also misericordiae@kbin.social
I think it’s still worth seeing if you like Caveat, especially since it seems to be a shared universe (the bunny has a brief cameo). I maybe just set my expectations too high going in.
I wanted to see this thing in motion, so I tried to search up the youtube video, but no dice. Every article on it is just copy-pasted from the original on the Express site, and I can’t get the embedded video attached to it to work. I did find an article on NIWA’s site about a species of sea pig, which looks similar.
Watched Oddity most recently. The writer/director’s previous movie, Caveat, had a super ridiculous premise, but some excellent tension at the end, so I was hoping Oddity would be a good evolution of that. Turned out to be kind of a mixed bag, imo, but I didn’t dislike it.
I thought the bones of the plot of Longlegs were cool, but found some of the execution (Longlegs himself, and the uh… method) to be jarringly goofy. Liked the first half and the atmosphere, though.
they added an element of authenticity and sheer terror
- Longlegs - Longlegs (2024)
I can only assume the writer either has very different taste in horror from me/us, or we’ve been (not so) cunningly been sucked into engagement bait. Include the movie on a list of modern horror? Sure. I had some issues with it, but whatever. Longlegs himself, though? Oof.
How was Slewfoot? It’s been on my TBR for ages, but I’ve never gotten around to it.
I’m about halfway through Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles. It’s not as detective-y as I was hoping for, but I’m still finding it quick and absorbing.
–
Finished Auberon by James S.A. Corey, which was good.
DNFed A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell about 25% through. The story seemed interesting, but I wasn’t vibing with the writing.
That’s really cool (and involved)! Thanks for writing that up. I hope you get a chance to actually try it.
Good to know, thanks!
Currently breezing through Auberon by James S.A. Corey, the story between books 7 and 8 of the Expanse. Not sure what I’ll read next.
–
Finished Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. The world-building around the Zone was as cool as I’d hoped, and I appreciated that expeditions into it were realistically strenuous, grimy, and dangerous. The overall tone is a bit bleak, though, and I didn’t find the characters particularly relatable. There’s a cool afterward from one of the authors, describing how difficult it was to get the book published (and when it was, how censored it had to be).
Bingo squares: Older Than You Are (1972), It Takes Two, Now a Major Motion Picture, (alt) Translated (hard).
Will it give me arachnophobia, if I don’t like spiders, but am not at the level of full blown phobia?
Mmm if they give you the ick, then maybe avoid it. I don’t think it’s too bad, but YMMV, and I’d rather not mislead you accidentally.
Ring Shout sounds interesting, but am not a fan of racism and slavery in the (fiction) books, specially the ones that go to dark places. Does it end well? 😀
The author actually uses a much lighter touch on the racism and mentions of slavery than I was expecting. It’s there, and it ties into the story, but the focus is really more on fighting literal demonic creatures. Like I said the other week, it’s really more of an action-adventure than disturbing horror. It ends mostly well, with room for a sequel.
Iirc from my time on kbin, posts are for the “microblog” part, i.e. the part that interacts with mastodon.
Just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I read somewhere that they purposefully wrote Stalker (which I’ve seen) as very different to the book, so it’ll be interesting to compare.
–
Finished Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. In the afterward, the author asked why a sword-wielding fantasy hero couldn’t exist in the US, which I think sums up the tone pretty well. Some fun body horror, while also touching on the real horrors of slavery and racism.
Bingo squares: Award Winner (hard), Mashup, Minority Author
–
Also read Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, which was great. Sort of a mashup of lots of things (1920s in a mental asylum, on a version of the moon that has forests, with some gothic, medical, body, and cosmic horror thrown in). Sadly too short to explore the world, though I’m hopeful the planned sequels will rectify this. Avoid if you have arachnophobia.
Bingo squares: New Release, Mashup (maybe hard?), Among the Stars (technically), (alt) A Change in Perspective. Not sure about Institutional (hard) since it’s a for-profit asylum.
100% agree; I was so bummed Riddick was just inferior Pitch Black. The animated one, Dark Fury, was fun, though, iirc.
Not Gamescom-related, but there was a Nintendo Direct that showed off some indie/partner games on the 27th, and a CoD thing today (the 28th), if either of those were what you were thinking of?
Only other thing that comes to mind is maybe the Future Games Show, but that was last week (list of trailers here).
I’m at 13/25 books for bingo, but that’s all I’ve been reading since May.
Currently a third of the way through Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. I was craving a horror read, and this worked for bingo, so I picked it up. It’s good so far, but seems more like an action adventure than the grim spookiness I wanted.
–
Finished Malice by Keigo Higashino. A surprising number of lies got revealed in the second half, though I did get part of it right. Not jumping to read more by this author, but not opposed to it, either. Sidenotes: this is listed as #4 in a series, but the first 3 aren’t in English, and it reads fine as a standalone; also, you may want to check content warnings for this one.
Bingo squares: What’s Yours Is Mine, Bookception (hard), There Is Another (hard, if you count untranslated entries), Now a Major Motion Picture (a J-drama from 2001), Minority Author, (alt) Translated (hard)
Oof, that sounds tricky, yeah. I spent some more time this morning poking around at references and testing ideas, but mostly it feels like going around in circles (no pun intended).
Do post how you end up going about it, or if you find a better solution; I’d love to know!
I mean, if you’re willing to cheat and use the length of your straightedge (assuming it’s long enough), or cordage anchored at one end, then you have a substitute compass, and the solution’s trivial.
Yeah, it definitely looks a bit low budget, but I can forgive that if it gets everything else right enough.