Bonfire of the Genres: Critical Looks Sci-Fi and Fantasy

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Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

I have always thought that fantasy protagonist names beginning with K are the most cliche. Especially what amounts to Keiran spelled differently.

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:33

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 15:06

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

my bony fealty posted:

audacious worldbuilding

Tolkien elves and whales!

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:35

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

lofi posted:

'Nothing but several dozen sixty-foot-long limbless blue elephants' is the name of my new math-rock band.

Not for nothing does the author mention Joss Whedon in her goodreads profile.

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:35

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

are there really loving footnotes

look I have a high tolerance for bad writing and love lots of fantasy books but this is beyond the pale. burn the entire fantasy publishing industry to the ground. take hard sci fi with it.

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:36

Fuzzy Mammal: Aug 15, 2001; Lipstick Apathy

Here's how she introduced thread favourite, a dragon:

quote:

�He�ll hear you. SING!� Teraeth held up his entire fist. �FIVE!�

I�d sung in strange situations back at the Shattered Veil, but usually it was a distraction from more prurient goings on, not from imminent threat of death. And the stone around my neck was hot, scalding hot.

I picked out the first song that came to mind, because it was one of the last I�d performed in public. It felt strange to sing it without the harp Valathea to accompany me.

Let me tell you a tale of
Four brothers strong,
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo,
To whom all the land and
Sea once did belong.
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

�Perfect.� Teraeth shouted. �Keep singing! Six! NOW!�

As if it was following Teraeth�s instructions, the Maw flung The Misery far from the opening. I�ve never traveled so fast, so dizzyingly, sickeningly fast, in my entire life. We blasted out of the Maw with nauseating speed. As soon as we�d cleared the vortex, I heard the screams of sailors as the kraken moved.

One day they saw the veils
Of the same lady fair
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo
And each one did claim
Her hand would be theirs.
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

We shot toward the rocks of the Desolation, missing being torn apart by the slimmest of margins. Unfortunately we headed toward a small rocky island that would be large enough and hard enough to do the job anyway.

The island opened its eyes. The air trapped in my throat as I saw it. Teraeth whispered in a furious voice, �Keep singing!�

I swallowed my fear and continued the song.

Let go of your claim!
They yelled at their brothers,
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo
And each screamed back,
She will never be another�s!
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

�Gods,� I heard Juval say as he pulled himself on deck. �What have you�? That�We�ve got to turn back.�

�There�s no turning back,� Teraeth said. �We run and the Old Man will chase. He likes it when his prey runs.�

As I sang, the island uncurled itself and shook off the accumulated dirt and dust of years asleep. The head was a long and sinuous shape, twisting and joining with a mass of muscle, sinew, and dull mottled scales. The wings, when spread, seemed like they might black out all the sky.

�I�ll take my chances with the kraken.� Juval screamed. �That we can fight. That�s a gods-be-damned DRAGON you�re running us into!�

And so it was.

The dragon was sooty black, the color of thick coal ash. The cracks under its scales pulsed and glowed as if those scaly plates barely contained an inferno.

No forge glowed hotter than its eyes.

No story I�d heard of a dragon�of how big they are, how fierce, how deadly, how terrifying�did justice to the reality. This creature would decimate armies. No lone idiot riding a horse and carrying a spear ever stood a chance.

So they raised up their flags
And they readied for war
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo
The battle was grim and
The fields filled with gore
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo
And when it was done
Every mother was in tears
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

�Stand back, Captain, or you won�t live to see if we survive this.� Teraeth�s voice was calm, smooth, and threatening.

I didn�t look at them. What could I do? I sang. I heard them arguing behind me, and behind that, the noise of crew members screaming as they fought the kraken. It was cacophony on a grand scale, and I couldn�t believe the dragon could distinguish the sources of all that noise.

The dragon opened its mouth. At first, I heard nothing, but then the rumbling roar hit me. Ripples spread out over the water, rocks shattered and split from the islands, the very wood of The Misery throbbed in sympathy. Clouds scuttled across the sky as if trying to escape the creature. Wispy vapors fell away from its mouth: yellow, sulfurous, heavier than smoke. The creature stared at The Misery ,still speeding toward it, and I couldn�t fight off the ugly certainty that the dragon stared directly at me.

A crescendo of screaming sounded behind me, and someone shouted, �My god! It�s on top of the ship!� You can give credit to the dragon that I didn�t look. The dragon had me. You cannot turn away from such a creature. It will either vanish or it will destroy you.

Teraeth must�ve looked away though, and Juval must�ve thought he had an opening. I really don�t know what the Captain was thinking.

I guess he was acting from blind panic.

I heard a scuffle, a grunting noise, the slick scrape of metal. A second later, I heard the unmistakable, unforgettable sound of blood gurgling from a ripped throat.

�Idiot,� Teraeth muttered.

Then the lady fair walked over
The carnage of bloody fears
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo
She said, None of you I�ll have!
My love you do betray
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

The dragon�s keening changed in pitch. I felt the dragon�s song against the surface of my skin, the echo in my eardrums, the vibration in my bones. It was a physical shock, a tangible ecstasy.

He was singing. The dragon was singing with me.

Then she flew up to the sky
And she�s there to this day
Red, yellow, violet, and indigo�

Behind me, more shouts, more screams. The kraken scattered men on the deck as she tried to rip open the hold. There was a loud cracking sound, like a giant snapping trees for firewood.

And on a clear night you can
Still see her veils wave�

�Thaena!� Teraeth screamed. He tackled me as the mast fell right across where I�d been standing.

And, since I�ve never mastered the trick of singing with the wind knocked out of me, I stopped.

The dragon didn�t like that at all.

He launched himself into air, screaming with ear-shattering rage, gigantic wings spread wide against the glaring sun. That titanic creature crossed the distance to the ship in less than three seconds. I�d underestimated his size. He might�ve fit in the Great Arena in the Capital City, but only if he tucked himself up and rolled into a ball like a house cat.

The Old Man glided over us, his shadow a silken cloak sweeping over the ship. He smelled of sulfur and ash, the hot stench of the furnace and melting iron. As he passed, he idly reached out with a talon and plucked up the kraken still clinging to the deck. Great chunks of wood went with her. The dragon tossed the Daughter of Laaka into the air like a ball of string and breathed glowing hot ash at her.

I�m sure you�ve heard stories of dragons breathing fire, but believe me when I say what this one did was worse. That was not fire as you find in a kitchen or forge, not the sort of fire that happens when you rub two sticks together, or even the magic flame sorcerers conjure. This was all the ashes of a furnace, of a thousand furnaces, heated to iron melting white-hot strength, and blasted out at typhoon velocity. The heat melted, the ash scoured, and the glowing cloud left no air to breathe.

That meter...

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:46

Bonaventure: Jun 23, 2005; by sebmojo

"That?" Z'grug waved his hand like a professional waver who was waving at someone, but he waved so disdainfully that had he in fact been a professional waver at persons, he would have gotten a talking-to from his boss for showing such a bad attitude.¹ "That's a herd of Grumguzzers. Furry lumps of poo poo--no, lovely gently caress-whores. Nothing impressive, or anything. Nothing in nature is impressive. Nothing in the world is impressive. You think I do magic because I'm a wizard? Magic is actually indistinguishable from science, as the poet says, and very rational. It's actually boring and normal. Like everything else in this gently caress-whore world." So saying, Z'grug swallowed exactly a pint of Crisprale, and wiped his mouth, and smiled. K'ruth couldn't hide his erection.

_{1. Leave it at the door, folks!}

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:51

A human heart: Oct 10, 2012

Sham bam bamina! posted:

It's very telling that Kirkus reviews for real books are actual reviews while genre fiction gets a basic summary and some regurgitated copy from the publisher.

I don't know what their current reviews are like really but a lot of their older reviews were pretty dismissive of formally experimental or innovative books. lots of cliches like 'pretentious' and 'self indulgent' and that sort of thing.

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:51

lofi: Apr 2, 2018

Does anyone else just kinda reflexively skip over lyrics in books? I think Tolkein might have instilled that in me.

# ? Feb 14, 2019 01:54

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av