We interrupt the usual weekly “Blog for a Beer” event to bring you this special contest!
From now through midnight on Dec. 31, Fantasy-Magazine.com invites you to use the comments below to post any fantasy-, science fiction-, or geek-related thought you might have on the topic “The Best of the Year.” Interpret this phrase however you see fit. We’ll be home sleeping late on Jan. 1, of course, but on Jan. 2, the editors will convene and choose two winners: the Most Profound, and the Most Entertaining. Each will receive a year’s-best prize package including:
- Best American Fantasy
, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
- Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition
, edited by Rich Horton
- Best New Romantic Fantasy 2
, edited by Paula Guran
Have fun with it. See you in ‘08!
1 • King Rat said:
December 28th, 2007 at 12:39 pm, permalink
David Anthony Durham’s Acacia was overrated. Joe Abercrombie’s U.S. debut was not given the attention it deserves.
2 • Michael Gordon said:
December 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm, permalink
Best Outing
“It was the downfall of moral civilization. It was the end of literature as we know it. Not only had an author told us something about a character that wasn’t in the book but she had the blasphemous gall to give said a character a perverse, despicable, practically unheard of sexual preference. And in a children’s book no less!”
The funny thing was, aside from a few nuts (and the media), nobody seemed to care that Dumbledore was gay. Responses seemed to range from “Whatever” to “Ok” to “Yeah, that kinda makes sense”. What seemed to bother some of the readers/writers I know was the fact that Rowling should stop “messing” with her characters. One person actually expressed his feelings by saying that the seven Harry Potter books are “closed canon” and everything Rowling says after that is non-canonical.
With some authors, like Tolkien, that’s a pretty important distinction to make. He wrote a lot and revised a lot and plenty is just contradictory. Also, he’s dead. That makes things pretty damn final. Rowling had said before she finished book 7 that she might well write a follow up, an “encyclopedia” filled with tidbits like the Gay-bomb she dropped on us a few months ago, so why do we consider it out-of-bounds when she mentions it in a Q&A session.
There’s even literary precedent here. Jane Austen (Rowling’s favorite author) wrote to friends and fans after the publication of Pride & Prejudice and told them some of what went on after the book ends. The whole point of identifying canons is because texts don’t always arrange themselves neatly (look at how many biblical canons there are, those texts span thousands of years).
The analogy I liked to use when thinking about this whole fiasco is this: If someone had asked Rowling what Dumbledore’s zodiac sign was, would anyone care that she knew the answer before the question was asked? No one would say, “Why didn’t you include it in the books?” or “No, we can’t know that now!” But plenty of zodiac fans would then reread the books and (if Rowling actually took this into account) would find a new appreciation for the character and Rowling’s writing by seeing how she used this background information without needing to make it obvious. Literary critics don’t want to admit that the reason this has been a big deal really is because of how our culture views homosexuality. Trying to sound like you’re above these biases while condemning an author’s right to her own characters is just foolish.
Personally, I like the fact that an author knows her characters so well–it makes them more real. Now, if only Rowling would tell us why McGonagall never married…
3 • Rafe said:
December 28th, 2007 at 2:40 pm, permalink
Best Concept:
“Blog for a Beer Friday”
(this allows for the following corollary, “Best Suck-Uppery” – Yours Truly)
[Real content later]
4 • Damien G Walter said:
December 29th, 2007 at 9:15 am, permalink
M John Harrison reignited the age old ‘literature vs. escapism’ debate in his rant against worldbuilding:
http://uzwi.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/very-afraid/
The blogosphere reacted in typically polarised form, with William Gibson and Cory Doctorow taking corner with MJH whilst a vast array of critics threw every kind of bile in response to MJH’s attack on ‘the clomping foot of nerdism’. Its not the first time MJH has declared war on fandom, and likely won’t be the last. Obviously infamy has it’s rewards, as MJH took a coveted ‘Hottie’ award from Pats Fantasy Hotlist.
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/
5 • Damien G Walter said:
December 29th, 2007 at 12:52 pm, permalink
Patrick Rothfuss leaps to mind. The Name of the Wind was fun and well written.
6 • Jerry Seeger said:
December 29th, 2007 at 4:53 pm, permalink
Well, I sat down to scribble out a “Best of the Year” blurb, but as always I didn’t do a very good job of following the assignment. Oh, sure it follows the theme (somewhat), but there’s really not much of an SF angle to it at all. I suppose you could argue that there are some solid hints that fantasy elements are involved. It will have to do.
So anyway, here it is, for what it’s worth, 600+ words of late-night pondering.
—-
The Best of the Year
He stood in the darkened hallway of his childhood home, listening to the silence. Waiting for something, maybe. A nudge in one direction or another, or the echo of a voice from long ago. The memories sifted and stirred, but none rose into view. On nights like this he believed in ghosts.
“What are you doing?” Claire’s voice came from the guest bedroom — once his room — and sounded sleepy.
“Nothing. Just thinking.” He walked into the room and in the pale moonlight for a moment he thought he saw Gwen there instead; it was Gwen who had always wanted the curtains open even in that south-facing room. She had complained about the sun every morning, but would never consider sleeping where she couldn’t see the sky. Now it was he who felt trapped when the blinds were closed, and Claire who patiently tolerated his idiosyncrasy.
“Now, honey, remember what the doctor said about thinking. It’s bad for you.” She tried to keep her voice light, but he could tell she wasn’t really joking. There is a time for thinking, a time for the mysteries of life and the mad world we occupy, and there’s a time to lie quietly in your lover’s arms, knowing nothing but the scent of her and the heat where her skin touches yours.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
“Are you kidding? It’s freezing outside.”
“But there’s no wind. Once the moon goes down it’ll be perfect.”
“But…”
“There’ll be meteors.” They had a tradition of kissing whenever they saw a falling star. “It’s the Quadrantids. The best of the year.” He heard an echo when he said it, like deja vu but not quite; the last time he had been the one in bed.
Claire smiled seductively and flipped the covers back, showing her skimpy nightie. Her Christmas gift to him. “Come on to bed, sweetie.”
He felt the pull of her, her form indistinct in the darkness but radiating heat. He took a step toward the bed when a flash of light streaked across the sky outside. “I just need to go out for a while, have a look,” he said, but he knew he was lying.
When Claire heard the door close she knew he was gone. She had felt him slipping away almost the moment they met, as she cast her net and drew him in gently, ever so slowly, trying not to hold too tight. Bastard. Now here she was in his parent’s house, and in the morning it was going to be up to her to tell them their son was gone. Where? I don’t know. When is he coming back? A shrug. Maybe never. Would she be able to say that?
At least now she would be able to sleep with the curtains closed.
She rose from bed and stood at the window, her hand on the pull cord for the curtains, looking out at the stars as they clustered in the black high desert sky. The stars he was looking at, somewhere else, not far away as the crow flew but light years along the crooked paths the heart followed.
A meteor flashed past, and another. She stood, her bare legs gooseflesh. Another. If she had followed him they would be kissing now. She wondered how she felt about that. The sense of loss wasn’t the acute distress of a breakup, but the yearning for something she had perhaps never known. Another meteor, another bit of drifting debris, ancient, consumed silently in the time between two heartbeats, a flash of light and no more. Billions of years and then poof and that was all.
Finally, tired, she crawled back into bed, but she didn’t close the curtains.
7 • Alan Croftsman said:
December 30th, 2007 at 7:36 am, permalink
Bests of the Year
Regards, Jerry Seeger, my highest regards. One best of the year is when a fellow human being smacks you hard upside the head with a monkey-wrench of recognition using mere fantasy, and that you have done. The posting you wrote preceding mine inspired me to write the following, from which you all may pluck a number of bests:
Thirty seven years I have lived in anguish, but only because of fear and selfishness. Now, 2007, my girlfriend of two years wants to marry… me! the drifting bachelor… and there is talk of children. This past April we bought a house and not one month later a fantastic (but aren’t they all?) dog. Yes, we begain fumbling with the very concepts of bliss.
She is 26, 24 when we met, and when I decided to start dating her back then, I told myself that—if I was serious about this one—to get ready for her thirties. I knew her paths were just starting to crook. But start dating her I did, and my spirit roiled within me as I struggled to decide my fate with her.
As if I had any real control over it: this is one of the things I realized over the past year. And the year to come? We marry in summer. And then we will talk more of children. And we will do what we can to quell the dark roilings in our souls.
Do you see what we try to do? We are trying to live a fantasy, despite the dark forebodings all about. We will sacrifice one to the other and look for flashes of light. Thanks to your post, I know you, Mr Seeger, understand this, and knowing you understand is also a Best.
And another thing…
When I was a boy, I wrote fantasies; I consumed them; I loved them. Then there was a break of sorts, and there was a long time living in the madness of the world. This past year came another break; much of 2007 was the time for thinking, a year to breathe and walk in the desert. And I began to write again.
You see, my soul roiled not only from the uncertainties of love, but also from the disappointing reality that I had allowed my fortune—my ‘career’ (ha!) steered so brutally by my angst and anxieties—to founder on the rocks. Yet in this past year of thinking, something funny happened. I began to fantasize again. In fact, I didn’t hold back and I have come up with a way to quit my miserable job at the post office… YES… indeed, through writing fantasy. Hallelujah, my first book comes out next year. Fantasy has at last TRULY set me free.
So, Mr. Seeger, you and I and all the rest of us sit across the ether, having our fantasies. The best of the year is when you share yours with another, and the other shivers with a pleasure of recognition. We can take some of our pleasures in the black obverse of hope, but for me reading Seeger’s post has given one of the true gifts of fantasy: the thrill of seeing a stark crystal of your unassuming self laid bare on the screen. A contact to yourself given unknowingly by another.
The best of of the year is when fantasy helps you figure out and relish your life.
Sincerely,
Alan Croftsman
P.S.
Ok, ok, this is DARKfantasy.org after all. I can’t just finish waxing poetic about ME, ME, HAPPY ME! without marring the finish just a little. Ok, ok, so in 2007 I decided that in 2008 I would live my fantasy life, get married, be an author, blah blah blah… but don’t we all know how these things turn out? Don’t we all know the fantasy is nearly ALWAYS better than the reality? I mean, almost by definition. So, don’t get me wrong, I am hoping 2008 has some good times in it, but I am getting ready, in my heart of hearts, for a crappy year compared to this one. Yep! My soul still roils, people! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! ALL MY BEST TO YOU AND YOURS!
8 • Omer Anwar said:
December 30th, 2007 at 9:03 pm, permalink
David Gemmell, a British author who sadly passed away in 2006, had his Troy trilogy completed by his wife, Stella Gemmell.
As far as I am concerned, Troy: The Fall of Kings was the best book of the year.
9 • Rafe said:
December 31st, 2007 at 11:28 am, permalink
[soapbox warning]
The most pervasive and darkest fantasy of 2007 was that the United States government would make any sort of meaningful progress after the supposed sea-change of the 2006 elections. A close runner-up would be the belief by the President and his administration that they are doing the right thing, and the hand-in-glove treatment they and their nefarious co-horts got at the hands of the so-called “liberal media,” which showed itself to be nothing more than a tool of the administration, and not a meaningful fourth estate.
The dystopia is *here*, people. We’re up to our collective nipples in it.
The best thing about 2007 is that it’s over.
[/soapbox]
Best Fantasy Pairing, Blogging Department – Jay Lake and Elizabeth Bear. The yin and yang, live-blogging from the front lines of the genre mines, offering insights and nuance (and not a little bit of human distraction along the way). They offer both hope and guidance, tempered by a healthy dose of “Oh, damn, I’d better bring my A game to try and keep up with the likes of these folks.”
10 • Chuck said:
December 31st, 2007 at 7:46 pm, permalink
“STOP!”
So … I stopped typing my original entry for this contest.
And how could I not? The voice was a little too familiar for comfort; it was coming from inside my head.
And it was my voice.
“Uh … yes?” I asked.
“Did you stop?”
“Couldn’t you tell?”
“Never mind that. I just need you to stop. Right. Now. Because you’re about to make an embarrassing mistake.”
“How? What kind of mistake?”
“You misread the original post. Go back up to the top of the web page — don’t type another thing, and don’t you dare hit the “submit” button — and carefully reread the original post. Don’t skim it like you did last time.”
So I did, mumbling the entire post under my breath: “… use the comments below to post any fantasy-, science fiction-, or geek-related thought you might have on the topic ‘The Best…’”
At this point I realized my mistake, took timeout for a literal head-desk moment, then spoke the topic aloud: “‘The Best of the Year’.”
“Yeeeeeeessss — riiiiiiight — very, veeeerrry good,” my voice said, drawing out the most condescending tones possible. “And tell me what you thought the topic was.”
My voice waited patiently for me to answer as I let a reluctant pause build. Finally, I mumbled, “Best Fantasy.”
“What was that again? Say it louder.”
“I said, I thought the topic was ‘Best Fantasy.’”
“That’s right. You thought the topic of this contest was ‘Best Fantasy.’ And I know exactly how you arrived at this conclusion, because you’ve made similar sick, perverted mistakes before. You saw those book titles — Best American Fantasy, and Best New Romantic Fantasy 2 — and somehow your fluidly malfunctioning subconscious cut, pasted, and shuffled those titles into the middle of the post, replacing ‘The Best of the Year’ with ‘Best Fantasy’. Remember, these aren’t your regular friends, so they don’t care about your cascading perceptual blunders. And when you read the part of the post that said ‘Interpret this phrase however you see fit’, you just HAD to turn the whole thing into something tawdry. Right? Well? Didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah. That was kind of the point. I was playing off mainstream ideas of what a fantasy is, as opposed to the literary kind, while merging the two together.”
“Never mind that. Just admit that you screwed up. Right? Right?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Good. Now, what are you going to do about this? And keep in mind that ‘I’m going to hit the submit button’ is not an acceptable answer. So what are you going to do?”
“I’m…” I paused, knowing I was about to throw away a good chunk of writing. “I’m going to … stop writing this story.”
“That’s right. Very good. So just…”
“I’m going to stop writing the story about the guy who goes to sleep, then finds himself thrust, by supernatural means, into attendance at a fancy auditorium located in everybody’s interconnected dreamland…”
“Stop it.”
“…alongside several other confused looking people — all in formal dress — at what turns out to be the 2007 Best Fantasy Awards…”
“Oh god…”
“…where he finds out that he, as well as a few other surprised guests have been nominated in the dubious category of ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Wet Dream’ … ”
“You’re just trying to throw the story premise out there, aren’t you?”
“…and — to his horror — he looks across the table to see his equally surprised and horrified Mormon missionary companion, who’s been nominated for a few other higher profile awards in related categories.”
“Didn’t I tell you to stop?”
“Well, you have to admit, it’s kind of related to the ‘Best of the Year’ topic.”
“No it’s not.”
“Should I mention what the presenter looked like?”
“No!”
11 • Michael Gordon said:
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm, permalink
Was there a minimum participant requirement for this one too? I’m hoping not.
12 • just curious said:
January 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am, permalink
Now that the next blog for beer is up, is it safe to assume that there were no Super-Duper winners due to the entry minimum no being met?
13 • Michael Gordon said:
January 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am, permalink
For what it’s worth, I’d vote for Chuck’s post for most entertaining.
Now everybody better go post to today’s blog so we get our quorum.
14 • Sean said:
January 4th, 2008 at 2:30 pm, permalink
Apologies for the delay! We can only blame the holidays as derailing our intentions, but we are indeed voting for Chuck’s post for Most Entertaining, but alas there wasn’t an entry quite right for Most Profound, so there won’t be one awarded for that category. In any case, Chuck, step right up and accept your prize!
15 • Chuck said:
January 4th, 2008 at 4:26 pm, permalink
I won? Cool! Free books!
I want to thank Sean and Michael for their votes of confidence, and I don’t want to forget to thank all those cloaked and hooded conspirators in the shadow group who cast their secret ballots for me. (You have a subterranean lair, right?)
And if you want to know, yes, I did make the perceptual goof I referenced in my entry. Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately in this case — the “Best Fantasy” awards show quickly spiraled out of control in my head, so I decided to mesh out an alternative entry.
16 • The Best of the Year « Muddled Ramblings and Half-Baked Ideas said:
September 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm, permalink
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