All too often when you lose someone close, it’s a catastrophically sudden thing that leave little to no time to deal with either its occurrence or its emotionally chaotic aftermath. You are suddenly cut adrift, unmoored from the certainties of your life, and wish with every part of you that Continue Reading
Book review: Devotion by Hannah Kent
Hannah Kent is one of those infinitely talented writers who takes the gloriously supple words of the English language and wields them with such beauty, meaning and emotional impact that it’s impossible to read one of her novels and not feel something shift deep down inside you. Her rare gift Continue Reading
A violent splintering: Thoughts on House of the Dragon (E1, S7-10)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND SOME *BIG* DRAGON MOMENTS … Power is inherently seductive to quite a lot of people. Makes sense – you have control, you get to set the course of events and remake whatever small patch of the world falls under your purview in your, hopefully benevolent and Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Twig by Skottie Young and Kyle Strahm
Saving the world is a big job. A huge amount is resting on whomever the protagonist happens to be – the fate of all life, time itself often and existential everything – and the one thing you don’t want to be on your first day saving whatever your world happens Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Wynd Book Two – The Secret of the Wings by James Tynion IV (writer) and Michael Dialynas (artist)
Fantasies always seem to convey, by some intangible sensibility woven into the word, the idea of limitless, epic adventure where anything can happen, anyone can exist and the world can be anything and everything. They are a feast for the imagination and that’s why they are seductive for so many Continue Reading
May your days be merry and bright … The luminous joy of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock’s “Night of the Lights”
SNAPSHOTIt’s the Night of the Lights, the most Fraggily holiday of the year, and the Rock is filled with songs and cheer. When Jamdolin (voiced by Daveed Diggs) encourages Wembley to make a special wish, the Fraggles head out on an adventure to find the brightest light and, maybe, the true meaning of the holiday. Jim Henson’s fun-loving and Continue Reading
Book review: World Running Down by Al Hess
A review copy was provided by NetGalley; available 28 January 2023 in print and digital from Angry Robot Books You could be forgiven for wondering whether a fractured, desert-plagued dystopia is the place to find and be true to yourself. After all, it’s hardly a quiet couch in an air-conditioned Continue Reading
Welcome to Element City! Pixar releases teaser trailer for Elemental
SHAPSHOTDisney and Pixar’s Elemental is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they Continue Reading
Book review: The Hemsworth Effect by James Weir
Is it possible to be too popular? You wouldn’t normally think so since who doesn’t want to be universally loved and adored – surely there can be no downside? – but in The Hemsworth Effect by debut author James Weir, the who, and for that matter, the what, of Byron Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #78: Sigrid, Amy Shark, Alok + Sigala + Ellie Goulding, LASTLINGS, Garbage + “Money Money Money”, the new ABBA lyric video
Laying your heart on the line is a hard thing to do. We might want to express the deepest, least-known parts of our love but we fear saying it wrong or being misunderstood and simply having all that honesty treated not in the way we intend. But these five artists, Continue Reading