing is probably a good prerequisite for being a narrator.”
AudioFile Magazine is the place to discover more about audiobooks. Every day, its reviews and recommendations tell you which audiobooks are worth your listening time. AudioFile reviews about 50 audiobooks a week, features narrator profiles, and awards exceptional performances with AudioFile’s Earphones Awards. AudioFile publishes in print, newsletters, and a blog, and podcasts daily recommendations on Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine.
Natalie Naudus’s skilled narration adds to the luminous and otherworldly qualities of Vo’s historical fantasy. Luli Wei is determined to be a star. But in her world, that means making dangerous pacts, trading away years of her life, and fending off literal monsters. Naudus moves from character to character with ease, enlivening the ambitious and bold Luli, the captivating women she falls for, and the roaring executives who are looking to own Luli’s soul. Naudus conveys all of Luli’s passion as she delivers her lines for her starring role as the monstrous Siren Queen. A surreal and spellbinding story of a Golden Age Hollywood that is steeped in ancient magic.
THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer
by Janelle Monáe| Read by Janelle Monáe, Bahni Turpin
Musician and actor Janelle Monáe adds author and narrator to her considerable list of accomplishments with this story collection based on themes from her 2018 album DIRTY COMPUTER. The totalitarian entity New Dawn seeks to strip away all perceived deviance from humanity. Monáe’s narration of the eponymous first story is softly menacing as she introduces listeners to Seshet, a bureaucratic memory thief who longs for love and connection. Bahni Turpin narrates the rest of the stories in her engaging voice, using crisp and flexible tones to portray characters at odds with Seshet’s mission. Together, they create a memorable experience for listeners seeking classic science-fiction themes with new horizons.
FEVERED STAR
by Rebecca Roanhorse| Read by Christian Barillas, Darrell Dennis, Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Five talented narrators continue an epic fantasy story of political upheaval, magic, and destiny in the Meridian. Serapio, portrayed with intensity and vulnerability by Shaun Taylor-Corbett, is struggling to maintain his humanity after becoming the living avatar of the Crow God. Cara Gee voices priestess Naranpa with wonder as she discovers she has been reborn as the Sun God, the Crow God’s bitter enemy. Each narrator propels the story forward in turn, expertly conveying the tangled fears and ambitions of its many characters. Listeners will be eager for the third part of this tense series inspired by pre-Columbian societies.
Golden Voice narrator Julia Whelan gives a thoughtful performance of a novel focused on a fundamental question: Would you want to know how long you’re going to live? One night everyone 22 years and older receives a box containing a length of string that tells them how much longer they will live. Would you open the box? Whelan introduces listeners to characters who have a range of reactions to that question. She provides a sense of intimacy to their stories as she calmly explores the dramatic ways the world changes for each one. Whelan shares the intensity of their emotions and the camaraderie that develops, especially among the “short stringers” who are soon to die.
THE CANDY HOUSE
by Jennifer Egan| Read by Michael Boatman, Nicole Lewis, Thomas Sadoski, Colin Donnell, Griffin Newman, Rebecca Lowman, Jackie Sanders, Lucy Liu, Christian Barillas, Tara Lynne Barr, Alex Allwine, Emily Tremaine, Kyle Beltran, Dan Bittner, Chris Henry Coffey, and a Full Cast
The ensemble performance of this novel is exceptional. Michael Boatman narrates the opening chapter at the right pace with the right intonation. He captures the interior life of the enigmatic Bix Boughton, a social media genius who invents the world-altering technology “Own Your Unconscious.” Alex Allwine delivers a haunting automaton-like second-person narration of the chapter titled “Lulu the Spy, 2032”; Tyra Lynne Barr emulates the chirpy sound of 13-year-old Molly in “The Perimeter After-Molly”; and Dan Bittner supplies sharply insightful tone as Ames, whose life story ends this imaginative tour de force. While Egan reprises some of the characters from her award-winning A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, this novel has a wider timeframe, a greater trajectory, and a more complex plot.
THE CARTOGRAPHERS
by Peng Shepherd| Read by Emily Woo Zeller, Nancy Wu, Karen Chilton, Ron Butler, Neil Hellegers, Jason Culp, Brittany Pressley
A superb ensemble of narrators animates this exciting tale of friendships and betrayals, a cartographers’ cabal, maps, murder, and missing towns. Among her father’s effects, cartographer Nell discovers what appears to be a worthless 1930s highway map. However, this map hides dark secrets as well as a “phantom settlement” known only to “the Cartographers.” Possessing it puts Nell in great danger. Nell’s third-person point of view comes alive with narrator Emily Woo Zeller’s artistry, while the other narrators’ perceptive interpretations create fascinating, believable secondary characters. Outstanding performances highlight Peng Shepherd’s thrilling magical literary mystery.
Narrator Amara Jasper faithfully delivers Kingfisher’s audiobook filled with fairy-tale magic. Princess Marra’s oldest sister dies under mysterious circumstances only months after her marriage. Her second sister marries the same prince, but when his abuse comes to light, Princess Marra embarks on a perilous quest to save her with a gravewitch, her fairy godmother, an exiled knight, a dog made of bones, and a demon-possessed chicken. Jasper’s unhurried pace and impassive tone perfectly complement the story’s dry humor. Her skill and commitment to creating diverse voices offer listeners distinct and emotionally connected characters—and bird caws. Jasper easily immerses listeners in the story and keeps them hooked to the end.
Natalie Naudus’s immersive delivery immediately draws listeners into Gladstone’s kaleidoscopic adventure. Estranged in the wake of their last failed mission, a group of friends with deep wounds and unusual powers must reunite to defeat forces that are threatening to tear apart all realities. Naudus readily dives into a sprawling, harrowing narrative of perilous battles, ominous voices in the dark, gut-wrenching flashbacks, and defiant feats of magic and science. Characterizations range from courageous and clever to horrifying and unhinged. Underpinning the friends’ expedition is a powerful, complex love story, deftly explored by Gladstone and beautifully rendered by Naudus.
SEA OF TRANQUILITY
by Emily St. John Mandel| Read by John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey, Kirsten Potter
The four narrators of Mandel’s newest novel create a mesmerizing listening experience full of time shifts. Kirsten Potter shines as an author on a book tour at the beginning of a 2200s pandemic; her increasingly worried observations hit close to home. Dylan Moore brings a perfect mix of malaise and inertia as a young woman living in 2020 New York. John Lee effortlessly transports listeners to British Columbia in 1918. Arthur Morey’s beautiful, throaty narration of a man from the moon colonies whose life is changed forever by a mysterious government job is haunting and familiar. These interlocking storylines offer a poignant and surprising exploration of love, art, and the beauty of everyday life.
“Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Audiobooks of 2022—so far!” was curated by AudioFile. AudioFile is an independent source of audiobook reviews and recommendations with a clear focus on the performance and listening experience.
Wil Wheaton joined AudioFile Magazine’s Michele Cobb to discuss the audiobook of his “annotated memoir,” Still Just A Geek. In addition to his acting and producing work, Wheaton has narrated audiobooks by John Scalzi, Andy Weir, and Ernest Cline. He tells AudioFile listeners about what it was like to revisit his 2004 memoir Just A Geek, asking author Neil Gaiman to write and record the introduction, and more. Watch the full conversation below.
Here are AudioFile’s brief notes about Wheaton’s new audiobook.
STILL JUST A GEEK by Wil Wheaton, read by Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman [Introduction] Harper Audio
Actor Wil Wheaton—from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”—has managed something many of us have wished for at one time or another—a do-over. With humor and humility, he explains and mostly apologizes for his 2004 memoir JUST A GEEK. Using the acting skills he honed at an early age, he indulges in audiobook therapy. He invites us into his inner circle of friends and confesses misdeeds. As friends, listeners would tell Wil to relax and accept his humanity.
Find more audiobooks narrated by Wil Wheaton in his audiography.
We love hearing a good story well told, and we know that you do, too: the comfort and intimacy of a voice in your ear, the pleasure of being completely swept up in a narrative. That’s why, every December, we are so glad to celebrate audio excellence by selecting AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks. Thank you to all of the narrators, directors, producers, and publishers who filled our year with good listening.
(2) A PAY SERVICE NIXES DISCON III. “WeChat Restrictions, We Tried, We Really Tried” says DisCon III:
“We have had to remove WeChat as a payment option. Due to their restrictions on charitable giving, we are unable to use WeChat services at this time. Our tech team is working to find a workaround to help overseas fans who want to pay using WeChat. That said, all of our other avenues are still available, and there’s still time to join us at DisCon III. Please visit our member services page to purchase your membership.” said Mary Robinette Kowal, Chair of DisCon III.
(3) ON BROADWAY. [Item by Daniel Dern.] The opening of (Marvel) Hawkeye (new TV series) includes Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (and his 3 kids) going to a performance of Rogers The Musical (note that the signage looks very Hamiltonian), and we get to, delightfully, see about half of “I Can Do This All Day” about the NYC invasion, in the first Avengers movie.
… Written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who have collaborated on other Broadway musical adaptations like Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can, Rogers is the MCU’s latest attempt to reminisce over past battles with a wink and nod. A little like the scene in Loki where the God of Mischief finds Infinity stones being used as paperweights, the silliness of Rogers asks the audience if they can remember what all the fuss was about….
…A strong cast gives the characters more weight and also pushes them closer to how Jordan intended them to be (from context) rather than how they come over in the books. Nynaeve in particular is clearly meant to be a strong-willed character in the books but comes over as just whiny and annoying (your impression may differ) in Jordan’s dialogue. However, the show’s Nynaeve is a really compelling character played by New Zealander Zoë Robins, full of intensity and suspicion of what she (correctly) perceives as a hostile world….
(5) FUTURE TENSE. The November 2021 entry in the Future Tense Fiction series is “Ride,” by Linda Nagata, a story about climate, public transportation, and AI in Hawaii.
…The boy waved at them, then turned again to Jasmine. “Give it a try,” he exhorted her in a conspiratorial whisper. “Promise you will?”
Those eyes.
Her smile brightened. She didn’t want to disappoint those eyes. So she played along, teasing, “I might.” And maybe she really would. It was just a little game, after all….
I like to think of myself as deeply skeptical of the many internet algorithms telling me what I want and need. I turn off targeted advertising wherever I can. I use AdBlock to hide what’s left. Most of my YouTube recommendations are for concerts or sports highlights, but I know I’m just a few clicks away from a wild-eyed influencer telling me to gargle turpentine for a sore throat. Twitter trending topics? I regret clicking immediately.
But I make an exception for the sweet, all-knowing embrace of the Spotify algorithm, to whom I surrender my ears several times a day. This software doesn’t just know my taste in music better than my friends; it acts on it, with chains of songs that build off things that I know I like, or forgot I did….
(6) HARLAN IN THE WILDERNESS. Stephen Bowie interviewed Harlan Ellison in 1996 about his early days writing for television: “Harlan Hits Hollywood” at The Classic TV History Blog.
…I was going to ask you if you remembered watching “Memos From Purgatory” when it was first broadcast, but perhaps you don’t, since it wasn’t actually the first one.
It’s a moderately funny story about what happened the night it aired. I was living in Beverly Glen, in this little treehouse. The television set that I had was a real small TV, with rabbit ears, and the antenna was up the side of the mountain behind the house. I mean this house, literally and actually, sat half on a rock ledge and the other half sat in the crotch of a gigantic banyan tree. It was raining that night, it was raining terribly. And the antenna, which was up the hill – rabbit ears down in the house and an actual antenna up on the hill; I mean, there was no cable – well, the antenna fell over.
I had invited all these people to come and see the show, and we couldn’t get any reception. So a friend of mine volunteered to go up, and he put on my raincoat, and he stood up there in the pounding rain, a really torrential downpour. He stood up there holding the fuckin’ antenna up. And I was kind of, you know, upset that he was up there, not to mention that there were cougars or mountain cats – really, there were catamounts or cougars or whatever the fuck they are – up there running loose, because it’s all watershed land. And I was terrified that he was going to get eaten, or washed away, or drowned, or fall off the mountain, or something. So about midway through I went up and I took his place. And I came back drenched, soaking wet, I looked like a drowned rat, and everybody was raving about this thing, and I had only seen about half of it….
HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” came to an end in 2019 with two shortened seasons, which brought the total to eight seasons and 73 episodes. But the story’s original creator, the author George R.R. Martin, pushed for up to 10 seasons and 100 total episodes, according to a new book.
Miller, who conducted 757 interviews for the book, spoke with Martin, Martin’s agent, Paul Haas, and Richard Plepler, HBO’s former CEO.
“George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience,” Haas told Miller.
(8) IN XANADU. Henry Farrell points to the availability of the video of a panel he was on with Paul Krugman, Ada Palmer, Noah Smith, and Jo Walton. And he has a few more things he’d like to say in his post “The Future Finds Its Own Uses for Things” at Crooked Timber.
So this event on the relationship between social science and science fiction went live late last week. It has Paul Krugman, Ada Palmer, Jo Walton, Noah Smith and … me. I’ve been wanting to say something a little bit more about this relationship for a while. Here is one take, which surely misses out on a lot, but maybe captures some stuff too.
…The Hume quote captures a particular – and very common – way of thinking about the world. It suggests that beneath the vast procession of history, the extraordinary profusion of ways in which human beings organize their society, their politics and their economies, lies a hidden and coherent unity. He emphasizes “the constant principles of human nature” – other social scientists have other notions about what the underlying unity involves and entails. But from this perspective all the ways in which things are different across time and space are really illustrations of how they are really deeply the same. This is a powerful lens for understanding the world and perhaps changing it.
When Marco Polo counters Kublai Khan, he points towards quite the opposite phenomenon; how an apparent unity -an abstract of plane forces – can be opened up to disclose the quiddity of things. A chessboard is a plane divided into sixty-four squares – yet it is also something physical, made out of joined-together pieces of wood, each with its own history. The apparently all encompassing abstract unity conceals a world of variation. Unless you understand how the squares were formed – a year of drought; a frosty night; a caterpillar’s appetite; you cannot understand how the chessboard came to be as it is.
It is a little too simple to say that social science is on Hume’s side of the dialectic, while science fiction is on Marco Polo’s. What makes more sense, I think is that very good social scientists and very good science fiction writers each work the tensions between the two understandings of the world, more from the one side than the other….
(9) NAME YOUR PRICE. Filer Jane Sand’s novelette “Not Poppy Nor Mandragora” is in the newly released Fusion Fragment issue #9. The publishers invite readers to “download Fusion Fragment #9 for free or pay what you want!”
…Verne’s story, in turn, inspired the late 19th-century journalist Nellie Bly to make her own world tour, completing the trip in 72 days. She even met Verne in Amiens and wrote her own bestselling book about her adventures. Monty Python alum Michael Palin made the charming TV travelogue, Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, in 1988, detailing his recreation of Fogg’s journey, without resorting to airplanes….
(11) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
2002 — [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Nineteen years ago on NBC, It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie first aired. It was the first film to be made for television by The Muppets franchise. It was directed by Kirk R. Thatcher (in his feature directorial debut though he earlier been hired by Nimoy to associate produce the Conspiracy ’87 Hugo-nominated Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) and written by Tom Martin and Jim Lewis.
It starred the usual Muppet puppeteers (Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta and Eric Jacobson) plus a number of human guests: David Arquette, Joan Cusack, Matthew Lillard, William H. Macy and Whoopi Goldberg. Executive producers Juliet Blake and Brian Henson, though the actual producers were Martin G. Baker and Warren Carr.
This is also the final Muppets production from the Jim Henson Company, as The Muppets were in their final years of ownership by the Henson family before being sold to Disney in 2004.
Critics were generally very impressed by this film with such comments as the Canadian Movie News saying it “is a medley of familiar Christmas classics such as It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and The Grinch, amongst others, with a distinct Muppet spin.” Interestingly audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes were less impressed giving a mediocre fifty-one percent rating.
(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born November 29, 1898 — C S Lewis. I first encountered him when reading The Screwtape Letters in University. I later read of course The Chronicles of Narnia which I found most excellent though I’ll admit that I’ve not read his Space Trilogy. (Died 1963.)
Born November 29, 1910 — Kendell Foster Crossen. He was the creator and writer of the Green Lama stories. The character was a Buddhist crime fighter whose powers were activated upon the recitation of the Tibetan chant om mani padme hum. He also wrote Manning Draco series, an intergalactic insurance investigator, four of which are can be found in Once Upon a Star: A Novel of the Future. The usual suspects has a really deep catalog of his genre work, and the Green Lama stories have been made into audio works as well. (Died 1981.)
Born November 29, 1918 — Madeleine L’Engle. Writer whose genre work included the splendid YA sequence starting off with A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. One of her non-genre works that I recommend strongly is the Katherine Forrester Vigneras series. She has a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. (Died 2007.)
Born November 29, 1950 — Peter Hooten, 71. He played the title character in the late Seveties Dr. Strange film, well before the present MCU film reality existed. His other genre appearances are all in definitely low-grade horror films such as Orca, House of Blood and Souleater. And one Italian film that had so many name changes that I’d accused it of name laundering, including 2020 Texas Gladiators.
Born November 29, 1955 — Howie Mandel, 66. He was the voice of Gizmo in Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. His longest voice acting gig was on the Muppet Babies where he did a lot of different voices, and he voiced Sam-I-Am in In Search of Dr. Seuss which is not nearly as serious as it sounds.
Born November 29, 1969 — Greg Rucka, 52. Comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on Action Comics, Batwoman and Detective Comics. If you’ve not read it, I recommend reading Gotham Central which he co-created with Ed Brubaker, and over at Marvel, the four-issue Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra which he wrote is quite excellent as well. I’ve read none of his novels, so will leave y’all to comment on those. He’s a character in the CSI comic book Dying in the Gutters miniseries as someone who accidentally killed a comics gossip columnist while attempting to kill Joe Quesada over his perceived role in the cancellation of Gotham Central.
Born November 29, 1976 — Chadwick Boseman. Another death that damn near broke my heart. The Black Panther alias Challa in the Marvel metaverse. The same year that he was first this being, he was Thoth in Gods of Egypt. (If you’ve not heard of this, no one else did either as it bombed quite nicely at the box office.) He was Sergeant McNair on Persons Unknown which is at least genre adjacent I would say. And he even appeared on Fringe in the “Subject 9” episode as Mark Little / Cameron James. (Died 2020.)
An episode of The Simpsonsduring which the family visits Tiananmen Square is missing from Disney+’s Hong Kong platform.
Episode 12 of season 16 was found today to be absent from the streamer’s catalogue in the nation, having launched in Hong Kong earlier this month.
The episode features the family going to China to try to adopt a baby. At one point, they visit Tiananmen Square, which was the site of a deadly crackdown in 1989 against democracy protestors. A satirical sign in the cartoon square reads “On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.”
At time of publication, it is not clear whether Disney+ removed the episode or was ordered to by the authorities and Disney has not responded to requests for comment.
The discovery will lead to further concerns over censorship in Hong Kong….
… Since its inception in the mid-1970s, the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has brought together a far more diverse array of players than its stereotypes suggest. Earlier this year, the game’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, released a report showing that, of its estimated 50 million players, 54% were younger than 30 and 40% identified as female. What it didn’t reveal was the rise in visibility of queer and neurodiverse players.
…For people such as Shadia Hancock, the founder of advocacy group Autism Actually and Dungeon Master to a group of young neurodiverse players, the therapeutic potential of the game has always been clear.
“It’s about creating a sense of community,” Hancock says. “I work out the players’ expectations at the beginning of a game. Some get really into creating their characters, some are more interested in finding items and exploring the world, others are really interested in how the characters met. We all have a mutual love of gaming, but we all want something different from the session.”
Some characteristics expressed by some of Hancock’s players – social anxiety, increased empathy, difficulty adapting to change, feeling overwhelmed in noisy environments – have become familiar to many Australians in the wake of lockdowns. Studies cited by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found reported levels of social anxiety increased over the past two years among all age groups, with young neurodiverse Australians even more likely to have experienced a decline in wellbeing.
“While other people are excited about going out, I’m filled with dread,” Hancock tells me. “With Covid, we [autistic communities] had all these sudden changes, often with short notice, and there was this need to constantly adapt to new rules. Not knowing what is coming up is really anxiety-inducing. During the pandemic, that became a shared experience.”
(15) NEXT TIME, TAKE THE TRAIN. John Holbo’s “The Ones Who Take the Train to Omelas” is adorned with a big Omelas-themed travel poster (which you can see at the link.)
*Confused? This page contains a parody of a famous story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’d point you to it, but there are no versions legally free on the web. Buy a book! Read Wikipedia. If you are somehow here about the BTS song – sorry, I don’t know about that. (But with half a billion hits, somebody probably does.)
I’ve written notes on my take on Le Guin. An essay! That’s here.
Also, once I made the graphics I tossed ’em on Redbubble. Forgive me. It seemed funny.
“I incline to think that people from towns up and down the coast have been coming in to Omelas during the last days before the Festival on very fast little trains and double-decked trams.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”
If you’ve been slavering for your chance to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to head to Walt Disney World’s upcoming Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser experience, might I suggest you towel off your chin for the time being? Disney has released a video preview of some of what awaits families who come aboard the Halcyon, and it doesn’t look particularly enticing.
The first thing you should know about this video is that it stars Disney Parks Imagineer Ann Morrow Johnson and The Goldbergs’ sitcom actor Sean Giambrone. The two take a very short tour of the Starcruiser, but instead of them just talking like normal people about what people who come to the Halcyon can expect, it’s scripted and painfully unfunny. You’ve been warned. But this video also raises an important question, which is: Disney wants $6,000 for this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpyi_I9316Q
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Danny Sichel, Jayn, Bill, Joey Eschrich, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Joe H.]
