News

I Ask You | Less Interesting Book Titles

By Aidan Moher May 27th, 2011

The Sword of Sha Na Na by Terry BrooksFor a bit of fun on a rainy Friday: Yesterday twitter was inundated by clever folk using the #lessinterestingbooks hashtag. How’s it work (for you twitter uninclined)? Take the title of a famous book and twist it around into a blander/funnier/less interesting rendition!

Here are some of the ones I came up with:

The Sword of Sha Na Na by Terry Brooks

Of Mucus and Jam by Stina Leicht

Canadian Gods by Neil Gaiman

Kinda Quiet and Sorta Far Away by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Middle-aged Man’s War by John Scalzi

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azerbaijan by J.K. Rowling

Lord of the Files by William Golding

The Old Man and the Pee by Ernest Hemingway

My favourite:

East of Aidan by John Steinbeck

And, to cap things off, Sam Sykes‘ favourite:

The Crystal Shart by R.A. Salvatore

So, I thought it’d fun to open the floor to you, my lovely readers, and see what your collective wit can come up with! Post away with your favourite #lessinterestingbooks in the comments section below, or let me know some of your favourites that you stumbled across yesterday on twitter!

Art

Art | Celebrating/Bemoaning the 1-year anniversary of LOST’s finale

By Aidan Moher May 26th, 2011

No, I won’t ramble about my thoughts on the finale (I liked it more than most people, though it was littered with problems and proved that Lindelof and Cuse had no friggin’ clue what was happening through most of the series), but instead I’ll point you to this wonderful pixellized rendition of 108 of Lost‘s most prominent characters.

108 characters from LOST

Included are:

ROW ONE: Jack / Locke / Kate / Sawyer / Hurley / Sayid / Jin / Sun / Ben / Juliet / Charlie / Claire w.Aaron

ROW TWO: Richard / Desmond / Penny / Michael / Vincent / Walt / Boone / Shannon / Faraday / Charlotte / Miles / Frank / Rose / Bernard

ROW THREE: Ana Lucia / Eko / Libby / Ilana / Bram / Nathan / Arzt / Nikki / Paolo / Frogurt / Rousseau / Pilot / Officer Mars

ROW FOUR: Charles Widmore / Eloise Hawking / Tom Friendly / Ethan / Goodwin / Mikhail / Cindy / Emma / Zack / Alex / Karl / Ms. Klugh / Pickett / Colleen

ROW FIVE: Matthew Abadon / Naomi / Keamy / Omar / Captain Gault / Minkowski / Regina / Dogan / Lennon / Zoe / Seamus / Montand

ROW SIX: Dr. Chang / Horace / Phil / Razinsky / Roger Linus / Young Ben / Amy / Oldham / Kelvin / Annie / Leonard / “Dave”

ROW SEVEN: Christian Shephard / Sarah Shephard / David Shephard / Achara / Aaron / Kate’s Mother / Kate’s Step-Father / Claire’s Mother / Nadia / Cassidy / Liam / Anthony Cooper

ROW EIGHT: Mr. Paik / Mrs. Paik w.Ji Yeon / Jai Lee / Hurley’s Mother / Hurley’s Father / Randy Nations / Yemi / Isabella / Helen / Susan Lloyd / Richard Malkin / Billy Dee Willaims as Himself :)

ROW NINE: Jacob / The Man In Black / Mother / Young Jacob / The Smoke Monster

A full-sized version of the image is included on artist Ol’ Fuzzy Bastard’s tumblr. My favourites? Frogurt on fire; Frank; and, of course, Nikki and Paolo. Which’re your favourites?

Also, a year later? What’re your thoughts on the much-maligned series finale of Lost? What about the show in its entirety?

Feature Article

Guest Post | Stina Leicht on ‘Writing Urban Fantasy without Vampires, detectives and tramp-stamped chicks’

By Stina Leicht May 25th, 2011

OF BLOOD AND HONEY by Stina LeichtAs much as I adore Fantasy, being a female and writing Fantasy has it’s drawbacks — particularly when you write Urban Fantasy. Conversations tend to go like this:

Party guest: “Oh? You’re a writer? What do you write?”

Me: “I write fiction. SciFi and Fantasy. Fantasy mainly.”

Party guest: “For kids?”

Me: “I write Fantasy for adults.”

Party guest: “Oh, you write erotica about tramp-stamped detective chicks and vampires.”

Me: “Um. No. I’m writing about Irish myth and the Troubles.”

Party guest: “Oh, you write erotica about tramp-stamped Irish chicks and fairies with butterfly wings.”

Me: [sigh]

I’ve never witnessed a conversation like the one above when the author in question is male. Writing for children is never brought up, let alone erotica. During my last signing at Barnes and Noble, I spent more than half my time explaining to customers that no, there aren’t any vampires in the book, the main character is male, and the only tattoos present on any character are prison tattoos. As much progress as has been made in SciFi and Fantasy circles* and in American society in general, we’ve still got a long way to go. So, let me get something off my chest here and now. As much as I’m okay with Romance’s interest in all things Fantasy, it can be, let’s just say, extremely frustrating for someone like me.

Because I don’t like Romance as a literary genre, and I never have.
Read More »

Review

Review | OF BLOOD AND HONEY by Stina Leicht

By Aidan Moher May 24th, 2011
OF BLOOD AND HONEY by Stina Leicht

Of Blood and Honey

Author – Stina Leicht

Trade Paperback
Pages: 288
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: January 25, 2011
ISBN-10: 9781597802130
ISBN-13: 978-1597802130

“Urban Fantasy”

Is that a dirty phrase to your ears? Do you think of sexy vampires? Sassy heroines? Sex, tramp stamps and one-liners?

“Oh, I don’t like that stuff,” you say.

“Stina Leicht’s Of Blood and Honey is different,” I respond. It’s alive. It has a message. It’s violent because life is violent. There’s sex because the politics of it help define us as humans. More guns are loaded with rubber bullets than silver. No vampires are in sight, and the only werewolf is the shadow of the protagonist’s inner-demons. Throw your misconceptions aside, forget about Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake, and explore a whole other facet of the sub-genre.

Set in the early- to mid-seventies, Of Blood and Honey is told against the backdrop of the Troubles, the political warfare that plagued Northern Ireland from the 1960’s to as recently as 2010. As bloody, depraved, violent and twisted as any fictional war, this guerilla warfare between the Irish Republic Army, the British Army, the Ulster Defence Force, the Ulster Volunteer Force and many other forces is the perfect backdrop to tell the story of the mysterious Fey of Ireland as they struggle in a eerily similar battle against the fallen angels brought to the emerald isle when the Catholics settled.
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News

An Aside | 2011 Nebula Award Winners

By Aidan Moher May 22nd, 2011
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

From Tor.com:

SHORT STORY

NOVELETTE

  • WINNER: “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made,” Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)
  • “Map of Seventeen,” Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
  • “The Jaguar House, in Shadow,” Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 7/10)
  • “Plus or Minus,” James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10)
  • “Pishaach,” Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)
  • “The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara,” Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)
  • “Stone Wall Truth,” Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s 2/10)

NOVELLA

 NOVEL

BRADBURY AWARD BEST DRAMATIC PRODUCTION 

  • WINNER: Inception, Christopher Nolan (director), Christopher Nolan (screenplay) (Warner)
  • Despicable Me, Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (directors), Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul (screenplay), Sergio Pablos (story) (Illumination Entertainment)
  • Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor,” Richard Curtis (writer), Jonny Campbell (director)
  • How to Train Your Dragon, Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (directors), William Davies, Dean DeBlois, & Chris Sanders (screenplay) (DreamWorks Animation)
  • Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Edgar Wright (director), Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright (screenplay) (Universal)
  • Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich (director), Michael Arndt (screenplay), John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, & Lee Unkrich (story) (Pixar/Disney)

ANDRE NORTON AWARD

So, congrats to all the winners! Glad to see Swirsky take home Best Novella, though I’ve not yet read ‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window’. I think I’ll set aside a chunk of time this summer to catch up on all the Nebula- and Hugo-nominated short stories, novelettes and novellas. There’s some good reading on those lists. I’m particularly interesting in the stories from Barzak, de Bodard and El-Mothar.