I’ve been in a weirdly nostalgic mood lately, at least so far as my media/reading consumption is concerned. I keep thinking of more and more books and movies and tv shows I want to re-read/re-watch (some of them for the millionth time).
I am currently re-reading Lirael (the second book in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series). And I’m debating re-reading Watership Down, the first Abarat book (by Clive Barker), AND doing a MASSIVE Redwall series re-read.
On top of that, I have been re-watching the anime series Inuyasha with my best friend for a couple months now (we watch about 6-7 episodes over the phone together every sunday evening!), and I started a huge M*A*S*H* re-watch (thank you, Hulu!) And I’ve been thinking about re-watching both Yu Yu Hakusho (another anime), and all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1! Because, you know, I have SO MUCH free time (*sarcasm*). I have also been re-watching a lot of Phineas and Ferb lately as I prepare for the new movie, Phineas and Ferb: Candace Against the Universe coming out in Disney+ at the end of August. (Yay!)
Despite all that, I am trying to keep up with reading for my “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge – I just started Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente for the challenge. AND I still plan to read the ARC of Garth Nix’s newest book The Left-handed Booksellers of London in time to do a review before official release.
Over the weekend, I did something I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do! I attended San Diego Comic-Con!
Ok… sort of…
Because of the whole Covid/quarantine hellhole we are currently living in, the actual convention was canceled for the first time (I think) in its 50-odd-year history, so the organizers decided to put together a virtual online version they called SDCC @ Home. This is not, of course, groundbreaking – after all, several conventions and even a few academic conferences transitioned to online participation to some extent or another. What WAS a little shocking (to me at least) was that the organizers made it COMPLETELY FREE for all to attend!
Most of the other conventions doing online/virtual versions are still charging SOMETHING, even if it’s somewhat discounted. For instance, World-Con (where the Hugo Awards are held) is going virtual, but you still have to pay for an attending membership (which is $200 USD!), and they didn’t offer even discounts! Now, I understand that even online, it still costs money to run and maintain these things, but OUCH! $200 to sit on a computer and watch some youtube videos and perhaps text on a discord server? NO THANK YOU!
So, yeah…. SDCC @ Home was FREE, and for the first time ever I was able to “attend!” And it was very cool. The SDCC website had printable badges and signs for various halls and things that you could download and print to turn your house/room/whatever into the convention center. (Yes, I did this! Of course I did!)
I had run out of color ink so I printed in black and white and then colored them in a bit with markers! Lol!
There was a virtual exhibition hall with links to various artists and retailers and exhibitors that would have had tables at the convention, and some artists and retailers still had SDCC exclusive items or sales going on their websites. There were activity booklets (like coloring sheets and stuff) to download for kids.
And the virtual youtube panels were, for the most part, excellent.
I made sure to wear one of my Star Trek shirts for the Star Trek panel! (I made a “badge” by printing their template and taping it to an old badge from a different con, because I am a nerd!
I “attended” a BUNCH: the Star Trek Universe panel, the Orbit Debut Authors panel, the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Retrospective, panels about the upcoming third season of Infinity Train and the Adventure Time specials coming on HBO Max, and the new Phineas and Ferb movie coming on Disney+, etc etc etc….
There were a couple panels that were pretty underwhelming, but for the most part it was pretty great. I couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money, but I did order myself one of the official SDCC pins, and one graphic novel that I saw advertised in the virtual exhibit hall that looked pretty damn cool. All in all, I am very glad I got to attend in this capacity at least. Lord knows I’m probably never going to be able to afford the real thing!
A couple months ago, I did a list of my top 20 favorite books, and mentioned that I might enjoy doing a list for movies later. I started said list ages ago and then forgot about it until now. So, I figured I would go ahead and finish it.
It was supposed to be my top 20 favorite movies of all time. But I ran into some trouble. I love movies. I love movies A LOT. And the initial list grew WAY out of my control very quickly. The first thing I did was separate live action and animated movies into two separate lists. But even then my live action list had 38 movies on it! I whittled it down and whittled it down, but I could not seem to get down farther than 25. I just couldn’t do it! And so, I just left it as is.
Below, please find a list of my top 25 favorite movies (live action), in no particular order (because I am almost INCAPABLE of putting things I love into a hierarchy):
The Fall
Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
The Mummy
The Labyrinth
Lawrence of Arabia
The Last Emperor
The Princess Bride
The Court Jester
Ladyhawke
Blade Runner
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Sound of Music
Pride and Prejudice (2005 version)
Wings of Desire
Hero
Muppet’s Christmas Carol
Holiday
Arsenic and Old Lace
Interstellar
The Abyss
Apollo 13
Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
The Pirate
Summer Stock
A couple fun things to note: there are two different Judy Garland movies, and two different Cary Grant movies on this list. They are two of my favorite actors of all time. Yes, a good majority of the movies on this list are science fiction or fantasy (just like my list of favorite books). Also: GIVE ME ALL THE SPACE MOVIES! A few of the honorable mentions that started on this list and had to be knocked off include: The Usual Suspects, pretty much every other Judy Garland movie, Metropolis, Persuasion (1995 BBC tv movie version), and 1917 (which I think would have been the most recent movie to make it on the list if I hadn’t removed it).
I would love to hear from you all! What are you favorite movies? Do we share any in common? Did I list any you aren’t even familiar with? If so, I would love to talk about them more and share them with you! Let me know!
It’s been well-established that I love fantasies. Both in written and visual media. And one of my favorite sub-genres of fantasy is the portal fantasy: stories in which a character finds a way to step through a portal/door/passage/etc out of the “real” world and into a fantasy world.
There are many many examples of this narrative in written texts, especially in children’s literature. Some of our best classics are of this genre, including The Chronicles of Narnia and The Neverending Story and The Wizard of Oz. There have been more adult versions of this genre as well, of course. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and more recently Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January jump immediately to mind. And there are others that maybe skirt the edge of what does and does not count — for instance, Edgar Rice Burrough’s Barsoom novels (Princess of Mars, etc) are technically part of a sub-genre called Planetary Romance, but because John Carter finds what is essentially a magically means of transporting from Earth to Mars it sort of fits (even though Mars is, of course, just a planet in our same universe and not actually some separate magical universe or dimension).
In any case, there are dozens and dozens, probably hundreds, of examples in literature. But I am trying to come up with a list of examples in FILM, and it is a little more difficult. There are plenty of obvious ones, of course, and most of those are film adaptations of books already mentioned such as The Neverending Story and the Chronicles of Narnia, but I feel certain there are many more films than just the ones I can think of. I’ve tried googling, but it has been less than helpful. If anyone has any suggestions I can add to the following list, I would love to hear from you! Please share!
So, here’s my list of portal fantasies in film that I can think of:
The Neverending Story
The Chronicles of Narnia movies
The Golden Compass (sort of — the portal fantasy element becomes more evident in the later books and doesn’t show up in the movie much)
Wizard of Oz
The Labyrinth
Coraline
Stardust
Alice in Wonderland (all the iterations)
Enchanted
Time Bandits
The 10th Kingdom
The Pagemaster (who else remembers this movie from the 90s!?)
The Flight of Dragons (even more obscure! I seem to be the only one who remembers this movie!)
Neverwhere (surprisingly, this tv movie version came before the book this time!)
Mirrormask (also by Neil Gaiman!)
Spirited Away
Escaflowne
Stargate (not really, of course, since its SF and the portals go to actual planets in “our” universe, but I feel like Stargate is in some ways the SF answer to portal fantasy)
As I said, surely there are more that I just can’t think of! If you know of any good ones, please let me know!
One thing to note: I have not included much anime, other than Spirited Away and Escaflowne, because usually those fall into a slightly different category. A lot of anime (though not all) that sort of fits this category is called Isekai anime, and while they are technically portal fantasies, they follow a very specific formula of characters falling into RPGs — all the way down to containing the usual RPG elements such as classes, guilds, and CP or HP, etc. And these just… feel different to me (and they all start to be exactly the same after awhile – see examples such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime or Sword Art Online). This type of anime didn’t ALWAYS follow that formula, older ones such as Magic Knight Rayearth and Fushigi Yuugi certainly didn’t. The recent boom of Isekai anime (and manga and light novels) in the last 10 years or so has certainly all been of this type.
Edit made 19 July 2020: I have been reminded of a few more portal fantasy films that I had forgotten about: Pan’s Labyrinth Warriors of Virtue (such a cheesy movie, and several of my colleagues scoffed at it, but I LOVED this movie as a kid!) The Phantom Tollbooth (a classic! How dare I forget this movie!) Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Jumanji Zathura (Jumanji’s cousin, lol)
I’m sure no one actually cares about this, so this post is mainly for myself to keep track of my progress, but here is how I’m doing on my 2020 reading challenges!
Overall, I have read 24 books so far this year. I know this is small potatoes to a lot of big readers (and years ago, it would have been small potatoes to me too), but considering just a couple years ago I wasn’t reading AT ALL, this is great progress for me! And considering that in 2019, I read 29 books in the whole year, I’d say 24 is really really good. I’m on track to read approximately 50 books by the end of the year. We’ll see if that trend continues.
For my “Storm the Castle” 2020 Reading Challenge, I have read 13 of the 21 books in the challenge, so I’m over halfway there! In fact, I’m also ⅔ of the way through! I have slowed down on that front the last month or so because I’ve been reading a lot of books that don’t count towards the challenge. But I’m ok with that. Particularly because some of the books I’ve been reading count toward the “Finishing the Series” 2020 Reading Challenge instead.
For the “Finishing the Series” challenge, I have completely FINISHED the Artemis Fowl series! Eight books down! In addition, I have read books 1-6 of The Dresden Files series. I suspect I will not actually finish THAT series by the end of the year as there are currently 15 books in the series, AND books #16 and #17 are being released in July and October! Still, I am making good headway on that series. In addition, I am currently re-reading Sabriel by Garth Nix, the first in the Old Kingdom series. I read the original 3 books of that series WAY back in high school and absolutely ADORED them, but never got around to reading the 2 sequel novels and the handful of short stories in the series, so I’m working on that for the challenge as well.
Right this minute, I am reading several books. Sabriel (as I said), Dresden Files book #7: Dead Beat, and I am now starting Hyperion by Dan Simmons, which is on my “Storm the Castle” challenge list. I also JUST received the ARC for Garth Nix’s new book The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, which will be released in September. Since I ADORE Garth Nix (see above!), I will probably go ahead and start that one as well.
So that’s my reading progress and plans for the month. How about you folks? What is everyone reading right now? And how are you progressing on any goals you set for yourself for the year? Please feel free to share in the comments!
Book: Unconquerable Sun Author: Kate Elliott Release Date: 7 July 2020 Source: ARC received through employer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I had meant to have this review up like two weeks ago, but life being life, things got in the way. So, my review for Unconquerable Sun comes out just in time for the official release. This book is available as of today! Read the review, and then go and buy it!
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott (perhaps best known for her YA series Court of Fives), is a massive space opera played out on an epic intergalactic scale. In this intricately-plotted narrative, ambitious Princess Sun of the Chaonian Republic, heir to the throne of a great galactic empire, must fight to survive the ire of her temperamental mother, the secrets of her foreign consort father, and the political machinations of forces within the empire who wish to remove her as heir to the throne, all while in the midst of a long-standing war with a rival galactic empire.
The Chaonian Republic has long been at war with the Phene Empire for control of vast swaths of the galaxy, where FTL intergalactic travel is made possible by an ancient system of “Beacons” built by a long-dead civilization. Now, as the efforts of Princess Sun have given Chaonia a great victory in the war, and the Phene Empire readies for a massive counter-assault, Sun must deal with an attack from within her own ranks. Her mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, is temperamental, volatile, suspicious, and under constant critique for choosing Sun’s father (a Royal of an enemy government) as one of her consorts, and therefore does not trust her own daughter. On top of that, someone among the Noble families is attempting to either kill or discredit Sun and the retinue of Companions she keeps by her side. Along the way, Sun allies herself with a diverse array of characters – including her secret lover, an unstable prisoner of war, a woman who may or may not be a spy, and the winner of a pop media Idol contest. Each of these allies, and many more besides, have secrets and goals and ambitions of their own. It is anyone’s guess who can be trusted, and who will betray the princess.
Kate Elliott is, of course, a highly respected writer of both adult and YA sci-fi/fantasy, and this novel may be her best yet. The world (or galaxy) building is detailed and immense. Because of this, the first fifty pages or so are dense and a bit difficult to push through. Elliott does not shy away from throwing a vast amount of information, terminology, slang, and names at the reader, and leaves it up to you to keep track of it all and connect the necessary dots. I personally have no problem with this kind of “throw them into the deep end and see if they can swim” kind of writing, but some might have difficulty with it. I promise, however, that the effort is rewarded by a intricate plot full of political intrigue and fast-paced space battles, which pulls much of its inspiration from the stories of Alexander the Great (indeed, one of the taglines for the marketing of the book is that it is a “genderbent Alexander the Great on an interstellar scale”).
In addition, many of the cultural details of the worlds and peoples in this novel are pulled from a variety of cultures such as ancient Greek and Roman, a few different Asian religions, and even a bit of the Romani — all mixed, combined, and riffed-off-of in unexpected ways. Perhaps my favorite aspect, however, is that the characters feature a diverse range of ethnicities, sexualities, and complex beliefs/motives. I think perhaps a good ⅔ of the characters are queer of some variety or another, and there are black, brown, and “Asian” people all over the place.
This novel is an unapologetic space opera (I saw someone calling it Space Fantasy, which I object to. Space Opera is its own genre and it’s not “fantasy” at all, even if some of the “science” is soft and unexplained). It is a grand adventure, political intrigue, and military scifi, wrapped in a space opera on an immense scale that rivals the works of James S.A. Corey, Kameron Hurley, and Lois Bujold McMaster.
I might be my favorite read of the year so far, and I absolutely cannot wait for the next one!
As I said at the beginning, this book was released today, so it is available everywhere books are sold! You can find it at any of these links (or at your local bookstore, of course – SHOP INDIE!):
Amanda Haimoto Rudd 