They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author, Christopher Golden! Christopher doesn’t just write award-winning novels, but he also writes comic books, video games, screenplays, and he’s even written a television show pilot!
What does Christopher love when he’s not glued to his keyboard, creating his latest release? Spoiler alert: reality-shifting fiction, combating the apocalypse, girls stumbling through time, the “most compelling comic book of the decade,” television that’s so good it hurts to watch, and a worthy but flawed successor. Intrigued? Read on for more!
In elementary school, my mom rotated three lunches that I can recall — bologna, tuna, and peanut butter. Bologna bored me to tears, but I was enthusiastic about the other two. When I had peanut butter sandwiches, I would often poll the class to drum up some shared enthusiasm. I’d put my hand up and command, “Whoever likes peanut butter, raise your hand!” I was always passionate about the things I loved, and I wanted everyone else to love them too.
Truth is, I haven’t changed that much. I still want everyone to love the things that I love, so writing a column like this just feeds into that character trait. I’m like a dog who’s sniffed out something fascinating and barks and barks, trying to lead his master to discover that intriguing object. So here we go…bark bark bark bark!
BOOKS: This is totally cheating. Truly. I’ve spent the past six months as one of the judges for this year’s World Fantasy Award, and it’s been both a trial and a joy. I’ve discovered new-to-me writers who’ve inspired me, and had a chance to read the latest from authors I’d already been familiar with. (I should note that my comments here should not be construed to imply that any of these books will be nominees. There are five judges, decisions have not yet been made, reading continues, and I read a lot of books I’ve enjoyed immensely.) I’m using the broadest definition of spec fic, I have to mention some of the weirder and more fascinating books I encountered. David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother is brilliant and totally original, somewhere between novel and short story collection. One of the greatest feelings as a reader is when you feel reality shifting beneath a story, not just the narrator but the fabric of the world becoming unreliable, and Demchuk manages it.
Other 2017 books I’ve loved include Joe Hill’s Strange Weather (probably his finest work to date), Jade City by Fonda Lee, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory, The Changeling by Victor LaValle, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley, and Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry. For a great “double feature,” read Theodora Goss’s The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter and Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Will and Temper. The Goss novel features the daughters of famous mad scientists of classic literature, and Tanzer’s book is a wonderful revisionist, gender-flipped twist on Dorian Gray. And those are just the novels! I don’t have room to include all of the novellas, collections, and anthologies that have excited me lately.
For books pre-2017, three all-time spec fic favorites are Stephen King’s The Stand (my favorite novel), Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids.
COMICS: Once upon a time, I bought at least a dozen new comics every week. These days, sadly, those numbers have dwindled dramatically, but I’m more enthusiastic than ever about the ones I’m still reading. Mike Mignola and his creative partners continue toward the end of the world in the pages of B.P.R.D., a grim and complex saga about friends and colleagues trying to combat the apocalypse even though they all sense the effort is hopeless. The other two comics that make this list are both written by Brian K. Vaughn. Paper Girls, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, is the story of four twelve-year-old newspaper delivery girls in 1988 Ohio whose hometown is invaded by a hostile force from the future, even as the girls stumble upon a time machine that sends them on a journey through time, during which they learn far more about the world — and, more importantly, about themselves and each other — than they ever imagined. It’s such a pleasure to read. As for Saga… if you’re interested in comics at all, you’ve doubtless heard about this series from Vaughn and artist Fiona Staples, about the relationship between members of two warring alien races, and the daughter born of their union — a daughter people are told is biologically impossible, and whose existence could undermine the hatred between races, something those who thrive on that war and hatred want to avoid. Saga is funny, thrilling, beautiful, heartbreaking, sexy, violent, and painfully human. It’s also the best, most layered, and most compelling comic book of the decade. Even if you don’t normally read comics, you should be reading this.
TELEVISION: What spectacular times we live in, when we can turn on the TV and watch Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Westworld, Game of Thrones, Jessica Jones, or the best series on television, The Handmaid’s Tale. The latter is hard to watch. Painful, really. After the first three episodes, my wife and I had to take a couple of weeks off just to recover, but the performances and the writing are so good, the message so timely, and the darkness so striking, that it redefines “must-see TV.”
MOVIES: My favorite film of all time is Blade Runner. The original theatrical poster hangs above my desk. In college I wrote two separate papers about the film — neither for a film class. Needless to say, when I first heard about the plan to make a sequel more than three decades after the first one, I thought this was a dreadful idea. As the project developed, my concerns were somewhat assuaged, especially by the attachment of Denis Villeneuve as director. To my surprise and delight, I absolutely loved Blade Runner 2049, a worthy successor to the Ridley Scott original. And yet, like so many, I can’t applaud the film without also taking note of its greatest failing, the startling lack of diversity, particularly so many white faces in a futuristic culture so rooted in Asian influence and motif. It mars what for me is an otherwise wonderful cinematic experience. Fortunately, early 2018 brought the antidote in the form of what is doubtless my favorite film so far this year, Black Panther, which is not only an instant spec fic classic but a groundbreaker whose influence will be felt for many years to come.
Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Dead Ringers. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of two cult favorite comic book series, Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. His graphic novel trilogy collaboration with Charlaine Harris, Cemetery Girl, reached #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcasts Three Guys with Beards and Defenders Dialogue. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated eight times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com.
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I think this is the second recommendation I’ve seen for The Bone Mother. I need to check it out. I loved The Bear and the Nightgale and The Changeling, but was underwhelmed by Jade City.