Spooky Reads for Spooky Season: Halloween 2023!

 

Spooky Season has been in full swing for almost two full months here in the US. One of the better things my fellow Americans have done in recent decades: turning Halloween into a full two-month-long festival of ghoulish goodness!

I've been watching a lot of spooky movies, from the old school The Wolf Man to The Descent to the entire Pet Sematary cinematic universe (I re-read the novel, which remains better than any of the films, watched both film versions, even got to Pet Sematary 2, which I don't necessarily recommend, and the brand new, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, which I do recommend). I've also been trying to branch out more internationally with films like Kandisha from France and Kaali Khuhi from India. 

And there's spooky TV, too, most excellently The Fall of the House of Usher (Mike Flanagan's fantastic take on Edgar Allan Poe) and The Changeling (based on a novel by Victor LaValle starring LaKeith Stanfield). I may write up some thoughts about my spooky cinematic adventures later, maybe sometime before my horror and philosophy students present their films on November 16! (stay tuned for details on that)

But for now, here are a few of my spooky reads for spooky season 2023! Happy Halloween!

Holly versus COVID and Professors: Holly by Stephen King

 

Stephen King never (okay, rarely) disappoints, and this Holly Gibney novel, simply titled Holly, is no exception. 

Since I started reading the Holly Gibney stories in a weird order, starting with If It Bleeds and The Outsider without having read the Bill Hodges trilogy, I figured it was fine to pick up King's latest book in the tradition of having had new Stephen King for the last few autumns. I do plan to read the Bill Hodges trilogy soon, but when they came out I was under the impression (which I now realize is mistaken) that King's "crime fiction" would be less interesting than his traditional horror.

There's a lot one could say about this novel, so let me focus on two of its more controversial aspects: being King's first novel in which the pandemic is part of the plot, and being less of a traditional horror story (while nonetheless being firmly in the horror genre in my opinion).

Random Thoughts, Part 22: Dentists, Strikes, Care, Work-Life Balance, and Semis in the Left Lane

 

My random thoughts series has all led to this: Part 22! It sounds portentous, but it's actually just trivially true. Your whole life has led to you reading this blog post! See?

My random thoughts keep coming. If anything, my thoughts get more random every year. Or is that actually not random at all? If something becomes incrementally more random, is it thereby not random? Maybe let's set the AIs on that one instead of deciding people's economic fates or giving students new ways to cheat.

Anyway, enjoy this crop of random thoughts as well as another non-random fact: the ever-more ridiculous amount of random memes!

Hugo Ballot 2023: Novels, Novellas, and More!

 

I made it! I got my Hugo votes submitted by the Sept. 30 deadline! It felt like a compressed Hugo reading season to me. Maybe it was the delay on the front end from the local Worldcon or the fact that my late summer travels and the beginning of the school year ate into my reading time, but I felt a bit rushed this year compared to previous years. I barely finished the novels and only kinda finished the novellas (you can see how I voted on the novelettes and short stories here). I skimmed the Related Works, glanced at some of the art, and went totally from memory for the Dramatic Presentations. But I did manage to vote in most of the categories. I felt especially invested in the semiprozine category this year for reasons revealed below.

How'd it go? I surprised myself with a few picks this year, especially for Best Novel, but I can say I enjoyed reading all the nominees and would be thrilled to see any of them win. Check it out below! You can see how it all turns out during the ceremony on Oct. 21 at the Chengdu Worldcon! Good luck to all the nominees!

Stirring the Past Into the Future: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

My 2023 Hugo reading continues with The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal. What did I think?

I like the concept of this book, which you might call stirring the past into the future: pour a bit of the old Thin Man movies from the 1930's and 40's (married couple travels with their dog, drinking cocktails), but in space with a healthy splash of hard SF engineering--all served in a large glass of murder mystery. 

Birthday Report: 2023

 

Every year I've had this blog, I've written a little something for my birthday. And this year is no different!

But aren't birthdays for kids? First of all, why should kids have all the fun? If being an adult requires draining life of all fun, wonder, and joy so you can pay bills and work until you die, well, then, what's the point of that?

I've always liked the message of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (yes, I am that old!): "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." And birthdays are great days to do that!

Hugo Ballot 2023: Short Stories and Novelettes!

 

It's Hugo reading season! The voting deadline is coming up on Sept. 30! There was a bit of a delay in releasing the list of nominees and the Hugo packet, and then summer travels and the beginning of the fall semester happened to me ... so, how am I doing?

I'm almost done with the novels. I may or may not get to all the novellas (sad, I know!). But I have now finished the novelettes and short stories.  Maybe because this year's Worldcon will be taking place in Chengdu, China, there are more finalists from China than usual! Unfortunately I won't get to China this year, but Worldcon will be in Glasgow, Scotland next year, and I'm hoping to attend in person as part of the Science Fiction and Philosophy Society (stay tuned for details).

Anyway, overall I thought there were some great novelettes and short stories this year. The novelettes in particular were really difficult to rank (reading the Hugo nominees in the last several years has taught me that I seem to enjoy the novelette-length short fiction best: enough space to dig in, but it's still not too long). Here are my rankings and what I thought about this year's short stories and novelettes!