What is happening to my fandom?!

I've been reading some blogs about the Hugo Awards' version of Gamergate, and am appalled by the vehemence of backlash against a diversified science ficition/fantasy (SFF) fandom. A Slate article quotes author Brad R. Torgersen as essentially saying true, classical SFF does not contain social commentary. From what I'm reading,  he, another author and their followers are put off by the literary quality of certain Hugo nominations, not to mention the inclusion of minority viewpoints. They seem to feel it belies the essential mindless pop appeal of 'true' SFF.



This is not factual, Captain.



 Where have these uber fanboys been living? H.G.Wells, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Spider Robinson, Gene Rodenberry...social science fiction isn't a new faction of the genre. It is its foundation. I am floored that anyone could be so blind to the use of science fiction to explore and address the topics of social injustice and inequality. Heinlein, for example, gave us many taboo topics to mull over. He addressed racism, sexual freedom, and individualism. The addition of writers and characters that expand those horizons is not a dilution of SFF's core qualities, but a logical and organic growth from the seeds planted by the masters and founders of our genre.  Not to mention, each of these authors certainly have a literary appeal. For as many pulp fiction-esque magazines they published or were published in, these men wrote well. Their books can be read as pure entertainment, but only a fool would walk away without some philosophical musings. I started reading their works in junior high; even at that age I knew their stories were meant to make me open my eyes and re-examine how I view life. But these men are not the only SFF influences in my life.

Can one say that the world of SFF is not richer for the works of Ursula LeGuin, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon and CJ Cherryh? All of whom wrote epic space sagas. L.A. Banks' Vampire Huntress series is a masterpiece. It doesn't skimp on the action, while introducing a multitude of religions and ethnicities. It added a depth to the fight of good versus evil that I've never encountered before, or since. I welcome the addition of new voices and new perspectives. It gives us new dimensions and alternate universes to explore.

I'll leave you with this thought provoking clip from Stargate: SG1, where they quote Asimov:

The Quarterly Book Report

 

Inspired by posts I spotted on Twitter, I thought it might be fun to share what our favorite reads were for the first quarter of 2015. If it goes well, I may do it every quarter. Jax and I will share our five favorite books that we read between January 1st and March 31st of this year (Steph was going to join us but ran out of time).

March's Balancing the Books with Bea

Inspired by Fantasy Is More Fun and The Geeky Blogger's Book Blog, I decided to start tracking my book expenses this year. I'll do a wrap up post at the end of each month.

I've given myself $10 real money each month to spend on books, whether for myself, as gifts, or blog giveaways. "Real money" being cash from my bank account as opposed to gift cards and store credits. I am counting money spent to ship giveaways and Paperbackswap.com books. Books from my personal shelves, borrowed from the library or a friend, and books received for review do not count against my purchases.

The TBR Book Tag - How Many Books Are On My TBR Pile? (Too Darn Many!)

Image from author Mary Balogh on facebook

I saw this meme at On Starships & Dragonwings last month and thought it sounded like fun. It also seemed like a good post for the end of the year, a way to look at what I've got to read. It's always interesting to me to hear about other people's TBR piles and how they manage them. One thing I've noticed is that definitions of a TBR, or To Be Read, pile differ. For me, the TBR pile is books actually in my possession; I own them or have borrowed them, whether from the library or a friend. If it's a book I want to read but don't have in my possession, then it's a wish list book. So, my wish list is a mix of books I want to review, books I want to own, and books I want to read. I use it for "shopping" the library and for requesting books as well as my personal shopping list.

Bea Discusses: What Should Be On An Author's Website

DISCUSSION POST

Every so often, the topic of expectations around author websites comes up. I've seen several authors complain about readers asking the same questions over and over. Well, do you have a FAQ on your site? Not all readers use them and that IS annoying but one author who was complaining about readers constantly asking didn't have a FAQ section on her site or her FB page. BZZZZ! Sympathy lost! I know that I get cranky when a site doesn't have the information I'm looking for, regardless of what type of site it is. When I'm looking at author sites, I have certain expectations. I'll share those with you today and then I hope you'll share yours. The differences in our expectations will make for some interesting discussions I'm sure!

I Own Too Many Books by These Authors, LOL

Several weeks ago, some of the blogs I follow participated in a meme, Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. The topic was Top Ten Authors I Own the Most Books By. While I don't participate in that meme, the topic piqued my interest and I decided to look at my shelves and see which authors I owned the most books of. So, thank you The Broke and The Bookish for inspiring this post!

It took me a while to go through all of my books as I don't have all of my print books catalogued. Thanks to this post, I've now added many of them. :) There were a few surprises; there were several authors I was sure I owned more books than I do and some that surprised me with how many I actually own. There were a few series that I used to own the entire set but got rid of, such as the Anita Blake books by Laurell K Hamilton and the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.

The premiere episode of Bitten

Well, "Bitten", based on Kelley Armstrong's book of the same name has now premiered in both Canada and the US. Mild spoilers ahead so stop now if you don't want to know!

If you watched, what did you think? Despite some unnecessary changes and questionable casting, I liked it. The episode stayed pretty true to the book but by no means covered the whole book. It was a little slow though and I hope they don't try to drag out the book for all thirteen episodes that have been ordered. I'm curious to see, if the show continues, whether it follows the other books or goes it's own way. The sneak peek of the episodes seem to cover the entire first book and to be fairly true to the book. Still, how are they going to stretch a 436 page book out to 13 hours?

Feeling Thankful

So, I've been thinking about this for a few days now, in between bouts of being sick. I started reviewing books several years ago, inspired by several friends. To be able to talk about books I liked and didn't like with people who were actually interested was, and is, an idea that I love. Most of my family and real life friends at the time (and even now for the most part) had very different tastes and it was rare I could find someone to talk with about my favorite books and authors. Then I started hanging out online, found some discussion boards, and that went a long way towards easing my frustration. Thanks to the people I met online I could discuss books and authors and I found new ones.

When I started blogging it was a mix of my own books and library books. A friend of mine who had a book blog told me about NetGalley so I went and signed up and after a bit began receiving books. For a while I was part of a communal blog; it was excellent experience and I'm grateful for the opportunities they gave me. Now I blog here and occasionally review books at BookTrib. I still review a mix of books I own, books I get from the library (thanks to yesterday's mailbox posts, I requested another dozen book) and review books but the currently the mix is more skewed towards review books.

This blog has been up and running since September 2010 and every day I'm thankful for everyone who helps make it possible. I'm thankful for the people who read, the people who comment, the people who share their expertise and time, the people who have stuck by me through ups and downs. I'm especially thankful for the authors, publishers and publicists who ask or send me books to review.

I still get a thrill when a book shows up in my email or post box; I still get a thrill when I get an email requesting a review. I still get buzzed and excited. I may not review that book, I may delete the email without answering, I may review the book and then hate it but it's still a thrill that someone wants me to read and review their book. Someone thinks my thoughts are worthwhile. When someone comments on a post, review or otherwise, it's exciting that they were inspired to respond.

I could blog and have few people reading, have few people requesting reviews, and still enjoy it, but it's a lot more fun to share this with all of you. So thank you for sharing your love of books with me and I hope we'll be doing so for several more years.

ETA: I forgot to mention how awesome it is when an author responds to a tweet or an email. I have several authors that I chat with regularly via email and twitter but even just the one time response makes me happy. Yes, I'm easy, but you knew that already. :D

Anthropomorphism: Genre or Style?

After my post last week talking about urban fantasy, a reader emailed me asking if I knew the name for the subgenre of books told from a dog's perspective.

I had to think about it at first. I emailed an author friend of mine who's a regular here on the blog, J.A. Campbell for her thoughts. Turns out, we were thinking along the same lines.

First, what is genre? For the purposes of this post, I'm using this definition from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary:

1: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content

2: kind, sort

3: painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically

I'm pretty sure it's not a sub-genre but more of a style. Technically, I think it would be anthropomorphism, which Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines as

": an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics : humanization

— an·thro·po·mor·phist noun"

For instance, "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell is told from the horse's perspective, just as if a human were talking and thinking. Rita Mae Brown uses this device in her cozy mystery series, Mrs Murphy, where the cats and dogs belonging to the main human engage in their investigations into the murders that occur and talk to each other as well as other animals e.g. horses, owls, etc. Speculative fiction author J.A. Campbell also uses anthropomorphism in her Doc Vampire-Hunting Dog short stories. There are plenty of other stories and series that use anthropomorphism but those were the first ones to pop into my mind.

There are different ways of using anthropomorphistic animals. Disney even has them talk like humans (pick the Disney movie of your choice for an example :D). Sometimes, as in the examples I mentioned above, the story is told from the animal's perspective, complete with human style thoughts but they talk normally i.e. barks, meows, neighs, etc. But always, they have been endowed with human characteristics in some fashion.

It's a style that works in different genres - mysteries, mythology and fairy tales, fantasy of most varieties, etc. There's a part of me that would like to see stories told from a dog's perspective as a separate sub-genre, especially as it sees to be occurring more often these days. But at this point in time, I think stories told from a dog's perspective are a style not a genre or sub-genre, and are anthropomorphism.

So, have you read any stories told from a dog's POV? What do you think, is it a style, a genre...? What do you think of it, do you like it? Is there another existing term besides anthropomorphism that would be applicable?

What is Urban Fantasy?

@blodeuedd83 I do not like when UF is on best of fantasy list, you know I love UF. But it has nothing to do with fantasy, nothing at all 

@BeasBookNook @blodeuedd83 *blink* but the F in UF stands for fantasy! And UF originated from fantasy. It can also be horror but that's fantasy too. 

@blodeuedd83 @BeasBookNook Fantasy for me takes place in another world. urban fantasy is just paranormal romance without the romance

 The following twitter exchange took place between myself and blodeuedd earlier this weekend. The conversation, in conjunction with a series that Bastard Books has been doing on UF, got me thinking. Bastard Books has a series of posts this month from various guests on what is wrong with urban fantasy, why they don't like it, or both. There are some very valid points in the posts and they have given me much to think about. I recommend reading them.

When I first read blodeuedd's tweets, I was in disbelief; how could someone think that urban fantasy has nothing to do with fantasy? I'm still doubtful, but then I thought more about her second comment. If I understand her correctly, (and blodeuedd, if you're reading this, please speak up if I'm wrong!) for her urban fantasy is about werewolves, vampires, demons and other creatures that traditionally were considered horror or paranormal. 

For me, urban fantasy is more, much more than that. One of the first books widely considered to be urban fantasy is "War for the Oaks" by Emma Bull. The first urban fantasy I ever read was "Greenmantle" by Charles de Lint, still one of my favorite books. Both books are set in contemporary times, in a more or less urban setting, and involve beings from fantasy. Another early series that I'd call urban fantasy is the Bedlam's Bard series by Mercedes Lackey and assorted co-authors. Again, stories involving the fae set in in modern times in an urban setting. Over the years as horror grew more mainstream, we began to see vampires and werewolves, along with witches, demons and ghosts, begin to show up in contemporary stories set in urban or primarily urban settings. Urban fantasy expanded and grew, creating a larger variety of stories and worlds.

These days, urban fantasy has been taken over by beings formerly considered paranormal or horror and you see less of the traditional fantasy side. Less, yes, but not gone entirely. Seanan McGuire's Tobey Day series is akin to de Lint and Lackey's early works. Kevin Hearne, Nicole Peeler, and Ilona Andrews among others have blended both the fae side and the paranormal side into delightful, thrilling urban fantasy stories. I especially love Hearne and Andrews' use of various global mythologies in their books. They have integrated different elements of urban fantasy into cohesive worlds that are firmly, in my opinion, urban fantasy. Their use of mythology and traditional, but often overlooked fantasy beings, are major factors in my enjoyment of their books. That said, I do enjoy werewolves and witches, vampires to a lesser extent. I love Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and the Mercy Thompson and the Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs; I enjoy Keri Arthur's Riley Jensen and Risa books (though admittedly, those are paranormal romance and not straight urban fantasy) and Jodi Redford's That Old Black Magic series (also PNR. Hmmm, not making my case, am I? :D)

Still, for myself, I prefer the fairy and mythology flavored urban fantasy. Happily, there's room for all of us. :)

So, what is your definition of urban fantasy? What does the term call to mind when you see it?

ETA: I got into a great discussion on twitter about the differences between urban fantasy, paranormal romance and contemporary fantasy. I see more discussion posts in my future. In the meantime, please, share your thoughts, I want to hear them.