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ladybusinessIt's December: the end of the year and the time of 1000 recommendation lists. We thought we'd get in on the action with some sweet themed recs! We all have those things we love that we wish everyone and their best friend would at try to get into so if they love it they can come create a tiny microfandom with us, and these are ours.
1-3. Can I just say Black Sails three times? It is the best pirate media I have ever consumed, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s my favorite television show of all time. As always, accept a disclaimer that the first five episodes are rapey, and trust me when I say the rapeyness stops and everything becomes extremely queer and anti-colonialist.
1. Can I say short SFF in general? There’s so much awesome stuff going on is short fiction right now and so much of it is free to read online. Everyone should be checking it out. If you want some advice on how to get started I rounded up a bunch of smart people earlier this year to talk about their short fic reading habits.
2. The Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard — I love this short fiction series so much. This a very loosely structured series where all the stories take place in the same alternate history continuum where China made contact with the peoples of the Americas before Europe did. While there are stories set on earth my favorite stories are the ones that take place in space. I really enjoy the Confucian influenced societies, the complex family dynamics and the sentient mind ships—and how they are part of families.
3. Lifelode by Jo Walton — I know why nobody has read this book—it was printed by a small press and only ever available as hardcover. I desperately want it get a sensibly priced ebook release because I love it so much. It's a bit of an odd duck, time is strange in both the world the book takes place in and in the way the story is told. The book is about a family and what happens to them when they get two unexpected visitors at the same time. The family consists of four adults in various romantic relationships with each other. I love how it centers domestic tasks, and also how Walton portrays children. It's just a great book, that I wish was more widely available.
1. I feel like I'm known for picking small fandoms to cling to so choosing just three pieces is going to be tough. I think I'll start with The Bletchley Circle which consists of just seven episodes about a group of female codebreakers after WWII. Bored by the small time options civilian life throws their way, and forbidden from telling anyone about their war work, four former codebreakers from Bletchley Park band together to solve crimes. Despite being genuinely brilliant, this series was cancelled really quickly. However, it recently got a reprieve, and a new short run. In the new series, The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, Millie (Millie!! <3) and Jean go to the US and (what do you know) start solving crimes with a couple of new, smart American women. I feel like the new location could tempt some of our American readers to give it a go...
2. If you like watching women solve crimes while wearing fabulous historical costuming, I suggest you also check out the Frankie Drake Mysteries. This is a Canadian show, set in Toronto after WWI. It follows Frankie Drake, and her best friend/business partner Trudy Clarke, and together they run a successful PI company. The two women are joined in their investigations by Mary, a morality officer with the police, Flo, a female coroner, and occasionally Frankie's mother who is an outrageous con-artist. The mystery plots are a little improbable, and be warned there's a really bad episode about a crime in the local Chinese quarter, but I fell in love with this fun show because of the chemistry between all the women. It's the show I most want to write fanfic about right now.
3. Finally, I'm going to recommend The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia which mixes fantasy, period drama, and a pinch of science fiction with all the emotions. The Beautiful Ones is the kind of book that makes you question how you will ever read anything else ever again because surely nothing could compare with the depth of emotion this book delivers. I just ate up this story about people coming to realise their true feelings, and opening up to the world/what happens when you can't admit your true feelings, and why that can be equal parts your fault and society's fault.
1. My favorite new videogame of the last several years is Persona 5. Part dungeon crawl, part social simulator, all gripping story with fascinating characters and jaw-dropping reveals, this game took a little while to get rolling, but once it did, I was totally hooked.
2. Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy is one of the greatest alternate history worlds I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Imagine a world where the ice age never properly ended, there is no colonialism, and North America is home to a civilization descended from velociraptors. Add to this a story about sisters, fantastical magic elements, and a super-hot romance, and you have some of my favorite books of all time.
3. If you haven't started watching Patriot Act, the new Netflix show featuring comedian and Daily Show alum Hasan Minaj, you should start immediately. Half-hour deep dives on political and pop culture topics, from a perspective rarely seen on talk shows—Minaj is an Indian-American Muslim, and he doesn't shy from making his own views clear. Plus, he's hilarious.
1. Lovesick is a British comedy that my roommate introduced me to this year that stole my heart, and that I just want everyone to watch (it's a tough sell when the original title was Scrotal Recall)!
The show opens with derpy blonde cinnamon roll, Dylan, learning that he has chlamydia and now has to inform all of his past hookups. Rather than use the postcards the health clinic provides, he decides to tell them in person. All of them.
Thus starts several seasons of Dylan, his best friend Luke, and Evie (the girl Dylan has always loved a little bit) reconnecting with Dylan's exes while growing through relationships in a tiny London flat. It was a show that made me cry with laughter, and that provided me my new favorite OT3. Watching straight cis white Luke enter and engage with therapy is a joy to watch, and the dance that Dylan and Evie do is every perfect part of a friends-to-lovers trope.
Plus the show manages to never demonize or flatten Dylan's exes, which would have been incredibly easy given the premise. Really, I don't have enough words for why I love this show and I'm just going to go watch it again because it's such a delight.
1. I want everyone to read The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, the first book in my new favorite YA epic fantasy series now that Kate Elliott has finished her Court of Fives trilogy (although you should read that, too). Chupeco's take on epic fantasy centers girls and women, has an intense focus on sibling relationships, includes a gender/sexuality spectrum and a culture just coming to terms with those, uses neat magic, and contains all the politicking you could ever want. I love it.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn came out early in 2017, but I didn't play it until the very end of December 2017. I had been dubious because it looked like Appropriation: The Game from the trailers, but wow, was I ever surprised. It quickly became one of my favorite games ever, neatly launching itself over even Final Fantasy VIII, my First RPG Love. Aloy is wonderful and the story is complicated and deep, and it's a lovely and heartbreaking exploration of power and the strength of human imagination. I need a sequel now, but will probably be waiting until 2026. *weeps*
3. Warchild by Karin Lowachee was an out-of-nowhere surprise to me, a space opera that deals with the emotional costs of war and the people using any means necessary to end it. It was recced to me now and then throughout the years, but no one ever grabbed me by the face and went, "There's an emotionally fraught relationship between an orphan and his mentor SET IN SPACE!!!!" which is the exact way to get me invested. Unfortunately, the book itself is expensive and the ebook is ridiculous for how old it is (especially if I won't actually OWN IT, arg DRM), but the writing is subtle and quiet but gut-punchy where it needs to be and the characters are excellent so if you haven't read it and are okay with non-explicit abuse storylines, you should read it! It's a good investment.
1. Bacanno! Seriously, I cannot express this enough: Bacanno! It's masterclass in non-linear storytelling and truly ensemble casts, and I am awed at the dedication that went into it. It's got the intersection of my interests—mafia stories, fantasy shenanigans, heists, teamwork—all bundled up and beautiful, and I am always here to shout about it if anyone gets in the mood.
2. Hotel Artemis is my second pick—it's a kinda-cyberpunky movie about a doctor for criminals on a Very Busy Night, and it's gorgeous, the cast is great, and I really loved the visuals and the twists the movie takes! I really want Hotel Artemis to have a fandom so I can just linger in the world a little more!
3. And my final pick is Library Wars: Love & War, which is a manga about Iku Kasahara the first woman to join the Library Defence Force, which protects libraries from military-enforced censorship! I intensely overidentified with Kasahara when I was doing my masters (because we both were not great at the studying to be librarians but dearly loved libraries and weren't very sure how to apply that) and I would honestly just love for there to be more people who understood how much I love Kasahara and need her to be happy.
Theme for December 5: three pieces of media you would like more people to read/watch/play
Jenny
1-3. Can I just say Black Sails three times? It is the best pirate media I have ever consumed, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s my favorite television show of all time. As always, accept a disclaimer that the first five episodes are rapey, and trust me when I say the rapeyness stops and everything becomes extremely queer and anti-colonialist.
Forestofglory
1. Can I say short SFF in general? There’s so much awesome stuff going on is short fiction right now and so much of it is free to read online. Everyone should be checking it out. If you want some advice on how to get started I rounded up a bunch of smart people earlier this year to talk about their short fic reading habits.
2. The Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard — I love this short fiction series so much. This a very loosely structured series where all the stories take place in the same alternate history continuum where China made contact with the peoples of the Americas before Europe did. While there are stories set on earth my favorite stories are the ones that take place in space. I really enjoy the Confucian influenced societies, the complex family dynamics and the sentient mind ships—and how they are part of families.
3. Lifelode by Jo Walton — I know why nobody has read this book—it was printed by a small press and only ever available as hardcover. I desperately want it get a sensibly priced ebook release because I love it so much. It's a bit of an odd duck, time is strange in both the world the book takes place in and in the way the story is told. The book is about a family and what happens to them when they get two unexpected visitors at the same time. The family consists of four adults in various romantic relationships with each other. I love how it centers domestic tasks, and also how Walton portrays children. It's just a great book, that I wish was more widely available.
Jodie
1. I feel like I'm known for picking small fandoms to cling to so choosing just three pieces is going to be tough. I think I'll start with The Bletchley Circle which consists of just seven episodes about a group of female codebreakers after WWII. Bored by the small time options civilian life throws their way, and forbidden from telling anyone about their war work, four former codebreakers from Bletchley Park band together to solve crimes. Despite being genuinely brilliant, this series was cancelled really quickly. However, it recently got a reprieve, and a new short run. In the new series, The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, Millie (Millie!! <3) and Jean go to the US and (what do you know) start solving crimes with a couple of new, smart American women. I feel like the new location could tempt some of our American readers to give it a go...
2. If you like watching women solve crimes while wearing fabulous historical costuming, I suggest you also check out the Frankie Drake Mysteries. This is a Canadian show, set in Toronto after WWI. It follows Frankie Drake, and her best friend/business partner Trudy Clarke, and together they run a successful PI company. The two women are joined in their investigations by Mary, a morality officer with the police, Flo, a female coroner, and occasionally Frankie's mother who is an outrageous con-artist. The mystery plots are a little improbable, and be warned there's a really bad episode about a crime in the local Chinese quarter, but I fell in love with this fun show because of the chemistry between all the women. It's the show I most want to write fanfic about right now.
3. Finally, I'm going to recommend The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia which mixes fantasy, period drama, and a pinch of science fiction with all the emotions. The Beautiful Ones is the kind of book that makes you question how you will ever read anything else ever again because surely nothing could compare with the depth of emotion this book delivers. I just ate up this story about people coming to realise their true feelings, and opening up to the world/what happens when you can't admit your true feelings, and why that can be equal parts your fault and society's fault.
KJ
1. My favorite new videogame of the last several years is Persona 5. Part dungeon crawl, part social simulator, all gripping story with fascinating characters and jaw-dropping reveals, this game took a little while to get rolling, but once it did, I was totally hooked.
2. Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy is one of the greatest alternate history worlds I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Imagine a world where the ice age never properly ended, there is no colonialism, and North America is home to a civilization descended from velociraptors. Add to this a story about sisters, fantastical magic elements, and a super-hot romance, and you have some of my favorite books of all time.
3. If you haven't started watching Patriot Act, the new Netflix show featuring comedian and Daily Show alum Hasan Minaj, you should start immediately. Half-hour deep dives on political and pop culture topics, from a perspective rarely seen on talk shows—Minaj is an Indian-American Muslim, and he doesn't shy from making his own views clear. Plus, he's hilarious.
Chelsea
1. Lovesick is a British comedy that my roommate introduced me to this year that stole my heart, and that I just want everyone to watch (it's a tough sell when the original title was Scrotal Recall)!
The show opens with derpy blonde cinnamon roll, Dylan, learning that he has chlamydia and now has to inform all of his past hookups. Rather than use the postcards the health clinic provides, he decides to tell them in person. All of them.
Thus starts several seasons of Dylan, his best friend Luke, and Evie (the girl Dylan has always loved a little bit) reconnecting with Dylan's exes while growing through relationships in a tiny London flat. It was a show that made me cry with laughter, and that provided me my new favorite OT3. Watching straight cis white Luke enter and engage with therapy is a joy to watch, and the dance that Dylan and Evie do is every perfect part of a friends-to-lovers trope.
Plus the show manages to never demonize or flatten Dylan's exes, which would have been incredibly easy given the premise. Really, I don't have enough words for why I love this show and I'm just going to go watch it again because it's such a delight.
Renay
1. I want everyone to read The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, the first book in my new favorite YA epic fantasy series now that Kate Elliott has finished her Court of Fives trilogy (although you should read that, too). Chupeco's take on epic fantasy centers girls and women, has an intense focus on sibling relationships, includes a gender/sexuality spectrum and a culture just coming to terms with those, uses neat magic, and contains all the politicking you could ever want. I love it.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn came out early in 2017, but I didn't play it until the very end of December 2017. I had been dubious because it looked like Appropriation: The Game from the trailers, but wow, was I ever surprised. It quickly became one of my favorite games ever, neatly launching itself over even Final Fantasy VIII, my First RPG Love. Aloy is wonderful and the story is complicated and deep, and it's a lovely and heartbreaking exploration of power and the strength of human imagination. I need a sequel now, but will probably be waiting until 2026. *weeps*
3. Warchild by Karin Lowachee was an out-of-nowhere surprise to me, a space opera that deals with the emotional costs of war and the people using any means necessary to end it. It was recced to me now and then throughout the years, but no one ever grabbed me by the face and went, "There's an emotionally fraught relationship between an orphan and his mentor SET IN SPACE!!!!" which is the exact way to get me invested. Unfortunately, the book itself is expensive and the ebook is ridiculous for how old it is (especially if I won't actually OWN IT, arg DRM), but the writing is subtle and quiet but gut-punchy where it needs to be and the characters are excellent so if you haven't read it and are okay with non-explicit abuse storylines, you should read it! It's a good investment.
Susan
1. Bacanno! Seriously, I cannot express this enough: Bacanno! It's masterclass in non-linear storytelling and truly ensemble casts, and I am awed at the dedication that went into it. It's got the intersection of my interests—mafia stories, fantasy shenanigans, heists, teamwork—all bundled up and beautiful, and I am always here to shout about it if anyone gets in the mood.
2. Hotel Artemis is my second pick—it's a kinda-cyberpunky movie about a doctor for criminals on a Very Busy Night, and it's gorgeous, the cast is great, and I really loved the visuals and the twists the movie takes! I really want Hotel Artemis to have a fandom so I can just linger in the world a little more!
3. And my final pick is Library Wars: Love & War, which is a manga about Iku Kasahara the first woman to join the Library Defence Force, which protects libraries from military-enforced censorship! I intensely overidentified with Kasahara when I was doing my masters (because we both were not great at the studying to be librarians but dearly loved libraries and weren't very sure how to apply that) and I would honestly just love for there to be more people who understood how much I love Kasahara and need her to be happy.
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Date: 2018-12-06 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 04:58 pm (UTC)