Books

I’ve read a lot this year, most of it forgettable, these are all the books I thought about enough to have anything worth saying on:

Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu

Horror, Vampire, Homosexuality, 19th Century

Hold me, hold me still. It is passing away.

The Granny of popular vampire fiction, predating Dracula by thirty odd years, Carmilla starts very strong and runs out of steam about three quarters of the way through. The writing here is about the level of the middling Dracula chapters, not quite Harker’s Journal level, but nowhere near the absolutely terrible Newspaper segments.

This deserves to be discussed on its own merits though, so I’ll give it a go.

Le Fanu is a fairly good writer, he knows how to build up characters and establish the dynamic without labouring over every little detail, the story of Carmilla’s infiltration into our heroine’s heart and home is simple and believable, the characters all act mostly sensibly, and there’s some good rising tension throughout the middle of the book as the protagonists learn the true nature of the threat and ready themselves for a confrontation.

Carmilla and Laura’s friendship/romance predator/prey relationship is at the center of the story and works very well. This book is the lesbian vampire novel and it’s not hard to feel the horny under all the stuffy Victorianisms.

Unfortunately the last act is incredibly frustrating, it feels like the author got halfway through the plot and realised he needed to submit next week and just lopped the story off.

It ends abruptly and messily, not in a good vampirey messy way, in a “I don’t know where I’m going with this lets just kill the villain and be over” way.

Maybe he just got bored, maybe he had IRL shit going on, maybe he couldn’t think of a good way to get to the ending he wanted and just decided to cut to it as efficiently as he could. Fairs I guess.

I would give the prose a grade of French Violet on the purple-o-meter, its not too bad, you can understand all of the sentences on the first run through.

Combat at Midnight, Herbert Hagedorn

Poetry, Religious, 20th Century

When a man listens, God Speaks

An enthralling and quietly powerful book of poems on Men and God, exploring the Author’s conception of compassionate Christianity.

Written across the first half of the 20th century, with material from the early 1900’s all the way up to the Second World War, there is a clear depth of experience lying behind the simple language most of the poetry uses.

Grief is allowed to exist in these poems, as is sin, real, complicated muddy sin, not cartoon moralising. There is empathy here for people that have strayed, and for people broken through no fault of their own.

Hagedorn has vulnerable people causing real harm & experiencing redemption as a healing warmth, rather than an imposed humbling.

In addition to Hagedorn’s own poetry there is a selection of borrowed and reprinted material included to pad out the collection, most of this is uninspired and not worth a second reading.

Negative Space, B.R. Yeager

Horror, Psychological, Depression

Black background. Red text. Green text. Grey text.

Negative Space is about suicide and entropy, being too young and too hurt to make good decisions, all the stupid shit you’ll do to escape yourself.

It’s all wrapped up in nightmare teenage monotony; dismal parties, legal highs, terrible sex, being a selfish piece of shit, realising you’re being a selfish piece of shit, being so bored you end up doing something that leads directly and predictably to injury. Sitting, alone, night after night, dreaming dreams, staring at obscenity, while your dipshit parents think they’ve got a little angel upstairs.

It’s about the way the things you experience as a child cannot ever really stop happening, how they mould the thing you’ll grow into, about how your mistakes and failings both are and aren’t your fault.

And it’s exactly as confusing and discomforting as all of that sounds, the story is fairly straightforward, but the details are messy, you need to be paying attention to the little things to tease everything out, though I don’t think it matters that much, this is more about the feeling than anything.

If you’ve lived in a sinkhole town for any length of time you’ve met most of these characters before, you’ve probably put in a performance as one of them at some stage of your life.

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

Romance, Mythology, Homosexuality

He smelled like the earth after rain

I liked this a lot on first reading, I thought it was fairly well written, the characters are punchy, the romance is engaging, and the author is clearly very familiar with the setting.

However the more I think about it the more I dislike it, primarily because I can’t escape the feeling that Miller made Achilles gay (or possibly Patroclus-sexual) rather than bisexual as a cop out; by anything approaching a modern standard the Homeric Achilles is a rapist, as are almost all the male characters in the Iliad.

Achilles being completely uninterested in women neatly sidesteps having to deal with this, the one sin that would be near impossible for the book’s target audience to swallow or overlook. Really the way the author gets around the Briseis problem specifically and our heroes’ relationship with slavery generally is a contortion that barely holds for the length of the book.

Another thing that bugged me more after finishing the book than it did while I was reading it; Patroclus has been UwU smolbeanified compared to his mythic characterisation. I think the author overdid it, you can sell a person having confidence issues and being disdainful of war without turning him into a shrinking violet quasi-pacifist, something he was definitively not in the original stories.

Of course Patroclus being too shy and small UwU to do anything but hold onto Achilles’ skirt for half the book means he too gets to sidestep the icky slavery-rape stuff, he’s a pure boy that’s clean of his society’s evils OK? He’s just a little unproblematic bean.

This is Patroclus through a fujoshi lens and I don’t like this version of the character.

I don’t think I’ll read this one again, there’s a very strong argument to be made that these characters have been endlessly interpreted over the millennia and Miller hasn’t done anything others haven’t done already, but I can’t help but feel this would be a much better story if it wasn’t a rehashing of the Iliad.

Slow Learner, Thomas Pynchon

Americana, 20th Century

My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my God, accompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn’t dwell upon.

The second Pynchon book I’ve read, a collection of the author’s earliest published short stories.
Some of these are fairly rough, one I think is genuinely terrible, but most of them are pretty enjoyable little short stories.

The Secret Integration is probably generally regarded as the best of the lot but I didn’t particularly like the twist at the end, it felt a bit too flat, a little too obvious, an AA attending 4th grader is a funny concept though, and the story is generally very strong.

I think Under the Rose was my standout favourite, a slide sideways into Pulp adventure with a sad, early cold war aftertaste.

Entropy was awful, I hated it, and yet I simultaneously found it inspiring.
If someone can produce something that dull and pretentious then go on to write something like “The Crying of Lot 49” then there’s hope for us all.

Of Ghosts and Goblins, Lafcadio Hearn

Mythology, Anthropology, Japan, 19th Century

A very nice clothbound pocketbook, containing a selection from Lafcadio Hearn’s larger body of work on Japanese myths and ghost stories.

A nice, simple read, ideal for coffee breaks and time theft.

I really like the way Hearn writes, he’s modern enough to avoid being cumbersome, antiquated enough to fit the subject matter, I can’t comment at all on how well these versions of the stories compare to the original Japanese but I certainly enjoyed them. Really whet my appetite to dig deeper into Japanese folklore, past the surface level crap I know from anime and games.

The Bomb that Fell on America, Herbert Hagedorn

Poetry, Religious, 20th Century, War, The Apocalypse

The bomb that fell on Hiroshima fell on America too

A long form poem exploring the author’s reaction to and thoughts on the world as it was in 1946, after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, particularly regarding the spiritual and political reordering the author thinks is now necessary.

Exploring from a compassionate Christian lens, the author presents the false dawn of Trinity as the American Star of Bethlehem: a beacon for the birth of a new age.

Very enjoyable and with some fantastic imagery, deeply marred by the unrestrained American Exceptionalism and rather chauvinistic understanding of America’s own history on display throughout. A fascinating time capsule of American thought immediately after World Ward 2, more engrossing than Combat at Midnight (I read the entire poem out loud in one sitting), but overall a lesser effort and one with less enduring appeal.

The Entire Caiaphas Cain Series, Sandy Mitchell

Science Fiction, Adventure, Military, Light Reading

And so I set off, looking forward to a few days (without orks/of easy sex/in the company of some excellent cheese).

Of course had I known that (vague reference to the predictable threat) was lurking in that (spooky space station/woman’s bedroom/abandoned tomb/safe rear area/dodgy cafe/Tom Brown’s schooldays reference), I would have sooner (ran away and got court martialled/shot myself in the frakking head/stuck my face in Jurgen’s armpit)

Why did I do this to myself?
13 books, 10 odd short stories, 2 audio books, probably a couple other things I’m forgetting.

I read these in a kind of Goyan delirium, devouring entire novels at a time in my grubby pyjamas when I should’ve been working or sleeping.

These are straightforward, enjoyable adventure novels with a decent sense of humour, solid characterisation and enough texture and worldbuilding to keep your brain engaged.

There’s a lot of scene recycling and repeated phrasing, and maybe three different stock plots that get rehashed and twisted over the course of the series. This is noticeable but inoffensive when reading the series on or off but it becomes incredibly obvious and grating when you read them back to back.

So don’t do that.

The mid series ones are the best, there’s some good characterisation in them and the author is comfortable enough with the characters to let them work without jigging things around for no reason. Jurgen in particular is much more of an actual person than I remembered.

I think the author is tired of writing the same novel over and over as the latest entries almost feel like parodies of the earlier, series defining books.

Cain’s character works as a good viewpoint to the setting if you aren’t familiar with it. This Imperium is a good “average value” imperium to reference other interpretations off of.

I have a real soft spot for Warhammer, I got into Warhammer in general and 40k in particular by reading hundreds of back issues of White Dwarf and old Splat Books and Codices as a child (Battlefleet Gothic rule book my beloved) GW stuff has been a baseline part of my media diet since I was about 5.

These were far from the only Warhammer thing I read this year and I don’t plan to read anymore for a good long while, after more than 20 years I’m finally completely burnt out on the setting.

I refuse to read the Horus Heresy series, Space Marines are boring and shit.

Dark Eden, Chris Beckett

Science Fiction, Religious, Mythology, Anthropology

This was a leopard moment if there ever was one.

Genesis, Exodus, Cain and Able.

On a little potato rock flying through space, no sun to call its own.
Very enjoyable Xenofiction, an underrated sci-fi classic.

The Victorian Underworld, Kellow Chesney

Historical, Non Fiction, Crime, Poverty, Anthropology

A district like the Nichol, in which unlucky, shiftless, exploited proletarians had accumulated, was less a criminal retreat than a breeding ground for future jail bait.

Fascinating and in places baffling look into the down and out in 19th Century England.

Worth reading, for historical interest and for fuelling your own stories and game settings.
I think I’d be a scaldrum dodger personally.

Movies

A quick run through of some of the films I’ve seen recently, the ones that left enough of an impression for me to remember anyway:

Gladiator 2 (2024)

• Home or Cinema: Cinema (Packed)
• In a word: Stupid
• Likes: One (1) fight scene, Pedro Pascal
• Dislikes: Everything else

Ridley Scott thinks you’re a fucking idiot and he’s going to jingle car keys in front of your face for a few hours to prove it.

The film relies on overwhelming noise and constant motion to sell literally everything, it doesn’t respect its audience at all.

Like most sequels this is the first film again, but with less energy and more money thrown into it. The setup is essentially the same, but everything that made the first film good is perverted or absent here. Whereas G1 was inspired by genuine history with plenty of liberties taken for the sake of entertainment, G2 slops some Rome themed paint over whatever shit they found on the writing room floor and calls the job done.

G2’s Rome is a blurry, tasteless mess that doesn’t deserve to call itself Hollywood history.

So Scott doesn’t care about the history, I went in expecting that, what I wasn’t expecting is that he doesn’t seem to care about the action either.

There are spectacles aplenty in G2, all noise, pretty colours, quick camera movements, lots of cutting to the thing did you see the THING yes you in the back texting did you SEE THE THING, THE THING, THE PLOT THINGY? There is one good fight scene, a one on one bout with some good physicality and some actual choreography, then it’s back to video game physics with none of the video game fun.

This film has weird, stinky, quasifacist politics, the kind that appeal to teenage boys that read Cicero by way of Wikiquote.

It has no heart: it’s a product, nothing more.

Seeds of The Sacred Fig (2024)

• Home or Cinema: Cinema (Almost empty)
• In a word: Oppressive
• Likes: Pretty much everything, extremely strong acting, perfect pacing
• Dislikes: Weird soft focus effect in one scene

A hyper tense family drama set in Iran around the 2022 Amini protests.
I have essentially nothing negative to say, the film is incredibly engaging if disconcerting.

Shot in secret while the director was awaiting recall to prison for violating censorship laws, and featuring real footage of the protests and the bloody government response Seeds feels completely, suffocatingly real from beginning to end.

Deserves to be watched completely blind.

Near Dark (1987)

• Home or Cinema: Home (Hunched over monitor)
• In a word: Bleak
• Likes: Lance Hendrickson, the film looks gorgeous, a refreshing take on vampires
• Dislikes: The ending, the sound mixing is a little iffy

Alien: Romulus (2024)

• Home or Cinema: Cinema (Half full from memory)
• In a word: Unnecessary
• Likes: Most of the visual design, the opening sequence, the first act of the movie
• Dislikes: Everything after they meet the Ian Holme deepfake monstrosity, extremely loud for no reason

Another disappointing product film in a tired franchise that needs putting down.

The first 40 minutes or so of the film are legitimately quite engaging, the colony set is great and the characterisation gets time to establish itself, the world looks brilliant, they nailed the bust walkman cassette futurist look of the first two films.

Then our characters get in their ship and ascend up through the atmosphere and into modern Hollywood stupidity, overwhelming noise, a million things happening at once, deepfaked mockery of dead actors, a complete lack of tension. The film goes on for 30 minutes longer than it should with an obvious fake out ending before the true, dumb, ending that can’t be redeemed by interesting visuals.

Nearly twice the budget of Aliens (1986) for a quarter of the effect.

Throne of Blood (1957)

• Home or Cinema: Home (Lying on Sofa)
• In a word: Relentless
• Likes: Great acting, 2nd best MacBeth adaption, super strong use of motion
• Dislikes: No “Tomorrow,Tomorrow,Tomorrow” scene (The greatest missed opportunity of Mifune’s career)

Onibaba

• Home or Cinema: Home (Hunched over monitor)
• In a word: Sweaty
• Likes: Fraught and ugly, interesting and unusual setting, SWISHSWISHSWISHSWISHSWISH, great use of repetition to build tension
• Dislikes: Papermache skulls (nitpick)

Kuroneko

• Home or Cinema: Home (Hunched over monitor)
• In a word: Camp
• Likes: Moody, sad, goes more interesting places than the premise would imply
• Dislikes: A little too camp in spots, protagonist is more gullible than he should be

The Boy and the Heron

• Home or Cinema: Cinema (Packed)
• In a word: Dreamlike
• Likes: Visual design, blood in films is good for children, genuine, well paced
• Dislikes: A bit masturbatory

Shows

TV shows and other non anime stuff, I don’t watch much of this, partly because I’m not really exposed to it in the places I visit and am therefore not aware of much of it, partly because if I’m sitting down to watch a 60 minute TV show I may as well watch a 90 minute movie that’s going to have better production values and a self contained plot.

The Knick

• Genre: Medical, Period Piece, Noir, “Premier TV”
• Watched: 1st Season only
• Why to watch: Looks gorgeous, great acting, tight scripts, good use of period and location
• Why not to: One or Two groan worthy moments, some plot points obviously intended as shocking twists very predictable
• Best Scene: The Pauper Burial

New York, 1900: the best surgeon on the Eastern Seaboard is addicted to Opium, Chinese prostitutes, and that fine, fine Philippine Cocaine.

When his fellow superstar surgeon and drug addict colleague shoots himself in the head after losing yet another mother and baby to totally foreseeable blood loss he’s forced to stand up and get to grips with the rapidly changing, ever febrile city he’s living in.

A very good little period drama. There are enough medical grizzlies in here to keep you satiated if that’s your thing, but the real appeal is the exploration of the nastier parts of American society at the dawn of the 20th century. A hospital is a great vehicle for doing that and the characters that populate it are lively, well written and well acted. We aren’t stuck in the hospital either, every episode gives us a new, meticulously realised bit of the City to explore.

Some plot elements were definitely chosen in a ripped from the headlines fashion but they all work well enough, they were ripped from the headlines today, they could have been ripped from the headlines 120 years ago too.

The World at War

• Genre: Documentary, Classic, 1970’s, War
• Watched: In it’s entirety, bonus content included
• Why to Watch: One of the best documentaries ever made, masterfully edited, tonally near perfect, fantastic narration and interviews
• Why no to: Understandably doesn’t cover everything, however some major subjects are missing when they really shouldn’t be
• Best Scene: Reckoning (the full episode)

One of the most famous documentaries ever produced, and at the time of it’s making the most expensive. Holds up very, very well, there are details that could be nitpicked, lines and specific phrasings that could be challenged, but the care taken to present everything as nakedly as possible and the consistent, dryly disgusted narration carry the day.

I had seen episodes of this on and off down the years on terrestrial TV back when that was a thing, but I’d never sat down to watch the full series, I’m glad I did.

Covers the war from Hitler’s rise to power through to the world after the Japanese surrender, doing a mostly good job of giving the audience an understanding of means, motive and methods.

The lengths taken to track down first hand accounts and interview survivors and perpetrators are impressive and well worth it, episodes are peppered with interviews with everyone from regular civilians, notable diplomats and politicians, service men and women from every nation, resistance fighters, SS officers, Génocidaires.

Similarly thousands of hours were spent in the archives trawling through filmstock and photography rushes to find the right material and the result is a series replete with material that at the time had never before seen the light of day. The special features in the modern editions of the series are worth watching for the details on this alone.

It’s easy for war documentaries to get swept away in the explosions and drama, but Word at War stays centered very firmly on misery. Some of this is quite difficult to watch, but it’s important watching.

The series’ only real failure is that it leaves certain topics out, they plainly state in the special features that this was a result of having limited time and money and it’s understandable, but still, some of the choices are a little odd, some things could have been concatenated to give other topics room.

This is a British series and it really shows when you look at what was put in compared to what was left out: Burma is discussed (because it was forgotten, per the show runner) but China basically isn’t, at all. Yugoslavia is mentioned maybe twice across more than 24 hours’ of programming.

Bletchley park and “ULTRA” seem like odd omissions for a British programme, until you realise that they were still classified at the time the series was being filmed.

What We Do In The Shadows

• Genre: Comedy, Horror, Sitcom
• Watched: Seasons 1-3
• Why to Watch: Legitimately quite funny, good cast chemistry and overarching plot, doesn’t get dragged down in its own bullshit
• Why not to: Horror elements basically absent after first season, some character lines drag a bit, dependant on cringe comedy in places
• Best Scene: Nadja and Craig’s night on the town

The Midnight Gospel

• Genre: American, Podcast bullshit, Philosophy, Animated
• Watched: All
• Why to Watch: Very funny in places, very touching in others, unique premise
• Why not to: A bit up its own ass, but in a good way imo
• Best Scene: Conversation with Mom

Games

I played some very good games this year but I’m increasingly feeling that games are often a waste of time compared to other media, the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. I have a pretty good idea of why I feel like this but I’m struggling to articulate it properly, I’ll write something about it eventually.

These games are only the games I valued playing, I’m not including the crap I wasted time on, going forward I want to stop playing those kinds of games.

Looking at you Darktide, 50 hours in November alone…

Tohou 2

• Genre: Shmup
• Platform: PC98
• Why to play: Rocksolid shmup, great music, easy to dive into
• Why not to: Its a shmup, its pisshard, the theming is love it or hate it
• The Bottom Line: Very good, very frustrating

Disco Elysium

• Genre: RPG, Visual Novel
• Platform: All Modern
• Why to play: Great writing, incredibly good characterisation, music, presentation, world building
• Why not to: A bit wanky in places but most good things are. People are annoying about this game on the internet
• The Bottom Line: A fantastic RPG and self contained story that doesn’t overstay its welcome

Wipeout

• Genre: Racing
• Platform: PS1
• Why to play: Frenetic arcade racer with a high skill ceiling, short and sweet, easy to pickup and play. Great soundtrack
• Why not to: The PS1 is shitting itself to death trying to run this. No 2 player without a second machine
• The Bottom Line: Probably my favourite game of the year, a no shit no frills racing game with great vehicle feel and motion sickness inducing speed

This was the best game I played this year. You can play it in your browser HERE!

Psychopomp

• Genre: ?, Arthouse
• Platform: PC
• Why to play: Strange, Involving, Short
• Why not to: I think you should play it
• The Bottom Line: Kill things with hammers

Lunacid

• Genre: Hey did you ever play Kingsfield for the PS1?
• Platform: PC
• Why to play: Slow burn, relaxing, great music, pretty good moment to moment game play (for a kingsfield game), kooky sense of humour
• Why not to: It’s a kingsfield game
• The Bottom Line: I like the spell that makes pots scream

Ultrakill

• Genre: FPS, Stylish action
• Platform: PC
• Why to play: Ultra fast paced, high skill ceiling shooter, great replayability, super engrossing moment to moment. Soundtrack slaps
• Why not to: Can be frustrating if you’re really trying to get better at it. Basically unplayable without KB+M. Motion sickness later on
• The Bottom Line: 2 lmb f e lmb f e lmb f 1 rmb rmb rmb rmb 4 lmb

Anime

I have Anime binge watching disorder.

I go months without watching anything then marathon seasons in a couple days back to back. I’ve always been like this, even when I had infinite free time to spend on this stuff.

I’m pretty brutal about dumping shows I don’t click with and don’t really watch stuff as it’s airing, so Paedobait no footfag monogatari or whatever the latest fotm moe Bluray sales vehicle is isn’t going to be on the list.

Dungeon Meshi

• Genre: Fantasy
• Why to watch: Fun, warm, pretty show. Feels a bit more like a tabletop game and all the bullshit you’ll do in one than most shows like this. Good characters.
• Why not to: Forgettable music.
• The Bottom Line: Nice warm comfort show with some good characters and scenarios.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 8th MS Team

• Genre: Sci-fi/Mecha
• Why to watch: It’s like Gundam if it took itself more seriously
• Why not to: It’s like Gundam if it took itself more seriously. Nobody gives a shit about the super weapons, stop cramming new super weapons into every OVA
• The Bottom Line: Gritty war drama entry in a series that was already a gritty war drama with a bit of garish paint slapped on it. Very good but it doesn’t have the hitting power of the classic series. The grittiness inevitably works against it once Gundam’s need for new bigger stupider robots rears its head

Mobile Suit Gundam

• Genre:Sci-fi/Mecha
• Why to watch: Incredibly solid, foundational work. Super fun, engrossing, great cast. Far deeper and more thoughtful than the packaging makes it look
• Why not to: You should watch this, even though a couple episodes drag and I want to throw the children off the ship
• The Bottom Line: You should watch this. Not the recap movies, the actual original show, its really good

Armored Trooper VOTOMS

• Genre: Sci-fi/Conspiracy/Mecha
• Why to watch: A far more hardboiled, murkier show than Gundam. Better fights, better Mechs, more interesting protagonist, better soundtrack, moodier
• Why not to: The supporting cast is worse than Gundam’s
• The Bottom Line: (Man kills one billion cops) Woman in the distance: Chirico…

FlipFlappers

• Genre: Magical Girl
• Why to watch: Plain fun, looks great, enjoyable without much thought
• Why not to: Really not a whole lot of deeper interest here
• The Bottom Line: Its good, but its forgettable

Bocchi The Rock

• Genre: Slice of Life/Musical
• Why to watch: Charming and pretty on point depiction of someone with serious social anxiety. Solid black humour, much more fleshed out cast than most shows like this
• Why not to: If you can’t empathise with the main character much this is going to be a torturous watch
• The Bottom Line:

Vinland Saga (Season 1)

• Genre: Fantasy/Historical/Action
• Why to watch: Solid action anime with some ambitions to be about more than that. Strong cast, actually grounded and unusual historical setting
• Why not to: The Shonen slop stuff mixed in and over the top fights don’t really fit with the attempt at a serious tone
• The Bottom Line: Season 2 is better, but you’ve got to watch season 1 first.

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes

• Genre: Space Opera
• Why to watch: The best Space Opera ever made. Serious political and philosphical thriller, incredibly interesting setting. Banging classical music soundtrack, stellar cast, a classic.
• Why not to: Eventually the series ends, eventually. Its 110 episodes long
• The Bottom Line: The collapse of a democracy is the sin of every citizen!

Sousou no Frieren

• Genre: Fantasy
• Why to watch: Interesting premise, technically solid throughout, looks good in a professional way
• Why not to: Pretty dull in places, bad character designs, art style isn’t interesting
• The Bottom Line: Eh. It’d get you through a long flight

Record of Lodoss War

• Genre: Fantasy
• Why to watch: Beautiful OVA that oozes charm and AD&D. One of the frequently referenced keystone works in its genre. Luscious animation and soundtrack
• Why not to: The story is a bit rough and chopped up, due to it being a heavily compacted retelling of a long form narrative campaign report.
• The Bottom Line: A proper romantic, sweeping adventure. Unpretentious, great.