• “I Have No Robot Zombie Vampire Ninja Unicorns and I Must Scream” by Reggie Sterd Trademark
• “Fender’s Game: Wasted Days, Wasted Nights” by Tony Orlando Calrissian
• “The Three Gymkata of Palmer Eldritch” by Lee O. Tard
• “The Nine Billion Names of Mod Squad” by Peter Julian Linc
• “Night Mare at 3×10^5 Nanometers” by Bill Um Shatnur
• “Rukhbeak’s Statio” by Rob Silvermountain
• “A Meeting with Mechamedusa” by Author See Clerk
• “The Bagel Apocalypse Codices” by Chuck Roast
• “Flameless, an Alex Biscotti Story” by Shale Derringer

With this inaugural publication, the SF Signal Irregular Press endeavored to create a multi-volume, shared-world, cross-platform SF/F e-book megathology. Any genre trope was accepted, but we specifically looked for the elements of all successful books: pirates, ninjas, vampires, zeppelins and zombies. Book ships with special collector’s edition bagel pack.

Submissions will soon open for a roleplaying game supplement to TEBOUC. We are specifically looking to expand the mythos of the leprechaun vampire hunters, psychic robot werewolves and the uber-evil My Little Ponies.

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

Before we get into discussing what’s so great about Dejah Thoris, let’s start with the elephant in the room: A lot is being said right now about “John Carter” flopping as a movie solely because it hasn’t made back Disney’s investment in its first week at the box office. To this I say: “Pshaw! Lalalala can’t hear you!”

IO9 ran an article on this topic, but at the end of the long list of reasons why the movie has supposedly flopped, this quote jumped out at me:

“Everyone is quick to point out that John Carter did not make any money. It is a flop, a failure. Domestically, the opening of John Carter is indeed very soft for the budget. However, big event movies like this are international affairs and a $70 million opening outside of the USA is no small feat. As a popular book series, the Carter adventures have a global fan base. This cowboy might have some legs underneath him in the long run, which is the only run that matters. Titanic did not break all box office records in the first weekend – it ran. And ran. And ran. For weeks into months. It stayed in theaters, pulling in money week after week. Stanton’s film has a long road ahead of it, but pulling in $100 million in the first weekend is a decent first step towards recouping the budget.”

As Pyr’s editorial director of science fiction/fantasy Lou Anders noted on Facebook, the movie scored an over 70 percent favorability rating by fans on Rotten Tomatoes, but only about 50 percent by critics. “John Carter” breaks the mold of what we typically get from science fiction movies, while also maintaining that “sense of wonder” so evident in turn of the century fiction, since it’s based on the John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I, for one, found “John Carter” to be a fun way to spend a few hours and was pleasantly surprised to discover so many great female characters in not only Thoris, but also the Thark Sola. I do agree with some critics who thought the movie dragged in places. The slow pace affected mostly the beginning as the writers spent a huge amount of movie time setting up the story. As amusing as Malcolm in the Middle’s dad (Bryan Cranston) always is, I would have been happier to see less of Col. Powell if it meant seeing even a glimpse of Thoris’ laboratory.

Having said that, Joseph Robert Lewis sums up my own feelings on the movie when he says:

But the best part by far was the Princess of Mars herself, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In fact, it almost feels like Dejah and John are in two completely different movies. John is on a personal journey for peace, or redemption, or escape, or revelation. Meanwhile, Dejah is the big adventuring hero, saving her people with much derring do. She’s passionate about science, she’s passionate about her people and culture, and she’s passionate about her personal freedom and destiny.

When she’s not wearing pretty dresses and inventing the all-powerful Ninth Ray machine, she’s wearing armor and crossing swords with entire armies in her solar-powered airship. She’s Princess Leia, only better. She’s the bright shiny jewel at the heart of the movie, and frankly I’d have rather seen her as the title character and central focus of the whole thing.

One of the ways this story breaks the mold is in its representation of female characters. I’m glad the movie didn’t follow the books too closely when it came to costumes — in the books the red and green Martians don’t wear much at all. However, Collins evidently requested that the original costume designs be scaled back: “I knew they were going to be small. And I am actually the one who put them on and said, ‘The cut’s going to be weird, they should probably be higher.’ There you go.”

Aside from how Collins’ fashion sense may have affected the costume design, I was just happy to see women and men alike similarly clothed. Few things peeve me more than seeing men in long sleeves and long pants while their female counterparts are sleeveless and leggy. I’m not sure how a red-skinned race of Martians might fare wearing very little in such an unrelentingly sunny climate, but at least it was no only the women having to be concerned with skin cancer or being injured in battle because vital organs weren’t protected. This is an example of both genders in a movie being shown as sexy characters as opposed to merely being sex objects.

Also, we’re not just told that Thoris is a great warrior and super-smart, we’re shown it. As I said above, I would have loved to have seen Thoris’ laboratory, but at least we are shown her not only demonstrating her Ninth Ray device, but also solving the story’s problems. We also get to see Thoris in battle including some cheeky flirty dialogue with Carter about whom should stand behind whom doing the protecting. Collins also bulked up for the role on top of her already considerable martial arts skills, something that always lends an aura of credibility to female and male action heroes alike.

“John Carter” doesn’t stop with showing us only one great female character, though. Fulfilling the usual sidekick-type role we have Sola, an individualist barely surviving in a hive-type society. Sola is tasked with joining Carter and Thoris on their quest to find the river Issus and in so doing means that for a good portion of the movie two-thirds of the cast were female (I’m not counting the dino-hound…). Sola even gets her own character arc, abbreviated to fit the story, but not shallow. I was also happy to see that the creature designers did not give Thark females breasts, which makes sense because they’re not mammals (we know they lay eggs– and don’t start in on the platypus, please). When science fiction creature designers include breasts on non-mammalian alien species it’s gratuitous and insulting to the audience since the assumption is that we can’t tell the difference without them.

I hope “John Carter” — they should have kept the original title “John Carter of Mars” or better yet the original book title of “Princess of Mars” — sticks around for a while and earns out Disney’s investment because I’m already looking forward to the sequel.

More on Dejah Thoris:

• Meet ‘John Carter’s’ Martian Princess Lynn Collins
• Roundup 1.11.12 – JOHN CARTER
• John Carter’s Soulful, Pulpy Majesty Breaks Through Big-Budget Gloss
• ‘John Carter’: Lynn Collins on female warriors, actor slapping

This has to be the best example of science-fiction romance I’ve come across yet…

Mitch and Lara were both brilliant characters and I loved their interactions as they tried to come to terms with past and present events. Both fierce and loyal to their causes and with several reasons to distrust each other, they still managed to overcome them and work together to save Lara’s brother. I definitely had a happy sniffle by the end of the book.

The technology could have become very confusing but it was actually well integrated within the story. It was also very inventive and made for a gripping setting. The Spiral Path itself is an enigma, a doorway to another dimension with the Chimeran’s bridging the gap, with Terra and Creed on either side…

A wonderful, touching and exciting story with all the elements that draw me in; heroism, determination, fierceness and above all, love.

Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

“Actress,” “model” and “mixed martial arts fighter” are not adjectives we often see put together to describe one person, but that’s how Wikipedia describes Gina Carano, the star of the upcoming movie HAYWIRE. According to Wikipedia, Carano “appeared as the Gladiator ‘Crush’ on American Gladiators” and “…has been referred to as the ‘Face of Women’s MMA.’”

Media coverage is comparing HAYWIRE to THE BOURNE IDENTITY, minus the memory loss angle. While I’m an advocate of more female leads in action movies, historically those actresses aren’t willing to put on the muscle required to suspend disbelief, probably because it’s a sad stereotype that strong women aren’t beautiful. Carano shows us how wrong this thinking is as someone who not only looks the part, but actually has the skills in real life that make her acting stunts seem that much more realistic. Carano is the first actress I’ve seen since Linda Hamilton in THE TERMINATOR to back up an action role with some real muscle.

The movie’s summary starts right out of the gate describing Carano’s character as “Beautiful freelance cover operative…” because it’s paramount to make sure audiences know that while she might be able to kick ass, she’s still beautiful. Looking back, Matt Damon’s character in THE BOURNE IDENTITY wasn’t described as literally, just a man: “[A] man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia.” By contrast, the trailer voice over starts off right away describing her as “[S]He’s our nation’s most valuable weapon…”

So, I’m torn. I’m glad there’s a movie coming out that showcases a woman who can show us what a woman in a single combat situation would really look like and I’m glad that her strength is also seen as something beautiful. However, I’m annoyed that her beauty is the very first thing that seems most important before her job expertise — or even THE BOURNE IDENTITY example her just as a human being in a tough situation. Hopefully, Carano’s performance can twist these two together in a new way.

Also, Wonder Woman casting…hello? Click on that link to check out a great drawing by Matt Roscetti with Carano as Wonder Woman.

Many thanks to M.R. for cluing me into this movie.

Earlier this week, I tweeted an article by Amanda Marcotte for The Good Men Project called “How to Make a Critically Acclaimed TV Show About Masculinity.” The Good Men Project endeavors to show us “a glimpse of what enlightened masculinity might look like in the 21st century” and analyze “what does it mean to be a good man in these modern times?”

I wish more of us were having these types of discussions about how in flux and often confusing gender roles can be in today’s world. While we have an unprecedented opportunity to redefine how women and men relate to one another and to the world at large, many people are scared silly not knowing what are “the rules.” The old rules might have been draconian, but at least everyone was on the same page. Still, I’m optimistic that all we need to do is keep sorting through it all with endeavors like The Good Men Project because we’re all re-evaluating each other and ourselves regardless of gender. Oh yeah, and Feminism isn’t just about women, it’s about all of us.

Now that I’ve gotten that soapbox moment out of my system, Marcotte’s post on television and masculinity made one particularly interesting point regarding the perceived lack of strong female protagonists in television dramas:

But for all the feminism on TV, high quality dramas about women haven’t taken off. Women get plenty of meaty, complex roles in these top tier shows, but only as supporting characters in shows centered around men’s gender drama. . . I blame the nation’s inability to deal directly with women engaged in complex, dramatic struggles that call gender roles into question. . . perhaps the absurdities of being female in this modern era don’t lend themselves well to drama, but have to be approached sideways, through comedy. Women do very well heading up some of the best comedy on TV: 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, The Sarah Silverman Show.

Hmmm. While Marcotte makes great a point about comedy, she misses the boat on strong heroines in television. I commented with this:

“I’m glad someone mentioned Buffy, Veronica Mars, The Good Wife, and Battlestar Galactica. While Battlestar Galactica was an ensemble cast, it definitely offered some fantastic female characters whose arcs were fundemental to the overall plot of the show. Starbuck, Boomer, and President Roslin were more than just water-carriers for the male characters.

“The point about women in comedy holds true also for female characters in genre television, but aside from True Blood no other genre shows were mentioned. Here are a few that were overlooked:

• Myka Bering from Syfy’s WAREHOUSE 13
• Dr. Helen Magnus from Syfy’s SANCTUARY(and also Amanda Tapping’s other role as Col. Samantha Carter in Stargate)
• Audrey Parker from Syfy’s HAVEN
• Echo from Joss Whedon’s THE DOLLHOUSE
• FRINGE’S Olivia Dunham

“ven if genre TV isn’t your cuppa joe, several non-genre characters weren’t mentioned either: Annie Walker from COVERT AFFAIRS (and also her boss Joan Campbell — although I wish someone would give that woman some sleeves once in a while) and Mary Shannon on IN PLAIN SIGHT. I write a weekly blog highlighting strong female characters in movies, TV, and books and have been wondering if I should keep doing it. This article just convinced me that, yes I should, because clearly people aren’t hearing about some great female characters out there.”

Despite the ongoing angst in science fiction circles over the lack of women writers being included in various anthologies and the treatment of heroines in general, overall I do think that science fiction and fantasy provide an avenue toward creating great strong heroines because, like comedy, genre fiction comes at the issue “sideways.” Genre fiction elicits readers to imagine a world with women filling roles they might currently not have access to today and by doing so chips away at the roadblocks to those paths for women right now. The list I provided shows that genre fiction definitely doesn’t share Marcotte’s idea of mainstream television’s seeming issue with strong female protagonists.

One of the other commenters brought up the character of Burn Notice’s Fiona Glenanne portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar. On the one hand, Fiona is an “explosives expert, precision marksman, and arguably the team’s most skilled precision driver,” but she doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do more than sit around and wait for Michael to commit. I’m not looking for a perfect character — that would create a whole slew of other problems — but really, I said:

“Much like Sam Axe, Fiona is simply a foil for Michael, while his mother has a much more developed backstory. We also get a better sense that Madeline has a life outside of her relationship with her son. [While] Fiona, on the other hand, is one mean fighting machine, she’s also the stereotypical woman waiting around for Michael to get his romantic act together. I’m tired of her being tired of Michael’s inability to commit. When Jesse joined the cast, I thought she might move on from Michael, which would actually teach him a lesson and create an opportunity for character growth instead of simply rehashing the same Michael-Fiona commitment conflict over and over again.”

I’m not saying Fiona should jump from one romantic interest to another, but rather, have the confidence to walk away from Michael if he can’t meet her emotional needs. Back in 2009, Ginia Bellafante made a similar point about Fiona in a piece for the New York Times:

“Fiona is a character with no memorable precedent: a genius joke-take on girls with gun lust, the joke being that above all else she is every woman who needs to be sent a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” next-day delivery. . . Fiona has never been able to get over Michael despite his persistent and explicit reminders that he is not made of the ordinary stuff of human need. Still, she keeps pushing for the dream, dating other people solely to try to make Michael jealous, interrupting stakeouts and shooting sprees and manhunts to ask for a key to his apartment or to tell him that what she would really like for her birthday is a teddy.”

And then excuses her behavior because Fiona is unapologetic about the whole thing:

“Ms. Anwar gamely carries herself as a goofball who has never passed a mirror and had a look. And she locks right into the real source of Fiona’s masculinity, which has less to do with her Glock fetish, than her refusal to regard her romantic pursuit as a pitiable behavior in need of reform.”

Meh. I don’t get it. Sure, owning what you want — even, I suppose, if what you want is a man who can’t fulfill your emotional needs — is a good thing, but I’ve never quite been able to buy Fiona’s character because of this. Plus, it bugs me that nine times out of ten Fiona is dressed in daisy dukes, a tank top and sky-high heels while Michael is in a full-on suit and long sleeves. In Miami.

Then again, maybe it’s more about me, who’d much rather hang out by the pool with a cocktail, a massage, and Sam Axe than cracking Michael Weston’s stubborn emotional exoskeleton.

What do you think? Does Fiona Glenanne fulfill the definition of a Danger Gal despite my issues with her character? What do you think of the reality or perception of the lack of strong heroines in mainstream television dramas? Do you think science fiction and fantasy presents a unique opportunity to explore gender roles?

UPDATE: June Thomas elaborates on Bellafante’s point:

Fiona has no time for the “He’s Just Not That Into You” meme. She has always been the boy in the relationship with Michael. She’s prone to violence while Michael is the gentling, moderating influence who makes sure that no one gets hurt when she shoots and bombs. He’s the home body who wants to keep his loft and his yogurts (the only thing he eats) to himself. She’s the more sexually aggressive of the pair.

I can see this, sure, but it’s negated by how Fiona seems to always be pointing out how emotionally unavailable Michael is. If this is the direction that Fiona is headed, then the writing has been uneven.

Resources:

Magpie’s Nest: Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe

XX Factor: It’s OK Not To Go Gaga for Kids

“Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.”

Via Wikipedia.

Audrey Parker came to Haven, Maine, as an FBI agent investigating the disappearance of federal prisoner Jonas Lester. After the investigation into his death ended, Parker stayed on in Haven, a town whose people are suffering “a plague of supernatural afflictions that occurred in the town at least once before” called The Troubles. (Wikipedia, Haven)

I missed Haven’s first season and have been catching up on it as I watch season two. Like Fringe, Haven showcases a female main character with a supporting ensemble cast. Last season the focus of Fringe shifted away from Olivia and became the all-about-Peter show. The storylines not only featured Peter more than any of the other characters, but his “otherness” started to trump Olivia’s. Now, don’t get me wrong, I kind of like Peter Bishop. He’s an interesting character, but the appeal of Fringe for me was the centrality of its female lead. Take that away and it’s just another paranormal TV show.

I hope Haven doesn’t follow suit. Parker’s backstory hints that she’s irrevocably tied to the last appearance of The Troubles, which binds her tight to the show’s main focus. Parker remembers growing up in an orphanage, but we learn in season two’s “A Tale of Two Audreys” that her memories are, in fact, not her own. When the “real” Audrey Parker — sometimes referred to as “Fraudrey” in an Fringe homage — comes to Haven, the two women soon realize they share not only the same name, but the same memories. Also, Audrey’s FBI superior Agent Howard, who sent her to Haven in the first place, is also an imposter. Since I’m watching seasons one and two at the same time, it’s interesting how blatant this intentional placement of Audrey is Haven is in the series pilot, which ends with Howard in Haven, watching Audrey, and telling someone on his cell phone that “She’s staying.”

Photos of Lucy Ripley, a woman deeply involved in the last appearance of The Troubles in the 1980s, bears a strong resemblance to Audrey Parker. The discovery of Fraudrey, however, I think weakens the case that Lucy is Audrey’s mother. When Fraudrey’s memories are wiped after seeing something in the “Tardis Barn” (see Detective Jane’s super recap of “Love Machine”) it became clear to me that someone/something in the Haven universe can erase, write and rewrite memories. In her interactions with Fraudrey, we learn that Audrey knows how to play the piano, something Fraudrey never learned. It stands to reason that Audrey’s ability to turn off or be immune to many of the affects of The Troubles is likely tied to her earlier visit to Haven as Lucy Ripley. Her memory loss and/or switch is also probably tied to the Tardis Barn.

So far, I’m very much enjoying season two of Haven and wish I’d been watching the series from the beginning. I loved the dialogue between Audrey and Nathan Wuornos when they first meet in the pilot:

Audrey Parker:    [both pulling guns on each other] FBI. Who are you?
Nathan Wuornos:    MPD. Who are you?
Audrey Parker:    FBI. Are you deaf?

It’s interesting to note that both times when Audrey Parkers came to Haven, Nathan pulled a gun on them. While we’re talking about Nathan, we have to note that the writers haven’t shied away from giving Audrey a love life. This aspect of her character is just that, a facet of her, not the character in toto. Audrey’s love life has been important to the ongoing plot of the show, but is balanced with other aspects of her life. Moreso, Audrey hasn’t settled on one man yet, either, and there have been no negative consequences of that indecision.

In Haven, Audrey has not only one, but three significant other possibilities: Detective (and now Police Chief) Nathan Wournos, town bad boy Duke Crocker and marine biologist Chris Brody, a man whose personal charisma — his Trouble — holds ultimate sway over everyone except for Audrey. Kate Linnea Welsh has a great recap of season two’s “Audrey Parker’s Day Off” at Televixen, where she aptly points out that:

At the very end of the episode – over a mellow cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” – Audrey looks in through the open doorway of the Gull at her three guys drinking together. She certainly looks contemplative, and it occurred to me that she got an opportunity that virtually no character in a love triangle polygon ever has. She got to experience the death of each of her three suitors and gauge her own emotional reaction to each situation. We see her turn away, looking slightly shocked – did she have some sort of revelation about her own (repressed?) feelings? We (and Nathan) can only hope.

True to my Shipper leanings, I’m rooting for Nathan Wuornos. He’s a man who can’t physically feel anything, but his emotions run deep. The only respite he gets from his Trouble-induced idiopathic neuropathy, is when Audrey touches him. He does evidently have a sense of smell, however, and Audrey brings him orchids and lillys. She also tastes his coffee for him to test the temperature. In “Audrey’s Day Off” during the time loop when Nathan lays dying in Audrey’s arms he says:

“It doesn’t hurt. The only thing I feel is you.”

That kind of clinched it for me.

Other fun resources about Haven:

The Troubles (Tumblr)
The Troubles (LiveJournal)
TV Rage Haven Episodes Gallery