I finished reading The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang recently. For those who are unaware, it’s a grimdark fantasy tale that pulls a lot of its material from China’s past several hundred years or so of history, in particular the Sino-Japanese conflicts and the Opium Wars. It is dark, with the depicted events all the …
There is a point where the phrase “nothing worth doing is ever easy” drives one to near masochism. It usually doesn’t. I would say on most occasions it’s a decent enough shorthand. But there is no shortage of Sisyphean tasks out there, and some are even less useful than eternal torment pushing a boulder up …
I read the novella All Systems Red by Martha Wells (the first in the Murderbot Diaries series) prior to watching the Apple TV+ adaptation that simplified the title down to just ‘Murderbot’. As any who have read some of my past posts could probably tell, I find the art of adaptation really interesting. What the …
I read the first novel of the Night Angel Trilogy on the basis of a friend’s recommendation way back in high school, only recently coming back to finish off the last two of Brent Weeks’ fantasy trilogy (though I do believe a new entry in the same world has since been published). On the whole, …
It’s been a busy time over here, with the many fantasy and sci-fi stories I’ve read or watched or played stacking up like cordwood near an unlit campfire. So, grab a chair and take a seat, because this fire is about to be lit, and these stories burn bright and quick. As we watch the …
On most occasions (with anime/manga being the exception), I tend to read the written version of a story prior to viewing its adaptation. Not so in this case. I actually wasn’t even aware Mickey 17 – a recently released science fiction film directed by Bong Joon Ho with Robert Pattinson as its lead – started …
So often in storytelling the topic of pacing is brought up, belabored upon, critiqued. But, to my experience, it’s more often than not in one direction: readers, viewers, or listeners telling the author to put the pedal to the floor and get moving, to stop getting side-tracked by self-indulgent curiosities and keep the story going. …
If I’d been asked to pick my favorite author during high school, it probably would have been Stephen King. I read my fair share of his horror classics during this time: The Stand, The Shining, It, The Long Walk, Cell, Under the Dome, etc. I grew up amongst the corn fields of southern Indiana and …
As of this writing, I’ve watched a season and a half of Invincible, a show that, for me, has been one of the few antidotes to superhero fatigue post Marvel’s Avengers putting an end to Thanos (though the fatigue set in a bit before that if I’m being honest). Along with The Boys, it’s given …
Hey all. I got the Kirkus review for The Work of Restless Nights, and believe it or not there was nary a negative comment to be found! This one had me nervous, I’ll admit. The whole setup for self-published authors, any author really, is primed for inducing anxiety. You pay Kirkus a not so insubstantial …
M. Weald 