What if... stories were fun? Edition 1
Laugh, smile, have a whale of a time.
I don’t want this newsletter to be like a food blog where I ramble on for seven pages before I tell you the recipe. You’re here for the recommendations, and I’m here to send you to them.
Go! Click! Be free! (Remember to support your favourite publisher / creator. ♥️)
Did I miss your favourite fun story? Let me know! 💬
[Watch: TV series] Russian Doll (Netflix). If you like your speculative fiction to be fun, here’s a good place to start. The characters are brash and colourful, and the situations sometimes absurd (sometimes subtle), but their reactions are believable. I love it when stories set in a speculative world get me thinking “what would I do if it happened to me?”
Season 1 has 8 x 25-minute episodes.
See also: All You Need Is Kill (manga / novel), which was the basis for the movie Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live. Die. Repeat.)
[Read: 8 minutes] Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell is fun. The (great) title gives you an idea how scary this haunted house story is. (No puns in the actual tale.) Told from the perspective of a haunted house that just wants somebody to move in — not so it can murder them or send them mad; just to be lived in. 😭
Today it is going to change that. It is on its best behavior as the realtor, Mrs. Weiss, sweeps up. She puts out trays of store-bought cookies and hides scent dispensers, while 133 Poisonwood summons a gentle breeze and uses its aura to spook any groundhogs off the property. Both the realtor and the real estate need this open house to work.
Stragglers trickle in. They are bored people more interested in snacks than the restored plumbing. The house straightens its aching floorboards, like a human sucking in their belly. Stragglers track mud everywhere. The house would love nothing more than any of them to spend the rest of their lives tracking mud into it.
[Read: 10 minutes] The Button Girl by Christopher Henckel is a sweet tale that plays out like a human Rube Goldberg machine. Wholesome and light, with some funny dialogue and an adorable main character. I challenge you to read this and not shout “Buttons!” at your friends and family.
The Button Girl smiled at the young man across the counter, resisting the urge to giggle at his paper hat, which sat like a capsized canoe on his shaggy hair. Taking in the scent of coffee and warm pepperoni rolls, The Button Girl pushed the jade across the counter toward him.
[Watch: 1 minute] Earworm in Your Syrup by “Akis the Damned” is creeeepy good. The addition of sound design, visuals, and narration really bring it to life! (And oh my goodness, the narrator’s voice is to die for.) If you like the idea of your breakfast whispering sweet nothings to you, have a listen/watch:
[Listen: 25 minutes] Killer RV by EH Obey. The first two chapters of this novel, read by the author in this excerpt, are full of fun dialogue and promise a rollicking (if bloody) ride ahead. TRIGGER WARNINGS: Profanity, violence, vigilantism.
You know what else is fun? Singing along! 🎵
Listen to Aeolus from the Freelance Whales album Diluvia.
Peer into their insides (they glow)
With all the precious metals we dug up for
Circuit boards and spaceships
My fluorescent gods I've waited for this
Keep me in your warm arms (my love)
Cradle me while I unhinge my neurons
Power down the wind farm
All the animals are laughing at us
The album is full of catchy songs with great lyrics with a speculative spin.
From Follow Through:
Making good on our plan
As I stuck to my presets
No offense
It's just I never made amends
With myself
I'll always see through this lens
The wires bind the stems
I will not
Shoot my valence through the air
I am not
One of them
From Locked Out:
We have the rations to go anywhere
We have the rations to go anywhere
The striding light beam fades
The striding light beam fades...
Are Dragons Carbon Neutral?
(See, it looks like clickbait. But is it clickbait? Or official science advice?)
And now, this:
Created by Rabittooth, 1 August 2020. As far as I can tell in 5 minutes this one is the origin of this particular meme, though there is a similar LOTR + fetch gag from 2019.
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If you like these recommendations, what else should I read/watch/listen to?