The Disquieting Guest — Some Notes on Gore
A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a brief Twitter conversation with Teresa Frohock and Fred Kiesche that touched on the virtues of the suggested versus the explicit in the creation of terror. If memory serves (and my apologies if it does not), Robert Wise’s The Haunting (the 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House) was invoked. That film is, without a doubt, a powerful argument for the virtues of subtlety. So is the CGI-laden 1999 version, which proves just how good Wise’s approach (faithful to Jackson) was by doing the precise opposite and failing in spectacular (if entertaining) fashion. That being said, I would like to mount a bit of a defence of explicitness here. More particularly, I would like to say a few words about the value of gore. Back around the end of the 80s, and the start of the 90s, there was a sometimes-heated debate on this subject. We had “quiet” versus “loud” horror, and this was when the term “splatterpunk” had its greatest currency. While the debates were interesting, the
Book Review: Enchanted and Hero by Alethea Kontis
Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for a living, But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day Is bonny and blithe and good and gay. This rhyme opens Enchanted, the first in a series of the tales of the Woodcutter sisters. When we first meet them, Sunday, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, is out in the Wood, writing stories in a journal. She meets an enchanted frog named Grumble, and the rest, as they say, is history. Alethea Kontis hooked me in quickly with the easy conversational tone of Sunday’s encounter with Grumble. The Princess and the Frog is a fine story,
Book Review: A DARKLING SEA by James Cambias
Two species of aliens, a frozen world, and a no-contact policy that is more than badly bent are the ingredients of A Darkling Sea, a first novel by short story writer and roleplaying game supplement writer James Cambias. I’ve been familiar with Cambias’ roleplaying work for a long time, most notably the GURPS: Mars and GURPS: Space supplements. The rigor and careful research in those supplements translates here to a novel quite well. Ilmatar is an Europa-like body, a gas giant moon with an ocean covering the surface, a layer of frozen water kilometers thick insulating the liquid interior ocean and letting the hydrothermic vents warm the ocean underneath to
The World SF Tour: A Comics and Graphic Novel Reading List?
Since I’ve been the one blogging about comics here (Mike Underwood doesn’t count), I figured I could do something special for the World SF Tour: read more SF/Fish work by creators from elsewhere. I already read tons of Marvel titles, with a few indies and DC titles tossed in, but most of the folks behind those works are from the U.S. So I went a-googling for works by people from elsewhere…and didn’t come up with much at all (a few things here or there). Short of searching every single country on Earth, I haven’t the foggiest where to find new or upcoming comics by people from outside the U.S. in English (translated or otherwise). The only exception is Japan, whose comics industry is so large that there are entire magazines dedicated to discussing it (manga rules, by the way). This is where the Internet comes in. I’m interested in reviewing or discussing SF/Fish comics by creators from all over the world, published whenever (slight preference for newer-ish works). And if you have a way to find this stuff OR you’ve got suggestions OR you can share this with folks who might have some information, I’d appreciate the help. So…what should I be reading?
Geekomancer Under Glass – 2014 in Geekdom
Happy New Year! Mike Underwood again with some thoughts on what lies ahead for Geekdom in 2014. There’s far more than I could possibly cover here, but please find below a few of the bits of Geekdom I’m most excited for in the first part of 2014. Return of new TV Three new SF/F series have caught my interest this season, which is more than I might have expected. I’ve talked about them before, but I’ll go over each, in brief, with my hopes for the back half of the season.
Giveaway: James Dashner’s The Kill Order AND The Eye of Minds + Dashnerian Swag!
That’s right. We’ve got two books to give away this week as part of James Dashner’s blog tour for the paperback edition of The Kill Order. Entry is going to be super simple. All you need to do is answer this question in the comments OR via Twitter (@skiffyandfanty — use the hashtag #dashnerarmy) OR via email (skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com — use the subject line Dashner Giveaway): What is your favorite young adult fantasy or science fiction novel? So get your entries in right away. The giveaway will close on January 24th, 2014 (Friday). Winners will be announced on the following Monday. On top of that, Dashner’s Army is going to give away some swag (t-shirts, etc.) if they reach 1,000 members. Joining is pretty darn easy. You just need to go here and sign up!
