29 May 2017
In no particular order:
1. Shards of Honor (and Barrayar)
Lois Bujold is both an MC and a master when it comes to word choice. Her finely crafted prose never outstays its welcome in my book. Shards of Honor is a gripping space opera love story told from the point of view of a 33 year old woman, and Barrayar follows that up with a flawless political thriller centered around her unborn son. Also on the plus side, if you like being invested: Bujold has written something like 20 other stories in this series, so this is something you could get into for a while. (But start with these two)
2. Airman
You may recognize Eoin (pronounced ‘Owen’) Colfer as the author of the famed young adult series Artemis Fowl. What you may not know is that he wrote a steampunk novel set on an island kingdom off the coast of Ireland, and it is beautiful. I would call it an easier to read Count of Monte Cristo. I would…and I just did.
3. Now Showing
I’m not sure if this is available outside the Rogues anthology, but you should get the Rogues anthology anyway because it’s full of amazing stories. One of my favorites is Connie Willis’ Now Showing. In other stories of hers I have gotten tired of her habit of using long lists of names as part of the setting, but Now Showing uses that feature to evoke the frenetic experience of the setting perfectly. Also, it’s probably the least “Fi” Sci-Fi can get.
4. The Emperor’s Soul
If you’re going to hitch your cart to one fantasy author, pick Brandon Sanderson. There may be better writing out there, but none being published as quickly as his. He must spend all his waking moments writing, revising, or at least thinking about his Cosmere, the grand idea that links every single one of his novels. Luckily, you don’t have to care about that to enjoy any of his works, and I believe The Emperor’s Soul is the best standalone short story I have ever read. It weaves a thinkpiece about the definition of art into a mysterious, magical tale featuring a forger…excuse me, a Forger.
5. Schools of Clay
I don’t agree with the title “Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015″ for this anthology, since I would expect more like an 80% hit rate on story likability rather than the 1 or 2 stories I actually enjoyed. Nevertheless, Derek Künsken’s Schools of Clay makes this one worth your time and money. In it, we meet aliens who are truly alien, not just humans wrapped in different skin. And yet their problems and the story’s arc are relatable enough to keep you invested throughout. Also read it for the majestic word pictures that your inner eye can watch.
04 May 2017
For those of you who are unaware of what this is, every year since 2015 my friend David has orchestrated a “small” contest where people write and submit role playing systems consisting of only 200 words. This follows the principle of “constraints breed creativity” and has resulted in some beautiful nuggets of gameplay and design.
The 2017 challenge finalists have just been announced, and I thought I’d take time to talk about my favorites, in alphabetical order.
1. Memoriam Ignis
I have come across the idea before of madness as a limiting factor in a magical world - an explanation of why everyone doesn’t do everything with magic. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so well encapsulated in mechanics as in this game.
2. Might Makes Right
A fantastic original idea for resolving conflicts. The only thing that’s more hilarious than arm wrestling your MM to decide the outcome of a conflict is doing it in order to “rescue a space gym from the Evil Beancounter Alliance.” The only problem I can see is that the MM might tire of arm wrestling much more quickly than the players, given that the MM has to take them all on.
3. Nightblind
Oh. My. Goodness. I must confess a penchant for games that let you lie to the other players, even if I may not be that good at them. Somehow, Nightblind manages to flawlessly put that mechanic next to some rich theming and storytelling hooks, all in 200 words. This is the game I want to play IRL the most.
4. The Human World
One player is a child exploring the (post-apocalyptic) world for the first time, the others are obsessive androids tasked with teaching the child about the world, but limited by their own personality traits, which eclipse all else for them. A powerful way to look at reductio ad absurdum in the context of a game. Also would be great to play on a road trip with friends.
5. VOICE
I disagree with the judge’s reading on this. To me it doesn’t look so focused on privilege. True, It can only experience the things the gods allow It to, but the gods themselves can only experience the world through Its sensations. The gods, though the ones in control of gifts, are as dependent on It as It is on them. Regardless of interpretation, however, VOICE is a masterclass of storytelling.
…oh, yeah, and I’m a finalist as well. Check it out!
09 Feb 2017
I love movies; and I love going to theaters to see them, it’s not an experience I had very much growing up. However, I have resolved from here on out to neither watch in theaters nor at home any movie from a franchise of more than three. For brevity, we shall call these movies Universe Movies or U-Movies, after the Marvel Universe whose unprecedented success set the tone of such franchises from 2012 onwards. There may be some exceptions - watching with a large group of friends, for instance - but on the whole my mind is set: no more Avengers, no more Star Wars, Star Trek, or Harry Potter. I would mention the DC Universe, but I was already not watching that.
“But wait!” my inner critic cries. “You need to be aware of the culture! You can’t just put a blanket ban on movies that haven’t been announced yet! Think of how many good movies you’ll miss!” And it’s right. I will miss a lot of good movies. I’ve already missed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as well as Star Wars: Rogue One, and I only saw the new Star Trek movie (Beyond?) because I was on a plane with nothing else to do. So why am I doing this? Well, to save money in part; but also because I’m fed up with un-innovative, uninspiring sequels; action/adventure movies that are all action and no adventure; boring, routine storytelling and cliched camera shots. Here, for your perusal, shall I list the 5 Universal Sins of Universe Movies:
1. Theme park effect
I read a great article, and I’m upset that I can’t find it again, about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the screenplay that’s acting as a “Book 8” in the Harry Potter series. It pointed out that in Cursed Child, story took a back seat to spectacle: a lot of things were put in for fan recognition - “Oh, I remember this!” The author of that article called it something like a theme park story. What happens doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you’re in the same place you were before. And I get it, I get the longing to be back in Harry’s England or Gotham City or what have you. But the reason we love those places in the first place is the characters we learn about there, the stories that move us to better ourselves; and in U-Movies those things are often gone, poorly replaced by brand recognition.
2. Character undeath
One of the worst features Marvel and DC took from comic books is that heroes often seem to be immune to enemy attack. Or, if they do fall, they are resurrected somehow, or it was a faked death, or…you’ve heard it all before, I’m sure. It’s a cheap bait-and-switch for storytelling: all the drama and loss of death without having to end the story arc! This tactic has been used so many times that it’s all but certain now that main character deaths are not real. Part of why Game of Thrones is so refreshing is that most people in it stay dead.
I remember watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it came out (spoilers, btw). Poe and Finn’s ship crashed in the beginning, and Poe was apparently dead, but I had a sinking feeling he would be popping back up later; and when the expected reveal did happen, I was disappointed. J.J. Abrams had a chance to do so much character building based on Poe’s death, but chose the cheap thrills instead. This topic also leads into
3. Escalating or dangling plot lines
*Old man voice* Back in my day, movies used to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Now, they’re all middle! </Old man voice> For real, though, when you know a character needs to be alive for the sequel, or there’s a whole lot of backstory that props up the character interactions in a movie, it feels like you’re watching a TV Show with breaks of epic proportions in between episodes. 2 to 3 hours should be enough to start and resolve a plot; but in a U-Movie there needs to be a teaser of what’s coming next, some unresolved issue to use as a cliffhanger. There’s only so long movies can say they’re going to resolve everything and then don’t before I start getting suspicious.
4. Unclear directive vision
Universes in and of themselves are not bad. There are, presumably, stories it would take many movies to tell well (see: The Lord of the Rings). But many Universes these days exist only to make money, because other people are doing it, or it was successful in the past (see: The Hobbit movies [why is that a plural what were you thinking Pete]). The thing about long franchises is that at some point, the director you’ve hired will die or stop making movies and you’ll have to find another one. Same for characters in your franchise. Hence Spiderman is more like schizo-man because he’s been remade so many times.
5. Sameness
I left The Force Awakens theater with a bad taste in my mouth. It had been a perfectly good movie, but it was almost exactly the same, plot point for plot point, as the original Star Wars: A New Hope. It was then that my desire to cease seeing these things was born. Why did the American wizard school in Fantastic Beasts have to have four houses with creature names? Why did The Force Awakens start with John Williams music and a title crawl? Why do all the Star Trek movies end with the original show’s introduction voice-overs? Because producers and directors have mistaken style with formula. And as long as money keeps falling into their laps, they will remain convinced that Star Wars IS the hero’s journey or Star Trek IS Captain Kirk going against orders. U-Movies are safe bets for production companies - why innovate and ruin a good cash cow?
01 Feb 2017
Math can represent a lot of things. For instance, the image above is the mathematical representation of a limerick. How, you ask? Read on!
My favorite podcast, Hello Internet, recently hosted a limerick competition which I entered without much hope. I was surprised, therefore, to be listening last night and hear one of my limericks being read out on the shortlist!
Here it is in it’s entirety (it’s #17 on the list):
There once was a fellow named Tim
Who downloaded H.I. on a whim.
As he sat on his flight,
He received quite a fright:
Plane crash corner was mentioning him!
I suppose a brief explanation is in order (Hello Internet in-joke spoilers incoming). In an episode long ago, one of the hosts was talking about an interest of his in plane crashes, why they happen, and the stories around them. He joked that he would start a “plane crash corner” on the show to talk about them every week. The other one joked that there was probably someone on a plane who would be horrified to listen to that. The hosts then spoke directly to this hypothetical person, naming them “Tim.”
Two things resulted from this. The first was that eventually, all HI listeners were referred to as Tims. The second is that plane crash corner is alive and well, still cropping up from time to time (Tim to Tim?)
All that to say, if you’re reading this now, go vote for #17! (Update: thanks for voting!)
Limericks are great.
Oh, you’re still wondering about the equation? It was devised by Leigh Mercer, and reads like this:
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.