tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22339243141683043022024-03-19T02:08:15.956-07:00nerds of a feather, flock togetherHugo and Ignyte Award WinnerThe Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09578344431057344609noreply@blogger.comBlogger3451125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-61906611381719255132024-03-19T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-19T02:07:45.035-07:00Review: Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis<p><b>A delightfully atmospheric exploration of a world and a hotel through the eyes of the workers, linking together their daily experiences to allow us to see a greater whole.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8FGdNp6Tz03qyCF8gZ2_b9YjSSSpAqL3s_CP0QjYrB9rvIA9SnsLb7nwhlPDryfpOBVvyMUW-ugEF2IQBMWenczhSTV4K8noxijL-0oTlLcg3wduC7TEjfzSOtC1lPfMEu15gphADMigs9IiPDYeYh3C-M7u-ZzKU_cIINkqQvNyhOWOND8hPFn3DcjY/s500/195177497.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8FGdNp6Tz03qyCF8gZ2_b9YjSSSpAqL3s_CP0QjYrB9rvIA9SnsLb7nwhlPDryfpOBVvyMUW-ugEF2IQBMWenczhSTV4K8noxijL-0oTlLcg3wduC7TEjfzSOtC1lPfMEu15gphADMigs9IiPDYeYh3C-M7u-ZzKU_cIINkqQvNyhOWOND8hPFn3DcjY/s320/195177497.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><p></p><p>In almost every forum I've seen it referred to, the blurb for <i>Floating Hotel </i>refers to <i>The Grand Budapest Hotel</i>. It's what drew me to reading it. And it is entirely accurate, from a purely vibes-based perspective. I don't know quite how, I don't know quite why, but while reading, I had the spiritual equivalent of that music that everyone used for a bit doing Wes Anderson skit tiktoks going round my soul on a neverending loop. It just had something of that plinky-plunky, moving-between-shots and dotting-about-but-nevertheless-coalescing-into-a-coherent-whole-by-the-end feeling that I associate with his films. It had <i>atmosphere</i>.</p><p>And this is the major strength I would say the whole book has - it does vibes and charm and that general creation of a consistent atmosphere really really well. </p><p>Which it needs to, because this is a book that dots between different characters and plotlines quite a lot and quite quickly, and so it really needs to have something consistent underlying the whole thing to keep you hooked. Imagine if a particularly whimsical episode of <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i>, Adrian Tchaikovsky's <i>City of Last Chances</i> and Becky Chambers' <i>Wayfarers</i> series got together and had a strange, unholy yet kind of adorable spawn. That's what we're looking at here. It's the story of a... well a hotel... that's... uh... floating. Through space, specifically. Admittedly, I think hotel is a bit of a misnomer (though used throughout the book). It seems far more like a quaint, intergalactic cruise liner making stops at the various ports on its predetermined route, picking up passengers along the way, dropping some off, and being the backdrop for a number of... whatever the lower-key cousin of wacky hijinx are. Whimsical shenanigans, perhaps.</p><p>We follow the ship through this journey through the eyes and perspectives of various members of the crew, learning how they came to be on the ship, what their job is, what their current preoccupation is, their concerns, their interactions with other staff. For the major part of the story, the stakes are extremely low - who's been sending sonnets through the pneumatic message system? Will people like this month's shit film club where we watch a retro movie? Let's go try to get an ox flank from the planet, but oh no, it's out of stock! We cycle around through the staff, this way, steadily learning the ship and its rhythms and sense of self, while slowly beginning to see the edges of a deeper, darker plot lurking under the surface, that might be more important than just the day to day running of business, may even be more important than the financial wellbeing of the hotel. But we do so steadily, gently always, never pressuring events to move faster than the current perspective would focus on. There are just little hints peppered through the dish... until eventually you realise find the chilli pepper? Something like that.</p><p>As a concept, it's not totally unique (and I do think <i>City of Last Chances </i>is a crucial comp for the structure - if you struggle with how that is a story far more focussed on the city than the people within it, this may give you difficulties for very similar reasons), but it is still plenty unusual. By using so many perspectives, it forces a more oblique approach to the central plot, and gives the author a chance to really bed down a sense of a place, a group of people and their collective community together, focussing on that, on the physical details of the space, the little moments of daily interaction, rather than feeling the need to get a proper drive on towards action and resolution.</p><p>Having this space particularly helps in addressing, in a casual and off-hand way a thing I often find poorly handled in SFF - class. It's not a core focus by any means. Don't go in expecting full Marx or anything. But there is a much more competent undercurrent of class consciousness in this book than I tend to assume I'll see in books set in space, even when their characters occupy various points on spectra of wealth and privilege. This is a book that gets the concept of nouveau riche, that gets the shift that happens from what was once vogue into something that is less high-culture and more aspirational middle class, the genteel degeneration of luxury. And that's super interesting! It's a luxury space hotel that's been flying through the galaxy, hosting the wealthy for decades - of course its interaction with fashion, with class and with culture is going to change in that time! And I love that it gets addressed, however obliquely.</p><p>Likewise, that space, and that approach to character hopping introduces us to a lot of people, and works hard to make them memorable and distinctive immediately upon meeting. My particular favourite is a grumpy linguistics professor whose position teaching an elective, ungraded course has left her able to gently exploit her situation and do whatever the fuck she wants, more or less, who unfortunately is being pushed back into actually acting on her principles, however much it irks her. I loved her so much, the moment I met her. And there are plenty like her - they appear on the page feeling nearly fully formed, you spend a chapter or so with them, and you feel instantly acquainted. And then see them through someone else's eyes as you carry on hopping.</p><p>And in this, I think it actually has <i>City of Last Chances </i>beat, because it does feel rather more tethered to its people than that did - I struggled with CoLC because we had a perspective for a little while then seemingly abandoned it for something completely unconnected. The web of interactions and interlacings there took a long time to materialise (and was amazing once it arrived, don't get me wrong - it's an astonishingly good book), in a way that wasn't an issue here. It's a hotel with a small staff. Everyone is connected and interacting all the time, so it's very hard not to feel like those different perspectives all link up. They're literally talking to each other right now!</p><p>But... but. It's not perfect. While those characters are often instantly interesting and interestingly realised, they suffer somewhat in the long term. The structure does not lend itself well to providing character depth, and the lack of repeat perspectives only doubles down on that. You simply do not spend long enough with any one person to get as fully bedded into their headspace as you would in a one or two perspective story.</p><p>And then, because of that, because you're not so totally emotionally invested in their wants and needs, some of the emotional payoff come the end of the story suffers a little. It's a story of ups and downs, and the downs never quite hit me like they should have at the end, because I didn't get the time to fully connect with the stakes, and the people, enough to let them fully seep in. Don't get me wrong, there <i>are </i>some moments of great catharsis or excitment or sadness, but the successful ones are all in the short term story scope, told in the confines of one perspective and chapter, rather than the overarching plot that has been gradually built across the perspectives. Which is a real shame precisely because you have those single moments done well to compare it to. It just doesn't quite land that final punch, and that left me somewhat unsatisfied on closing the final (digital) page.</p><p>It also, unfortunately, does not always manage the plot reveal itself super well. As I say, there are hints peppered throughout, and gentle foreshadowing galore, but for myself, I found that I had predicted some of those shadows rather, well... fore. And not the "one chapter early" that is the perfect delight of a mystery novel - exactly the zone where you get to feel smug, but before the intelligence of the detective starts being called into question. Once you start spending pages and pages sitting on a certainty that you know what's coming, it starts to grate a little bit that the author hasn't trusted that you'll have figured it out yet.</p><p>And I get that that's hard - I cannot imagine how tricky it is to try to manage that pacing knowing your audience is going to be a full range of people from called-it-on-the-first-page to never-saw-it-coming-even-at-the-last - I do. But personally, I would always rather be surprised than patronised, and this definitely felt like it leaned a little bit too far the wrong way in that equation. Not aggressively, not didactically. I never felt like Curtis was spelling it out and elbowing me in the ribs in case I'd missed it. But we were just given that bit too long with a few too many clues and well... it seemed obvious, when we got to things actually being admitted and uncovered.</p><p>Which is something of a contrast to some of the wider world-building, once we stepped outside the confines of the ship and started connecting up with what the wider galaxy looks like. Much of this is done, in the early parts of the book, through little snippets of pre-chapter text, which I am personally inclined against, but which were actually done particularly well here. They always felt relevant, they were never too long, and they worked tonally for what they were trying to be. That part of the world-building? Grand. But when we get to the later stages of the story, and the outside world starts to encroach into the insularity and safety of the hotel, and subtext has to stop subbing... slightly less well-managed at that point. There are some questions that I feel never got answered, in a way that isn't "lingering mysterious what if" so much as "we only have so many pages to do this in, let's go go go" and that's... well that's always disappointing. Especially in a book that really didn't overstay its welcome in terms of length and totally could have handled a couple more chapters to make sure everything got tidied away nicely (emotionally, at least).</p><p>It's not that I wanted no ambiguity, I want to stress. There's some ambiguity, or some... unfinishedness to some of the storylines at the end that feels entirely deliberate and is entirely good. Where we leave the characters, where we leave the emotional journey of the hotel? Yes, that ambiguity absolutely brings home how those plotlines did and should go. But it's more... there are parts of the story that are set up with the expectation of answers. They get answers. But some of those answers feel rushed, incomplete or emotionally immatured, in a way that we could totally have avoided with just that little bit of extra character work with a few people near the end.</p><p>The story is, very deliberately, set at a remove from the rest of the world. The hotel is itself a little world. That's the whole point. But when external events are allowed to intrude, I do unfortunately think a little bit of resolution to some of the questions is in order.</p><p>But, for all those gripes, I do still think this is a good book. It's not a perfect book, sure. But it is intensely charming, consistently atmospheric, and the vibes are impeccable. Does it have a plot? Not always. Eventually. Sort of. Does that actually matter? Actually... no. Not really.</p><p>As someone for whom <i>A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet </i>did not work, <i>Floating Hotel</i> delivers the experience that so many people have told me they had with the <i>Wayfarers</i> books - a bunch of people thrown together in a space ship, sharing their lives, seen through their distinct perspectives and having low-ish stakes, slightly delightful escapades, with some more serious bits of emotional work and the odd drama thrown in for some texture. For me, <i>Floating Hotel</i> does a better job at connecting those disparate threads of story, and creating that sense of community and cohesion than Chambers' work did, as well as delivering more impactfully (at least in the short term) on character work. It has some rough edges I would have loved it to have sanded down, but at its heart, it was deeply enjoyable and I'm incredibly glad I read it.</p><p>I also respect it for doing something that little bit different (not totally maverick, but just that little bit of "ooh, what are you doing here???") from the norm, and that always gets a rating bump from me. </p><p>Taking that into account, as well as all those rough edges, puts it into the trickiest bracket of scoring in my opinion - the seven out of ten. It's a 4/5 if you're doing star ratings. To an external viewer, that looks like an uncomplicatedly good rating, right? But 7 isn't uncomplicated. 7 is good... but. It's the last point of overall positivity before we start heading into "very mixed" or "meh" territory in your 6 and belows. 7 is messy.</p><p>7 is the best place for a book to be for a review, because it's where all the best discussion is. It's good. You're not angry at it or upset. It wasn't a wasted reading experience. But you have a lot of things to talk about, a lot of things to wonder if they could have been done that little bit differently, or what if they just...? What if it had only...? 10/10 can sometimes be dull, because you run out of ways to say "lads, this was good 'un". 7/10, existing as it does at the intersection of good and middling has all the scope for discussion, while retaining the sympathy and enthusiasm, to make for a thought provoking reviewing experience. So on a very meta-level, I rate this book's 7/10 a 10/10.</p><p>Dialling the nonsense back again slightly, I did enjoy it as a reading experience. I would absolutely recommend it, especially if you're someone who likes their books very vibes-forward. Come for that, come for the delightful cast, come for gentle pacing and delicious place descriptions. Yes, there are some issues, and they might niggle you, but if you like that tone, that atmosphere? Then they'll be a worthwhile price to pay for a really lovely reading experience. And, critically, it's a book that's trying to do A Thing. I would always prefer books that shoot for the moon and land among the stars over the ones that never tried at all. Especially when you're in a fancy Wes Anderson space hotel, so the cold vacuum of space is less of a concern.</p><p>--</p><p><b>The Math</b></p><p><i>Highlights: </i></p><p>- demon lovechild of a TNG episode, <i>A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet </i>and <i>The City of Last Chances</i>, all directed by Wes Anderson (complimentary)<br />- stunning visual descriptions<br />- immediate character connections</p><p><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 7/10</p><p><b>Reference: </b>Curtis, Grace, <i>Floating Hotel</i>, [Hodder & Stoughton, 2024]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroformtea.bsky.social</i></p>Roseannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00518438144401664661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-53130509855031018822024-03-18T12:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T14:15:45.439-07:00Nebula Award Finalists<a href="https://www.sfwa.org/2024/03/14/sfwa-announces-the-finalists-for-the-59th-nebula-awards/">The finalists for the Nebula Awards have been announced</a> for work published in 2023. The Nebula Awards are presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and will be presented on June 8, 2024.<br /><br />Starting with this year’s Nebula Awards, Nerds of a Feather is planning to more widely cover the awards scene within the science fiction and fantasy genre than we have in the past. There will still be Hugo Awards coverage, of course. That isn’t going away. There will just be more. <br /><br />My view of awards is that each award is designed to recognize and reward excellence in a particular field and through the lens of a particular awards body. The Hugo Awards are nominated by and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society at a particular time and reflect the tastes, preferences, and prejudices of those members. The Nebula Awards are nominated by and voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. It is more of a professional organization in terms of who is eligible to join.<br /><br />The Nebula Awards have history, longevity, and from my perspective - prestige within the genre. This is a significant award.<br /><br />Congratulations to all of the finalists.<span id="docs-internal-guid-42e8e389-7fff-3412-a7dd-cbc6e0827b20"><br /><b><br /></b><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Nebula Award for Novel</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW, Gollancz)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Nebula Award for Novella</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Linghun”, Ai Jiang (Linghun)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee (Tordotcom)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (Tordotcom)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Nebula Award for Novelette</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“A Short Biography of a Conscious Chair”, Renan Bernardo (Samovar 2/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">I Am AI, Ai Jiang (Shortwave)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Year Without Sunshine”, Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 11-12/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon”, Angela Liu (Clarkesworld 6/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Saturday’s Song”, Wole Talabi (Lightspeed 5/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 9-10/23)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Nebula Award for Short Story</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont”, P.A. Cornell (Fantasy 10/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200”, R.S.A Garcia (Uncanny 7-8/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Window Boy”, Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 8/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Sound of Children Screaming”, Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Better Living Through Algorithms”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 5/23)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">“Bad Doors”, John Wiswell (Uncanny 1-2/23)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b><br /></b></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern, J. Dianne Dotson (Android)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Liberty’s Daughter, Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ghost Job, Greg van Eekhout (Harper)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><b><br /></b></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Nebula Award for Game Writing</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px; text-align: left;"><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Bread Must Rise, Stewart C Baker, James Beamon (Choice of Games)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Alan Wake II, Sam Lake, Clay Murphy, Tyler Burton Smith, Sinikka Annala </span></p><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">(Remedy Entertainment, Epic Games Publishing)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Ninefox Gambit: Machineries of Empire Roleplaying Game, Yoon Ha Lee, </span></p><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Marie Brennan(Android)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Dredge, Joel Mason (Black Salt Games, Team 17)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Chants of Sennaar, Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel (Rundisc, Focus Entertainment)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Baldur’s Gate 3, Adam Smith, Adrienne Law, Baudelaire Welch, Chrystal Ding, Ella McConnell, </span></p><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Ine Van Hamme, Jan Van Dosselaer, John Corcoran, Kevin VanOrd, Lawrence Schick, </span></p><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Martin Docherty, Rachel Quirke, Ruairí Moore, Sarah Baylus, Stephen Rooney, </span></p><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Swen Vincke (Larian Studios)</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Nimona, Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor, Pamela Ribon, Marc Haimes, Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, </span></p><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Keith Bunin, Nate Stevenson (Annapurna Animation, Annapurna Pictures)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time”, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin (HBOMax)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Barbie, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach (Warner Bros., Heyday Films, </span></p><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">LuckyChap Entertainment)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, </span></p><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Michael Gilio, Chris McKay (Paramount Pictures, Entertainment One, Allspark Pictures)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham </span></p><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">(Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Avi Arad Productions)</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli, Toho Company)</span></p></li></ul><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The SFWA noted that Martha Wells declined a nomination for her novel System Collapse. </span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16094675116398769415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-59637444676119560542024-03-18T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T00:00:00.142-07:00Review: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, by Seanan McGuireLet’s ignore the absolutely perfect cover art just for a moment. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is NOT the dinosaur book that it appears to be. There are dinosaurs and they are wonderful, but following on 2023’s excellent <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/01/nanoreviews-assassins-of-thasalon-lost.html">Lost in the Moment and Found</a>, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known continues the story of Antsy, a girl who stepped through a portal to another world and found herself in a borderline magical shop that was a bit of a hub world which has its own cost (as entering any of those doorways do). <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXodcEe4zWzZL3aMiNRhaX_dPKyh2atfesHWnw_0ki7XA86xYo6RdPGv2dMJbwqRXvyjzrj1zdT7veh_q31jkR0TdBedNdezPIgBioVNhNs5VeBILCp6oY1QnH5OZnDyIfltHU4poSKQLGxeVYlPD5VpUSR_UHIVe3939UTsaWTphpbO0vlEKGZdkWYEm/s2475/Mislaid%20in%20Parts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2475" data-original-width="1613" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXodcEe4zWzZL3aMiNRhaX_dPKyh2atfesHWnw_0ki7XA86xYo6RdPGv2dMJbwqRXvyjzrj1zdT7veh_q31jkR0TdBedNdezPIgBioVNhNs5VeBILCp6oY1QnH5OZnDyIfltHU4poSKQLGxeVYlPD5VpUSR_UHIVe3939UTsaWTphpbO0vlEKGZdkWYEm/w261-h400/Mislaid%20in%20Parts.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br />Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is the ninth novella in the Wayward Children series and brings Antsy, a girl who looks a bit older than she actually is, to Eleanor West’s and there is a sign that states “No Solicitations. No Visitors. No Quests.” Readers, there are quests. This book is a quest. It is also an escape, perhaps not for the reader but Antsy has a particular gift where she can find just about anything that has been lost and some of the kids at Eleanor West’s want to take advantage of that. <br /><br />In an attempt to escape, Antsy and others have to commit quest and yes, there are dinosaurs but there are other doorways and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known does what Seanan McGuire so often does with these novellas (and with most of her books, if I’m being honest), which is to weave together character stories in small ways so that it is building and laying seeds for future stories. Specifically, this is McGuire inching closer to really telling Kade’s story - which is one McGuire has publicly stated she’s been hesitant to do until she’s built up enough trust because Kade is trans and that’s a more challenging story for a cis-writer to tell with real grace and honesty and that readers (and trans readers specifically) will trust to get right.<br /><br />That’s the thing about Seanan McGuire’s writing in general and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known in specific - the characters speak with blunt and plain honesty in ways that I don’t think we encounter very often in real life. McGuire’s characters are often clever in how they understand themselves (as they come to understand themselves) and how they explain themselves to others. It can very easily be too on the nose, and perhaps it is, but it also works perfectly for me as a reader and I *think* that this is stylistically something that will hit very hard for the right readers who are looking to find how they are feeling put down in a story about people who don’t fit in and can’t quite find their right places in this (or any) world. It’s what I loved so much about <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2016/06/microreview-book-every-heart-doorway-by.html">Every Heart a Doorway</a> and the best of the Wayward Children novellas capture that feeling of yearning towards a childhood that could have been smoother and I had it so much easier than so many. <br /><br />Mislaid in Parts Half-Known gets close at times and at its best is so tightly focused on the kids that it is one of my favorite books of the Wayward Children series. But even the ones that don’t reach those heights are still wonderful. It’s just that the bar is so impossibly high and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known gets there for me. It’s personal. It’s always personal. <br /><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a6b6996-7fff-43f1-3f84-bfffe0eee8cb"><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Joe Sherry - Senior Editor of Nerds of a Feather. Hugo and Ignyte Winner. Minnesotan.</i></span></div></span>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16094675116398769415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-28394769442232054122024-03-15T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-15T00:00:00.137-07:006 Books with John Wiswell <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMsq0PwvtREHW2so1FoLmlcEvkZ9xlnhOdyRFPlzEz2kq8ySj1FG0J_GibgMvWSarqihj534vUgSNRNSf7JiVuz6MQMrpdgNo1XDBdW87Vernoth6BKrgjDjYXlogbfDSk9RWAzo9FvCPvGNsPNuHMgp94ESk4mBfFiVIJSh1D67baK_IyeRTAREgdTWv/s1333/author%20photo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1213" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMsq0PwvtREHW2so1FoLmlcEvkZ9xlnhOdyRFPlzEz2kq8ySj1FG0J_GibgMvWSarqihj534vUgSNRNSf7JiVuz6MQMrpdgNo1XDBdW87Vernoth6BKrgjDjYXlogbfDSk9RWAzo9FvCPvGNsPNuHMgp94ESk4mBfFiVIJSh1D67baK_IyeRTAREgdTWv/s320/author%20photo.jpg" width="291" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">John Wiswell is a disabled writer who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "Open House on Haunted Hill," and the Locus Award for Best Novelette for "That Story Isn't The Story." His fiction has been translated into ten languages, and has appeared in venues such as Tordotcom, the LeVar Burton Reads podcast, and Uncanny Magazine. His debut novel, <i>Someone You Can Build a Nest In</i>, is forthcoming from DAW Books in the U.S. and Jo Fletcher Books in the U.K. on April 2nd. You can find more from him through his Linktree: <a href="https://linktr.ee/johnwiswell">https://linktr.ee/johnwiswell</a><br /></span><div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today he tells us about his Six Books:</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="im" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #500050; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGihAh0sMgeQMf49lz6kQQOqCg2dbYdH0N8qTUeos-O6Rtbladba1l4l1GYS4TbYj6iRqhPQklnW7QMyEtd2Wk0bnqjlkM_ifTRcAsIUDhBfdvJb3-wAiwUtnY2bAtoKcPDics1xWqSIxtE8aIJQ8m2mAwmvDuhlupSkT_zRo0PaDmtla5IDZSXDUtS9q3/s445/51zireIWQSL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGihAh0sMgeQMf49lz6kQQOqCg2dbYdH0N8qTUeos-O6Rtbladba1l4l1GYS4TbYj6iRqhPQklnW7QMyEtd2Wk0bnqjlkM_ifTRcAsIUDhBfdvJb3-wAiwUtnY2bAtoKcPDics1xWqSIxtE8aIJQ8m2mAwmvDuhlupSkT_zRo0PaDmtla5IDZSXDUtS9q3/s320/51zireIWQSL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" width="212" /></a></b></div></span><b>1. What book are you currently reading?</b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b>One of the books readers recommended to me most across 2023 was Hannah Kaner’s <i>Godkiller</i>. It starts out as basically <i>The Witcher</i> but for gods. Gods behave badly, so human hunters --the godkillers-- go around hunting them and liberating people from tyranny. Kissen lost her family to a fire god in her youth, so she’s a particularly angry godkiller. Now, Fantasy heroes fighting gods is nothing new, but what hooked me was her getting stuck on a buddy journey with Skedi, the God of White Lies. It seems mysterious assassins are after both Skedi and Kissen, so now the hunter is the hunted, and she’s got to rely on this weak god to survive. Don’t you love unexpected bonds? It’s bloody and fun, and just keeps getting more interesting as it goes.<span class="im" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><br /></p></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWp5AZMjppXFqlepm_1WH-xqn2t3w02eCCuJwD4lykayHE5Wxc74lKbkaafTSViXfW1NMrQUhyBgcL-0dmNMab-ElgHTD2q4j7nvnLtSBU1WtTIvU5F8GvPahssKC4-Q587Am3ndYGg9lBy-vDi-PpFZ_zZfIH8FJgGVGf_EdDCwzXAYb1vR8w-cqxhqa/s445/41KRVOcvpfL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWp5AZMjppXFqlepm_1WH-xqn2t3w02eCCuJwD4lykayHE5Wxc74lKbkaafTSViXfW1NMrQUhyBgcL-0dmNMab-ElgHTD2q4j7nvnLtSBU1WtTIvU5F8GvPahssKC4-Q587Am3ndYGg9lBy-vDi-PpFZ_zZfIH8FJgGVGf_EdDCwzXAYb1vR8w-cqxhqa/s320/41KRVOcvpfL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">I came up through writing short stories, and Kelly Link is one of the gold standards in the field for me. Few short story writers have ever wielded her power, and no one entwines the mundane and the unreal like her. How many collections of hers have I chewed through? Stuff like “The Monster” and “Magic For Beginners” are always close to my mind. After so long I thought she’d only ever write shorts. But here we have it: a Kelly Link novel! What story of such length finally captivated her enough to put it onto the page? What sustained her to make such a particularly long book, too? Here’s a confession: I don’t know what it’s about. I’m literally refusing to learn anything about <i>The Book of Love</i> until my copy is in my hands. I want it fresh in my wriggling mind.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefJ77LmkPkXZNFwHB6mK171GDBZkuKxvZpN_wCWhf98NuqzoTlkCgOeYBnJBvaHY2OtgT5r1prcNMYfP-QkdeQXLQiDJ6oxWN3ztsAP3GxsZIFuNonZxzOAZiLeOgNqAbPh8_gVd40vxBmAi4SM2HRimVG9oVmsH0RNQeeHcfruhX0BUv-cymo6oQxhnh/s466/71MgSFAbAHL._SY466_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefJ77LmkPkXZNFwHB6mK171GDBZkuKxvZpN_wCWhf98NuqzoTlkCgOeYBnJBvaHY2OtgT5r1prcNMYfP-QkdeQXLQiDJ6oxWN3ztsAP3GxsZIFuNonZxzOAZiLeOgNqAbPh8_gVd40vxBmAi4SM2HRimVG9oVmsH0RNQeeHcfruhX0BUv-cymo6oQxhnh/s320/71MgSFAbAHL._SY466_.jpg" width="214" /></span></a></div><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;">3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #500050;"><b><br /></b></span>Can I cheat and say <i>The Iliad</i>? Because I’ve read it several times. Each time I usually pick a new translator. Last year the great Emily Wilson released her translation, which I’m eager to gobble up. Wilson made waves with her gorgeous translation of <i>The Odyssey</i>, blending poetry and contemporary language, and gave the epic an identity it had never had before. She did for <i>The</i> <i>Odyssey</i> what Seamus Heaney did for <i>Beowulf</i>. In fact, just her Foreword on the minutia of her choices, and of the political history of other translators’ previous choices, was one of my favorite things I read in the last decade. That’s an energy I’ve got to see applied to <i>The Iliad</i>, which is basically <i>The Infinity War</i> of Greek heroes. It’s the biggest crossover, with the biggest brawls and moves and tragedies. <i>The Iliad</i> was one of those books that opened up literature to me as a kid. So this new translation is gnawing at me. I just need the time!</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><b><span><br /></span></b></span><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvRWYMZg4qpthg_dQPJRVr1lNaJzyPHkiR1uLBAvUQcmjaKwTm-ryyDwEKgU5Hn4nRU7qQcbGx66lfXZAIOInVlvPOEVXI9BeCzKsU3Vpwr8JFV6rMA6hADo64cC4QLkKCw4VwTlDOOf6w1y84-VCowngdyHHkwVNGBH5-laSSG7oIioTnKlWaLfjIOxh/s445/516bDcIYHDL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvRWYMZg4qpthg_dQPJRVr1lNaJzyPHkiR1uLBAvUQcmjaKwTm-ryyDwEKgU5Hn4nRU7qQcbGx66lfXZAIOInVlvPOEVXI9BeCzKsU3Vpwr8JFV6rMA6hADo64cC4QLkKCw4VwTlDOOf6w1y84-VCowngdyHHkwVNGBH5-laSSG7oIioTnKlWaLfjIOxh/s320/516bDcIYHDL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" width="181" /></span></a></div><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about – either positively or negatively?</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #500050;"><b><br /></b></span>John Steinbeck’s <i>Of Mice and Men</i> is a book where my feelings are the same and my thoughts are utterly different. As a young teen, I hated how the book treated Lennie. My instinct was to write what would today be called fix-it fic; to give Lennie and George a better world with lots of rabbits. But that’s what the book wants, too. It was only as I grew older and met more disabled people that I appreciated the novel criticizing how our world exploits and harms us. That the book was asking me to fight harder. It’s challenging to grow up and realize that you’re as angry at a book as that book is angry at the real world, and to realize that in your disagreement, the book was right. We all deserve better. To get it, we have to do that work together.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1X9yqlIeBxPV4x1Uh2YcLM2hfVwcYqFHwl7A-yDoVUQmPBaCUgnAOjF2xUpggknwQjVvDXO3M0p09QnB9i02FPNjk5zu0Hd6TSau8A04_-3m0H1-CqRVj2B4kmUEcgkOPZX8SkdsWBSCa8mSLVMhLRbI84Ennx4mjWMpk9IRCH1n-ET90K0nKr3koPcs/s466/81AgDdhSAfL._SY466_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1X9yqlIeBxPV4x1Uh2YcLM2hfVwcYqFHwl7A-yDoVUQmPBaCUgnAOjF2xUpggknwQjVvDXO3M0p09QnB9i02FPNjk5zu0Hd6TSau8A04_-3m0H1-CqRVj2B4kmUEcgkOPZX8SkdsWBSCa8mSLVMhLRbI84Ennx4mjWMpk9IRCH1n-ET90K0nKr3koPcs/s320/81AgDdhSAfL._SY466_.jpg" width="203" /></span></a></div><b>5. What’s one piece of fiction, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?</b><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><b><span><span class="im" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ray Bradbury’s short story “Zero Hour” lived rent free in my head for years. It’s a great short to introduce kids to Science Fiction because it’s about kids secretly being right. It’s told from the POV of a mom while the neighborhood kids play increasingly disturbing games about extraterrestrials being about to invade. But the kids really are collaborating with our future overlords. So it validates children’s make-believe in a twisted way, but it also uses POV so well. Because the mom is wrong. Our whole lens of the story is unreliable, but it’s unreliable for relatable reasons: we, too, would dismiss kids saying UFOs will land at zero hour. So we’re almost complicit in the unreliability. Unreliable narrators often make us prickle or pushback; we question them and feel superior that we could access truth they couldn’t. “Zero Hour” does something else. It sympathizes with her and with us. That’s what makes it chilling and memorable. I think for the rest of my life I’ve been in love with fiction’s ability to give us relatable unreliable characters. People with sympathize with because we say, “Oh yes, I’d also be doomed.”<span class="im" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><b><span><br /></span></b><span></span></p></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlkwEHNxsvBVODapKvjIGQ03txc_zCoyuJIq8LfUDuGNvGHECjmj6NBtLCxpiIXNoZiqik4-cTIeHfzTGtLUK7P95XnshOQc6GKlCe2ktJZ4J9DEODjbn_tbO5-Ad4tZKCEb5tvyp3nY7-EV684ZYWaUpfhVwwlvsrqfBaebRsMtU3d6Q4x9Ni7OVA09j/s2550/SYCBANI%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1688" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlkwEHNxsvBVODapKvjIGQ03txc_zCoyuJIq8LfUDuGNvGHECjmj6NBtLCxpiIXNoZiqik4-cTIeHfzTGtLUK7P95XnshOQc6GKlCe2ktJZ4J9DEODjbn_tbO5-Ad4tZKCEb5tvyp3nY7-EV684ZYWaUpfhVwwlvsrqfBaebRsMtU3d6Q4x9Ni7OVA09j/s320/SYCBANI%20cover.jpg" width="212" /></span></a></div><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b>My debut novel is <i>Someone You Can Build A Nest In</i>. Do you like monsters with feelings? Lots of feelings? Because Shesheshen is a shapeshifting horror who lives in a lair, building her body out of whatever she can find, a bear trap for a mouth, and reusing the bones of hunters that have come after her. She just despises us humans. After some hunters manage to poison and nearly kill her, she’s rescued by Homily, a quirky, bookish lady who mistakes Shesheshen for a fellow human. Shesheshen is shocked when Homily nurses her back to health rather than killing her. And the more time they spend together, the close they get. Could Shesheshen have actually found someone she can live with? Is this love? The emotions bubble up until Shesheshen absolutely has to confess that she’s not human. But right before she can confess, Homily tells her why she’s here: she’s hunting a shapeshifting horror. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their story is for everyone who’s ever been made to feel like a monster.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you, John!</span></p><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.</span></i></div>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-76823327146627632902024-03-14T01:00:00.000-07:002024-03-14T09:12:57.907-07:00What was the point of Dream Scenario?<p><b>This surreal dramedy doesn't so much reach a resolution as just stop. Maybe it's because it still hasn't ended</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk1PPhf08MZQT4HUlFwe8To_mvZMFil8wZHCS5KrN693D8vqwek2x5IlySQhzq0DNaFK2ID1cSaVqcC8wi1HZSr4cX4-JTdgXJJNjcN_DTXEgIa0B9SHFl2b4pE7stPZhAMedAAM6D3rNFuAH3eQlNfQEoR0MCQN1Wj6-qahB9hWwMcKlbHohGS0M8Tw/s1920/Dream%20Scenario.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1296" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk1PPhf08MZQT4HUlFwe8To_mvZMFil8wZHCS5KrN693D8vqwek2x5IlySQhzq0DNaFK2ID1cSaVqcC8wi1HZSr4cX4-JTdgXJJNjcN_DTXEgIa0B9SHFl2b4pE7stPZhAMedAAM6D3rNFuAH3eQlNfQEoR0MCQN1Wj6-qahB9hWwMcKlbHohGS0M8Tw/w432-h640/Dream%20Scenario.jpg" width="432" /></a></div><p>With a creative twist on the Kafkaesque dread of <i>The Twilight Zone</i>, yet fortunately without the cheap moralizing of <i>Black Mirror</i>, Norwegian writer/director Kristoffer Borgli's 2023 film <i>Dream Scenario</i> presents the bizarre case of Paul Matthews, a random guy who for whatever reason starts showing up in people's dreams. Not quite prepared for the stresses of overnight fame, Paul staggers his way through some innocent blunders and some less innocent ones until his life is toppled over and swept away by the unforgiving tide of public opinion.</p><p>It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that <i>Dream Scenario</i> is trying to satirize. The dialogues include painfully unsubtle lines about cancel culture, but if we take that interpretation at face value, the movie becomes a misfired barb at an unrealistic target. The reason why Paul becomes a hated figure is that people stop seeing him as a passive background character in their dreams and start having horrible nightmares where he commits brutal violence against them. In essence, he's assigned undeserved blame for purely imagined misdeeds. And here's where the presumed allegory for cancel culture fails, because if that's what the movie claims is happening in real life, that people are just making up traumatic events in order to smear bosses or teachers or intimate partners who didn't do anything, then we have a vile instrument of victim invalidation before us. However, watching this movie provides ample evidence that we're dealing with a clear-sighted, self-aware story, born from a mind far too sophisticated to resort to such banal role-reversal tactics. Something more complex is at play here.</p><p>The casting of Nicolas Cage in the lead role is a first clue. More than for any other Hollywood star at this time, Cage's public persona occupies a peculiar place, one where embarrassment can't reach him. He's inherently memeable, because you know you can seamlessly drop him into any ridiculous scene, in the confidence that he'll perform his part with utmost seriousness. This is how the people in <i>Dream Scenario</i> first perceive his character's unobtrusive presence in otherwise outlandish dreams.</p><p>But for the middle-aged college professor Paul Matthews played by Cage, that's not enough. He's simply there. He's at the blurred edge of public awareness, even if it's <i>everyone</i>'s awareness. In a bitter blow of irony, he has achieved what every TikTok influencer desires: he's become the world's most recognized person through no merit of his own. But he wants more. He's even disappointed that the collective unconscious doesn't give him something exciting to do. So there's an undeniable element of ego in Paul's characterization, but I'd err on the side of seeing this as not really unhealthy. I've learned that I'm in the minority.</p><p>In online discussions about <i>Dream Scenario</i>, I find an almost uniform trend of unwarranted meanness. At <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/dream-scenario-review-nicolas-cage-1234904231">IndieWire</a>, critic David Ehrlich finds the character of Paul "pathetic and annoying." He strikes <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_40152_nicolas-cage-tries-and-fails-to-make-cancel-culture-funny.html">Cracked</a>'s Tim Grierson as "a massive putz." Writing for <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/dream-scenario-2023-movie-review">Digital Trends</a>, Alex Welch labels him "a constantly grinning vessel of pure cringe." "Nebbishy to the ninth power" and "a fiercely memorable loser," says Justin Cheng at the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-11-09/dream-scenario-review-nicolas-cage-a24">Los Angeles Times</a>. For Rory Doherty of <a href="https://www.flicks.co.uk/reviews/in-dream-scenario-nicolas-cage-serves-up-the-stunning-performance-of-our-yes-dreams">Flicks</a>, he's an "insecure narcissist" and a "needling braggart." And finally, Kyle Anderson of <a href="https://nerdist.com/article/dream-scenario-review-a24-movie-delivers-another-outstanding-nicolas-cage-peformance">Nerdist</a> describes him as "an a-hole who plays the victim."</p><p>And that reminds me of the public attitude that emerges in the second half of the movie, once Paul's presence in dreams shifts into that of a serial murderer. Paul becomes a public enemy because of atrocities that happen entirely inside people's heads and that he has no control over. His students vandalize his car, a stranger spits on his food, he's suspended from his job, his wife doesn't want him anywhere near her, and one wants to shout at all those people: What's wrong with you? Why are you making him responsible for what your own head invented? What did this man actually <i>do</i> to you?</p><p>I get the same feeling when I read press articles about <i>Dream Scenario</i> that go out of their way to point out how utterly unlikable Paul is to the reviewer. And now it's time for me to jump to conjectures. I think this is where Borgli set his trap: outside of the movie. The character of Paul is portrayed, both in the script and in Cage's acting choices, as socially inexpert, eager to be liked, with a number of badly concealed resentments under the surface. (I think there's much to be inferred from the fact that his children are unusually young for a man of his age, possibly suggesting he didn't find a wife until sometime in his 50s.) So we have someone who has a very comfortable life but can't enjoy it because he hasn't really connected with people. But critics have gone into full detail to state en masse how much they find Paul detestable and pitiful. And I'd like to say in response: This is a person who carries a burden of loneliness that still haunts him, and who is desperate to feel that he matters. Plus he doesn't even exist in real life. And you go on the internet to call him all sorts of ugly names. What did this man actually <i>do</i> to you?</p><p>To be clear, there are things to dislike about Paul. But they are to be seen in his actions, not in his person. I can understand if you find fault with his ill-advised choice to barge uninvited into a school auditorium full of people who hate him. I don't understand why you would mark his nervous speech habits as a deep personal failure.</p><p>But perhaps Borgli does understand it, and he deliberately created a character who doesn't hurt anyone but that he knew you would still despise. And the events of <i>Dream Scenario</i> seem to match my speculation: all the people who dream of Paul are effectively watching a Nicolas Cage movie. They only turn against him when they no longer like the character he's playing in their heads. This is not a story about woke mobs and cancel culture; this is a story about hate raids by trolls who agree on a defenseless enemy to pick on. Paul isn't mistreated because he's a bad person; he's mistreated because he meets totally arbitrary criteria for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBsaJPkt2Q">cringe</a>.</p><p>To speculate a bit further, I guess this is why <i>Dream Scenario</i> feels so off near the end. It doesn't have a true ending because it's still happening. The collective hatred for the character of Paul Matthews lives on in professional reviews and forum discussions, even though, just like in the movie, all you're hating is an image of a person, not a real one. I suspect Borgli knew viewers would react in that way, and he set out to steer our perception of this character in order to replicate in us the behavior the movie merely dramatizes. That's the trap Borgli built, and even some who think seriously about movies for a living fell into it.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 7/10.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-45127423426390393112024-03-13T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-13T03:30:00.030-07:00Review: Tanglewood by Knicky L. Abbott<p><b>A smoothly, deliciously prosey story that deftly captures the interior life of its characters, taking no prisoners with its confrontation of a bigotry that hurts its believer even as she harms those around her.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYq8Ye7lEHdugWgmKIuoZcVdP3Xc9uXiiHSLKfHyDzrlEoR97fiPpZmcaf0sDAUTeOOl05qg_FYXmjsiMWRSFhy2aznKIFgr1qiDtzUz6oCQV7XFMYh3SCNBbo9cgRIMsc6UPxiaXkMweKwBx38LJ9ZPfBuAH6lK3HY_ZJ_2M-zpxQ_pdTVK_nz0X6Ns/s500/200229888.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYq8Ye7lEHdugWgmKIuoZcVdP3Xc9uXiiHSLKfHyDzrlEoR97fiPpZmcaf0sDAUTeOOl05qg_FYXmjsiMWRSFhy2aznKIFgr1qiDtzUz6oCQV7XFMYh3SCNBbo9cgRIMsc6UPxiaXkMweKwBx38LJ9ZPfBuAH6lK3HY_ZJ_2M-zpxQ_pdTVK_nz0X6Ns/s320/200229888.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><br /><p>Barbados in the 1840s. A rich estate. A black man working as a groundskeeper. A cursed woman hiding in the nearby wilderness. The loathing she holds in her heart, for herself and for the world that put her in this situation. The lingering threads of the choices that left her cursed in the first place. This is <i>Tanglewood</i>'s story. At its heart, though, this is a story of white resentment against their black neighbours, and the horrible alchemy of oppression that makes success a zero-sum game, turning their own hardship into fuel for a bigotry that cannot be reasoned with.</p><p>The story follows Aoife, born to a white Irish indentured family, cursed, living alone in the wilderness, trapped in her own misery and her own thoughts, forever looping back and back on her suffering. We are deeply embedded within her POV, within her way of thinking, and this, Abbott has managed to capture beautifully. It is a novella with a crystalline sharpness in its lens of human despair - the interiority of the characters, and Aoife particularly, comes across so emotively on every page. But what Abbott does best is in her abstraction of that. She is so good at turning incredibly vivid and visceral introspection into metaphorical language, giving a potent and immediately graspable insight into the mind of a character. She makes the intangible, illegible insides of someone else's mind comprehensible, while maintaining their individuality, their voice. For example:</p><p><i>It was as if the forest of my humanity had been slashed and burnt, so that the fields of my penitence could be cultivated.</i></p><p>and</p><p><i>Like the earth around my childhood home, the soil of me was poor, not good for growing much else but coarse grass and hard lessons.</i></p><p>Aoife's despair, her misery, is so well crafted on the page, the sentence-level, word-by-word care is evident in every sentence. But that is not her only angle, and nor is she the only character. Because this is also a story of a growing infatuation, and again, this is where Abbott's prose shines - again bringing that deftness of craft across in really giving us the emotional sense, the heady rush of a growing emotional connection to someone, that feeling of falling head over heels, that obsession as Aoife experiences it.</p><p>Because we also follow John Jack, the groundskeeper at Tanglewood Manor, a black man, born a slave but now living free and working for pay, who finds himself travelling to the gully where Aoife lives, returning again and again, becoming entranced, despite the strangeness of her curse and herself, despite not knowing what and who led her to be here, as she is. We see this place and its beauty through his eyes too, and while what they see is nearly the same, it is the way they see it, the way their minds process and feel, and our insight into it that colours the story, and slowly draws us in to the crux of the matter, casting back into the years to Aoife's cursing... while also being heavily grounded in the now, and their growing feelings for each other.</p><p>Despite the page time for it being incredibly short, <i>Tanglewood </i>has some incredibly well-written... I don't know what to call it. It's not smut. Is it romance? Not really. It's certainly not erotica. Let's just say... intimacy. Whatever it is, in the same way as she has written the rest of the story, Abbott fully embeds us into the emotional perspectives of her characters as they grow closer, and finally come to the... ahem... climax of their affections. And by narrating it through the lens of that emotion, again with that evocative, abstracting prose, just a few lines of sexual encounter are rendered breathless and gut-wrenchingly real, and somehow far more charged than any amount of physical mechanics would have been in the same page space. And it's precisely because she puts us in those characters' headspace, lets us feel their wanting, and words it in such a way that it clicks into a familiar alignment if we are someone who has ever wanted in that way. It's absolutely deliciously done.</p><p>But, despite the good, there is also the bad. And it wouldn't be a gothic story without a great deal of the bad, even if we weren't dealing with curses. The latter half of the book, once we've met and become grounded in these two characters is where we really start to dig into the truth of what happened to Aoife, and where the themes that have been seeded throughout the early part begin to bloom. And it is here that we really see the benefit of that embedding into character headspace and that emotional resonance - because Abbott is really digging into the racism of the white working class, how their own oppression becomes a nearly unstoppable fuel in the fire of anti-blackness. We have seen the life that the white Irish in this place live, through Aoife's memories. We know their lot is hard. We sympathise with them. There is no part of the story that does not acknowledge that hardship. But while doing so, it bluntly lays out how they in turn hate and harm the black people around them as if it is the natural result of their predicament, and how insidious, how unshiftable and how self-justifying that perspective is.</p><p>By the time we reach the critical moments, where all the themes are confronted and the resolution plays out, the writing is very much on the wall. It is not an unsubtle story, but it is a blunt one. That's a hard needle to thread, but Abbott does it incredibly well, delivering an ending that, once read, feels like the only natural outcome to the story, a terrible, gothic inevitability, even if you maybe thought earlier things might lead elsewhere. What needs to be confronted is confronted, with nuance and thoughtfulness, but without sparing the sharpness it needs. The reader must sit with it, and see things for what they are, in this 1840s world of wealth, privilege and oppression, of narrow worldviews and bitter consequences for those in positions unable to fight back, and the nastiness of where the lens of blame turns, when it cannot confront its true architect. </p><p>This is a very slim novella - only 95 pages - but it packs a huge quantity in, without ever feeling like it skimps or rushes. It leads us emotions first through a complex tangle of love and betrayal and oppression and bigotry, and delivers the ending that story absolutely needed to hit home the conclusion the whole narrative has been building too. It is a sad, inevitable, truly gothic story, and it is incredibly well done.</p><p>--</p><p><b>The Math</b></p><p><i>Highlights:</i> beautiful prose, amazing immersion in character perspectives and emotions, precision wielding of both bluntness and subtlety</p><p><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 9/10</p><p><b>Reference:</b> Abbott, Knicky L., <i>Tanglewood</i>, [Luna, 2024]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroformtea.bsky.social</i></p>Roseannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00518438144401664661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-49091647594898747432024-03-12T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-12T00:00:00.132-07:00Review: Seeds of Inheritance by Aimee Kuzenski<b>Bringing power chords of science fantasy into a story of revolution, change, magic and technology in a spacefaring elven empire.</b><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJE4MRq0OiYeK5nCia8Rqy9injbz4GgbAL2XTJtgMNKtkVy9ION9Dm4wQw3-SJeuT1hShCSH2zgOnJKqoIGZBMCmACbISQ2k3KfOjCR4jxr2IBvLym4PrXPJIL6WLC1nRg9VlK1wXG83h1RlxGHpwNDM2WqKQWyYdcvhtFUwGDcAfwbxoNs6XYp9vOaPkc/s454/SEEDS_cover_image-e1705769551725.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJE4MRq0OiYeK5nCia8Rqy9injbz4GgbAL2XTJtgMNKtkVy9ION9Dm4wQw3-SJeuT1hShCSH2zgOnJKqoIGZBMCmACbISQ2k3KfOjCR4jxr2IBvLym4PrXPJIL6WLC1nRg9VlK1wXG83h1RlxGHpwNDM2WqKQWyYdcvhtFUwGDcAfwbxoNs6XYp9vOaPkc/s320/SEEDS_cover_image-e1705769551725.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><br /><div>Uneasy lies the crown. This is especially so for Leontios. He’s the ruler of an elven empire that not only stretches across the globe but into space and multiple star systems. But he doesn’t have a male heir, much to his patriarchal heart’s dismay. The rebels he exiled to the moon after their revolution are stirring and causing trouble. And Berenike, one of the leaders of that rebellion, supposedly bound by magical oaths as his servant, has plans of her own. Plans that involve her daughter, best friend, and secret lover of the emperor’s daughter.<br /><br />This is the background and story of <i>Seeds of Inheritance</i>, by Aimee Kuzenski.<br /><br />While this is a rich world of spacefaring elves, magic and lots of crunchy worldbuilding, let’s start with the vividly conceived relationship map that Kuzenski sets up here. In the end, everything in this novel ultimately comes down to how the characters we meet are related to each other and how the changes in plot all tie back to the decisions they make, usually fueled by strong personal conflicts. Berenike has been magically bound by oath after her failed revolution against Leontios, but she finds loopholes and more to maneuver her daughter to oppose the emperor. But her daughter herself, Evrim, is in love with the emperor’s heir, Hypatia, and really doesn’t want to deal with anything with revolutionary dreams, until the map shifts and she finds herself confronted with the remnants of a revolution that consider her a prophet. And the current head of the said revolution has history with Berenike, and also with Evrim as well. <br /><br />This character focused relationship map, showing long standing histories, relationships and conflicts helps give this the feel that these are truly elves in space, not pointy eared humans with magic. The title, <i>Seeds of Inheritance</i>, can be taken in so many ways, the seeds of what Leontios did in order to invoke the revolution that he quashed in the first place, and what that revolution still fights for. The inheritance of Berenike’s daughter, whether she will or not in terms of that revolution. Berenike herself, as an inheritor of her mentor’s power. Once upon a time, Berenike was the student of Theodora, head of the Order still and the right hand of the emperor. Now she is a servant, but she sees her former mentor in the Fingertip Order everyday and that tension between mentor and student is one that slowly builds through the novel.<br /><br />With this suite of characters as its center, Kuzenski builds a fascinating interstellar elven empire with all sorts of worldbuilding indeed. We get a space elevator in the form of The Lilypad, a gigantic Yggdrasil-like tree (sort of like the one in Niven’s <i>Rainbow Mars</i>). We get seed-shaped flyers and spacecraft. Magical bindings and rituals and how to make use of them, subvert them and deal with their consequences. The magic is very much inherent and not flashy, you are not going to find Evrim throwing fireballs here. Plenty of potions, poisons and the like, though, and lots of other biotech. In point of fact, biotech turns out to be the axis and the central question as to what and why and how the revolution happened and the consequences of that. It gives a verdant feel to the magic and technology of the novel. <br /><br />And I didn’t even mention the Palacetree, the greatest of these biotech and biomagical bits of worldbuilding. The Palacetree, where most of the action takes place, is a living being, and in a real sense is an arbiter of the fitness of a new ruler if, say, the old one should get assassinated (as what Leontios did to HIS predecessor). The Palacetree, as it so happens, is also key and important to interstellar space travel. <br /><br />But I do want to mention that politics again; Leontios assassinated his predecessor. Rebels and deadly decadent court and politics to match. Our other names throughout this narrative are all Greek, too. It’s clear to me that Kuzenski decided that her model for this elven empire is none other than the Byzantine Empire, and gives the elves names to match. She’s awfully clever, too. Evrim, for example, means “Evolution” in Turkish. Berenike “She who brings victory” in Greek. Hypatia was a famous scientist, and indeed, her namesake is a prodigy of magic and technology. And so on. Names convey meaning and worldbuilding and hints in the writer’s work.</div><div><br /></div><div>As you might have guessed before, the novel and the world it depicts is very queer friendly, if almost but not quite queernorm. The emperor's obsession with having a male heir to the throne instead of his daughter, or either of his daughters shows that even the elves of a space empire need to deal with the problems of patriarchy. But we definitely see characters attracted to all genders and it is accepted as basic fact. <br /><br />Thus, if the idea of an interstellar elven empire with politics to match Byzantine court politics is something that sounds like it is relevant to your interests, <i>Seeds of Inheritance</i> is very possibly your cup of tea. Kuzenski is a clever writer, and it behoves you as a reader to pay attention to how the characters work with each other to get the full effect of what is happening, and why, and what it all means. I nearly missed a subtle early clue about a major character and so when a revelation and resulting cascade occurred, I was a bit flatfooted until I recalled the clue (thank you, ebook notes) and then saw how it was very nicely foreshadowed. <br /><br />I did mention the relationship map before, and if I found something that is a bit weak in the novel, it is that a character, Ayşe, a potential future wife for Leontios, is introduced and integrated into the web not quite as fully and completely as I had come to appreciate with the other characters in the novel. Her relationships with the other characters, especially Berenike, don’t quite have enough room to breathe, I think, to become believable and don’t load-bear as much as the author tries to do in the finale of the novel. <br /><br />Overall, however, this is a strong one-and-done novel (although further novels in this universe would be welcome) that hits space fantasy right and center, and gives the reader a fascinating set of characters and a thorny and complex problem to navigate in the context of their own very thorny and complex relationships.</div><div><br /></div><div>--<br /><br />Highlights:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Space science fantasy, with elves!</li><li>Deadly decadent court with Byzantine notes</li><li>Strong character focused and driven story beats</li></ul><b><div><b><br /></b></div>Reference:</b> Kuzenski, Aimee, <i>Seeds of Inheritance</i> (self published, 2024)<br /><br /><i>POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.</i><br /></div>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-4474832998511291792024-03-11T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T00:00:00.133-07:00Somehow, Megamind returned<p><b>Be ready for endless iterations of the DreamWorks smirk</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dJexf865GL95OEf1g2GFW8YXNbF-Za7Mgr_lVa_J-vYsg2aj51Sd5j5xMmSNIo1O9wlGcFw5GS7zBz9mJxLOrCbyU0yrVTDFd0EE1eikmUIZKcaPZMKqHpCYRFbDv5N2pBuw_vC52F5pNl63EODsUosmzWy2zQOAnwsoTFEusqeq7MX1vVHHFDtyOF8/s3000/Megamind%20review.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dJexf865GL95OEf1g2GFW8YXNbF-Za7Mgr_lVa_J-vYsg2aj51Sd5j5xMmSNIo1O9wlGcFw5GS7zBz9mJxLOrCbyU0yrVTDFd0EE1eikmUIZKcaPZMKqHpCYRFbDv5N2pBuw_vC52F5pNl63EODsUosmzWy2zQOAnwsoTFEusqeq7MX1vVHHFDtyOF8/w480-h640/Megamind%20review.jpg" width="480" /></a></div></div><p>Fourteen years after gleefully parodying the <i>Superman</i> mythos, the <i>Megamind</i> franchise has released a sequel TV film, <i>Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate</i>, and a sequel TV series, <i>Megamind Rules!</i> In the film, the titular supervillain-turned-superhero has to deal with his former evil teammates who won't take kindly to his turn toward good; in the series, we follow a standard Villain of the Week format interspersed with the buildup toward the return of a threat from Megamind's past.</p><p>With the rare advantage of keeping the same team of writers from the original 2010 film, this continuation of the story preserves a consistent characterization of its protagonist, with a firm grasp on emotional tome. The first <i>Megamind</i> questioned Superman's inborn goodness by positing a scenario where the last survivor from a destroyed planet ended up being raised by criminals while his archenemy landed on a ridiculously rich mansion. The resolution of Megamind's arc hinged on the realization that established roles matter less than moment-to-moment choices, and therefore all he needed to do to become a good person was to start doing good things. This very existence-precedes-essence insight, far more than the superpowered battles, is the nugget of gold hidden inside those 95 minutes of unexceptional animation and way too many on-the-nose needle drops.</p><p>In the sequel film and series, Megamind undergoes further personal growth along the same path: the storylines explore the worth of fearless authenticity, the pointlessness of performing an identity instead of building an actual one, the irrevocable power of each individual to choose their purpose, the potential that can be achieved by not letting yourself be defined and constrained by past fears, the benefits of walking a mile in each other's shoes, the unhealthiness of having an emotional life tied to how other people manage theirs, the impossibility of being exactly the person you think others demand that you be, the dangers of feeling like you always have to prove yourself, and the benefits of knowing when to admit you need help. These are the usual life lessons that can be found in a show for kids, but the <i>Megamind</i> sequels manage to weave these key psychological themes organically within loads of silly slapstick, futuristic gadgets, and groanilicious puns.</p><p>The understandably lower budget of a TV series means that this double sequel release fortunately doesn't resort to as many musical callbacks as the original film. However, it also means it delivers noticeably diminished animation quality. For reference, this is a competently made, entirely unobjectionable image from 2010:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVarXKSEpUi78WgQz2Fybr-O0Zhs3gKq14Cg0UDriBzmn4lvdHvtMCpLL73wDhPjGINiYEzG3f58KVxdduMRb3liw2TkLAuwE2wyqBUcNAPNtQKeXWu1kRS7za85NPKM1apQ7uRbQ6q9930_lbhn9SLgHoy4xhb1up4C9W3cGzcT4jQYayuD1PsqiiLng/s1200/Megamind%20film%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="812" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVarXKSEpUi78WgQz2Fybr-O0Zhs3gKq14Cg0UDriBzmn4lvdHvtMCpLL73wDhPjGINiYEzG3f58KVxdduMRb3liw2TkLAuwE2wyqBUcNAPNtQKeXWu1kRS7za85NPKM1apQ7uRbQ6q9930_lbhn9SLgHoy4xhb1up4C9W3cGzcT4jQYayuD1PsqiiLng/w434-h640/Megamind%20film%201.jpg" width="434" /></a></div><p>And this is what we get in 2024:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuWE7Xpekr_epITUcRaWwtQcsEyN1mu8Q4_oJhQ_dNMiGPGkaL43zi1YzFzKq4COjpOGm8tkfLUe1-MDR9k3R9dB1a4tZ2xLiFTuo0eoLQp50dQ_zCc4IuXnZQUBPWcN67dtdOGW2Odw2QD96SScM_6mix5Lw0uoL2_wQomPqwSKjoOGVNG7j8u5RUv4/s1500/Megamind%20film%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="971" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuWE7Xpekr_epITUcRaWwtQcsEyN1mu8Q4_oJhQ_dNMiGPGkaL43zi1YzFzKq4COjpOGm8tkfLUe1-MDR9k3R9dB1a4tZ2xLiFTuo0eoLQp50dQ_zCc4IuXnZQUBPWcN67dtdOGW2Odw2QD96SScM_6mix5Lw0uoL2_wQomPqwSKjoOGVNG7j8u5RUv4/w414-h640/Megamind%20film%202.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><p>If you're going to take the risky bet of choosing an alien with an unmissably huge, bulbous head as your protagonist, the least you can do for the sake of your viewers' eyes is to draw him in a way that makes him pleasing to look at for a full movie plus eight TV episodes. One would expect 3D animation to have improved somewhat in all these years, but at least now we know a fun bit of trivia: Metro City is located along the placid slopes of Uncanny Valley.</p><p>Also, I thought <i>The Incredibles</i> had already settled the question of why child sidekicks are a bad idea.</p><p>Only the writing and plotting save these new productions from the lifeless look of their characters. The writing duo that first created <i>Megamind</i> have maintained a clear idea of who this hero is, how his atypical upbringing shaped his understanding of the world and of personal connection, and what kind of experiences can help him continue maturing. Given that the first season of the new series ends in a cliffhanger, Megamind is going to need to rely on all those anchoring points if he wants to fix the latest crisis life has thrown at him.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 6/10.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-40909006346673282842024-03-08T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T00:00:00.135-08:00Review: These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs<p><b>A twisty, complicated and rich space opera following the consequences and results of obsession. </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFYxVsCo9Zzoj01NJsIVMkbIyWjzivwkfrEjKYJk3bgR0B_b4Cc8Ye1Y0ttaHkPaUpqEll1Xijl1uOVtvItTFvTLKLvb_BqjaySxJgF-1hfZBt59VtDDarFfS093ZkW1WyiRpVgMN-vKlR9AkM8ux8qc3CO_-OKapRi9IgThfXQPCY5BFnhQX8JX9po6N/s466/81UuDs1XAkL._SY466_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="302" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFYxVsCo9Zzoj01NJsIVMkbIyWjzivwkfrEjKYJk3bgR0B_b4Cc8Ye1Y0ttaHkPaUpqEll1Xijl1uOVtvItTFvTLKLvb_BqjaySxJgF-1hfZBt59VtDDarFfS093ZkW1WyiRpVgMN-vKlR9AkM8ux8qc3CO_-OKapRi9IgThfXQPCY5BFnhQX8JX9po6N/s320/81UuDs1XAkL._SY466_.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><p>Obsession is a strong word. It's a word that can completely define and overwrite a personality. And it defines the primary pair of characters in Bethany Jacobs' <i>These Burning Stars</i>. Esek is a investigator, a cleric in the Treble (three star system) polity of the Kindom, this more than slightly theological polity spread across three distant solar systems. Esek is obsessed with finding a person she only knows as Six, a threat to her, her family and the whole stability of the empire. Six is obsessed, too, it seems, with "impressing Esek". For, you see, Six can be said to be Esek's own creation, in a school incident that starts off the novel. But now, having created the monster, Esek's obsession and Six's obsession will define their futures, and possibly the futures of all.</p><p><i>These Burning Stars</i> relies heavily on jumping back and forth in time of the narrative, making strong use of limited information by the reader in a particular time, and then showing an earlier time that contextualizes earlier chapters that are ahead of it in the time stream. So, aside from that first chapter, where Esek, already a ferocious and dangerous figure in the Empire, creates Six in almost Batman-Joker like fashion, the rest of the novel bounces us back and forth, showing the fruits of Esek's creation, and the obsession both have for each other, and the poisonous fruits of those obsessions. </p><p>The world (three solar system) of the Kindom is a fascinating set of worlds, power players and culture. It is a polity that has a strong theological bent and control. It is not quite a theocracy, it is more akin to a strong aristocratic empire, with a number of families in competition and contesting with each other, of various ranks. The First Families (such as the Nightfoots, from which Esek is a member and also possible heir) run everything and while together they form the Kindom and cooperate against interests that they see as destabilizing it, otherwise they are strong rivals. But scions of these families are often given to be clerics, and that is the situation which Esek Nightfoot had long since fallen into.</p><p>Add in the fact that, as the plot unfolds, that we find that the Nightfoots controlled a planet with a natural substance that helped provide interstellar travel, and then later, when that was depleted, developed a synthetic version, oppressing the workers who spent decades mining the original material, and you can see that Jacobs is quite clearly inspired by the world of Frank Herbert's <i>Dune</i>. There is no strong Emperor manipulating matters, instead it's all Landsraad politicking and infighting, and of course competitions and struggles within families themselves. Esek is ambitious, and her obsession with Six and stopping her is grounded firmly within her own plans within the Nightfoot family (as opposed to the Church hierarchy, which she is far less interested in social climbing within). </p><p>The other books that this book made me strongly feel resonance with is Jo Graham's space opera series. Those novels, like this, are in a limited number of solar systems that had been colonized by generation ships long ago, and so competition and control rage over these several star systems. Those books, too, show a strong interest and show the importance of religion and religious identities among the populations of the planets, and the characters themselves. </p><p>Books like Graham's, and <i>These Burning Stars</i>, here, feel like they are definitely an evolution of thought on how societies out among the stars would handle religion, faith and belief. I read a fair amount of old school science fiction, and for a while believed myself, that humanity would "shed" religion once we were established among the stars. The only religious beliefs in, say, the <i>Foundation</i> universe are manipulative and manipulating cynical exercises in power, by the Foundation and others. There's no church in the panoply of worlds in Heinlein's future history. Pournelle's future history has the Catholic Church resurgent, though, a counter-example. But even that doesn't take into the account the idea that once we as a species get out among the stars, we are likely to find new and different paths to the numinous. Those paths and how that faith and spirituality might be manifest, is something that I get a lot of authors don't want to tackle, but they are part of the human experience. Faith is a core part of what makes humans humans. </p><p>Back to this book and its characters, and speaking of faith, while I've talked about Esek and carefully for spoiler reasons not mentioned much about Six, the real heart of this book is the character Chono. Chono is, for much of the book, Six's right hand in the search for Six, although she split off on duties of their own. Chono also reminds me that one sociological fillip in these novels is that until people choose their name, they are not given a chance to choose or associate a gender; Six's gender remains mysterious because Six is their school designation. Also, it seems that women have equal or possibly greater than equal power to men in the society of the Treble. There is a TV trope called "Red Oni, Blue Oni", where a passionate, violent, impetuous and reckless person is partnered with a cool, calm, collected and rational person. Usually, you see this dynamic with a cool and collected leader who has a hothead for a subordinate, the one you really don't ever want to piss off, because she will gut you like a fish. In <i>These Burning Stars</i>, Jacobs flips this dynamic. Esek is the reckless and violent and impetuous one (she did create Six thereby by her reckless action) but she is grounded and given ballast by the imperturbable and solid and dependable Chono. </p><p>In real ways, Chono is our everywoman character, the character we can relate to (or at least I did in spades), especially because she does not have that overriding obsession that Esek develops, is observant, determined, and doggedly loyal. Chono is also, much to Esek's disbelief and surprise, very sincerely devout and a believer. Esek joined the church for very similar reasons spare sons in pre-modern times might join the Catholic church as clergy, not for any particular strong belief, but because it was a ladder of power they could access. Esek is the same way, and worse, Esek seems to have blinders on that other people can think and act differently in that regard. That obsession and focus on Esek makes her a little unrelatable at times, which again, "drives us" to go and seek Chono as our refuge in finding out way through this world. </p><p>I should point out at this stage that for all of the plotting and the obsessive characters, the novel delivers its action beats and intense writing is quite engaging. It could well be considered brutal in multiple places when it comes to that action, this is a world of violence that Jacobs does not shy away from describing. The opening scene with Six's fight as a student against other students in a competition does set the tone for the novel in this regard. And in a real way, whenever the complicated plotting and intricacy seems about ready to be too much, we get the flashes and doses of violence and action. Jacobs does a good job in balancing sharp action and deep plot.</p><p>A lot of that deep plot revolves around reveals that make more sense as we unpack the fractured and jumping back and forward of the timeline, so discussing it is difficult without giving away spoilers. This is definitely a novel for the reader to discover and unpack what is really going on, why it is going on, and what the whole Esek-Six conflict means and what is driving it in the end. There is obsession, ambition, and desire on the personal front, and these are paired with political manipulations, conflicts, tactics and the fate of the Kindom itself. This is a puzzle of a plot to work out and I had to stop and consider all I had learned once all the pieces fell into place. </p><p>I don't think that the book would have worked nearly as well if the book was told in a straight and dogged manner from earliest event (the first meeting of Six and Esek) all the way down to their final meeting, aboard the still functioning generation ship which was one of the ships that helped found this society in the first place. A straightforward narrative would have simplified a lot of the emotional beats and underpinnings by giving some things away, and at least two major plot twists would have been muffled by having things in straight up order. I find myself conflicted on whether the book would actually stand on its own without these twists, and I do so because the book is a first in a trilogy. With the revelations and the untangled narrative by the end of the novel, will it all hold up in a second volume.</p><p>I am not sure it will, given how powerful the use of timeline is in this novel. On the other hand, one strong point in this book's favor for you as a reader is that there is an offramp right here. The book ends on a note that allows you to exit the Kindom-verse...if you want. If you don't want to risk the second volume, you can read this twisting, baroque, complicated and rich space opera as a single work and go on your way. And I do recommend that you do. Jacobs may have set up strong expectations and ambitions in this novel for the rest of the series, but the first book is right here for you to dive into. </p><p>--</p><p><i>Highlights:</i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Twisting, complicated, rich plotting</li><li>Baroque, intensely detailed setting </li><li>#teamchono</li></ul><p></p><p><b>Reference:</b> Jacobs, Bethany, <i>These Burning Stars</i> [Orbit, 2023]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.</i></p>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-53563137924551102142024-03-07T12:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T12:10:01.788-08:00Review: Spaceman<p><b>Adam Sandler takes a turn as a serious and sad astronaut in this film that feels like the offspring of <i>Project Hail Mary</i> and <i>Solaris</i>.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99gJPykb8M3Q6Ta-ALkZi9uSZ6QzqksU6piBwhD2sMFmHaEu8hfkaoiyGdPJVM3CRwU3qWORCIeU7eLKEyLvK0uB1dtmhSzjf5qnqmsXiRHQWEXhevFzBe8lmH2d9QtVIJBmEpJrQODaNZA2f8K2lrnn_GO_ICqmsJCKxxc3wZzVJAVymSudf5KruOSxu/s2880/spp.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2880" data-original-width="2160" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99gJPykb8M3Q6Ta-ALkZi9uSZ6QzqksU6piBwhD2sMFmHaEu8hfkaoiyGdPJVM3CRwU3qWORCIeU7eLKEyLvK0uB1dtmhSzjf5qnqmsXiRHQWEXhevFzBe8lmH2d9QtVIJBmEpJrQODaNZA2f8K2lrnn_GO_ICqmsJCKxxc3wZzVJAVymSudf5KruOSxu/w480-h640/spp.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Despite that hooky opener you just read, <i>Spaceman</i>, the latest Netflix sci-fi venture, is based not on Andy Weir's <i>Project Hail Mary</i> (which also features a lonely astronaut befriending a kind space arachnid) but on Czech author <span style="white-space: normal;">Jaroslav Kalfař's 2017 <i>Spaceman of Bohemia</i>.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: normal;">The film follows Jakub, an astronaut on a solitary mission to study a remote space cloud. It's unclear when the movie takes place, though based on the technology, it seems like an alternate future where despite deep space missions, all-white sterile nanotechnology and shiny flat screens never emerge. </span><span>The spaceship is full of chunky manual buttons, rotating switches, and heavy machinery, all in the nondescript, waiting-room beige, mint green, and burnt ochre colors of the 1970s.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>This design decision makes sense when you learn that the director, </span>Johan Renck, was also responsible for the muted greens and blues of Soviet-era Russia in HBO's <i>Chernobyl</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Za6YWvSl0C3Q_WlkvgIYtyFKST2MaXev4v5xVc0nw72eC8_xTSLhT71S7FOoDfshdpW4QR5eYVV0LzBYL4Bn_JJXF0dOnlv0Fze_uZ7CgEpXRy9w66sQyMp2W7laF3nxqnMsiYARte-Keoty5BTpXXkdgbgfpMOgZd9g0_1Q6f7O8h_n4HRVQQWX-g-/s1500/adam.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Za6YWvSl0C3Q_WlkvgIYtyFKST2MaXev4v5xVc0nw72eC8_xTSLhT71S7FOoDfshdpW4QR5eYVV0LzBYL4Bn_JJXF0dOnlv0Fze_uZ7CgEpXRy9w66sQyMp2W7laF3nxqnMsiYARte-Keoty5BTpXXkdgbgfpMOgZd9g0_1Q6f7O8h_n4HRVQQWX-g-/w640-h426/adam.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jakub, alone and lonely in the vastness of space, senses something is wrong with his relationship with his wife. Indeed, she records a Dear John letter down on Earth hoping to end things, but the space agency doesn't let it go through. Instead, he hears absolutely nothing from her for days on end, and like any of us who get ghosted, starts to slowly unravel mentally. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Following in the hallowed footsteps of other <b>Men Who Are Sad About Things In Space</b>, Jakub wallows. And wallows. (See also: <i>Interstellar</i>, <i>Ad Astra</i>, <i>Solaris</i>).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And then, enter Hanuš — a sentient spider being who happened to be passing by. Drawn, he states, by Jakub's loneliness. Hanuš's presence is incredibly soothing, voiced with effortless aplomb by Paul Dano. His epithet for Jakub is "skinny human," and it's like a mantra. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hanuš is interested in his human friend's emotional turmoil, and the middle chunk of the film is essentially a psychoanalysis session. The spider can replay memories like a movie, probing deeper regardless of Jakub's protestations and unwillingness to revisit scenes from his life with Lenka, played by Carey Mulligan (She's made <a href="https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/with-mudbound-carey-mulligan-makes-playing-the-achingly-unhappy-wife-her-niche-.php">a career</a> out of nailing the unhappy wife character longing for a different life).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The question one faces while watching is: Is this real? Or is Hanuš a vehicle for Jakub to work out his emotions? I'd like to think that it's real. But that's what makes it fun, seeing him veer off into near insanity with his space spider therapist.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Speaking of <i>Solaris</i>, you can't watch <i>Spaceman </i>without acknowledging its influence. It's like trying to listen to The Strokes or Interpol without hearing the Velvet Underground underneath everything. From the achingly sparse world and glacial pace to the Soviet-inspired production, <i>Spaceman </i>cribs a lot from <i>Solaris</i>, Andrei Tarkovsky's epic about space, memories, and whether you can really know someone. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXkp37apRh886at2rqDtkxFizf5H5sli_GhWBdM8IIQsZDqv0-Z-43ybyd0Jtro3AuuiGzK6YovkZpoyFKaa68x6JWnAU2bP_txSogJKlXX-PN3_FMHWl-AnHLBfHw-Udzeentd2blern6qChppcsJii5Q2-SXlqBC0gB_xXRm3MpfPgCymZoh-ea9Acd/s1000/solar.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="1000" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXkp37apRh886at2rqDtkxFizf5H5sli_GhWBdM8IIQsZDqv0-Z-43ybyd0Jtro3AuuiGzK6YovkZpoyFKaa68x6JWnAU2bP_txSogJKlXX-PN3_FMHWl-AnHLBfHw-Udzeentd2blern6qChppcsJii5Q2-SXlqBC0gB_xXRm3MpfPgCymZoh-ea9Acd/w640-h342/solar.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the end of the day, Spaceman didn't do much that hasn't been done before, but I found the performances moving — including Adam Sandler's! However, I will admit that every 15 minutes or so, he'd float by in zero-G in basketball shorts and I'd think "<i>Oh weird, it's Adam Sandler being serious in space"</i>. My favorite Letterboxed reviews just consisted of one word: <i><b>Intersandlar. </b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I like a slow and thoughtful space movie, though. <i>Gattaca</i> is one of my all-time favorites.<i> Spaceman</i> is worth a watch if you want to be space emo for a little bit. It does the soul good. </div><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" id="docs-internal-guid-ac75c1c4-7fff-3ba7-dbac-e1faa5d3c5d4" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px;">--</span></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Math</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Baseline Score: 7/10</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Bonuses: </b>The retrofuturistic Soviet-era production design is gorgeous; Isabella Rossellini as a military space commander is perfection and a wonderful surprise.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Penalties: </b>Some folks will not be able to handle an Adam Sandler non-comedic portrayal. Also, the ending is sentimental and rushed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">POSTED BY:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo Award-winning podcast </span><a href="https://www.hugogirlpodcast.com/" style="color: #e21919; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Hugo, Girl!</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, growing c</span></i></p></div>haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08781407069107865780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-2867123958203502172024-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T00:00:00.341-08:00Welcome to the Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy<p><b>We really hope your insurance covers transdimensional discorporation</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjxRPLYsrKrTgpXJj-EBk0s9QO_1Acm8S8FeQf25SlHdNRT6TkiNQXml2Q7HeeNnEybwmilVj8OEwL5r0DxRhE47FWqt_eKXbypIx1erajNANKtYZ5BZpUMlr1maROEaZY1SNQ5vVjaBzYaprs6mBgActflIIuOvniv2nQ9gj-jIUD6J4bXss1Xb6QNw/s2880/2nd%20Best%20Hospital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2880" data-original-width="1944" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjxRPLYsrKrTgpXJj-EBk0s9QO_1Acm8S8FeQf25SlHdNRT6TkiNQXml2Q7HeeNnEybwmilVj8OEwL5r0DxRhE47FWqt_eKXbypIx1erajNANKtYZ5BZpUMlr1maROEaZY1SNQ5vVjaBzYaprs6mBgActflIIuOvniv2nQ9gj-jIUD6J4bXss1Xb6QNw/w432-h640/2nd%20Best%20Hospital.jpg" width="432" /></a></div><p>It's the far, far future, and doctors are still beset by the familiar woes: difficult patients, dangerous new diseases, petty status games, questionable sponsorship deals, inflexible protocols, atrocious work/life balance, oppressively demanding parents, legal gray areas, career uncertainty, iatrogenic infections, unexpected opportunities for turbulent self-discovery, the growing weight of responsibility to society, scary but admittedly hilarious side effects, workaholism weaponized against oneself, and way more bodily fluids than anyone needs to see or smell or touch. Space whale got your tongue? Doctors Klak and Sleech are at your service. Anesthesia is not guaranteed.</p><p>Workplace comedy is tricky to get right. Over-the-top exaggeration is one of the staples of humor, but there's a very precise mix of vibe, mood and flavor in communicating what it's like to do a certain job. The point of this type of comedy is not to achieve an accurate account of daily tasks (how many delivery companies get dragged into universe-breaking crises the way Planet Express does?) but rather to get at the core of people's relationship to their career. No doctor has ever had to cure accidental time travel or black-hole-inflicted injuries, but the animated series <i>The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy</i> manages to feel true to the pressures and anxieties that all doctors face.</p><p>Emotional honesty is the anchor that allows the rest of the story's elements to go wild in all directions. Behind the exploding fungi and extinct germs and exoskeletal injections and extrasensory drama lies a solid understanding of who these characters are and what they desire and fear.</p><p>Our protagonist duo is composed of doctors Klak and Sleech, famous for their unconventional, sometimes legally dubious approach to treatment. Klak grew up as the unwilling test subject for her mother's psychiatric research, which left her with serious confidence issues and an unhealthy perfectionism. Sleech has an aversion to intimate attachments, to the point that she never speaks of her family, can't relate to people who get along with theirs, refuses to trust anyone else's competence, and sabotages any personal connection that threatens to get too close. These are not science fiction scenarios. These are realistic characters who have to deal with relatable problems; they're just thrown into a setting that has aliens and spaceships. The zany antics of galactic medicine are just scaffolding around the emotional pillars that support each episode.</p><p>If you prefer to come for the zany antics, they're thrown at you aplenty. There are immortal brain parasites and mind-reading birds and teleporter fusion and face-swapping STDs and death-reversing implants and hairy heart disease and mutagenic candy bars and gastric detonation therapy. The writers aimed incredibly high with the creativity that a show like this requires. Every permutation of alien body types and body parts you can imagine is represented here.</p><p>Also, splatter. Lots and lots of slimy entrails hurled at every surface. Who knew aliens had so many squishy parts inside?</p><p>But again, the best moments are those that involve interpersonal dynamics. Our two protagonists have gone through so much together that their bond resonates as a solid, thriving one, even when their mismatched personalities cause inadvertent hurt and they need to have vulnerable conversations. In spite of all the times they drive each other up the wall, they still rely on each other for strength when dealing with a toxic ex, a stressful coworker, a personal insecurity, or a forbidden experiment that might endanger every brain in every known planet.</p><p><i>The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy</i> is a great example of what you get with an all-female writing room. You get smart humor, you get psychological insight, you get a mature treatment of the tough experiences that happen at a hospital, and you get carefully constructed characters who feel like people you want to hug.</p><p>And you get splatter. I can't stress this enough. Brains and guts and feathers and who knows what else go flying all the time. And it never fails to be irresistibly funny.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 8/10.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-74110832389541262142024-03-06T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T00:00:00.142-08:00Review: Jujutsu Kaisen - Season Two <b>A nihilistic departure from the edgy optimism of the first season.</b><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fjEzs1yEoXXxnM5_Vzb8J9SwLrSpP35tykGw9JsiX7JScO6nBwn5piAxIp4oe2cmmZcowCW6x9v_RxJdzVnjU9ai4i2IpEAlS24KM-Xo9rl7Htdf28lwYult-rwkma1AhFfczwzGdUgZBo90Gt8xpg_dZiqtEg4MuG5wsu9EiFU63ZuxwOGfjjXjDveQ/s300/Jujutsu%20Kaisen%20Gojo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fjEzs1yEoXXxnM5_Vzb8J9SwLrSpP35tykGw9JsiX7JScO6nBwn5piAxIp4oe2cmmZcowCW6x9v_RxJdzVnjU9ai4i2IpEAlS24KM-Xo9rl7Htdf28lwYult-rwkma1AhFfczwzGdUgZBo90Gt8xpg_dZiqtEg4MuG5wsu9EiFU63ZuxwOGfjjXjDveQ/s1600/Jujutsu%20Kaisen%20Gojo.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p></p>When <i>Jujutsu Kaisen</i> arrived in the anime world, it became an instant hit. Fans were drawn to show’s edgy, elevated execution of the traditional shonen elements. Shonen anime often contain a central protagonist who is optimistic and heroic (<i>Naruto Shippuden</i>) or cynical and heroic (<i>Bleach</i>), and who has an interesting ensemble cast of scene-stealing characters, along with layers of complicated villains, intense battles, devasting family secrets, and extensive and powerful character arcs. <i>Jujutsu Kaisen</i> Season One gave viewers many of the things they loved about <i>Naruto</i>, but delivered it in a sleeker, edgier story with incredible art design and fantastic music. But Season Two of <i>Jujutsu Kaisen</i> makes a significant shift in both tone and storytelling style. <br /><br />Season One Recap – Pink-haired Yuji Itadori is a strong, athletic high schooler being raised by his dying grandfather. After school, he attends his friends’ “occult club” meeting where they accidentally unleash a violent monster who begins to kill his classmates. To save them he consumes a dangerous artifact, the mummified finger of Sakuna, an evil supernatural being. As a result, Yuji is possessed by the villain Sakuna but can also harness his power. To everyone’s surprise, Yuji is strong enough to bring the violent Sakuna’s psyche under control. He is able to save his classmates and work alongside his new ally, Megumi (a sorcerer / monster-slayer) to defeat the attacking cursed creature. “Curses” are murderous monsters created by the negative emotions of humans. It’s a fascinating commentary on human thoughts. <br /><br />Unfortunately, like Naruto in <i>Naruto</i> and <i>Naruto Shippuden</i>, Yuji now has a violent demon sharing space in his mind and his body. This means he is going to be executed…eventually. In the meantime, Yuji is sent to Jujutsu High School to learn how to be a sorcerer (curse-slayer) and save the world along with his new first-year classmates: fierce, outspoken Nobara and moody, deadly Megumi, all under the guidance of Satoru Gojo, their blue-eyed, blindfolded, irreverent teacher and mentor. In the course of Season One, Yuji builds bonds with his teammates and mentors, connects with his other classmates, and encounters life-changing conflicts while he struggles to maintain control of the monster inside him. Despite the grim premise, Season One maintained an unexpected sense of humor—simultaneously edgy, likeable, violent, and clever, with great character development. <br /><br />Season Two is such a significant shift in the tone and storytelling style that it almost seems like we are watching a different show. The season begins with a multi-episode prequel arc about Yuji’s all-powerful young teacher, Satoru Gojo, and his deteriorating best-friendship with soon-to-be villain, Suguru Geto. However, the friendship between the two men is mostly just told to us and Geto’s sudden pivot from “save all humans” to “kill all humans” is so abrupt that it requires more of a willing suspension of disbelief than the fantastical magic systems that define the show. <br /><br />The best part of the extended prequel episodes is the story of Megumi as a young child, Megumi’s violent, cynical father Toji, and how the father and son intersect with Gojo in a life-changing way. After an extended set up of Geto as a remorseless, smirking villain we get a time-skip to the present where we finally reconnect with the Season One trio of Yuji and his friends Megumi and Nobara. However, we only get a brief moment with them including a confusing introduction of an old classmate of Yuji who then disappears entirely from the story. In a few scenes, we move into the bulk of Season Two, a nihilistic, violent series of multi-episode long fight scenes, minimally explained villainy, and such extreme violence that I felt like I was watching <i>Attack on Titan</i>. Season One and Season Two both have lots of violence, but Season Two lacks the character-driven plotting and humor that Season One so effectively wove into the main horror elements. <br /><br />In Season 2, Gojo’s frenemy, Geto’s, body is now possessed by another villain but everyone refers to him as Geto for convenience. On Halloween night, Pseudo-Geto and his minions trap thousands of festively costumed humans at the Shibuya Train Station in order to lure and trap Gojo. Gojo is believed to be the only one powerful enough to stop them so they use the trapped humans as bait and hostages to capture him so they can destroy the world without Gojo interfering. The plan results in a lot of carnage which is made more surreal by the brightly colored and often humorous costumes the unsuspecting party-goers are wearing. This attention to visual detail is one of the many ways in which the art design of Season Two is outstanding and riveting. From the sweeping views of the nighttime cityscapes to a carefully animated shot of the wide, lengthy almost golden staircase of the Shibuya train station, Season Two is a feast of thoughtful and immersive animation. <br /><br />The main problem of Season Two is the plotting. Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara are no longer fighting as teammates but are separated from each other. Additionally, there are so many minor characters thrown into the narrative that viewers might repeatedly find themselves googling unfamiliar names. With so many key characters available, it’s confusing that minor players got so much screen time. Nobara, who is such a well-written, strong female character, is largely removed from the main story except for a few ill-fated fight scenes. <br /><br />But, despite the gory, nihilistic tone of the second season, there are several elements and scenes that maintain the show’s intense appeal and explain its return as the 2024 winner of <a href="https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2024/3/2/anime-awards-2024-winners-anime-of-the-year#AOTY24">Anime of the Year</a>. <br /><br />In one story arc, the young sorcerer, Ui Ui, has an intense worship-like love for his super strong, monster-fighting older sister, Mei Mei. Mei Mei’s tone is always seductively calm regardless of the creatures coming at her or the creepy adoration of her little brother. In the midst of a fight, Mei Mei, needing a human sacrifice to succeed against her opponent, turns to her young brother and serenely asks, “Ui Ui, will you die for me?” <br /><br />In another fight scene, a curse technique resurrects Toji, Megumi’s long dead father, and the two enter into a protracted battle unaware of the other’s identity. In another excellent scene, an injured, bloodied Nanami (Yuji’s business-like mentor) simultaneously walks through the haunting, dark subway station while also walking an uncomfortably bright beach, uninjured, wearing his business suit which is too warm for him. Both moments are overlaid on each other. After so many intense visuals, fight scenes, and overt horror, the simplicity of the overlaid moment is tragic and beautiful. <br /><br />After protagonist Yuji sustains a near-fatal injury, the murderous monster Sakuna escapes Yuji’s control and lays waste to the Shibuya station using Yuji’s body as executioner. The close murders are shocking and terrifying and the final cataclysmic devastation is extremely powerful. At the same time, Megumi decides to sacrifice his life to create an avatar powerful enough to defeat the rampaging Sakuna. We see the epic clash between Megumi’s monster and the unleashed Sakuna. The lengthy battle is filled with astonishing visuals of the fighting and of the resulting destruction. Megumi’s strength, even though he’s unconscious, fuels Sakuna’s long-running obsession with him. <br /><br />At the end of the battle with Sakuna, the art design of the devastation is terrifying in its controlled boundaries. Sakuna’s decision to inflict death and destruction go to an exact point, leaving a clear line of delineation between the survivors and the decimated. It’s a creepy way to show that everyone’s fate (of survival or death) is entirely in Sakuna’s hands. When Sakuna releases back to Yuji, the resulting emotional response is heartrending for Yuji as the panned out destruction blows him away. The music in this scene is fantastic. The haunting, driving beats of the show’s opening song circle back to the viewers as a devastated Yuji pleads for his own death. <br /><br />Later, after Yuji regains control of his body, he has a final showdown between the long-time villain Mahito. During a climactic scene, the subway station transforms into a surreal winter-scape of desolate winter trees, deep white snow, and hunting wolves. <br /><br />Overall, <i>Jujutsu Kaisen</i>’s powerful use of visual storytelling through its incredible art design make Season Two terrifyingly appealing, but the nihilistic change in both tone and plot may leave some viewers emotionally exhausted.<br /><br />--<div><br /></div><div><b>The Math</b><br /><i><br />Highlights:</i><br /><p style="text-align: left;">· A nihilistic departure from Season One<br />· Incredible art design<br />· Limited character development in favor of action</p></div><div><i>Nerd Coefficient: </i>7 </div><div><br /><i>POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation. </i><br /><br /> </div>Ann Michelle Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10045804973941251880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-38971054179271510772024-03-05T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T00:00:00.144-08:00Microreview [Video Game]: God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla by Santa Monica Studios<b>Out with the new, in with the old.</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj729niJAW3A44kg7miq-6EIxICghNomxNxBA6IG-cpct2Wwy1lBqNuHhoJLrC1g4sPW7EivDegFFzVYc4Zt9hRG0FZtsQJ2-HH3qPj_GMWcUTVjKatcN-dCrmt4k1raaXsPj2rFvvgrgVPP5xq8RyJDokYNibteHEkQgK4Ce33GeAI-HdEuwGpyHFd31k/s3840/GoWRV_1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj729niJAW3A44kg7miq-6EIxICghNomxNxBA6IG-cpct2Wwy1lBqNuHhoJLrC1g4sPW7EivDegFFzVYc4Zt9hRG0FZtsQJ2-HH3qPj_GMWcUTVjKatcN-dCrmt4k1raaXsPj2rFvvgrgVPP5xq8RyJDokYNibteHEkQgK4Ce33GeAI-HdEuwGpyHFd31k/w640-h360/GoWRV_1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Upon receiving a mysterious invite, Kratos and Mimir row their way to the shores of Valhalla. Old characters resurface. Friends who were once foes discuss the possible meaning of the invite and the dangers that await Kratos and Mimir inside of Valhalla. Meanwhile, I’m wondering how Santa Monica Studios got away with releasing this content five days after its announcement and at no cost to the player. That’s right, the story and combat-focused add-on to one of the best games of 2022 and one of the best action games in current memory has free additional content. It’s time to reinstall the game and add this DLC to your download list.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6XSI3R5zcvAgdmI_QDRq-Ek0b9s4VLUQfsOeB60hNWMaNyJm-vBRG1FeTYd2jDtk8ycH2jg58_VHus_dK1HODP8f3FvzfywjKKrl7aHVhrIVGzxnIyEboOLOHdJRz5qNc3DM6-tZnFWNT1OyvrvNmTdKjqIPuZv4yW9W9r6OCs7Zl-F9uwlS1vkFTvw/s3840/GoWRV_2.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6XSI3R5zcvAgdmI_QDRq-Ek0b9s4VLUQfsOeB60hNWMaNyJm-vBRG1FeTYd2jDtk8ycH2jg58_VHus_dK1HODP8f3FvzfywjKKrl7aHVhrIVGzxnIyEboOLOHdJRz5qNc3DM6-tZnFWNT1OyvrvNmTdKjqIPuZv4yW9W9r6OCs7Zl-F9uwlS1vkFTvw/s320/GoWRV_2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>My initial doubts upon hearing that Sony's Santa Monica Studio was releasing a free rogue-lite DLC for <i>God of War Ragnarök</i> were two-fold. One, it’s combat-focused and I wish they would just move on to the story of their next game, and two, it’s free and probably a cheap add-on. Well, I’m glad to say that I was fully proved wrong on the second worry, and completely reassured on the first. <i>Valhalla</i> is a worthy add-on to <i>God of War Ragnarök</i> in every way, from combat to story-telling, this is one of the few pieces of DLC that I’m glad a developer made (I have a thing about single-player DLC: I generally dislike that it exists).<br /><br />The DLC is both combat and story-focused, ensuring that players returning for either aspect are satisfied (though this is significantly more combat-focused than story). This isn’t some little thank you to the fans for supporting the game, this is a full closure of Kratos’ character arc from the two reboot games, and for other characters as well. Some valkyries make appearances and add to the narrative, along with Mimir and Freya. Kratos’ reflection of self and his past actions are not only observed and resolved here, but they are also a wonderful throwback to the past. While events from Kratos’ past are brought up occasionally and glossed over in the main games (due to Kratos’ reluctance to speak deeply about it), those events are now put on full display and dissected for the character’s growth. Mimir also experiences growth in Valhalla, as do some others that I’ll leave the player to discover and experience. The only thing missing is our favorite boy (I hope he’s doing okay out there).<br /><br /><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PS8mqtLjR30nZvKFtJGPxup_-QIxFTrfs2O4kXLPZaUFpSAvbwKRkts9kdeTj80XrIlMFDr8cTgpOeohnzqnMAs-HtkY_N9nodwJ_KF1DQuDfYXt-qe5BxnhirEqo4ypkb6lqHbgwRzW2hLnokWhm32Wn-64pvo6dazjKzl73P3KFkyEMkBb8WfJi_w/s3840/GoWRV_4.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PS8mqtLjR30nZvKFtJGPxup_-QIxFTrfs2O4kXLPZaUFpSAvbwKRkts9kdeTj80XrIlMFDr8cTgpOeohnzqnMAs-HtkY_N9nodwJ_KF1DQuDfYXt-qe5BxnhirEqo4ypkb6lqHbgwRzW2hLnokWhm32Wn-64pvo6dazjKzl73P3KFkyEMkBb8WfJi_w/w640-h360/GoWRV_4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Valhalla</i>’s systems take inspiration from other rogue-lites, but from 2020’s <i>Hades</i> specifically. If you’re going to be inspired by a story-based rogue-lite, <i>Hades</i> is the one to look to. More story is revealed through each attempt through Valhalla, creating a desire to start one more run for the sake of the narrative. But also, the combat. The combat was wonderful in <i>God of War Ragnarök</i>, and it’s even better here. At the beginning of each run, you focus on a build with a specific weapon of your choosing. From then on, the rest of the run will allow you to focus on that weapon and its upgrades. You are still free to use the other weapons and their runic attacks, but all upgrades and perks will be tied to a specific weapon.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJm7iqLb8wDgMS7wJ8Ncx06TnGAjP3morSKxTCEBIvQKNNTIqGFY3m8MjK0WJH4JY5jEeUtPccD0agjJZ2SHYaUUoRsFLFGPS7-B4apku-ewXRVxpqr6sN3x1opmvdhyGttrY2hT2i0knh7-kAHgdHWu5gpgwB0MDTsSVOheYaBk8CRHaRoQyDYujbars/s3840/GoWRV_5.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJm7iqLb8wDgMS7wJ8Ncx06TnGAjP3morSKxTCEBIvQKNNTIqGFY3m8MjK0WJH4JY5jEeUtPccD0agjJZ2SHYaUUoRsFLFGPS7-B4apku-ewXRVxpqr6sN3x1opmvdhyGttrY2hT2i0knh7-kAHgdHWu5gpgwB0MDTsSVOheYaBk8CRHaRoQyDYujbars/s320/GoWRV_5.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Swapping between weapons is a breeze and creating combos with them is just as, if not even more, satisfying than in the main game. You can choose to increase burn damage with your Blades or have automatic frost awaken at the end of a finisher on your Leviathan Axe. Continuing combos through evasion is a great choice, or adding realm shifts contingent upon other actions creates more opportunity for extra damage. The builds aren't quite as complex as a full rogue-lite like Hades, but it’s still fun to experiment and move through the arenas. While Kratos rides on Zagreus’ coattails, he still pays tribute in a meaningful way that makes this add-on worth someone's time.<br /><br />Considering the breadth of enemy choices in <i>God of War Ragnarök</i>, <i>Valhalla</i> had a lot to pull from (and it does). Many of the enemies from the main game will make an appearance, and that includes boss battles as well. I cycled through quite a few times and still found enemies I hadn’t seen in the mode before. Kratos also encounters some baddies from his Greek days, adding a bit more nostalgia to an already nostalgic trip down memory lane. The game lasted significantly longer than I anticipated, and I was sad when I realized that I had encountered all the story elements and lines of dialogue that the game had to offer, but that just reinforced how much I enjoyed the game in the first place.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9869W2QYYgwDEtfI3mpni1LKH6hAdacWR-WcFJCmQSClne6EWNLLuUkmuB5NQvS8ASSoBzgzp8lckNFwydY_UIafcmpnXJD0zd1SCHc8v4dY2uoqwldsQRnhkdjxrF6J3BXLAuZt-M6buU5zbPosZioPc-BLDGbTRwY_THoTWtXytzuvbda4A2AJZsXQ/s3840/GoWRV_3.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9869W2QYYgwDEtfI3mpni1LKH6hAdacWR-WcFJCmQSClne6EWNLLuUkmuB5NQvS8ASSoBzgzp8lckNFwydY_UIafcmpnXJD0zd1SCHc8v4dY2uoqwldsQRnhkdjxrF6J3BXLAuZt-M6buU5zbPosZioPc-BLDGbTRwY_THoTWtXytzuvbda4A2AJZsXQ/w640-h360/GoWRV_3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I’ve been playing <i>Valhalla</i> (when I have the time) for the last two months. It shouldn't take anyone who is playing consistently that long to beat it, but it still offers quite a bang for one’s non-existent buck. Santa Monica Studios could have easily charged fifteen to twenty dollars for this DLC and it would have still reviewed well because of the amount of quality content that it provides. It is free to download and accessible to owners of the original game. More than being free, it is an essential add-on to the <i>God of War </i>franchise and a worthy follow-up to <i>God of War Ragnarök</i>. So, if you haven’t yet, what are you waiting for? Have I mentioned that it’s free?<div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>The Math</b></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Objective Assessment: </i>8.5/10</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Bonus: </i>+1 for giving a great reason to reinstall the game (and for being free). +1 for additonal character arcs. </div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Penalties: </i>-1 for absence of father/son dynamic that is a staple of the reboots. -1 for limited random combat arenas.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i><b> </b>8.5/10</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Posted by: Joe DelFranco - Fiction writer and lover of most things video games. On most days you can find him writing at his favorite spot in the little state of Rhode Island.</i></div></div>Joedelfrancohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03481634126664841706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-6794855247572927232024-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-04T00:00:00.223-08:00In Dune: Part Two, the Hero's Journey takes a very dark turn<p><b>There's nothing more dangerous than a savior</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhTggNES7gcO6kzpSO0vLVOtS4MXTatlw6k9PV2FH4gnswzV3QqYJpjhQbsKTah_VDjVd5EzN1IXycWyzYO3lCzq-kiRxfTXiuX4Ct3gd0ArHISdm16a1QP3AeNomz0CqdWb04qYvk4emi_dleHHrr9J-rJO4hXpEPNLFjgnONRYRN41ah0V0C_p44vg/s1254/Dune%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1254" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhTggNES7gcO6kzpSO0vLVOtS4MXTatlw6k9PV2FH4gnswzV3QqYJpjhQbsKTah_VDjVd5EzN1IXycWyzYO3lCzq-kiRxfTXiuX4Ct3gd0ArHISdm16a1QP3AeNomz0CqdWb04qYvk4emi_dleHHrr9J-rJO4hXpEPNLFjgnONRYRN41ah0V0C_p44vg/w640-h334/Dune%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Consider the above photo for a moment. It's one of many, many great shots to be found in <i>Dune: Part Two</i>. But to me, this one summarizes the core message of the film, and of the entire <i>Dune</i> series of novels. This shot happens when Paul Atreides has secured the fervent support of the Fremen, who see in him the fulfillment of their messianic prophecies. He will soon lead them in battle against the Emperor of the known universe, and then against all the noble houses, and then... If you've read past the first book, you know the ugliness that follows. War will spread from world to world and consume billions of lives.</p><p>And all that horror is (literally) foreshadowed in that photo. It shows Paul standing atop a rocky shelf, giving a speech before his gathered followers. But if you focus your gaze on the multitude, Paul's barely lit silhouette transforms into a gigantic shadow that falls over a good portion of his own army. His raised arm holding a dagger resembles the shape of a scythe. That is who Paul is destined to become: a bringer of death on an interstellar scale.</p><p>When <i>Dune: Part One</i> arrived in theaters, I <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2021/10/dune-part-one-is-pure-visual-perfection.html">was concerned</a> about the sequel's ability to give equal attention to the numerous mass fights and the heavy philosophical themes that occupy the latter half of the first <i>Dune</i> book. Fortunately, after watching in <i>Part One</i> a movie basically made of setup, we get in <i>Part Two</i> dramatic rewards galore: Baron Harkonnen starts the story believing himself to be a cunning mastermind, only to end up losing everything; local warlord Stilgar becomes a religious fanatic who eagerly enables Paul's ambition; and Lady Jessica evolves from a minor operative in the Church of Painstakingly Slow Eugenics to a ruthless manipulator, a twisted blend of John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary, an unholy messenger that prepares the way for the Dark Messiah.</p><p>The film makes good use of its runtime to discuss the corrosive effects of proselytism on subjugated communities. Much like the Slave Bible in the US, the Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit have spent centuries spreading doctrines calculated to facilitate their control over the native populations of several planets. Paul's rise to complete military and political power is viewed by the Fremen as the key to their freedom, but it's actually part of an immensely complex scheme of domination that not even Paul agrees with. The character of Paul Atreides is portrayed here with deep psychological awareness of the competing loyalties and urges that inundate his mind. It doesn't hurt that Timothée Chalamet is a fantastically talented actor who makes the expression of multiple simultaneous emotions seem effortless.</p><p>The rest of the cast performs impeccably as well. Zendaya serves as the audience's surrogate as she first becomes fascinated by Paul's rapidly growing skills as a fighter and leader, and later becomes alarmed and finally disillusioned as Paul learns to enjoy power a bit too much. Austin Butler makes a surprising impression as Feyd-Rautha, bringing into each of his scenes an uncanny mixture of ethereal beauty and deadly brutality. And I must again praise the character of Lady Jessica, who in the hands of actress Rebecca Ferguson displays a fascinating breadth of personality between the loving domestic figure she is in <i>Part One</i> and the poisoner of entire cultures she becomes in <i>Part Two</i>.</p><p>This film's most striking change to the novel's plot, the handling of Paul's little sister Alia, is in consonance with the larger themes. Alia awakens as a Reverend Mother when Lady Jessica passes the test of the Water of Life. This ritual opens access to the memories of all previous Reverend Mothers; however, since Alia is still an embryo with no identity of her own, she becomes a living repository of a continuous heritage that influences events through her. In a way, this is also true of Paul: his existence and his trajectory are the product of converging political machinations that steer him toward his inescapable tragic fate. <i>Dune</i> as a whole is very skeptical of the Great Man theory, which can be seen in the way Paul at first appears to be the promised hero who will fix everything, but instantly morphs into yet another blunt instrument of forces beyond human control.</p><p>Much of the plot of <i>Dune</i> is a curious multiplication of the standard tragic structure: the narrative beats result from the snowballing disaster that is <i>everyone</i> failing in turn to execute their respective plans. The Emperor fails to exterminate the Atreides family; Leto fails to humanize the living conditions in Arrakis; Doctor Yueh fails to avenge his wife; the Fremen fail to bring security and prosperity to their world; and the Bene Gesserit fail to give birth to the perfect man who will save the universe. From these successive failures come new, escalating crises that no one had made preparations for. This refusal of events to submit to human will feels much like the way history proceeds in the real world, and therein lies the secret to the continuing appeal of <i>Dune</i>.</p><p>The cherry on this cake of great storytelling is director Denis Villeneuve's eye for perfect composition. The landscapes of Arrakis appear as endless expanses of all the shades of brown and yellow; the sky can look inviting, dotted with millions of stars; or darkened by the unpredictable ferocity of Arrakis's sandstorms; or oppressively hot under the reign of a blinding sun.</p><p><i>Dune</i> exists in a universe where not only political events, but also nature escapes any attempt at human control. You cannot tame the mighty sandworm, only ride it for a time. Humans will be lost as long as they keep trying to control the enigmatic spice that makes both physical and spiritual journey possible. This theme is reflected in the narrative device of having all major players fail in their schemes: merely having an Emperor is already a manifestation of the desire for absolute control, and therefore the precipitating cause of unending catastrophe. This has been a fundamental flaw of human history, as true in the year 10191 as in 2024.</p><p>This is the final ingredient that explains why Villeneuve's <i>Dune</i> produces such an alluring effect: even as it employs the trappings of ancient epic, the truths it communicates have never ceased to be relevant. We're still susceptible to the rousing speeches of a supposed savior. We're still collectively addicted to a toxic source of energy. We're still treating less powerful societies as pawns in the political chessboard. Volatility has somehow remained a constant of our time. However, if we manage to remember that fear is the mind-killer, we'll be able to identify the true intentions of anyone who shows up selling fear. Too many aspire to become a God-Emperor. We need stories like <i>Dune</i> to keep our eyes open.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 9/10.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-57154137586378256642024-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-01T00:00:00.130-08:00Microreview: The City of Marble and Blood by Howard Andrew Jones<p><b>Continuing the story of Hanuvar in his struggle against the empire that destroyed his home and enslaved his people.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5_kVX6BrcrUuzrd4RysP9NiC2dKbbGYcENk7-tgbXEuD1MPIepBhd4zx6L4fE7EWaahaMfZ8h64HRBeohjnVllUpUf15UcgHkMgJdchuXuUo3eIyzB17jsTd_zAcBoXFUCiGAaCl9ji22u8MYaSB5NsybqEQd3l9Xos7o1zrkQ2Kq7QX4wiXYbt8n9Dq/s466/81HNysjUQeL._SY466_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="307" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5_kVX6BrcrUuzrd4RysP9NiC2dKbbGYcENk7-tgbXEuD1MPIepBhd4zx6L4fE7EWaahaMfZ8h64HRBeohjnVllUpUf15UcgHkMgJdchuXuUo3eIyzB17jsTd_zAcBoXFUCiGAaCl9ji22u8MYaSB5NsybqEQd3l9Xos7o1zrkQ2Kq7QX4wiXYbt8n9Dq/s320/81HNysjUQeL._SY466_.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><br /><p>In Howard Andrew Jones' <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/review-lord-of-shattered-land-by-howard.html" target="_blank"><i>Lord of a Shattered Land</i>,</a> we were introduced to Haunvar, an old, surviving general of a city state that resembles our own Carthage, that was squashed by an empire that resembles Rome. This makes, for the historically astute, Hanuvar an expy of Hannibal. However, this is not the Hannibal you probably know, when he was leading armies with elephants over the Alps, but his later, lesser known career. After the defeat of Carthage, Hannibal went around the Mediterranean like a Cassandra, warning all and sundry that the Romans were coming. Turns out, he was right.</p><p>The older Hanuvar in this world is a more active character than that, and has dedicated himself to freeing his people and opposing the empire's plans and he makes a start on that in the first book.</p><p><i>The City of Marble and Blood</i> picks up Hanuvar's story.</p><p>Like the first book, this is an episodic book progressing through Hanuvar's plans and attempts to free the people of lost Volanus out of their bondage in the Deruvan empire. However, this is not quite a "more of the exact same" sort of book to the first volume. Jones changes up the formula in a couple of different ways.</p><p>First, early on in the book, and perhaps the story most resembling the first volume in tone and style, he has a magical accident that deages Hanuvar, making him look like a young man. With decades off of his appearance, Hanuvar is given a freedom of action that he did not have in the first book, especially since the empire is now half convinced he is back from the dead to wreak vengeance (recall that he was supposed to be dead at the end of the War). Young Hanuvar has the abilty to move somewhat more freely as a result. But it is clear, he learns, that this "blessing" really is a deadly curse, and dealing with it is a plotline that runs through the book.</p><p>But it must be said that, aside from that plotline, and an unusual episode where we get Hanuvar to be the general he once was, this book has a markedly different scope and tone. The first book had our Voluscan hero ranging all through the Empire and beyond, looking for survivors, building up connections. In <i>The City of Marble and Blood</i>, as you might guess from the title, the action is far more limited. A lot of the action takes place in the Deruvan capital itself and its nearby environs. </p><p>In keeping with that limited locale, the focus also changes to a less sword and sorcery and a more straight up intrigue and political machinations and deadly rivalry sort of affair. Instead of Hanuvar dealing with lots of magicians and monsters, his foes this time are conspirators, plotters and foreign agents. Hanuvar, for all of his attempts to avoid doing so, has gotten himself mixed up in the fate of the empire, for good or ill. He'd rather not get involved, but it comes clear to Hanuvar that if he doesn't, the small gains he has made so far in freeing members of his people are going to be wiped off the board. It's a good dynamic tension, but it is definitely a change from the first book.</p><p>What doesn't change, and something I did not mention in my first review, but should mention here, is the extremely interesting literary conceit of both the prior book and this one. There must be a strain of readers who don't care much about the context and framing and metafictional aspects of a story, but there is a richness to writing and thinking about the concepts of "Who is telling this story?", "What is their point of view?", "What can be leveraged from using the point of view not just of the characters, but the entire narrative itself?". The best example where you will immediately see this is the novel <i>Dune</i>, which you will doubtlessly recall is full of epigrams and quotations from Irulan, and clearly the whole book has been edited by her. </p><p>Jones doesn't disappoint in this regard. Both the prior volume and this one are subtitled "Freely adapted from The Hanuvid of Antires Sosilos (The Elder) with the commentary of Silenus, by Andronikos Sosilos The Younger". This allows Jones to do some clever and interesting things. The main text we are reading is written by Sosilos the Younger. The adventures in the two volumes to date (and I am looking forward to the third) is "his" work. We are reading his adaptation of the Elder's work. But in this text, Jones also has passages, often at the beginning of the episodic stories, but sometimes at the end, that are direct quotations from the Elder himself, rather than the Younger's rewriting of it. And then there are Silenus' footnotes (aka the commentary) where he discusses the text as a historical artifact, and will talk about this adaptation in the context of the original story. </p><p>Now, Jones is not quite as fully literary minded as, say, Ada Palmer, or Mary Gentle, and so this commentary and point of view of readers and storytellers doesn't quite run rampant and deeply change the narrative. Jones, I think, at heart, wants to be a straight up storyteller in the mold of Harold Lamb. But even so, given that he is transmitting a story of a classical historical biography through the ages, he could not (and rightly so), resist using the framing devices to provide additional depth. </p><p>And it's completely in period for this sort of story. As it so happens, I've been recently reading a couple of books about aspects of classical history. The diligence of the writers involved mean they are always commentating on what sources they have, which ones they don't, and sometimes we get a particular story as a summary by author x, who read a work by author y that is now lost. So it is a bit of a game of telephone, and while in our world, it frustrates historians who want to know the "real story", in a fantasy novel, it adds an air of mystery and ambiguity to the tales. </p><p>One could even say that these books are showing the evolution of Hanuvar from a straight up historical figure into something somewhat more mythic in his scope (there is a whole tradition of fantastic tales, for instance, of Alexander the Great). I would not start with this second volume, even given the change in tone for the most part as outlined above. If you like the first book, this second book does change the focus but keeps the strength of what makes these books fascinating and compulsively readable for me.</p><p>--</p><p><b>The Math</b></p><p>Highlights:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Strong central character</li><li>New focus and changes to Hanuvar keep his story fresh</li><li>Engaging meta-narrative</li></ul><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><b>Reference: </b>Jones, Howard Andrew, <i>The City of Marble and Blood</i>, [Baen, 2023]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.</i></p>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-13288902432542291422024-02-29T00:00:00.001-08:002024-02-29T00:00:00.136-08:00The State of the Video Game Industry: A Discussion<b>Shaking up the Video Games Industry</b><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuXQZlHXVFS9UqfvqgTYZKCZ4sd65Lsz0V2Yl7oxPp8x8X1BlhCRDWnxaiF-GJ_FovHscX81ws37wdi7gphYvP_a14xE9D5mpc7y_8QemFXByLiIQV0tTkfudiUIcDQEjBhW4TyzHfSjYPnNo1v7hpo7hMkx1WsBBirSzIqx1zqZ_b1Szqc8dAQZIx8XU/s1280/ConsoleDiscussion.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1280" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuXQZlHXVFS9UqfvqgTYZKCZ4sd65Lsz0V2Yl7oxPp8x8X1BlhCRDWnxaiF-GJ_FovHscX81ws37wdi7gphYvP_a14xE9D5mpc7y_8QemFXByLiIQV0tTkfudiUIcDQEjBhW4TyzHfSjYPnNo1v7hpo7hMkx1WsBBirSzIqx1zqZ_b1Szqc8dAQZIx8XU/w640-h280/ConsoleDiscussion.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Recently it was announced that Microsoft will be bringing some of its first-party games to rival platforms. While it is not unheard of (as is the case with the <i>Ori</i> series to the Nintendo Switch), this cracks the door open to a potential new era in the console gaming sphere. But before this, some history.<br /><br />A little over twenty-two years ago, on November 15, 2001, Microsoft released a new gaming brand; the Xbox. This act reintroduced an American console manufacturer into the fold and brought innovations and new corporate tactics to the console side of the gaming industry for the next two decades. As Sega phased out (their previous two consoles failing to break the ten million mark), a huge shift occurred; Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft were now the big three. With an American console maker in the mix, the two Japanese giants would make pivots to stay competitive in a market that they’d dominated.<br /><br />Bill Gates wanted a competitor in a sphere he assumed would compete with the PC industry. With the PS2’s ability to play DVDs and CDs in addition to games, this was perceived as a potential threat and thus a need to enter the arena. While the PS2 handily trounced Microsoft’s first offering and Nintendo’s Gamecube (Playstation 2 sold over triple the amount of its competitor’s combined sales), Sony relied too much on its namesake for their successor and hubris caused a gaping opportunity. This is when Microsoft brought out the big guns.<br /><br />While Nintendo ended up doing its own thing with the Wii (lower power console for a more casual audience), Xbox and Playstation competed directly for the same audience. This is the generation in which Microsoft introduced the Xbox dashboard, better Xbox Live services, higher visibility of indie games, a great controller, and easily replaceable hard drives. They also highlighted micro-transactions, pointless DLC, a higher focus on timed-exclusive content, and the biggest repair bill that any console manufacturer has had to dole out (thanks Red Ring of Death). Despite Xbox 360’s shortcomings, Sony priced their PS3 at $600 and launched a year later. Their online tech was miles behind (though free), and their messaging equated to: “If you can’t afford it, get a second job.” It took Sony years to recover from their mistakes and eventually overtake the 360, but in turn, they learned a very important lesson; exploit your opponent’s weakness and hammer away when the opportunity presents itself.<br /><br />Microsoft’s launch of the Xbox One (their third console, not to be confused with the original, simply named Xbox) was a mess. Their messaging confused fans and casuals. The inclusion of Kinect frustrated those who didn’t want it, the console requiring a constant internet connection angered those with poor or no connectivity, the focus on digital-only games left physical lovers in the dust, and to top it all off, the console was weaker, yet more expensive than it’s competitor; the PS4. The Xbox One was ahead of its time. This singular major Microsoft error set Sony up for success throughout the entire generation, which bled into the current one with the PS5. Sony deployed the same tactics Microsoft used in the previous generation; timed exclusives, full exclusive content, procuring franchises synonymous with the other platform, keeping certain characters exclusive to their platform, using their leading position to make better deals, etc.</div><div><br />Though Microsoft has put out some decent games these past few generations, they couldn’t match Sony or Nintendo in the breadth of titles that were either high quality or could sell on name recognition alone. Their <i>Forza</i> games have been a highlight, but their bread and butter, <i>Halo</i> and <i>Gears</i>, dropped from “legendary” status to “great”. In the case of<i> Fable</i>, it disappeared completely (though there is a new one in development). While they’ve released some fantastic indie games, nothing has propelled the Xbox brand to reach the same heights that they had in the 360 generation. So, Microsoft decided to buy a bunch of developers. Then they did the unthinkable in the console space; they bought entire publishers.<br /><br />With Bethesda and Activision (and let’s not forget Obsidian, Mojang, and inXile) under their umbrella, Microsoft was sure to take the top spot, put their main competitor out of business (or at least demote them to third place), and begin to take control of the console narrative once again as they did in the glory days of the 360. But something happened. Despite all the acquisitions and even an entire exclusive Bethesda title (<i>Starfield</i>), GamePass subscriber numbers haven’t increased and Microsoft has decided to shift tactics. Recent rumors stated that the heads of Microsoft want ubiquity, no more console squabbling. Every screen is now an Xbox. The internet went wild with speculation. Which games would come to rival consoles? What was the point of owning an Xbox if there were no more true exclusives? Will there be another Xbox console?<br /><br />Unfortunately, the messaging from Phil Spencer and company wasn't entirely clear. What we do know is that Microsoft will be dipping its toes further into the waters of third-party publishing (on PS5 and Switch) with four titles. Microsoft says that <i>Pentiment</i> (Obsidian), <i>Hi-Fi Rush</i> (Tango), <i>Sea of Thieves</i> (Rare), and <i>Grounded</i> (Obsidian) will be the first four titles to have the honor of building the bridge between Sony and Microsoft. While all four will be coming to PlayStation platforms, only <i>Pentiment</i> and <i>Hi-Fi Rush</i> will release on Switch.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZ0fkinumLUcsExWu9GN2FMidcdRbIC-7RJbqo6a337jhLVNp1WNa-kErfE8I9WpRPTAS82k4SzzcGabIIQBVDfPVruMyN21O04Vd1zAojK1LYsOBta2BoJVhYbEwVIdDK5T5-FpUnab4HxD08z_wWJLAtwd95sVcDgZVU3LtaI9t_3qm9g902lk3jpg/s1920/ConsoleDiscussion_4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZ0fkinumLUcsExWu9GN2FMidcdRbIC-7RJbqo6a337jhLVNp1WNa-kErfE8I9WpRPTAS82k4SzzcGabIIQBVDfPVruMyN21O04Vd1zAojK1LYsOBta2BoJVhYbEwVIdDK5T5-FpUnab4HxD08z_wWJLAtwd95sVcDgZVU3LtaI9t_3qm9g902lk3jpg/w640-h360/ConsoleDiscussion_4.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br />With this bit of history and current information in mind, I’d like to ask G, being an Xbox owner, what his thoughts are on the matter. While it may make sense for Microsoft as a whole in the long run, is this a good idea for the Xbox brand or does it weaken its value?<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>G</b> - I’ll be honest, I thought Microsoft was going to bring Gamepass to the PlayStation and thus end The Console Wars. I was convinced that Microsoft didn’t really want to be selling consoles anymore, but did want to be the Netflix of the coming age of video game streaming. What better way to do that than to first become the biggest and best provider of subscription content and then to offer it on all platforms? <br /><br />That didn’t happen, of course. Instead we found out that some Xbox-exclusive titles would eventually come to the PS5. Which…doesn’t really move the needle for anyone. But I think it does point to a structural problem in gaming: namely, that The Console Wars are a relic of a lost age and don’t really make any sense for anyone anymore, but Microsoft and Sony are still stuck in the trenches because they are too heavily invested to pivot. <br /><br />I want to explore that idea in a bit more depth - and get your extended thoughts. Here are mine:<br /><br />So I’ve been on Team Xbox since around 2002. I had a PS2 already but got an Xbox so I could play <i>Halo</i> and the <i>Splinter Cell</i> games, which at the time were Xbox exclusives. When it came time to upgrade to the next generation, I went with the Xbox 360. It felt like a no-brainer - at that point Xbox Live was lightyears ahead of the PlayStation Network. If you wanted to play online with your friends, Xbox Live delivered a streamlined experience that Sony just couldn’t match. And, like a lot of others at the time, I got hooked on <i>Call of Duty</i>’s competitive multiplayer.<br /><br />Of course Sony caught up, so when the Xbox One squared up against the PS4 Microsoft needed a new selling point. The Kinect was the gimmick, but really they wanted to sell the Xbox One as a media platform - the centerpiece of your entertainment system. This was around the time that streaming began to replace cable in earnest. The problem, of course, was that Apple, Roku and others were developing devices that could do this just as well, but were much smaller. And that’s even before Smart TVs hit the market. Now you don’t even need a device.<br /><br />Microsoft’s pivot to streaming turned out to be both a dead-end and a distraction. As you say, the Xbox One just didn’t have the exclusives that powered the Xbox and 360. Sony, meanwhile, had decided to focus on games, bringing a diverse array of critically-acclaimed exclusives to the market that Microsoft failed to match. Turns out people buy consoles to play games - and that’s why <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/15/23306068/microsoft-xbox-one-sales-lifetime-versus-ps4-sales">the PS4 outsold the Xbox One by more than 2-to-1</a>.<br /><br />Fast-forward to the current generation. I debated getting a PS5 instead of a Series X, but it wasn’t easy to find either at launch. Eventually I managed to find a Series X bundled with Gamepass Ultimate so I went with that. It wasn’t intentional, though I’ve enjoyed the Series X and Gamepass quite a bit.<br /><br />What I learned, though, is that Gamepass is more or less all that’s on offer. Despite all those big acquisitions, there aren’t many exclusives to speak of, and the ones that exist have been underwhelming (<a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/02/microreview-game-halo-infinite-by-343.html"><i>Halo: Infinite</i> was a massive disappointment</a>). Microsoft wants you to pivot to streaming - and the recurring revenues that a subscription model provides. And like with online play and video streaming, they have correctly identified the next big thing. But as with Netflix, there’s going to be a lot more competition soon too. And that doesn’t just mean fighting for customers’ subscription dollars; it also means fighting rival streaming platforms for content.<br /><br />That said, Sony has also been struggling. The PS5 may be outselling the Series X/S, but Sony has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/31/playstation-is-making-bad-investments-bad-decisions/?sh=4ce311aa590b">overinvested in VR and spent a ton of money trying to get another <i>Destiny</i> on the market</a> - and, in the process, lost focus on the exclusive single-player games that helped it win the last round of The Console Wars. This is partly because budgets for triple-A titles have ballooned, reducing their ROI - but it’s also partly because big corporations can be really dumb (and often are).<br /><br />So here we are, at a crossroads where both companies seem a bit lost. Microsoft, for the 2nd generation running, is trying to find its killer app when we all know the killer app is releasing top-flight games. Sony, meanwhile, should know it needs to focus on games but those games aren’t as profitable as they used to be. Does anyone really benefit from The Console Wars anymore? And what does a viable alternative look like?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><b>Joe D</b> - It’s funny, I completely forgot about the whole multimedia approach that Microsoft tried to sell at the Xbox One reveal. It may have been the single most detrimental aspect of the showcase. While I never ended up getting an Xbox One—I had three 360s die on me and was hesitant to invest—I heard the television integration was well implemented. As I said, I think they were way ahead of the times with their focus. It may have gone differently if they focused as much on the games.<br /><br />Getting back to the question, I do believe the consumers benefit from competition, but not the Console War itself. It has grown from a simple rivalry (from the Nintendo/Sega/PlayStation days) to a vitriolic cesspool. Console zealots now send death threats to developers and tear to shreds all who criticize their beloved. God forbid you want to make a post on social media criticizing a company you support (as I have tried to with some of Sony’s poorer choices), the rabid dogs find their way to you immediately. But outside of the crazy hecklers, the competition between the companies has forced innovation in the video game industry. Let’s go back to the 360/PS3 competition. Sony was so comfortable resting on their laurels at the end of the Playstation 2 generation that they didn’t think they needed to compete. With more third-party companies supporting Xbox, Microsoft’s pressure forced them to rely on their first party a whole lot more than ever before. During the PS3 era, Sony was much more daring than today. We got the<i> Resistance</i> <i>1</i>, <i>2</i>, & <i>3</i>, <i>Infamous 1</i> & <i>2</i>,<i> Uncharted 1</i>, <i>2</i>, & <i>3</i>, <i>The Last of Us</i>, <i>Killzone 2</i> & <i>3</i>, <i>LittleBigPlanet 1</i> & <i>2</i>, and so many more. On the reverse, PS2’s success made Microsoft come out of the gates early and set the precedent for online reliability and services for not only that gen but the future of gaming on consoles. Sony’s insistence on BluRay made Microsoft do the same (Yay, no more disc swapping). Nintendo meanwhile just does unique things that Sony or Microsoft try to piggyback off of (motion controls anyone?). Once Nintendo began to do their own thing with the Wii, it became a two-horse race between Sony and Microsoft.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRnVJ4lNPKiALZoPNdWDvIFIf1NLcmwXErtZL9XrCpD4upk-Iv3pGEYZgJXM6KRxIHATG3d7LwlDO6LrBlQSNmye6y2dTUpar9ZPffnxxoJ6P9npLKZJJJCWzunZ22O0IWd-8cR3qjgioNGAS5e5zzx2b_RXSy46iSGaIRujjAJbAVFL2iozzdL9BsBs/s1500/ConsoleDiscussion_5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1500" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRnVJ4lNPKiALZoPNdWDvIFIf1NLcmwXErtZL9XrCpD4upk-Iv3pGEYZgJXM6KRxIHATG3d7LwlDO6LrBlQSNmye6y2dTUpar9ZPffnxxoJ6P9npLKZJJJCWzunZ22O0IWd-8cR3qjgioNGAS5e5zzx2b_RXSy46iSGaIRujjAJbAVFL2iozzdL9BsBs/w640-h390/ConsoleDiscussion_5.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(List of Sony Published PS3 Games)</div><br /></div><div>I think the reason the rivalry has gone on so long is because, as you said, both companies are entrenched. Sony even more so due to PlayStation’s importance to it, with PS accounting for a third of its revenue. This next part is speculation, but I believe Microsoft allowed the Xbox division to do their thing, to make Xbox the number one place to play, and the guys at the Xbox division were like rich kids at a playground trying to one-up their opponent. As recently as 2019, they spoke about how they were in a position to “<a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-studios-head-said-microsoft-could-spend-sony-out-of-business-in-2019-email">spend Sony out of business</a>.” After failing to get out of third place three generations in a row, and more importantly, after the massive acquisitions they made (Bethesda for $7.5 billion, Activision for $69 billion), the higher-ups at Microsoft decided it was time to recoup their investment and come up with a new strategy.</div><div><br />I agree with you that Sony seems a bit lost. I don’t know of any first-party games planned for this year (a first in a very long time), and that’s rather disappointing as I love a majority of their studios. I revere <i>The Last of Us</i> and thought that the <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/10/microreview-video-game-last-of-us-part.html">Part 1</a> remake was brilliantly done, but if Naughty Dog releases one more remaster or remake of that series before another new game, I will lose my mind. Tying into what you said about Sony trying to create another <i>Destiny</i>, Naughty Dog’s live-service game was canceled because the studio was going to have to choose between being a live-service studio or a single-player game studio. I was rather disappointed because I enjoyed the <i>Factions</i> multiplayer, but I would prefer their single-player focus. That said, forcing studios that don’t traditionally make live-service games into live-service studios is an odd choice, especially considering people have come to PlayStation for their prestigious single-player experiences. Hopefully, their current success with <i>Helldivers 2</i> will make them realize they could outsource to second parties for that sort of thing (or purchase a multiplayer dev).<br /><br />There is something that worries me though. If Microsoft exits stage left, will Sony continue to produce as much excellent content, knowing that no competitor is trying to usurp their market share? Sony was misleading with their “We believe in generations” message at the beginning of this generation, but they have consistently released at least one or two Game of the Year contenders every year since 2015 despite being far ahead of their prime competitor. What will happen if Microsoft pulls out of the console space and simply goes full streaming? Will Sony keep their service as well, or will it let it die off since they own the hardware front? Their PlayStation Plus upper tiers have become much better in response to Microsoft, but it’s not their priority.<br /><br />I fear that video games will go full streaming service and it affects the quality of the games. While we may get some decent AA games, AAA games will become a relic of the past. As much as I love my Netflix shows, I won’t find a movie with Avengers: Infinity War’s budget as a day and date release. I think Sony may go on for a while longer with consoles while Microsoft becomes more ubiquitous with GamePass. If every game has to eventually launch on a streaming service on release day, as Microsoft says they want to do, how do you think that affects the game industry and the games themselves? While I agree both streaming services are great for consumers, do you think it will be good for devs in the long run? Could it affect creativity in the AAA and AA space?<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>G</b> - I’ll never understand why some fans think aligning with one massive corporation over another is an important moral choice. Just make the best choice for you and be happy with that choice - why does it matter what anyone else prefers? But everything is zero sum these days, no matter how mundane or, ultimately, inconsequential the battle is.<br /><br />But anyways, back to the topic at hand…at this point I don’t think we have to worry about Microsoft abandoning the Xbox, at least not for a few years. But I also don’t think The Console Wars, as currently structured, really benefit either Microsoft or Sony. Sure, PlayStation revenues are higher, but the Xbox platform <a href="https://www.essentiallysports.com/esports-news-as-per-reports-playstation-scores-the-lowest-in-profitability-as-compared-to-xbox-and-nintendo-but-rules-in-revenue/">appears to be more profitable</a>; as a percentage of revenues, Microsoft’s margin is almost double Sony’s. So there is something for each company’s Board to be unhappy about.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PHMJ8-SqeESShg42Oq2ygS0gv9dkvbfs2oYXrlUoW2uiSKUJdYu0B6RfzW7CNWpKmRCb2wg21mpLjBFQfDtSJrZ7wxysc5vuok8BL3QGJA5BtgQyyYBJAB6zgR2xQYGQgkxLei53Y8DFg2CD8HdVQMeHjotZfll8cGYK56pKELxPV2xC_V7HE0OoG20/s1024/ConsoleDiscussion_3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PHMJ8-SqeESShg42Oq2ygS0gv9dkvbfs2oYXrlUoW2uiSKUJdYu0B6RfzW7CNWpKmRCb2wg21mpLjBFQfDtSJrZ7wxysc5vuok8BL3QGJA5BtgQyyYBJAB6zgR2xQYGQgkxLei53Y8DFg2CD8HdVQMeHjotZfll8cGYK56pKELxPV2xC_V7HE0OoG20/w640-h360/ConsoleDiscussion_3.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Also worth noting that Nintendo’s profit margins are the highest of all, and by a long-shot. This is a direct result of Nintendo’s decision to opt out of The Console Wars. They’ve had their ups and downs, but scored a hit with the portable Nintendo Switch - which is now the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles">3rd best-selling console of all-time</a>. How did they do it? They stopped trying to keep up on hardware tech specs and instead focused on making high-quality first-party games and then making them fun (and convenient) to play.<br /><br />I don’t know if either Sony or Microsoft can emulate Nintendo’s model, the same way Dell or Lenovo can’t really emulate Apple’s. But it’s time for a rethink - and that’s why it seemed plausible that Microsoft would start to offer Gamepass available on the PlayStation. They aren’t doing it, apparently, but would it really be a bad idea?<br /><br />I agree that we don’t want a situation where only Sony makes a console for triple-A games, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/02/27/playstation-lays-off-900-employees-across-naughty-dog-insomniac-guerilla-and-others/?sh=29c448701fa1">recent layoffs</a> suggest that’s not even a great bet right now. But maybe there are alternatives! Maybe what we really need to see is Microsoft and Sony strike a partnership where they both keep making consoles, but those consoles are compatible with each other. You would need a standard OS but each could have a custom build of that OS. Both could then focus on delivering games - and their streaming services, as I’m 100% convinced this is where the market is heading. Thoughts?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><b>Joe D</b> - You’re right about Sony’s current model being unsustainable, the profits get smaller while game costs continue to rise. More info will come from the recent layoffs, though it seems to me to be a restructuring of how they manage their studios. With Jim Ryan on the out, maybe the company will go back to focusing on single player games, or at least <a href="https://www.eurogamer.net/playstation-studios-head-confirms-projects-cancelled-in-wake-of-layoffs#:~:text=layoffs%20%7C%20Eurogamer.net-,PlayStation%20Studios%20head%20confirms%20projects%20cancelled%20in%20wake%20of%20layoffs,itself%20is%20not%20an%20ambition.%22&text=PlayStation%20Studios%20head%20Hermen%20Hulst,layoffs%20across%20Sony%20Interactive%20Entertainment.">that's what they say</a>. When it comes to hardware, I doubt that Sony gives Microsoft any leeway in the console space. If Microsoft backs out of making consoles, then maybe Sony will take a Nintendo approach and make their games with a lower budget. I think that having a dedicated gaming system could eventually become obsolete, with people streaming from their television, computer, or some kind of attachment (like an Amazon Fire Stick). Who knows, maybe the Amazon Fire Stick will eventually provide both PlayStation Plus and Game Pass on it within ten years. If it comes down to competing streaming services, Microsoft is well-positioned to demolish any competitor.<br /><br />I think the situation could be this: Nintendo makes the casual console, Sony makes the high-spec console, and Microsoft tries to proliferate through using Game Pass. If Microsoft gets rid of the need to spend as much on competing consoles, they could use that money to grow the Game Pass library and put it on PlayStation and Switch. When the streaming service space expands, they’ll have more leverage to force Sony to innovate.<br /><br />Eventually, I see the space becoming a place where Microsoft and Sony simply have timed-exclusive content on each platform (like Netflix and Hulu), with exclusive content that they make in-house. It’s kind of like it is now, but you won’t own any of the content unless you decide to buy it, and even then it will be digital so you’ll only own the license, not the game itself. So long as Microsoft produces a console, I’m not sure when Game Pass would come to PlayStation, as it would make their console obsolete. The only reason to get an Xbox would be because you like their OS, but I doubt that would be a high consumer motivator in the console space. I think that by publishing these four games on PlayStation, Microsoft is testing the third-party waters and it will eventually lead to their exit from the console space (possibly after the next generation). </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1WWP8TO37kkSIYfxdkXtE2AAXHj_y99bSqn0g9Am_zX2m5UIaG-ov7mcrYY4xxdLKf5ahPn6HxksUrpxQqJdHdB313X5ImFl8o1ggs1SGXqJuNlH_dFKNezCF-uCZeueuYJ-PAykQQCeWx6Hx796TJvTivTFhlmPNAxoCM9RNurSGDpMVoHc9FWy-bg0/s1270/ConsoleDiscussion_6.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1270" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1WWP8TO37kkSIYfxdkXtE2AAXHj_y99bSqn0g9Am_zX2m5UIaG-ov7mcrYY4xxdLKf5ahPn6HxksUrpxQqJdHdB313X5ImFl8o1ggs1SGXqJuNlH_dFKNezCF-uCZeueuYJ-PAykQQCeWx6Hx796TJvTivTFhlmPNAxoCM9RNurSGDpMVoHc9FWy-bg0/w640-h362/ConsoleDiscussion_6.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Though this is an inconclusive viewpoint, I think it could have both positive and negative effects on the industry. While we already discussed the negatives, the positives would allow Microsoft to play to its strengths and get on more screens, and it would allow Sony to back off on spending so much on their games since their main competitor is out of the race, giving them more profitability and the ability to create more first-party content. I can’t be sure how this is going to change the industry, but I’m sure it will have a profound effect in the upcoming years. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that whatever happens, I’ll always have a way to own my media.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>https://www.deviantart.com/creepertube83/art/CT83-Big-Three-Gaming-Consoles-973691629</div><div><br /></div><div>https://www.reddit.com/r/PS3/comments/m3mgo0/heres_all_the_ps3_games_that_are_published_by/</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.essentiallysports.com/esports-news-as-per-reports-playstation-scores-the-lowest-in-profitability-as-compared-to-xbox-and-nintendo-but-rules-in-revenue/">https://www.essentiallysports.com/esports-news-as-per-reports-playstation-scores-the-lowest-in-profitability-as-compared-to-xbox-and-nintendo-but-rules-in-revenue/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>https://www.rappler.com/technology/gaming/xbox-game-pass-playstation-plus-philippines-comparison-2022/</div>Joedelfrancohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03481634126664841706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-1850181493731320382024-02-29T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-29T00:00:00.136-08:00The Wheel of Time Reread: Winter's HeartWelcome back, dear readers, to The Wheel of Time Reread. Today we’re going to talk about Winter’s Heart, the ninth book in the series.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjCXalsCMgv-WehAH8jmcIYaPZftUCVvQrCCZlKAzPzD4m7EVIBey8JkfmBM6Lfmh_EZfPmFwi-HFki5LvJtRjc_Vkc0qXuS8xqxpi997jy0FzsDheJC_CidFfcjSYGCL4memTLfbS8LN-vzahFM1yki5KxuNfHDRaraikYhGF98f-hZW2btTkHuU22-h/s500/Winter's%20Heart1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="347" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjCXalsCMgv-WehAH8jmcIYaPZftUCVvQrCCZlKAzPzD4m7EVIBey8JkfmBM6Lfmh_EZfPmFwi-HFki5LvJtRjc_Vkc0qXuS8xqxpi997jy0FzsDheJC_CidFfcjSYGCL4memTLfbS8LN-vzahFM1yki5KxuNfHDRaraikYhGF98f-hZW2btTkHuU22-h/w222-h320/Winter's%20Heart1.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>Winter’s Heart is the book where I start to feel like we are making a real push to the end of the series, though we are going to move from the holy shit that really happened at the end of the book right into Crossroads of Twilight in which the rest of the world reacts to something happening somewhere that is probably important but no matter it’s very far away. We’ll get into it, but before we do we’re going to talk about *this* book first. <br /><br />You know, one interesting thing about reading The Wheel of Time as a single volume ebook is that at any given time I have no idea where I am in the specific book I’m reading. If I don’t check on the chapter count all I know is that I’m on something like page 6700 of 10,000+. Because I’ve read these later books fewer times than the earlier ones, my memories of particular events are less clear and I just don’t know how close I am to the end. I’m just enjoying the ride. <br /><br />If you’re reading a Wheel of Time re-read deep enough that we’re talking about the ninth book, I assume nothing here is going to be a spoiler. But just in case, we’re going to talk about the ending first. <br /><br />You’ve been warned. <br /><br />Chekov’s Cleansing. Rand’s first act plan to cleanse saidin from the Dark One’s taint goes off in the third act. If anyone asked me what happens in Winter’s Heart I would respond that this is the book in which Rand and Nynaeve cleanses saidin. If anyone asked me what else happens in Winter’s Heart I would shrug, because, well, first, that’s a series defining moment for anyone who has been reading from The Eye of the World. The taint on saidin that makes male channelers go crazy? Gone. It’s pure again. It is one of the singularly most important moments of the entire series besides, you know, winning The Last Battle. <br /><br />It’s such a small moment in the book. Rand announces it early, and then goes and fucks off to Far Madding for a fair amount of the book. Far Madding is a weird city that has some ter’angreal that prevents men and women from touching the Source. There are, of course, ways around that, but what Far Madding also allows is for Cadsuane to shine some more, a bit of a scene with Alanna, and Verin being awesome. <br /><br />Honestly, I didn’t mind it. Oh, Rand is still just about the least interesting part of any book he is in but Far Madding is a very different setting that most other cities we’ve seen thus far so it still feels refreshing even at the same time there’s a bit of treading water and *another* moment where Rand declaims his need to be hard and Cadsuane notes that she still needs to teach Rand to laugh and cry otherwise the world is doomed even if the Light wins. I don’t think there are therapists enough in the world to deal with the collective trauma everyone is going through.<br /><br />I do still find the Faile / Shaido / Perrin storyline to be tedious. More specifically, I find Perrin’s part in that storyline to be tedious. He’s probably my least favorite major character not named Rand right now. Faile, Alliandre, and Morgase are much more compelling as captives of the Shaido than anything Perrin is doing to rescue Faile. The fact that Perrin’s storyline is intersecting with the bloody flaming Prophet, Masema, does not help one bit. What *does* help one bit, though, is that this is a much smaller part of Winter’s Heart than I remember. There is almost no forward progress but fewer chapters are spent on the storyline than the nearly half of the book I misremembered. This makes me nervous for Crossroads of Twilight, honestly. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBBaatdBuK2fcgX7qz8qeFZwBD5Id-k1bgWj-85QYnpkj0RKf5D5WniGxtAQL2AyJAlSqisUpTM2bHIr2WUnzoywzHQteiQz8pfWlXbcXX5i8uMqgi10JAlmib5njWQILrAXhIamNiq6YntiUvxHjhzO1hyphenhyphenxCdoKnBpfrm3if1vpl2qV5TQMUIevYqtJh/s475/Winter's%20Heartebook.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBBaatdBuK2fcgX7qz8qeFZwBD5Id-k1bgWj-85QYnpkj0RKf5D5WniGxtAQL2AyJAlSqisUpTM2bHIr2WUnzoywzHQteiQz8pfWlXbcXX5i8uMqgi10JAlmib5njWQILrAXhIamNiq6YntiUvxHjhzO1hyphenhyphenxCdoKnBpfrm3if1vpl2qV5TQMUIevYqtJh/s320/Winter's%20Heartebook.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>I also don’t mind the Elayne / Andor Succession drama. It’s just that, like so many other things the last few books, there is very little progress. Realistically, Elayne securing the throne in the particular way of Andoran politics is not something that would occur very quickly. Narratively, it’s a bit of a drag. I just happen to enjoy spending time with Elayne and Andor. <br /><br />Possibly more importantly, that particular storyline leads to Elayne, Min, and Aviendha all bonding Rand as their collective warder as Rand declares his creepy love for all three of them. Which, really, that’s fine because it’s not like he spends any sort of time with any of them except for Min (and when the Aiel required Aviendha to be his shadow) or have any sort of real conversations with any of them. The relationships don’t feel quite real, but, eh, he’s just going to wander off and do Rand things somewhere else and this at least allows the chance to make more Dragon Babies to set up the next generation. <br /><br />Back to The Cleansing. I think that’s a moment which should be capitalized. The Cleansing looms large, but it’s only one chapter in the book and there’s a massive battle with Forsaken and darkfriends trying to get to Rand and Nynaeve doing the work and there are all of the lightfriends guarding our dynamic duo and….most of it happens off page. There are hints of what’s happening, but so much of that action is not described. Heck, most of the actual Cleansing isn’t described but I guess there is only so much description one can write about filling a saidar tube with saidin and pushing it into Shadar Logoth until the city explodes. There are hints for the duration of the Cleansing but at the same time it could have been forty five minutes of active Cleansing or two days and it’s all unclear. <br /><br />I’m making it sound like the Cleansing is not thrilling, but this is probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve read Winter’s Heart and there is no recapturing the shock and wonder of reading the Cleansing for the first time. It’s still a big deal and still a really cool moment, but it just doesn’t land the same this time. <br /><br />All of this sounds waaaay more negatively about Winter’s Heart than I mean it to be. This is a better book, overall, than The Path of Daggers and absolutely a better book than Crossroads of Twilight. Oh! I also never mentioned Mat. Mat is consistently the best part of any book he is in and Winter’s Heart is the book where he finally meets The Daughter of the Nine Moons, one of the daughters of the Empress of the Seanchan and Mat’s future wife. Shenanigans will ensue, mostly in the future books but Winter’s Heart has Mat working on being a hero and saving some captured damane Aes Sedai. And - we discover the male a’dam that was supposed to be dumped in the middle of the ocean was unfortunately not dumped in the middle of the ocean and that’s something that should probably stay far away from Rand and will certainly come into play later. <br /><br />Next up: Crossroads of Twilight, in which things happen (more or less). Plus, some people notice something is happening somewhere, a siege begins, the falcon is still in captivity, and courting the nine moons. <br /><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a6b6996-7fff-43f1-3f84-bfffe0eee8cb"><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; white-space-collapse: collapse;"><u style="font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Previous Re-reads</b></u><br style="font-size: 14.85px;" /><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/03/the-wheel-of-time-reread-eye-of-world.html" style="color: #ed472a; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">The Eye of the World</a><br style="font-size: 14.85px;" /><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/04/the-wheel-of-time-reread-great-hunt.html" style="color: #e21919; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">The Great Hunt</a><br style="font-size: 14.85px;" /><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/06/the-wheel-of-time-reread-dragon-reborn.html" style="color: #e21919; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">The Dragon Reborn<br /></a><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2022/09/the-wheel-of-time-reread-shadow-rising.html" style="color: #e21919; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">The Shadow Rising</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; white-space-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/06/the-wheel-of-time-reread-fires-of-heaven.html" style="color: #e21919; text-decoration-line: none;">The Fires of Heaven</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; white-space-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/the-wheel-of-time-reread-lord-of-chaos.html" style="color: #e21919; text-decoration-line: none;">Lord of Chaos</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; white-space-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/12/the-wheel-of-time-reread-crown-of-swords.html">A Crown of Swords</a></div></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/01/the-wheel-of-time-reread-path-of-daggers.html"><span style="font-size: small;">The Path of Daggers</span></a></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Joe Sherry - Senior Editor of Nerds of a Feather. Hugo and Ignyte Winner. Minnesotan.</i></span></div></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ead06d9-7fff-8e00-61c3-d9a4a0abed28"><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16094675116398769415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-52467395950877308342024-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-28T00:00:00.252-08:006 Books with Bogi Takács <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF6FgsyB6A1bTy-pKwbPuj-d7yR8gYxwgoSnj9Bu0rOV7yNC6M6IhQXWLzy7BQNUOtdPqISDssg0bDT1MVyJCvO5g9vOXYhsK8LKmUd0ehZ1kNYfkHqru6dGoeInRieKJLGRtCaGdaGz-83r6XiDHmLPRdoBwxB8jG17fyEvbfR2SGtXsUjRNjgw2btno/s1000/Bogi_face_72dpi(1).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF6FgsyB6A1bTy-pKwbPuj-d7yR8gYxwgoSnj9Bu0rOV7yNC6M6IhQXWLzy7BQNUOtdPqISDssg0bDT1MVyJCvO5g9vOXYhsK8LKmUd0ehZ1kNYfkHqru6dGoeInRieKJLGRtCaGdaGz-83r6XiDHmLPRdoBwxB8jG17fyEvbfR2SGtXsUjRNjgw2btno/s320/Bogi_face_72dpi(1).png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Bogi Takács (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) is a Hungarian
Jewish agender trans person and an immigrant to the US. E is a winner of the
Lambda award for editing <i>Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender
Speculative Fiction</i>, the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer, and a finalist for
other awards like the Ignyte and the Locus. Eir new short story collection <i>Power
to Yield and Other Stories </i>is coming in February 2024. You can find Bogi
talking about books at <a href="http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bogi Reads
the World</span></a>, and check out eir <a href="https://buttondown.email/bogiperson"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">daily SFF story and poem
recommendation newsletter</span></a> on Buttondown.<p></p><p class="Standard"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard">Today, read about Bogi's Six Books:</p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij9pwn8IVn_Ga8ZrjTb3S1O0wRMdj-8w0poQQM6j3vvoyjyIm7LNUxO9Ssvt68LmTSAMxA_NYZlQZEiMn_fvtNEYamhsiTtr1BRlUZp4EXATC6N3RWrHXsG-CRGswvTTDU-b5CaVy6mIO81q4KU-ke50QsfyTkjoJky4QiaBQWFYLVHDsRNR6-KXA1O4XI/s445/51XdZ+CYmbL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij9pwn8IVn_Ga8ZrjTb3S1O0wRMdj-8w0poQQM6j3vvoyjyIm7LNUxO9Ssvt68LmTSAMxA_NYZlQZEiMn_fvtNEYamhsiTtr1BRlUZp4EXATC6N3RWrHXsG-CRGswvTTDU-b5CaVy6mIO81q4KU-ke50QsfyTkjoJky4QiaBQWFYLVHDsRNR6-KXA1O4XI/s320/51XdZ+CYmbL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" width="212" /></a></b>1. What book are you
currently reading?</b></p>
<p class="Standard"><i>Words Under the Words: Selected Poems </i>by Naomi Shihab
Nye, recommended to me by Rasha Abdulhadi after I read<i> Everything Comes
Next: Collected & New Poems</i> by her, aimed more at a child and teen
readership. <i>Words Under the Words </i>is more for adults, though a lot of
her poems work for all audiences. She has a gentle speculative sensibility to
her work, even though it’s usually not marketed as speculative poetry. By the
time this instalment of Six Books comes out, I’ll have a poem recommendation
from this book in my daily speculative story and poem recommendations
newsletter.</p><p class="Standard"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Textbody"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p><p class="Textbody"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p>
<p class="Textbody"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VAuIG4eBfUvDd26_cuczWFiYD_LZt3NStsNX3lgWDPqkNfrKsetKd1-UcHU6y5ceB_4G985cFkwpxn3NGT23mfHNWQUj2x0qM6lRrO4a2WYsrU2XypYOQbbkF95MxrzuVV54GF6UwpPux1FRVWve8uAq0u76Lh1DGCfgtX19lOF7cTK2C9rgHc3NzrMK/s2800/9781250881809.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2800" data-original-width="1750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VAuIG4eBfUvDd26_cuczWFiYD_LZt3NStsNX3lgWDPqkNfrKsetKd1-UcHU6y5ceB_4G985cFkwpxn3NGT23mfHNWQUj2x0qM6lRrO4a2WYsrU2XypYOQbbkF95MxrzuVV54GF6UwpPux1FRVWve8uAq0u76Lh1DGCfgtX19lOF7cTK2C9rgHc3NzrMK/s320/9781250881809.jpg" width="200" /></a></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2. What upcoming book
are you really excited about?</b></p><i>The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain</i> by Sofia
Samatar – I got an advance review copy I’ve already read, but I’m really eager
for other people to read it so that I can discuss it with them! I’m excited by
everything from her, to be honest. But this one was the way I’m always
imagining what dark academia could be and it often isn’t. Written with a real
awareness of the horrors perpetuated in academia, in the name of scholarship;
but also understanding the beauty of the universe and the essential liberty that
is everyone’s birthright regardless of one’s academic and/or social standing.
Also, this is a prison spaceship story in addition to all of that.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p><p class="Standard"><br /></p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p>
<p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26PCwiJTV73oY1PogA1zcAplUTg2fKqGZjPs12qnWImpehVnwxhm1N61hfKXpS-pXFVwEzTTYljDyFfgzsnQR29hi8sAumZdAw_L5pejexqQ-FtWAUZpYj2G4Dmd0I1IhYDUcT96aGYrl0N7CL5izxHLqD-3W60ouPnQ1W0n9gnKzfxQgLBw_oFSLJGGN/s445/41kEOBEnpLL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26PCwiJTV73oY1PogA1zcAplUTg2fKqGZjPs12qnWImpehVnwxhm1N61hfKXpS-pXFVwEzTTYljDyFfgzsnQR29hi8sAumZdAw_L5pejexqQ-FtWAUZpYj2G4Dmd0I1IhYDUcT96aGYrl0N7CL5izxHLqD-3W60ouPnQ1W0n9gnKzfxQgLBw_oFSLJGGN/s320/41kEOBEnpLL._SY445_SX342_.jpg" width="211" /></a></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3. Is there a book
you’re currently itching to re-read?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="Standard"><i>The Fallen </i>by Ada Hoffmann – I’m about to read the
third volume of their Outside trilogy, and I usually refresh my memory of a
series before I read a new volume. I loved the first two books, and happily had
a chance to blurb them, but the third volume was in production when I was in
the middle of changing jobs, so I had to miss out on it. Now I’m catching up!</p><p class="Standard"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p><p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p>
<p class="Standard"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MY7KIkFdXEoHLnaZVHR-FUhca62661Mj1kEQvpClJ2YpBj-GY_O_be7OKqsm1WENFrplk8q2sKlf-qFnkeeNcZXIzIcyiFKsNp1m32VE3LX0MmGKqINSnSqWXZII6K7LH6VUmMBnd8KXOWveqLsZ1h8dssPh0BUu1EbmiRGra6z991TQ6usTlAf3-LN-/s447/9781573661980.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MY7KIkFdXEoHLnaZVHR-FUhca62661Mj1kEQvpClJ2YpBj-GY_O_be7OKqsm1WENFrplk8q2sKlf-qFnkeeNcZXIzIcyiFKsNp1m32VE3LX0MmGKqINSnSqWXZII6K7LH6VUmMBnd8KXOWveqLsZ1h8dssPh0BUu1EbmiRGra6z991TQ6usTlAf3-LN-/s320/9781573661980.jpg" width="213" /></a></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4 A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Textbody">I generally don’t wish I’d written books by other people, the
books I love are often quite different from what I personally write. It might
be easier to find anthologies I wish I’d edited? Recently I absolutely loved <i>Infinite
Constellations </i>edited by Khadijah Queen and K. Ibura, though I think it’s
wonderful the way they put it together, it doesn’t need me :) I also got an
advance copy of this early last year, but now it’s out and you can all read it!</p><p class="Textbody"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p>
<p class="Textbody"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfmil266qQb_4EwbsK1HAzydEgToPqfwQP408Mor4SXfkmQQKkWcw5S5vcWxb3R8bwKBnz3fcY_hC3UCO-mOfYUyBa0Xxz9ot5c0kF-RpIFL5DUgC2-KElO6BaJBKi16AmEHUYy-hTPL4ICgtDsx6ZtYqonMUUfsxqK-TsirmKHOqoO5S4Axe4l87H3-bi/s1500/8126IvbrHeL._SL1500_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1050" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfmil266qQb_4EwbsK1HAzydEgToPqfwQP408Mor4SXfkmQQKkWcw5S5vcWxb3R8bwKBnz3fcY_hC3UCO-mOfYUyBa0Xxz9ot5c0kF-RpIFL5DUgC2-KElO6BaJBKi16AmEHUYy-hTPL4ICgtDsx6ZtYqonMUUfsxqK-TsirmKHOqoO5S4Axe4l87H3-bi/s320/8126IvbrHeL._SL1500_.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5. What’s one book,
which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on
your writing?<o:p></o:p></b><p></p>
<p class="Textbody"></p>Not so much on my writing, but more on my life in general,
which of course includes my writing – the <i>Nausicaä </i>manga by Hayao
Miyazaki found me in high school at a very vulnerable and emotional time, where
I was ready to give up on everything. This series got it across to me that even
when we know things are going to be destroyed, it’s still possible to live on and
strive. That was an approach I didn’t see anywhere else at that point, and I
really needed to hear it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="Textbody"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="Textbody"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="Textbody"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMgat16nm_XL1a9ZXXFki6-TPoupoQdSnz5_-n1uK2QSvEyHZQn8m_ryLocwlt9JRySuJe0ghBsPphK-0SyAfhhC8mxZw53awv-ScFryDDFgHofhHJ3H3JkSzy_GhU3ICUihBtTeTheT57db5KJ9_5aQnrXmOZS1u0R4xwAGk-edBNSbPFNL0Fh_hZok/s1348/199334284.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1348" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMgat16nm_XL1a9ZXXFki6-TPoupoQdSnz5_-n1uK2QSvEyHZQn8m_ryLocwlt9JRySuJe0ghBsPphK-0SyAfhhC8mxZw53awv-ScFryDDFgHofhHJ3H3JkSzy_GhU3ICUihBtTeTheT57db5KJ9_5aQnrXmOZS1u0R4xwAGk-edBNSbPFNL0Fh_hZok/s320/199334284.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>6. And speaking of
that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome? </b><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="Textbody"></p>My latest book is <i>Power to Yield and Other Stories</i>, my
second short story collection coming this February from Broken Eye Books. It
has people changing into plants, a telepathic AI kid talking to aliens, angry
clothing, and saving the day with sadomasochism. It all gets quite complicated,
which I hope counts as awesome! I aim to capture some tiny shards of life with
its infinite complexity in my work.<o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody"><br /></p><p class="Textbody">Thank you, Bogi!</p><i>POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin</i>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-35829294094891030922024-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-27T00:00:00.250-08:00Cool Books I Read While I Was Too Sad to Review<p><b>If a review copy lands in the inbox when the reviewer is too overwhelmed to read it, does it even get a review?</b></p><p>Well, no, obviously it doesn't. Despite my fervent hopes, the review fairy did not visit me once while I was having a Big Bad 2023 to magic away my Netgalley obligations and show love to books during my period of chronic distraction. But the books continued to be good, and I'm going to cover some of them here in not-even-nano-sized review chunks.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhISmrBoNtzqDDTvBJIG1BY76t6iuOIRgaUovW9oASGWeJR1RJKUlvG_GuwKCzdWl6lwuqMWfEcFIFov0FgEREtGlp8dTVUm2IOIHjJ2C26DXjWuxibF-f1PWi_kxZD44gRK8_v8n07U6eEaOzkDzPIevvYSg6TVkq7G3eTAtp4JVf5NLuC5kGhc5qpD_Rs" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="652" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhISmrBoNtzqDDTvBJIG1BY76t6iuOIRgaUovW9oASGWeJR1RJKUlvG_GuwKCzdWl6lwuqMWfEcFIFov0FgEREtGlp8dTVUm2IOIHjJ2C26DXjWuxibF-f1PWi_kxZD44gRK8_v8n07U6eEaOzkDzPIevvYSg6TVkq7G3eTAtp4JVf5NLuC5kGhc5qpD_Rs" width="156" /></a></div>Case in point: <b>The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera</b> was a 2023 highlight. I've seen a lot of deservedly flattering comps for this novel, a story of divine destiny denied set in a fantasy Sri Lanka: my own mind was drawn to Sofia Samatar and Ursula K. Le Guin while reading, with a few of the bleak vibes I last felt in A.K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name. For a story that really invites comparisons, however, Saint of Bright Doors is very much making its own mark on modern genre - and I'm sure there are plenty of threads of Sri Lankan and wider South Asian influence that I missed entirely.<p></p><p>Highlights of the reading experience for me included the way the story's geography seems to literally rearrange itself around the absurd authoritarianism of Luriat's state politics, the portrayal of gods and unknowable supernatural forces co-existing with a mundane, modern setting, and the greatest first person pronoun drop in genre history. This is an essential novel and I hope we'll be talking about it for years to come.</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgig12PU9PQkiQ6Qy_WuVGleZG3ddXoKNl52gxNEeCeP1EQPYU5CaJU983CRkrYSHuRa7jenxeStNdrrvYUAkr02KhdWlyoi4brH2qas_csyrECWhMDZWC6iyHoZWAspx8b7dUHIZJdVD2aHAsbcomSayIgdEqWtfFyR-wqUm_s3hxLeWVGLPwlzVhGGTHm" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2404" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgig12PU9PQkiQ6Qy_WuVGleZG3ddXoKNl52gxNEeCeP1EQPYU5CaJU983CRkrYSHuRa7jenxeStNdrrvYUAkr02KhdWlyoi4brH2qas_csyrECWhMDZWC6iyHoZWAspx8b7dUHIZJdVD2aHAsbcomSayIgdEqWtfFyR-wqUm_s3hxLeWVGLPwlzVhGGTHm" width="160" /></a></b></div><b>Translation State by Ann Leckie</b> was a novel I hoped to feel similarly about. This latest standalone-ish instalment in Leckie's Imperial Radch universe is a solid, thought provoking piece of SF (Clara has some excellent <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/lindsay-leckie-and-leguin-century-of.html">provoked thoughts here</a>) but it hasn't withstood the test of time as a standout novel for me, Don't get me wrong, I love the Presger translators, and I highly appreciated the way Leckie gives us crumbs of further context without really making anything clearer about the setting's most mysterious alien race. Less attractive on reflection is the treatment of alien biological urges as fundamentally irresistible in a way that would simply not make sense if the author were talking about humans. Protagonists Reet and Qven are, for different reasons, terrified of the urges of their alien heritage, but <i>all</i> Presger translators simply <i>have</i> to go through "puberty" in the way their creators designed, so oh well, suck it up kids, they'll be fine once it's done. <p></p><p>I understand the narrative is setting up questions about personhood in general, not creating any deliberate queer parallels, but gender is so integral to the setting as a whole, and aliens so often used as a stand-in for human queerness (and neurodivergence) that it's hard not to think about Qven and Reet's lack of choice through that lens. It would be nice to see stories that think more about how alien queerness would manifest, from the starting assumption that <i>of course</i> it would manifest in any sentient species, but I'll keep searching for those books elsewhere. In the meantime, any Imperial Radch is good Imperial Radch, but this one didn't hit "great" for me.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbC5zkEmhnsGQjv79cuyGJrDPoJCogaKumwo2iklv4sqWHRFQ7_02ta_GabUawcdKzLZPFUQVCeSbplAftoj6Le8DcCDCubMXD3j110xnszdU4vb8M0w6Ai0HAq0qf8FTg0151MBaPvTVrgjYpwvO9jrPs5CUXwwacqeJKmPKXrMGtc5jsWADmHvmyk7OZ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="663" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbC5zkEmhnsGQjv79cuyGJrDPoJCogaKumwo2iklv4sqWHRFQ7_02ta_GabUawcdKzLZPFUQVCeSbplAftoj6Le8DcCDCubMXD3j110xnszdU4vb8M0w6Ai0HAq0qf8FTg0151MBaPvTVrgjYpwvO9jrPs5CUXwwacqeJKmPKXrMGtc5jsWADmHvmyk7OZ" width="159" /></a></div>Joe and I share a love of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, and while <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/08/review-sleep-no-more-by-seanan-mcguire.html">he does the honours</a> of the <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/09/review-innocent-sleep-by-seanan-mcguire.html">full Nerds of a Feather reviews</a>, I also found time for both of last year's double-Toby entries, <b>Sleep No More </b>and <b>The Innocent Sleep</b><b>. </b>These are the 17th and 18th books in the series respectively, and they effectively act as companion novels to each other: Sleep No More follows series protagonist October - a fae changeling - as she grapples with the effects of a reality-altering mass illusion, while The Innocent Sleep breaks with series tradition to focus on her Cait Sidhe husband Tybalt, who is working against the illusion from the outside. The actual points of narrative overlap didn't set my world on fire (In one book, October thinks Tybalt looks angry! In the next book, we learn Tybalt <i>is</i> angry!), but the double-bill allows McGuire to let loose with the most unsavoury conventions and darkest corners of fae society in a way that brings the series full circle to its earliest vibes. There's also more time across the books to feature a wide set of supporting characters - including one unexpectedly sympathetic "recast" - who demonstrate the breadth of the series' worldbuilding. As always, I'm eager for more.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguzSqSINdhHSX8NMVeWg2QQ30S-09gDmGNwVh1YuGe_Ve0BDpXjXflwpWg7h-JDMk08SBux4cHhg8ooixarYCwVhvFyPqXVz2BVH7pbnjzB80dHU6TlL5WEPbnOipk9ZoRWng9bogUrxigtvyZ0tqzZ2qX58uPzc3fqJYOeZm0eb9xgWzUDzG94mZJDf9u" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguzSqSINdhHSX8NMVeWg2QQ30S-09gDmGNwVh1YuGe_Ve0BDpXjXflwpWg7h-JDMk08SBux4cHhg8ooixarYCwVhvFyPqXVz2BVH7pbnjzB80dHU6TlL5WEPbnOipk9ZoRWng9bogUrxigtvyZ0tqzZ2qX58uPzc3fqJYOeZm0eb9xgWzUDzG94mZJDf9u" width="160" /></a></div>Let's talk about some more underrated series! <b>Claws and Contrivances</b> is the second in Stephanie Burgis' Regency Dragons romances and it's just as delightful as the first: an intricate and often hilarious plot of misunderstandings and reversals, sprinkled with fun dragon naturalism and centred around a young protagonist with a lot to learn and a LOT of willing accomplices to her various schemes. Unlike the first book in the series, Scales and Sensibility, Claws and Contrivances takes place in a fundamentally loving family environment where queerness and difference are accepted, and it's the perfect backdrop for Rose Tregarth and her nerdy, autistic-coded love interest Aubrey to fall for each other.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha-n856E4p2HUyKi_V9Nf6kbRRAnqCXya0Rk49-tSiDH3_VSqavvzEAMkUPwbrxdbWhDItsPpjt61U5U2A6dBttzsMVYWj_N-B79NiMWsiXUX8VKw3RQ8um7QiN8R3x2e_HHSpFxHyg59JV1PW6G4yHvjzu3kTIayeP0z5y5qpwvPoGBJ-isYaAPwmaPSn" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="321" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha-n856E4p2HUyKi_V9Nf6kbRRAnqCXya0Rk49-tSiDH3_VSqavvzEAMkUPwbrxdbWhDItsPpjt61U5U2A6dBttzsMVYWj_N-B79NiMWsiXUX8VKw3RQ8um7QiN8R3x2e_HHSpFxHyg59JV1PW6G4yHvjzu3kTIayeP0z5y5qpwvPoGBJ-isYaAPwmaPSn" width="154" /></a></b></div><b>Furious Heaven </b>by Kate Elliott is anything but light, both in content and in physical weight. As <a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/04/review-furious-heaven-by-kate-elliott.html">Paul covered in detail</a>, this is a 750 page chonk retelling events from the life of Alexander the Great, except Alexander is now Princess Sun, daughter of Eirene of Chaonia, an expanding galactic power rubbing up against the much larger might of the Phene while trying to maintain their own powers at home. If you know the history of Alexander the Great, you'll probably recognise more moments from real history, but it's certainly not necessary to enjoy the combination of pew-pew space battles, irreverent epithet-laden narration, "oh no she DIDN'T" politicking, and silly teenagers with entirely too much power. Go look up the facts afterwards to find out which bits really happened (no genetically modified four-armed people in antiquity, unfortunately), and get some knowledge useful for pub quiz as a bonus!<p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Bluesky at adrijjy.bsky.social.</i></p>Adri Joyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00515756221558315734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-65552256667795135772024-02-26T12:00:00.000-08:002024-02-26T12:00:00.129-08:00With the new Avatar series, one has to ask: What do we really want from an adaptation?<p><b>This version isn't perfect. It isn't horrible either. The world is at balance again.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ShsDlMMmSEAIwcuRysvKdOWl4ese0IXldPcs0gQiqYgJEeKDR1Hbqp-2FVc_yMIYK7CXjflxyUdoFn1iKXrEo9jJQTQjnYxGKPMO-2VkL1LiKamR6DwYcV01UpoHDcgn_venGY-sbJ8CqLheNSnEl-scND9KJvgT8lmJkDBolnnHDuWOefWCfadxR1A/s1350/Avatar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ShsDlMMmSEAIwcuRysvKdOWl4ese0IXldPcs0gQiqYgJEeKDR1Hbqp-2FVc_yMIYK7CXjflxyUdoFn1iKXrEo9jJQTQjnYxGKPMO-2VkL1LiKamR6DwYcV01UpoHDcgn_venGY-sbJ8CqLheNSnEl-scND9KJvgT8lmJkDBolnnHDuWOefWCfadxR1A/w512-h640/Avatar.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p>Before anyone watched 2005's <i>Batman Begins</i>, one strong argument for its existence was that audiences' definitive memory of that world couldn't be allowed to be 1997's <i>Batman & Robin</i>. Such a lamentable misfire needed to be overwritten with something more dignified. The same reason explains the quasi-reboot of the <i>X-Men</i> films with <i>First Class</i> after the not-quite-beloved <i>The Last Stand</i>, the casting of Tom Holland to replace Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, and the ongoing quest to one day, finally, make a decent <i>Fantastic Four</i> movie.</p><p>An even harsher approach is to not restart the timeline, but resume it from a well-liked beginning that was less well served by its sequels: 2019's <i>Terminator: Dark Fate</i> is intended to ignore everything that happened after 1991's <i>T2</i>, while <i>Ghostbusters: Afterlife</i> is a deliberate erasure of the unfairly hated 2016 remake. Although this method is called "soft reboot," it's actually more aggressive, because at least a "hard reboot" doesn't go out of its way to discourage viewers from enjoying previous works if that's what they prefer (e.g. <i>Godzilla</i>, <i>Sherlock Holmes</i>, <i>Tarzan</i>). While a "hard reboot" is content to do its own thing, a "soft reboot" executes a hostile takeover of an ongoing storyline and tells viewers to pretend that some portions of it never existed.</p><p>All this is necessary context before jumping into the rather complex relationship that viewers have had with the Aang/Korra franchise. The original cartoon show is now acclaimed as an almost perfect classic, but before the ending aired (and even for some time after), fan ships used to launch cannonballs at each other with the ferocity of <i>Twilight</i> subreddits. This situation didn't improve once the sequel series launched: one segment of fans flatly refuses to acknowledge Korra as part of the canon, another segment accepts only season 1, and yet another segment didn't believe the Korrasami pairing was official until the comic books spelled it out.</p><p>There ought to be a way for audiences to love a story without getting so petty about it. But one specific portion of such fierce protectiveness isn't totally unjustified: 2010's film adaptation <i>The Last Airbender</i> was so calamitously plagued with incompetence that any substitute was destined to be an improvement by default. And the 14 years fans had to wait for the palate cleanser couldn't pass fast enough.</p><p>The new live action adaptation, which just launched on Netflix, condenses the 20 short episodes of the cartoon's first season into 8 long episodes. Some plotlines have been condensed, others have been merged, and a few have been omitted. Whereas the cartoon took its time to explore at leisure the impressively varied and rich setting of its fictional world, the Netflix version focuses on a handful of key locations. This cutting and stitching of material isn't accomplished successfully. Sometimes an entire animated episode's worth of plot is wedged in as an easy-to-miss line of dialogue, and characters that are indispensable to the story but lived in locations that were removed from the adaptation appear now where it doesn't make full sense to find them.</p><p>For example, Teo, an inventor's son, no longer lives on a mountain, but he still has his mechanical flying wheelchair. The owl-shaped spirit of knowledge didn't even appear until the cartoon's second season, but here it makes a gratuitous cameo. Koh the Face-Stealer is moved to a completely separate plot in the Spirit World. And the traveling musicians from <i>The Cave of Two Lovers</i> are shunted to a scene of clumsily shoehorned exposition. The inclusion of characters and plot points that the cartoon didn't introduce this early in the story may be due to the fact that any show produced for Netflix exists under the hanging sword of capricious cancelation. Fire Lord Ozai, Princess Azula, Avatar Kuruk and even Fire Lord Sozin are shown much earlier than in the cartoon, consuming precious runtime in really unnecessary scenes that explain too much.</p><p>This is the main sin of this version of the story: it doesn't trust viewers' patience. The cartoon didn't jump at the first chance to explain the backstories of Zuko, Iroh, Katara, or even protagonist Aang. It knew how to set up its mysteries and pay off its reveals at the right dramatic moment. The Netflix adaptation seems afraid of letting any question linger for more than two seconds. Part of this problem is caused by the quicker pacing, another part by the aforementioned risk of cancelation, and no small part by ongoing changes in viewers' preferences, namely the widespread misconceptions about what constitutes a plot hole. By this point in the story, the cartoon hadn't even revealed <i>why</i> the Air Nomads had been singled out for extermination in the first place.</p><p>What redeems the Netflix <i>Avatar</i> is the technical side of the storytelling. The combat choreography is flawless, and it takes care to represent the different styles of each elemental discipline. The degree of detail in set design is to be commended, as is the faithfulness of the casting (let it never be forgotten that the 2010 film is the whole reason why we have the word "racebending"). Even when the script leaves little space for emotional development, often replacing it with overstuffed lines of dialogue, the child actors do a fantastic job of portraying the anxieties of living through a world-changing crisis. Gordon Cormier understood the assignment perfectly: in the role of Avatar Aang, he knows how to channel with the same believability the enthusiasm of youth, the grief of absolute loneliness, and the paralyzing cluelessness of someone forced to grow up too soon. His antagonist Dallas Liu expresses the right mix of bravado barely concealing Prince Zuko's profound insecurity. As Katara, actress Kiawentiio displays both the tenderness of a gentle soul and the determination of someone who knows she can be much more. And Ian Ousley nails Sokka's brand of deadpan sarcasm every time.</p><p>In general, the visual effects are very good, except for a few acrobatic moves that look too obviously digital. And the makeup for Iroh and Bumi looks fake to the point of self-parody. As well-executed as this production is otherwise, it doesn't manage to justify its existence as something separate from the original cartoon. Unlike most reboots, this one retells exactly the same story viewers already know, which is always a recipe for unreachable expectations. <i>Avatar: The Last Airbender</i> set an incredibly high bar for fantasy animation aimed at children, and the openly confessed <i>Game of Thrones</i>-inspired grittification of this version doesn't make the story any more meaningful or exciting. It does fulfill more than satisfyingly the mandatory mission of giving fans something to show to newcomers that isn't the horrible 2010 film, but beyond that, it can't hope to match the first telling.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 7/10.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-58511642467758750692024-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-26T00:00:00.154-08:00Review: The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed<p> <b>A creepy fairytale story with its eye on more than the just magic, mystery and missing children.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAmekP9wg56h2aCstQR-md-hxiGCJgkZp3TYJ85jbYNF89knH3WFl1PvjKykEuzXVZFpu4vj0JIKVTthipJbwpfkDaayaPTUEk1kihLo_H2eTEtKSfwxfKZ8p1-OY5icKA2sewOa5ZTTDU4ZOXVuqjfjd60kvSWl0YyLwuI7lHS-9jR7eWcHxKvHSG684/s1761/127281143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1761" data-original-width="1100" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAmekP9wg56h2aCstQR-md-hxiGCJgkZp3TYJ85jbYNF89knH3WFl1PvjKykEuzXVZFpu4vj0JIKVTthipJbwpfkDaayaPTUEk1kihLo_H2eTEtKSfwxfKZ8p1-OY5icKA2sewOa5ZTTDU4ZOXVuqjfjd60kvSWl0YyLwuI7lHS-9jR7eWcHxKvHSG684/s320/127281143.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p><br /></p>When the cover of a book has animals with their skulls out on it, I feel like the audience is probably well-primed for the kinda gross - or at the very least rather unsettling - events that are about to unfold. Because - spoilers - this is not a story about a happy fun man who has a meat-and-sundries shop in an enchanting woodland paradise. These woods are <i>creepy</i>. So do go into it with that in mind.<div><br /></div><div>That being said, Mohamed has managed to do the thing I always appreciate when authors do - she's stayed on the near side of the horror line - it's going to leave you feeling a bit ill at ease, but it never fully breaks out into the full on scary, the "guess it's time for the nightmares", actually horror-horror. And, because I am a great coward to the very depths of my soul, this is perfect for me. I want some horrible skull-creatures, I want nastiness... but only up to a point. <i>The Butcher of the Forest</i> takes me a fair way towards the edge of that line, but never threatens to step across it.<br /><div><p></p><p>What it does do is give us a very good fairytale feeling story of a journey into a wood that might also be another wood, in another place, or no place at all, inhabited by creatures that aren't totally within the human scope of understanding, at least in the traditional sense. Unless you're Veris, our protagonist. Veris went into the wood a long time ago to fetch back a child that had disappeared there, something no one else had managed to do, because Veris Knows things. Not big, grand magics, but just enough to give her the wisdom and sense to get in and get out with what she came for. Much good though it may have done her. Now, many years later, she's been asked - well, not exactly <i>asked </i>but we'll come back to that - to go and do it all again, to fetch back another two children lost to the dangers of the North Forest, a Forest no one in the village goes into, and in which any lost children are simply considered dead. The North Forest is not to be messed with.</p><p>But when the two children lost in there are the children of the Tyrant? The Tyrant who knows you successfully made that trip once before? Well, sometimes heroism isn't a choice you get to make for yourself. Sometimes someone has decided your heroics are their due, and there's not much you can really do about that.</p><p>Which brings us to the core of what's so good about <i>The Butcher of the Forest</i> as a story - it's a story that understands the place a person may be forced to occupy, in the sort of world that so many fantasy stories like to draw on. Because Veris lives in a village - a land - occupied by the Tyrant. His name isn't ironic. And through her musings on her own past, and the events of the story as we witness them, we see a much better appreciation of what that might mean than I have come to expect of pseudo-medieval fantasy. Not so much in the understanding that social hierarchies exist, which is often covered perfectly well, but in the understanding of the layerings of explicit and implicit in the power dynamics that fuel them, and critically, in the legacy of what it took to get the world to that place.</p><p>Veris remembers the war that brought the Tyrant to power here. Veris remembers the cost - especially to her personally. The cost to her family and her body. Mohamed is perfectly blunt in what that conquest will have meant, and keeps on meaning, in the family that is a woman in her forties, her aunt in her 70s and her grandfather pushing 100 forming a household together, with the obvious gaping wounds of missing family members. And so, when Veris is picked up with some lack of courtesy at an inhospitable hours and pushed to her knees before the tyrant, there is no question of dramatic resistance. This power is a power to be suffered through and survived, if you can. It asks too much but you have to obey nonetheless.</p><p>Seeing that just written plainly on the page, in every act and choice of the heroine was just... kinda powerful. And just as grim as any horrible skull creature the woods had to offer.</p><p>And it gets better, because the children Veris is being sent in to rescue are the Tyrant's own. This man who has done such harm to her people, who threatens her family so she'll do this thing for him that no one else has done. A lot of the story has an undercurrent to it of Veris' torn emotions - her hatred of this man, her knowledge of what he has done... against the as-yet innocent of his children. They may well grow up to be their own monsters, they may well already be being shaped into them, but as yet... as yet? They're innocent. They are not the owners of their father's crimes. But they are part of the system as it is. They are its inheritors. They are an intrinsic part of a system that is anything but innocent itself. There is nothing but complexity to their place in relation to Veris in this world.</p><p>So it is this constant musing on that tension that underlies the whole of Veris' story in this book. She finds herself caught between the poles of resentment and understanding, as well as the past and the present, as her trip into the dangerous lands inside the North Forest naturally summon memories of her last trip.</p><p>The narrative threads through these moments of the past delicately, with a measured pace, so it takes much of the story to fully understand the story that came before, and its full significance. The moment when every piece finally clicks into place does not feel like a revelation, merely a moment of satisfied understanding, because those foundations have been so carefully built as we went the whole way along.</p><p>But this tension, this satisfying weaving of opposing points, would not work nearly so well were not Veris such a good character to infest the point of view of. She's already a rare thing in being a heroine in her 40s - I do love to see a fully adult women still being allowed to be the focus of a story - but she's also just someone with a relatable pragmatism, as well as a realistic backstory, in that she truly feels like she has one. There are not many pages for this story to unfold across, but Mohamed dedicates enough page space within them to give Veris the very real sense of being a whole person, a person with a life that has happened before this, and for whom that past has real effects, writ both large and small, on how she interacts with the present. It feels relevant to her words, her actions, her choices throughout, and makes her feel so beautifully realised, especially alongside her pragmatism, her wisdom to know which are the battles she cannot fight and must resign herself to suffer through. There's a weariness to those decisions, the sense of a big sigh just being held back, that does a great deal of work in making me like her.</p><p>Is she a heroine though? It's a question I came away from finishing this wondering, and not to Veris' detriment. But it is simply that, unlike so many stories, she has ended up in this role through no agency of her own. It's a story that has happened to her, even as she is the one suffering it. Does that make her more the heroine than in stories where the protagonist's chose their battles? Or less? I don't know. But that lingering pondering... that too is a joy of the book.</p><p>Which leads me onto the ending... which I won't spoil. But I can say, without spoilers, that when you get there, you realise quite what the scope of this story is, and that, in one framing, it could merely be the prelude to another, different story. I kind of hope that story never gets written though. I enjoy that this exists as that prelude, and that there's a big wide gulf of potentiality hovering around the ending at what the "and then?" could be. It is forever left as an exercise of the reader to wonder and to dream it. Mohamed has left us a framework, and we can find our own answers within it, if we want to spend the time doing so (I certainly have).</p><p>All in all, <i>The Butcher of the Forest </i>is a wonderful novella that gives us a great (creepy - did I mention creepy?) story, but with a real meat of thoughtfulness under the skin, that sometimes peeps through the gaping wounds to give us a glimpse of what lies beneath. It's got the nastiness that fairytales often have, as well as a very offhand, pragmatic approach to magic that is unwilling to explain it because it simply does not need an explanation. When the horrible skull creature is coming after you, you don't have time to wonder exactly how it works, after all. The wondering is saved for the important things - how fucked up the world is under the bootheel of a tyrant, and the lingering horrors of one's own existence. Just how I like it.</p><p>--</p><p><b>The Math</b></p><p>Highlights: over 40s women allowed to have adventures (even if they don't personally want them), political musings, creepy horrible skull creatures</p><p>Nerd Coefficient: 8/10</p><p>Reference: Premee Mohamed, <i>The Butcher of the Forest</i>, [Tor 2024]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroformtea.bsky.social</i></p></div></div>Roseannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00518438144401664661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-74021760934891668842024-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-23T00:00:00.344-08:00Microreview: Dragons of Deepwood Fen by Bradley P. Beaulieu<p><b>Introducing a new fantasy world, filled with the intrigues of an empire, its unwilling vassal state, a grasping church, and oh yes, dragons.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Waxj4LyCEM1HeldeBgXWJeCZraV9DBOVVKDQ2kyWZrLxbTtDK8wZiqPKdR_UbQIz_7NZ7IoPh0FxRYMc0tlzXKyj2gC7NrYLbIE7VoLiK-lz4xtTwg3vpAAWV2CXkwnxY_eD2tm106tzujrgx159vkU1ZPoKwxWt5Xz9QsQyaI54kYxo6wVhObvAPOpP/s466/91olYPDjLbL._SY466_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="309" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Waxj4LyCEM1HeldeBgXWJeCZraV9DBOVVKDQ2kyWZrLxbTtDK8wZiqPKdR_UbQIz_7NZ7IoPh0FxRYMc0tlzXKyj2gC7NrYLbIE7VoLiK-lz4xtTwg3vpAAWV2CXkwnxY_eD2tm106tzujrgx159vkU1ZPoKwxWt5Xz9QsQyaI54kYxo6wVhObvAPOpP/s320/91olYPDjLbL._SY466_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p>Rylan Holbrooke has a problem. Well, a bunch of problems. He is the illegitimate son of the local governor. He has a rapport with dragons, in fact he is a dragon singer, able to calm and work with the dragons that the empire relies on. But he is also a thief and scoundrel stealing from said empire as well. His checkered nature, his straddling (however very uncomfortably) of two worlds puts him in position to notice the threads of a dreadful and dangerous plot. A plot that will change the vassalized realm of forest known as The Holt forever. And, perhaps, the entire Empire as well.</p><p>Rylan's story, and the stories of his fellow protagonists, are the matter of Bradley Beaulieu's<i> The Dragons of Deepwood Fen.</i></p><p>Rylan is our primary protagonist and gets the most screen time out of all of the characters we see. He's caught between two worlds and trying to balance his lives in both worlds, and the author aptly shows his inner and outward struggles in handling that. This is best shown in the points of conflict--his lack of desire to have anything to do with the Red Knives except when forced, and then later, on the opposite site, the very prickly relationship he has with his half-siblings in his father's house. Where does, in fact, Rylan fit in and feel himself, the best? Alone, flying over the holt with his dragon, and, it is shown, nowhere else. </p><p>Our other major protagonist is Lorelei. Lorelei is an Inquisitor (investigator) for the Empire, and with her queer partner Creed, she, like Rylan, goes from her day job to being wrapped up in the tendrils of the conspiracy and danger to the Holt and beyond. Starting off with investigating a drug smuggling ring, Lorelei starts to learn that there is something rotten in the Empire city of Ancris. Lorelei is a fascinating character and perhaps even slightly more interesting than Rylan on a character level. Rylan is interesting because of his spending time in two worlds. Lorelei is more connected, with her partner, with her mother. She also very clearly has what we would call undiagnosed ADHD with a side order of social anxiety disorder. We don't use and see those terms of course, but Lorelei is so clearly not a social creature, is always leaping ahead in her mind, and really is only herself when she is working on a puzzle or problem, in limited company. She does a lot of the intellectual heavy lifting to see the scope of the problem. </p><p>Third, and to a lesser extent, is Rhiannon. Rhiannon is the youngest of the three, and has magical potential and power that she herself does not quite understand. Also, being young, she is also the one who is the most manipulated out of these three characters. This makes sense, but it makes for sometimes a bit of a frustrating read when she is on stage. Also, hers is the point of view that seems to have the most flashbacks to them. While these flashbacks provide extremely important context and development of the byzantine and labyrinthine "plots within plots" that the novel revels in, it means that as a result, that Rhiannon feels like she has less agency than Lorelei and Rylan, and is much more of a narrative device and tool than an actual character that I could really feel for. I could imagine (while holding my nose thanks to his odious smoking) talking with Rylan and meeting his dragon. I could definitely imagine getting to know (carefully!) the shy and introverted and socially awkward Lorelei. Rhiannon, by contrast, I have a far less good hold on, as a character in my mind. </p><p>There are a couple of other viewpoint characters (this is epic fantasy, and so we have a good half dozen of them in all), but I actually want to hold my fire in discussing them, because it is very easy to get spoilery regarding them. Suffice it to say, Beaulieu is firmly in the Point of View Solves Problems school of writing, and we get other sides to the conflict through these characters. We also get some rather unusual twists regarding these characters and their nature, and once again, the author gives our characters very understandable, and sometimes rather painful flaws to deal with.</p><p>So given a thick fantasy novel with a complex plot, where does one start? For one thing, let's lay the groundwork. Refer to the map in the book (this is a case where audio is a weaker medium, because the map is definitely important here). The Holt is not part of the Empire at the heart of this world, it is an uneasy vassal state with a government that is a messy hybrid of control from the central Empire and local magnates having their say, with the current holder of the position, Rylan's father, about to face a regular vote of confidence. It feels like a somewhat more aristocratic and less monarchist version of the Roman Empire era Kingdom of Armenia. It's not officially part of the Empire, but its government certainly is overshadowed by the nearby Empire.</p><p>In point of fact, the right model is surely a flavor of the Roman Empire. Latin terms and names abound in the book. The Five rulers of the empire are called a Quintarchy. Lorelei's last name is Aurelius. The center of Ancris is called the Quadrata. There are legionnaires as the military force. And so on. Fortunately, as witness Lorelei itself, this is a far far less patriarchal Romanesque world than the real thing. Lorelei is not unusual for being a woman, she is unusual in her lack of social skills and the convoluted method by which she became an inquisitor in the first place. We see women in power and authority throughout the Empire, and the Holt as well. </p><p>The plot of the novel does move slower than what is good for it. Beaulieu, even with the shorthands above, has a lot to try and get off the ground. So a lot of the novel has Rylan bustling about, and Lorelei wrapped up in her police procedural storyline that proves far more important than even she realizes. So this fantasy novel adds that as one of the balls that it is trying to juggle along with the hybrid low fantasy world of a lot of the work (a notable touchstone here might be the world of Joe Abercrombie except with significantly more magic and less gore). It does feel like its a while before Lorelei truly gets out of her storyline and really into the main action, or the main action in general. Beaulieu lays down a lot of the world in the time, including, of course, dragons.</p><p>So let's talk about the dragons, given the title of this work. There are two schools of dragons, and two supergroups of them. The metallics, based on metals, are the dragons used by the Empire. They are magically controlled and coerced, the Empire turning to raw power. This is what makes Rylan so valuable, his Dragonsinger nature means he has a better understanding of his charges than even the dragon's owners in many cases. It is a very hierarchical, dominance based system (I wish that Rylan made his feelings about this system planer earlier, but he eventually vocalizes just how horrid he thinks this whole thing is). </p><p>By contrast, a rebellious faction living in the Holt, the Red Knives, and as mentioned above, secretly, Rylan, use a magical ritual of bonding to tie a rider to their sragon. The dragons of the holt are non-metallic, and their scales are often used for alchemical reagents. There is a much more sure pairing of dragon and human, and the connections to McCaffrey are obvious (also, Robin Hobb and Tracy Hickman, among others). Given how fraught the first meetings can be, I was also reminded of the movie <i>Avatar</i>, as Jake must bind and tame a flying mountain banshee, and then that bond is permanent. The Rylan-Vedron connection and their relationship is one of the highlights of the book. </p><p>In all, yes, Beaulieu does deliver on the dragons, and really, given all the intrigue and characters as given above, the prose and the feel of the book really do achieve lift-off when Beaulieu is writing passages with his dragons front and center. Be it a glorious aerial battle of dragon versus dragon, or the quieter ministrations of Rylan doing his job as Dragonsinger, Beaulieu clearly wrote this novel with the dragons front and center. </p>I give good credit to Beaulieu for going beyond the usual settings in creating The Holt. Empires and colonialism are complex and complicated subjects. Rather than going for an occupied province, or a land outside the boundaries of the Empire entirely, The Holt is instead a vassal and dependency. This is inherently an uneasy and uncertain status for it and its inhabitants. It allows Beaulieu to have some of his cake and eat it too. They aren't quite part of the Empire, but the Kin (the inhabitants of this region) are certainly connected to the Empire. Rylan himself is half-Kin and suffers prejudice, particularly from the Empire, for his nature. It helps give depth and feeling for both Rylan and the Holt itself. I mentioned Hobb above, and I do believe that the Rain Wilds were an obvious inspiration for the forested vastness of The Holt, although more temperate in climate.<p>I do have some thoughts about other aspects of the worldbuilding here, ones that frustrated me. Fortunately, not the map itself or the basic geography. There are no rivers that fork unexpectedly, or anything that violates basic conventions of geology. I am less clear on something that really isn't touched on and I wished it were. This is a novel, as discussed above, that is all about the vassalized but not incorporated Holt and how it chafes under that indirect control, and the interesting ideas that entails. We've plenty of works set in empires, and in "barbarian" (sic) lands, but the polder and borderlands of vassalized and client-kings, is a setting we get little of. But my question is, just where is the heartland of the Empire? It's not entirely clear. We have these important cities in the mountains, and we have the fivefold Quintarch structure to the government representing these five cities. But are the mountains truly their heartland? It sure seems so, and if that is the case, he missed a big worldbuilding opportunity. The Holt is very different than the mountains, but we never get a sense of the sense of place of those mountains. We definitely get a feel for the Holt, as mentioned above. But an Empire built and developed in those mountains, well, the denizens are sure to have opinions about lowland forests as a terrain. I've mentioned before how much Beaulieu has modeled his empire on the Roman, right down to the Latinate names. Well, the Romans complained incessantly about the cold north of England and Scotland, the forests of Germany, the desolate heat of Syria, the weirdness of ancient Egypt. And yes the Romans went there anyway. But this Empire feels pale by comparison. In making the Holt as such a rich tributary vassal and place for the action to take place, the Empire itself as a place suffers. Ancris, one of the five capitals, suffers in comparison to the Holt as a setting. </p><p>The ending of this novel doesn't really have an offramp if you want to one and done the series. The immediate threat and problem, once the true scale of what is going on is revealed, is thwarted but not defeated. All of the major characters have gone through a lot, and the stage is set for the next novel, the next round in the conflict. Despite my reservations above, I did enjoy the novel, as I have enjoyed Beaulieu's work going back to his earliest novels. Perhaps with worldbuilding under him, the second volume can move from the strength of the last quarter of the novel (where things ramp up) into a stronger second book.</p><p>--</p><p><b>The Math</b></p><p>Highlights:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Diverse and interesting fantasy world</li><li>Rylan and Lorelei make a strong two hander of the primary protagonists and viewpoints</li><li>Some issues with the worldbuilding and pacing. </li></ul><p></p><p><b>Reference: </b>Beaulieu, Bradley P., <i>Dragons of Deepwood Fen,</i> [Daw, 2023]</p><p><i>POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.</i></p>Paul Weimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02444942522624902562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-73850387762583777752024-02-22T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-22T00:00:00.135-08:00Microreview: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty<b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The gang is
reunited to buckle some swashes, but they sure took their time getting to the
good bits</span></b><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMw9gwLg_IB1xy-lXWZAXsIVn9T_FI5YlXBW0BdBGsWGgCRWYkEdMpnWnAQmu5GisHPcBmO7vkqfwaGJmbvKgAE5rK931T5tqxsrMPV8GhAIVFwrfFvR8orcf3IeDCIPfXghmKT3wOPfnasSlzB0YCWCfFASjTxlWPt3ORDpqYaTWlk5lPgzPfS_Fjzmie/s2700/AminaAl-Sirafi.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMw9gwLg_IB1xy-lXWZAXsIVn9T_FI5YlXBW0BdBGsWGgCRWYkEdMpnWnAQmu5GisHPcBmO7vkqfwaGJmbvKgAE5rK931T5tqxsrMPV8GhAIVFwrfFvR8orcf3IeDCIPfXghmKT3wOPfnasSlzB0YCWCfFASjTxlWPt3ORDpqYaTWlk5lPgzPfS_Fjzmie/s320/AminaAl-Sirafi.jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><p></p><p>The hook of S. A. Chakraborty’s newest offering ticks all my boxes: Piracy and magic and spirits and daevas? Ships and trade and 12th century Islamic world? A middle-aged mother who has Lived A Life is strong-armed out of her peaceful domestic retirement into taking One Last Job? Please and thank you, yes, may I have some more?<br /><br />The story is told from the perspective of Amina Al-Sirafi, who made a name for herself in her youth as the most ruthless, terrifying pirate captain in the Arab world. Tales of her feats are known everywhere: She is tall, fights like a man, has gold in her teeth and scars on her arm. She poisoned a feast during trade talks in order to rob the attendees; she stole horses from the emir of Hormuz. She robbed Chinese envoys of their cargo and stole their ship while they slept through it all, only to awake drifting in the sea on dinghies. She is not to be trifled with. </p><p> Or <i>was </i>not to be trifled with. Now, though, she just wants to be left alone to live quietly and raise her beloved daughter, secluded and hidden from the girl’s father, who is clearly bad news of some sort. (The exact badness of his news is kept an irritating secret from the reader, but not a terribly secret secret; I'd figured it out by page 49.) So when a wealthy woman whose daughter has been kidnapped comes to hire Amina to find the daughter, she knows exactly which pressure points to push to make Amina take the job: threaten her quiet retirement, and make it known where the fabled pirate captain now lives. Of course Amina takes the job---and since deep down she misses the old life, the excitement, the seafaring adventures, it’s not a complete catastrophe. One last job. One terrific pay-out. Then she’ll definitely absolutely retire for real. No fooling. Absotively posilutely. Forget that this is marketed as Book 1 of a trilogy. Just one last job, that's <i>all</i>.<br /><br />From here the plot proceeds in two halves. In the first bit, Amina gets the gang back together. She must track down her old ship and her old crew and get them on board (hah) with her new endeavour. Friends must be sprung from prisons, ships must be stolen from soldiers, and poisoners and cartographers must be persuaded to give up their own comfortable retirements to help Amina find the kidnapped child. Next, once the gang is all gathered, Amina and company set out to rescue the child. And since the child has been kidnapped by a collector of magical artifacts, with his own plans for how to use them to his advantage, things get real magical real fast.<br /><br />This book delivers on all of its promises. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book that provides so fully and completely everything that it promised on the tin. We have sea battles, heists, poisoners, and trips to the world of the Unseen where trees grow people as fruit and court finery includes cloaks of porcupine quills. We meet loyal friends, ambiguous former lovers, mysterious (sexy) strangers, teenage waifs with hidden depths, and a ship’s cat who is so bad at being a cat that it clearly is hiding some other secret. From the midpoint to the end, this book is a sterling example of the sort of historical Arab-centered fantasy that Chakraborty did so well in her previous Daevabad trilogy. <br /><br />The problem is that in the first half, the Getting-The-Gang-Back-Together-Again half, I found myself chafing a bit, getting restless. Some of these relate to my own personal preferences in reading fantasy, but some of it reflects a slight clumsiness in execution.<br /><br />I understand exactly what Chakraborty was doing in this bit. She has chosen a wonderful, underused (in western fantasy at least) setting for her story. The medieval Arab world is this delightful mishmash of cultures and languages and peoples, trades going east to China and India, south to Madagascar, north to the Mediterranean. The cities of Aden, of Socotra, Mombasa—these are wonderful, vibrant, exciting settings. By sailing from place to place to gather up her old comrades, Amina is taking the reader on a tour of this world, allowing us to visit the markets, run into the local governments, learn about the world that is so different from the more familiar knights-and-stone-castles of medieval Europe historical fantasy settings. <br /><br />This approach also allows us to sink into the character histories some more. We learn about Amina’s previous exploits in the regions, we see her thinking about her youth, reflecting on what she has learned and what she wants from her future, having conversations about growing up and growing older with her former (and once-more) shipmates. Structurally, it is a very effective decision.<br /><br />But, see, it’s boring. There’s only so much navel-gazing about responsibilities as a parent conflicting with one’s desire for adventure that I can take before I start wanting less talk and more plot. And this was a little bit over that line. Not a lot. But a little.<br /><br />The other issue with this first half of the book is something that is really, really hard to get right, but which must be addressed in historical fantasy. And that is the importation of modern progressive values into a very, <i>very </i>different world. Slavery was a thing in the 12th century Middle East. Women didn’t have much freedom. Queer people and trans people existed, and did not always have an easy time of it. Previously, if such issues were addressed in a historical fantsy, they were folded into the worldview of the narrator and characters, because ‘historical accuracy’. More modern texts don’t accept the presumed worldview of a person ‘of the time’ so blithely, and so must find a way for their characters—who absolutely <i>are </i>‘of the time’—to be people that won’t come across as despicable bigots to a modern reader. <br /><br />This is a hard task. It’s true that we often assume a sort of knee-jerk reactionary worldview in historical fantasy that isn’t actually all that historically accurate, but it’s also undeniable that a 12th century pirate captain is not going to be flying a rainbow flag and speaking the language of trans rights. There’s a balance to be struck. And Chakraborty works very, very hard to strike that balance. Amina knows about the practice of slavery and abhors it. She knows that some of her crewmates are gay, learns that one is trans, and accepts it easily. There’s nothing in Amina’s head that would, I think, offend the modern reader. Chakraborty makes sure of it. She’s very careful. I can tell. She’s doing her job. </p><p> And that’s the problem—not that Chakraborty’s doing her job, but that I can <i>tell </i>she’s doing her job. It doesn’t feel organic. It feels careful. It feels attentive. It feels like there were sensitivity readers consulted. It feels calculated.<br /><br />In a way this criticism might be unfair. What else is Chakraborty supposed to do? Not consult sensitivity readers? Not acknowledge that slavery was a thing and queer and trans people existed in this setting? Make her heroine a bigot who accepts injustices unthinkingly? Of course not! But all the same, the seams of her process showed a bit more obviously in these bits than they did in the swashbuckling action, the descriptions of the world of the Unseen, the parry and thrust of the villains and heroes, the negotiations with the daevas. The bits that felt smooth and natural and engrossing and enchanting were all in the second half. The bits that felt laboured and slow were all in the first half. The half without magic.</p><p>--</p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Highlights</b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Nerd coefficient:</i> 7/10, an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws</p><ul style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 1.4; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><p>Pirates<br /></p></li><li style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><p>Medieval Arab world<br /></p></li><li style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><p>Daevas</p></li><li style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Modern worldviews in medieval minds</li></ul><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></b></div>References:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> </i><br /><div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Chakraborty, Shannon. <i>The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi </i>[Harper Voyager, 2023].</p></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>CLARA
COHEN lives in Scotland in a creaky old building with pipes for gas
lighting still lurking under her floorboards. She is an experimental
linguist by profession, and calligrapher and Islamic geometric artist by
vocation. During figure skating season she does blather on a bit about
figure skating. She is on Mastodon at <a href="http://wandering.shop/@ergative" style="color: #e21919; text-decoration-line: none;">wandering.shop/@ergative</a>.</i></p>Clara Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07601287165747235386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-48278174594574221502024-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-21T05:19:18.395-08:00Review: True Detective Season 4<p><b>The dark and icy fourth season of True Detective is the first deserving follow-up to the incredible first season, and Jodie Foster & Kali Reis help showrunner Issa Lopez stick the landing in the finale. (Spoilers abound below.)</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DlA5FrZI7ZCddlbbIohlQkPRNAIouLM7ijg61A8_WhsmZWgtL65LY3PtWZ5yFpXaF40wwOuDBqFwby0xWIvfwia_FA7-FMBKoxaQOK4u50BW8RnmlYr0dRS6IE5lsD-HhYwDY5mkfa_KrFwdYS5TNCwS0BfBjdXmc66iDf3lPpy0_9CUy3oGO_1JEOF3/s1170/td.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1170" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DlA5FrZI7ZCddlbbIohlQkPRNAIouLM7ijg61A8_WhsmZWgtL65LY3PtWZ5yFpXaF40wwOuDBqFwby0xWIvfwia_FA7-FMBKoxaQOK4u50BW8RnmlYr0dRS6IE5lsD-HhYwDY5mkfa_KrFwdYS5TNCwS0BfBjdXmc66iDf3lPpy0_9CUy3oGO_1JEOF3/w640-h358/td.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>It's been a cold winter here in Georgia, and my six Sunday night journeys to Night Country have felt strangely similar to <i>True Detective </i>season 4 as it explores the dark and frigid world of Ennis, Alaska. There are no one-eyed polar bears or months-long night in Atlanta, of course, but isolation, cabin fever, and icy winds give you a taste of what life at the edge of the world would feel like — basically microdosing Alaska.</p><p>And that claustrophobic and cold weather-induced feeling is such an important part of this season. Arctic horror has a long and storied history in the popular imagination, starting with Mary Shelley's <i>Frankenstein</i> and progressing along to tales of Franklin's lost expedition (Shout out to Dan Simmon's <i>The Terror,</i> a book that I think about at least once a week) and John Carpenter's <i>The Thing</i>. Why is Arctic horror so effective? Because cold, icy dark is inimical to life. Because it's inescapable, unforgiving, and just damn uncomfortable. And maybe, just maybe, because the kind of chill that months of dark and damp and ice make you believe that anything could be possible, even monsters on the frozen sea. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">A brief recap</h4><p>This season starts with the death of a team Arctic research scientists who, for reasons unknown, ran out into a blizzard, undressed, and froze together into a corpsicle. Chief Liz Danvers (played with incredible aplomb by Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (the divine Kali Reis) work to unravel the mystery, tied up as it is with the local pollution-generating mine, a prior cold case concerning the murder of local Iñupiaq protester, and possibly even her vengeance-seeking spirit. </p><p>Along with the plot-driven elements, we also get fascinating character studies of the people who choose to live in Ennis, and the things that haunt them. </p><p>Danvers is a cold, brusque and no-nonsense detective — she's also utterly unliked by most of her coworkers and a good chunk of the town's residents. Try as I might though, I just couldn't bring myself to dislike her. Jodie Foster is too intelligent, too charming, and too damn competent to truly be an Arctic Karen, despite her best efforts. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUAlzEGQPV0Irqrf-H5l237G6a8sdMjj2hsghQIx1LqkmzS7qTD6LWaFs5arrD2X0nsZ7UEc-Vtck-Kb10YDddfsVFsmshxZQBysCaGrdD28MDKjU2YZN5PDIOqWCKiLSpULdYrg4V-EIhyotIfM2VKXm867iRqXK2e9PNSpklQ7mXMU-U_oJXcTl9hyphenhyphenV0/s2000/jodie.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1126" data-original-width="2000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUAlzEGQPV0Irqrf-H5l237G6a8sdMjj2hsghQIx1LqkmzS7qTD6LWaFs5arrD2X0nsZ7UEc-Vtck-Kb10YDddfsVFsmshxZQBysCaGrdD28MDKjU2YZN5PDIOqWCKiLSpULdYrg4V-EIhyotIfM2VKXm867iRqXK2e9PNSpklQ7mXMU-U_oJXcTl9hyphenhyphenV0/w640-h360/jodie.webp" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Navarro is the opposite. While she's tough, intelligent, and good at her job (and a military vet), she really cares about people. It's why she hasn't given up on the Annie K. cold case from six years prior. She threads the needle delicately with her Iñupiaq heritage, turning to it sometimes while also trying to stand apart as an officer of the law. </p><p>There are tons of other fascinating characters, from the monk-like scientists at Tsalal research station to my favorite character in the show, Rose Agineau (played by Fiona Shaw). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWugt1qaEBQmNetUEL3aKc7u8P3Xwi3IoTBiaaoc4hVVdHID236iRRp7sdcjIN9WFgjqqlVpv8_mTolq2jF1Ut4DxZbx0ehgOerWE4fTeMQOKAZeJNNXAbVJJeSLfdmr9H3dHZ5zYPagkck0vfzhdepVQ7burye4-ENRRcVnhc5S0hSEfaU7ZK-_6mBPK/s640/rose.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWugt1qaEBQmNetUEL3aKc7u8P3Xwi3IoTBiaaoc4hVVdHID236iRRp7sdcjIN9WFgjqqlVpv8_mTolq2jF1Ut4DxZbx0ehgOerWE4fTeMQOKAZeJNNXAbVJJeSLfdmr9H3dHZ5zYPagkck0vfzhdepVQ7burye4-ENRRcVnhc5S0hSEfaU7ZK-_6mBPK/w640-h400/rose.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>She lives on the outskirts of town, butchers wolves, listens to Tim Buckley, and throws elaborate Christmas dinners for herself. She's a former professor but also the kind of person you call when you need to hide a body (she knows you have to puncture the lungs so a body won't float under the ice). I would watch an entire season of <i>Alone </i>with her as the star (and yes, she would absolutely win it all). </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">The finale, explained</h4><p>We get a super-sized episode to tie everything together, and it's fairly safe to say that nobody guessed this one. It turns out that 6 years ago, Annie K. was killed in a fit of rage by the scientists at Tsalal when she broke in and destroyed their years of research. The scientists knew that the mining company was polluting Ennis, and they encouraged this since it was melting the ice faster and helping their tests. Hank Prior disposes of the body for the mine bigwigs, and then her case is closed with no further investigation. </p><p>So, who killed the scientists, then? Eventually, we find out, the cleaning ladies and local worker women discover what happened, and they barge into Tsalal and drive the men out onto the ice. It's an interesting turn of events, because in the first episode we learn a little about these scientists, and they seem like quiet, intellectual milquetoast types. Danvers goes through their belongings and sees a Wilco t-shirt, a Cormac McCarthy novel, and <i>Ferris Bueller </i>appears to be a station favorite. The scientists appear to be the liberal kind of men that are nice dads, that wouldn't dream of hurting a woman. </p><p>But when their precious research (and years of hard work) are destroyed, they killed Annie K. in a riotous rampage, stabbing her dozens of times. </p><p>We learn the truth in a powerful scene where the detectives question these women about the events that transpired. The viewer gets to witness individuals who are usually voiceless (native women) being given the power to enact justice when the law can't — or won't. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJoUC5PuaSGS28f4rmv3YqjebeD_MYBb8YdKDF971pT6Y5kt-h1Oo0nEoL3TH76doyzSmN3UM9PLIzEDMek7AF-udGT_fVgEErabQ_PfwinrHHeSQcejHw0XgGZs4CimrFnVEJVpZQwO1Vi7_NP2zWZjgMvl-GfZsuzoX5ojHCG9P5lpl2QCDtE3Xns2T/s1200/ladies.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJoUC5PuaSGS28f4rmv3YqjebeD_MYBb8YdKDF971pT6Y5kt-h1Oo0nEoL3TH76doyzSmN3UM9PLIzEDMek7AF-udGT_fVgEErabQ_PfwinrHHeSQcejHw0XgGZs4CimrFnVEJVpZQwO1Vi7_NP2zWZjgMvl-GfZsuzoX5ojHCG9P5lpl2QCDtE3Xns2T/w640-h360/ladies.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Seeing a group of women like come together gives me the same rah-rah feeling I got from the Vuvalini in <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i>. Action movies and revenge stories aren't usually the realm of older women and minority characters. When we get to see it, it's revelatory. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><h4>A brilliant choose-your-own-adventure of supernatural belief</h4><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In this <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-02-18/true-detective-night-country-finale-issa-lopez" target="_blank">fantastic interview </a>with showrunner Issa Lopez, she talks about her intentions with the mythological and supernatural elements of this season. Every single thing that happens in the show has a reason grounded in reality. But just how far you want to take it depends on your point of view, and what you want to believe. In a setting as spooky as Night Country, you can really lean into it. Over the past few weeks, I watched countless TikToks of people speculating on all sorts of conspiracy theories and supernatural bit-parts that people believed where actually happening. My favorite was idea that Rose was a ghost à la <i>Sixth Sense</i>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We get callbacks all throughout to the first season of <i>True Detective</i>, from the swirled line imagery and Rust Cohl's Alaskan-born father to the infamous "Time is a flat circle" line. It's never completely explained what all of these things mean, but they add up to create a spooky vibe that can make you start rabbit-holing into various ideas.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Adding to the supernatural timbre of the show are certain aspects of the Iñupiaq folklore, specifically Sedna, the goddess of the sea. Peter's son is drawing a picture of her way back in episode one, which is our first introduction to her. In the myth, she angers her father and he cuts off her fingers and throws Sedna off the side of his kayak. She falls to the water below and becomes the ruler of the monsters of the sea, her fingers becoming sea creatures like whales and walruses.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the end of the day, though, the show isn't focusing on the supernatural — it's about people. The first season was the same way, too (though people may argue this point). Homicide detectives, the focal point of each season of <i>True Detective</i>, see the absolute worst parts of humanity. They have to do their job while not crumbling inside when faced with rage, torture, anger, racism, misogny, everything that contributes to and leads up to one person killing another. Rust Cohle in season one takes a nihilistic, pessimistic approach. In this season, we see a different approach. Danvers is haunted by the death of her family, but she still is a mother at heart and continues to keep trying to make a difference.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Navarro loses everything, and while the show is ambiguous about her destiny (Does she die? Does she leave? Is she on a walkabout away from Ennis?), we learn that her Iñupiaq name means the "return of the sun after a long darkness” — I choose to believe she settles with her past and looks to the future, and lives.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Unanswered questions</h4><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Where has the tongue been for 6 years? </li><li>Has it been in a freezer like a piece of wedding cake?</li><li>What happens to Navarro at the end?</li><li>Will the mining company ever face justice?</li><li>Did Hank ever have a real mail-order bride?</li><li>How did that polar bear lose his eye?</li></ul></div><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" id="docs-internal-guid-ac75c1c4-7fff-3ba7-dbac-e1faa5d3c5d4" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px;">--</span></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Math</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Baseline Score:</i> 8/10</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Bonuses:</i><b> </b>Stellar performances by the lead actors; a feminist twist ending; coldness is personified in the icy, blizzardy city of Ennis </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">POSTED BY:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo Award-winning podcast </span><a href="https://www.hugogirlpodcast.com/" style="color: #e21919; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Hugo, Girl!</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, growing corn and giving them pun names like Timothee Chalamaize, and thinking about fried chicken.</span></i></p></div>haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08781407069107865780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2233924314168304302.post-53850250109618356222024-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-20T00:00:00.137-08:00Review: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne<p><b>A curious experiment in probing the minds of fans</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfI0pVzCmyNseSf6kWgNPQMgvQQ4v9KRHywjJc4a3ztxY4xYHC3JzMqUICG1b2rqIM5H4S5K4HviY2KCjRqARH3qCFu9t19WBWM5HrRkr5TdMK-Qea_aWv2mnsIgtwN_8SHBcpdZIx6o558Xc5go89FgtLomMaCNbgW6EkCq_oK3B0WvH5F1JDQ6oOdA/s903/Extraord_Visions_cover_600w%5B1%5D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfI0pVzCmyNseSf6kWgNPQMgvQQ4v9KRHywjJc4a3ztxY4xYHC3JzMqUICG1b2rqIM5H4S5K4HviY2KCjRqARH3qCFu9t19WBWM5HrRkr5TdMK-Qea_aWv2mnsIgtwN_8SHBcpdZIx6o558Xc5go89FgtLomMaCNbgW6EkCq_oK3B0WvH5F1JDQ6oOdA/w426-h640/Extraord_Visions_cover_600w%5B1%5D.png" width="426" /></a></div><p>More or less a year and a half ago, the <a href="http://www.najvs.org/objectives.shtml">North American Jules Verne Society</a> posted a call for submissions to a planned anthology of short stories inspired by Verne's oeuvre. These could be sequels, prequels, sidequels, or original pieces using the same vibe or setting. The result is the book <i>Extraordinary Visions</i>, which contains thirteen stories from across the Anglosphere.</p><p>What this collection contains is the purest form of fanfiction—and here I must be very clear that by "fanfiction" I don't mean anything derogatory. These stories consciously seek to honor and perpetuate Verne's style, buttressed by the state of scientific knowledge that existed during his lifetime. This is the highest form of flattery Verne could have hoped for from his readers; indeed, one can read <i>Extraordinary Visions</i> as a historical register of the state of English-speaking Verne fandom at this moment of the 21st century. However, in terms of literary quality, the success of the experiment is mixed.<br /></p><p><b>The Dominion of All the Earth</b>, by Joseph S. Walker, a belated epilogue to <i>Journey to the Center of the Earth</i>, suffers from too much loyalty to the original text. The dialogues try for antique but come off as stilted and verbose. The protagonist has done all his actions prior to the story proper, leaving him only with the role of sitting and listening to seven pages of exposition, and that's the end. If we judged this text by today's narrative conventions, the first criticism would be that this is not a protagonist propelling the action; this is a protagonist having the action dumped onto him.</p><p>However, when considered as what it really tries to be, an epilogue to the original novel, it fits perfectly. On its own, this story can't boast much in the way of structural quality (nor can the novel), but if we imagine this story printed at the end of the novel, extending the plot beyond its original non-ending, it helps it reach the completion Verne couldn't give it.<br /></p><p><b>To Hold Back Time: A Baltimore Gun Club Adventure</b>, by Michael Schulkins, more a stealth remake than a true sequel to <i>The Purchase of the North Pole</i>, also shows the limitations of prioritizing faithfulness to the original. In speech, mannerisms, personalities and interests, this story achieves a credible recreation of the Baltimore Gun Club, one of the most suffocatingly ultramasculine creations of literature. However, this outdated vision of scientific progress still finds resonance. The scenes where the Club's entrepreneuring gentlemen meet to plan the improvement of human life via the all-purpose power of firearms bring to mind today's equally overconfident tech bros, obsessed with moving fast and breaking things.</p><p>This time, the Club's big idea is to give themselves more free time each day "for extended gunnery practice" by slowing down the rotation of Earth. How, you ask? With huge, carefully positioned cannons, of course. The story delivers the bits of humor that can be expected from such a premise, but the plot follows the beats of <i>The Purchase of the North Pole</i> so closely that the reader will not be surprised to find a similar ending that happens for similar reasons, with the added disadvantage that this ending requires experienced cannoneers to commit an elementary mistake about how recoil works.</p><p><b>A Drama in Durango</b>, by Alison L. Randall, is a more original story, even if it's partly inspired by <i>A Drama in Livonia</i> and less directly by <i>Master Zacharius</i>. Its protagonist is a fan of Verne's books who lives in the age of cowboys and uses the same logical methods of Verne's characters to solve the case of a wandering bank robber who turns out to be linked to a much larger conspiracy. The plot is woven impressively tight, with each step in the chain of secrets, betrayals, plans and counterplans fulfilling its function in harmonious order.</p><p><b>Old Soldiers</b>, by Gustavo Bondoni, is rather problematic. It's set decades after the ending of <i>The Steam House</i> and deals with the reconstruction of its mechanical elephant so that it can be used in World War I. Although the idea of defending France from the Kaiser's troops with a steam-powered robot is a potent premise, that adventure is only reported in a late flashback by a minor character; we don't see it happen. The focus of the story is centered instead on an Indian man who worked as a servant of the British pilot of the Steam House, and who even in his last years continues to feel for his old master a reverence that is disturbing to read. The abusive power dynamic between colonizer and colonized is never addressed, and the rightness of arming the British Empire with a huge metallic fighting machine is simply taken for granted, as it was in the original novel. Add to these problems the two lead characters' fixation with manly emotionlessness and the story's unquestioned pro-militarism, and the result is a deeply uncomfortable read.</p><p><b>Want of Air</b>, by Janice Rider, is another story about Verne fans. With a gentle touch over the wounds of grief, the author draws a poetic parallel between a widow and a son comforting each other during a winter night and an episode in <i>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas</i> where Nemo and his crew are trapped with only a few hours of oxygen left. This story gets the closest to the stated spirit of the anthology in that, instead of playing with Verne's fantastic machines, it goes straight to the more vital topic of readers' shared love for Verne and what that shared love can bring to your life.</p><p><b>Nellie and Jules Go Boating</b>, by David A. Natale, alludes to a real-life incident. In 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly embarked on a solo trip around the world, in an (eventually successful) attempt to complete it faster than Verne's imagined 80 days. During one of the stops in her itinerary, she happened to be close to Verne's house in France, so of course she took the opportunity to meet him and discuss the adventure she was undergoing. No one knows what they said to each other. This story imagines what might have happened in those brief hours.</p><p>The premise is a good one, but the dialogues suffer from the frequent appearance of untranslated French in the middle of lines supposed to be transcribed in English for the reader. Also, for a story about a woman's determination, independence, and accomplishments, there's a bit too much of focus on Verne's relationship with his father. Those sections distract from the events that are actually of interest, and are written with less technical finesse than the rest of the text.</p><p><b>The Highest Loyalty</b>, by Mike Adamson, is a standard rescue adventure starring Captain Nemo. He receives a call for help, he helps, the end. The briefly mentioned backstory, where the <i>Nautilus</i> was part of the Underground Railroad carrying Black people to freedom, would have been far more exciting to read than the plot that is instead told here.</p><p><b>Embrace of the Planets</b>, by Brenda Carre, is a surreal potpourri of Verne references, as well as a multilayered dramedy about the stories we keep about ourselves and that not everyone deserves to hear. Bonus points for <i>Doctor Who</i> vibes.</p><p><b>Rust and Smoke</b>, by Demetri Capetanopoulos, plays with the possibility that Captain Nemo's diaries might have been found ashore in Norway, but not recognized for what they were. This story carries a bittersweet aftertaste of how quickly the most precious memories can fade into the indifference of time.</p><p><b>Gabriel at the Jules Verne Traveling Adventure Show</b>, by Joel Allegretti, captures with the sincerity that can only come from first-hand knowledge that primordial experience of being a child who meets the worlds born of Verne's imagination for the first time and naturally, as we all once did, wants to become part of them.</p><p><b>Tyranny Under the Sea</b>, by Christopher M. Geeson, presents a terrifying scenario: what if a fragment of the Confederacy had survived in a secret city on the ocean floor? And what would a slave revolt look like in such a place?</p><p><b>Trumpets of Freedom</b>, by Kelly A. Harmon, merges the plots of <i>Robur the Conqueror</i> and <i>The Lighthouse at the End of the World</i> into something less tragic than either. Vasquez, the lighthouse keeper, has built mechanical workers to help him with his daily tasks, which makes him exactly the type of unconventional thinker that Robur is eager to befriend.</p><p><b>Raise the </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Nautilus</i>, by Eric Choi, is the blood-pumping adventure you want a collection like this to end with. The British Empire has its hands full, what with fighting the Kaiser in Europe, so what good would it do to send warships to the South Pacific in an improbable attempt to salvage what could remain of Captain Nemo's shipwrecked invention from the ruins of the Mysterious Island?</p><p>It is to be commended that this story takes the time to consider the moral tensions inherent to having British soldiers steal the life's work of an enemy of the British Empire. Unlike in World War II, the Great War had no good/bad divide: all parties were criminally culpable. The single-minded, never-ending pursuit of bigger and bigger guns is hinted at in some dialogues. However, the story stops short of attributing any tactical advantage to possession of the <i>Nautilus</i>; one central character explicitly predicts that, in the new kind of war that the 20th century has brought, even Nemo's advanced weaponry will make very little difference regardless of who captures it. So, in the end, the core question this story hinges on is not whether the British will remain unconquered by the Germans, but whether Nemo will remain unconquered by the British.</p><p><i>Extraordinary Visions</i> is a worthy read despite the uneven selection it's composed of. It especially piques my curiosity that the most innovative, thoughtful and creative of its stories are those written by women. If I may be allowed a very rough generalization, the men wrote about interacting with Verne's settings and characters, while the women wrote about what Verne means. Verne himself might have felt more at home with the first style of writing, but both are compelling ways of exploring the legacy of one of science fiction's biggest forefathers.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Nerd Coefficient:</i> 7/10.</p><p><i>POSTED
BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer,
accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.</i></p><b>Reference:</b> Southard, Steven R. and Hardesty, Matthew T. [editors]. <i>Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne</i> [BearManor Media, 2023].<p></p>Arturo Serranohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215626171237669317noreply@blogger.com