Killjoys + Snowflake Challenge, days 2-5
An assortment of fannish things!
1) fandom_stocking extended its deadline to Wed, 1/11. I am usually impatient to see all the goodies revealed, but this year I'm greatly relieved, because between the stockings going up pretty late, crazy work, holiday, and feeling sick, I haven't actually managed to do anything yet, beyond browse and take notes, ( Read more... )
1) fandom_stocking extended its deadline to Wed, 1/11. I am usually impatient to see all the goodies revealed, but this year I'm greatly relieved, because between the stockings going up pretty late, crazy work, holiday, and feeling sick, I haven't actually managed to do anything yet, beyond browse and take notes, ( Read more... )
... I'm in. :D (Except I'm even slower at picking up live action / Western shows than I am at literally everything else, so. XD)
I'd never heard of Enemy Mine before, but it definitely sounds like my sort of thing :D reluctant co-operation growing into mutual respect yesssss. :D Short Circuit was one of those movies I watched, like, a billion times as a child though. :D (I forget whether we relentlessly panned the sequel or dismissively allowed that it was better than we expected, though. XD)
... Speaking of sci fi I remember fondly from childhood, did you ever see The Cat from Outer Space? I remember that being a lot of fun, too. :D
The Coldfire Trilogy (C.S.Friedman)
"I'm interested in hearing your thoughts once you do," she says in a pained voice.
(I read the first book earlier this year and it was ... not for me. XD)
I'd rec Every Heart for the Seanan trial (as I'm guessing you were already intending) - it's certainly been my favorite thing of hers so far. :)
And driveby <3 for Child of a Hidden Sea (which I need to read the sequel to soemtime soon, too ...), Imperial Radch, Elemental Logic, and Cloud Roads. :D A couple of those others are on my "check this out at some point" list, too. :) (Matthew Swift, other Guy Gavriel Kay ...)
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Haha, this is basically me, too (except non-Western shows are not even a thing that I attempt, so they're out of the running). The great advantage of Killjoys in this regard is that there are 20 45-min episodes total at this point, meaning I think it'll take me about a week to binge on it. That was part of that overcame my usual activation energy hurdle when it comes to TV.
I honestly have no idea how Enemy Mine has aged -- it is an 80s sci-fi movie, I'm a little scared to rewatch it -- but the story is so good! And the tropes were VERY eye-opening to 10-year-old me, haha.
Short Circuit was SO adorable! I don't think I ever watched the sequel (which is probably a good thing), but #5 was the CUTEST robot. (And, actually, when WALL-E came out, his cute robot shape nagged at me and nagged at me until someone -- my mother, maybe, with whom I'd gone to see Short Circuit the quarter of a century earlier -- pointed out that WALL-E was basically the very same shape, just cutified a bit further in the animated way.
did you ever see The Cat from Outer Space?
...I did not. But I just read through the plot on the Wiki article in fascination and LOL XD (Cat aliens, though! Critter aliens would've doubtfully appealed to me as a kid...)
(Actually, I should say, my "staples of a geek childhood" classics tend to be really different than for a lot of people of my generation. I did watch Star Wars and Indiana Jones as a kid, courtesy of my very good ESL teacher the first year we came to the US -- I guess he was a Harrison Ford fan, too ;P -- but there are other things that I have never seen, like E.T. or Neverending Story or Willow. Although to be fair, I did come across Neverending Story on TV several times in the 90s, but was probably too old to appreciate it at that point.
I will report back on Coldfire, if/when I finally get around to it (it's been on my list for... longer than everything else on it, let's say). My understanding is that it contains the kind of absolutely terrible person character that I tend to fall for, so, we'll see...
I think Every Heart for Seanan McGuire will be the next (and possibly final) attempt. It seems to have worked for a number of people who did not like her other books. And also it's short, so there's that, too.
Remind me, are you all caught up on Imperial Radch? I read the first book and really liked it, and I OWN the third book because it was a Kindle deal at some point and I snapped it up, but everybody I know was lukewarm on Sword compared to the rest, and so I haven't made the effort required to track it down...
I'm sure you've heard all about Matthew Swift from K et al. I've read the first... 3, I think? It is a series I am more impressed by than enjoy -- I am impressed by the worldbuilding, but it's not a world I enjoy spending time in; I like a lot of the characters, but many of them tend to die; the prose is interesting and well-adapted to the narrator, but I find it... viscous, I guess, would be the best word -- dense and hard to get through. So it's one of those series I recommend without it necessarily being "mine".
Guy Gavriel Kay is... well, I find a little of him goes a long way. I really like(d) Lions of Al-Rassan, but I'm scared to reread it, because I'm not sure anymore whether it's really as good as I remember or if that was the first blush of liking the author, and if I were to read it again, I would notice all the authorial tics that have come to bug me in his books that I read later... :P
(GGK probably has the distinction of being possibly the only author for whom I can say that he's written both a book that I love (Lions) and a book I really hated (Tigana).)
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I can imagine. :D :D (I'm pretty sure 10-year-old me would have loved them too :D)
WALL-E was basically the very same shape, just cutified a bit further in the animated way.
Huh, I'm not sure I'd ever made that connection, but you're right! According to Wikipedia, it sounds like it probably wasn't an intentional homage (the creator apparently hadn't noticed the similarities until they were pointed out to him), but I like it as an unintentional homage anyway. :)
E.T. or Neverending Story or Willow.
Haha, to be fair, I grew up on a steady diet of PBS and musicals mostly, so I'm not sure I'd be able to say what the "staples of a geek childhood" are either. :D (Trying to remember if there were any sci fi movies we watched repeatedly other than Star Wars, Spaceballs, Short Circuit, The Cat From Outer Space, and I can't think of any ...)
I unfortunately didn't see Neverending Story until after I'd read the book, which meant that I was Deeply Unimpressed By Everything. :D (I really enjoyed the book, though!)
My understanding is that it contains the kind of absolutely terrible person character that I tend to fall for, so, we'll see...
Pfft, if he's who I'm thinking of, he was actually one of the parts of the book I liked relatively better.
everybody I know was lukewarm on Sword compared to the rest, and so I haven't made the effort required to track it down...
I actually think I liked Sword a bit better than Justice, tbh. But I do seem to be in the minority with that opinion.
I think the problem is that it's a different "kind" of story - more focused, told within a smaller space, if that makes sense?
There's also no new "trick" in the second book like she-as-neutral-pronoun was in the first book, which I guess some people might also see as making it less, hm ... groundbreaking?
But IMO it's still a solid book and I still really enjoyed it. :)
So it's one of those series I recommend without it necessarily being "mine".
Makes sense - it's on my list as one of those "enough of my friends like this that I feel like I should give it a try". :D
a book I really hated (Tigana)
Haha, I've been a bit afraid to go back and re-read that one, because I vaguely recall liking it at the time, but I think I stumbled across your commentary at one point and agreed with most of what you had to say, which makes it seem ... doubtful that I'd like it on re-read. XD
I've read a couple other things by him (Sailing to Sarantium and The Summer Tree? I think?) and liked them, but he's one of those authors that seems to slide out of my brain almost as soon as I finish the book, which typically makes me slower to pick up their additional books. XD
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Maybe I would've actually enjoyed reading Neverending Story if I had met it before the movie, but the movie was so WTF-y to me, I never tried to pick up the book.
I think the problem is that it's a different "kind" of story - more focused, told within a smaller space, if that makes sense?
It does, and I think you're probably right. The characters in Justice weren't what hooked me, it was the worldbuilding and the pronoun gimmick that actually worked, and I expect Sword, as you describe it, probably won't hook me as much. But I definitely want to continue with the series.
Tigana is one of those books that some people really love and others... really don't. But I could also see it being a book that one could like when younger and outgrow -- it's kind of Return of the King played mostly straight, and I just don't have patience for that anymore.
Sailing to Sarantium was I think the first GGK book I ever read, so my memories of it are positive and numinous, but probably artificially so, if you know what I mean. And as for The Summer Tree and the rest of the Fionavar books, ahaha. I really, really loved Diarmuid, and liked a few other characters, but on the whole it's just such a weird book! Like, I want to pat GGK on the head because it is perfectly natural to be so overwhelmed by Tolkien's writing that you want to grow up to be Just Like Him, but on the other hand, he did so much better when he branched out and did his historical fantasy instead. And there's random Arthuriana, which, like, why?
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Well, no guarantees, but my child self at least really liked it. XD And IIRC it did a better job of explaining things / having a logical progress of events than the movie did (and a better ending, too), though IIRC it was still somewhat surreal.
it was the worldbuilding and the pronoun gimmick that actually worked
Yeah, somewhat the same here - I enjoyed the characters, but none of them really became mine.
The pronoun gimmick definitely continues to be a thing, it's just not new anymore. And IMO, she continues worldbuilding in interesting ways, just on a smaller scale.
Anyway, either way I look forward to hearing what you think of it. :)
my memories of it are positive and numinous, but probably artificially so, if you know what I mean.
Ahahaha, yeah. There's a reason there are some authors that I just ... don't re-read. XD
Like, I want to pat GGK on the head because it is perfectly natural to be so overwhelmed by Tolkien's writing that you want to grow up to be Just Like Him,
pfffft. :D You know, it hadn't occurred to me to make that connection (probably due to my much weaker connection to LotR :D), but ... I could see it.
But, I mean, who wouldn't want to be a character in a portal fantasy to an LotR/Arthuriana mashup???? :D
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Yeah, that's what I meant, too.
As far as GGK, the connection to Tolkien's writing is actually more explicit -- as a young man, he helped Christopher Tolkien edit The Silmarillion. His first book was published quite a bit later (according to Wiki, he started working on The Sil in 1974, Sil's publication date is 1977, and GGK's first book came out in 1984) -- but I'm pretty sure there was a Tolkien overdose involved :P
But, I mean, who wouldn't want to be a character in a portal fantasy to an LotR/Arthuriana mashup???? :D
It's kind of adorable, because he is clearly cramming in ALL his favorite fantasy things, whether they make any sense together or not. I've been there, Guy Gavriel Kay! I feel you, buddy!
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