Book Recommendations March 2025

Otherlanders unite!

Yeah, it's Spring but I'm still hibernating. Unfortunately, I have to go to work, so that's not possible. But when I get home, I like to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and immerse myself in my new obsession: true crime. Awww, lemme guess, I'm not alone in this? ;) At the moment, my favourite goosebump-inducers are dangerous cults and sects. I'll just say Jonestown Massacre. Yeah, I do admit having an uncomfortable gut feeling and a pinch of shame, but since that's the fashion right now, I've put together a few hair-raising cults from the fields of SF, fantasy and horror for you as well. If you're in the mood for sunshine, just skip this introduction and wait until April. In the second trilogy of Glenn Cook's "The Black Company", "The Stranglers" are up to mischief. Incidentally, this cult is loosely based on the real "Thuggee Cult" from India, which formed in the 19th century and is said to worship the Hindu goddess Kali. "The Stranglers" worship "Kina", who is also - how surprising - a goddess of destruction. China Mieville's "Kraken" is a somewhat easier read - here an pickled specimen of the titular eight-armed creature is stolen from a museum. This is a consequence of a veritable underground war between various occult sects. One of them worships squids, sees a Danish historian as their apostle, and considers the stolen specimen to be a God. Okay. In the first chapter of Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!" the author does what he does best: makes us laugh uncontrollably. He introduces so many weird cults and sects that you might accidentally stumble into the wrong top-secret meetings - especially since they all live next door to each other. In Margaret Atwood's "The Year of the Flood", the two main characters immerse themselves in a radical environmental group that has religious tendencies and calls itself "The Gardeners", although technically no one is brainwashed here, so it's difficult to define it as a cult. Sometimes the boundaries are blurred, as with the extremely popular "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler. It's actually about a young woman who struggles through apocalyptic America and tries to retain her humanity. She achieves this by founding a new religion, which is beautiful in itself, but definitely has cult tendencies.

In Emma Newman's "Planetfall" and "After Atlas", the cult "The Circle" leaves Earth in search of God, and in Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange World", a man returns to Earth from Mars, takes a close look at all religions and then founds his own church, in which polyamorous sex is considered a top priority. The book is quite explicit for its year of publication, 1961, but has not aged particularly well. Few writers have used cults and sects with as much relish as Lovecraft. He not only presents us with the cannibalistic de La Poer family cult and the classic Chthulhu cult (ah, here we go again with the Great Old Ones...), but there are also witch cults and voodoo groups. It's almost like he's tampering with everything that makes a good cult, isn't it? "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin is a CULT classic (pun intended), but I'd be spoiling it if I said why. And the superb "Last Days" by Brian Evenson follows a kidnapped detective deep into the depraved turmoil of a cult that believes amputations bring you closer to God. Wasn't there a strange bit in one of the "Eragon" books where a couple of weirdos did the same thing? Finally, I recommend Katherine Dunn's wonderfully dark "Geek Love". Because strange cults can sometimes form within a family.

So, enough gloom for now, spring is here and we need to gather all our strength for the sunshine and happiness that awaits us the day after tomorrow. Then there will finally be endless fun and optimistic introductions again!

Stay strong my friends,

Esther from the Otherland

(not a cult)

Book Recommendations February 2025

Next Station: Otherland

I'm currently using public transport in Marseille, southern France, experiencing my first real culture shock. Imagine, the bus is packed but nobody insulted me yet? Nobody stepped on my foot? I didn't have an elbow/ walking stick/knife in my ribs??? Someone just SMILED ??!!! France somehow seems to handle this whole transportation thing better than oh-so-efficient Germany. The question of how to get from A to B drives humans around since they first crawled out of the primordial ooze. But our beloved SF/fantasy authors don't look back, they look to the stars and dream up all kinds of transportation. We start with Wolf's favorite spaceships: The "Millenium Falcon" from Star Wars and "The Galactica" from Battle Star Galactica.
In Corey's Expanse series, pretty physics go-getters like the "Rockhopper" scurry through space: little propulsion, but plenty of time for daring slingshot maneuvers. Caro loves "the Lexx" from the TV series of the same name. It looks like a dragonfly - or like a pretty bumped-up genitalia, har har.
I'm blushing, beam me up, Scotty! Although I've been feeling quite uneasy about beaming ever since I read Stephen King's short story "The Jaunt". I don't want to experience eternity after all. The Farcasters in Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" offer a compromise, they're like beam portals. Speaking of portals: Everyone knows "Stargate", but do you know "The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgson? Here, the protagonist is drawn into the consciousness of an inhabitant of the dying Earth.
If you suffer from claustrophobia, I would dodge space elevators. You should avoid the Luna trilogy by Ian McDonald, "Elevator to the Stars" by Arthur C. Clarke and Lavie Tidhar's "Central Station". If you’re a fighter and battle your fears heads on you can simultaneously tackle your fear of heights in "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" by Roald Dahl.
Technology takes us far, the DB takes us nowhere, but it would be nice to have a fully developed rail network like in China Mièville's "Railsea"...although there are quite different dangers lurking there than no coffee in the board restaurant. And if you're really tough, you should embark on the brutal journey into the heart of dystopia in “Snowpiercer". If, like me, you watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" too early and have been calling Swabians "landlubbers" ever since, you should read "The Bone Ships" by RJ Barker and "The Adventures of the Pirate Amina al-Sirafi" by Shannon Chakraborty. Ships are simply a great means of transportation, as long as you don't throw up over the railing. Finally, here are some of the strangest objects of transportation in SF and Fantasy: A giant flying peach in "James and the Giant Peach". Gliding boards in Simon Weinert's "Tassilo" (actually not so strange until you've read the book! At this point, a big recommendation for this wonderful pearl of German Weird Fiction). And if that’s too small, why not move a whole castle? In Diana Wynne Jones' "Howl’s Moving Castle", not only does a whole house wander around, but it also has portals INSIDE. And if that's not enough, you should just throw everything overboard and become part of a MOVING CITY à la Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves. That in turn makes my entire text absurd.

Have fun with the novelties in January,
Esther from the Otherland

One more thing on my own behalf:
Dear Otherlanders,
I'm looking for a small 1-2 room apartment in Berlin starting in April, where I can build myself a permanent nest. My maximum budget is 600 euros. District doesn't really matter, but preferably near the Otherland ;). If a little elf whispers something to you, send us a carrier pigeon (email)!
All the best,
Esther

Book Recommendations November 2024

This is Otherland!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night
This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat 'til the neighbors gonna die of fright
It's our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween

*evil grinning* hehehe I guess y’all have a catchy tune now, that’ll keep you humming through our whole spooky October newsletter! Finally, the time has come, the favorite night of ghouls, witches, killer clowns and werewolves is peeking around the corner, and (as you can see from our, often quite horror-heavy newsletters) there are some members of the Otherland crew who like nothing better than scary stories. On the night of October 31st to November 1st, the veil between the worlds is particularly thin, so why go out into the wild autumn night and accidentally get sacrificed in an ancient ritual, when you can make yourself really comfortable at home... equipped with all kinds of limited-edition extra creepy food, a hot bathtub with an orange bath bomb or even in your cozy bed - complete with bat/pumpkin fairy lights. And, of course, a damn good book to really celebrate the evening.

You’ll face so many exciting tips today that your fake vampire teeth will fly out of your mouth in shock. By the way, if you're not in the mood for black-orange or purple-green, just keep scrolling, this newsletter has a lot more to offer, this time with extra meta, thanks to review machine Tom. The rest: Take my Thing T. (Since when is my hand detached from my body??) and watch out, there’s an open grave on our way into the haunted fair:
Let's start with the all-time favorite, “Nightmare Before Christmas”. Not only do we offer the Tim Burton-illustrated edition, but we have also a nice tarot deck with all the characters. So if you do want to challenge this special night, please do it in style. If you're already sufficiently stocked up, did you know that an official sequel was released in 2022? "Long Live the Pumpkin Queen", written by Shea Shaw, takes us back to Halloween Town and puts Sally at the center of the story. Somewhat old school are the more sinister works of the famous Ray Bradbury, who was apparently also particularly fond of Halloween, as it is central to "The Halloween Tree", "Something wicked this way comes" and "The October Country". Other classic Halloween books include Washington Irwin's "Sleepy Hollow" from 1820, "Scary Stories to tell in the Dark" by Alvin Schwartz (including disturbing drawings, which will haunt you forever) and Agatha Christie's "Halloween Party". If you want more culture, I recommend the poetry collection "Poems bewitched and haunted" by John Hollander, which spans three thousand years of literary history from Homer and Poe to Baudelaire and Emily Dickinson. Another colorful anthology is "This is Halloween" by James A. Moore, appropriately with an evil grinning pumpkin on the cover. But there are also a few other books in which the festival is not the main character, but provides a spooky setting: "Kill Creek" by Scott Thomas and "Pine" by Francine Toon are both set on this night, but are also otherwise great autumn reads that will make your skin crawl on any other day as well.

By the way, if you're one of the lucky ones who dresses up and goes to a party: a book fits in every handbag and sweetens your way through the underground labyrinth of the subways......

Have a nice holiday, dance around the fire or cozy evening,

Werewolf-Esther and the Zombies, Astronauts and Wizards of the Otherland.

Book Recommendations September 2024

We are Otherland

Warning. The following characters were imagined either by or under the supervision of professionals. Accordingly, the Otherland must insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact any activity performed by them.

Book Recommendations July 2024

We are Otherland
"I drink and I know things"- Tyrion Lannister

It's so hot that we're all starting to show symptoms of a special condition. A silly grin adorns our facial features, The thoughts are slower than usual and we can’t seem to get out of a horizontal position (preferably in the shade or at a pool). Furthermore, there is a barely concealed aggression palpable on every crowded regional train. Does this ring a bell? Aren’t there some parallels to videos of monkeys eating fermented fruit and starting to stagger slightly? Hands down, temperatures over 30 degrees trigger states of collective intoxication in Berlin and that's what today's introduction will be about!
Let’s start with the most famous mind altering substances from fiction:
"Dune" by Frank Herbert would have no content without "spice", the Harkonnens would be jobless and Arrakis just a worm-infested place with happy Fremen. 

Anyway. What the actual hell are the contents of the milk in "Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess? Definitely the opposite of Soma, which makes everyone happy in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. And in "Roxy" by Neal and Jarod Shusterman, the drug comes in the form of a fatal woman.
Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" contains Substance D, which triggers euphoria on the one hand but also has a much darker backside. Incidentally, Dick drew on his own experiences with massive LSD use, which threw him into spirals of paranoia towards the end of his life. If you are interested about this time, you should read the epilogue in "Ubik", which also contains its fair share of drugs.
William Burroughs shared similar problems, writing "Naked Lunch" entirely on heroin and conjuring up a dark, ugly world that the normal reader usually doesn’t want to get lost in. The drug in question "Black Meat" gets a medal for being the nastiest I’ve ever heard of. The "Illuminatus!" trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson is definitely funnier.

Enough of nasty shit, there is also no shortage of states of ecstasy or absolut intoxication in our beloved fiction literature. In the middle of Brian Catling's "The Vorrh", a raucous party is the pivotal point of the story. And Shirley Jackson has her poor protagonist undergo dental treatment in the short story "The Tooth", after which she rumbles through town in a state beyond dazend and confused.
Samanta Schweblin's short story collection "Fever Dream" transports us to a rather similar feverish state as the title suggests and Mariana Enriquez also likes to have her protagonists wade up to their necks through drug-induced, metaphorical swamps (take "The Intoxicated Years" for example). Finally, James Tiptree Jr. must be mentioned as well, who once again defies all conventions by getting his (her!) characters addicted to aliens in "And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side". Groovy!

Pangalactic Gargleblaster recipe on allrecipes.com by silvermoondragon

1 tablespoon gin

1 tablespoon light rum

1 tablespoon vodka

1 tablespoon tequila

2 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur

2 tablespoons Galliano

1 cup ice cubes

1 slice of lemon

Mix the gin, rum, vodka, tequila, crème de menthe, Galliano an the ice in the container of a blender. Cover, and blend until slushy. Pour into a glass and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Alrighty I’m crawling back into the shadows with a cold beer in my one hand and a good book in the other, see you there!

yours dazed and confused Esther from the Otherland

Disclaimer:
Please use all intoxicants (including books!) responsibly

Book Recommendations May 2024

We are Otherland - and we're frolicking through the countryside!

"... She let her thoughts drift beyond today and tomorrow, into the distant future, when Jamie was established with his writing and she had given up her job, into the golden house-in-the-country future."

As beautiful as this sentence may seem, it comes from the pen of the "Empress of Horror" Shirley Jackson, in a story called "The Demon Lover". It is obvious that this cannot end well. Now that the thermometer is slowly crawling into the red zone and the heatwaves in the city are potentially becoming unbearable due to all the concrete, many Berliners are packing a picnic basket at the weekend and heading out into the countryside. Rumor has it that at least ninety percent of them develop the thought that a house by the lake might be a nicer alternative to the shoeboxes we cram into in the city....but is that really a good idea? As a former village child, I can only raise a warning finger here, because it has been clear to everyone since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that hillbillies might sometimes be up to no good.
Country life is hard....and dangerous. Do you remember the strange sect in Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives? That's because they lure their unsuspecting victims with golden promises of country life. In Rumaan Alam's thrilling science fiction In the Middle of the Night, a pleasant vacation in a rented country house suddenly takes a dark twist when the owners turn up. And it's not for nothing that The Wicker Man has been a cult classic since the 70s, as it directly shaped an entire genre: "folk horror". This deals solely with the horror that awaits you in the countryside. It includes everything from pagan rituals and plants with a demonic life of their own to Satan himself, who wreaks havoc in the forest. Outstanding genre gems here are Brom's Slewfoot, Ted Klein's The Ceremonies and, last but not least, the fantastic anthology Damnable Tales, featuring pleasantly creepy illustrations. Haunted houses are not usually located in the middle of the city, but are hidden from everyone's view way off the beaten path. Two prominent examples are Shirley Jackson's Hill House and The Spite House by Johnny Compton. The trinity of mansions in McDowell's The Elementals includes some nasty inhabitants and to reach the country house in Kill Creek by Scott Thomas you almost have to get the Land Rover out.. And dangerous country life doesn't only fascinate horror authors! In Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, the adult narrator returns to his childhood home and suddenly remembers a story that couldn't be more fantastic. Highly recommended, I love this book! And if Neil Gaiman is mentioned, Terry Pratchett must of course be mentioned in the same breath! In The Fifth Elephant someone is drawn to the countryside and hey, the whole of Überwald counts as dangerous country life, doesn't it?
Perhaps, dear reader, you will pack not only the rubber mattress but also a GPS device, astronaut food for two weeks, a damn good book and nunchucks for the weekend... after all, you never know what to expect ;)
P.s. If you discover any strange signs and/or skull formations in the forest that can't be accidental, head back to the rusty gate as quickly as possible and close it firmly behind you.

Sincerly yours, Esther on behalf of the Otherland

Book Recommendations April 2024

Hey Otherlanders!

After a shortish pandemic interruption we're back with the Otherlander's blog featuring English recommendations. Savor and enjoy!