#Jack Anthology of a Young Wizard part 1

[thenightling]

Films and shows to get you ready for Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is getting adapted into a series by Netflix.   Though this is a DC comics property, The Sandman is NOT like Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman.  The Sandman is a gorgeous and surreal fantasy that only partially takes place in the human world.  A big part of it takes place in the fantasy realm known as The Dreaming. 

There is very little combat action though there is horror.   To give you an idea of what you are in for (Or if you are a Sandman fan already and want something to hold you off) here are twenty-five films and shows that share some of the traits (or atmosphere) you might find in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

25.   The Raven (1963 film).  This might seem like an oddball one to list since it’s a Gothic Horror fantasy comedy from the 1960s but it gets referenced in The Sandman by Matthew imitating Peter Lorre and later Matthew compared Cain to Vincent Price.  I think it’s safe to say Matthew was a Price (or Roger Coman) fan.  

24.   Death.   Death is a short animated film from DC and was featured as bonus content for the Blu Ray of the animated movie Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. 

Though she looks younger (appearing about nineteen-years-old) Death is the older sister of Morpheus AKA Dream of The Endless, the main protagonist of The Sandman.  She was first introduced in The Sandman issue 8, The Sound of Her Wings.

23.   Stardust.

Stardust is a fantasy film based on the novel (and graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman.  Though there are liberties taken, this should give you some idea of what his fantasy writing is like.

 22.    Beetlejuice the animated series. 

If you want an idea of what The Dreaming (realm of Dreams) is like then I urge you to check out the surreal Neither (that’s not a typo) World from the Beetlejuice animated series.  The monsters that inhabit this realm are the stuff of fantasy and nightmares.  Some are living puns.  And they are ruled over by a broody Goth who makes it rain when he’s depressed and feeling melodramatic, much like a certain Dream Lord from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman...

21.  Bonus listing:   The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.  

One major antagonist of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is a nightmare entity known as The Corinthian who escapes into the waking world and becomes a serial killer.  Had Sandman been adapted in the mid-90s I think many would have loved a crossover with Freddy Krueger.  

20.   Return to Oz.

If by some weird chance you have never seen The Wizard of Oz or any faithful (read: Not 2010) version of Alice in Wonderland I would recommend those first.  But under the assumption you may have already seen those I would suggest watching Return to Oz.   Return to Oz features an adorable Jack-o-lantern headed character called Jack Pumpkinhead.   Jack Pumpkinhead was the loose inspiration for the grounds keeper dream entity character of Mervyn Pumpkinhead in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.  

19. Tales from the Crypt (TV series).

Issue 2 of The Sandman is called Imperfect Hosts because all of the characters introduced in that issue are former horror host characters from horror anthology comics.  Cain and Abel were DC’s answer to The Crypt keeper and The Vault Keeper.  For a good idea of who Cain actually is (assuming he’s in the show along with his House of Mystery) I strongly recommend checking out the TV show Tales from the Crypt.  

18.   Tales from the Cryptkeeper (animated series)

In the mid-1990s there was an animated series adaptation of Tales from the Crypt called Tales from the Cryptkeeper.  Season 2 featured the three original EC comics horror hosts of the Cryptkeeper, Vault Keeper, and the Old Witch.  These storytellers might give you an idea of who (or what) some of Morpheus’ Nightmare minion are in The Sandman.

 17.    Hocus Pcous.  

I chose to put this one here because the three witches of Hocus Pocus very much remind me of the Hecatae version of The Three-in-one from The Sandman Issue 2.   There’s also a powerful Grimoire that is a plot catalyst. 

16.   The 10th Kingdom.

The 10th Kingdom was a fantasy mini-series that aired on NBC in 2000.   It dealt with a twenty-seven-year-old young woman who discovers that her estranged mother is the evil queen in a faery tale world.   It is very much a story about stories (much like parts of The Sandman) and shows you the original dark and unvarnished versions of some classic faery tales as well as how those characters (and their descendants) carry on centuries later.

15.   Once Upon a Time (TV series.  Particularly seasons 1 through 3.)  

Much like with 10th Kingdom we have here a story about stories and those characters from classic stories trying to live in the human world with varying degrees of success.  You see how important their stories are and how carefully and intricately each tale was interwoven with each other.  (...Until around season 4 that is...)

Also it begins with a very powerful creature imprisoned and later undergoing an extremely long redemption arc and a sense of guilt tied to the death of his own son.

14.  Constantine:  City of Demons.

John Constantine appears in one issue of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.   Issue 3.   Constantine: City of Demons gives a good crash course on who Constantine is and where he comes from.  John Constantine’s ancestor, Johanna Constantine is a recurring character in The Sandman.

13.  Justice League: Dark animated movie.   

Justice League:  Dark is the first animated movie to feature The House of Mystery.  The House of Mystery is a building whose roots are in The Dreaming in The Sandman.

12.   Constantine (2014 series).  

 In 2014 Constantine got his own live action series but it only lasted for one season. 

11.  Locke and Key.

Only recently did I learn Locke and Key will be doing an official crossover with The Sandman Universe.

 10.    Lucifer TV series.  

The TV show Lucifer is an oddball thing since it was based on a comic that is actually a spin-off of The Sandman.  The storyline that introduces us to Mazikeen, where Lucifer quits ruling Hell, opens Lux, and takes up playing Piano all come from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

When Fox got the rights to Lucifer no one thought The Sandman was going to be getting an adaptation, at least not in the near future.  As a result several conversations and key pieces of dialogue that originally passed between Morpheus and Lucifer in The Sandman comics now went to Lucifer and his therapist, Linda, and his angel-brother, Amenadiel. 

Bonus: If at all possible check out the Crisis on infinite Earths event from the CW as the real Crisis on Infinite Earths (original comic event) eventually gave way to things like The Sandman.

9.   The Witches (1990) and Coraline (2009)   I couldn’t decide which one to put here so I put them both.

  The Witches is a children’s horror film based on the book by Roald Dahl. I suggest this here for its darker themes and you get a group of dangerous, child-killing witches attending a meeting at a hotel, much like The Corinthian’s Serial Killer convention in The Sandman.

Coraline is a stop motion fantasy / horror story for children and can give you some idea of what certain aspects of The Sandman are like, as it is by the same author.

8.    Pan’s Labyrinth.  

The Sandman is very much part fantasy and part Gothic horror and no director alive quite fits that criteria now better than Guillermo del Toro and possibly Tim Burton.   Pan’s Labyrinth has the surreal beauty and darkness you are likely to see in The Sandman.

7.   Doom Patrol.

Doom Patrol was the first DC show that made me have faith that yes, they CAN adapt Sandman respectfully and unafraid of the strangeness it might entail.  Doom Patrol seemed unafraid to tackle the strange, quirkiness of it’s own content.  From a talking roach, to gender-queer sentient street named Danny, Doom Patrol was not afraid to be strange.  

6.   Swam Thing (2019 TV series from DC Universe Streaming Service).

I mostly suggest this for one character in particular. Matthew Cable.  After Matthew died in The Sandman comics he chose to spend his afterlife as Morpheus’ raven.

Besides featuring a character from The Sandman Swamp Thing gives a very good Gothic atmosphere and supernatural content, giving you an idea of the sort of horror DC can do.  

6.  Justice League Action:   Trick or Threat.   And Justice League action: Supernatural adventures in Babysitting.

The episode of Justice League Action called Trick or Threat features Cain, a nightmare character from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, as well as The House of Mystery.   This was Cain’s first appearance in media.  The version of Cain in the TV show Lucifer is nothing like his comic book counterpart.  This cartoon is the first and only faithful adaptation of the character from the comics.

The episode of Justice League Action called Supernatural Adventures in Babysitting features the Magdalene Grimoire. This is the grimoire used to summon Morpheus in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.  It also features John Constantine.

    5.   She-Creature:  The Mermaid Chronicles (2001 film)

This is an odd from about some humans have a captured mermaid.  The majority of the film is about her escape and revenge on her captors.  You will see something similar to that with Morpheus in the very first episode of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.    

4.  The Company of Wolves. 

The Company of Wolves is a story about stories.  In the ontemporary world a pubescent girl sleeps during her first period. She dreams that she is Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother tells her horrific stories about werewolves.  The wolves become metaphors For puberty, masculinity, and waking sexuality.  Toward the end Rosealeen (the protagonist) becomes one of the wolves.   You get random stark reminders that this entire film is set in a dream world, and yet it’s still strangely easy to forget.

 3.   The Nightmare before Christmas.

The Nightmare before Christmas is a fantasy musical about the king of Halloween.  Though he’s adored by his subjects he longs for more.  The surreal landscape and strange creatures can be reminiscent of The Sandman.

2.   Labyrinth.

One of the earliest efforts to talk me into reading The Sandman entailed someone telling me that Morpheus was “Like a Goth Jareth.”   This effort (at the time) failed to entice me though I do love Labyrinth.   

1.   Over The Garden Wall. 

I only saw Over the Garden Wall for the first time about a year and a half ago and loved it very much.   This is a strange animated mini-series about two brothers lost in a forest called “The Unknown.”   The setting has been debated among fans as to if it’s purgatory (a place between life and death), a dream realm, or something else entirely.  I choose to believe that though it may be a place between life and Death that it’s also a part of The Dreaming, especially with so many surreal and Gothic visuals, and characters and creatures directly out of vintage seasonal cards.

[casscutting]

Book Haul

I got all these books for a grand total of $6.50 and one book was purchased for me by a very good friend of mine who also happens to be my critique partner.

Book One: House By Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker

Publication Information: Published in March of 2006 by West Bow Press which is an imprint of Thomas Nelson Publishers

Book Summary: Jack and Stephanie Singleton, a married couple on the verge of a divorce, are driving to a counseling session when they find themselves lost on a deserted road in Alabama. Taking the advice of a highway patrolman, they head down a long dirt road, where they run over spikes, flattening all of their tires and stranding them. Fortunately, they are near an old Victorian house in the backwoods of Alabama, occupied by a family of three and being used as an inn. They check-in and have a strangely mysterious dinner with them, as well as another dating couple, Randy and Leslie. Things begin to go bitter, however. One of the family, Pete, begins staring down Leslie, stating that he wants her as his “wife.” Betty, another one of the family members, keeps hounding Stephanie to get her more ice.

Then, to make matters worse, the lights turn off, and a serial killer named White locks them inside of the House. He throws a soup can down through the chimney with a message scrawled on it. The message states that he has killed God and will murder all seven of them unless they kill one of their own by dawn.

All the people frantically move through the house, but just get trapped in each new room while trying to avoid the man in the mask.

Why I Picked It Up: Like most of the books in this haul I didn’t go in knowing anything about this book but the synopsis seemed intriguing and I like horror-ish thrillers and this seemed like a good one. I have never read anything by either author before so I don’t know how well I’m going to like it but for $0.50 I thought what the hell (that’s the case for most of these books to be honest lol)

Book Two: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Publication Information:  In May of 2008 by Little, Brown, and Company

Book Summary: Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, didn’t expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she’s never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

Why I Picked It Up: I know what some of you are thinking “But Cass you hate Twilight, you never miss a chance to remind us about how much you hate sparkly vampires so why would you pick up a Stephenie Meyer book” Well faithful reader of my blog here’s the reason. I saw this movie about a year after it came out and I really enjoyed it. I had no idea that it was based on a book nor that that book was written by Stephenie Meyer. I thought it was a modern take on the wonderfully cult classic movie from 1956 which I love or even another take on the more recent 1998’s The Faculty. So I wanted to read the book on which this movie was based.

Book Three: Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Publication Information:  December 5th 2006 by Delacorte Press

Book Summary: It is the 4th book in a series so I won’t be filling this part out.

Why I Picked It Up: I have a fascination with Hannibal Lecter and I love (MOST) of the movies based on him, not a huge fan of Red Dragon, which happens to be the first book in this series. I want to collect the series and read it but they only had this one book there and it was also a recommendation by the friend I mentioned in the rant above.

Book Four: Misery by Stephen King

Publication Information:  Published in 1987 which is when my copy was printed. By Viking Press which is an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Book Summary: Paul Sheldon. He’s a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader – she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Why I Picked It Up: Misery was one of my favorite movies growing up, it was the first movie I saw with Kathy Bates and I fell in love with her acting ability. And its Stephen King do I really need to say more?

Book Five: Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan

Publication Information: Harper Collins, October 2005

Book Summary: John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.

Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound steamroller of a Labrador retriever, a dog like no other. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, flung drool on guests, stole women’s undergarments, and ate nearly everything he could get his mouth around, including couches and fine jewelry. Obedience school did no good—Marley was expelled. Neither did the tranquilizers the veterinarian prescribed for him with the admonishment, “Don’t hesitate to use these.”

And yet Marley’s heart was pure. Just as he joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley shared the couple’s joy at their first pregnancy and their heartbreak over the miscarriage. He was there when babies finally arrived and when the screams of a seventeen-year-old stabbing victim pierced the night. Marley shut down a public beach and managed to land a role in a feature-length movie, always winning hearts as he made a mess of things. Through it all, he remained steadfast, a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit’s end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

Why I Picked It Up: Because I don’t think I died enough on the inside having seen this movie twice.

Book Six: The Patchwork Girl Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Publication Information:  The original publication date was in 1913 my copy is from 1989 and was published by Watermill Press

Book Summary: This is the 7th book in the Oz series by L. Frank Baum so again I won’t put a summery hear for that reason

Why I Picked It Up: I LOVE the Wizard of Oz. I have a tattoo of the first 4 bars of Over The Rainbow tattoed around my left wrist. It is a memorial tattoo for my grandmother. She, my mother and I all love the movie and bond over it all the time. When my grandmother passed in 2010 I wanted to have a themed tattoo around the movie. Because I loved the movie so much I’ve always wanted to read the books. Even though I do have a bind up of 1-5 and 6-10 (still need 11-15) I would love to own the individual books as well.

Book Seven: Matilda by Roald Dahl

Publication Information:  Published by Puffin which is an imprint of  Penguin Random House

Book Summary: Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half, she’s knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she’s a super-nerd and the teacher’s pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda’s world. For starters, she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there’s the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Mrs. (“The”) Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.

She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defense of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable. Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The reader cares about Matilda because, in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.

Why I Picked It Up: I, like most children from the late 80’s onward grew up watching this movie which is where I in love with the story. Like with the host I had no idea this was a book at first and once I found out about it I wanted to read it. When I saw it at the sale I picked it up so I could finally do that.

Book Eight: The Dark Descent

Publication Information:  My copy is from 1987 which is the year it was published by Tor Books which is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers

Book Summary: This highly acclaimed anthology traces the evolution of horror, from Nathaniel Hawthorn and Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King. Adopted by colleges across the country to be used in literature courses, The Dark Descent showcases some of the finest horror fiction ever written.

Contents:

Pt. 1 – The Color of Evil

The Reach / Stephen King

Evening Primrose / John Collier

The Ash-Tree / M. R. James

The New Mother / Lucy Clifford

There’s a Long, Long Trail A-winding / Russell Kirk

The Call of Cthulhu / H. P. Lovecraft

The Summer People / Shirley Jackson

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs / Harlan Ellison

Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne

Mr. Justice Harbottle / J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Crowd / Ray Bradbury

The Autopsy / Michael Shea

John Charrington’s Wedding / E. Nesbit

Sticks / Karl Edward Wagner

Larger Than Oneself / Robert Aickman

Belsen Express / Fritz Leiber

Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper / Robert Bloch

If Damon Comes / Charles L. Grant

Vandy, Vandy / Manly Wade Wellman

Pt. 2 – The Medusa in the Shield

The Swords / Robert Aickman

The Roaches / Thomas M. Disch

Bright Segment / Theodore Sturgeon

Dread / Clive Barker

The Fall of the House of Usher / Edgar Allan Poe

The Monkey / Stephen King

Within the Walls of Tyre / Michael Bishop

The Rats in the Walls / H. P. Lovecraft

Schalken the Painter / J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Yellow Wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A Rose for Emily / William Faulkner

How Love Came to Professor Guildea / Robert Hichens

Born of Man and Woman / Richard Matheson

My Dear Emily / Joanna Russ

You Can Go Now / Dennis Etchison

The Rocking-Horse Winner / D. H. Lawrence

Three Days / Tanith Lee

Good Country People / Flannery O’Connor

Mackintosh Willy / Ramsey Campbell

The Jolly Corner / Henry James

Pt. 3 – A Fabulous Formless Darkness

Smoke Ghost / Fritz Leiber

Seven American Nights / Gene Wolfe

The Signal-Man / Charles Dickens

Crouch End / Stephen King

Night-Side / Joyce Carol Oates

Seaton’s Aunt / Walter de la Mare

Clara Militch / Ivan Turgenev

The Repairer of Reputations / Robert W. Chambers

The Beckoning Fair One / Oliver Onions

What Was It? / Fitz-James O’Brien

The Beautiful Stranger / Shirley Jackson

The Damned Thing / Ambrose Bierce

Afterward / Edith Wharton

The Willows / Algernon Blackwood

The Asian Shore / Thomas M. Disch

The Hospice / Robert Aickman

A Little Something for Us Tempunauts / Philip K. Dick

Why I Picked It Up: Simple, it looked interesting

Book Fifteen: The Elvenbane. Book one in the Halfblood Chronicles #1 by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Publication Information: Published in November of 1991 by Tor Books which is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers

Book Summary: The elven lords rule the world with a magical iron hand, secure in their dominion over the animal kingdom—including the original human inhabitants of the planet. If they find cause for worry, and the elven lords are not normally inclined in that manner, it is in respect to the Prophecy. The Prophecy insists that a child born of an elven lord and a human will lead a successful rebellion against their rule. Not surprisingly, the elven lords take extraordinary pains to avoid impregnating their human concubines.

This practice does not arise from any special fear concerning the Prophecy, but rather the memory of a past confrontation between the elven lords and their halfbreed offspring—a battle in which the elven lords found victory, but only by the narrowest of margins. Unknown to the elven lords, however, there is another threat to their tyranny.

Inhabiting the same planet, and possessed of magical skills powerful in their own right, are the race of dragons. It is such a dragon, Alara, who discovers a human woman in labor deep in the desert. Alara assists in the birth of the child and raises it alongside her son Keman. As the year's pass, it becomes clear that the Prophecy of an elvenbane is more fact than fiction as dragons, elven lords, halfbreeds, and talented humans struggle to determine the destiny of the world.

This collaboration between one of the most accomplished authors in the genre and a relative newcomer tot he scene is most successful. Such unions of master and apprentice are a popular trend, but this particular partnership is exceptionally satisfying. Norton is not unfamiliar with dragons, and ELVENBANE demonstrates that she’s not lost her touch.

Why I Picked It Up: I didn’t it was given to me by my friend for which I am very grateful.

So that’s it, those are the books in my haul I hope you enjoyed.

The question of the day: How many of these books have you read before and how did you feel about them?

[danithebookaholic-blog]

My Top Five Favorite Books of All Time

My Top Five Favorite Books of All Time

Over the last 30 years I have read a small mountain of books. Classic works such at Dante’s Devine Comedy and Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Literature works by Jane Austen and Nikolai Gogol. To the modern day works of Stephen King and Patrick Rothfuss, Kristen Hannah and Sylvia Day, Stephenie Meyer and Rick Riordan. There are so many writers and stories out there to be told and experienced, it’s hard to pick just five that I love. But after considerable thought, I think I have if narrowed down…ish. So, in no particular order, the following are my top five favorite books of all time…for now at least.

1)      The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I first read The Great Gatsby in my high school AP English class. Unlike most of the student in class, I actually read it and fell in love with it immediately. I love the roaring 20s in America. I often tell myself I was born too late. I should have been born in the late 1800s so I could have enjoyed the ever-changing world at the turn of the century. I envy my grandparents who could remember the first time they ever saw a car. They started their family just after the Great Depression, and got to experience the 1920s all on their own! The music, the dress, the speakeasies. This was my era, and I missed it by almost 70 years.

The Great Gatsby has so many lessons in it, and the first one is found on the very first page:

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

I think that’s the biggest reason why I love this book so much. What can I say, I’m an old soul. I like books that have a deeper meaning than what’s on the surface. I like books with moral lessons, and that ask the hard questions. And you get this with The Great Gatsby.

The writing style can be a bit dry at times, but that was also the style and language during the time in which it was written. If you can get past that part, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the book. It’s about glitz and glamor, extravagant parties, old and new money, adultery and car chases, and learning a lesson in the end.

2)      Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K Rowling

Of course, I loved the entire Harry Potter series, but I’m not going to cheat and say the entire series. I chose The Deathly Hallows because it amazes me how good of a job J. K. Rowling did with not only concluding the series, but how she began the series. Let me try to explain.

In the very first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling introduces to you to the cloak of invisibility, one of the Deathly Hallows. Throughout the series Rowling continues to introduce you to the other Deathly Hallows. As you’re reading the series you don’t think twice about these object that she has made know to you. You just think, “Oh, that’s cool,” and move on. When the Deathly Hallows are introduces in The Deathly Hallows things start to click. You start to realize all the time and effort she put into planning this seven-book anthology. Years before, when she first thought of The Sorcerer’s Stone she already kind of knew the ending. She knew that she was going to have to bring these objects in throughout the series and make you understand how important they are, without giving the ending away, and she did an amazing job at it.

Another piece that she did this same thing with were the horcruxes. From the beginning, little do you know, the horcruxes are a part of your life and you don’t really begin learning about them until book six, Harry potter and the Half Blood Prince.

I understand that all authors must create this world of theirs before they can publish. They should come up with the history of each character and how each character’s life intertwines with the others throughout the story. There are authors out there who do this and do this well, but I firmly believe that Rowling is bar none the best. I don’t know how long she worked on this story in her head or on paper before finally going to a publisher with a rough draft, but I’m sure it took a long time. More that she probably gives credit for. The complexity of this series is on a whole other level, and yet it’s simple enough for it to be in the children’s section. The whole thing boggles my mind and inspires it all at the same time.

3)      Wizard’s First Rule (Book 1 of The Sword of Truth) by Terry Goodkind

It has been many years since I read Wizard’s First Rule, 15 at least. I hold this book in such high regard though because it is the book that opened the fantasy world to me. Before The Sword of Truth series, I only read Nicholas Sparks, Harry Potter (which I know is a form of fantasy, but in my mind, not the same thing), and classics that you read in school.  This is also probably the book that made my love of books flourish.

Wizard’s First Rule is a story of a mythical world that closely resembles our own. A world in which goodness and honesty are plagued by the forces of darkness and deception. It’s a tale of risk all for the sake of love, and a journey into the darkness of the human soul. Filled with magic, indigenous peoples, and far-off places, this is a great book to spark the love you’ll soon have for fantasy stories.

4)      The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

The Notebook holds a special place in my heart because it makes me think of my early relationship with Jack, and so, I’m probably a little bias on this one due to this reason. I first read it right before the movie was to come out in 2004. Jack had graduated high school in 2003 and almost immediately went into the Navy. While he had been out of boot camp for some time, he had stayed in Chicago on the Naval base there for further schooling. I, on the other hand, was getting ready to start my senior year of high school and was missing him terribly.

One day, while on the phone, I convinced Jack to let me read The Notebook to him. He must have really loved me, because he said yes. It took the entire day, and looking back at the memory, I’m surprised my parents never caught us—after all this was before everyone had cell phones, and I had called him from the landline.

I love this book of Nicholas Sparks not only for that memory, but because the story reminds me so much of Jack and me. A young, unusual couple meet through the most unlikely of circumstances, and fall in love. With everything in the world against them, they somehow (eventually) make it and get to spend their lives together. The part that really gets me is the part the Jack and I have yet to experience: those golden years, of being old and still in love. Anytime we see an older couple together, hand in hand, I always ask him, reassuring myself, “That’s going to be us one day, right?” His response is always the same, “One day.”

I’m incredibly nervous for that day. First, to think that I will have spent most of my life with one person is awesome and scary. Second, I’m afraid that I, like Allie, will develop Alzheimer’s and not remember that I love him. My grandmother was one of the youngest cases of Alzheimer’s in the state of West Virginia, and while it’s still unknown if it’s a hereditary trait, anytime I find myself forgetting something, or not being able to remember my words, I freak out a little on the inside. It’s a scary and sad disease to watch someone you love slowly forget who you are. And I never want my family to have to experience this. The Notebook encapsulates all of this for me.

5)      The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

The Little Prince is a book I plan on reading to my children from a very early age and multiple times over. It’s a book that I wish I had read at a younger age, but wasn’t introduced to it until Jack found it in his parents’ basement shortly after his mother had passed away. When he found out I had never read it, he handed it to me and told me that I must read it, and I couldn’t agree with him more. If you haven’t read it—or seen the Netflix Original—then you need to do so.

The Little Prince is loved by children and adults alike because of its view of what is important in the world. It opens with a pilot that is stranded in the desert who finds himself face to face with a young boy. The boy asks the pilot to, “Please, draw me a sheep.” After a while the pilot realizes that when life’s events are too difficult to understand there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. So, he pulls out a piece of paper and begins to draw. And this is where the wise and enchanting fable takes flight and teaches the secret of what is really important in life.

The Little Prince, like Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, is a book that every child needs to read to keep them young, and every adult needs to remind them to never grow up.

From one wine-loving bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix.      —Dani

Start a conversation: What is your favorite book of all time, and why?

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.

[amazingstories]

In an article last month, I noted that this past April (April 2016), Amazing Stories had celebrated its 90th anniversary.

This is not entirely true. As many may know, magazine cover dates are the date after which the periodical should be removed from the shelves (and presumably replaced with the next issue). A magazine with a cover date of April is “out dated” come May 1st.

If you are familiar with that concept, then you also know that the “April” issue is usually placed on the stands approximately mid-way through the preceding month. In Amazing’s case, that would be March 12th, 1926 for the first (April 1926) issue.

Thanks to many SF and pulp historians (chief among them Michael Ashley), we actually have a birth date for the world’s first magazine devoted entirely to scientifiction.

But this presents a quandary.  Most people looking at the magazine’s first issue when confronted with a March celebration will, at best be confused.  At this present time in history, if they seek clarification, most sources will tell them that the first issue of the magazine was dated April.  Surmounting that potential confusion will required an explanation every single time the birthday is announced.

So I’ve decided to split the baby.  Hence forth, Amazing Stories birth day is March 12th.  The magazine’s anniversary is celebrated in April, in honor of its cover date,

With that out of the way, we can celebrate Amazing Stories’ 90th January today (with no explanation needed or required).

January 2005, Volume 74, Number 1

Jeff Berkwitz, Editor Paizo Publishing

$5.99 per copy

Bedsheet 84 Pages

Contents

Nowhere in Particular by Mike Resnick The Wisdom of Disaster by Nina Kiriki Hoffman Brainspace shortstory by Robin D. Laws Jimmy and Cat shortstory by Gail Sproule Wishful Thinking shortstory by J. Gregory Keyes      

Summer, 1998, Volume 70, Number 1*

Kim Mohan, Editor Wizards of the Coast

$4.00 per copy

Bedsheet 100 Pages

Contents Unbelievable – but True by Kim Mohan Dispatches (Amazing Stories, Summer 1998) by The Editor The Observatory: It All Started by Being Amazing by Bruce Sterling Scientifiction: From Silver Screen to Superstore       

January, 1987 Volume 61, Number 5

Patrick Price, Editor TSR. Inc.

$1.75 per copy

Bedsheet 162 pages

Contents Among the Stones by Paul J. McAuley Forward from What Vanishes by Mark Rich Harbard by Larry Walker Max Weber’s War by Robert Frezza Kleinism by Arthur L. Klein Temple to a Minor Goddess by Susan Shwartz Upon Hearing New Evidence That Meteors Caused the Great Extinctions by Robert Frazier Transients by Darrell Schweitzer Light Reading by John Devin Vergil and the Caged Bird by Avram Davidson Snorkeling in The River Lethe by Rory Harper Able Baker Camel by Richard Wilson      

March, 1977 Volume 50, Number 4*

Ted White, Editor Ultimate Publishing

$1.00 per copy

Digest 134 Pages

Contents Alec’s Anabasis Robert F. Young Shibboleth by Barry N. Malzberg Our Vanishing Triceratops by Joseph F. Pumilia and Steven Utley The Bentfin Boomer Girl Comes Thru by Richard A. Lupoff The Recruiter by Glen Cook Two of a Kind by Rich Brown Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear by Jack C. Haldeman, II An Animal Crime of Passion by Vol Haldeman      

February, 1967 Volume 40, Number 10*

Joseph Ross, Editor Ultimate Publishing

50 cents per copy

Digest 164 pages

Contents Two Days Running and Then Skip a Day by Ron Goulart Tumithak of the Corridors by Charles R. Tanner Methuselah, Ltd. by Richard Barr and Wallace West The Man with Common Sense by James E. Gunn Born Under Mars (Part 2 of 2) by John Brunner      

January, 1957 Volume 31, Number 1

Paul W. Fairman, Editor Ziff-Davis Publshishing Company

35 cents per copy

Digest 132 pages

Contents Quest of the Golden Ape (Part 1 of 3) • serial by Paul W. Fairman and Milton Lesser [as by Ivar Jorgensen and Adam Chase ] Savage Wind • shortstory by Harlan Ellison Reluctant Genius by Henry Slesar Heart by Henry Slesar Before Egypt by Robert Bloch      

January, 1947 Volume 21, Number 1

Raymond A. Palmer, Editor Ziff-Davis Publishing Company

25 cents per copy

Pulp 180 Pages

Contents I Have Been in the Caves by Margaret Rogers Rejuvenation Asteroid by William L. Hamling The Secret of Sutter’s Lake by Don Wilcox Like Alarm Bells Ringing by Robert Moore Williams The Mind Rovers by Richard S. Shaver Death Seems So Final by Richard S. Shaver Mr. Wilson’s Watch by H. B. Hickey      

February, 1937 Volume 11, Number 1*

T. O’Conor Sloane, Editor Teck Publications

25 cents per copy

Pulp 148 pages

Contents The Planet of Perpetual Night by John Edwards Prometheus by Arthur K. Barnes “By Jove!” (Part 1 of 3)by Dr. Walter Rose Denitro by Stanton A. Coblentz The Last Neanderthal Man by Isaac R. Nathanson      

January, 1927, Volume 1, Number 10

Hugo Gernsback, Editor Experimenter Publishing Company

25 cents per copy

Bedsheet 108 Pages

Contents The Red Dust by Murray Leinster The Man Who Could Vanish by A. Hyatt Verrill The First Men in the Moon (Part 2 of 3) by H. G. Wells The Man with the Strange Head by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. The Second Deluge (Part 3 of 4) by Garrett P. Serviss  

Perhaps the most interesting statistic is that we’re producing a series of anthologies and facsimile reprint editions, drawn from all of these years of STF goodness and keeping them accessible.

If art is your thing, take a gander at the posters we’ve got for sale; if fiction is what you’re after, here are the titles we’ve currently got on sale – with more coming every month; (click on any cover to purchase).

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Best of 1926

Best of 1927

Best of 1928

Best of 1940

35TH Anniversary Issue

May 1940 Facsimile Edition

September 1940 Facsimile Edition

Amazing Stories Annual Facsimile Edition

Amazing Stories Classic Novels

Ammazing Stories 88th Anniversary Issue

Also note: this article could not have been prepared without the resources of ISFDB.ORG and Galactic Central – Philsp.com. We are continually grateful for the work that they do in preserving genre history.

*As always, we try to get as close to an actual anniversary issue as possible, but given Amazing’s interesting publishing history, this is not always possible.

The Amazing Years – January 2017 In an article last month, I noted that this past April (April 2016), Amazing Stories had celebrated its 90th anniversary.