lunabee34

1. We went to see the Minecraft movie, and I was thoroughly entertained. It's the first movie I've seen in the theater since the pandemic. I'd forgotten how unnecessarily loud they play the film. Jason Mamoa steals the show. His character is just so funny and pathetically endearing, and his interactions with Jack Black (who Josh says treats the whole movie like a Tenacious D video) are *chef's kiss*. They both clearly had a great deal of fun making this movie.

Of course, as soon as I got home, I checked AO3, and fandom is not letting me down with the Steve/Garrett (I didn't read any of them because they appeared to all be written by 12 year-olds, and I haven't had time to dig through for the gold), but fandom is letting me down with the Garrett meets Eddie Stranger Things crossover. LOL I mean, Garrett has the 80s metal hair and clothes and he's wearing eyeliner and he is hot as fuck; I could stand to read some Stranger Things crossover action. LOL

I know this was not intended as such, but I considered it my own personal SGA Easter egg when Garrett tells everyone he's going to watch their six. <3

2. I bought the latest book in the Southern Reach trilogy and realized about 20 pages in that I really needed to go back and read them all from the beginning to truly get the best experience.

( spoilers for the entire Southern Reach trilogy )

3.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Funny, sweet, and a guaranteed delight for any cat lover.

I always enjoy Scalzi's writing, and this is no exception.



View all my reviews

1. gloss linked me to this essay about the Southern Reach Trilogy and this conversation between its author and Jeff Vandermeer, and I just now got around to reading them. They are both uniformly excellent, and I would recommend anyone who loved the trilogy read them.

2. We are almost done with Lucifer. ( episodes 6-7 )

One more episode to go! Is that the end of the show, or is more expected?

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really love this book; I was absolutely riveted the entire time I was reading it. It reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series but is in no way derivative. I think what I like best about Vandermeer is how absolutely weird and novel and unpredictable his imagination is. I never see whatever he's got up his sleeve coming.

For that reason, I don't want to spoil anything about the novel except for in the broadest strokes. I would say this is set in a post-apocalyptic world except the apocalypse seems ongoing and interminable. Rachel and Wick have eked out a pretty good existence in a place dominated by a giant, murderous bear who can fly when Rachel encounters Borne, some wholly new sort of sentient being whom she begins to treat like a child. Their relationship will have pretty extreme consequences for everyone living in the City.



View all my reviews


I am so taken with this novel. It's so so good, y'all. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished.

( SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY DON'T READ AT ALL IF YOU INTEND TO READ THIS BOOK )

1. I got my annual evaluation today. Exceeds expectations in teaching and service; meets expectations in scholarship. I am pleasantly surprised by the latter; I fully expected to get needs work. It's really gratifying that the efforts I'm making to transition from a position that didn't require scholarship to one that does are being acknowledged.

2. ( Lucifer reviews )


3. ( Gotham review )

4. ( spoilery thoughts upon Westworld rewatch )

5.

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I didn't think it was possible, and yet this book is even better than the first installment. It contains more dialogue, action and character work than the first; it's a song with words as opposed to the orchestral piece of the first novel.

Authority is from the perspective of a newly introduced character, Control, who's come to take charge of The Southern Reach after the psychologist, now revealed to have been the SR Director, doesn't return from the 12th expedition. Control is an outsider; he knows very little about the SR or Area X or what's really going on, and the reader learns the truth with growing horror alongside Control. A great deal of what we think we know from book 1 gets subverted or changed in some way in this sequel; our understanding of the psychologist in particular deepens.

Control learns that the border has always been a conceit; that Area X has never been bound by that invisible line and that it has been changing the people who work at SR for years now.

In addition, a doppelganger of the biologist, Ghost Bird, has returned to the real world as have doppelgangers of the other expedition members minus the psychologist. Control eventually ends up with Ghost Bird on a far northern coast looking into a rift Ghost Bird has created that leads back into Area X. Far south behind them, the facade of a border has come down at the SR, and the world is changing quickly as Area X advances. The novel ends with the two of them jumping into the portal.

I don't think I do this novel any justice with my review. It's just fantastic both on its own and as a continuation of/commentary on the first. Highly, highly recommend.



View all my reviews