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 D.N. Bryn, whose novel, Our Bloody Pearl, is out now from Avos Publishing!
What does Danny love when they’re not writing about a ragtag group of pirates and a siren bent on revenge? Spoiler alert: science fiction that redefines the stereotypes, story-telling via role play, and terrifying-to-some but truly harmless little creatures. Curious? Read on to learn more!
I’ve been in awe of the intense fan culture surrounding people’s faves, but I’ve rarely felt like I fit in — no excessive screaming or fanfics or shelves of paraphernalia for me. But the things I really love have infected my life in the best of ways, often changing how I interact with my own creative works. Here are some of those which truly hit the list of my “faves” as of late.
Annihilation, The Martian Chronicles, and This Is How You Lose The Time War: Redefining What I Think of Science Fiction.
I was ecstatic when I realized (far too late in life) that science fiction in literature is so much more than just gruff men in space ships battling it out over ancient political feuds.
My first ever favorite sci fi is not the least bit new at all — almost 70 years old in fact. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles contains a series of short stories tracking the whimsical and horrific colonization of Mars. The timeless humanity of the characters mixed with the humorous and poetic writing made me branch out in my literary choices.
I picked up Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation a little while later. I found its atmosphere absolutely breathtaking. From the nearly sentient landscape that always seems to be watching, to the way the main character slowly re-evaluates her marriage through clues about her missing, possibly deceased husband, to the nearly mystical alien life polluting everything it touches, there’s so much haunting beauty in this book.
My most recent science fiction love, This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, is perhaps the most lyrical and metaphorical of them all, dosed in symbolic descriptions and stunning language as it follows the relationship of two time war enemies as their correspondence leads them to rethink their place in the battle.
Do you see a pattern here yet? 🙂
The Adventure Zone: Seeing Spontaneous Storytelling as an Art Form.
Created by the McElroy brothers and father, The Adventure Zone is a role-playing podcast where the McElroys use popular tabletop role play games like Dungeons and Dragons to tell a wild and wonderful story. Griffin McElroy (the Game Master) has to create and tell the story for the rest of his family (the players) while still giving them free will to let their characters do whatever they want in the world.
Griffin’s fantastic foreshadowing, intrigue, and use of the characters’ slow backstory revelations has made me think harder about the ways we utilize these things in stories, especially when we don’t yet know where exactly the story is going, and it inspired me to join my own Dungeons and Dragons group! (My socially anxious wood elf is going to rescue her girlfriend or so help me…!)
Orb Weavers: Finding Beauty in the Creepy Crawlies.
Over the course of the summer I’ve had half a dozen different orb weavers make their home in my front yard, and watching them (read: obsessively stalking their movements and growth and getting so distracted by them in the morning that I’m late for work) has become a hobby of mine. They’re such fascinating little creatures — harmless to humans and very timid, by the way. Did you know they eat their old webs in the evening before starting on a brand new one?
Photo by D.N. Bryn
If orb weavers don’t appear in any of my future books, please assume I’m being metaphorically mind-controlled by overly-poetic aliens.
D.N. Bryn began writing in middle school and has yet to stop, constantly bringing their love for animals, science, and mythology into their speculative fiction writing. They are passionate about creating inclusive worlds where a diverse array of characters can go on grand adventures without being hindered by social misconceptions based on their appearance, sexuality, or gender.
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