Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020): ⭐️
These movies just keep getting dumber. The original is great, and the next few are at least watchable, but the series has long since reached the point where it just need to be left alone to fade away.
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
58/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shakespeare, more or less, by way of Pratchett’s Discworld, and quite a lot of fun. Particularly enjoyed the recognition of the power of the word, and how it can bend history out of joint if used unscrupulously.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
While it may not quite reach the mind-blowing heights of Fury Road, that’s mostly just because Fury Road would be so difficult to follow up, no matter the circumstances. The action is as over-the-top, Anya Taylor-Joy is intensely feral, and Chris Hemsworth is an absolute loon. Lots of fun, and at some point I need to find the time to do a back-to-back marathon of both films.
The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett
57/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Set between TMP and TWoK, this adventure primarily ties together three threads: The Medusans as introduced in TOS, the Aenar as introduced in ENT, and the New Humans as introduced in Roddenberry’s novelization of TMP. Those three threads are woven together with elements, references, and in-jokes from throughout the Star Trek screen and literary universes, as Bennett so often does in his books. It’s also interesting when reading these more recently written books that are able to find ways to drop in references to the newer shows. All in all, another good adventure with some really neat approaches to tying together previously unrelated parts of Trek history in unexpected ways.
Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
56/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fascinating collection of novellas following Binti, a young Himba woman, as she leaves her traditional home to journey to a galactic university to study math, only to find herself the sole survivor of an attack and bonded in a mysterious way to one of her attackers. The settings and events combined the traditional lifestyle of the Himba people with far-future technology, living ships, and all manner of alien races, and with some serious questions of prejudice and how people see unfamiliar others as more primitive. I really enjoyed this, and am looking forward to exploring more of Okorafor’s books.
Abigail
Abigail (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The “demon baby” genre is a particular favorite of ours, and this one is a lot of fun. A bit of Agatha Christie, a bit of The Ransom of Red Chief, and a lot of blood (it is a vampire movie, after all). The creepy kid is nicely creepy, the unfortunate criminal crew of misfits is appropriately dysfunctional, and everyone understands the assignment. Absolutely worth a watch.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another fun entry into the primary canon. A few plot holes here and there, sure, so don’t try to put too much thought into it. Just enjoy the jokes and ghosties. It was particularly fun seeing William Atherton being his usual lovable self again.
Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 215 edited by Neil Clarke
55/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Highlights for me this month were “The Deformed Saint and the Poison Wind” by David McGillveray and “Three Circuits of the Monoceros Ring” by Marisca Pichette.
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
54/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1998 Hugo Best Novel
This is one of those that, while unquestionably good, was difficult for me to really get into and ultimately just didn’t resonate with me. Impressively (and sometimes depressingly) prescient in some ways, I think that a lot of it was simply too directly relatable to present social and political realities that it was hard for me to enjoy it.
Smut Peddler X: Ten Years of Impeccable Pornoglyphics edited by Andrea Purcell
53/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I picked up the original version of this book ten years ago, during its Kickstarter campaign, when an online acquaintance who contributed a story was promoting it. I enjoyed it then, and it was fun to revisit it a decade later, especially as I hadn’t re-read it since then, so had forgotten the majority of the stories, and the new content looking back at the original project was a nice addition. As with the six other books that now exist in the “Smut Peddler” series (seven if you count this 10th anniversary version separately), all of which live on my shelves, it’s a very enjoyable collection of fun, inclusive, explicit sexytimes.
For fun, my review of the original release: “I actually read this last year when I got the .pdf version from the Kickstarter project, the physical book was delivered earlier this year. I found the Kickstarter when one of my friends announced that she was contributing a piece to the project. Perhaps not my usual reading material, but I really enjoyed all of it — I don’t remember there being a bad entry in the bunch, and quite a few extremely good stories. Not at all disappointed to have it in my collection, and I’ll be adding the second volume when it’s Kickstarter project goes live.”
