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gollancz · 1 month ago

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Guys. Christmas is coming. Consumerism is in the driver's seat and GAWD don't I know about the existential ennui of all these faceless corporations trying to schill you their wares. It's cold. Impersonal. Bleak.

So I, a fellow tumblr user, will instead try to schill you MY wares, so that when you purchase these items you can say "Hey, that person from tumblr worked on this", and feel the warmth of HUMAN CONNECTION in a way that is completely normal and not parasocial at all. We really are friends. I promise. Yes, you. Love you, bestie. Remember the boop war? Good times. Fond memories.

THIRTEEN STOREYS and FAMILY BUSINESS by Jonathan Sims

Tumblr's favourite Nightmare Factory @jonnywaistcoat has two novels out and they're phenomenal horror that also punch you in the throat with SOCIAL COMMENTARY and FEELINGS. He's so adept at tapping into the specific part of my brain that feels fear like a small child - not the adult creepy scared that I normally get around horror, but specifically the kind of fear that almost freezes your limbs and vocal chords with a terror you don't quite understand because there is so much in the world that you don't know, but you know that somehow this thing might be quick enough or smart enough or sneaky enough to get you before you can get to the safety of your parents sort of fear.

THIRTEEN STOREYS is a haunted house novel, but set in a refurbished block of flats. Each chapter follows a different resident being haunted in a different way, with a style to match the flavour of ghost. It's all tied together phenomenally and brutally.

FAMILY BUSINESS is a story about ghosts in a different way, following a woman who joins a post-mortem house cleaning service while grieving the death of her best friend. But as she removes the stains from the houses of the dead, she begins to suspect something else is removing even more.

Both of these titles are available from Gollancz worldwide!

THE LAST UNICORN, THE WAY HOME, THE INNKEEPER'S SONG and A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by Peter S. Beagle

Obviously Peter's work needs no introduction, and our editions aren't available in the US and Canada, but I've had a wonderful time working with Peter and his team to bring these beautiful books back to the UK. Meeting him at Worldcon this year was such a magical moment, and he was jet-lagged and I had gone through sleep deprived into hyper and was bringing an Extremely Weird Energy to every interaction I had that day, resulting in this photo:

THE LAST UNICORN and THE WAY HOME are a matched pair of wonderful fairy stories. THE WAY HOME has two novellettes in it, and the first - 'Two Hearts' - won the Hugo award. It will also destroy you.

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE was Peter's first ever novel, and it's wistful and romantic and so beautiful.

THE INNKEEPER'S SONG is his epic fantasy quest, it's an adventure story that reads almost lyrically. Also there's an orgy in the middle which caught me by surprise when I was reading it for the first time on the train into work.

HIGH VAULTAGE by Chris and Jen Sugden

It's possible that someone on this website doesn't know I was involved with this book but don't worry, I will HUNT THEM DOWN AND TELL THEM. This is the first book I took all the way through the editorial process from end to end and I am SO PROUD of it and Chris and Jen and their wonderful world of @victoriocity. Officially one of the seven funniest books published in the UK this year, shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. It's a chaotic, bonkers murder mystery set in an alternate Victorian London which is the most gleeful dystopia I have ever encountered.

Featuring:

Grumpy Sunshine besties

The Victorian Equivalent of the Chuck Norris Meme

A robot who undertook a course in People Management

An indefatigable beagle

This is another book that you can get from Gollancz all over the world, and you SHOULD because it's amazing. Go into your local bookshop and ask them to order it into stock. It's a great Christmas present. It's my firstborn book baby (like that's a completely normal thing to say when I didn't even write it). Also if you're a fan of the podcast, why not tell the Guardian how great it is, and make a nuisance of yourself until they review. (I would, but the form asks for your name and then they'd know I didn't suddenly discover Victoriocity this year. Either that or think I was a very careless editor.) If you've not listened to the podcast yet, you absolutely should. It pings all my Douglas Adams receptors in the best way. If you like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE, if you like CABIN PRESSURE, VICTORIOCITY is the perfect addition.

HAMMAJANG LUCK by Makana Yamamoto

SLIGHTLY cheating because HAMMAJANG LUCK isn't out in North America until January (pre-orders make great Christmas presents guys), but it IS out in the UK and the rest of the world next week! This is my second big editorial project and it's a Big Gay Space Heist ft. disaster lesbians, trans characters, and a tech billionaire getting put in his place. It's joyous and energetic and crammed full of Hawaiian pidgin as a love letter to the diaspora. @makana-yama is a phenomenal writer and this is their love letter to their communities, families both born and found, while also a statement on the victims of gentrification (and how those are disproportionally BIPOC communities). PLUS:

friends to enemies to cautious allies to lovers

trans cyborgs

Suck It Space Elon

You know that One Scene in Charlie's Angels where Cameron Diaz is in the white body suit and breaking into the safe and has to stretch out to hit two buttons at once? Yeah. That's the vibe.

Being able to work with Makana is a delight, and HAMMAJANG tapped into all the feelings I got watching LEVERAGE for the first time, so I went to watch it again while I was editing. Also OCEAN'S 8.

DEEP BLACK by Miles Cameron

So, barring Branderson, Miles Cameron may be one of our most prolific authors. He writes a minimum two books a year, one SFF and one historical fiction (as Christian Cameron) and he is... An absolute phenomenon. He IS the Chuck Norris meme. I'm obsessed with him. He's former US military intelligence turned naturalised Canadian Hippy, has written over fifty novels, can turn his hand to any genre and write it fantastically, is a practical archaeologist - running large scale re-enactments from a variety of periods ranging from Bronze Age right the way up to the Victorian era, using traditional techniques to allow academics to study how the practicalities of weapons, clothes, food etc. would have worked in practice. Two years ago he won a medieval combat tournament in Verona, a clear ten years older at least than the next oldest competitor, he teaches Historical European Martial Arts, but ties it into the history of martial arts globally. He can make his own clothes, ink, leatherwork. He's a ballet dancer. I once took him for a day out and he ended it in a different shirt and shoes from the ones he'd started in. I asked him for an author photo and he sent me this:

DEEP BLACK is the sequel to his critically acclaimed SF debut ARTIFACT SPACE, where he has taken his research and experience of global historical cultures and extrapolated to create an interplanetary future where the best of all are celebrated. And then Aliens Happen. And then, in reaction, Capitalism Happens (which is covered in the short story collection BEYOND THE FRINGE).

He's such a thoughtful and erudite speaker, if you're curious about his work, I'd recommend listening to his episodes on the Friends Talking Fantasy podcast, and also his appearance on The Publishing Rodeo.

If SF isn't your bag, he's also got:

Arthurian fantasy

Bronze Age fantasy

Medieval Mages fantasy

A CURSE OF CROWS - Lauren Dedroog

I actually inherited Lauren when a colleague of mine departed for fresh pastures, which gave me the great opportunity to work on this series which is so vastly different from my usual fare. It's epic, sweeping, romantic and lush, with such detailed description and complex political machinations, while also being brutal, dark and heavy (tw: for sexual assault, torture etc, etc.). If you like Sarah J Maas and Cassandra Clare, this should hit the sweet spot. Lauren is an ICU nurse when not writing, and this was somehow created when she was putting in a million hours in hospitals during COVID. The feat boggles my mind.

A CURSE OF CROWS is out now in the UK, Australia and Europe, and it won the People's Choice for Standaard Boek's Book of the Year award in 2023, in her home country of Belgium. It will be hitting shelves in North America next September! A DANCE OF SERPENTS is where I get to pick up the editorial mantle, and that has just landed in my inbox this week so I am excited to dig in.

Featuring:

Harold, they're lesbians

Murder baby is actually a cinnamon roll

Sensitive wings are sexy

For serious, though, I'm lucky enough to work with a lot of authors I'm genuinely obsessed and astounded by. And yes, I do get to work on Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson and Andrzej Sapkowski, but they're not MY authors - they're led by the incredible Gillian and Marcus who I'm not 100% certain sleep. There are so many people on the Gollancz list who I could recommend for DAYS (and will, if you so request), but this is my stable of superstars.

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moononmyfloor · 14 days ago

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In the 4th Quarter of 2024 Cdramaland...

1st Quarter, 2nd Quarter, 3th Quarter

24. Best Ensemble of the Year

The First Shot

Each member of this ragtag cop family had such clear and purposeful narrative that concluded in super satisfactory ways and they were all acted SO masterfully with amazing chemistry all around. It's them who made the show, really. I'd totally watch 3 more seasons of this.

25. Most Lovable Characters of the Year

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy

LGIEF wasn't necessarily a novel story but what made it unique for me was the wholesome family composed of 5 very young people.... well, it still doesn't sound very unique when I say it like that... lemme try again. Usually when you see found family trope in a YA story, it's because the kids bonded over trauma and adventure. Which is cool and amazing yes but also, sometimes it's just refreshing to see a bunch of young people being family just because? And not for any dramatic reason whatsoever? And they are only half-found family, 2 of them are already siblings, and two others are their lovers, the other one is the mascot baby of the four of them. Especially Liu Fuyi, I rarely see a big brother-in-law character who so wholeheartedly spent his time with his girlfriend's silly little younger siblings without being all so haughty or pretentiously overprotective and "responsible" for them. They all just liked each other so they stuck together, simple as that.

99% dramas try to shoehorn unnecessary antics into found family dynamics because they think it's boring otherwise, and it's not that there wasn't drama and hidden agendas among LGIEF group, but it was never the focal point. The genuine sweetness in the moments they spent together, was.

26. Best Production of the Year

Without a doubt Riverside Code at Qingming Festival. As for why, well I already talked about it at LENGTH so here you go!

27. Best Opening/Ending Credits of the Year

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, The Story of Pearl Girl

Really liked LGIEF's pixel rpg game run credits and Pearl Girl's shiny and expensive looking graphics.

28. Favorite Murder Kitten of the Year

Fangs of Fortune: Li Lun (Yan An)

Though he was presented as the most naive, obsessed, one-track and narrow minded character in the show, he literally had the most unassumingly deepest storyline for me, in the entirety of 2024. Yes that's sky-high praise, I know. I related to him in this very personal level and I wrote over 30K fanfics and character analysis for him within 2 weeks. And then I fell down a Yan An rabbit hole because he's the most adorable person ever I've laid eyes on. End of the story.

29. A Drama That Taught Me Something New

The City of Sunlight: taught me so much niche details about Tibetan culture

30. Most Inspiring Drama of the Year

She and Her Girls

This semi-autobiographical drama about High School Principal Zhang Guimei (who is still alive and kicking and running the same highschool in Yunnan) is a must watch if you are interested in based-on-real-life stories. Working as a teacher in Yunnan, she noticed that in the extreme rural mountainous areas, families are poverty ridden, only boys get even the slightest opportunity for higher education while girls are forced to marry as young as early teen age, and they remain stuck in those mountains and repeat their mothers' fate. She wanted to change this and build completely free all-girls high school to battle this inequality and provide the girls with a safe haven where they can study worry free and gain opportunities to go beyond the mountains.

It's fully subbed, has amazing acting all over, from both adult and younger cast, and I really liked how it doesn't idolize anything: all the actors are sunbaked and pimple ridden, the political, financial and societal issues that come her way aren't sugar-coated but nobody is demonized either, and she herself is a very real, 3D character who isn't perfect, she's too strict and stubborn and her methods of "tough love" come out as downright mean sometimes, and she's a staunch communist believer to the point it's comical but like I said: the drama doesn't try to filter anything. And it makes her all the more endearing. Plus no matter what she got the thing done and watching her efforts bear fruit was so badass and tearjerking.

Conclusion

Overall I had so much fun, and I tried my best to come up with all sorts of categories to give nods to as many dramas as possible 🤣 even though some sections must have looked ridiculous to onlookers' eyes lol. There were lots of stuff that I dropped but also there were so much stuff I looked forward to watching this year but simply couldn't because THERE ARE SO MANY OF INTERESTING SOUNDING SHOWS AND SO LITTLE TIME AND ALSO SOMETIMES NO SUBS!

Really, one way or another, I was always entertained.

Blossoms: Shanghai, Will Love in Spring, Born to Run, Later I Laughed, For the Young Ones, Teresa Teng, The Gate of Xuanwu, The Swimsuit Saga, I look forward to catching up with y'all at least next year!!!