Killjoys + Snowflake Challenge, days 2-5

[hamsterwoman]

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,

Comments

[cyanshadow]

likeable ensemble cast with interesting backgrounds and complex bonds between them, dark but engaging worldbuilding, story that's both funny and poignant (and a very catchy intro song)

... 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

[hamsterwoman]

(Except I'm even slower at picking up live action / Western shows than I am at literally everything else, so. XD) 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

[cyanshadow]

And the tropes were VERY eye-opening to 10-year-old me, haha.

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

[hamsterwoman]

Huh, interesting, I didn't know that the WALL-E appearance thing was not an intentional homage.

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

[etrangere]

the J is the local interstellar space. I don't think any other specific other systems have been mentioned but we know all the protagonists were not from the Quad.

[hamsterwoman]

(Heey, you're here! Hi! :D Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year!)

I figured it was something like that (and remembered Dutch and the Jaqobis both talking about being from outside of the Quad), though had a hard time figuring out the scale, or how they travel those distances. (Is there hyperspace? FTL? It might've been mentioned in the early episodes when I was still trying to figure out what all the names meant.) They seem to zip between the planets/moons very quickly... but I haven't got any sort of feel for distances or communication outside of the Quad...

[etrangere]

Happy new year to you too! and belated chag sameach :)

Yeah, technology level varies depending on systems, so the Quad doesn't seem to do a lot of FTL themselves but other people might. D'Av was originally on an interstellar ship so i suppose it was FTL capable.

[hamsterwoman]

Thank you! :)

And ah, good point about technology level. The Quad does seem pretty isolated, which would make sense if they are a feudal(ish) backwater with less advanced technology than other parts of the J.

[hamsterwoman]

Sweet! You did Day 2 by medium too!

I shamelessly stole the idea after browsing other people's answers :D

I was working in a theater it was showing at back in the day.

Ooh, very cool! (It was a movie I would've been happy to see more than once, I think.)

[_profiterole_]

Yes, Killjoys is great! It started a bit slowly for me, but by episode 7, I was fully in. :D

- Imperial Radch*
YES!
- Wayfarers
YES!
- Iskyrne
I haven't read this, but it's been on my to-read list for a long time (it's also been out of stock for a long time, hence why I haven't gotten to it yet).
- Elemental Logic*
YES!
- The Magicians
From what I hear, the books are worse than the TV show, which I already don't recommend. Of course, ymmv.
- Craft Sequence*
YES!

[hamsterwoman]

For Killjoys, I like the earlier, more episodic episodes, like 3 and 4 , but narratively the show definitely hits its stride around episode 7.

Oh, the second list is book series I'm already in the middle of and just need to catch up on to various degrees -- I've only read the first book of Imperial Radch (and actually OWN Mercy, I just need to track down Sword and read both); I just recently read Long Way etc. (did you see my write-up? It kind of went up at the height of holidays, not the best time probably); the first two books of Iskyrne and The Magicians; the first book of Elemental Logic; and have started Last First Snow (having caught up on the first three books last year) but sort of backburnered it because I haven't been in the mood for tragedy

[_profiterole_]

I saw it, but you seemed to be... not very enthusiastic about it, and this book is my precious little ray of sunshine, so I didn't read more than what you had put outside the cut.

Good to know he at least has a good prose. I haven't dropped the show yet, but I might do that this season if need be. I just loved the trailer and the series premiere so much, it went downhill from there and I haven't managed to get over the lost potential yet.

[hamsterwoman]

and this book is my precious little ray of sunshine, so I didn't read more than what you had put outside the cut.

Fair enough :) I'm actually rather bimodal about Long Way -- there was a lot in it that I liked and thought was really neatly done (with a few quibbles) -- the alien physiology and communication and most of the worldbuilding. And the things I disliked mostly had to do with -- lost potential, honestly, to use your phrase about The Magicians. (If you want to read just that part of the write-up, you can Ctr+F to "But let's get to the thing about this book I really liked" -- that'll skip everything that didn't work for me.)

[fallingtowers]

Awwww, Enemy Mine. I saw it on TV when I was a kid -- I mostly remember it not for the movie itself (I just have very vague memories of finding the alien's lizard make-up scary), but because I got to see some parts of the former set on a summer camp-style field trip to the Bavaria studios in Munich. Am getting very nostalgic now. :)

If you are so interested in retellings of Tam Lin, have you ever read Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones?

[hamsterwoman]

because I got to see some parts of the former set on a summer camp-style field trip to the Bavaria studios in Munich. Am getting very nostalgic now. :)

Oh! I'd had no idea that it had been filmed in part in Bavaria! That sounds like a very cool field trip!

This movie invariably makes me feel nostalgic, too -- partly for proto-fandom (tropes! slashiness! (the xeno didn't stick, which is probably a good thing, but anyway)), and also it's tied to that period in my life just before we left the USSR, which felt rather unreal -- things were changing around us rapidly because of perestroika, and our own lives were changing, and also I knew we'd be leaving soon, so there was this sense of impermanence, like visiting in my own life. It made a lot of things more memorable, including movies.

If you are so interested in retellings of Tam Lin, have you ever read Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones?

I have not! But I plan to, partly for DWJ reasons, partly for Tam Lin reasons, and partly for sephystabbity reasons. Actually, it should totally be on my "to