Holiday Gift Guide: Books

Welcome to our annual Holiday Gift Guide where the flock takes a break from talking about all the awesome and not so awesome things to, well, talk about some more of the awesome things that you might want to consider for your Holiday shopping this year. Today we'll talk about books and comics, but throughout the week you'll have any number of things to consider (games, apps, movies, and more). 


Joe: For the epic fantasy reader in your life

 
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin
The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin
The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin

Okay, so this one is a little bit of a cheat because I'm listing three books instead of just one in this slot, but listen. I've been raving about Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy since The Fifth Season (my review) was published and each volume has not just been among the best of science fiction and fantasy published that year, it has been THE best speculative fiction published that year. Spoilers for my Best of 2017 list coming next month, but The Stone Sky (my review) is going to top that list, too.

The Stone Sky caps off a stunning epic fantasy trilogy, one which began with the threaded narrative of three orogenes and concludes with the story of a woman and daughter finally coming back together. The Broken Earth is a monumental achievement in fantasy fiction. The Stone Sky is the culmination of the best fantasy trilogy written today and that might be an understatement.



Brian: For the sci-fi horror fan in your life

Dark Intelligence, by Neal Asher
War Factory, by Neal Asher
Infinity Engine, by Neal Asher

2017 saw the conclusion of Neal Asher's Transformation trilogy, the latest in his line of Polity books. Following a war between AI-empowered humans and the violent crab-like Prador, members of each species find themselves as pawns in a rogue AI's strange mission of atonement. It's a romp through an established galaxy of post-humans, aliens, and technology that approaches magic, with a dash of some David Cronenberg-esque body horror.



Tia: For the Harry Potter fan in your life.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Illustrated Edition, by J.K. Rowling

Each year Bloomsbury and Scholastic release a stunning, fully illustrated (by Jim Kay) edition of the Harry Potter series. These books make the perfect gift for the current (or aspiring) Harry Potter fan on your list, and because it’s only the third year and they are reasonably priced for what you get (about 30 USD or less) it’s not too late to start a great gift giving tradition. I’ve recommended these books for the last three years and they never fail to dissapoint.

Zhaoyun: For the reader living in a dystopian reality in your life

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale--because it's sounding more and more horrifyingly prescient with every day that goes by! Plus, all that doom and gloom makes for a very entertaining story (and you can even get the recipient either the feature film and/or the new(ish) TV series, as well!).

Vance: For the Twin Peaks fan in your life

Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, by Mark Frost

I'm sure there's an appropriate, Black Lodgian analogy for what Mark Frost is to David Lynch in the story of unfolding the Twin Peaks saga, but I'll just be literal: David Lynch is widely hailed as *the* creative force behind Twin Peaks, while series co-creator and co-writer Mark Frost's influence is largely unsung. It's weird. Maybe Frost doesn't like giving interviews as much, but who knows? Throughout his filmography, Lynch has been famously ambivalent about whether or not audiences "get it" in a conscious, academic sense, and more concerned if people are moved by his work on an emotional level. I went on the ride for Twin Peaks: The Return, and I thought it was great. That said, yes, it totally would've been nice to have actually known what was up with Audrey Horne. Or what happened to Becky. Or...well, lots of stuff. I mean, there are loose ends. Lots. Admittedly. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier doesn't promise to tie them all up, but it does promise to answer questions! Some questions, definitely get answered. And that's good enough for me. This feels like a must for the Twin Peaks fan in your life.

Mike: For the horror fan in your life:

Strange Weather, by Joe Hill

 

Featuring four short novels, Joe Hill delivers some truly shocking stories that will be sure to delight the horror/supernatural fan in your life. My personal favorite was Snapshot, which made me nostalgic for Locke and Key due to the Polaroid-esque camera forged from whispering iron. Each story is unique, with Loaded hitting a little too close to home and by far the most disturbing of the group. 

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Poetry

Through the darkness of future past
The magician longs to see
One chants out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me

It has been a little over a week since Twin Peaks ended. Ended? I'm almost halfway through re-watching the new series by now, and while certain things do make more sense after having seen where this is all going, it remains clear that all things will not be made clear.

I've been thinking a lot about what to make of, or, honestly, how to even think about what I saw over the 18 episodes of this resurrected series. It gave me my favorite hour of television ever — the bleak, inscrutable, horrifying, surreal episode eight, "Gotta light?" — and delivered more good episodes of Twin Peaks than the entire run of the original series. It opened up the world in a way that allowed us to ask a million more questions about what's "really" going on, what's behind the veil in the Twin Peaks Universe, and over the 18 episodes, answered about 35 of those questions. There are bad jokes, goofy happenings and characters, seemingly pointless scenes that go on for a long, long time, and scenes of miserable violence and suffering. WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?? That's what it seems like everybody wants to know. And I kind of want to know, too.

But does it have to mean something? Really?

For me, now, the question "What the hell did I just watch?" has changed, and given way to "What the hell did I just feel?" And I think that's maybe the place I was supposed to get to.

It occurred to me that Twin Peaks at least this incarnation (much less-so the original series) is poetry. Many, many years ago I made peace with poetry by no longer requiring of myself as a reader that I "understand" it. It became far, far more important to me that I feel it. And that was enough.

This is the water, this is the well.
Drink full and descend.
The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.

I love e.e. cummings with a burning passion. It's fine if you don't. The first time I read "anyone lived in a pretty how town," as a child...maybe a teenager but maybe not...it brought tears to my eyes. Actual, oh-God-don't-let-anybody-see tears. In high school, when I saw that we were going to study that poem in English class, I was thrilled. And then we "broke it down" and "analyzed" it, and it robbed the poem of its magic. I mean, in that moment. Nothing can rob it of its magic, but it was a grind. Ok, yes, "Anyone" and "Noone" stand in for people's names, sure. And why is it a "how town"? Because people are busy, I guess? I mean, look. Sure. You can pick it apart, you can ask why "floating" comes before "many," you can unpack how many times the same dream metaphor is used for death. You may hit the egg with a hammer to see what's inside, but you won't have an egg anymore.

Sometimes it is enough to intuit, and to feel, and to put the analytical away. Why, in your dream, might you be terrified of a jug of milk on a counter? No reason, except you know you should be terrified of it. It doesn't matter if they really met last year at Marienbad. It is enough to wonder.

So that's where I'm at with Twin Peaks, and thank you, thank you to the executives at Showtime who gave us this artwork. I don't know that they got what they needed out of the business part of this show, but I feel like we have been given a gift. I don't love everything about it, but the fact that it exists in the world gives me joy, and ties me up in knots, and makes me ask questions I so, so rarely get to ask while watching TV.

Why is Monica Bellucci a dream detective? Because that scene is magic. Why is Phillip Jeffries a tea kettle? Because David Bowie died and his character had to be something. What happened to Becky? Or Audrey? Or, hell, Laura Palmer? Savage men do terrible things, and these cycles should stop, but often don't. If there was a message to these 18 episodes, I think it was that. But Dale Cooper is always, I think, the best of us. That part of us that wants to always fight against these corrosive, destructive cycles, even if we do not win. Even if we cannot, ultimately, win.

And that, for me, is enough. Even if I'm wrong.

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, Emmy-winning producer, and singer of loud folk songs.

Checking in on Twin Peaks, or, Chillin' in the Black Lodge

​Not sure if you've heard, but Twin Peaks is back.

I was too young to watch the original run of the show, but I remember the phenomenon. "Who killed Laura Palmer?" was the question everybody was asking in 1990. As it turned out, David Lynch and Mark Frost had never intended to answer that question, but the network made them when ratings started to slip in Season 2. Once the question was answered, the show got pretty bad, actually. Ask David Lynch.

I've now watched the original series twice. I love David Lynch. As a former Surrealist myself, or, someone who played a Surrealist in real life (it's complicated), I think Lynch has come closer than anybody since Luis Buñuel to capturing the mechanics of dreaming on film. So my favorite pieces of the original series were the Black Lodge visits, and the weird, paranormal stuff. Disappearing giants and film run backwards and one-armed men. Great stuff. The teen romance and weird soap opera machinations and insurance fraud? Less so.

So the original series had about 18 great episodes out of the run of 30. And Fire Walk with Me is a little uneven, but still chilling and disturbing. So what would a return to Twin Peaks for 18 new episodes bring after 25 years? The good? The bad? The both?

Five episodes in (no spoilers here, promise), I'm still more curious than hooked, but I have to say that David Lynch doesn't disappoint when it comes to delivering the David Lynch goods. There's a lot more Black Lodge, and hints at other inter-dimensional places, too. Premium cable allows for a lot more sudden, bloody David Lynch violence that's familiar from his film work but absent from the original show. There are other Lynch signatures, too, like long, awkward stillnesses and silence, jarring sound design, oddballs, and confounding mysteries. Knowing that Lynch and Frost never intended to wrap up the Laura Palmer mystery, I'm not convinced we're going to see many of these new mysteries actually resolve. But that's probably ok, too. What the hell is up with the Cowboy in Mulholland Dr.? I don't know. Doesn't change how much I like the movie.

What makes me deeply happy is that the guy who made Eraserhead from 1972 to 1977, getting about a shot a day, using real umbilical cords (among other human and animal viscera) as props, definitely made this show. That's really a hell of a thing. All those Lynch signatures I mentioned above, and the pattern on the floor of the Black Lodge, come to that, are all on display in Lynch's first film. That he has evolved as an artist and storyteller, without compromising his idiosyncrasies, and while somehow simultaneously finding a way to make mainstream entertainment is probably unprecedented, and, as a fan, it's a wonderful thing to see and experience.

The canvas Lynch is painting on in the new Twin Peaks is vast. We've been to both Washingtons, a Dakota, Vegas, and at least two nearby dimensions. We don't know what connects all these places, but if you're on the fence about tuning in (I know, nobody "tunes in" anymore), or if the total media saturation leading up to the premiere didn't get you to sign up for Showtime, I have to recommend taking the ride. No promises where it ends will give you closure, but it's definitely worth investigating.

Finally, since it's been stuck in my head for at least a week now, I leave you with the Lady in the Radiator song.

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, Emmy-winning producer, and musician.

Stranger Things: A New Dramatic Animal?

Within two days of Stranger Things appearing on Netflix, I had three separate friends reach out to tell me they'd binge-watched it and I had to see it. That I would love it.

So I did. And I did. But...

I want to be very clear at the outset and say this isn't a review. I'm not going to say bad things about Stranger Things, and I'm going to try to avoid spoilers. What I'm really interested in is more of a formal analysis.

One of the biggest appeals of Stranger Things is its retro-80s vibe. I mean, just look at this poster! It's amazing. 

And that font, which looked out at me from the cover of so many Stephen King paperbacks as a kid gives me all kinds of warm fuzzies. By the end of the first episode, I was hooked. But I turned to my wife and said, "If Hopper winds up in the Black Lodge at the end of this thing, I'm going to be pissed."

See, Stranger Things doesn't just have a retro poster and a retro vibe, it actually seems to be made up of Lego bricks taken from 80s and early-90s touchstones. It's really not enough to say that it's "inspired" by E.T., Twin Peaks, Akira, The X-Files, and the music of John Carpenter. It appears to actually be constructed of those things. There are moments lifted directly from E.T., dynamics transposed whole cloth from Twin Peaks, a key character and plotline from Akira, and at one point there was a scene so reminiscent of Stephen King's It that I was able to tell my wife what was going to happen before it played out onscreen. 

I love all of those movies and stories. Seeing them all in one place was pretty cool. But I felt an odd pull I've never experienced before — part of me felt that warm, familiar nerd glow of spotting references from beloved hallmarks I grew up with, but I felt a difference between spotting the posters for Evil Dead and The Thing on the walls in characters' rooms, and saying "oh, this scene is from..."

Now here, to me, is the really interesting thing: this is a Netflix show, and with the exception of Akira, every other work I've mentioned here has been available for streaming on Netflix. Netflix was very clear when it launched House of Cards, its first original, scripted show, that its programming decisions were based on user viewing patterns. So it's probably safe to assume that people are watching the hell out of E.T., The X-Files, and Twin Peaks on Netflix. And maybe Netflix's development team said, "Can we get a show that's just all of those things, but a mini-series?"

This could be a one-off thing, or it could be a harbinger of a new phenomenon that is a direct result of the time we're living in. With viewership metrics available on a level like nothing we've ever seen before,  the slow demise of the traditional network television model, and a trend toward limited series, rather than 22-episode-per-season non-serialized dramas or comedies, there is a very real possibility that Stranger Things is something like a new narrative form. The G referred to it in conversation as a bricolage, which may be correct. Or a four-dimensional version of Picasso's early experiments with collage. 

I suppose part of me is fighting the urge to be dismissive about a work that in some ways lacks originality, but the fact that I really enjoyed it is telling. I think it will be interesting to see where this goes. I argued in 2013 that Breaking Bad was the signature show of our time not just because of its content and narrative qualities, but because of the way it used streaming services and social media to expand its audience and change viewing patterns. Maybe something similar is happening right now.

Maybe we'll have a Western to look forward to where a Civil War veteran with deep hatred of the Comanche (The Searchers) gets wind of a coming confrontation, and when he can't get anyone in town to stand with him (High Noon), he must confront his racism out of desperation and recruit a team of seven Comanche braves to help him defend the town (Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven). Who knows? 

Also, I'm available for meetings, if anybody wants to talk about setting up that project...

Posted by Vance K - co-editor and cult film reviewer at nerds of a feather since 2012. Netflix subscriber since 2004.

Beer and Sci-Fi Pairings

A while back, we did a Grimdark/Black Metal Pairings post that was a lot of fun, so I figured I'd try my hand at something similar, but using my Netflix account and the empty bottles on my back porch waiting to go to recycling.

So with that, I give you the Nerds of a Feather Streaming Sci-Fi and (Mostly) Craft Beer Pairings!

1. The X-Files / Guinness Stout

For a lot of people of a certain age, The X-Files marked the beginning of their love affair with sci-fi. As a show on a major network that became extremely popular, it made the pop culture radar in a big way. Maybe not since Star Wars had a sci-fi property gone so mainstream. Suddenly it was cool to be into aliens, and conspiracies, and Luke Wilson fighting vampires and stuff. In the same way, if you're used to drinking fizzy yellow pee-water that giant megacorporations laughingly refer to as "beer," Guinness can act as your gateway into a wonderful world beyond. It's ubiquitous and easy to order instead of said pee-water, and can expand your palate, opening your eyes to all you've been missing.

2. Sherlock / Fuller's ESB

All thinking people can agree that this incarnation of the Arthur Conan Doyle detective and his physician assistant has gotten the Holmes/Watson dynamic right. This British export lives up to all the hype, and makes 100+ year-old stories feel fresh and original. Another British export, Fuller's claims to have invented the ESB, and that this is the original. But despite the name, Fuller's ESB (Extra Special Bitter) isn't really all that bitter...much like Sherlock himself, once you get past his off-putting demeanor.

3. Firefly / Stone Cali-Belgique IPA

Firefly, Joss Whedon's sci-fi Western, needed to be paired with another fine mash-up. Stone's Cali-Belgique IPA dresses up Stone's regular, super-hoppy IPA with some Belgian yeast for a blending of Old and New World flavors. I actually drank one of these while watching Firefly the other night, and I can tell you it really brings out the smoky flavors in the show.

4. Fringe / Unibroue La Fin du Monde Belgian Trippel

There are two ways to look at the end of the world. One is the sort of traditional armageddony view of the world temporally and/or spatially ceasing to exist. But the other is to consider the end, or barrier, of one world and where it abuts another. Fringe's focus on parallel dimensions and the unknown brought to mind the depiction of the "end" of the world on Unibroue's signature Belgian ale as the barrier between land and sea. This is a stunning beer, and at 9% ABV, it can be just as much of a head-trip as the show.

5. The Clone Wars / Firestone Walker Wookey Jack American Black Ale

Now it goes without saying that we only endorse adults of legal drinking age partaking in any of the brews mentioned here, and the inclusion of an animated show should in no way imply otherwise. But if you're an adult who is into The Clone Wars – and you should be, since it actually lived up to the promise of the epic-sounding Clone Wars mentioned in the original Star Wars trilogy and since it made Annakin Skywalker finally seem like something other than a semi-literate dope that Natalie Portman could never, never love – then a beer called "Wookey Jack" is a natural complement.

6. Twin Peaks / New Belgium 1554 Black Lager

My first inclination was to try to find something really weird and left-of-center to pair with such a unique and wonderful show. Or maybe something brewed in the Pacific Northwest, where poor Laura Palmer met her fate. But I quickly came to my senses and realized that any beer pairing must pay tribute to The Black Lodge. Hence, New Belgium's 1554 Black Lager. This beer is derived from a recipe found in a monk's notebook dated 1554, hence the name, and it is probably my favorite brew from an across-the-board solid brewery.

Bonus: Twilight Zone / Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue Label)

Simply, the best for the best. Maybe you've got the luck or money or phone savvy or Belgian friends you need to get your hands on some Westvleteren, but that's not me. So for my money those who say Chimay Grande Reserve is the best beer on the planet will not get an argument from me. In the same way, I can make the case that The Twilight Zone is not only the best show on this list, but the best show of all time. What else could keep it company, but a peer?

Posted by Vance K – Cult film aficionado, unapologetic lover of terrible movies and good beer, either consecutively or concurrently, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.