I’ve been rereading the Dune series and just got to God Emperor, reminding me how much I absolutely love the title God Emperor of Dune. First off it’s just pleasing phonetically to say, and it conveys so well the tone of like grandiose philosophical space opera. Then paired with the Vincent Di Fate art of Giant-Worm-Man-Space-Pope? chef kiss
Then I got thinking about other Top Tier Very Good titles I love: a couple favorites Biomega, a wild three-way portmanteau and basically the single coolest word I’ve ever heard and Universal Harvester, which is such a perfect title for what that book is; it’s a phrase that in context is totally straightforward and mundane, but removed from that context is so deeply ominous and I just adore it.
What are some of y’alls favorite titles of stuff? Doesn’t necessarily have to be a work you like, but anything with a title that really captures the spirit of the thing, or is just good as hell to say.
There is an alt-history novel that speculates about a post moon landing NASA where the budget and mandate hadn’t been murdered by Nixon called The Throne of Saturn. From what I understand its also a bit of a republican fanfic so I’ve always stayed away from it but I’ve always been enchanted by the name Throne of Saturn for its reference to SLC-39a and the Saturn V and just the pure grandiosity.
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a book I read for the title alone. And didn’t end up loving it either, despite having unicorns and kappas.
Also I dragged a friend of mine to a movie called Let the Corpses Tan last year. It’s a western but an extremely weird one.
Also A Song of Ice and Fire is a far more beautiful and evocative title than than just “Game of Thrones” (which ain’t bad). But I love the promise of magic and power the book series name has… which it hasn’t lived up to because instead it’s all about pillaging and rape.
The slasher movie Pieces mostly for its subtitle, Its What You Think It Is!. Also the killer snake movie Sssssss.
Finally put the word ‘metal’ in your title and it’s instantly genius. “Metal Gear Solid”, “Full Metal Jacket”, “Fullmetal Alchemist”, “Metal Wolf Chaos”.
Satellite Reign sounds cool as hell (although that hasn’t translated to me actually playing it in the years it’s sat in my Steam library). Wipeout XL is also an objectively cool title.
I’m also a sucker for alliteration, so pretty much anything with repeating consonants gets stuck in my head. Command & Conquer, Sense & Sensibility, Flip Flappers…
Whenever I think about favorite titles, I always think about Yo La Tengo’s album I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. Also, honorable mention to Emergency & I from The Dismemberment Plan, a great album that just turned 20 a few weeks ago.
I recently finished Revue Starlight which I started watching because I think Revue Starlight is a dope name (and also it was categorized under LGBT on HiDive and thats the shit I need).
I’m also a huge sucker for the word Overdrive. Sunset Overdrive and Mona Lisa Overdrive are two of my favourite names for anything ever.
There’s also something to be said about the title that’s so overly long and descriptive that it becomes either dramatic or comedic. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a fucking great title. Or the last arc of Friends at the Table’s Marielda season: The Killing of the King-God Samothes by the Traitor Prince Maelgywn. Love that shit.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is easily one of my favorite book titles. Also a real good story about queer time assassins trying to kill each other and falling in love.
I also still deeply love There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet by Panic! At the Disco. It’s a good song, fight me.
There’s a band I quite like called Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her which is a bit wordy to say but I think is a fun name nonetheless.
Alex White has a trilogy of books called A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy, and The Worst of All Possible Worlds and I’m a big fan of those titles. I’ve read the first one so far and it was extremely good.
This year I read a story called Bone Meat in a collection entitled Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories.
The title refers to the main character’s preference for meat close to the bone, left overs of another’s meal.
The Japanese title for the second Persona 4 fighting game was Persona 4 Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold and to this day I don’t understand how anybody thought it was a good idea to change it.
Oh man, His Dark Materials is incredible. The title’s actually taken from Paradise Lost, so y’know makes sense that it’s some dang good words. It’s the best YA fantasy about killing god I’ve ever read.
I also wanna tag on that “The Subtle Knife” is a real good one too. Something about the slightly contradictory terms makes me always pronounce “Subtle” a little bit off in a blunt way.
