One of the many, many things Le Guin gave us was a subtle one: that the “science” in science fiction could also be the social sciences, and that, indeed, without it, no science fiction could be entirely complete
I’m most fond of Le Guin’s Earthsea stories, some of which I’ve read and re-read in Finnish and in English over the years. I’ve only managed one of her science fiction books so far, though. Time to rectify that.
Forever read, Ms. Le Guin. Your intellect, inner fire, and vision will be deeply missed.
According to the BBC, an additional five-stamp sheet is also going to be published. It features giants, direwolves, dragons, the Iron Throne, and the Night King and his undead White Walkers.
The stamps will be available at post offices across the U.K. or by calling Royal Mail’s customer service line from next Tuesday, January 23, 2018. Pre-orderes on the Royal Mail website are also possible.
I’m counting 5 women and 5 men on the Character Stamp Set. Counted another way, 4 Starks (go, Starks!), 4 Lannisters, and Daenerys plus old dame Tyrell. Cool cool cool!
Looking very slick! Favorite actors among the cast include James Purefoy (Rome, Mansfield Park, Sharpe’s Sword), Dichen Lachman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Torchwood, Dollhouse), Tamara Taylor (Bones, Serenity), and Ato Essandoh (Elementary). Joel Kinnaman as Takeshi Kovacs is almost entirely new to me (I’ve seen him in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but have no recollection); however, I’m glad to see another northener in a big world production.
I wonder whether I have time to re-read the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy with all the other books on my TBR pile… 🙂
Although the Star Wars and Star Trek fandoms have not always gotten along entirely peacefully, I hope that the two fan videos below show that singing is a pastime shared across the divide.
Take it away, Chewbacca and the crew of Deep Space Nine.
The brilliant idea for “Chewbacca Sings Silent Night” was actually created in 1999 by Scott Andersen (story here: http://room34.com/chewbacca/) and since then his audio has been shared many times, often without crediting him. You can download the original at the link above, or better yet support his genius by hiring him for web design at http://room34.com
“With Scott’s “blessing” and in honor of Christmas and Star Wars season, James Covenant (creator of the awesome Star Trek “Make It So” video: https://youtu.be/oiSn2JuDQSc) was inspired to create this new video for our channel to wish you all a very Star Wars Christmas!”
Captain Sisko & the DS9 Ensemble sing “Wonderful Deep Space Nine” by John C. Worsley
“In the grand tradition of Star Trek captains singing holiday standards, for your consideration: ‘Wonderful Deep Space Nine’ sung by Captain Sisko, Major Kira, Constable Odo, Lieutenant Commander Worf, Chief O’Brien, Congenial Barkeep Quark, Plain Simple Garak, and the rest of the Star Trek: DS9 ensemble. Special appearances by Morn, Martok, Moogie, and Vorta Iggy Pop.
Apologies to Berman, Piller, Brooks, Visitor, Farrell, Auberjonois, Siddig, Shimerman, Meaney, Dorn, Robinson, Eisenberg, Lofton, Grodenchik, Alaimo, Biggs, Marshall, Jens, de Boer, Barrett, Sadler, and Combs.”
We’re vacationing for the rest of the year. Until 2018, Happy Merry!
This post has been edited to correct language.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
“[…] we’ve put together a short recipe list — consisting of hors-d’oeuvre, entrées, and entremets based on traditional puffin and poultry dishes — for your perusal.
“Yes, you read that right. Despite being protected by several national and international conservation organizations, puffins are considered a rare delicacy in Nordic countries. And seeing as how The Last Jedi‘s porgs are based on the puffins writer/director Rian Johnson saw while filming at Skellig, it makes sense their preparation would be similar.”
While Iceland is unquestionably one of the Nordic countries, it’s ludicrous to claim that the existence of a practice in one country (or even two) equals its existence in all five.
Now, had Husband talked for instance of reindeer, he would be more correct, but still not entirely so. The Sami herd reindeer in the north of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, so we three nations tend to eat reindeer meat. In fact, sauteed reindeer or poronkäristys was one of the regular dishes at my elementary school cafeteria in Northern Finland, so I personally couldn’t call it a delicacy even though I’ve eaten it less often since. In Denmark and in Iceland it’s an import, and apparently they hardly eat reindeer at all (or so the all-knowing Internet tells me).
But puffin? I’ve never even heard of eating puffin before, although it sounds like the practice does have long roots in Iceland and Norway (judging e.g. by the existence of lundehunder or puffin dogs in the latter) and some other areas like the Faroes. And now that I know Atlantic puffins are considered vulnerable, I wouldn’t eat them even if I happened to be in a country where hunting them wasn’t banned. Not even if you paid me.
“One should not seek ugliness in this world. There is no lack of it. You will find it soon enough, or it will find you.”
– Sigrud je Harkvaldsson in City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
Although my life has been very different from that of a Dreyling operative and assassin, I agree. (For instance, I’ve never understood the appeal of vampire or horror genres, but to each their own.)
Bennett, Robert Jackson. City of Miracles. New York: Broadway Books, 2017, p. 177.
Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.
I shared my WoW: Legion hidden artifact appearance last month and mentioned that I might be re-doing my fire mage’s transmog to match it. Well, here she is in her new, golden, white, and turquoise hues:
This may be my favorite transmog to date. I’ll try and get a better screencap later; this one doesn’t really show some of the details. I’m also making good progress on completing 200 world quests in order to unlock another color variant for The Stars’ Design appearance, so, yay! 🙂
Image: screenshot from World of Warcraft
Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.
Creating medieval(esque) city maps just got a lot easier: Oleg Dolya (watabou) made an automated generator to do it.
Choose size of city with the click of a button, and color scheme and line or shading types from the options. You can export the image either as png or svg. Unfortunately the ward names (temple, merchant, crafts, etc.) aren’t saved on the exported map, though.
Watabou also built a 3d-visualiser to support Medieval Fantasy City Generator called Toy Town. Although I haven’t played with that, it sounds like both should be a great help to storytellers—unless you enjoy the process with paper and pen, of course!
Co-Geeking 