Dear readers, this quarter of the year is always the hardest for me, and I know I’m not alone, especially with all the things going on this year. (Recently it seems like we’re saying that every year, though…)
So this week I’m revisiting a topic I’ve covered before in these, um, pages: where to turn for comfort. Here are the comfort reads and comfort viewing that have been helping me get through lately.
Books
I’ve blogged about comfort reads before, so here are some I didn’t cover last time…
Epic fantasy
Although I read (and write) all over the science fiction and fantasy spectrum, I read Tolkien at a formative time, so fantasy will always be my first love. For about a decade now, I’ve been taking time around the holidays in December and into January to read epic fantasy. (No grimdark either, thank you.)
This year, I read the first two books in Elizabeth Bear’s Silk Road–inspired Eternal Sky trilogy, Range of Ghosts and Shattered Pillars. Featuring a nomad prince in exile, a princess-turned-wizard, a very interesting horse, and lots of epic landscapes and cities and cultures. (CW: there’s a plague in the second book.) Book three will be next year’s read, and there’s also a sequel trilogy.
(My previous epic-fantasy holiday read was N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, which is breathtakingly good but 100% not a comfort read.)
Historical fantasy
Still in the fantasy vein: historical fantasy, roughly defined as a past era in the “real world” with added magic (or magical creatures). My obsession with this subgenre dates back to Patricia C. Wrede’s Regency-with-magic duology, Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward. (Her other Regency series didn’t grab me as much.)
A more recent favourite that’s turned into a comfort read is the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, which explores the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. She really nails the language of the era; having dragons big enough to carry crews and rigging makes for some epic aerial battles; and the relationship between Laurence and his dragon is just the sweetest.
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells
Now, turning to science fiction. Amazingly, one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever met is Murderbot, a sarcastic ex-killing machine who would much rather be left alone to watch its serials but keeps getting pulled into rescuing humans from themselves and each other. I’m still in the middle of this series (it’s up to 4 novellas and 2 novels so far) but very much enjoying it.
Absolutely anything by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is always the best. Her writing isn’t always upbeat, but it is deeply comforting to me. I can’t describe the way her work speaks to me. Not all of it resonates. Yet she’s one of those authors whose prose I would recognize anywhere, even if I hadn’t read that particular work before. It feels like coming home.
I started reading/rereading all the books in her (SF) Hainish cycle when she died in 2018 – partly in memoriam, partly because I hadn’t read most of them before, having leaned more towards her fantasy writing. I have only one more novel (The Telling) and one more short story collection (The Birthday of the World and Other Stories) left to go. After that, I might just have to go back and reread all of her Earthsea fantasy novels…
Comfort Viewing
Some things other than books (I know!) that have been bringing me joy lately:
- Encanto – Lin-Manuel Miranda’s latest, brought to you by the powerhouse of Disney…how could it go wrong? Tight-knit family, pigeonholing, clashes between grandmother and granddaughter, lots of gorgeous animation (it’s set in Colombia), and of course, some excellent songs.
- Thunder Force – Not a great movie, but highly watchable. Melissa McCarthy. Octavia Spencer. Superheroes and ex-best friends. Need I say more?
- Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia – This is a kids’ animated series, but it’s by filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, of all people. Urban fantasy that’s snappy, savvy, and with lots of heart. Oh, and Kelsey Grammer knocks it out of the park as the young hero’s mentor.
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts – Another kids’ animated series (sensing a theme here? I don’t want to watch anything stressful!). This one’s about a cheerful teenager bopping through a surreal post-apocalyptic world with strange creatures, found-family, and musical interludes.
- Firefly – okay, Joss Whedon is problematic, but he writes such damn good series. I’m rewatching this via a weekly watch party with some dear friends, which makes it even better because we can snark at the problematic stuff and cheer all the moments we love.
- The Good Place – The first season is still my favourite, but the fourth has some excellent bits too, including the ending (for a change).
- Schitt’s Creek – Conversely, this one gets better as it goes on, as the main characters get more likeable. Very LGBTQIA2S+ friendly. I wandered off in the middle (typical of me) but still plan to finish eventually.
Whew, that got long…guess it’s just too much fun to enthuse about things you love. What about you, readers? What’s getting you through, these days? Are you craving lighter, darker, or the same as your usual media fare?