Minus four or five books not shown, I was a bit busy reading to keep sane in 2020.
So, a few days late and no dollars short, here are most of the books that have shown up from a few small to large publishers last year when I was holed up and locked down. There are a few missing from this photo, as a friend needed some emergency reads and I was more than happy to oblige. I don’t think I’ve read this much fantasy and sci-fi in a row since high school, so it was a pretty interesting few months.
Then again, when you have two strokes, survive and need to teach yourself to read and write again, it’s definitely a good thing I was able to enjoy this lot of novels, albeit a bit slower than I used to. I was a bit of a speedy reader back in the day and when these books started showing up last year, it was a bit daunting at first. But the as the amount increased, I became quite determined to get through them all. So, yes – it helped with all these books showing up. Hooray for mailing lists, and sure, I may write a few short reviews on some of these down the road a piece.
Hi there. So, where were we again? Oh, right. Some big things are cooking on the legal/financial front, so that’s been taking up a chunk of time (boo!). Nevertheless, I can’t say much after that other than I dislike having to do so much stuff nearly every day to get a relative what’s legally due because the process intentionally convoluted and some things needn’t be so damn irritating, but here we are.
I saw JOKER a few times and the Birds of Prey flick twice last year. Both are quite interesting takes on characters with different complex mental challenges as unreliable narrators and yes, one comes off as far darker than the other with the latter film having a much higher body count while the former is pretty bleak on every front with initially a lower body count, but a longer damage reach. The main differences between the two being the direction and how the victims are treated. Birds of Prey has plenty of bad folks who get what’s coming to them and it’s presented as comically as possible though some energetically portrayed violence. But you also see a few innocents dispatched by villains who are somewhat worse than the main character. As the kids say, props to the main villains here for being so phenomenally twisted.
On the other hand, JOKER is in a way, much like Harley’s loopy tale, but a lot less “fun” to watch. It also goes rather intentionally all over the map, but Arthur Fleck’s story along with its more realistic violent content reflects the reactions its main character has to his internal demons and not all of the victims here deserve what they get. The violence is more shocking and in a few cases, unexpected, especially a brutal scene later on where you get a sudden victim and a surprise survivor. In both films, the actors playing the leads do some fine work overall, although I have to give the edge to Joaquin Phoenix’s performance (I’m not into awards shows, but that Oscar win was well-deserved).
Well, sort of. I’m currently popping up for air and feeling as if I’ve been trapped in the worst ever remake of Groundhog Day (or perhaps, the worst choose your own adventure novel where whichever page you turn to means a character meets a messy end). What day is it, anyway? Or week, month and year, for that matter?
There’s actually a post before this one, but I decided on not running it as it’s a bit long and well, somewhat grim and depressing. Still, some (much) shorter version of it will get posted – just not the novella-length monster that took a few too-long months to assemble. Anyway, no cool images or videos this time, as I’m typing this on a fancy new tablet and it’s a thing I’m trying to wrap my head around. Uh, Happy New Year and all that. Back in a bit, but maybe on a PC, as it feels more… comfortable working on one.
Well, this is a fine thing indeed. It’s soon to be raining werewolves, vampires and other creatures of the night thanks to Bigben Games and a few developers hard at work on a few titles. On the werewolf (there, wolf!) front, you’re getting this:
“You better stay away from him – he’ll rip your lungs out, Jim!”
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is in development with Cyanide Studio at the helm, and while only this art below and the animated image on the official website have been shown, both it and that teaser trailer give off a nice vibe of what to expect. The developer has been pretty good at delivering solid gameplay that’s gotten better with each game they make, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye peeled for screenshots and actual gamepay as this moves closer to completion, This one’s coming in Summer 2020 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 