Somewhere Different Now

Well, there's an hour and change left of 2018 in my timezone. It hasn't been the shittiest year ever for me personally, but it hasn't been an especially good one either. On the larger scale of national and world news, it's been a deluge of horror with a hint of hope to come. However, rather than delivering any thoughtful reflections on larger issues, here's a list of some movies, books, and fanworks I loved this year. This is a list of my favorites, not necessarily what I think was the best quality.

Favorite Movies
-Black Panther - This list is in alphabetical order, not ranking order, but Black Panther is undeniably my top film of 2018. Perfect blend of dealing thoughtfully with big issues, fascinating characters, great action, and a gorgeous look.
-Colette - Keira Knightly plays a bisexual author, stands up for her desires and recognition against patriarchal expectations, and wears gorgeous period outfits...it's like they made it just for me. I found the depiction of her marriage to be fascinating. It wasn't a healthy relationship at all, but it was an interestingly complicated one.
-Ocean’s Eight - A super fun romp featuring competence porn and a great cast of ladies.
-Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse - Would have been the best Marvel movie of the year if Black Panther hadn't existed. The animation was outstanding, and somehow made even a Spider-man origin story feel fresh. Fun for both very casual and more serious fans.
-The Spy Who Dumped Me - The most underrated movie of the year. Look, I'm not saying it's great cinema for the ages, but TSWDM was probably the most fun I had in a movie theater all year. I laughed so much. Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis seem to be having a great time onscreen together. Part of building a movie industry less centered on men is that women should also get to be at the center of silly action buddy comedies of middling quality. We deserve a Mary Sue-ish fantasy of being swept up from a boring life into a more exciting world and eventually, after a lot of mishaps, ending up being really good at it. If that hasn't sold you on this movie, Kate McKinnon flirts with Gillian Anderson (only minimally in character) and performs on a trapeze.
- A Star Is Born - The second-closest I came to crying in a movie theater this year. Lady Gaga proves that her acting chops are as strong as her singing voice.
-Won’t You Be My Neighbor - Definitely the closest I came to crying in a movie theater this year was in this documentary about Mr. Rogers. It's well worth watching if the world at large is dragging you down as a reminder that there are truly decent and kind people in the world, and at least one of them was even a white man.

Favorite Books (Alphabetical by author. Not necessarily books published this year, just ones I read this year)

-All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders - Moving, inventive, quirky, relevant.
-The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman (Invisible Library series #5)- One of my favorite ongoing series.  So much fun, and characters who really need more fandom.
-The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - alternate history of space travel after a devastating meteor strike in 1952.  Great premise, diverse lady-centric cast, tautly written.
-Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty - tense space thriller full of clones and nonlinear narratives.
-Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire (October Daye #12) - Latest installment in my other favorite ongoing series.  I love these characters so much and want to protect them from all the terrible things and big revelations that keep happening.
-On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor - Fascinating nonfiction about trails from the first organisms to move along the sea floor to modern long-distance hiking. 
-The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, & A Conjuring of Light, all read this year) - Fantastic worldbuilding, suspenseful, memorable characters including a piratical female antihero.  
-The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne Valente- deliciously angry tales from all the women killed in male-centric superhero stories.
-Space Opera by Catherynne Valente - Eurovision in space with the fate of humankind at stake.  Glam rock meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Hopepunk comedy.

Favorite Fanworks 

-The Night War: 60th Anniversary Edition by praximeter - Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers (with hints of unrequited Bucky/Steve). Do you like strong backstories for characters left underdeveloped by canon, frame stories, historical research, unreliable narrators, or being utterly emotionally compromised? Then go break your heart into a million pieces with WWII-era Bucky's diaries right now. This immersive fic blew me away.
-Avengers Get Ready by niyalune- fanvid distilling so many MCU feelings.
-Winter's Herald by leveragehunters.  My inner 14 year-old died of squee at seeing that there was an epic length MCU/Heralds of Valdemar fusion focusing on Steve/Bucky, and it was incredibly well done.  Soul bonds and telepathy and magical horse-like beings, oh my!
-i need a forest fire by tomorrowsrain - Bucky and Tony go on an epic roadtrip as fugitives, enemies to friends. Also Steve/Bucky relationship. Plotty with excellent dialog.
- light a match and burn them down by defcontwo - it has Steve/Bucky/Peggy and serum!Peggy with great banter...all the things my heart desires in a fic for these characters, pretty much.

What have y'all enjoyed this year?  What great things did I miss that I'll have to catch? 

Happy 2019, y'all.  May it hold manifold good things in store for you, and may you all find the strength to meet its inevitable challenges.

If you're looking to add some more active LJ fandom folk to your friends list, there's a lively friending meme going on over at the_redjay's journal.


{ visit my post } { visit the thread }


Go forth and meet people!  (And welcome, new people I've just met.  Glad to have you.)

Now, it's time for What I'm Reading Wednesday! It's the pre-DragonCon edition.

What are you currently reading?

I'm rereading Captain Marvel Vol. 1:  In Pursuit of Flight, which I've brought with me to Atlanta because I want to get it signed by Kelly Sue Deconnick at DragonCon.  I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET KELLY SUE!  I adore Captain Marvel.  Most of that is due to Kelly Sue's writing.  Before I picked up this volume the first time a little over a year ago, I knew pretty much nothing about Carol Danvers aside from the fact that tumblr approved of her and she had a practical costume.  By the end of the six issues collected in this trade, I  felt like I knew her.  More than that, I was ready to kneel at Carol's feet to offer my fealty and sidekick services, except that I knew that Carol would prefer I stand.  (Half a step behind her, because she's ridiculously competitive like that, but standing all the same.) In Kelly Sue DeConnick's hands, Carol manages to be both an impressively inspirational hero and a rounded human character with flaws and quirks.

I am also a grand total of two paragraphs into The Neon Court by Kate Griffin.  I very much enjoyed the previous two books in this urban fantasy series, so I'm looking forward to the rest of this one.  They are wonderfully weird.

What have you recently finished reading?

I just finished The Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire, the most recent of the October Daye novels.  This one was another strong entry into a series I love.  One thing I think Seanan does well is to put the characters in ridiculous situations, have the characters be perfectly aware of how absurd everything is, and still keep the stakes high and the emotions strong.  For example (keeping it a bit vague to avoid major spoilers), while reading The Chimes at Midnight, I got kind of choked up when a character got a pie to the face and the consequences were REALLY UPSETTING.  That tension between the silly (pie to the face!) and the deadly serious is tough to pull off convincingly.  (I should also note that I was reading this book on the plane, and at one point the flight attendant asked me about beverages when I was utterly absorbed in the plot. I jumped and flailed visibly at the sudden intrusion of the real world.  It's that sort of exciting book.)

I am saddened to come to the end of currently available novels in this series.  Luckily, Seanan is a crazy-fast writer, so hopefully there will be more before too long.  How does she manage to produce regular new books in several series and have them all be so damn good?  They're not long books, but they don't have a trace of the sloppiness you often see in writers with this sort of annual wordcount.  I suspect Seanan has a portrait in the attic that experiences chronic writer's block and unproductive days on her behalf.

Also, my theory from the last book about Toby's squire Quentin was totally vindicated.  I feel like I should get a sticker or something.

What do you think you'll read next?

I'll be reading the rest of The Neon Court, for starters.  I love Kate Griffin's version of a magic-infused London.  The magic feels integrated with the contemporary urban setting in a way that not a lot of urban fantasies truly manage.  After that, Saga vol. 3 is on my agenda. (Saga! ♥ ♥ ♥)

I never escape DragonCon without buying books, so we'll see what surprises lie in store.

(Did I mention that DragonCon is about to start?  HUZZAH!)

A number of people on my friends list have been doing the What I'm Reading Wednesday meme as a semi-regular feature.  I thought I might try it.

What are you currently reading?
I just started London Falling by Paul Cornell, an urban fantasy about cops who accidentally become involved with supernatural goings-on.  I'm enjoying it quite a bit, although it's taking its sweet time to get to events described in the second sentence of the blurb on the cover.  Still, despite the slightly slow start my attention is very much caught, and I'm enjoying the

What have you recently finished reading?
I just finished Philip Pullman's The Shadow in the North, second of the Sally Lockhart YA Victorian mystery novels.  It's been a while since I read the first in that series (The Ruby in the Smoke), but I remember liking the first one better than I liked this.  Sally Lockhart herself is a great character:  stubborn, independent, and with a practical interest in finance that you don't often see celebrated.  There was some nicely done atmospheric creepiness.  Overall, however, I found this book curiously unsatisfying.  There were some characters who made decisions that didn't make sense for them and some events that seemed to happen because the plot needed it rather than because they made much sense.  Also, there were certain instances of genuine psychic-type powers that didn't seem to fit with the rest of the world established in the book, let alone the marketing as a mystery/thriller.  If you're going to write a fantasy, then commit to it, don't just throw in a few random instances of minor characters with psychic powers as a lazy way to give your protagonists information.

What do you think you'll read next?

I bought the first volume of Saga (written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples) recently.  I think that might be next on my reading list.

Meanwhile in music, I recently discovered the band Delta Rae and have been listening to their Chasing Twisters EP obsessively.  You can stream the whole thing here.

Now, what you really want:  kitten pictures!
( Three adorable pictures under the cut )

I just finished reading A Dance With Dragons, the fifth and final currently available book in the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones books.  I am super excited that I can now read fic and meta without getting spoiled any more!  (If anyone has recs, that would be awesome.)  First, my non-spoilery thoughts, then spoilers behind a cut.

-So far, the ASoIaF books seem to follow a reverse pattern to the original cast Star Trek movies in that the odd numbered ones have been much better than the even, IMHO.

-Dolorous Edd is the best.  There's this great non-spoilery conversation that I think pretty well sums up Westeros:
Dolorous Edd:  "This is going to end badly."
Jon Snow:  "You say that of everything."
Dolorous Edd:  "Aye, m'lord.  Usually I'm right."

-I'm not one of those entitled jerks who demands that George R. R. Martin spend 14 hours a day at his computer typing constantly.  I prefer quality over speed, and I fully understand that writing a big project often involves taking breaks.  That said, is it time for The Winds of Winter yet? How about tomorrow?  Next week?  Oh fuck.

OK, I'm in Sherlock fandom, I can do this waiting thing.  It's already been about two years since ADWD came out, so maybe another year and a bit is a reasonable hope?  *looks up publication dates of previous books*  There were SIX years between books 4 and 5?  Pardon me while I collapse in the corner and sob.

Spoiler Time!

-Jon Snoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!  Multiple stab wounds = very, very bad.  It's possible he's dead.  However, the fact that his stabbing was the last we saw of the Wall in this book means that his death is not confirmed.  Among other factors, Melisandre was close by and seems to want him alive.  While she is creepy as fuck, she also has magic that might make a difference.  I really hope it doesn't come to him being brought back to a state of not-quite-alive like Beric Dondarrion and Lady Stoneheart.

-Surprise bonus Targaryen!!!  Wow, I definitely didn't see that coming.  Young Aegon seems a good lad, but his existence sort of causes problems for Daenerys's claim to the throne of Westeros, doesn't it?  He also seems very intent on proving himself in battle.  I predict an upsetting death!

-Daenerys honey, I love you, and I think you are a Grade A Badass, but you don't always make the best choices, do you?  How was chaining the dragons up in the basement a plan? Did you expect to be able to keep them there forever, and if so what did you think would happen to your people's perception of your power?  Why not attempt to train and help them out with carefully supervised interactions with other people so they know not to eat any more children instead of traumatically chaining two dragons up, having one get away, and letting them all get increasingly feral?  (Still, at least your choice to chain up dragons had more logic to it than Quentyn's choice to try to abscond with them.  Seriously, how could anyone think that would work?)  As for the situation within Meereen and the threat from outside, there were no really good choices in this messy situation, but I don't think marrying what's-his-face was the best of your bad options.  Even if he hadn't turned out to be possibly murderous, the sad thing is that in a patriarchal society marrying a man is bound to reduce your power in favor of his.

So that wasn't great, but then you walked right up to Drogon when he was in the middle of a rampage and rode him into the sky, like a boss.  MY KHALEESI.  I LOVE YOU SO.  Then it's time for a bit of a wander in the wilderness.  Sure, why not? I don't know where we go from here, and the situation back with Ser Barristan in Meereen is not at all good, but Dragonrider Dany is such a huge leap forward.

(I very much appreciate that here we have a fantasy novel where politics aren't easy, where coming in as the glorious conqueror and changing the barbaric local laws doesn't automatically fix everything and can in fact lead to some pretty awful unintended consequences, but damn, I want that girl to succeeed.)

-Tyrion:  that scene in the Sorrows with the mists and the stone men was creepy as hell.  Excellent writing there.  As for the rest, it's interesting to see how Tyrion gets by without the privileges of status and money.  For someone raised in one of the most powerful houses of Westeros, Tyrion is remarkably adaptable.  I don't know whether to be amused or frustrated that he got so close to Daenerys without actually getting to meet her, although she did save his life with her refusal to let the lions be loosed.

-Brienne is alive! She met up with Jaime, and then NO MORE INFORMATION?????  Goddammit Martin.  Maybe Brienne and Jaime can get Lady Stoneheart to refrain from killing Jaime by bringing her the head of Walder Frey?

-I hate that despite all the genuinely repugnant things Cersei has done, the thing that has so far earned her punishment is consensual sex, and not even the incestual sex with Jaime because that's unproven in the eyes of the law.  She is a terrible ruler and a worse human being, but her fucking of Lancel and the Kettleblacks woudn't be a big deal if it weren't for the damn patriarchy. Screw that.  I wish her punishment were (a) directed at the fact that she sends innocent people to painful death and (b) not so sexualized.  Anyway, now she apparently has a Frankenstein knight?

-Theon Greyjoy is a selfish, honorless, petty, idiotic, savage, ungrateful, boneheaded murderer of children (and not even the relevant children, which somehow pisses me off even more).  I loathe him.  He deserves to die; he does not deserve Ramsay Bolton.  No one deserves Ramsay Bolton, with the possible exceptions of the Mountain (who is already dead) and Walder Frey.  (Joffrey almost made that list, but he gets 1% slack for the fact that he was still really young and also raised by Cersei.) I think the character of Ramsay is too over the top evil; he's less interesting than the series' more nuanced villains. I guess Martin might have reasoned that it takes a character that improbably monstrous to make a useless pile of puss like Theon look comparatively sympathetic.  I still loathe Theon, but I am glad that he's away from Ramsay and gladder that he helped the wildling women get Jeyne Poole away too.  He and Jeyne may well die in the snowy woods with Stannis, but that is infinitely preferable to a long life with Ramsay.

-Asha Greyjoy is the only Greyjoy whose name in a chapter heading doesn't make me groan in disappointment.  She is awesome.

-I didn't think that Davos's reported execution in A Feast for Crows was likely to be real, and I'm glad to see my suspicions proven right!  Hooray for Lord Wyman Manderley!  I am anxious to see when/how Manderley goes public with his opposition to the Boltons and Freys.  (And yeah, thanks to some spoilers I'd seen prior to the book I caught that he seems to have served up Frey pie to the Freys and Boltons at Winterfell, though I am interested to see if this will ever be confirmed.  And he ate it himself, wtf?)

-I still adore Arya, but considered objectively she is fucking scary.  She has seen so much death that she has decided to become it.  I have no clue how (if?) her story is going to get re-integrated with the rest of the characters.  Oh well.  I still look forward to every chapter with my precious deadly assassin child.

-So now that winter has officially arrived, do the Starks have to temporarily change their house words? "Winter is coming" doesn't make as much sense when it is currently winter.  My proposals:

"We told you so."

"Winter done came."

Or simply "WINTER."

-There were dragons in this book, and there was dancing, but I don't think anybody actually danced with the dragons.  FALSE ADVERTISING.

There are entire important characters I haven't yet mentioned, but this entry has gone on long enough.

One of the lovely things about Sherlock Holmes is that the original canon is out of reach of copyright laws, meaning that established authors can write fanfic and get paid for it.  The BBC's Sherlock is a classic "born in another time period" AU, for instance.  The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a book with an excellent collection of professional Holmes fic that may appeal to the Sherlock fans on this flist as well as others who have read some of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.

The concept of this collection is that it contains a mix of genres:  some straight-up mystery stories where every bizarre occurrence can be explained away, and some speculative fiction stories where the solution to the mystery involves something like aliens, Cthulhu, or travel to a parallel universe.  In almost all of the stories I was able to tell whether the supernatural occurrences were "real" almost immediately, well before the reveal, but the variety of genres was fun nevertheless.  As in any collection of short stories, some are better than others, but there were a number of stories I absolutely adored and only one or two I truly disliked. Some of my favorites included (with some fairly minor spoilers):

-Naomi Novik does her fanfic origins proud in "Commonplaces."  She directly addresses the question of exactly how deep the connection between Holmes and Watson runs.  I squeed SO DAMN HARD, even though it's a bittersweet story.  Also, I really like Novik's version of Irene Adler.

-Stephen King's descriptively titled "The Doctor's Case," wherein Watson solves the mystery before Holmes.  It turns out that my fondness for super-competent!John in the BBC-verse translates to other versions of our detective duo as well.

-"The Singular Habits of Wasps" by Geoffrey Landis, a brilliantly unsettling take on Jack the Ripper.

-Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald."  If you don't already know why this story is a dark gem, you can also read it on Neil's website.

-"The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil's Cape" by Rob Rogers.  Inspired lunacy with an albino alligator and PIRATES!  Also, BAMF!Watson fights a giant.
 
-For an example of a pro writer dipping into that beloved fandom genre of crack, I loved "The Adventure of the Lost World" by Dominic Green.  Those in Sherlock fandom may be especially amused to note that this story contains a dinosaur.  (Yes, watchalong folks, it is better than the movie with Gareth David Lloyd.) As if the prospect of Sherlock + dinosaur isn't tantalizing enough, I really must share this selection of dialog between Holmes and Watson.

[( excerpt behind the cut )

In summary, if you're looking for a fun bunch of stories putting familiar characters in unfamiliar situations or you want some [mostly] gen Sherlock Holmes fanfic you can carry around in book form, I recommend The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

I saw Invictus today and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's about a truly inspiring time, the early days of Nelson Mandela's presidency of South Africa. They country had just left apartheid behind, but many blacks were still bitter about all those years of horrible oppression while many whites were extremely distrustful of the new government and angry about their own loss of power. The nation could so easily have fallen apart, but it didn't. There are a number of factors that kept South Africa from disintegrating, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, but Invictus focuses on two: Nelson Mandela and rugby. I could care less about rugby, but it was a good microcosm to show all the racially charged issues that South Africa had to cope with. Also, all of you Doctor Who fans will be interested to know that this movie has Adjoa Andoh, who played Francine Jones, playing one of Mandela's aids.

I spent five months in South Africa in college, studying at the University of Cape Town. I really enjoyed all the reminders of life in that country I got from the movie, everything from drop-dead gorgeous aerial shots of Cape Town to a passing mention of a proposal to make retailers charge extra for plastic bags. (This was established law by the time I visited in 2004. Why doesn't every nation do this?) It was nice to go into the film knowing a little bit extra about the underlying politics and symbolism, but the film explains enough that you don't really need prior knowledge. f you're interested, however, I recommend Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. It's a well-told personal story of a truly remarkable man, but it is also a good introduction to recent South African history. Better yet, go to South Africa. Take me with you!

As for the film, it was quite good, though not truly great. I felt like it told most of the story it had in the first two-thirds or so, leaving the last third weighted down with too much slow-motion footage of large men slamming into each other while grunting a lot. Some bits toed the line between inspirational and trite. Matt Damon, playing the captain of the rugby team, did a decent South African accent but not much else. If you see only one 2009 movie about South Africa, it should be District 9. However, Invictus is still very much worthwhile. Bonus points: read this blog post on what Nelson Mandela's leadership in Invictus teaches us about how to tackle global warming.

I'm currently reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss. I correctly anticipated its appeal to my inner punctuation snob, but I never predicted how often it would make me laugh out loud. Consider this sentence about the Italian printer who, among other achievements, invented italics and printed the first semicolon: "That man was Aldus Mantius the Elder (1450-1515) and I will happily admit I hadn't heard of him until about a year ago, but am now absolutely kicking myself that I never volunteered to have his babies." Ha!

I'm going to Dragoncon next weekend!  Will any of y'all be there?  I'm looking forward to it, although the crowds might be even more crazy than usual due to some big name guests (Leonard Nimoy!  Patrick Stewart!  Adam Savage from Mythbusters!  William Shatner!   I'm glad I'm not in charge of crowd management.)  Gareth David-Lloyd will ( the rest of this sentence cut for CoE spoilers, just in case. )    I'm also thoroughly excited about the chance to see my family, who live in Atlanta and will also attend the con.  (Well, my dad and brother will attend the con full time.   My mom will probably come for a few hours one day to see Adam Savage and look at costumes.)   

I saw District 9 this week.  It was amazing!  (No spoilers in my discussion, no promises about comments.)  The premise is innovative. (Alien spaceship parks over Johannesburg, but the aliens inside are impoverished and disorganized.  They end up living in a shanty town in Jo'burg.  The movie hinges around an effort to evict them for relocation to a farther away camp.)  The treatment of social issues is complex.  The acting is superb.  The effects are great, integrating so well into the documentary-style film that you don't notice them.  This is what science fiction is for:  thought-provoking movies that can also feature a giant robot throwing a car.  Plus, I lived in South Africa for five months during a semester abroad in college, so parts of the movie were a trip down memory lane but with added aliens.  I highly recommend it, with the caveat that the severely squeamish might want to stay away.  There are some intensely gross scenes of illness and quite a bit of violence.

While I'm recommending things, I'd like to direct you to the book Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.  It's young adult (but entirely suitable for adults) post-apocalyptic steampunk about moving cities that eat other cities.  There are also airships!  And cyborgs!  That premise alone may be enough to send you to your local book store, but it's not just a cool idea.  It's a thrilling adventure that I found hard to put down, but it's really more about the fascinating characters and their complex moral dilemmas.   The warning for this one is that I came about thisclose to crying on the Tube while reading it.  Tissues are your friends!