In contrast with the ubiquitous fanfare surrounding the launch of Rebel Moon Part 1 last year, its sequel has come and gone almost unnoticed Last year, Zack Snyder seemed pretty convinced that his space opera riff on Seven Samurai was going to become an instant classic. The intensity of the marketing reflected that expectation: it was made at a volume and intensity to match that of the movie itself. Such high hopes weren't rewarded: Rebel Moon Part 1 turned out to be an unbearable cacophony of hyperviolence in blurry sepia, exactly what could have been predicted of a project where Snyder had ..read more

The big-screen version of the popular action-comedy anime is accessible for newcomers, but its lighter tone may disappoint existing fans seeking edgier content The popular anime and manga Spy x Family has made the transition to the big screen in Spy x Family: Code White. For those who don’t normally watch anime, the Spy x Family TV series is an excellent gateway show due to its intensely likeable and quirky characters and its darkly humorous plot that wraps murder and mayhem into the breezy pastels and cuteness of an adorable fake family. The story takes place in a fictional country with ..read more

Quite the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. first attempt The raging dichotomy on the Internet about video games and their film/television series adaptations can be a horrible place to find yourself at two a.m. on a Friday night, but someone’s gotta do it. The thing is, you won’t have too many dissenters when it comes to the recently released Fallout show on Amazon Prime. Sure, you have some folks grumpy about potential retconning to their favorite entry, Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian), but overall, fans seem pleased. The first two titles in the game series were developed by Black Isle Studios and Interplay ..read more

An absolutely brutal depiction of photojournalism in the midst of an underexplored conflict I met up with some friends to see Alex Garland's Civil War in IMAX on the Thursday evening before its wide release in the U.S. As a fan of Annihilation, The Beach, and Ex Machina, I thought I was in for a timely tale of American democracy gone wrong. Seeing Nick Offerman in the previews as a Trumpian presidential figure only piqued my interest even more—as a devout lover of all things dystopian, I was ready. What I got, however, was not what I expected. This isn't to say that the film is lacking; it's ..read more

The Sauútiverse, a shared science-fantasy world inspired by African folklore (of which the first anthology, Mothersound, is already out) is a fascinating collaborative writing project born from the creative space Syllble. (Full disclosure: I'm currently involved with the development of another Syllble project.) I spoke with Ghanaian author Cheryl Ntumy, one of the founding members of the Sauútiverse, about the conception of this fictional world and the ideas behind it. In befitting Sauúti fashion, the answers came from the writing collective as a whole: Who came up with the idea for the ..read more

Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born speculative fiction author.  Her short fiction has been published in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine and The Best of British Fantasy. Her debut novel Fathomfolk —inspired by mythology, ESEAN cities and diaspora feels— was published by Orbit in February 2024. Today she tells us about her Six Books: 1. What book are you currently reading? I'm currently reading Hannah Kaner's Godkiller, an absolutely gripping, explosive epic fantasy that is unlike anything I've read before. It's giving me American Gods meet The Witcher vibes at the moment but I'm ea ..read more

A "who is the real monster?" story that dodges the complexity of its own premise (Note: there is a fairly significant (though not plot-revealing) spoiler in this review - read on at your own risk!) Opening confession: before reading Someone You Can Build a Nest In, I didn't rate John Wiswell's work very much. Clearly, his writing is doing a lot of things right for a lot of people, since you don't get to be Hugo and Nebula nominated without folks thinking you're great at what you do. But beyond the cute ideas, I don't find a lot in Wiswell stories to sink my teeth into. On a technical level, t ..read more

A lively, flapperish adventure through 1920s America in all its diversity, plus ghosts There’s something terribly satisfying about finding a long, engaging series. Not silly-long, like Wheel of Time, but long enough that things can get really gnarly. Kate Elliott knows what I’m talking about, as does Robin Hobb. On these very pages I’ve praised Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay, and now I’m pleased to be back again to tell you about Libba Bray’s Diviners quartet. Do you like flappers? Do you like ghosts? Do you like thoughtful meditations on 1920s America, balancing gracefully on the k ..read more

 I never really thought about it until I listened to Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, but there is something rather inescapable about the corpus of Norse Mythology. And that is, compared to the Greek, or Egyptian canons of Mythology by comparison, we don't have a lot of it. The Greek sources are stuffed full of characters, legends, variations on the tale (something I really appreciated when I listened to Stephen Fry's trilogy on Greek Mythology). But Norse mythology is definitely impoverished. In fact, the basic stories you've seen even alluded to in Marvel movies and comics are a substanti ..read more

Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what your country can do to you Every tyranny encounters opposition. But there are also, under every tyranny, a number from among the population who mold themselves to match what the tyrant demands of them. That raises a valuable question: what type of citizen does authoritarianism want? The typology of dictators has been catalogued extensively in political philosophy, but what about those on the receiving end of absolute power? If we could envision a nightmare scenario, where the common human being gladly consented to being controlled, what would ..read more