Trailer Time: American Gods Season One Trailer #1 *First Look at Shadow*

Following the announcement that Kristen Chenoweth would be playing the character of Easter (which is perfect casting) in the Starz TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel American Gods, the network debuted the first footage from the series at the panel and immediately put it online for the rest of us to consume. I read the book and wasn’t crazy about how slow the pacing was, but the visuals of the show are outstanding and I wonder if the whole story might play better for me across hours of television instead of pages of a novel. We’ll see when American Gods comes to Starz sometime in 2017.
*Text from Geek Tyrant

R.I.P. Terry Pratchett (1948 – 2015) *Fantasy’s Greatest Satirist is Gone*

 

The world is a much less funny place than it was yesterday; author Terry Pratchett has died at 66.  The author, whose Discworld series spanned over 40 books, passed several years after announcing he was fighting a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease.  The incredibly prolific writer (over 70 MILLION copies of his books are in print) spent the last years of his life campaigning and raising awareness for dementia, Alzheimer’s and assisted suicide (though his own death came in his sleep).

This is a tough one.  Pratchett was one of my three favorite living authors.  If you’ve never read any of the Discworld books, they almost pass description, but the first of over 40 is called The Color of Magic and I can nearly guarantee you’ll be smiling the whole way through.  In Pratchett’s fantasy universe, his “hero wizard” was more of an alcoholic coward.  The rest of the wizards were homicidal rank climbers living in Unseen University (a bit like a Lord of the Flies nursing home…but with magic….and a librarian who was an orangutan).  His most inspired and hysterical creation, ironically, was an anthropomorphic personification of Death WHO SPOKE ENTIRELY IN CAPITAL LETTERS.  He also rode a horse by the name of Binky.

Terry Pratchett’s books have given me and will continue to give me joy and laughter for the rest of my life.  They were also quite wise, albeit in a sort of inside-out sort of way, and used satire keenly to skewer the reality in which he only partially lived.  Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Terry, will be deeply and sincerely missed.  Below is the BBC’s obit.  Terry Pratchett was 66.

Top 5: Neil Gaiman Books

My favorite author currently working is Neil Gaiman.  There are many others I like better, but unfortunately death has impeded their writing output.  Gaiman is a master storyteller in any writing discipline. He writes fairy tales for adults and writes them better than anyone putting pen to paper (or fonts on a blank Word screen….you get it).  His Sandman series is widely regarded as one of – if not the best – comic book series of all-time.  His prose is just as good without pictures.

In novels like Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman demonstrates an ability to create worlds that exist just out of the corner of our eyes and unlocks the door separating the adult from the child.  Speaking of children, Gaiman has also written several books for a younger audience, from the YA novels Interworld and Coraline to picture books like The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish (If the image looks familiar to you, Counting Crows nabbed it for one of their album covers).

With the exception of Stephen King, no one has done more to preserve the short story than Gaiman.  He’s released several of his own collections (Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things, M is for Magic) and contributed to and edited dozens more.  This versatility is one of my favorite things about Gaiman (he even performs his own audio books).  In my top 5, I’ve tried to skim the top of each of the fields in which Gaiman excels.  In the last three decades, he’s put together an extremely diverse portfolio of work.  All of it celebrates the extraordinary; the wonder and danger that lurk in everyday life.  A new release from Gaiman is cause for celebration, whether it’s a children’s picture book, a guest issue of Batman or an epic novel.  Here are my five favorite examples of his work.

Top 10: Books I’ve Read in the Last Year (Fiction)

Critical line from (but not from) Looking for Alaska that I love

This week isn’t a Top 5, but a Top 10.  Last week I looked back at the last year’s reading log (what you don’t keep one….oh yeah, I’M the weird one) to see which were my favorite non-fiction books.  This week, in turning to fiction, I had to double the number and split it between prose fiction and graphic novels.

Farewell to 2013: Favorite Moments from the Year in Entertainment

I’m racing the clock a bit to squeak in post #1,373 of 2013.  I’ll dwell on the things we covered over the year and the blog itself as we settle back into the rhythms of the normal weekly columns, plus there will be the obligatory, yet fun, end of the year lists.  “Best of” and “Worst of” all leading up to Killing Time’s own Oscars: the 2014 Renaissance Film Awards, which will be given out on the site’s first anniversary (January 28, 2014).