INT 1 ing writers in response to The Last Jedi, which was want to convey my deep gratitude because you’re the INTRODUCTION arguably the most divisive genre work of 2017. None reason I have the opportunity to write this introduc- VANCE K of our team outright disliked the film, but there was tion in the first place. Hopefully this packet can serve, certainly a range of opinion on the film overall, as well for you, as a reminder of the breadth of topics on as many of its component parts. Taking these kinds of which we try to engage: the fiction reviews that form In 2012, after who knows how many backyard conversations from the backyard to the broader web the bulk of our content, the conversations with other barbecues where we talked on and on about sci-fi community was one of the main reasons The G and creators on wide-ranging topics from electronic music and fantasy (and different styles of barbeque sauce), I decided to create a collaborative fanzine in the first to genre scholarship to Kickstarter, our occasional and my neighbor asked if I’d like to start a nerd-themed place. recurring series looking at new releases (New Books blog with him. So The G had this idea and I jumped We need our fanzines, you know? One of the Spotlight), comics (Thursday Morning Superhero), aboard, and it has been a joy to watch nerds of a reasons why I love cult cinema and will usually find short fiction (The Monthly Round), genre foundations feather, flock together grow ever since. Now, for something worthwhile in watching even some of the (Dystopian Visions, Horror 101), or the occasional the second year, we have been nominated for a Hugo “worst” films ever made is that these works were made deep-dive into a particular, narrow topic (Fright vs. Award, which is a staggering honor, and one that I by people who didn’t have the resources of major stu- Fright, looking at horror remakes). never could have foreseen while just gabbing about dios or even, necessarily, any particular qualifications It’s a ton of stuff. But, luckily, we’ve got a crack Alfred Bester over cheeseburgers. to embark on a weird filmmaking odyssey in the first team of nerds on the case. It’s easy for me to be proud of the site and the role place. But they did it anyway, and usually out of a) an we play, however humble, in the larger conversations unstoppable love for the genre and b) an idea to make about sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comics, film, video and the kind of movie they’d like to see, themselves. As the board games, and fandom in general. It has opened fanzine landscape continues to evolve and genre blogs the door to rewarding friendships and partnerships, close up shop all over the web, I feel our site is kind of such as with our newest editor, Joe Sherry. I am a like that. As a fan, it’s the kind of site I want to read, legitimate fan of all of our writers, which makes even full of passionate nerds that will dump way too much our disagreements rewarding. Being able to disagree thought into obscure or esoteric topics just because and to be presented with opposing views is one of the they love the stuff. great joys of being involved with this site, and it is, in I hope that this collection of some of our work from my mind, a model for the kinds of interactions I like 2017 will serve as a thorough introduction for those to have more broadly in fandom. of you who are less familiar with nerds of a feather, As an example of that, in this packet we’ve pulled flock together and the work of our team of writers. together a number of posts by different contribut- For those of you who are already fans of the site, I 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION REMEMBERING GEORGE A. ROMERO and MARTIN LANDAU 1 52 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION VI: OTHER COVERAGE 54 2 STRANGER THINGS: THE LOST WORLD OF HAWKINS, INDIANA 55 A #BLACKSPECFIC 2016 REPORT RESPONSE 59 SECTION I: FICTION REVIEWS 3 WESTWORLD: PIANOS, PLAYERS, and MURDER 60 THE STONE SKY by N.K. JEMISIN 4 THURSDAY MORNING SUPERHERO 61 THE ONLY HARMLESS GREAT THING by BROOKE BOLANDER 6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GENDER REVOLUTION 62 THE LADY OF THE LAKE by ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI 7 MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA 64 THE MONTHLY ROUND 8 6 BOOKS WITH MATT WALLACE 65 GLUTTONY BAY by MATT WALLACE 11 TABLETOP PILE OF SHAME: NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION UPDATE NEMESIS GAMES by JAMES S.A. COREY 66 ENOUGH BAD MOVIES 67 12 THE INVISIBLE BOY 68 SECTION II: DYSTOPIAN VISIONS 13 INTRODUCING DYSTOPIAN VISIONS 14 GUEST POST: CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE 16 DYSTOPIAN VISIONS: 1984 by GEORGE ORWELL 21 GET OUT/SPEAK OUT: DYSTOPIA, VIOLENCE, and WRITING AS ACTION 22 DYSTOPIAN VISIONS: FAHRENHEIT 451 by RAY BRADBURY 25 DYSTOPIAN VISIONS: WRITING A WAY OUT 27 SECTION III: THE LAST JEDI 30 REVIEW: STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE LAST JEDI 31 SOME EXTENDED AND SPOILER-FILLED THOUGHTS ON THE LAST JEDI 31 YET ANOTHER SPOILER-FILLED TAKE ON THE LAST JEDI 34 SECTION IV: CONVERSATIONS 37 THE ROGER CORMAN INTERVIEW 38 A CONVERSATION ABOUT DYSTOPIA WITH MALKA OLDER 39 FIRESIDE CHAT: CECILY KANE of MANIC PIXIE DREAM WORLDS 42 FIRESIDE CHAT: DAVID ZUCKMAN of OBSCURE REFERENCE GAMES 46 SECTION V: SPOTLIGHT ON HORROR 48 HORROR 101: AN INTRODUCTION TO FEAR 49 FRIGHT VS. FRIGHT: INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 50 HORROR 101: THE UNCANNY 51 2 As The G puts it, “in a world where every new Christopher Nolan movie immediately lands in the IMDB Top 250,” our scoring system was designed to avoid grade inflation. Ideally, that means our scores would distribute normally around a theoretical mean score of 5, so that a 7 is pretty darn good and 10s are reserved for works of transcendent quality. In practice, that means the majority of our reviews land in the 6-9 or 1-3 range, since we tend not to devote too much of our limited personal bandwidth to works we feel are SECTION I: FICTION simply “meh.” In the site’s history, we’ve only given out around a dozen 10s. About Microreview Scores: REVIEWS 10: mind-blowing/life-changing 9: very high quality/standout in its category 8: well worth your time and attention 7: a mostly enjoyable experience 6: still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore 5: equal parts good and bad 4: problematic, but has redeeming qualities 3: very little good I can say about this 2: just bad 1: really really bad 0: prosecutable as crime against humanity 3 choices. Different choices have always been possible.” Perhaps it began with whispers that white Niess irises THE STONE SKY by N.K. JEMISIN When I wrote that The Stone Sky is a novel in con- gave them poor eyesight and perverse inclinations, and JOE SHERRY versation with the culture in which it was written, I that split Niess tongues could not speak truth. That did so will the full understanding and recognition that sort of sneering happens, cultural bullying, but things The Stone Sky is the I may not be the most appropriate commentator for got worse. It became easy for scholars to build repu- culmination of the best this. Jemisin is writing about race and power and priv- tations and careers around the notion that Niess sess- fantasy trilogy written to- ilege; I’m an upper middle class white male. It’s not apinae were fundamentally different, somehow - more day. And that might be an that I do not get to have thoughts and opinions about sensitive, more active, less controlled, less civilized understatement. this, but my understanding of the systematic oppres- - and this was the source of their magical peculiar- sion Jemisin is writing about is necessarily limited. ity. This was what made them not the same kind of The Stone Sky is a novel The Stone Sky is a novel about the consequences of human as everyone else. Eventually: not as human as in conversation with the oppression, about how a utopia is built on the backs everyone else. Finally: not human at all. two Hugo Award-winning of a persecuted race and a persecuted class. “Utopia for novels which precede it, it is whom?” is a great question. Even mentioning utopia It is all too real and fresh. It is reminiscent of recent a novel in conversation with in commentary on The Stone Sky is absurdity because world history and of the tendrils of a rotten past still the fantasy genre as a whole, readers at all familiar with the first two novels of the rolling through America’s present. While The Stone and it is a novel in conversation with the culture in trilogy know there is no utopia here. There is nothing Sky is not necessarily about directly engaging with which it was written. That’s a lot for one novel to take close to a utopia in The Broken Earth. American history, readers can’t help but bring that on, but N.K. Jemisin is more than up to the task. The Like The Obelisk Gate, the primary viewpoint knowledge and background into the narrative. first two volumes of The Broken Earth trilogy set the characters of The Stone Sky are Essun, her daughter I may be putting too fine of a point on this aspect bar so incredibly high that it would take a remarkable Nassun, and the stone eater Hoa.