Annotations to My Podside Picnic Interview
This is a bit of a companion piece to my most recent appearance on Podside Picnic talking about “crap books” that got me reading science fiction and (mostly) fantasy.
My first two years of high school were consumed by reading anything Dragonlance I could get my hands on. That included the initial “Chronicles” and the subsequent “Legends” that I mentioned on the show, but there were so, so many Dragonlance anthologies and other stand-alones that followed I couldn’t follow all of them.
I remember reading what seemed to be a baker’s dozen of anthologies that had Tanis and Company going on so many adventures before the events of Dragons of Autumn Twilight that I wondered exactly what level the heroes were when the first book in the trilogy started. With all those stories, it couldn’t possibly be 1st level.
A couple that stand out even now as charming subversions of the oh-so-serious tone of so many of the Dragonlance stories was Weasel’s Luck and it’s sequel, Galen Beknighted (displayed below).
I enjoyed the lower stakes in these, where Galen (nicknamed Weasel by his oafish older brother) is much more of a picaresque character, who by no fault of his own becomes a hero (of sorts).
In fact, based on reading excerpts of these, I may pick them up again and see how I feel about them now. I suspect they’ll hold up on charm alone.
I mentioned the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon show, which had some fantastic episodes, including the two I always think of whenever I remember the show: The Dragon’s Graveyard and The Girl Who Dreamed Tomorrow.
One book that I completely forgot to mention was an anthology called Rod Serling’s Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves. I’m not even sure where I found a copy, since it was published in 1963 (and looked it). In its yellowed pages, however, I found several stories that have stayed with me.
The standout stories for me in the book are:
- “The Final Ingredient”, by Jack Sharkey;
- “Hatchery of Dreams”, by Fritz Leiber;
- “And Not Quite Human”, by Joe L. Hensley; and
- “Wolves Don’t Cry”, by Bruce Elliott
While I enjoyed all of the stories, and read the book cover to cover, the ones I listed had that certain something (perhaps the idea, a closing image or line) that stayed with me, even after all these years.
I definitely remember enjoying Mary Stewart’s series of books retelling the Arthurian legend through the eyes of the master engineer and soothsayer we know as Merlin. They were very well written, though I remember some subtle attempts at Christianization of post-Roman and very pagan England.
I also mentioned Elfquest. It looks like the entire series is available to read online (as well as all sorts of history of the series — including how Wendy Dini declined optioning the show for TV because they wanted to whitewash their characters!)
Read the comics and see the art here, but understand that when I said that Elfquest stands at the juncture of horny and furry, I meant it.