Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 138
May 10, 2018
FF Friday book review poll
I am launching FF Fridays! See previous post for details.
I seem to have accumulated a whole lot of FF novels and samples of FF novels over the years. From that somewhat random assortment...
View Poll: FF Fridays Upcoming Book Reviews
If you're familiar with any of these, please tell me what you think!
comments
I seem to have accumulated a whole lot of FF novels and samples of FF novels over the years. From that somewhat random assortment...
View Poll: FF Fridays Upcoming Book Reviews
If you're familiar with any of these, please tell me what you think!
comments
Welcome to FF Fridays!
I would like to write more book reviews, even if short, and I would like to read (and write) more FF. If you would too, please be the change you seek and join me for FF Friday!
Every Friday, we will review an FF book (or short story, etc), and label the review "FF Friday," a la "Reading Wednesday."
- You do not have to commit to doing this every Friday to join in. Whenever you can is fine.
- FF = "romantic relationship between female-identified people." The book does not have to be genre romance. It can be any genre that includes a significant and romantic relationship between women. It does not have to include sex, but should be clearly romantic rather than platonic friendship.
- Reviews do not have to be positive. (Though if you want to write about FF fanfic, probably you will be doing recs rather than reviews.)
- Reviews can be any length, down to one sentence.
Who wants to join me?
comments
Every Friday, we will review an FF book (or short story, etc), and label the review "FF Friday," a la "Reading Wednesday."
- You do not have to commit to doing this every Friday to join in. Whenever you can is fine.
- FF = "romantic relationship between female-identified people." The book does not have to be genre romance. It can be any genre that includes a significant and romantic relationship between women. It does not have to include sex, but should be clearly romantic rather than platonic friendship.
- Reviews do not have to be positive. (Though if you want to write about FF fanfic, probably you will be doing recs rather than reviews.)
- Reviews can be any length, down to one sentence.
Who wants to join me?
comments
May 9, 2018
Prisoner of Limnos, by Lois McMaster Bujold
The latest Penric and Desdemona novella, or more accurately the latest Penric and Nikys novella.
This novella is nicely constructed, well-written, and does nothing wrong per se, but I was disappointed. I loved the earlier Penric books for Penric, Desdemona, and the Gods. I usually hate Gods in fiction, but I love Bujold's. Unfortunately, the series has become much less focused on Gods and demons, and more focused on a romance that I find boring: not offensive, not infuriating, just bland and dull. The characters are likable on their own and in interactions with others, but together, they are uninteresting. This isn't something I normally say, but I wish there was less romance and more religion. I will happily read any prequels with Penric single, but I'll probably skip the next Penric/Nikys book.
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comments
This novella is nicely constructed, well-written, and does nothing wrong per se, but I was disappointed. I loved the earlier Penric books for Penric, Desdemona, and the Gods. I usually hate Gods in fiction, but I love Bujold's. Unfortunately, the series has become much less focused on Gods and demons, and more focused on a romance that I find boring: not offensive, not infuriating, just bland and dull. The characters are likable on their own and in interactions with others, but together, they are uninteresting. This isn't something I normally say, but I wish there was less romance and more religion. I will happily read any prequels with Penric single, but I'll probably skip the next Penric/Nikys book.
[image error] [image error]
comments
May 7, 2018
Fantastic ebook deals
Via yhlee, an amazing sale on science fiction, fantasy, and related ebooks. https://theportalist.com/may-sff-sale. All books at 99 cents or $1.99! There's four pages of deals at all vendors; page down to bottom and click on "more deals" to get them all. It's mostly from the 70s and 80s; I have a lot of the books in paper, but bought the ebooks now, both for convenience and to give the authors some money, considering that in many cases I've read the books multiple times and may have bought them used in the first place.
A few of note:
The Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology[image error], by Tom Shippey. I loved his other book on Tolkien, Author of the Century; it was genuinely eye-opening and thought-provoking. I've been meaning to read this for ages.
Caught in Crystal[image error], by Patricia Wrede. A charming standalone fantasy with a rickety plot but great characters and intriguing worldbuilding. As a young woman, Kayl was an adventurer in a group of four girls; now she's a middle-aged mom and innkeeper when adventure comes knocking at her door again. The only fantasy novel I've ever read where the mom is the one on a quest, and takes her kids with her. (Spoiler: nothing bad happens to her kids.)
Dragonsbane[image error], by Barbara Hambly. A middle-aged couple with kids (she's a witch, he's a scholar) who once slew a dragon are called out of retirement to face another. (They don't take their kids). Really great characterization, a terrific love story, and a set of difficult and poignant dilemmas. This is a standalone with an extremely satisfying ending. It acquired sequels many years later that are dreadful; avoid them. Other Hambly books are also on sale. I like her fantasy a lot and enjoyed everything currently on sale.
Wild Seed[image error], by Octavia Butler. A bunch of Butler's books are on sale, but I especially like this one. It's connected to some other books but is effectively a standalone set in Africa. Two immortal mutants, a woman who can take any shape and a man who jumps into another's body when he dies, are locked into a slow duel over a period of centuries. It's vivid and has great characters and a great setting, and wrestles with difficult choices in an interesting way. It has darkness and tragedy, but I wouldn't call it grimdark.
Lens of the World (Lens of the World Trilogy Book 1)[image error], by R. A. MacAvoy. The whole trilogy is on sale, but it's not a conventional fantasy trilogy, more the story of a life told in three parts. A really unusual, original work that deals with gender, sexual orientation, and how we perceive and construct reality; also involves martial arts, sea serpents, lens crafting, and a dog or possibly wolf that might be real or a ghost or a god or a hallucination or an aspect of the protagonist or something else entirely. I was glad to have the chance to funnel some money to MacAvoy because I think I originally bought all her books used, and I've re-read them often.
What all do you notice that's worth checking out (or worth avoiding?)
comments
A few of note:
The Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology[image error], by Tom Shippey. I loved his other book on Tolkien, Author of the Century; it was genuinely eye-opening and thought-provoking. I've been meaning to read this for ages.
Caught in Crystal[image error], by Patricia Wrede. A charming standalone fantasy with a rickety plot but great characters and intriguing worldbuilding. As a young woman, Kayl was an adventurer in a group of four girls; now she's a middle-aged mom and innkeeper when adventure comes knocking at her door again. The only fantasy novel I've ever read where the mom is the one on a quest, and takes her kids with her. (Spoiler: nothing bad happens to her kids.)
Dragonsbane[image error], by Barbara Hambly. A middle-aged couple with kids (she's a witch, he's a scholar) who once slew a dragon are called out of retirement to face another. (They don't take their kids). Really great characterization, a terrific love story, and a set of difficult and poignant dilemmas. This is a standalone with an extremely satisfying ending. It acquired sequels many years later that are dreadful; avoid them. Other Hambly books are also on sale. I like her fantasy a lot and enjoyed everything currently on sale.
Wild Seed[image error], by Octavia Butler. A bunch of Butler's books are on sale, but I especially like this one. It's connected to some other books but is effectively a standalone set in Africa. Two immortal mutants, a woman who can take any shape and a man who jumps into another's body when he dies, are locked into a slow duel over a period of centuries. It's vivid and has great characters and a great setting, and wrestles with difficult choices in an interesting way. It has darkness and tragedy, but I wouldn't call it grimdark.
Lens of the World (Lens of the World Trilogy Book 1)[image error], by R. A. MacAvoy. The whole trilogy is on sale, but it's not a conventional fantasy trilogy, more the story of a life told in three parts. A really unusual, original work that deals with gender, sexual orientation, and how we perceive and construct reality; also involves martial arts, sea serpents, lens crafting, and a dog or possibly wolf that might be real or a ghost or a god or a hallucination or an aspect of the protagonist or something else entirely. I was glad to have the chance to funnel some money to MacAvoy because I think I originally bought all her books used, and I've re-read them often.
What all do you notice that's worth checking out (or worth avoiding?)
comments
Beneath the Sugar Sky, by Seanan McGuire
Sequel to Every Heart a Doorway. There's also a prequel, but since the first book already told me exactly what happened in it I haven't read it.
Despite avoiding the worst flaw of Every Heart A Doorway (focusing on a terrible murder mystery rather than on the concept of "school for returned portal adventurers") and instead actually focusing on the concept, Beneath the Sugar Sky is nevertheless extremely similar to the first book: pretty language, fun concepts, sledgehammer preachiness on worthy issues, one-dimensional characters, one-dimensional portal worlds.
One of my big problems with EHaD was that the portal worlds mostly summed up as "Everything is [X]." Everything is skeletons, everything is candy, everything is bugs. This... well... bugged me as most portal worlds in literature are not actually "everything is X." Oz does have lands where everything is candy/china/glass/etc, but Oz as a whole is partly a huge patchwork of many such lands and partly made of lands that don't fit that one-note mold. "Everything is X" is more a hallmark of allegory and thought experiment than portal fantasy: Flatland rather than Narnia.
That being said, I am currently reading a fantasy series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, "Shadows of the Apt," which really is "everything is bugs." But it's so detailed and thought-out that the overwhelming bugness becomes charming and believable rather than one-note. I was hoping for something like this in Beneath a Sugar Sky, in which the characters travel to Confection, where everything is candy. I didn't quite get it. Everything is candy, all right: a sea of soda, a farm of candy corn, a sword of sugar. But there's nothing much beyond that, and the whole book feels thin and stretched as a strand of taffy.
If you loved Every Heart A Doorway, you will love this. If you didn't, you will probably feel the same way about this.
[image error] [image error]
comments
Despite avoiding the worst flaw of Every Heart A Doorway (focusing on a terrible murder mystery rather than on the concept of "school for returned portal adventurers") and instead actually focusing on the concept, Beneath the Sugar Sky is nevertheless extremely similar to the first book: pretty language, fun concepts, sledgehammer preachiness on worthy issues, one-dimensional characters, one-dimensional portal worlds.
One of my big problems with EHaD was that the portal worlds mostly summed up as "Everything is [X]." Everything is skeletons, everything is candy, everything is bugs. This... well... bugged me as most portal worlds in literature are not actually "everything is X." Oz does have lands where everything is candy/china/glass/etc, but Oz as a whole is partly a huge patchwork of many such lands and partly made of lands that don't fit that one-note mold. "Everything is X" is more a hallmark of allegory and thought experiment than portal fantasy: Flatland rather than Narnia.
That being said, I am currently reading a fantasy series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, "Shadows of the Apt," which really is "everything is bugs." But it's so detailed and thought-out that the overwhelming bugness becomes charming and believable rather than one-note. I was hoping for something like this in Beneath a Sugar Sky, in which the characters travel to Confection, where everything is candy. I didn't quite get it. Everything is candy, all right: a sea of soda, a farm of candy corn, a sword of sugar. But there's nothing much beyond that, and the whole book feels thin and stretched as a strand of taffy.
If you loved Every Heart A Doorway, you will love this. If you didn't, you will probably feel the same way about this.
[image error] [image error]
comments
April 24, 2018
I have a new book out!
It's Spy Snow Leopard, the latest in my Protection, Inc. series about shapeshifting bodyguards, writtten under the pseudonym of Zoe Chant. It's a pseudonym shared by several writers, but each series is written by the same writer, so only I write Protection, Inc. Spy Snow Leopard is a full-length novel.
All the books are standalones focusing on a different couple a la Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series (which was one of its inspirations,) so you can start here if you like. But they do have some ongoing plotlines, so ideally you would start at the beginning. With this particular book, the hero was first introduced in an earlier book, Protector Panther.
The series is paranormal romance. Each book has a bit of a different flavor (for instance, Leader Lion is a backstage comedy about hijinks behind the scenes of a new play, Mars: The Musical!) but in general, they consist of romance, action sequences, and hurt-comfort in roughly equal parts. Spy Snow Leopard is partly set in the Carnival of Venice and partly in Alaska, and has a lot of trauma recovery.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, enjoy! If not, don't worry, I write a lot and I don't expect everyone who knows me to read everything I write.
[image error] [image error]
( Read more... )
comments
All the books are standalones focusing on a different couple a la Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series (which was one of its inspirations,) so you can start here if you like. But they do have some ongoing plotlines, so ideally you would start at the beginning. With this particular book, the hero was first introduced in an earlier book, Protector Panther.
The series is paranormal romance. Each book has a bit of a different flavor (for instance, Leader Lion is a backstage comedy about hijinks behind the scenes of a new play, Mars: The Musical!) but in general, they consist of romance, action sequences, and hurt-comfort in roughly equal parts. Spy Snow Leopard is partly set in the Carnival of Venice and partly in Alaska, and has a lot of trauma recovery.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, enjoy! If not, don't worry, I write a lot and I don't expect everyone who knows me to read everything I write.
[image error] [image error]
( Read more... )
comments
April 21, 2018
Emergence, by David R. Palmer
This is an 80s sf novel about a super-intelligent girl who is the lone (or so it seems) survivor of an apocalypse. I read it when I was twelve or so, really enjoyed it for the female protagonist having post-apocalyptic adventures, and also registered that some parts seemed really skeevy. When I was twelve, I did not have a finely-honed skeeve-meter and a lot of stuff went over my head. Like, I did not really register the skeeviness of Piers Anthony until something like 30 books in. However, the skeevy parts of Emergence were relatively small parts of the whole, and there were not a lot of post-apocalyptic books with girl heroines at that time, so I remembered it with mild fondness.
As you can see, it has a very nice cover and I wish the whole book was like that: a young girl sets off into a depopulated world.
I recently found a copy, re-read it, and was fairly boggled by it. I then tried to describe the plot to Sholio, at which point I realized how much more bizarre it was than I’d even registered while reading. I think it was when I was saying, "And then her pet parrot bites the evil gynecologist – did I mention that she's telepathic with her pet parrot? - yeah, she's telepathic with her pet parrot, no, that's never really explained..."
It’s presented as the diary of Candidia “Candy” Smith. Pro tip: if the first two human beings your heroine meets after the seemingly total depopulation of the world result in lovingly described encounters with, respectively, a Foley catheter and a speculum, her full name should not be quite so close to the organism which causes yeast infections.
Candy, age eleven, is a supergenius, a sixth-degree black belt capable of shattering bricks with her bare hands and subduing all bad guys, and writes in Pittman shorthand:
English 60 percent flab, null syllables, waste. Suspect massive inefficiency stems from subconsciously recognized need to stall, give inferior intellects chance to collect thoughts into semblance of coherance (usually without success) and to show off (my twelve dollar word can lick your ten dollar word).
The entire book is written like that.
Her father luckily has the world’s greatest bomb shelter equipped with six months’ worth of food and water, plus a ginormous library. Candy is down there reading in the company of Terry, her pet macaw, whom she refers to as “my retarded baby brother.” Terminology aside, this is actually a very sweet relationship. (They do not at this point know that they’re telepathic.) The world blows up in a combination of nuclear strikes followed by plague. Candy listens in via radio to the world falling apart, knows to stay in for three months to avoid the plague, and emerges as the sole survivor (or so she thinks) of the entire world. Unsurprisingly, she freaks out.
But all is not lost! She goes to the home of her sensei to grieve, and finds a letter from him informing her that he moved to her town because he was involved in a secret study of homo post-hominem, the new step in human evolution, a supergenius and immune to all illnesses including the plague, and she was a rare example of one the study missed and so was raised differently and is also a lot younger than the study post-hominems. So all other post-hominems will still be alive. He helpfully gives her the address of one who’s closest to her age (21 – only ten years older) and “a direct, almost line-bred descendant of Alexander Graham Bell” and proceeds to yenta them.
Then, after explaining to her that she’s not human, she will form a new society with other nonhumans, and everyone important in her life was secretly manipulating her all along, he concludes, By the authority vested in me as the sebior surviving official of the United States Karate Association, I herewith promote you to Sixth Degree.
Cut for length and also super skeevy stuff about an eleven-year-old. ( Read more... )
Palmer did a sequel to this, “Tracking,” which appeared in Analog, which I never read. His bio says he’s a shorthand court reporter, which explains the shorthand but not much else.
[image error] [image error]
He also wrote a book called Threshold, and then vanished from the face of the Earth. I guess his work here was done. I read it but all I remember was apostrophes; Amazon informs me that the aliens are called voor'flon. In case you're curious about Threshold, here's the first two Goodreads reviews:
One star: I just don't get this book. Is it serious? Is it a parody?
I toughed it out to page 31, wherein it's explained that the naked fairy might have the body of a twelve-year-old, but she's really fifty-two. So it's totally okay to stare at her breasts (that last part was implied).
The narrator is an insufferable Mary Sue (he's rich! he has perfect pitch!), the writing is purple, and the only good part is the talking cat.
Four stars: Man, I loved this book. It was cheesy as hell when I picked it up (in Norwich, mostly for the man riding a pterodactyl) and reading the first few pages -- naked girl and her cat proclaims to be space aliens to the multi-millionaire protagonist (who they reveal is precisely the ridiculously perfect human being he is because he's the end result of a thousand year long eugenics program, so that's alright then) and then fly the alien's planet where they get shot down and he's stranded naked at the wrong end of the planet surrounded by a huge variety of things that want to eat him.
[image error] [image error]
comments
As you can see, it has a very nice cover and I wish the whole book was like that: a young girl sets off into a depopulated world.
I recently found a copy, re-read it, and was fairly boggled by it. I then tried to describe the plot to Sholio, at which point I realized how much more bizarre it was than I’d even registered while reading. I think it was when I was saying, "And then her pet parrot bites the evil gynecologist – did I mention that she's telepathic with her pet parrot? - yeah, she's telepathic with her pet parrot, no, that's never really explained..."
It’s presented as the diary of Candidia “Candy” Smith. Pro tip: if the first two human beings your heroine meets after the seemingly total depopulation of the world result in lovingly described encounters with, respectively, a Foley catheter and a speculum, her full name should not be quite so close to the organism which causes yeast infections.
Candy, age eleven, is a supergenius, a sixth-degree black belt capable of shattering bricks with her bare hands and subduing all bad guys, and writes in Pittman shorthand:
English 60 percent flab, null syllables, waste. Suspect massive inefficiency stems from subconsciously recognized need to stall, give inferior intellects chance to collect thoughts into semblance of coherance (usually without success) and to show off (my twelve dollar word can lick your ten dollar word).
The entire book is written like that.
Her father luckily has the world’s greatest bomb shelter equipped with six months’ worth of food and water, plus a ginormous library. Candy is down there reading in the company of Terry, her pet macaw, whom she refers to as “my retarded baby brother.” Terminology aside, this is actually a very sweet relationship. (They do not at this point know that they’re telepathic.) The world blows up in a combination of nuclear strikes followed by plague. Candy listens in via radio to the world falling apart, knows to stay in for three months to avoid the plague, and emerges as the sole survivor (or so she thinks) of the entire world. Unsurprisingly, she freaks out.
But all is not lost! She goes to the home of her sensei to grieve, and finds a letter from him informing her that he moved to her town because he was involved in a secret study of homo post-hominem, the new step in human evolution, a supergenius and immune to all illnesses including the plague, and she was a rare example of one the study missed and so was raised differently and is also a lot younger than the study post-hominems. So all other post-hominems will still be alive. He helpfully gives her the address of one who’s closest to her age (21 – only ten years older) and “a direct, almost line-bred descendant of Alexander Graham Bell” and proceeds to yenta them.
Then, after explaining to her that she’s not human, she will form a new society with other nonhumans, and everyone important in her life was secretly manipulating her all along, he concludes, By the authority vested in me as the sebior surviving official of the United States Karate Association, I herewith promote you to Sixth Degree.
Cut for length and also super skeevy stuff about an eleven-year-old. ( Read more... )
Palmer did a sequel to this, “Tracking,” which appeared in Analog, which I never read. His bio says he’s a shorthand court reporter, which explains the shorthand but not much else.
[image error] [image error]
He also wrote a book called Threshold, and then vanished from the face of the Earth. I guess his work here was done. I read it but all I remember was apostrophes; Amazon informs me that the aliens are called voor'flon. In case you're curious about Threshold, here's the first two Goodreads reviews:
One star: I just don't get this book. Is it serious? Is it a parody?
I toughed it out to page 31, wherein it's explained that the naked fairy might have the body of a twelve-year-old, but she's really fifty-two. So it's totally okay to stare at her breasts (that last part was implied).
The narrator is an insufferable Mary Sue (he's rich! he has perfect pitch!), the writing is purple, and the only good part is the talking cat.
Four stars: Man, I loved this book. It was cheesy as hell when I picked it up (in Norwich, mostly for the man riding a pterodactyl) and reading the first few pages -- naked girl and her cat proclaims to be space aliens to the multi-millionaire protagonist (who they reveal is precisely the ridiculously perfect human being he is because he's the end result of a thousand year long eugenics program, so that's alright then) and then fly the alien's planet where they get shot down and he's stranded naked at the wrong end of the planet surrounded by a huge variety of things that want to eat him.
[image error] [image error]
comments
April 9, 2018
Jukebox Letter
In general, I'm looking for moody, atmospheric stories that are fantasy, metafictional, or generally not 100% realistic or told in a 100% realistic way. Any style or stylistic quirk that suits your story is fine. Any tone is fine. No need to stick with the gender of the singer for the gender of the narrator.
DNW: Straight-up realism told in a naturalistic style, especially realistic stories about drug addiction. Mundane AUs for fantasy songs.
I'm requesting fiction, but an art treat would be lovely if something inspires you.
Cat-Eye Willie Claims His Lover - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Please elaborate on or continue the world of the song. What happens to the cat-eyed boy? Who is the master, and who serves him? How did they all end up in that fucked-up game of cards, anyway? Is Cat-Eye Willie human, or something else? For that matter, is Bonnie Brown? The world and people in it are so strange and evocative, I just want to see more of them.
DNW: Modern AU; it's all just a metaphor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0vWCLjrUo
The Mountain - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. For me this song captures the sense of longing better than anything I've ever come across: longing for things you can never have, longing for things no one can ever have, longing for things that don't exist or won't exist in your lifetime or no longer exist, longing that makes your life and breaks your heart. And also, obsession. Is the mountain a literal mountain or a metaphor or both? Is it about the journey or the destination? What does it mean to be born in a fork-tongued story? Is it about someone born into an utterly mundane and tawdry life (drugstore liars), who decides to seek for more? Is the quest essentially creative, destructive, or both?
DNW: A completely realistic story told in a completely realistic manner. Even if it's not fantasy, it should have some sort of otherworldly atmosphere about it, even if it's just in the longing for something more than the real world contains. A story about real-world religion. Religious imagery in fine, just not a straightforward story about someone searching for God.
Glittering Cloud - Imogen Heap. Such a weird, eerie, fascinating song. It sounds like someone's got powers that are out of control, but what are they and why? Who or what is the narrator? A shapeshifter? A mutant? Something even stranger? What's the terrible weakness? What does "it's something I've become" or "It happens when we touch?" mean? Is someone else the catalyst, or actually the one causing it? Does the narrator become or summon or go to the glittering cloud, and what is it, exactly? I do know the background of the song (locusts), but you needn't follow it. I have to say that I am not hugely big on locusts or bugs in general, or of Bible stories for that matter.
I'd like a fantasy or sf interpretation of this. The song is clearly contemporary and there implication that everything is going down in a media-heavy world is cool, but you don't have to stick with that if you don't want to. A future or past or other AU setting would be fine.
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QhE_SLULc
Magic - Bruce Springsteen. This song's unsettling vibe, themes of deception and unknowableness, and slightly sinister view of stage magic reminds me a bit of The Prestige. I would ideally like the story to involve actual stage magic in some way, so it's an exception for my "no strict realism" request - no fantasy magic required. Though it would be cool if there's some question as to whether there is also real magic involved. Stage magic is metaphoric in the song, of course, and I'd love it to have the story continue the play of "metaphor and also a real thing." I don't have much of a background of stage magic, though I do find it fascinating, so don't worry at all about having to do research on it. Alternately, take other elements literally: what does it mean to "carry only what you fear," apart from emotionally?
DNW: Infidelity - I know that's an obvious interpretation, I just find it a less interesting one for the purposes of storytelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCVJny3Va4I
Kathleen - Townes Van Zandt. This is one of the most heartbreaking, haunting songs I know. How about taking the lyrics at least somewhat literally? "A swallow comes and tells me of her dreams." "Ride the north wind down to see Kathleen." The narrator is in dire straits - why? Who is Kathleen? Is she a person, a personification of death or addiction, a ghost, a nature spirit? Is she the narrator's destruction or salvation?
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQzO3OJMkg
Rake - Townes Van Zandt. I requested this because I am so curious about what the hell happens to the narrator after he becomes a sort of reverse vampire who now can't go out into the night he loved. Is it just literally the night that's now lost to him (or her, if you like), or other things associated with it? What's it like to experience the day and sun after all that? Is it terrible, or are there compensations? And who or what did that to him?
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxz_4wIa4g
comments
DNW: Straight-up realism told in a naturalistic style, especially realistic stories about drug addiction. Mundane AUs for fantasy songs.
I'm requesting fiction, but an art treat would be lovely if something inspires you.
Cat-Eye Willie Claims His Lover - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Please elaborate on or continue the world of the song. What happens to the cat-eyed boy? Who is the master, and who serves him? How did they all end up in that fucked-up game of cards, anyway? Is Cat-Eye Willie human, or something else? For that matter, is Bonnie Brown? The world and people in it are so strange and evocative, I just want to see more of them.
DNW: Modern AU; it's all just a metaphor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0vWCLjrUo
The Mountain - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. For me this song captures the sense of longing better than anything I've ever come across: longing for things you can never have, longing for things no one can ever have, longing for things that don't exist or won't exist in your lifetime or no longer exist, longing that makes your life and breaks your heart. And also, obsession. Is the mountain a literal mountain or a metaphor or both? Is it about the journey or the destination? What does it mean to be born in a fork-tongued story? Is it about someone born into an utterly mundane and tawdry life (drugstore liars), who decides to seek for more? Is the quest essentially creative, destructive, or both?
DNW: A completely realistic story told in a completely realistic manner. Even if it's not fantasy, it should have some sort of otherworldly atmosphere about it, even if it's just in the longing for something more than the real world contains. A story about real-world religion. Religious imagery in fine, just not a straightforward story about someone searching for God.
Glittering Cloud - Imogen Heap. Such a weird, eerie, fascinating song. It sounds like someone's got powers that are out of control, but what are they and why? Who or what is the narrator? A shapeshifter? A mutant? Something even stranger? What's the terrible weakness? What does "it's something I've become" or "It happens when we touch?" mean? Is someone else the catalyst, or actually the one causing it? Does the narrator become or summon or go to the glittering cloud, and what is it, exactly? I do know the background of the song (locusts), but you needn't follow it. I have to say that I am not hugely big on locusts or bugs in general, or of Bible stories for that matter.
I'd like a fantasy or sf interpretation of this. The song is clearly contemporary and there implication that everything is going down in a media-heavy world is cool, but you don't have to stick with that if you don't want to. A future or past or other AU setting would be fine.
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QhE_SLULc
Magic - Bruce Springsteen. This song's unsettling vibe, themes of deception and unknowableness, and slightly sinister view of stage magic reminds me a bit of The Prestige. I would ideally like the story to involve actual stage magic in some way, so it's an exception for my "no strict realism" request - no fantasy magic required. Though it would be cool if there's some question as to whether there is also real magic involved. Stage magic is metaphoric in the song, of course, and I'd love it to have the story continue the play of "metaphor and also a real thing." I don't have much of a background of stage magic, though I do find it fascinating, so don't worry at all about having to do research on it. Alternately, take other elements literally: what does it mean to "carry only what you fear," apart from emotionally?
DNW: Infidelity - I know that's an obvious interpretation, I just find it a less interesting one for the purposes of storytelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCVJny3Va4I
Kathleen - Townes Van Zandt. This is one of the most heartbreaking, haunting songs I know. How about taking the lyrics at least somewhat literally? "A swallow comes and tells me of her dreams." "Ride the north wind down to see Kathleen." The narrator is in dire straits - why? Who is Kathleen? Is she a person, a personification of death or addiction, a ghost, a nature spirit? Is she the narrator's destruction or salvation?
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQzO3OJMkg
Rake - Townes Van Zandt. I requested this because I am so curious about what the hell happens to the narrator after he becomes a sort of reverse vampire who now can't go out into the night he loved. Is it just literally the night that's now lost to him (or her, if you like), or other things associated with it? What's it like to experience the day and sun after all that? Is it terrible, or are there compensations? And who or what did that to him?
DNW: The narrator is mentally ill/a drug addict/traumatized and imagining it all/it's all just a metaphor. However, I'd be totally down for a narrator who is any or all of those things but also has weird powers, or it's a metaphor and also real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxz_4wIa4g
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March 29, 2018
Fire Lizards for the win!
Thank you to the multiple people who suggested naming the chickens after Menolly's fire lizards! They are the clear winner, and are exceptionally appropriate because my step-mom gave me a copy of Dragonsong when I was a kid, which was my introduction to SF. The golden chicken will be Beauty, the Ameraucanas will be Auntie and Uncle because they lay blue-green eggs, and we'll figure out the rest later.
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March 28, 2018
Please help me name eight chickens
I would like names for my step-mom's eight chickens. We hope and assume they are all hens. The names should be...
- Fantasy-related. (If they were nine roosters, we would definitely name them after the Fellowship of the Ring.)
- Easy to say by an English-only speaker. (Not the names of the Muses, nothing with apostrophes or glottal clicks, nothing like Drizzt Do'Urden or GSV What Are The Civilian Applications?, nothing Welsh.)
- Ideally, related. (Not eight names from eight different fantasy books.)
- Not ill-fated. (No names from Game of Thrones or anything else where everyone dies.)
She's not a Harry Potter fan.
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- Fantasy-related. (If they were nine roosters, we would definitely name them after the Fellowship of the Ring.)
- Easy to say by an English-only speaker. (Not the names of the Muses, nothing with apostrophes or glottal clicks, nothing like Drizzt Do'Urden or GSV What Are The Civilian Applications?, nothing Welsh.)
- Ideally, related. (Not eight names from eight different fantasy books.)
- Not ill-fated. (No names from Game of Thrones or anything else where everyone dies.)
She's not a Harry Potter fan.
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