Subscribers to my Patreon now have access to three chapters of Monster Hunters, Dinosaur Lovers, my book about the fiction caught up in the Puppy/Hugo affair of 2013-6. The latest chapter tackles the comedic stories that became a humorous undercurrent to the whole saga and stretches to 8,500 words (expanded from 1,900 words’ worth of WWAC blog posts).
Specifically, I’m looking at “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, “The World Turned Upside-Down” and “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt; “Tuesdays with Molakesh the Destroyer” by Megan Grey; “I am Graalnak of the Vroon Empire, Destroyer of Galaxies, Supreme Overlord of the Planet Earth. Ask Me Anything” by Laura Pearlman; “A Kiss With Teeth” by Max Gladstone; “…And I Show You How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes” by Scott Alexander; The Builders by Daniel Polansky; Pure Attentions by TR Dillon and “The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild” by Catherynne M. Valente. Here’s a preview:
Speculative fiction has long had a close relationship with comedy. Through satire of the contemporary world, parodies of more po-faced works or simply out-and-out strangeness, generations of SF and fantasy authors have put humour to good use in their works.
As heated as the culture wars became from 2013 to 2016, it is clear that both the Worldcon regulars and the Puppies recognised the value of humour in fantasy fiction, as the following stories testify.
The Wit and Weirdness of Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Based in the Netherlands, Thomas Olde Heuvelt is one of relatively few international authors whose work reached the attention of the Hugo Awards in translated form. His fiction appeared on the Hugo ballot three times in as many years, starting in 2013 when his story “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” (“De jongen die geen schaduw wierp”) was a finalist for Best Novelette.
If this sounds like your bag then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon and read every completed chapter, which now total more than 26,000 words between them. Plus, I’ll draw a portrait of you as a cryptid!
Doris V. Sutherland 