Once again, a linkfest for the ages!
Ray Bradbury’s death, some weeks back, drew quite a lot of beautiful eulogies. Among those who remembered him and his contributions to literature: Sarah A. Hoyt, Neil Gaiman, Hog’s Head regular Katherine Sas, Catholic writer Jimmy Akin, and President Obama. Also, RiaNovosti put together an infographic of Bradbury predictions that have been fulfilled.
In fantasy fiction:
- Over at Kirkus Reviews, fans of N.K. Jemisin list their top ten recommended fantasy novels by female authors. Harry Potter didn’t make it on, but I suspect the list stuck mostly to epic fantasy.
- At the Fantasy Faction site, Eric Christensen submits his ideas as to why fantasy is currently so popular.
- Cap’n Carrot, at Dad’s Big Plan, enters his choices for the top ten live-action fairy tale movies.
- Feast of Fiction, this week, will teach you how to make your own Turkish Delight. No more having to get it from the White Witch.
- Wired’s Top Ten Dads in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Three cheers for Arthur Weasley making the list! And Geppetto! Wired also has a list of Top Ten Minor Characters in Geek Fiction, and my own favorite pick from that list–Flitwick aside–was Valerie from The Princess Bride. “I’m not a witch, I’m your wife! And after what you just said, I’m not even sure I want to be that anymore!” Total scene-stealing moment.
- SFX has a list of the 50 worst sci-fi and fantasy films for which there was no excuse. I think there was no excuse for not condensing said list onto two or three pages, but that’s just me.
- ToplessRobot’s Jason F.C. Clarke puts forward Ten High-Risk Sci-Fi and Fantasy Careers, for those looking for work in difficult economic times. Applicants must be willing to do some pretty dangerous stuff, and in some cases, should be able to recognize paranormal creatures on sight.
In science fiction:
- Daedalus Howell’s Top Ten Dystopian Sci-Fi Films of the 1970s.
- Blastr has a post on Christopher Lee, whom most Pub members may know best as Saruman from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations (either that, or Count Dooku from Star Wars.)
- The Guardian has a photo essay on the ten best screen aliens.
- Flavorwire’s 15 Fictional Spacecrafts We’d Like to Call Home.
- Apparently two of the Kardashians’ younger sisters are working on a science fiction novel “along the lines of The Hunger Games.” I know next to nothing about the Kardashians, other than that they’re popular choices for tabloid cover photos, but I do know that comparing your book to a popular work almost guarantees reader disappointment. Here’s hoping they can write something better than a knock-off.
In General Literature:
- LitReactor’s Sarah Pitre picks ten YA novels that ought to be made into movies. Of those, at least The Scorpio Races and Divergent have been optioned for film.
- Flavorwire lists the top ten weirdest children’s book authors of all time. In this case, I believe “weird” is meant in a complimentary way.
- Cracked has a list of “5 Celebrities Who Got Famous by Being Obsessed Fanboys,” which list includes… drumroll… Evanna Lynch. Not a fanboy, but she definitely deserved to get the role she got.
In Things that are Just Plain Awesome:
- Cosplayers lipsyncing to Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life. I WANT IN.
- The top ten most quotable movies for geeks, other than Star Wars, as put forth by Jay Barish at ToplessRobot.
- For those of us who love to write, here’s the great master C.S. Lewis’ tips.
- io9 introduces us to Amy Mebberson’s “Pocket Princesses”, little cartoon interactions between various Disney princesses. Downright cute.
- The award for Downright Amazing goes to photographer Ryan Astamendi for his real-life Disney Princess photos, here aggregated by Geekologie.
- Queen Elizabeth II has named a litter of puppies after Harry Potter characters. I knew I liked her.
In the… odd, very odd… you can now perfume your Kindle to make it smell like a real book. But when will we be able to easily flip open any story to any place we like, Kindle? Because then, you’ll have a better chance of competing with the hard copies.
And in all things Harry Potter:
- Fanpop’s periodic table of HP characters.
- Dan Radcliffe plays a drunk in a music video for a favorite band of his. Video and story at the link.
- You can now get all seven books through the Kindle Lending Library, if you’re an Amazon Prime member.
- If you live in the UK, you can win a family holiday to the Universal Orlando Wizarding World of Harry Potter resort by proving you’re the UK’s biggest Harry Potter fan. Mr. Pond, I think you should try for it.
- Port Jefferson High School is cooler than your high school… they had a Harry Potter-themed prom this year. Win.
Thanks to George, Arabella, and Carrie-Ann for many of these links!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Jenna!! This is going to keep me in Fantasy Fiction glee for quite some time.
But I have a question. Why is the story of Harry Potter, which is 7 books long and over 4,000 pages, not considered a “epic fantasy”? Looking at the tall stack of books sitting on my desk it sure looks like an epic to me. Sure, each book is a story unto itself, but they are all part of (in fact 1 year 0f) the total story.
I searched for the definition of “epic fantasy” and found it broken down quite well here: http://www.epic-fantasy.com/genre/definition.htm
The Harry Potter books seem to be the exact definition of an epic fantasy. It even covers the setting. – “The setting for the piece is often one that has a Middle Ages flavor complete with swords, castles, and a magical scheme”. Although it does not take place in the Middle Ages it does include swords, a castle, magical scheme and even the armor of knights.
I like that explanation of epic fantasy, Moe!
Possibly I should have said high fantasy, but the terms are not always defined the same way by the same people. What I meant was that the list seemed to focus on stories that were set entirely in a different world/different time, to the exclusion of urban fantasy, which is (loosely) a magical story working in or around a modern setting. Though Harry Potter almost qualifies as outside the modern, despite popping in and out of normal 1990s England.
Actually, the point I ought to have made is that children’s books seemed to be excluded. All of those fantasies, if I recall correctly, were aimed at adults.
I see. Thanks Jenna.
In other words, same prejudice, but based on age group.
The age prejudice does, indeed, seem most likely, as Harry Potter does seem to fit into both Epic and High Fantasy.
High Fantasy
From the Wiki definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy
The Harry Potter books would still apply if it was High Fantasy.
Genre overview- “High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds.”
- Harry Potter takes place in an “invented or parallel” world.
Setting
“These stories are often serious in tone and epic in scope, dealing with themes of grand struggle against supernatural, evil forces.”
- Although HP can have some amusing moments, it is a serious book.
Characters
“Most high fantasy storylines are told from the viewpoint of one main hero.”
- HP is basically told from Harry’s point of view.
Good versus Evil
“Good versus evil is a common concept in high fantasy, and the character of evil is often an important concept in a work of high fantasy… Indeed, the importance of the concepts of good and evil can be regarded as distinguishing mark between high fantasy and sword and sorcery. In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks a deep concern with moral issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle, with, for instance, wizards behaving irresponsibly whether they are “good” or “evil”.
- Obviously!
It would be nice if there was a universally accepted definition for both Epic Fantasy and High Fantasy.
It would also be nice if it was accepted that even though the HP books may have started as kind of a children’s book, just as Harry grew up with each book, so did the readers and the age level for which the books were intended.
That question is a whole essay in itlsef! My first thought is that it would look like a lot of things, and thus we need to figure out what its trying to do. What effect, for example, does that level of creative self-consciousness do the process of writing the story? I’ll have to ponder that one.