Samuel Delany and the Past and Future of Science Fiction In 1968, Samuel Delany attended the third annual Nebula Awards, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). At the ceremony that night, “an eminent member of the SFWA,” as Delany later put it, gave a speech about changes in science fiction, a supposed shift away from old-fashioned storytelling to “pretentious literary nonsense,” or something along those lines. At the previous Nebula Awards, the year before, Delany had won best novel for “Babel-17,” in which an invented language has the power to destroy (his book shared the award with Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon”), and earlier on that evening in 1968, Delany had again won best novel, for “The Einstein Intersection,” which tells of an abandoned Earth colonized by aliens, who elevate the popular culture of their new planet into divine myths. Delany said he was dismayed by all this, but not surprised. Delany was born in 1942, in Harlem.
On the Taxonomy of Spaceships | Critical Shit Yup, spaceships again. Between Star Citizen, the new Halo, the new Star Wars, a couple of key mods for Sins of a Solar Empire that I keep up with and have done some voice work on, and Destiny, my mind has been buzzing with them. I’m a huge nerd who thinks of things in my free time like “if I were a shinigami what kind of Zanpakutō would I have?” and “I wonder if I’d rather be a ranger or a mage” and “ff I were a Jedi in the New Jedi Order, what kind of ship would I have?” And alongside that sort of inane theorycrafting and imagination comes obvious questions, like “would I want to captain a cruiser or a carrier?” But then, what exactly is the difference? There are lots of different ship classes in science fiction, and I’m not talking about the designated name for a particular frame (like Victory-class or Firefly-class). So like any good geek I did research and actually enjoyed doing it! Before we get to the meat of the topic let’s look at a bit of history. Corvette Frigate Destroyer Whew.
Age of Robots: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie There’s an alternate interpretation for that Hulk-slams-Loki scene in the first Avengers. I try, very hard, to believe it’s not the correct one. Because it’s an evil message, which cynics will tell you is at the heart of every comic book movie. It is: Punching is better than talking. It happens in a lot of big, commercial movies, right? There’s a guy who talks a lot, thinks, plans, tries to get somewhere by thinking. So there’s your other interpretation, the thing I think is at the core of Marvel’s contempt for people: Punching is better than talking. The audience doesn’t need dialogue or character or psychological growth. I mean: You pump this message out into the atmosphere, and then you’re surprised when the biggest fans are ready to send death threats to a director to save the Almighty Brand? It kills me that I am so bothered by this. The problems with Marvel’s storytelling will be the problems of narrative storytelling for the foreseeable future. I love stupid popcorn movies.
The 51 Best Fantasy Series Ever Written Blog – castaliahouse.com If one is to discuss combat in RPGs, one might as well start with the medieval fantasy genre that still dominates the industry. For many games, hand-to-hand (or hand-to-tentacle, hand-to-claw, hand-to-mouth . . . ) combat is a central point of the game, hearkening back to the origin of fantasy RPGs in wargaming. This column will look at several classic weapons that might be brought to bear on foes. Just to establish a common ground, here are the weapons. Club: a lightweight piece of wood, perhaps even found lying around. Axe: A single-bitted axe on a handle that will often range from about 27” to about 33”. Spear: A shorter spear, perhaps six to eight feet long with a pointy end that goes into the other man. Sword: Something like an Oakeshott Type XVII, which is a hand-and-a-half sword with a blade that might be 34-40” or so. Mace: This would be a footman’s mace, which is basically a baton-length piece of wood or metal with a heavy, weighted end.
Lord Foul’s Bane, by Stephen R. Donaldson | Occasional Mumbling I have a feeling that Lord Foul’s Bane may come as a surprise to many readers. It’s on the ‘fantasy’ shelf, and fantastical things do occur, but this isn’t meant to be how fantasy works. At least, not these days. Some history is in order. What happened next is obvious. Plain, simple, slightly naff cover. The problem is: it’s better to forget about all that when you read Lord Foul’s Bane. In many ways, then, Donaldson is one of the most astonishing bestsellers in history. In any case, it says on the cover that Donaldson is an American Tolkien, and actually that label is much more accurate than people these days might assume. I’m actually quite proud of that observation. Of course, Donaldson rejected his family’s religion, and went on to be a liberal, skeptical conscientious-objector (and he was studying at Kent State when the shootings took place, though he was not at the demonstration himself). This, we are told (Donaldson is not big on subtlety) is the fundamental question of ethics.
7 Fantasy Series to Read If You Love Game of Thrones If you’re like most Game of Thrones fans, you’re getting impatient waiting for April 12, when Season 5 of the TV version of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series gets started. Fortunately there’s a lot of other newly written fantasy fiction to gorge yourself with while you wait. As Martin himself recently pointed out, there’s never been so much new epic fantasy published as there is now. To help you navigate all these new epics, we collected seven of our favorite series below, along with a recommended book to start with and the description from its publisher. The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon Start With: The Iron King ‘This is the original game of thrones’ — George R.R. From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. The Cousins’ War by Philippa Gregory Start With: The White Queen Elizabeth Woodville is a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition. The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss Start With: The Name of the Wind
Cool Maps of Fictional Literary Places - Book Recommendations and Reviews I love maps. Do you love maps? Cause I lurrrrrrve maps. And when someone brings books and maps together, I basically have palpitations of joy. Now, I can’t read a street map to save my life, but I can pore over maps of cities, countries, and continents for hours. Maps of fictional places are mesmerizing in another way: they help me visualize entirely imagined worlds in new and fascinating ways. So without further ado, I give you a bunch of very cool maps of fictional places. Hogwarts Middle Earth Narnia The world of Game of Thrones Lilliput Brobdingnag Oz Earthsea Yoknapatawpha County China Mieville’s Bas-Lag Follow us on Tumblr for for book recs, literary talk, and the occasional pic of a puppy reading.
10 of the best science fiction and fantasy short stories ever For the first time ever, the renowned Best American series of anthologies has published a collection of the country's best science fiction and fantasy stories. Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy is a terrific book, filled with 20 stories that filter very basic questions about humanity — how do men and women relate to each other? how are we being changed by our technology? Mariner Books Here, vampires might overrun Hawaii, or anthropology grad students might invent a fictional land that becomes all too real (or is it the other way around?). Because some of the most exciting American writing is happening in the fields of science fiction and fantasy right now, I hopped on the phone with the book's two editors, Joe Hill and John Joseph Adams, to hear their picks for the 10 best science fiction and fantasy stories ever written. Joe's first pick: "The Jewbird," by Bernard Malamud A Jewish crow looks for a home with a Jewish family in New York City, but the family proves unkind. Joe Hill
8 Fantasy Novels Every Writer Should Read: Guest Post by Kameron Hurley - Books Without Any PicturesBooks Without Any Pictures This guest post is written by Kameron Hurley, author of The Mirror Empire and its newly released sequel Empire Ascendant. There are an inordinate number of “best of” book lists, but “best” is a tricky thing to define. Does “best” mean the most readable? The most enjoyable? Does “best” mean the one that conformed to all the readers’ expectations? Does “best” mean an easy beach read? For this list, I wanted to come up with books that weren’t necessarily the easiest to read, or the most enjoyable, or the most literary. So here are some titles that have challenged me to be a better, smarter, and more explosive writer over the years. 1. Viciously underappreciated for its intricate politics, bold worldbuilding, and tricksy plot, Kushiel’s Dart will challenge the way you think about fantasy fiction. 2. 3. In reading Jemisin’s latest fantasy novel, I was struck by the fact that she has become a powerhouse fantasy writer without compare. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. About the Author Like this: Like Loading...
We Need to Talk About Conan It's time to stop making excuses for Robert E. Howard's trashy writing and overt hatred. This article is, to an extent, old news. There has been a ridiculous amount of ink spilled on the subject of Conan ever since Robert E. But the fact remains that the Conan stories have been skewered before, repeatedly, and by people with far more standing to complain about them than I'll ever have. Well, first off, it seemed timely. Secondly, the series seems ideal subject matter for the Reading Canary, though in the reverse to the way I usually do these articles - rather than being an exercise in asking "where does this series end up losing what made it good in the first place?" Thirdly, I did this because in another life I might have been one of those defenders. So, basically I am tilting at a windmill which already has a small forest of lances poking out of its sails for the sake of self-flagellating about my former bad taste. Oh, and trigger warning: racism and sexism aplenty in this stuff.