Classic fairy-tale retellings had a moment just a few years ago.
That moment left us with a bounty of books and stories that start with the elements of those tales and spin them off into strange and wonderful directions.
Naomi Novik, Catherynne M. Valente, and Seanan McGuire all dived headfirst into that rich pool of story, but there were many others as well.
Most of us can probably think of a fantasy book or story we’ve read in recent years that is a fairy-tale retold.
August 27th, 2020. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 35 comments |
Books and Writing:
Lots of celebrations of Ray Bradbury’s birthday—he would have been 100 years August 22 of this year. File770 had several articles, including one about various events. (Note, the readathon continues through Labor Day.) The American Writers Museum in Chicago celebrated by displaying his typewriter and inaugurating a series of podcasts.
Nina Allan discusses “the canon” through the perspective of a British reader. It’s a dense, thoughtful article.
Over at Tor.com, James Nicholls recommends five Sf books that would make great musicals,
August 26th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
G. Willow Wilson’s 2019 YA Novel The Bird King is a wonderful read: an exciting adventure with a complicated female protagonist, set in a time and place that may be unfamiliar to many of us. Magic is woven throughout the book, as young Fatima wrestles with the concepts of faith, freedom and leadership.
Fatima is the Sultan’s concubine in the last Islamic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. She holds a precarious place in the palace hierarchy.
August 20th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | G. Willow Wilson | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Awards:
The Dragon Award finalists were announced. The award’s eccentric eligibility period, November through July of the following year, means odd additions and exclusions (some 2019 books may have been nominated last year). As you would expect, this list of popular books upsets some people. File 770 cataloged a few reactions.
(Dragon Award nomination and voting are not tied to membership in any convention, and basically anyone with an email address can nominate and vote. It says one vote per person in the FAQ’s, but if you have more than one email address I don’t know how they would identify multiple votes.)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon,
August 19th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Last year’s Gideon the Ninth was a delightfully over-the-top space fantasy that ended with a gut punch that had readers shouting “Damn you, Tamsyn Muir!” and clamoring for the sequel. The sequel, Harrow the Ninth (2020) is here, and I enjoyed it a lot, though there are a few things you’ll want to know going in.
One is that there is a lot going on, much of it cryptic,
August 18th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 1.5, 3.5, 4.5 | Tamsyn Muir | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Tonight is one of the best nights to see the Perseid meteor shower.
Awards:
Fiyah Literary Magazine has announced a new award, IGYNITE, as part of their online conference scheduled for October. (Thanks to Skye Walker for letting me know about this item!) Fiyah is revitalizing the SFF field in so many ways.
The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association has announced the candidates for this year’s Aurora Award. (Thanks to Skye for this link too.)
Conventions:
I should have seen this coming;
August 12th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Necromancers and their sword-fighting cavaliers star in Gideon the Ninth (2019), Tamsyn Muir’s radically original debut novel, which has been nominated for the 2019 Nebula Award. This science fantasy novel, steeped in an atmosphere of decay and decrepitude, is a mix of space opera and a gruesome treasure hunt that takes place in a spooky, crumbling castle. At the same time, it’s set in an interstellar empire consisting of nine planets, each one ruled by a different House of necromancers.
August 10th, 2020. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Terry Weyna, Kelly Lasiter, Marion Deeds, Bill Capossere and Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | Tamsyn Muir | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Awards:
Arkady Martine took the Hugo for best novel with A Memory Called Empire; Amar El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone won best novella with This is How You Lose the Time War; N.K. Jemisin took the award for best novelette with “Emergency Skin;” the best short story was awarded to S.L. Huang for “As the Last I May Know.” See all the winners.
File 770 printed a correction for the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award winners.
August 5th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The COVID pandemic is a shocking new experience for all of us. Epidemics aren’t new, but a global pandemic we watch on our devices as it plays out in real time is. We are all experiencing changes in behavior; staying at home, social distancing, using hand sanitizer, wearing facial coverings. We miss our social get-togethers and dining out in a pleasant restaurant or coffee house, and we’re getting expert at video-conferencing.
The changes associated with COVID are sweeping, and no one can predict what “normal” will be on the other side (I’m going to be optimistic and say,
July 30th, 2020. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 22 comments |
Giveaway: One commenter with a USA mailing address will get a copy of The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher.
Lucifer the series currently runs on Netflix, with the 5th season starting up in August. The show began its life on Fox in 2016, with a dark-haired Welsh actor named Tom Ellis in the title role. (“Dark-haired? But that’s not canon!” say the comic book readers. Trust me. Go with it.)
Readers of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman met Lucifer when Dream journeyed to Hell to retrieve one of his three totems.
July 29th, 2020. Marion Deeds | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 14 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…