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Sep. 3rd, 2022 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1.What obscure SFF novel or short story do you absolutely love? A real banger of a work that somehow nobody seems to have heard about?
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
This reissue of a modern classic of science fiction, the Hugo and Locus Award-winning and Nebula-nominated The Snow Queen, marks the first time the book has been reprinted in fifteen years.
The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. Their only chance at surviving the change is if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space.
Interstellar politics, a millennia-long secret conspiracy, and a civilization whose hidden machineries might still control the fate of worlds all form the background to this spectacular hard science fiction novel from Joan D. Vinge.
It was first published in the 1980s and I adored it. I couldn't get into the sequel though. Mainly because the sequel didn't focus on my favorite character - a police investigator who was at the center of the first novel.
also..
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Home to generations of humans, the starship Argonos has wandered aimlessly throughout the galaxy for hundreds of years, desperately searching for other signs of life. Now an unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet-and into the dark heart of an alien mystery.
The protagonist and lead character is a Dwarf. Bartolomeo Aguilera, the story's narrator, gives a haunting picture of life on the Argonos, a starship that is home to generations of humans born aboard her; no one remembers the ship's origins--its birthplace may have been Earth--but it drifts year after year "almost at random through the galaxy," without apparent purpose or goal. Finally the ship lands on an unknown planet. There the crew finds a Dante-esque scene in a chamber located deep within a jungle: "There were hundreds of bones scattered about the floor, strips of decayed flesh, pools and smears of viscous fluid. Just as it was impossible to avoid brushing against the hanging skeletons, so was it impossible to avoid stepping on bone or in thick, sticky liquid as I moved through the room." A mutiny follows. Bartolomeo is imprisoned, but when a mysterious ship, seemingly imbued with evil, shows up, he is released and named leader of an exploration team.
and
Grass by Sherri Tepper
Generations in the future, when humanity has spread to other planets and Earth is ruled by Sanctity, a dour, coercive religion that looks to resurrection of the body by storing cell samples of its communicants, a plague is threatening to wipe out mankind. The only planet that seems to be spared is Grass, so-called because that is virtually all that grows there. It was settled by families of European nobility who live on vast estancias and indulge in the ancient sport of fox hunting--although the horses, hounds and foxes aren't what they what they appear to be. Rigo and Marjorie Westriding Yrarier and family are sent to Grass as ambassadors and unofficial investigators because the ruling families--the bons--have refused to allow scientists to authenticate the planet's immunity from the plague. The egotistical Rigo sets out to prove himself to the bons while Marjorie remains wary about the relationship between the hunters and the hunted. She gains allies in her search, but invasion strikes from an unexpected quarter before the truth about an alien species comes to light.
And..
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
Also...
The Chanur Series by C.J. Cherryh
No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company -- a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown -- and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/ captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship The Pride of Chanur.
Little did he know when he threw himself upon the mercy of The Pride and her crew that he put the entire hani species in jeopardy and imperiled the peace of the Compact itself. For the information this fugitive held could be the ruin or glory of any of the species at Meetpoint Station.
Apparently I can't do just one either.
2. ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ is estimated to be the most expensive show ever made...
Can you spend your way to the next “Game of Thrones?” Jeff Bezos — the world’s second-richest man and, incidentally, the owner of The Washington Post — certainly appears to have tried.
According to some news reports, the Amazon founder and J.R.R. Tolkien fan had his company plunk down an estimated $250 million just for the rights to make a TV show based on “The Lord of the Rings.” The resulting series, debuting Thursday, will be the most expensive ever made.
See Link
This reviewer liked it
A couple of things? If you are a huge Game of Thrones fan but not a fantasy fan per se, chances are - you won't or don't like Tolkien. [It's not true of all GoT fans - I personally prefer Tolkien to GoT and think the Tolkien books were better written and more imaginative. And VERY different. Hardly comparable. But non-fantasy fans love to compare them.] Why? Game of Thrones is hyper-realism in a medieval setting, that incorporates the horrific elements of fantasy - dragons and zombies. It's basically Medieval Europe fighting for power with Dragons, and a decidedly dystopian feel to the proceedings. It's if anything anti-fantasy. I laughed at the people who said - that GoT was the best fantasy, and now they like fantasy and didn't before. Uhm..it's not really fantasy. It has some fantastical elements to it, but it's focus is on the power play. The mythology and the world kind of settle in the distant background behind battles and politics. It's also very male, and very violent.
Tolkien is high fantasy - the focus of Tolkien's novels are elves, dwarves, language distinctions, world building, hobbits, and the creation of various cultures. Tolkien creates a fantastical world where magic has full reign.
There really is no magic in Game of Thrones outside of the White Walkers and the Dragons, and they are more real than magical.
The only things the two have in common are Medieval Settings, and well dragons.
Not everyone likes high fantasy. But more like it than expected - or Jackson's Rings adaptations would not have done well, and millions would not have read Terry Brooks or Tolkien. Actually more people read those, and the Harry Potter novels than Game of Thrones, and seen them.
What's interesting about Amazon Prime's Tolkien series is - 1) it's mainly women in the lead roles, 2) Amazon got the long-sought after rights to The Silmarion, and all of Tolkien's short stories and other works within his world that take place before the Hobbit, along with the Rings. Jackson couldn't get Silmarrion or the short stories. He probably wasn't willing to pay the steep price for them that Bestos was willing to pay for them. Also Christopher Tolkien is dead now, and was standing in the way of it.
I've not seen it yet, I plan on watching the Hobbit series all the way through first. I've only seen the first two films of the Hobbit series.
Not that I need to - since it's a prequel.
3. Did absolutely nothing today. Okay maybe not completely true. I talked to mother twice. She's okay. No it hasn't passed.
Mother: They tell me that passing a kidney stone is akin to giving birth.
Me: Okay..
Mother: I wish this baby would just get busy being born. I'm sick of it.
Sigh, me too. If it doesn't get born soon, and they don't crush it, she'll go back to the emergency room. She's determined. She is not going to be dealing with kidney stones during my Father's funeral.
I basically crashed this weekend. I did try to work on my novel - but I kept nodding off. Did the same thing trying to watch the Industrial Light and Magic documentary on Disney +. So I took a nap. I made breakfast (eggs with mushrooms and fresh chopped salsa (which I got at the fruit and veggie store), tamale with cheese, avocado and the rest of the salsa, and blue corn chips (lunch), and against the grain pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms (for dinner). I also cleaned my toilet, and robot vacuumed while nodding off to the documentary. (The Ilife vacuum was quieter than the IRobot and I think slightly better - hard to know for certain. I kind of miss it.)
Watched two television shows...
House of Dragon E1 - which my co-workers are into. They keep chatting about it and love. They do adore violent, dark, dystopian television series, I'll say that much about them. This young generation - sheesh. Favorite television shows to date? Squid Game, Game of Thrones, Severance...and now House of Dragon.
It is violent. Just like Game of Thrones. And I kind of get what Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Taragon meant by stating that there's way too much sex and nudity in it - and it could be scaled back a bit. He's not wrong. It's bordering on the exploitative just like Game of Thrones. Also, he gets to be in both of the gratuitous and somewhat excessive nude/sex scenes. Lucky man. He has full nudity in one. And the women have it in both. And neither is necessary. The scenes are - the nudity and explicit sex isn't. Also the sex is kind of male centric, with a heavy male gaze. So really not necessary.
And we get the killing spree - in explicit and graphic detail.
The episode was very dark - I had to watch with all the lights off and at night to see it.
Other than that - enjoyable for the most part. There's some good dialogue.
And the political maneuvering which made Game of Thrones fun to watch is still a highlight. The casting isn't quite as good, but it's admittedly hard to replicate that. 90% of what made GoT great was the casting, the rest was GRR Martin's world-building and the snappy dialogue.
And the world building and snappy dialogue is for the most part still there - since they grabbed the same writers, except for the show-runners (who were to be honest the main problem.). GRR Martin is executive producing again and very involved.
Starstruck - also on HBO, but about a twenty-something New Zealand woman, living in London, working two jobs who meets and sleeps with a cut Indian guy after getting drunk at a party. Only to discover he's a famous movie star the next morning - when she looks at a movie poster behind some wrapping on the floor of his living room.
Description on Wiki: "A screwball comedy about a 20-something New Zealand woman living in Hackney, London, working jobs in a cinema and as a nanny. After a one-night stand on New Year's Eve, she discovers she slept with a famous movie star."
I didn't find it funny. I've admittedly only seen one episode - and I'm not exactly the demographic for this thing. (Not that I'd have found it funny in my twenties either - it's not my brand of humor. I have a dry wit, and like absurd situations. Sexual drunken hookups at parties aren't funny to me - just awkward, embarrassing and pathetic. Embarrassment humor which is 90% of the screwball comedy genre isn't funny to me, sad, yes, cringe-inducing, yes, irritating, yes, funny, no. This may or may not explain why I'm not a fan of situation comedies?)
I did find it to be oddly charming - enough that I might check out a second episode. Mainly because, I like Jesse, the protagonist. She's relatable. The male romantic lead, isn't really my type and I'm on the fence about. I don't quite buy that he's a famous movie actor. He's not...I don't know..hot enough? Charismatic enough? He's okay.
***
Off to read and bed, I hope.
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
This reissue of a modern classic of science fiction, the Hugo and Locus Award-winning and Nebula-nominated The Snow Queen, marks the first time the book has been reprinted in fifteen years.
The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. Their only chance at surviving the change is if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space.
Interstellar politics, a millennia-long secret conspiracy, and a civilization whose hidden machineries might still control the fate of worlds all form the background to this spectacular hard science fiction novel from Joan D. Vinge.
It was first published in the 1980s and I adored it. I couldn't get into the sequel though. Mainly because the sequel didn't focus on my favorite character - a police investigator who was at the center of the first novel.
also..
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Home to generations of humans, the starship Argonos has wandered aimlessly throughout the galaxy for hundreds of years, desperately searching for other signs of life. Now an unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet-and into the dark heart of an alien mystery.
The protagonist and lead character is a Dwarf. Bartolomeo Aguilera, the story's narrator, gives a haunting picture of life on the Argonos, a starship that is home to generations of humans born aboard her; no one remembers the ship's origins--its birthplace may have been Earth--but it drifts year after year "almost at random through the galaxy," without apparent purpose or goal. Finally the ship lands on an unknown planet. There the crew finds a Dante-esque scene in a chamber located deep within a jungle: "There were hundreds of bones scattered about the floor, strips of decayed flesh, pools and smears of viscous fluid. Just as it was impossible to avoid brushing against the hanging skeletons, so was it impossible to avoid stepping on bone or in thick, sticky liquid as I moved through the room." A mutiny follows. Bartolomeo is imprisoned, but when a mysterious ship, seemingly imbued with evil, shows up, he is released and named leader of an exploration team.
and
Grass by Sherri Tepper
Generations in the future, when humanity has spread to other planets and Earth is ruled by Sanctity, a dour, coercive religion that looks to resurrection of the body by storing cell samples of its communicants, a plague is threatening to wipe out mankind. The only planet that seems to be spared is Grass, so-called because that is virtually all that grows there. It was settled by families of European nobility who live on vast estancias and indulge in the ancient sport of fox hunting--although the horses, hounds and foxes aren't what they what they appear to be. Rigo and Marjorie Westriding Yrarier and family are sent to Grass as ambassadors and unofficial investigators because the ruling families--the bons--have refused to allow scientists to authenticate the planet's immunity from the plague. The egotistical Rigo sets out to prove himself to the bons while Marjorie remains wary about the relationship between the hunters and the hunted. She gains allies in her search, but invasion strikes from an unexpected quarter before the truth about an alien species comes to light.
And..
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
Also...
The Chanur Series by C.J. Cherryh
No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company -- a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown -- and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/ captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship The Pride of Chanur.
Little did he know when he threw himself upon the mercy of The Pride and her crew that he put the entire hani species in jeopardy and imperiled the peace of the Compact itself. For the information this fugitive held could be the ruin or glory of any of the species at Meetpoint Station.
Apparently I can't do just one either.
2. ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ is estimated to be the most expensive show ever made...
Can you spend your way to the next “Game of Thrones?” Jeff Bezos — the world’s second-richest man and, incidentally, the owner of The Washington Post — certainly appears to have tried.
According to some news reports, the Amazon founder and J.R.R. Tolkien fan had his company plunk down an estimated $250 million just for the rights to make a TV show based on “The Lord of the Rings.” The resulting series, debuting Thursday, will be the most expensive ever made.
See Link
This reviewer liked it
A couple of things? If you are a huge Game of Thrones fan but not a fantasy fan per se, chances are - you won't or don't like Tolkien. [It's not true of all GoT fans - I personally prefer Tolkien to GoT and think the Tolkien books were better written and more imaginative. And VERY different. Hardly comparable. But non-fantasy fans love to compare them.] Why? Game of Thrones is hyper-realism in a medieval setting, that incorporates the horrific elements of fantasy - dragons and zombies. It's basically Medieval Europe fighting for power with Dragons, and a decidedly dystopian feel to the proceedings. It's if anything anti-fantasy. I laughed at the people who said - that GoT was the best fantasy, and now they like fantasy and didn't before. Uhm..it's not really fantasy. It has some fantastical elements to it, but it's focus is on the power play. The mythology and the world kind of settle in the distant background behind battles and politics. It's also very male, and very violent.
Tolkien is high fantasy - the focus of Tolkien's novels are elves, dwarves, language distinctions, world building, hobbits, and the creation of various cultures. Tolkien creates a fantastical world where magic has full reign.
There really is no magic in Game of Thrones outside of the White Walkers and the Dragons, and they are more real than magical.
The only things the two have in common are Medieval Settings, and well dragons.
Not everyone likes high fantasy. But more like it than expected - or Jackson's Rings adaptations would not have done well, and millions would not have read Terry Brooks or Tolkien. Actually more people read those, and the Harry Potter novels than Game of Thrones, and seen them.
What's interesting about Amazon Prime's Tolkien series is - 1) it's mainly women in the lead roles, 2) Amazon got the long-sought after rights to The Silmarion, and all of Tolkien's short stories and other works within his world that take place before the Hobbit, along with the Rings. Jackson couldn't get Silmarrion or the short stories. He probably wasn't willing to pay the steep price for them that Bestos was willing to pay for them. Also Christopher Tolkien is dead now, and was standing in the way of it.
I've not seen it yet, I plan on watching the Hobbit series all the way through first. I've only seen the first two films of the Hobbit series.
Not that I need to - since it's a prequel.
3. Did absolutely nothing today. Okay maybe not completely true. I talked to mother twice. She's okay. No it hasn't passed.
Mother: They tell me that passing a kidney stone is akin to giving birth.
Me: Okay..
Mother: I wish this baby would just get busy being born. I'm sick of it.
Sigh, me too. If it doesn't get born soon, and they don't crush it, she'll go back to the emergency room. She's determined. She is not going to be dealing with kidney stones during my Father's funeral.
I basically crashed this weekend. I did try to work on my novel - but I kept nodding off. Did the same thing trying to watch the Industrial Light and Magic documentary on Disney +. So I took a nap. I made breakfast (eggs with mushrooms and fresh chopped salsa (which I got at the fruit and veggie store), tamale with cheese, avocado and the rest of the salsa, and blue corn chips (lunch), and against the grain pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms (for dinner). I also cleaned my toilet, and robot vacuumed while nodding off to the documentary. (The Ilife vacuum was quieter than the IRobot and I think slightly better - hard to know for certain. I kind of miss it.)
Watched two television shows...
House of Dragon E1 - which my co-workers are into. They keep chatting about it and love. They do adore violent, dark, dystopian television series, I'll say that much about them. This young generation - sheesh. Favorite television shows to date? Squid Game, Game of Thrones, Severance...and now House of Dragon.
It is violent. Just like Game of Thrones. And I kind of get what Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Taragon meant by stating that there's way too much sex and nudity in it - and it could be scaled back a bit. He's not wrong. It's bordering on the exploitative just like Game of Thrones. Also, he gets to be in both of the gratuitous and somewhat excessive nude/sex scenes. Lucky man. He has full nudity in one. And the women have it in both. And neither is necessary. The scenes are - the nudity and explicit sex isn't. Also the sex is kind of male centric, with a heavy male gaze. So really not necessary.
And we get the killing spree - in explicit and graphic detail.
The episode was very dark - I had to watch with all the lights off and at night to see it.
Other than that - enjoyable for the most part. There's some good dialogue.
And the political maneuvering which made Game of Thrones fun to watch is still a highlight. The casting isn't quite as good, but it's admittedly hard to replicate that. 90% of what made GoT great was the casting, the rest was GRR Martin's world-building and the snappy dialogue.
And the world building and snappy dialogue is for the most part still there - since they grabbed the same writers, except for the show-runners (who were to be honest the main problem.). GRR Martin is executive producing again and very involved.
Starstruck - also on HBO, but about a twenty-something New Zealand woman, living in London, working two jobs who meets and sleeps with a cut Indian guy after getting drunk at a party. Only to discover he's a famous movie star the next morning - when she looks at a movie poster behind some wrapping on the floor of his living room.
Description on Wiki: "A screwball comedy about a 20-something New Zealand woman living in Hackney, London, working jobs in a cinema and as a nanny. After a one-night stand on New Year's Eve, she discovers she slept with a famous movie star."
I didn't find it funny. I've admittedly only seen one episode - and I'm not exactly the demographic for this thing. (Not that I'd have found it funny in my twenties either - it's not my brand of humor. I have a dry wit, and like absurd situations. Sexual drunken hookups at parties aren't funny to me - just awkward, embarrassing and pathetic. Embarrassment humor which is 90% of the screwball comedy genre isn't funny to me, sad, yes, cringe-inducing, yes, irritating, yes, funny, no. This may or may not explain why I'm not a fan of situation comedies?)
I did find it to be oddly charming - enough that I might check out a second episode. Mainly because, I like Jesse, the protagonist. She's relatable. The male romantic lead, isn't really my type and I'm on the fence about. I don't quite buy that he's a famous movie actor. He's not...I don't know..hot enough? Charismatic enough? He's okay.
***
Off to read and bed, I hope.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-07 12:10 am (UTC)