My Favorite Things with Ty Drago

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 Ty Drago, whose YA novel Dragons is up for pre-order from eSpec Books!

What does Ty love when he’s not writing about kids who take over corpses to form an army, or bizarre deaths on Mars? Spoiler alert: a literary darling that is absolutely spec fic, more than a doctor a day, a cult classic that stands the test of time, and a collection that Dresden like you’ve never heard him before, and a collection beyond the realms of fantasy. Intrigued? Read on to learn more!

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At first glance, it may appear that my initial item on this “My Favorite Things” list is non-speculative. But that would be wrong. My favorite book of all time (and that’s not a term I throw around) is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. For those of you who don’t remember, this is the story of Pi Patel, an Indian Tamil boy who is shipwrecked in the South Pacific and spends 227 days aboard a lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger. On the surface, and I mean the very surface, it’s a simple survival story. But there’s so, so much more to it than that.

In Life of Pi, Martel does a very smart thing from the get-go: He has us meet his protagonist, now as a grown man living in Canada. From this, we know that Pi survives his ordeal, which takes any worry we may feel for his safety off the table. This frees the narrative to pursue its real purpose, to challenge our perspective, assault our disbelief, and dig deep into the meaning of “truth,” “faith,” and “spirituality.” As Pi’s adventures become increasingly implausible and his co-dependence on the tiger, wonderfully named “Richard Parker” due to a clerical error, grows more spiritual, we come to accept the miracles, one atop the next, that fill the story. Then, in the end, Martel turns around and demands of us, “Okay, but here’s another way it could have happened! Which do you believe?”

It could not be more speculative.

The novel is a masterpiece. Every time I read it, I come away thinking what, for an author, is perhaps the saddest thought of all: “I’ll never write anything this good.”

My favorite television show is an easier fit and also an easier choice, since it’s been my favorite for forty-years. Doctor Who, that staple of the BBC and one of the great pillars of TV science fiction since its original premiere in 1963, has captivated me since the first time I saw it. I was in my early twenties and, entirely by coincidence, my very first episode happened to be the American premiere of “Giant Robot,” which introduced Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. I found his humor, his timing, his screen presence captivating, and he’s been the yardstick I’ve used when measuring every other Doctor, before or since.

Like any show that’s been on for a very, very long time, Doctor Who has had its ups and downs. There were moments when it shown like a jewel, and others when it was just plain lousy. But it keeps coming back, reinventing itself with a new lead and new companions and, because of that, it manages to offer us fresh perspectives and keep us engaged. Jodi Whitaker, the current Doctor and the first woman to take the role has, in my humble opinion, done brilliantly, even if some of her episodes weren’t as well-crafted as they should have been. Still, I can’t quite put her in my top five (In case you don’t know, there have been thirteen Doctors over the years, or fourteen, depending on who you talk to).

My favorite Doctors, in order, are Tom Baker, Matt Smith (mainly because he reminds me of Tom), Peter Davison, David Tennant (because he reminds me of Peter, his real-life father-in-law), and Patrick Troughton. I enjoy all the others, with the possible exception of poor Silvester McCoy, who frankly was given such lousy scripts that it’s no surprise the show died during his tenure.

My favorite speculative movie is perhaps a little more controversial. I don’t like the term “guilty pleasure” but, if pressed, I might have to admit that this one falls into that category. The Fifth Element was penned by French author Luc Besson and starred Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, and Chris Tucker. Though a French movie, it was actually filmed in Mauritania and London and is entirely in English. When released in 1997, it was the most expensive French film ever made and it became the highest grossing French film ever, a record it held until 2011.

The story it told of a taxi driver who literally has an ancient prophesy drop into his backseat is a sometimes curious mix of the comic and serious. Willis shines and Jovovich, a newcomer at the time, is utterly charming. But the real wizards in this film are Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker. Oldman is the villain of the piece, a wealthy corporate sociopath named Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. It’s a part he fairly leaps into, playing it with an unabashed, over-the-top Louisiana accent. He chews up the scenery, whether he’s being menacing, callous, or frightened. Chris Tucker, on the other hand, as the charismatic radio host Ruby Rhod, steals the movie in quite a different way. In equal parts narcissistic and hilariously terrified, he manages to give his character a vulnerability and humanity that makes us care what happens to him, no mean feat given that Ruby is such a dweeb.

The Fifth Element is a film that my wife and I have watched and rewatched a hundred times. And somehow, every time we do, we laugh at the same spots. It’s a so-called “cult movie” these days and when I mention loving it, many folks roll their eyes. But it sets out to do something and succeeds beautifully, which is sure as hell more than you can say for the Matrix sequels.

Let’s talk about audiobooks. I listen to a lot of them, at least as many as I read. In fact, they’ve become such a stable in my life that the word “listen” doesn’t seem really appropriate anymore. I don’t “listen” to an audiobook anymore than I “watch” a novel. The experience is more immersive than that. For years now, I’ve been trying to come up with a good verb. So far, the closest I’ve come is “grok.” Sorry, Bob.

My favorite all-time audiobook series is Jim Butcher’s magnificent The Dresden Files. This includes fifteen titles so far, each one performed by the incomparable James Marsters. Marsters, one of the most underrated actors of our age, brings Harry, Bob, Murphy, Michael, Molly, and the rest to life with humor and aplomb. Those books have gotten me through a lot of housework and lawn-mowing, workouts and rainy afternoons. I hope Mr. Butcher lives and writes forever.

And now, we come to my single non-speculative “Favorite Thing” (if you’ll recall, I made the case that Life of Pi is, in fact, speculative). This one involves a long-time passion of mine that some folks, my wife among them though she’d kind enough not to say so, think is nerdy.

I love swords. I have more than a dozen of them. I don’t go for the fantasy type. I have no lightsaber, no Highlander sword, and nothing from Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. I do have a Prussian bayonet that I found sticking out of the ground in the woods behind Maguire Airforce Base in New Jersey (true) as well as an ornate dagger that I discovered in a small curiosity shop in Fes, Morocco (also true). I have rapiers, sabers, daggers, and long swords. I also have katanas, rather a few of these actually, especially since for the past four years, I’ve been studying the art of Korean Swordsmanship. I now hold a black belt.

I could tell you if asked (and, believe me, I’ve been asked) what it is about swords that fascinates me so. There’s a lethal elegance to them that guns, in my humble opinion, can’t match. A beautiful sword is a work of art in itself, sleek and dangerous, and both fragile and supremely strong. The words “foible” and “forte,” both French, originated with the sword and describe different sections of a sword’s blade. The foible is the third at the end, which is the weakest but also the sharpest, while the forte is the third nearest the hilt, which is thickest and strongest. Look it up.

Editor’s Note: please click on each photo below to read the full caption!

One of the hardest things about this pandemic has been the necessity of putting off my sword study. The school I attend, a rarity around here, believe me, has sadly closed. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to find another. But I miss it terribly.

Okay, that’s it. I hope this satisfies. I won’t pretend it’s a complete list of “My Favorite Things,” or even a permanent one. Life is change, after all. If any of you have opinions about any of these avenues of interest, I’m happy to hear from you! Look me up on tydrago.com. And go buy my new SF YA Dragons! It too is one of my favorite things.

Dragons can be pre-ordered at https://especbooks.square.site/

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Ty Drago is a full-time writer and the author of eight published novels, including his five-book Undertakers series, the first of which has been optioned for a feature film. Torq, a dystopian YA superhero adventure, was released by Swallow’s End Publishing in 2018. Add to these one novelette, myriad short stories and articles, and appearances in two anthologies.

He’s also the founder, publisher, and managing editor of Allegory, a highly successful online magazine that, for more than twenty years, has features speculative fiction by new and established authors worldwide.

Ty’s currently just completed The New Americans, a work of historical fiction and a collaborative effort with his father, who passed away in 1992. If that last sentence leaves you with questions, check out his podcast, Legacy: The Novel Writing Experience, to get the whole story.

He lives in New Jersey with his wife Helene, plus one cat and one dog.