geekery

Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.

📚 The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett

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27/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A “year four” adventure that serves to both bridge the gap between TOS and TAS (and explain some of the changes to the ship and crew between the shows) and to take a much deeper dive into the First Federation as first introduced in The Corbomite Maneuver. Along the way, we get to learn more about Balok’s threatening puppet, Spock gets some introspective assistance, and Kirk…well, Kirk does his thing with impassioned speeches and eyeing alien women. The exploration of the First Federation is obviously the core theme, and it’s done well, extrapolating well from what little we learn in the TOS episode. One of the better TOS novels.

Me holding The Face of the Unknown

🎥 Gremlins 2: The New Batch

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Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love how this one just chucks any pretense at holding on to the more serious horror elements of the first and goes full-bore into off-the-wall ridiculousness. From lampooning major elects of the first to getting Christopher Lee to breaking the fourth wall, they don’t hold back when it comes to going over the top. The creature effects are still a lot of fun as well. Happy to see that this one is still fun to watch.

🎥 Archnophobia

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Arachnophobia (1990): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

While watching this at home doesn’t have quite the same impact as on the big screen at a midnight show that you had to sneak out of the house to go to and then walk home in the early morning dark…it’s still a fun and wonderfully cringe-inducing bit of comedy thriller. Holds up remarkably well for a 34-year old film. Highly recommended — unless (or perhaps especially if) you’re scared of spiders. ;)

Year 50 Day 342

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Me holding my iPad with Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' album on the screen.

Day 342: Just a quick word of thanks to those people I’ve seen making snarky comments or sharing snarky memes about Beyoncé’s new album. I’ve been so wrapped up with Norwescon that I was only vaguely aware that it had come out, but I saw enough grumbling that it got me curious. Gave it a listen today, and it is a really strong album, absolutely deserving of the accolades that (as I now know, after doing a little reading today) it has been getting. So, thanks for being vocal about your disdain! You helped her make another sale!

🎥 Trolls Band Together

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Trolls Band Together (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Continues to be a very enjoyable series. It’s bright, colorful, and cheerful, it has a lot of fun music, the humor covers the gamut from simple stuff that kids will enjoy to jokes for the adults that will fly right over the kids’ heads, and the animation and creature design is wonderfully cute (and occasionally amusingly horrifying; the RV in this one is a thing of hilarious nightmares), and the whole package has an ongoing current of hallucinogenic weirdness that I love. Particularly enjoyed the design of the antagonists and their entire part of the world, which was a clear homage to the art and animation styles of the ’30s, and whose clean balloon-like designs contrasted nicely with the everything-is-just-slightly-fuzzy world of the trolls.

📚 Clarkesworld Issue 211 edited by Neil Clarke

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24/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A particularly strong issue this month. I really enjoyed “The Lark Ascending” by Eleanna Castroianni, “An Intergalactic Smuggler’s Guide to Homecoming” by Tia Tashiro, “The Indomitable Captain Holli” by Rich Larson, “The Rambler” by Shen Dacheng, translated by Cara Healey, and “Occurrence at O1339” by Kelly Jennings.

Me holding Clarkesworld 211 on my iPad.

📚 Star Trek II Biographies by William Rotsler

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23/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Something of a historical curiosity now, these “biographies” of the principal characters have since been nearly or entirely overwritten by later films or more official pseudo-canon works. Still, it’s a fun artifact of this point in Trek’s real-world history, and as the first published material giving Uhura’s first name of “Nyota”.

Me holding Star Trek II Biographies