Shadow Moon (Whittle) in The Bone Orchard
REVIEW: American Gods S01E01 – “The Bone Orchard”
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Tag Archives: science fiction
REVIEW: The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe (Welcome to Night Vale, Episodes #2) by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe is the second volume featuring scripts from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe contains the scripts from the podcast’s second season, as well as the live show The Debate, along with an introduction by Maureen Johnson, illustrations by Jessica Hayworth, and introductions to each episode by various members of the cast and crew. In The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe, Night Vale faces a takeover by a totalitarian corporation that threatens to forever change the town and everyone in it. Like the previous review, this review will be in two parts; the first part will discuss the book itself while the second part discusses the content of the season.
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REVIEW: Mostly Void, Partially Stars (Welcome to Night Vale, Episodes Volume 1) by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Mostly Void, Partially Stars is a collection of the first year’s worth of scripts (and the script of the first live show Condos) from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. In addition to the scripts, Mostly Void, Partially Stars contains introductions to every episode featuring behind the scenes tidbits such as the inspiration for the episode or how it was put together. In Mostly Void, Partially Stars, readers are introduced to the town of Night Vale and Cecil Palmer, the host of the local community radio station’s news show. As the story begins, a new scientist, named Carlos, arrives into town, sparking interest from Cecil. Coinciding with this event is the discovery of a civilization underneath one of the lanes in the bowling alley. As the year goes on, these plot threads will collide in a major way. This review will be in two parts; the first reviewing the book itself, the second reviewing the content of the scripts and the first year of the podcast as a whole. Continue reading
REVIEW: Doctor Who S10E02 – “Smile” (spoilers)
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Bill (Pearl Mackie)
We’re back for another review of Doctor Who! As always, this review will not be spoiler free, so if you’ve yet to see Smile, then you should probably watch the episode first. This week’s Doctor Who is called Smile and was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and directed by Lawrence Gogh. Smile takes the Doctor and Bill into the distant future as they land on a planet inhabited by microbots whose sole job is to make sure the humans who will soon be living there are happy. However, something has gone wrong, and these microbots have killed the entirety of the skeleton crew (the group of humans sent to prepare the planet for colonization). It’s up to the Doctor and Bill to find out what’s happened and why before the colonists arrive and suffer the same fate as the skeleton crew. Continue reading
REVIEW: Dimension 404 – “BOB”
BOB gets one last Christmas wish
I wasn’t planning on reviewing any more episodes of this show until the season had finished, but I just watched today’s new episode, BOB, and I had to review it. It’s such a sweet, moving episode, I was actually brought to tears by the end of it. It took five episodes, but Dimension 404 has definitely managed to reach its full potential. Per Hulu’s website: “As a holiday terror threat looms large, an Army psychologist races against the clock to treat the strangest patient of her career – and the only one who can save Christmas – BOB, a depressed NSA supercomputer made entirely of human flesh.” Continue reading
Review: All Hail (Welcome to Night Vale – Live)
All Hail tour poster
Welcome to Night Vale‘s latest live show is All Hail, a tale about the one and only Mighty Glow Cloud (all hail). All Hail played the Carolina Theatre in Durham on April 14, 2017, and I had the chance to attend the show. It was my first ever Night Vale live show, and it couldn’t have been a better first experience. The atmosphere of the event was one of a large community; everyone had gathered there to see and participate in this theatrical event. There were people of all genders, races, and sexualities there and everyone was immediately accepted. People dressed up in costumes: there were Ericas (angels), Hooded Figures, Cecil’s and Carlos’s, and – my personal favorite – one person dressed up as Fey, the computer that read the numbers for the numbers station in episode 42 of the podcast. This is what greeted me as I arrived at the theatre; I hadn’t even entered it yet! Everyone was gathered outside in a waiting area and you could see all the costumes on display and everyone socializing and meeting new people. It was a beautiful moment. And then the doors opened.
REVIEW: American Gods – Shadows #2
American Gods: Shadows #2 is the latest issue of Dark Horse’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel, American Gods. It, essentially, adapts the entire second chapter of the original novel pretty faithfully. In this issue, Shadow and Wednesday continue their conversation at Jack’s Crocodile Bar, Shadow meets the leprechaun Mad Sweeney and has an altercation with him, and Shadow attends his wife’s funeral.
I’ve got sort of mixed feelings about this issue. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s starting to feel like there’s no much actual adaptation going on. It’s pretty much a copy-paste of the original novel with some really beautiful illustrations added in. And that’s not a bad thing, per say. But it doesn’t really feel like we’re getting anything new here.
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REVIEW: Hulu’s “Dimension 404”
Hulu’s newest series, Dimension 404, is a science fiction anthology series – in the vein of classics like The Twilight Zone and the more recent Black Mirror – with a comedic edge. It would be easy to write this show off as a modernized ripoff of The Twilight Zone, but that’s doing Dimension 404 a disservice.
REVIEW: "MJ-12: Inception" by Michael J Martinez
MJ-12: Inception is an alternate history sci-fi thriller involving a group of people who have been given super powers by an anomaly created in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing at the end of World War 2. These “Variants” – as they are called throughout the book – are recruited by the American government into a program known as the Majestic 12. Their goal: be an extra force for the United States Intelligence and Military communities. Naturally, things just get more complicated from there as Cold War tensions and former Nazi scientists are woven into the story. It’s really quite something.
REVIEW: "Anansi Boys" by: Neil Gaiman
Okay, so I really liked this book. It’s a massively different beast than American Gods, but at the same time, it very much feels like it’s a part of that universe. Anansi Boys is on a much smaller scale than American Gods was. While American Gods dealt with gods fighting against each other, Anansi Boys is an extremely personal story about the children of a god (Mr. Nancy, Anansi) connecting with each other and coming into their own.
Thoroughly Modern Reviewer 