Canavan’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Canavan’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

Lena asked:

Surely it would have been cheaper to stream CBS than download a season on iTunes?!?! Or am I wrong?

You are probably correct, Lena. It depends, I suppose, on how long you intend to subscribe. I believe the subscription fee is $10 per month (although it’s a bit less if you subscribe through Amazon Prime). The cost of Season 1 was (I think) around $30. Of course, should I ever want to revisit any of those episodes, I can easily do so via iTunes; I can do that with CBS only as long as I continue to subscribe. Finally, I should admit that the “real” iTunes cost to me was $0; it was sort of a late Xmas gift. :)

Lena said:

I hope you feel better Canavan. You are crumbling my resolve! I’ve also wanted to see The Good Fight.

Thanks, Lena and Corinne. I managed to pick up some kind of flu bug, but I’m more or less back on my feet today.

Regarding The Good Fight, which like Discovery is available on CBS All Access, I perhaps should have mentioned that I still haven’t subscribed to that particular streaming service. Instead, I picked up Season 1 of Discovery from iTunes.

If I recall correctly, a week or so ago I stoutly proclaimed in this thread that I wasn’t going to pay for the episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. Well, it didn’t take me very long to renege on that pledge. I spent the last couple of days dealing with an illness and to pass the time sprung for and binge watched the first season of this CBS series. Somewhat to my surprise, in spite of the mixed things I had heard about it, it was not terrible. In fact, I’d give it a qualified thumbs up. The series boasts a pretty solid cast; stand-outs for me included Sonequa Martin-Green (as Michael Burnham, the show’s primary focus), Jason Isaacs (Captain of the Discovery), and James Frain (as Sarek). There’s actually some legit character development over the course of the 15-episode first season. I have some qualms about some of the design and costuming decisions (especially as regards the appearance of the Klingons). And the writing is a bit uneven — it’s troubling that the show’s better episodes are purloined from other Trek series, and it’s already clear that certain plot developments are going to generate at least a few continuity issues vis-á-vis episodes further along in the timeline. But the characters and writing are decent enough to make me anticipate watching the second season.

✭✭✭½

Graeme said:

The bar was set low with 'Lucas-directed Episodes 1-3.'

Well, at least you and I are in agreement on that point, Graeme. :)
However, that perception is far from universal. The last time I checked the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes sites, users on average actually preferred The Phantom Menace to The Last Jedi. I find that really surprising. For my money Phantom Menace is so bad it could almost be used as fodder for an MST3K episode. To reiterate, I wasn’t as enthusiastic about Last Jedi as were some of the critics; but I just don’t get this visceral rejection of the film by many in the Star Wars fan base.

Graeme said (in part):

The last movie, I can't even remember its title .... oh, yeah, 'Last Jedi,' I don't know... I might've got that wrong and I'd check if I cared, but it's left me with precisely ZERO anticipation of the next movie.

I’m pretty sure Lena and I debated this point elsewhere, but just to provide a countervailing viewpoint, I’ll note that while I’ve never been a huge fan of this franchise, I thought Rian Johnson’s entry was fairly decent — certainly an improvement over the Lucas-directed Episodes 1-3.

I’ve followed Corinne’s lead and broken down my picks by book and short story. I’ve further broken them down by whether a selection was a first-time read or a re-read. Genre is (very) roughly indicated by the icon following each selection, as follows:

= adventure, espionage, etc.
= history, biography, autobiography
= horror, fantasy
= literary criticism, essay
= literature, general
= mystery
= science fiction

Finally, in addition to my “best” selections (those awarded five stars), I’ve also listed my “runners-up” (those receiving four and a half stars).

***** Books *****

I didn’t come close to reaching my goal of reading 100 books in 2018 (I only got to around 75), so my book list is pretty short. Only two items merited a five-star rating and both of those were re-reads.

Best
New

None.

Re-Read

• The Tragedy of Macbeth , William Shakespeare (1623).
• The Haunting of Hill House , Shirley Jackson (1959).

Runners-Up
New

• Hey, Kiddo , Jarrett J. Krosoczka (2018).

Re-Read

• Measure for Measure , William Shakespeare (1623).

***** Short Stories *****

I read a fair number of short fiction and non-fiction pieces this past year (between 600 and 700), but I only deemed a handful worthy of a five-star rating, and, sadly, the bulk of those were re-reads.

Best
New

• “A Half-Pint of Old Darling”, Wendell Berry (1993).
• “Jackalope Wives”, Ursula Vernon (2014).

Re-Read

• “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, Edgar Allan Poe (1845).
• “The Body-Snatcher” (variant title: “The Body Snatcher”), Robert Louis Stevenson (1884).
• “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, Ambrose Bierce (1890).
• “The Judge’s House”, Bram Stoker (1891).
• “The Horror of the Heights”, Arthur Conan Doyle (1913).
• “Levitation”, Joseph Payne Brennan (1958).
• “A Rose for Ecclesiastes”, Roger Zelazny (1963).
• “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”, Karl Edward Wagner (1973).
• “Dead Call”, William F. Nolan (1976).
• “Nightflyers”, George R. R. Martin (1980).
• “At the Bureau”, Steve Rasnic Tem (1980).
• “And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee”, Roger Zelazny (1981).
• “Bigfish”, Edward D. Hoch (1985).
• “Red Wolf, Red Wolf”, W. P. Kinsella (1987).
• “Death Is Different”, Lisa Goldstein (1988).
• “Weird Furka”, Adam Golaski (2004/2008 rev.).

Runners-Up
New

• “Mr. Wilde’s Second Chance”, Joanna Russ (1966).
• “Slow Sculpture”, Theodore Sturgeon (1970).
• “The Double Edge: Robert Aickman’s Supernatural Stories”, Joel Lane (1990).
• “The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance”, Joe R. Lansdale (1992).
• “The Dying Season”, Lynda E. Rucker (2015).
• “Southwold”, Peter Bell (2016).
• “Concerto for a Corpse”, Adam Ehrlich Sachs (2016).
• “Herb’s Place”, Adam Ehrlich Sachs (2016).
• “The House”, Peter Bell (2018).
• “The Quest for Karswell: An Enquiry into Identity”, Paul M. Chapman (2018).
• “Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show to You the Sea”, Seanan McGuire (2018).

Re-Read

• “The Black Cat”, Edgar Allan Poe (1843).
• “The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain”, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1859).
• “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall”, John Kendrick Bangs (1891).
• “A Scandal in Bohemia”, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891).
• “Naboth’s Vinyard”, E. F. Benson (1923).
• “The Face”, E. F. Benson (1924).
• “Leiningens Kampf mit den Ameisen” (“Leiningen versus the Ants”), Carl Stephenson (1937/trans. 1938).
• “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” (variant title: “The Believers”), Robert Arthur (1941).
• “The Long Rain”, Ray Bradbury (1950).
• “Solipsist”, Fredric Brown (1954).
• “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, Richard Matheson (1961).
• “Cold Light”, Karl Edward Wagner (1973).
• “Lynortis Reprise”, Karl Edward Wagner (1974).
• “The Lady of Finnigan’s Hearth”, Parke Godwin (1977).
• “Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck”, W. P. Kinsella (1987).
• “The Dark God of Laughter”, Michael Chabon (2001).

Corinne asked (in part):

Reposted from another group. Does anyone else want to share their tops of the year?

I’ll play, but probably won’t post my tops until next week. I still have a small crop of short stories I’m hoping to get through before the end of the calendar year. Who know what gems I might find amongst them? ;)

Lena said:

New Hellboy. Great cast, but some dodgy British Accents, no Ron Perlman. I don’t know, I can’t decide if I like if or if they have pushed it into B movie land.

No Perlman and no del Toro either. And yet another reboot/remake. It’s depressing when one considers just how risk averse Hollywood is these days. Will I watch this movie? Probably. But I don’t have high hopes for it.

Corinne said (in part):

Announcing the Tor.com Short Fiction Newsletter

Thanks for posting this, Corinne. Certainly looks interesting.

Lena said:

Ooh, you’d love Firefly!

If you decide to watch the episodes from the short-lived Firefly series, Bridgett, be sure to also check out the feature film Serenity, which continued the Firefly story line.

I quite enjoyed George R. R. Martin’s horror/SF novella, “Nightflyers”. In fact, I re-read it earlier this year. So I’m giving the Syfy mini-series a shot. My initial impression after having watched a few episodes: It looks gorgeous, but my primary concern is that there’s too little plot for 9 hours of show.

Corinne said (in part):

I'd start with Voyager then move onto TNG but I wouldn't re-watch any others so that is how I'd judge my favorites.

On balance, I like Voyager; there are more good than bad things about this series. But I do think it had one of the weaker casts. Garrett Wang, Jennifer Lien, Tim Russ, and (especially) Robert Beltran — these guys struck me as mediocre talents at best. And while I think Kate Mulgrew is a fine actor, she never quite “clicked” for me as a starship commander. I’m not completely sure, but maybe the problem lay at least in part with the writers and producers. After the show departed the airwaves Mulgrew publicly complained about the manner in which the creative staff insisted on “feminizing” Janeway. Perhaps not coincidentally, Geneviève Bujold, who was originally cast as Voyager’s commander, quit the show very early on in part for this same reason. And while I generally liked Jeri Ryan’s character, you gotta admit that 7 of 9 embodies the Trek franchise’s rather unfortunate tendency to fixate on alien space babes wearing incredibly tight, form-fitting attire.

I spent plenty of time with TNG but all I can mostly remember now is Ferengis and I'm not that fond of them. :D

I agree that the Ferengi are problematic on a number of levels. Both Leonard Nimoy and Armin Shimerman (Quark on DS9) publicly addressed the frequent criticism the Ferengi either subtly or not so subtly embodied anti-Semitic stereotypes. The other problem was that the Ferengi simply weren’t very interesting. The brainchild of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, they were originally meant to replace the Romulans and Klingons as the Federation’s primary foe. But by Season 3 of TNG they had faded into the background; in later appearances they functioned more as comedic relief than as a genuine threat. (I did think that the TNG episode “Ménage á Troi”, in which a Ferengi DaiMon kidnaps Riker, Troi, and Troi’s mother, had some pretty funny moments.)

I love Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap and I wanted to give the series a chance but I must of been busy with kids or something and never really got into the show.

Bakula has his share of detractors, but I’ve always liked him. For my money, he’s one of the few good things about this series. This was a show that had a great premise and then proceeded to royally screw it up — poor casting decisions and writing that by Season 2 had gone completely off the rails.

J. said (in part):

I used to like TOS & TNG when I was younger. I still think that the ship models are really good. But now I realize that the scale of the civilization they try to represent is too small for how technologically advanced it is claimed to be.

Although I have a science background, I’ve never been one of those Trek fans who are heavily engaged with the physics that underlies the franchise. There are doubtless a thousand and one ways the show writers get that stuff wrong. Personally, I don’t care all that much. To me it’s just space opera.

Corinne said:

I loved her [Marina Sirtis] season but I don't agree when she says it was the last good one. I love the one with Captain Janeway very, very, much. Moral lessons don't stick with me I guess and the entertainment value is judged as time goes on.

I’m with Sirtis on Discovery; I’ve been unwilling to shell out the money to watch these episodes. I’d also agree with her assertion that TNG has been the best of the Trek series to date (at least of the ones I’ve seen), but not for the reason Sirtis gives. I think all of the series have shown a penchant for moralizing.

My rank ordering from worst to best:

5. Enterprise
4. TOS
3. Voyager
2. DS9
1. TNG

Lena wrote:

You dig up the best anecdotes Canavan!

Thanks! :)

“A Trip to Lagasy”, Alison Davies

If Julie Frost’s “Bear Essentials” can be characterized as a Firefly episode, then Alison Davies’ story can fairly be described as a lift of ideas found in Raiders of the Lost Ark. (view spoiler)[In fact, I noticed that Davies, largely for plot purposes, takes some pains to strip away many technologies — no GPS, limited communications, etc. Except for the fact that the story takes place on another planet, it barely qualifies as science fiction.

Kira, the protagonist, is our “good” archaeologist; her rival, the “bad” archeologist (who is only interested in personal aggrandizement) also happens to be Kira’s former partner who done her wrong. This is the second story I’ve read in this anthology in which the primary motivations of a main female character involve her prior relations with a somewhat nefarious former lover; that prompted me to think about how women are portrayed in film and fiction and in turn led me to ponder the Bechdel and Finkbeiner tests.

There were some aspects of this story I really liked. I thought, for example, that the descriptions of Kira’s accident and her initial attempts extricate herself after Rakouth leaves her to find help were well done. The method of Steger’s death was unexpected and oddly prosaic. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭½

“Illegal Beagles”, “Bear Essentials”, Julie Frost

Both Lena and Fiona, in their comments on “Bear Essentials”, made note of its similarity to Joss Whedon’s Firefly. That assessment was more on the mark than you may have known. Frost has written at least two predecessors to the story in this anthology. In a brief foreword to the first one, “Illegal Beagles”, she reveals that that story started life as a piece of Firefly fanfic before morphing into something else.

I thought the writing the two stories that I read was merely okay. I had the feeling of reading a treatment for a television episode.

“Illegal Beagles” ✭✭
“Bear Essentials” ✭✭½

“Backscatter”, Gregory Benford

I thought this was a fairly well-written story. The author does a good job of making us understand the science that underpins the story. I find that’s not always the case with hard science fiction. If I have a complaint it’s that I find the protagonist uninteresting; for someone engaged in a life-or-death struggle she comes off as somewhat detached.

✭✭✭

“The Vringla/Racket Incident”, Jakob Drud

I don’t have much to say about this particular tale. (view spoiler)[The story plays on the difficulties many parents have in finding reliable babbysitting. It’s meant to be amusing, but the humor is largely lost on me. (hide spoiler)]

✭½

“A Game of Hold’em”, Wendy Sparrow

This story seems to have been lifted almost whole from one of those 50s horse operas. Cliché piled upon cliché. (view spoiler)[It’s got lines such as “Martice [the bad guy] is the law here.” And in the penultimate hand our knight in shining armor wins the freedom of the down-trodden heroine with a royal flush. And yet, the writing here is just good enough, and the formulaic plot reliable enough, to make me like this story. I’ll go a step further and admit that of the stories I’ve thus far read in this anthology, this is the one I’ve most enjoyed. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½