Briefly, Venice

Jun. 24th, 2025 10:09 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

For our 25th anniversary, Krissy and I were planning to go to Iceland and spend a week or so there, getting to know the country. Then the pandemic happened and we ended up spending the anniversary at home. Fine, we would just reschedule Iceland for our 30th anniversary. But then I was invited to do a convention in Iceland last year, and we tacked on an extra five days after the convention to do all the things we planned for our 25th anniversary. This left our 30th anniversary suddenly unscheduled.

Fortunately, I had a backup: I had always wanted to visit Venice, not just for Venice itself, but also, goofily, for the fact there is a Church of the Scalzi there, and a Scalzi Bridge, and, heck, why not, even a Scalzi restaurant. Honestly, how could I not go? Krissy indulged me, and on the week of our anniversary, off we went.

We spent a full week in Venice, which appeared to surprise the people there when we mentioned the fact to them. Apparently Venice is usually a couple-days stop at most, tourists grimly marching themselves from the Doge’s palace to the obligatory gondola ride to wherever else they went before they were hustled back onto a bus or cruise ship and sent off to whatever the next destination was. The fact we were in town for a whole week impressed the locals. They seemed to appreciate that we wanted to take in the city at a leisurely pace.

Which is what we did! We did have two days where we had a private guide to give us a walking tour of the city (including stops at the aforementioned Doge’s palace, St. Mark’s basilica and the Scalzi church) and to take us over to Murano to watch glass being blown. And of course we rode in a gondola, because, hey, we were in fact tourists, and not afraid to do touristy things. But most of the days there we woke up late, wandered around the city and maybe took in a museum or church, and then ate at a bunch of restaurants and hung out in a bunch of bars, mostly on the water, and watched the city go by in various boats. Venice, as it turns out, is a lovely city to just be in. Krissy and I mostly did a lot of not much, and it was pretty great.

Mind you, Venice is one of the most overtouristed cities in the world, and as a visitor you can certainly feel that, especially on the weekends, in the space between the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. It’s Disneyland-level crowded there. I can’t complain overmuch about that fact without being a full-blown hypocrite, but we did understand that our role in town was to drop a lot of money into the local economy in order to balance out our presence. We were happy to do that, and, you know, to be respectful of the people who were helping to give us a delightful vacation. By and large the Venetians were perfectly nice, did not seem to dislike us merely for being Americans, and in any event we got out of town before Jeff Bezos could show up and make everyone genuinely angry. No one blamed us for Jeff Bezos, either.

One of the things I personally genuinely enjoyed about Venice was just how utterly unlike anywhere in the United States. Yes, I know there are places in the US where they have canals; heck, the Venice in California was once meant to have them all over the place. But it’s not only about the canals. It’s about the fact that no matter what street you’re going down, what bridge you’re crossing or what side canal you’re looking down into, parts of everything you’re looking at have been there longer than the US has been a country, and none of it accommodates anything that the US would require. There are no cars in Venice, no Vespas, not even any bikes. If you’re going anywhere, you’re walking or going by boat. It’s very weird to have no road noise anywhere. You don’t realize how much you get used that noise, even in a rural area like the one I live in, until you go some place without it. I mean, there are boats with engines. The sounds of internal combustion are not entirely gone. But it’s dramatically reduced.

As mentioned, we stayed in Venice for a week, which I think is probably the right amount of time to be in the city. We didn’t see everything it had to offer, but then we weren’t trying to; if and when we go back there will still be new things to explore. But I did get to check off visiting the Scalzi Bridge, Church and restaurant, and the last of these was where Krissy and I had our actual 30th anniversary dinner. It’s was pretty good. I did not get a discount because of my last name. Alas. Here’s picture of the interior of the Church of the Scalzi:

Slightly more ornate than the one in Bradford, Ohio, I admit. But in defense of the one in Ohio, it’s much easier to dust.

Would I recommend Venice to others? Definitely. Spend more than a couple of days. Be respectful. Spend a decent amount of money. Have an Aperol Spritz. If you’re from the US, enjoy the fact there is nothing like it in the American experience. Maybe avoid the Rialto Bridge on the weekend. And there you have it: an excellent Venetian vacation. I hope you’ll enjoy yours as much as we enjoyed ours.

— JS

[syndicated profile] reactor_feed

Posted by Stefan Raets

Excerpts Horror

Read an Excerpt From One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

A brilliant scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic while also hiding a huge secret—her undead husband.

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Published on June 24, 2025

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Stefan Raets</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-one-yellow-eye-by-leigh-radford/">https://reactormag.com/excerpts-one-yellow-eye-by-leigh-radford/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816720">https://reactormag.com/?p=816720</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-vertical"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/fictions/excerpts/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Excerpts 0"> Excerpts </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/horror/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Horror 1"> Horror </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Read an Excerpt From <i>One Yellow Eye</i> by Leigh Radford</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">A brilliant scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic while also hiding a huge secret—her undead husband.</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/leigh-radford/" title="Posts by Leigh Radford" class="author url fn" rel="author">Leigh Radford</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 24, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] 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fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="407" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye-header-740x407.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Cover of One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford." srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye-header-740x407.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye-header-1100x605.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye-header-768x422.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye-header.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>We&#8217;re thrilled to share an excerpt from <em><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/One-Yellow-Eye/Leigh-Radford/9781668081211" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>One Yellow Eye</strong></a></em> by Leigh Radford, a heart-wrenching spin on the zombie mythos publishing with Gallery Books on July 15<sup>th</sup>.</p> <div style="height:5px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>How far would you go to save your marriage? For British scientist Kesta Shelley, there is no limit.<br><br>Having always preferred the company of microbes, Kesta has spent her life looking down the barrel of a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. But that changed when Kesta met Tim—her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So, when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode.<br><br>Though the government has rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive—and hidden—with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent. As Kesta races against the clock, her colleagues start noticing changes in her behavior and appearance. She is withering away, self-medicating with alcohol, and has stopped attending her mandated ZARG (Zombie Apocalypse Recovery Group) meetings. Her care for Tim has spiraled into absolute obsession.<br><br>There are whispers of a top-secret lab working on a cure, and Kesta clings to the possibility of being recruited like a lifeline. But can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse… will they trigger another outbreak?</p></blockquote></figure> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <div style="height:20px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <p>London lay prone, a cadaver dredged from a riverbed, under a sheet of cloud, resigned and exposed. It was no longer the city Kesta had grown up in. This city was terminal, its life draining away through mile after mile of ancient drains, out into the Thames Estuary and the North Sea. As she walked toward the Barbican, past its deserted tube station, heading east, she could slice through the lane dividers all the way down Aldersgate Street without a single car to bother her. The red Z signs spray painted onto doors and windows of buildings where the virus had struck demarcated her journey. Government posters clung to their walls shredded and defaced. Huge billboards lit up the roundabout warning people to stay indoors. Leaflets and cards, printed and handwritten, clogged up the gutters along the pavements. Churches offering sanctuary. Instructions from the army on self-defense. Homemade posters for those who were missing, their expectant faces now dirtied by other people’s footprints, staring up at Kesta from the ground, still hoping to be found. Evangelical fliers proclaiming the end of times and all the answers you needed at the end of a hotline for £6.99 a minute. The streets were littered with relics of the crisis that lay where they had fallen, in the doorways of shuttered shops and cafes where once the homeless might have slept. Kesta passed by an old pub, still boarded up, a single light on in the back somewhere, shining for no one. There were no homeless people living in London now. They had been amongst the first to die.</p> <p>Coming home to no one was the hardest part of all. Before turning the key in the lock, there was a split second of hope, that he’d still be there as she remembered him. The flat was so lonely without his endless chatter, always delivered in his outdoor, college bar baritone. Indoor voice, for God’s sake she used to say to him, the neighbors will hear you. Tim would give her that smile, her only weakness, and carry on as loudly as before. She had the indoor voice. And without him it was barely a whisper. What she wouldn’t give to be embarrassed by the sheer volume of him now.</p> <section class="wp-block-shop-the-book shop-the-book"> <h2 class="shop-the-book-headline">Buy the Book</h2> <div class="shop-the-book-content"> <figure class="shop-the-book-image-desktop image-cover"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="450" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="One Yellow Eye" /> </figure> <div class="grow shrink basis-0"> <div class="flex items-center"> <figure class="shop-the-book-image-mobile image-cover"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="450" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="One Yellow Eye" /> </figure> <div class="grow shrink basis-0"> <h3 class="shop-the-book-title text-h3">One Yellow Eye</h3> <p class="shop-the-book-author">Leigh Radford</p> </div> </div> <button type="button" class="inline-block px-8 py-4 text-center btn tablet:py-3 text-h6 bg-red text-white shop-the-book-button" id="buy_book" data-trigger="modal" data-target="#modal-1750808927" aria-open="false" aria-label="Buy Book"> <span class="inline-flex items-center button-label btn-label"> Buy Book </span> </button> </div> </div> <div id="modal-1750808927" class="shop-the-book-modal"> <div class="shop-the-book-modal-inner"> <button class="js-modal-close absolute top-5 right-5 z-10" type="button" aria-label="close modal"> <svg class="w-[19px] h-[19px]" width="18" height="19" viewbox="0 0 18 19" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-label="close" role="img" aria-hidden="true"> <path d="M1 17L17 1" stroke="black" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" /> <path d="M1 17L17 1" stroke="black" stroke-opacity="0.2" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" /> <path d="M17 17.0809L1 1.08093" stroke="black" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" /> <path d="M17 17.0809L1 1.08093" stroke="black" stroke-opacity="0.2" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" /> </svg> </button> <div class="shop-the-book-modal-content"> <figure class="shop-the-book-modal-image-desktop image-cover"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="450" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="One Yellow Eye" /> </figure> <div class="grow shrink basis-0"> <div class="flex items-center"> <figure class="shop-the-book-modal-image-mobile image-cover"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="450" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/One-Yellow-Eye.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="One Yellow Eye" /> </figure> <div class="grow shrink basis-0"> <h3 class="shop-the-book-modal-title">One Yellow Eye</h3> <p class="shop-the-book-modal-author">Leigh Radford</p> </div> </div> <p class="shop-the-book-modal-label">Buy this book from:</p> <ul class="not-prose ebook-links ebook-links-shortcode"><li><a class="btn" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0DJBMZJBL?tag=tordotcomgeneral-20" data-book-title="One Yellow Eye" data-book-store="Amazon"><span class="inline-flex items-center button-label text-h6 text-white font-aktiv">Amazon</span></a></li><li><a class="btn" target="_blank" href="https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7992675/type/dlg/sid/tordotcomgeneral/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9781668081211" data-book-title="One Yellow Eye" data-book-store="Barnes and Noble"><span class="inline-flex items-center button-label text-h6 text-white font-aktiv">Barnes and Noble</span></a></li><li><a class="btn" target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781668081235" data-book-title="One Yellow Eye" data-book-store="iBooks"><span class="inline-flex items-center button-label text-h6 text-white font-aktiv">iBooks</span></a></li><li><a class="btn" target="_blank" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781668081211" data-book-title="One Yellow Eye" data-book-store="IndieBound"><span class="inline-flex items-center button-label text-h6 text-white font-aktiv">IndieBound</span></a></li><li><a class="btn" target="_blank" href="https://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=9781668081211" data-book-title="One Yellow Eye" data-book-store="Target"><span class="inline-flex items-center button-label text-h6 text-white font-aktiv">Target</span></a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section> <p>The blinds in the living room remained closed, had been for five months. Light would attract them, they were told at first, so everyone had drawn their curtains and waited obediently for it to be over. She had grown accustomed to shutting out the world because performing for it like a monkey—at work, at therapy, as people tried to engage her at the supermarket or the park—it exhausted her.</p> <p>She went to the fridge and removed a bottle of white wine from the night before, along with a cardboard box from the middle shelf. Aside from a pint of milk and a bag of ground coffee, the fridge was as deserted as the flat. Kesta did not cook, that had been Tim’s pleasure. She struggled to eat at home now.</p> <p>Anyway, the fridge was mostly occupied by blood bags. O+. Kesta’s own. And a regiment of tiny glass vials where the eggs should have been. She poured herself a glass of wine and lifted a circular lemon sponge from the cardboard box, depositing it on a dinner plate and rummaged in the kitchen’s junk draw for something she wasn’t sure she still had. But there they were, the little pink candles, stuffed at the very back, in between a torch, a plug adaptor and some crayons, and she was relieved to see they had only been lit once before. Kesta slid the nicest tea tray she owned, which had belonged to Tim’s mother—art-deco, solid silver handles—out from underneath the drinks trolley in the living room. She arranged her sorry celebration across it.</p> <p>Kesta laid the tray to rest on the table in the hallway and began the arduous process of opening the four black deadlocks on the spare bedroom door.</p> <p>The room was in total darkness save for the primary colors of the vitals monitor casting an eerie rainbow across the bed like a nursery light. Sporadic bleeps and whirs from the machine reassured Kesta that some life remained. She recorded these readings in the notebook she kept on the nightstand, heart rate, oxygen levels, body temperature. All abnormal but at least unchanged. Kesta returned to the hallway for the tray, sliding it across the nightstand.</p> <p>One yellow eye watched her. It saw but didn’t see and it never, ever blinked. A graying arm upheaved into the restraints before falling with a defeated puff. Violence had fought its way out of that body and now it was a scene of great suffering. It was unnaturally positioned, a marionette with its strings cut. A spider’s web of ruptured vessels, scaly skin stretched taut and livid. Every inch of it was screaming. But there was no pain, no sound, no progress in the patient that Kesta could determine.</p> <p>She lit the candles on the cake, and she showed the cake to Tim. </p> <p>“Happy Birthday, darling.”</p> <div style="height:5px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <p class="has-sm-font-size">Excerpted from <em>One Yellow Eye</em>, copyright © 2025 by Leigh Radford.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-one-yellow-eye-by-leigh-radford/">Read an Excerpt From &lt;i&gt;One Yellow Eye&lt;/i&gt; by Leigh Radford</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-one-yellow-eye-by-leigh-radford/">https://reactormag.com/excerpts-one-yellow-eye-by-leigh-radford/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816720">https://reactormag.com/?p=816720</a></p>
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Posted by Vanessa Armstrong

News The Strangers: Chapter 2

The Strangers: Chapter 2 Trailer Welcomes Us to Venus

The sequel is the second in a planned trilogy, with all footage already shot.

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Published on June 24, 2025

Screenshot: Lionsgate

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Vanessa Armstrong</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/">https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816954">https://reactormag.com/?p=816954</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/news/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag News 0"> News </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/the-strangers-chapter-2/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag The Strangers: Chapter 2 1"> The Strangers: Chapter 2 </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>The Strangers: Chapter 2</i> Trailer Welcomes Us to Venus</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">The sequel is the second in a planned trilogy, with all footage already shot.</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/vanessa-armstrong/" title="Posts by Vanessa Armstrong" class="author url fn" rel="author">Vanessa Armstrong</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 24, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Screenshot: Lionsgate</p> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 14.4v-.5H1.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 1-1.3-1.3V1.8A1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.8.5h14.4a1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.3 1.3v10.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 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9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="740" height="492" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb-740x492.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Maya in the woods trying not to get murdered in The Strangers: Chapter 2" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb-740x492.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb-1100x732.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb-768x511.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Variety-Exclusive-Still_rgb.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Screenshot: Lionsgate</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>Welcome to Venus, Oregon! A small town where a woman named Maya is trying to survive getting maimed and murdered by masked individuals who tried to kill her once (and succeeded in killing her boyfriend), and still want her dead for unclear reasons.</p> <p>That’s the premise of <em><a href="https://reactormag.com/nowhere-is-safe-and-evil-is-everywhere-in-the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Strangers: Chapter 2,</a></em> the second installment in a planned horror trilogy from director Renny Harlin. Lionsgate released another trailer today that confirms that the sequel picks up moments after the first film, where Maya (Madelaine Petsch) is recovering in a local hospital. The masked killers hunt her down from there, and they then apparently go on a road trip to, presumably, Venus, Oregon, where Maya continues to try to survive, both inside a house of some sort and also the great outdoors.</p> <p>Lionsgate also released an in-world website, <a href="https://www.visitvenusoregon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visitvenusoregon.com</a>, which includes some worldbuilding for those interested in figuring out what makes those masked murderers tick. Some of the site&#8217;s pages are locked, but you can open them by providing your email. You can tell from what’s publicly available, however, that Venus is a <em>very</em> religious town, where perhaps <em>everyone</em> in said town is into murdering Maya for ritualistic reasons. Intriguing!</p> <p>In addition to Petsch, <em>The Stranger: Chapter 2 </em>stars Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath. The script comes from Alan R. Cohen &amp; Alan Freedland. It premieres in theaters on September 26, 2025.</p> <p>Check out the latest trailer below.[end-mark]</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <site-embed id="8508"/> </div></figure> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/">&lt;i&gt;The Strangers: Chapter 2&lt;/i&gt; Trailer Welcomes Us to Venus</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/">https://reactormag.com/the-strangers-chapter-2-trailer-welcomes-us-to-venus/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816954">https://reactormag.com/?p=816954</a></p>
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Posted by Molly Templeton

News Bookish

Mark Gatiss Quirkily Solves Crimes in Bookish

“Leave nothing out, especially if it’s salacious, gory, or vaguely scandalous.”

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Published on June 24, 2025

Image: UKTV

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Molly Templeton</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/mark-gatiss-quirkily-solves-crimes-in-bookish/">https://reactormag.com/mark-gatiss-quirkily-solves-crimes-in-bookish/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816936">https://reactormag.com/?p=816936</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/news/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag News 0"> News </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/bookish/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Bookish 1"> Bookish </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Mark Gatiss Quirkily Solves Crimes in <i>Bookish</i></h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">&#8220;Leave nothing out, especially if it&#8217;s salacious, gory, or vaguely scandalous.&#8221;</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/molly-templeton/" title="Posts by Molly Templeton" class="author url fn" rel="author">Molly Templeton</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 24, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Image: UKTV</p> </div> 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9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img decoding="async" width="740" height="493" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mark-gatiss-bookish-740x493.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Mark Gatiss in Bookish" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mark-gatiss-bookish-740x493.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mark-gatiss-bookish-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mark-gatiss-bookish-768x512.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mark-gatiss-bookish.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Image: UKTV</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>The name&#8217;s Book. Gabriel Book. And yes: Book owns a bookshop. <em>Bookish</em> is a new series coming to PBS that combines several things very beloved of certain audiences: books, bookshops, murders, and <em>Sherlock</em> co-creator Mark Gatiss.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s how the show is described by UKTV, which is releasing it in the UK:</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>London 1946 is the setting for series one, with viewers introduced to the appropriately named Gabriel Book (Gatiss) who owns a bookshop in Archangel Lane. If his War was packed with espionage and secrets, Book’s Peace is just as full of adventure! Now he helps the police solve the strangest of crimes and the knottiest of murders. But his close association to the force is not without its dangers. For although he is very happily married to his childhood best friend, the captivating Trottie (played by Polly Walker), Book is a gay man living at a time when homosexuality was illegal. When Book and Trottie take in Jack it seems like an act of altruism: a second chance for a young jailbird. And Jack (played by Connor Finch) proves a worthy assistant both in the shop and in Book’s murder investigations.<br><br>It soon becomes clear, however, that Jack’s appointment wasn’t quite as random as it at first appears… With a complex mystery at the heart of every story, featuring a wealth of well-known guest stars, marrying post-war nostalgia with the reckless and life affirming atmosphere of the times, <em>Bookish</em> is a stylish period detective drama with a difference.</p></blockquote></figure> <p>That&#8217;s quite a cast of British all-stars—and the series also features Joely Richardson (<em>Emerald City</em>) and Paul McGann (<em>Doctor Who</em>). There is also a dog named Dog.</p> <p>Gatiss is the creator and writer of <em>Bookish</em> as well as its star. The project was originally intended to be a novel, but Gatiss &#8220;couldn&#8217;t get the tone right,&#8221; as he told <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/03/mark-gatiss-on-bookish-series-and-sherlock-influence-1236313594/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deadline</a>. Perhaps it&#8217;s appropriate, then, that the UK will also have a spin-off novel written by Matthew Sweet. (In the UK, the series has already been renewed for a second season.)</p> <p><em>Bookish</em> will arrive on PBS at some still mysterious future date.[end-mark]</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <site-embed id="8507"/> </div></figure> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/mark-gatiss-quirkily-solves-crimes-in-bookish/">Mark Gatiss Quirkily Solves Crimes in &lt;i&gt;Bookish&lt;/i&gt;</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/mark-gatiss-quirkily-solves-crimes-in-bookish/">https://reactormag.com/mark-gatiss-quirkily-solves-crimes-in-bookish/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816936">https://reactormag.com/?p=816936</a></p>
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Posted by Sarah

Books Front Lines and Frontiers

Crime in Space! — Space Cops: Mindblast by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood

Two unlikely partners team up to solve a murder mystery…

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Published on June 24, 2025

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/crime-in-space-space-cops-mindblast-by-diane-duane-and-peter-morwood/">https://reactormag.com/crime-in-space-space-cops-mindblast-by-diane-duane-and-peter-morwood/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816836">https://reactormag.com/?p=816836</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-vertical"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/books/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Books 0"> Books </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/front-lines-and-frontiers/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Front Lines and Frontiers 1"> Front Lines and Frontiers </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Crime in Space! — <i>Space Cops: Mindblast</i> by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Two unlikely partners team up to solve a murder mystery&#8230;</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/alan-brown/" title="Posts by Alan Brown" class="author url fn" rel="author">Alan Brown</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 24, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access 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11.7513C4.78371 10.1926 2.89605 9.41364 0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="407" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mindblast-header-740x407.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Cover of Space Cops: Mindblast by Diane Duane &amp; Peter Morwood" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mindblast-header-740x407.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mindblast-header-1100x605.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mindblast-header-768x422.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mindblast-header.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>In this&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reactormag.com/tag/front-lines-and-frontiers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bi-weekly series</a>&nbsp;reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p>The start of summer and the onset of nicer weather always finds me turning to thoughts of pulpy adventure fiction, stories that don’t require much thinking, but offer up plenty of action to keep you turning the pages. So today, I’m looking at <em>Space Cops: Mindblast</em>, a science fiction book from the 1990s, which perfectly fits that criterion. Some folks think the age of pulp fiction ended somewhere during the Second World War, but in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century, publishers of paperback originals did their best to carry the torch of pulpy adventure stories. And as with the old pulp magazines, the authors who wrote these tales were often doing work for hire, with the copyright remaining in the hands of others.</p> <p>I turned my nose up at the book back when it first appeared, probably because the title, cover painting, and cover blurb looked too lurid even for my tastes, but I found a copy recently at my <a href="http://www.fzcomicsandbooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">favorite used book store</a>, and decided to give it a try. And it turned out to be a fun read; a solidly crafted police procedural set on a space colony.</p> <p><em>Space Cops: Mindblast</em> was published in 1991 by Avon Science Fiction, and the copyright was held by Bill Fawcett &amp; Associates. During that era, publishers found the idea of book packagers very attractive, because they came up with the ideas for the projects, coordinated the work of the authors, and delivered a finished product, ready for publication. Publishers often wrote contracts for three paperback originals at a time, and put out a lot of books to see what succeeded and what didn’t. I suspect that is why the <em>Space Cops</em> series ended after three books; the sales probably didn’t meet the publisher’s expectations. I had thought the book’s cover was painted by Boris Vallejo, but it turns out it was actually painted by his son Dorian, whose style resembled his father’s early in his career. </p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>About the Authors</strong></h3> <p><strong>Diane Duane</strong> (born 1952) is an American fantasy and science fiction author who has long lived in Ireland. She is the widow of author Peter Morwood, whom she married in 1987, and with whom she frequently collaborated. She is best known as the author of a dozen <em>Star Trek</em> novels, as well as the <em>Tale of the Five</em> novels and the <em>Young Wizards</em> series. Duane has written tie-in fiction for the s<em>eaQuest DSV</em> TV show, the Marvel Comics hero <em>Spider-Man</em>, and various other properties. She has also written scripts for television and film.</p> <p><strong>Peter Morwood</strong> is the pen name of Robert Peter Smyth (1956-2025), who was an Irish writer of novels and media scripts. He first met Diane Duane at a science fiction convention; they also celebrated their engagement and were married at subsequent science fiction conventions. His original work was generally in the fantasy genre, while his tie-in work was most often co-written with his wife. His work for television included scripts for both animated and live-action shows.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>About the Packager</strong></h3> <p>Bill Fawcett (born 1947) is an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author, game designer, editor and anthologist, and book packager. He is the husband of fellow American science fiction author Jody Lynn Nye. He worked for Mayfair Games, an early publisher of role-playing games. Their products included games based on the <em>Thieves’ World</em> shared-world fantasy anthology series. Fawcett was a pioneer in producing gamebooks, products that mixed elements of fiction and gameplay. He created <em>The Fleet</em> shared-world military anthology series, and created the <em>Space Cop</em> book series, which ended after only three volumes.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>L5 Colonies</strong></h3> <p>Scientists have long known that there are points around the Earth/Moon system (called the Lagrange points) where the gravity of the two bodies are in balance, and objects at those locations can maintain their position indefinitely with very little expenditure of fuel. Those points are beyond the Moon, between the Earth and Moon, on the opposite side of the Earth from the Moon, and both trailing and leading the moon in its orbit. In 1970, physicist Gerard O’Neill wrote a paper on “The Colonization of Space,” which suggested the construction of gigantic space colonies at the L5 point, which was one of the most stable locations. These structures would be cylinders that spun on their long axis to produce centrifugal force simulating gravity on the inner surface of the cylinder, and would be large enough to function as self-supporting cities. O’Neill had trouble getting his paper published in scientific journals, probably due to the audacious scope and speculative nature of his ideas, but his ideas captured the imagination of supporters of space exploration, and especially of science fiction fans. The main economic activity of these colonies was to have been the collection of solar energy, which would be beamed down to earth by microwaves. The possibility of new manufacturing technologies being feasible in zero or low gravity was also thought to be a source of potential economic activity.</p> <p>The idea has lost some of its appeal in recent years, as new solar technologies that generate power on Earth have become widely available at relatively low costs. The idea of large-scale transmission of power via microwave beams from orbit remains untested, and I always imagined that such a powerful signal would heat a column of atmosphere as it passed through, causing a permanent weather cyclone to form. And despite some advances in reusable rockets, the cost of putting material in orbit remains stubbornly high. The colonies O’Neill suggested also were much larger than would be required to support the industry he imagined, so they didn’t make economic sense.</p> <p>For a time, however, the idea of massive space colonies proved so compelling that many science fiction stories in the last quarter of the 20<sup>th</sup> century used such colonies and their construction either as the setting for stories, or as stepping stones for further travels.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><em>Space Cops: Mindblast</em></strong></h3> <p>The book begins with an unnamed Space Cop trapped in a maze of dilapidated corridors, pursued by gang members. I thought it odd that he wasn’t identified, but when he died, I realized he was not our protagonist—he’s the murder victim whose fate sets the plot of this police procedural in motion.</p> <p>We then join Solar Police officer Joss O’Bannion, who has just been ordered to his boss’ office on the Moon. His former partner Maura volunteered for an assignment on Pluto months before, and since then he has been doing statistical desk work, which he enjoys. But he is plagued with doubts that Maura’s leaving meant that something is wrong with him. We then get a “mirror scene,” which was a cliché of that era. Writing classes taught that people don’t think about what they look like unless they are looking at themselves in a mirror, so it seemed that every book had an early scene where the protagonist does exactly that. Joss is red haired and of mostly Irish extraction, but with some Asian heritage on his mother’s side (people in this future often seen to have heritages representing a mix of Earth nations, and for some reason keep track of this even after centuries of living throughout the solar system…).</p> <p>The Solar Patrol (or EssPat) HQ is near the Tranquility Base historical site, but is otherwise nondescript. Joss’ boss, Lucretia Esterhazy, is a manipulative and domineering person. She has a job for Joss. He is getting a new partner, the former partner of EssPat officer Lon Salonikis, who was murdered on the Freedom II L5 colony (as we witnessed in the book’s opening scene). Lon had been investigating communications problems and security leaks, as requested by the powerful companies located on the colony. Now, Evan Glyndower, Lou’s former partner, needs help investigating the murder, and the unpartnered Joss has been selected for the job. Evan is described as conservative and stodgy, so Joss is not looking forward to meeting him. Moreover, Evan’s appearance—big, imposing, and scarred—is intimidating. The partnership is one referred to as a “brain and brawn” team. Joss is obviously the brain, and Evan, who generally wears a powered armor exoskeleton in the field, will be the brawn. They already share the same handler, Telya, who coordinates their efforts from HQ, and they bond over their dislike of her irritating manner.</p> <p>Joss does preliminary research on their destination, which gives the authors a chance to dump some exposition on the readers, explaining how the L5 colony came into being, and how the big drug companies who manufactured pharmaceutical products in space fueled their growth. Joss has a hobby of watching ancient TV shows, and Evan enjoys the stories of his native Wales, which gives the two of them things to talk about, and references to make, which will be familiar to readers from our era. We then switch viewpoints to a woman that works on Freedom II. She has been using a drug that enhances her mental powers, but overdoses, and dies horribly. This will be another death for Joss and Evan to investigate.</p> <p>When they arrive at Freedom II colony, the trip to their hotel gives the new partners a chance to see the interior, which is huge, and even contains fields of crops that support its inhabitants. But the colony is rundown and seedy. They go to the fresh crime scene of the death of the woman who overdosed, and are introduced to Dorren Orcieres, the head of Public Relations for the colony. She seems to be in charge of the scene, and will also be the lead point of contact for Joss and Evan, which they think is very strange. The local police force is worthless; poorly trained and uncooperative. The drug overdose was caused by an illegal drug called hyper which enhances mental capabilities, but which exacts a terrible price in the long run. The local police don’t seem to care about just another “blaster,” someone who was mind-blasting with hyper.</p> <p>As Joss and Evan begin to uncover information on the two deaths, they begin to bond, and develop a healthy relationship with lots of sardonic banter. The colony has lost some of its major businesses, and suffers from deteriorating infrastructure and increasing crime, which makes it a threatening environment for the police officers, but also makes the tale more interesting for the readers. There are clues to turn up by searching records, interviews with a variety of shady suspects, and as they grow closer to the truth, the same people who murdered Evan’s original partner Lon try to kill them as well. From gang members to scientists to bureaucrats, the characters are interesting and well drawn. The book picks up its pace as the story develops, building to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. I won’t say more, because as always—but especially when it comes to a murder mystery—getting there without spoilers is a big part of the fun.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></h3> <p>For a book that looks kind of trashy on its cover, <em>Space Cops: Mindblast</em> turned out to be a pretty good read. The two protagonists, Joss and Evan, were believable and engaging, and it was fun to watch their working relationship blossom. The action felt real and immediate. And while I guessed at some of the developments in the story before they unfolded, the book was a pretty well-constructed mystery story.</p> <p>And now I’d like to hear your thoughts, especially if you’ve read <em>Mindblast</em>, or any of the other <em>Space Cops</em> books. Because they make good summer reading, if you want to talk about any other good science fiction police procedurals or mystery stories, I’d love to hear your recommendations. And I’m also interested in hearing about books you’ve read that turned out to be better than their cover.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/crime-in-space-space-cops-mindblast-by-diane-duane-and-peter-morwood/">Crime in Space! — &lt;i&gt;Space Cops: Mindblast&lt;/i&gt; by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/crime-in-space-space-cops-mindblast-by-diane-duane-and-peter-morwood/">https://reactormag.com/crime-in-space-space-cops-mindblast-by-diane-duane-and-peter-morwood/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816836">https://reactormag.com/?p=816836</a></p>
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Posted by Emmet Asher-Perrin

Featured Essays folk horror

Folk Horror Is Having a Moment — And That Makes Perfect Sense

Horror always reflects that current moment – so why is folk horror resurging?

By

Published on June 24, 2025

Credit: A24

Midsommar trailer horror Ari Aster Hereditary

Credit: A24

Do you hear a rustling in the trees? Have you caught glimpses, just out of the corner of your eye, of mysterious robed figures in places where you wouldn’t expect them? Does the quaint legend in the small town you’re visiting feel like it might be just a little too real?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions, steel yourself, because you just might be in a folk horror story. And if you are, things are bound to get stranger.

Folk horror as a genre has a long history, but the term dates back only to the early 1970s. It blends folklore with horror elements, and can be found in film, literature, television, and even music. And if you’ve been paying attention over the past seven years or so, you may have noticed that it’s everywhere.

I first became interested in folk horror when I saw Ari Aster’s hit film Midsommar (2019), where a trip to Sweden for a summer solstice festival takes a stomach-churning turn. The film gets a lot of credit, as does the New England Puritan psychodrama of The VVitch (2015), for propelling the folk horror renaissance. But in many ways it’s a spiritual successor to a line of films that began in the 1970s—in particular the British, pre-Nicholas-Cage version of The Wicker Man

But the folk horror trend hasn’t been confined to movie theaters. Television has gotten in on the fun recently with shows like Yellowjackets (2021), with its haunted forests and girls driven to cannibalism, and British miniseries The Red King (2024), with its island-bound cult. And of course there’s always literature—you know there’s a folk horror renaissance underway when Lucy Foley, an author best known for blockbuster releases of stylish whodunits, delivers The Midnight Feast, a take on her usual tales that features threatening ravens, robed figures, and a forest full of possibly-hallucinogenic wicker creatures.

But the current interest in folk horror is not only nothing new, it fits into a pattern that goes much further back than the 1970s. From the turn of the twentieth century onward, there’s been a waxing and waning fascination with folkways in popular culture which, given the current state of the world, has arrived right on schedule.

To understand why, it’s helpful to look at the Industrial Revolution. The rise of mechanized labor and mass industrialization was famously a time of economic upheaval, but also social change, with the rise of labor unions and the women’s suffrage movement, as well as subtler, but no less profound, shifts. As the average worker in the United States and parts of Western Europe (especially Britain), went from someone doing agricultural labor in the country to someone doing industrial labor in the city, individuals and communities struggled with what that meant for them—and what, in the sudden rushing tide of progress, might get swept up and washed away before they had the chance to save it.

“Saving it,” whatever “it” may be, became a quest, or even a career, for many. Folklore studies, which had only come into existence in the early nineteenth century, saw a boom in popularity, with Folklore Societies established in Britain and America in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Researchers like Olive Dame Campbell traveled through Appalachia collecting and documenting traditional folk music, partly motivated by the fear that, as people left the rural mountain communities for work elsewhere, the songs would be lost.

This era also saw some of the first folk horror literature, although it wasn’t described as such. Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, in some ways the Great Late-Victorian Novel, has had many and varied layers of metaphor ascribed to it, but at its core, it follows the story of Jonathan Harker, a cosmopolitan urbanite who goes into the Transylvanian woods, where strange and ancient things are lurking, and wanting to devour him.

Because that’s what folk horror is so often about: the new, the man-made, the controlled, encountering the old, the overgrown, the unknown, and finding that its powers still hold sway. And in times of struggle, or confusion about one’s place in the world, that thought can comfort as much as it can frighten.

The second great folk revival, after the turn-of-the-twentieth-century folkloric boom, came in the late 1960s through the 1970s. This was the era of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez in the world of music; of macrame, embroidery, and handicrafts in fashion; and of The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General, and The Blood on Satan’s Claw on the silver screen.

It was also a time of profound social change. The postwar period had cast its eyes towards social justice, with the Civil Rights movement and the second wave of feminism. At the same time, the Vietnam War and protests against the draft sparked physical conflicts, while the Cold War was steadily simmering in the background. Bob Dylan was being entirely literal when he wrote “The Times, They Are A-Changin’,” and in this time when social roles, race, gender, and peoples’ relationships to their government were being questioned, people looked back, for comfort, for guidance. In the case of folk horror as opposed to folk music or handicraft-inspired fashion, they looked back to scare themselves, as a way of understanding what they were experiencing.

Which brings us to today. They say that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes,” and the current rhyme is suspiciously similar to the chanting of a mysterious group of cloak-wearers in a folk horror film.

We are arguably in the latter portion of a second Industrial Revolution, this time powered not by a boom in manufacturing, but by the rise of the internet. Once again, the idea of “what does the average job look like” is up for questioning, down to whether or not that job is done outside the home, or remote in your kitchen. Social upheaval is afoot, with questions about immigration, LGBTQ rights, women’s health, and more at the forefront of political life. And so, once again, we turn to things that remind us of what we imagine to be a simpler time. And we wonder.

But what really is the “horror” in folk horror? The fascination with folklore and perceptions around pre-Industrial life isn’t confined to horror. Arguably, trends like the paleo diet, with its promise of eating like our distant ancestors, are part of them, to say nothing of Taylor Swift literally titling one of her mega-release albums “Folklore.” Even the infamous Labubus, those tiny totems causing stampedes in shopping malls, are initially based on Nordic folklore. Labubus aren’t scary, though; at least, not intentionally. Folk horror, however, has transcended the general folk revival to become its own recognized genre, and that begs its own questions. Why does this interest in a past, real or imagined, that could arguably be meant as a comfort, turn so quickly and so fiercely to the frightening?

There is the traditional explanation: that we’re drawn to folk horror because we want to be reassured that the world isn’t changing faster than it can handle. At the end of Dracula, Jonathan Harker is victorious. But at the end of the original Wicker Man, and of the 2006 remake, the policeman is consumed by the flames. And while the Count is defeated, the Translyvanian woods remain, offscreen, with all the strange things they contain, that neither Harker nor the reader can forget. Thomasina signs the book; the Midsommar festivities end with a new initiate willingly joining. And these are all celebrated among folk horror enthusiasts as great endings in the genre; the alternative would not satisfy.

Maybe the horror in folk horror is our own power to dominate and tame the world. Maybe the reason that technological revolutions and folk horror revivals go hand in hand is that being the most powerful thing in the world is, inherently, a terrifying amount of responsibility. And we turn to these stories as a way of reminding ourselves that not everything is within our control, no matter how hard we try. And that, whatever we do to it, the Earth is still watching.

But what if there’s another side to it?

What if folk horror is something we’re drawn to, not as a reassurance, but as a reminder? Whatever happens in nineteenth-century Transylvania, seventeenth-century New England, or a fictitious Swedish commune, at the end of it, the book closes, and the lights in the theater turn back on.

It’s become fashionable to describe our flawed present as a “cyberpunk dystopia.” A popular meme claims, erroneously, that a modern office worker has less leisure time than a medieval peasant. And yet, when we look seriously at the past, it’s almost overwhelming to see a veritable conga line of bigotry, violence, poverty, and disease.

Maybe that’s why we’re drawn to folk horror. Because when modern life is exhausting, and overwhelming, and threatens to burn you out, as it inevitably does for everyone at least some of the time, folk horror will be there. It will be the fanged creature half-glimpsed in the overgrown hedges, teeth sharp and gleaming. It will look us in the eye, and wink, in a way that says “hey, it beats the alternative.”[end-mark]

The post Folk Horror Is Having a Moment — And That Makes Perfect Sense appeared first on Reactor.

The Big Idea: Travis Kennedy

Jun. 24th, 2025 03:20 pm
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Posted by Athena Scalzi

We’re gettin’ the band back together! And this time, they’re gonna rock the political climate in foreign countries. Author Travis Kennedy is bringing you the best of hair metal bands with espionage on the side in his debut novel, The Whyte Python World Tour. Follow along to see how his Big Idea will shred… your expectations of 80s bands!

TRAVIS KENNEDY:

In my debut novel, The Whyte Python World Tour, the CIA recruits a hair band to foment regime change in the Eastern Bloc at the end of the Cold War.

That’s not the big idea I want to write about here, though, and I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t dream it up on my own. There’s nearly a century of evidence that the CIA has meddled with popular music to influence public sentiment all over the world. More specifically for my purposes, there’s a longstanding rumor – made popular by the fantastic podcast “Wind of Change” by Patrick Radden Keefe (2020) – that the CIA wrote the hit Scorpions song “Wind of Change” after the Berlin Wall fell, to rally Eastern Europeans into harmony with the Western world through the power of soft metal.

By the time I heard the podcast, I had been thinking about writing a book in the world of glam metal for almost twenty years – and even earlier on some level, since I was a little kid in the 80s watching MTV even though I wasn’t supposed to. Eight-year-old Travis saw metal guys as zany party animals without a care in the world. The cool kids in the back of the bus. In more recent years, I read autobiographies and biographies and watched documentaries from the era, believing all along that there was a story to be told there that could be bigger than the standard “Behind the Music” drama about how everything was great until it all came crashing down.

I didn’t entirely know why the genre captivated me so much. The entertainment factor never let me down, of course; a lot of their adventures are objectively funny. These borderline-feral Muppets were suddenly swimming in fame and fortune, and they didn’t have any of the tools to handle either. That was a good place to start. But I did learn quickly that my childhood impression of the glam metal bands was all wrong. 

Because more often than not, these guys were not the cool kids in the back of the bus. They were misfits. Outcasts. They had abusive and tragic childhoods. 

They usually weren’t popular. They did badly in school. People had no expectations for them. And they didn’t have much expectations for themselves. But they had this one thing they loved and were good at. 

Music. 

And while they were misfits on their own, when they found each other and played together, they unlocked these superpowers. The castaways and dropouts – with their massive hair, and makeup, and spandex – dominated the zeitgeist of the back half of the 1980s. It was one underdog story after another, like the Mighty Ducks or the Bad News Bears.

There it was: that simple but true BIG IDEA, proven over and over: that when misfits and outcasts find their communities, they can accomplish really big things together.

By the time I listened to “Wind of Change,” I knew already that metal dudes shared a lot of hidden traits. They were resourceful. They were adaptable. They were willing to live in circumstances that most other people weren’t. And they were constantly underestimated.

Those are actually really good qualities for spies! 

So, while the concept was still hilarious to me, it was also weirdly kind of plausible. Now I was off and running, and a fascinating thing happened – the big idea kept finding different ways of telling itself in the story. Without spoiling too much, the band Whyte Python is not the only group of underdogs in this book; and whether it’s their Agency handlers or the people living under dictatorships a world away, the spark of music becomes a pretty powerful connector for disparate outcasts who go on to accomplish big things together.

Make no mistake, The Whyte Python World Tour is a satire. But always present is the belief that art – even if that art is party metal, played by feral Muppets – has immeasurable power when it’s shared. When it means something to people, and helps them find other people who have the same feelings about it. You’re doing that now as fans of this website, and every time you give a recommendation for a book or an album or a movie you loved. Participating in culture means that you’re a part of a thousand little movements, inspiring others to seek new ideas and talk about them with each other and maybe build something amazing out of it. 

So on behalf of the band, let me be the first to say: welcome to the revolution. 

Tell your friends.


The Whyte Python World Tour: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop

Author Socials: Website|Band Website|Facebook|Twitter|Rikki Thunder’s Facebook|Davy Bones Facebook|Spencer Dooley Facebook|Buck Sweet Facebook

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Posted by Christina Orlando

Books queer SFF

What If Things Were Different? — Five Works of Queer and Trans Futurity

Celebrating queer SFF stories about making communities, surviving together, and maybe even flourishing

By

Published on June 24, 2025

Art by Dan Rossi

Detail from the cover of We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023

Art by Dan Rossi

Even in the earliest stages of editing the anthology Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity, I knew the book would open with an epigraph from the late queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia—where he argues that “the future is queerness’s domain.” Or, put another way: something about queerness is always “not yet here.” We’re always thinking, writing, and living our way toward it. I’ve got a tattoo of this phrase, not yet here, under my left collarbone; it’s a reminder that there are future possibilities out there somewhere, no matter how rough things get in the present. 

Speculative fiction, too, is grounded in thinking about what has been, what is not, and what could be. In sf, we imagine our way into other worlds and other futures! Given that, I think there’s a natural connection between queer/trans life and culture and speculative fiction itself—it’s in those horizons of possibility. It’s in futurity: how we think about where we’re at right now and where we might be able to get from here, for better or for worse—and also how we imagine making communities, surviving together, and maybe even flourishing (despite all the forces working to the contrary). 

This sense of “queer futurity” was the guiding theme for Amplitudes, and it was on my mind constantly as I selected and edited the stories gathered within it. However, “queer futurity” is also a theme that runs through many, many other queer speculative stories—including these five books and films I loved, each of which deals with queer pasts/presents/futures while offering imaginative possibilities for continuing queer and/or trans existence.

Metal From Heaven by august clarke

Cover of Metal From Heaven by august clarke

But isn’t this a second-world fantasy novel, you may be asking? Yeah, it is, and that’s why I think it’s required reading for thinking about “queer futurity”—and also for seeing what stories can really do when we’re elbow-deep in imagining other possible worlds than these. To put it bluntly: Metal From Heaven absolutely fucking rules. I rarely get as excited as I did while I was reading clarke’s deeply-grounded yet expansive constructions of queerness, gender, anarchism, and revolutionary resistance. This book is toothsome, horny, hallucinatory, sometimes-nasty, and what I like to call ‘compassionately unforgiving’ in its visions of what surviving the world together as queer and trans people can require.

What was it that hooked me first, though? There’s a scene, early on, where a young Marney receives the recently-deceased Tita’s black suede jacket—smelling of cigars and lilac perfume—and climbs onto a lurcher (picture a motorcycle) behind a big, thick, strong woman who inspires immediate, passionate admiration. Marney then rides away with her and her people, becoming part of a new world: an underground world, a resistant world, an utterly queer world. If you know, then you know, and it only gets better from there.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

Cover of Blackouts by Justin Torres

At a place known only as the Palace, isolated in the desert, the narrator tends to an elderly queer man named Juan Gay as his death approaches. Juan has a project he’s passing on to the narrator, alongside his own life-stories: reclaiming the queer histories contained within the sexological publication Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. He also wants to hear the narrator’s life-stories too: how he came to be at the Palace, what happened around the time when they originally met while institutionalized, and more.

Storytelling and strange queer temporalities form the core of Blackouts, particularly in the dreamlike and unmoored weirdness of the Palace. Sometimes the novel explores the queer past as another country, another world, which we must at turns imagine and invent and uncover from where it’s been so thoroughly redacted/destroyed/obscured. Sometimes it’s about the awkward and painful present of living your life post-dislocating-disaster, arriving in the form of a breakup or a relapse or a recurrent trauma—and sometimes it’s about the potential queer futures we find in stories, or in our relationships to one another, especially cross-generational ones that show us where we’ve been… and where we might still go.

I haven’t even gotten into what Torres is doing with the physical object of the novel, either, what it’s like to hold in your hands. The inclusion of archival photos, the pages from Jan Gay’s Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns with the thieving homo/transphobic doctors’ notes all blacked out, the choice to print with brown ink instead of black… it was electrifying to experience as an artist. But I’m going to cheat and borrow from the blurb as my closing pitch, because they’ve said it best: 

“The past is with us, beside us, ahead of us; what are we to create from its gaps and erasures? […] A reclamation of ransacked history, a celebration of defiance, and a transformative encounter, Blackouts mines the stories that have been kept from us and brings them into the light.”

Uranians by Theodore McCombs

Cover of Uranians by Theodore McCombs

If it’s more short fiction you’re after, McCombs’s Uranians was one of my favorite sf collections of the last few years. Whether we’re talking about the titular novella “Uranians” or the other stories in the collection, like “Laguna Heights” and “Toward a Theory of Alternative Lifestyles,” the quick-witted prose and cleverly speculative conceits of each piece are a delight. Sometimes an upsetting delight, when the push and pull of a well-crafted queer story that tangles with trauma and desire leaves you feeling wrung out after—but still, a delight nonetheless. 

The novella that anchors the collection is also, perhaps, the piece that resonates most with the idea of “queer futurity.” Sure, it’s a science fiction piece set on a generation ship. But more to the point, it’s shot through with ideas on the strange nature of queer temporality (plus so many intertextual references)—which is made even stranger by the closed world of the ship. Furthermore, the protagonist’s entanglement with arts like opera and poetry drives the story just as much as the dramatic conflicts with self and other that unfold throughout, so it’s got layers. (And I would be remiss not to mention that I also appreciated, very much, how McCombs handles queer eroticism and desire in this collection.)

We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction, series editor Charles Payseur

Cover of We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023

Want even more short stories? Then I’d recommend picking up the Neon Hemlock anthology series We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction. Series editor Charles Payseur works with a guest editor for each volume—including Ryka Aoki (forthcoming), Darcie Little Badger, Naomi Kanakia, CL Clark, and L.D. Lewis—to put together a collection of (as it says right there in the title) the best queer and trans speculative short fiction from previous year.

One thing I really appreciate about this series is that the stories always come from a variety of publications. I’ve usually only read a handful of them before picking up the new volume. In the 2023 collection Darcie Little Badger edited with Payseur, there are stories from well-known magazines like Fiyah and Lightspeed… but also stories from original anthologies published by both big and small presses, like Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology and Worlds of Possibility. The editors have provided a much-needed service by drawing queer and trans sf from venues where it might’ve otherwise slipped readers by during the previous year—and then presenting it to us anew, like a gift.

I Saw the TV Glow dir. Jane Schoenbrun

I can’t ignore how much of my time has been occupied by excellent queer/trans film and television recently, so I’ve got to include Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow too. Our leads, Justice Smith and Jack Haven, deliver an intimate, agonizing portrait of coming-of-age shaped by trans longing and suffering alike. Schoenbrun draws techniques from experimental film and horror movies, combines them with the emotional resonances of ‘90s queer-kid fandom for shows like Buffy, and weaves from those threads an affect-driven narrative about what it fucking feels like to be trans in a world designed to crush it out of you. I saw this one in theaters—twice, despite and because of the fact that it wrenched me into my constituent atoms each time—but watching it in a dark living room with your phone tucked away somewhere else and no distractions will work too. 

I Saw the TV Glow crosses between fantastical sequences and the characters’ lived realities, often oriented around their shared attachment to the YA fantasy tv series The Pink Opaque (a theme which appealed deeply to me as a lifelong sf/f nerd). Owen’s young adulthood, which is the centerpiece of the film, will strike a painfully relatable chord for many trans audiences. And maybe it hits most intensely for those of us who also grew up in the ‘90s, but I hear tell it lands just as hard for younger and older folks. While I left the theater afterwards feeling skinned, just raw to the air, I also felt more whole—more hopeful, even. The film constantly gestures toward more survivable possible futures for its leads. Maddy, for example, offers a glimpse of how some young trans people do get away: they run from their families, they bury themselves in the earth and experience a kind of death, the “freefall of utter precarity” that transition can feel like… and then come back new, reborn, ready to try and help an old friend onto the same path toward possibility. 

But ultimately it was the street chalk-drawing that opens the smothering final section of the film, reading “there is still time,” that really got me. What a powerful message of queer resilience and futurity—that it’s never too late: for transition, for queer becoming, for a life that doesn’t suffocate you into nothingness. Honestly, those are some of the most hopeful words I can imagine. Even within the uncertain space where the film leaves us, Owen still has time, and the Pink Opaque is always out there, waiting on the horizon.


Though all five of these stories are pretty different from one another—and from the ones in Amplitudes, too—they all share that resonating belief in queer and trans futurity, queer and trans potentiality.

Always, so long as you’re alive: there is still time.[end-mark]

Buy the Book

Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity
Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

edited by Lee Mandelo

Twenty-two speculative stories that explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures.
Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity
Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

edited by Lee Mandelo

Twenty-two speculative stories that explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures.
Twenty-two speculative stories that explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures.

Buy this book from:

The post What If Things Were Different? — Five Works of Queer and Trans Futurity appeared first on Reactor.

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Posted by Sarah Sward

Vanessa Ricci-Thode is joining us today to talk about her novel, The Dragon Next Door. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Tollar’s got a stolen dragon egg, and that’s the least of her problems.

Tollar is a hero for hire who just wants to deliver a stolen dragon egg to its kin and get on with her next adventure. But when the dragon hatches, imprints on her, and refuses to leave, Tollar enlists her pyromancer best friend and neighbour, Beenala, to help keep the dragon alive. Tollar’s chaotic life exacerbates Beenala’s overwhelming anxiety, and being stuck at home leaves Tollar feeling stifled and unwanted. To make matters worse, in order to hide an entire dragon from local and foreign hostile factions, Tollar must risk exposing the truth behind her unprecedented power as an aquamancer and face being chased out of the only home she’s ever known.

When Draminedes, perhaps the worst spy in the world, lets slip that the people Tollar stole the dragon egg from are much worse than she thought, Tollar and Beenala realize their home is in danger. Now Tollar needs to stop making herself the outsider and Beenala needs to find some courage so they can team up with this unlikely ally to save everything they love, including each other.

This sapphic ace romantasy is complete with mutual pining and odd-couple energy and is full of marginalized characters out living their best lives and having adventures while being nurturing and supportive in their relationships, including bonds between humans and dragons.

What’s Vanessa’s favorite bit?

This ace romantasy is a queer light in the dark, a book about community and resilience and  fighting for justice and who and what you love. It’s got big flashy magic, a charismatic MC with  a big personality, and lots of zippy banter, but the scene-stealer and my favourite bit is, without a  doubt, the baby dragon. 

The book itself is a queerifying and genderflipping of odd-couple action movies I’d been  watching, but the dragon, Bale, was always going to be central. To poorly quote the Dude, she  “ties the room characters together, man.” I’ve got an anxious homebody (Beenala) and an  audacious wanderer (Tollar) and I needed to keep the latter in one place for a bit and pull the  former out of her comfort zone. So naturally I gave them a baby dragon to take care of.  

The dragons in my world are intelligent, sentient creatures with some anthropomorphic  traits and a capacity for human languages, and they aren’t cuddly and small. This one hatched  already nearly the size of a house. Good thing one of the characters is fearless and the other is a  pyromancer. There are fires to put out and rules to lay down about who and what is and isn’t  food. “The dog is not for eating!” (Don’t worry, no dogs are ever harmed in my books.) 

One ARC reader described the dragon as “a fire-breathing puppy with zero survival  instincts” and this is the truest thing I’ve ever read. 

Tollar stole Bale’s egg from the baddies and rushed home to Beenala where she knew  they’d be safe (and oh my how she was wrong). So in addition to having to teach a house-sized,  fiery toddler with forearm-length teeth some manners, they’ve also got to hide her from their  neighbours and extended family.  

Bale is the emotional core of the story, the thing that brings Beenala and Tollar together in  more than friendship, but she’s also very much the comic relief chaos muppet. From terrorizing 

the local monkey population, to “helping” with the farming, to threatening that maybe some  people are for eating, Bale is good for a laugh. But she’s not a baby forever, and there’s a point  where she becomes A Force™. She represents everything that’s at risk, but she also offers a  solution. She becomes a powerful part of a community fighting back for justice. 

So that’s why Bale the dragon is my favourite bit, and I hope she brings joy to others who  read the book! 

LINKS:

Book Link

Website

Bluesky

Instagram

Goodreads

BIO:

Vanessa is a Nebula-nominated indie author wading through stigma, disabilities, and imposter syndrome to support other authors at every stage of their career and increase visibility to the indie community. She’s been deeply involved in her local literary scene for well over a decade, currently as co-founder and events director of KW Writers Alliance where she runs an annual local author book fair as well as regular writer drop-ins. She has seven fantasy novels published, including four books of the Fireborn series and her ace romantasy, The Dragon Next Door.
She’s a Halloween enthusiast and tree nerd who loves dogs, astronomy, and travel. If she’s not hibernating, she can be found in her butterfly garden, achieving her final form as a garden witch. She lives in Waterloo (no, the other one) with her spouse, daughter and very good dogs.

Back in the Day and Here and Now

Jun. 23rd, 2025 09:39 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

My friend George sent me this picture of me and Krissy — which I had been literally trying to find for years! — where she and I were at the wedding of my friend Clete. I was a groomsman, which is why I’m dressed up; Krissy is dressed up because, you know, wedding, you’re supposed to look nice. I seem to remember the wedding taking place in 1995, although I might be off by a year; either way, this is us, roughly 30 years ago.

And here we are now!

30 years is a lot of time and also, not nearly enough time with someone if you love them a lot. Fortunately for us we get to keep going. Not gonna lie, though, I miss my hair. Krissy’s still looks spectacular, of course. That’ll have to be enough for the both of us.

Also, hello, we’re back in the United States now. Venice was lovely. I’ll post some more pictures of it soon.

— JS

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Posted by Vanessa Armstrong

News Dawn

Neal Shusterman’s “Dawn Terminator” to Get Adaptation at Netflix

The short story is included in his upcoming 700-page compendium, MindWorks.

By

Published on June 23, 2025

Neal Shusterman photo credit: Gaby Gerster

Headshot of Neal Shusterman and cover image of his short story collection, MindWorks

Neal Shusterman photo credit: Gaby Gerster

Scythe author Neal Shusterman has another adaptation in the works. This one is based on his short story, “Dawn Terminator,” and is being developed by Netflix under the title, Dawn.

“Dawn Terminator” was first published in 1996, but was updated and included in his short story collection, MindWorks: An Uncanny Compendium of Short Fiction, which is set to come out in November 2025. In the short story, the sun has deadly solar flares that a family in a plane heading to Alaska, tries to survive.  

“The shorter the piece, the more economical you need to be with story and language,” Shusterman told Publishers Weekly about his approach to writing shorter works of prose. “You have to get a lot across in a very limited amount of time. I find short stories can be a palate-cleanser between larger projects. Also, sometimes I have an idea that just doesn’t feel big enough to be a novel, so I get to explore it in a story. Both forms are rewarding in different ways.”

The screenplay for the Netflix adaptation is being written by A Minecraft Movie scribes Neil Widener and Gavin James. Dylan Clark Productions, the company that backed Carry-On and Bird Box, is producing.

The project is still in its very early days—the script isn’t finalized yet—so no news on casting or if/when we’ll see the adaptation make its way to Netflix.[end-mark]

The post Neal Shusterman’s “Dawn Terminator” to Get Adaptation at Netflix appeared first on Reactor.

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Posted by Vanessa Armstrong

News Disney

Follow Pinocchio Through This Tour of the Walt Disney Archives

Walt Disney Archives turns fifty-five years old this year.

By

Published on June 23, 2025

Credit: Disney

poster of mickey mouse painting number 55 with words, "Walt Disney Archives: Preserving the Magic 1970-2025"

Credit: Disney

Since its founding on June 22, 1970, Walt Disney Archives has housed numerous artifacts and memorabilia from Disney projects. Within its walls, archivists collect, preserve, and prepare some for exhibition.

We see all of this, and more than a few Easter eggs, in an almost five-minute clip largely shown from the point of view of an artifact: a tiny figurine of Pinocchio.

The video’s summary describes what we see as we follow the puppet who turned into a boy:

From a bustling research room to a treasure-filled storage facility, our plucky hero journeys through the storied spaces where Disney history is collected and preserved. But when the item reaches a formidable digital preservation lab, chaos erupts—sparking a wild chase through the Archives’ cavernous warehouses. At last, the object finds its rightful place: a new home where it will be protected and celebrated—and be reunited with a long-lost friend.

Is this video a little cheesy? Yes! Is it also kind of cute? Also yes! There are an innumerable number of worse ways to spend five minutes, so go ahead and give the video a watch. As the quote from Walt reminds us at the end, “I hope we never lose some of the things from the past.” This Pinocchio figurine is one of those things.

Check out the clip below.[end-mark]

The post Follow Pinocchio Through This Tour of the Walt Disney Archives appeared first on Reactor.

[syndicated profile] reactor_feed

Posted by Vanessa Armstrong

News The Lord of the Rings

Ralph Bakshi’s Remastered The Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray Includes Exciting Bonus Interview

Get the behind-the-scenes scoop from Bakshi himself.

By

Published on June 23, 2025

Screenshot: United Artists

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Vanessa Armstrong</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-remastered-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-blu-ray-includes-exciting-bonus-interview/">https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-remastered-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-blu-ray-includes-exciting-bonus-interview/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816880">https://reactormag.com/?p=816880</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/news/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag News 0"> News </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/the-lord-of-the-rings/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag The Lord of the Rings 1"> The Lord of the Rings </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Ralph Bakshi’s Remastered <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> on Blu-ray Includes Exciting Bonus Interview</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Get the behind-the-scenes scoop from Bakshi himself.</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/vanessa-armstrong/" title="Posts by Vanessa Armstrong" class="author url fn" rel="author">Vanessa Armstrong</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on 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href="https://reactormag.com/feed/" target="_blank" title="RSS Feed"> <svg class="w-[17px] h-[17px]" width="18" height="18" viewbox="0 0 18 18" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-label="rss feed" role="img" aria-hidden="true"> <g clip-path="url(#clip0_1051_121783)"> <path d="M2.67871 17.4143C2.12871 17.4143 1.65771 17.2183 1.26571 16.8263C0.873713 16.4343 0.678046 15.9636 0.678713 15.4143C0.678713 14.8643 0.874713 14.3933 1.26671 14.0013C1.65871 13.6093 2.12938 13.4136 2.67871 13.4143C3.22871 13.4143 3.69971 13.6103 4.09171 14.0023C4.48371 14.3943 4.67938 14.865 4.67871 15.4143C4.67871 15.9643 4.48271 16.4353 4.09071 16.8273C3.69871 17.2193 3.22805 17.415 2.67871 17.4143ZM14.6787 17.4143C14.6787 15.481 14.312 13.6683 13.5787 11.9763C12.8454 10.2843 11.841 8.80097 10.5657 7.52631C9.29171 6.25164 7.80871 5.24764 6.11671 4.51431C4.42471 3.78097 2.61205 3.41431 0.678713 3.41431V0.414307C3.02871 0.414307 5.23705 0.860306 7.30371 1.75231C9.37038 2.64431 11.1704 3.85664 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height="439" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/gandalf-saruman.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Gandalf and Saruman in Ralph Bakshi&#39;s animated Lord of the Rings, 1978" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Screenshot: United Artists</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>Before Peter Jackson brought a live-action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy to the big screen, there was Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien&#8217;s first two books: <em>The Fellowship of the Ring </em>and <em>The Two Towers, </em>which was summed up under the title, <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>.</p> <p>If you’re of a certain age, <a href="https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-the-lord-of-the-rings-brought-tolkien-from-the-counterculture-to-the-big-screen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bakshi’s animated feature</a> holds a certain place in your heart, along with his 1977 <a href="https://reactormag.com/rankin-basss-the-hobbit-showed-us-the-future-of-pop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animated rendition of <em>The Hobbit</em></a> co-directed by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass (and perhaps less so, the <a href="https://reactormag.com/middle-earths-weirdest-movie-rankin-bass-animated-the-return-of-the-king/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1980 direct-to-television feature, <em>The Return of the King</em></a> from Rankin and Bass).</p> <p>These animated features came out over four decades ago, and Bakshi’s <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> (which, I might add, comes from a screenplay written by Peter S. Beagle and Chris Conkling) is getting a glow-up. Starting on June 24, 2025 (per <a href="https://collider.com/lord-of-the-rings-animated-movie-remastered-blu-ray/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Collider</a>), a remastered rendering of the movie will come out on Blu-ray.</p> <p>This version will be in 1080 HD resolution, and includes a bonus interview with Bakshi titled, <em>Forging Through the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for </em>The Lord of the Rings<em>. </em>In it, according to the jacket copy, Bakshi will explore “his concept for creating an illustrated film, his pioneering rotoscoping process, and inspirations for his visual storytelling.”</p> <p>The price tag for this one seems reasonable ($22.49), especially since it doesn’t look like the feature is available for streaming anywhere at the moment. You can preorder <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Animated-Ralph-Bakshi/dp/B0FBGWWLCT" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>, if you’re so inclined. [end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-remastered-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-blu-ray-includes-exciting-bonus-interview/">Ralph Bakshi’s Remastered &lt;i&gt;The Lord of the Rings&lt;/i&gt; on Blu-ray Includes Exciting Bonus Interview</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-remastered-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-blu-ray-includes-exciting-bonus-interview/">https://reactormag.com/ralph-bakshis-remastered-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-blu-ray-includes-exciting-bonus-interview/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816880">https://reactormag.com/?p=816880</a></p>

Music For Your Monday: 6arelyhuman

Jun. 23rd, 2025 05:16 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

Feeling the Monday Blues? Have I got the cure for you. Introducing one of my recent favorite artists, 6arelyhuman (pronounced barely human)!

Imagine the most hype, energizing club music that makes you want to take shots and dance till the sun comes up. No, not Kesha, but pretty close in vibes.

I came across 6arelyhuman on TikTok last year, and their song “Faster N Harder” ended up becoming my number one song on Spotify for 2024. I listened to 6arelyhuman’s songs on repeat daily for months last year, and I’m still loving them. They self identify as a freaky alien here to create absolute bops.

Here’s the song that started my obsession:

Don’t you just wanna dance your pants off?! Well let’s keep the party going with some others I really love from them:

And technically on this next one they’re only featured and it’s actually Odetari’s song, but I still really like it:

So, are you feeling amped? You simply can’t be in a bad mood after you listen to this music, trust me, I’ve tried.

Don’t forget to check 6arelyhuman out on Spotify, and let me know which song was your favorite in the comments. Have a great day!

-AMS

[syndicated profile] reactor_feed

Posted by Emmet Asher-Perrin

Movies & TV Elio

Pixar’s Elio Grapples With Loneliness on Earth and in the Communiverse

After a slow first act, Pixar’s latest offering brings our need for connection into the stars… and right back home again.

By

Published on June 23, 2025

Credit: Disney/Pixar

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Emmet Asher-Perrin</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/">https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816771">https://reactormag.com/?p=816771</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/movies-tv/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Movies &amp; TV 0"> Movies &amp; TV </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/elio/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Elio 1"> Elio </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Pixar’s <i>Elio</i> Grapples With Loneliness on Earth and in the Communiverse</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">After a slow first act, Pixar&#8217;s latest offering brings our need for connection into the stars&#8230; and right back home again.</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/ben-francisco/" title="Posts by Ben Francisco" class="author url fn" rel="author">Ben Francisco</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 23, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Disney/Pixar</p> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 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16.3417 10.7893C17.2337 12.856 17.6794 15.0643 17.6787 17.4143H14.6787ZM8.67871 17.4143C8.67871 15.1976 7.89971 13.31 6.34171 11.7513C4.78371 10.1926 2.89605 9.41364 0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="501" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882-740x501.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="TAKING UP SPACE – When 11-year-old Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab) is beamed up to space, he finds himself in the Communiverse. He makes his first real friend, an alien called Glordon (voice of Remy Edgerly), and meets representatives from galaxies far and wide. Among them are Ambassador Tegman (far right), Ambassador Helix (second from right), Ambassador Turais (third from right) and Ambassador Questa (left of Glordon)." srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882-740x501.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882-1100x745.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882-768x520.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882-1536x1040.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ELIO-ONLINE-USE-e468_700c_pub.pub16.1882.jpg 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Disney/Pixar</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>I grew up on <em>Star Trek: The Next Generation</em> and young adult novels about kids exploring the stars. As a Latinx writer, I’ve long been immersed in Latinx speculative fiction, from magic realism to the recent boom of science fiction across the Latin American diaspora. I also love a good animated tear-jerker, and when Pixar started churning them out, I suddenly had a regular fix I didn’t even know I’d been craving. So when I heard that <em>Elio</em>, Pixar’s newest film, was about a Latinx kid embroiled in an outer space adventure, I knew the movie would offer a trifecta of my favorite things—and I knew I’d be in the theater on opening night.</p> <p><em>Elio</em>’s titular hero (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) is a recently orphaned 11-year-old being raised by his tía Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña), who works for the air force tracking space debris. Elio is obsessed with making first contact with extraterrestrial life, convinced that of the millions of planets out there, there must be at least one where he’ll fit in. After some struggles with bullies and a difficult argument with tía Olga, Elio’s wish comes true—he’s swept up in a bright light and whisked away to the Communiverse, an interstellar community committed to sharing knowledge across the Galaxy.</p> <p>Overall, <em>Elio</em> is an evocative and strong addition to the Pixar opus—but the first act is slow. Some choices, like making Elio’s orphanhood the central reason for his loneliness, or his aunt considering sending him to boarding school, feel like low-hanging fruit—especially since Pixar has largely managed to avoid that kind of well-trodden territory over the course of 29 films. The long set-up also entirely takes place in a mundane, contemporary setting, with none of the imaginative visuals that make an animated movie uniquely pleasurable for both children and adults.</p> <p>Even so, the opening scenes have glimmers of the film’s overall brilliance, especially in the depiction of Elio’s compelling character. There’s undeniable fun and humor in a kid who is trying so desperately to get <em>intentionally </em>abducted by aliens. My personal favorite detail is “Elio-ese,” Elio’s invented language spoken only by him—and previously by his parents, until they died. What better way to capture a child’s loneliness than holding an entire language that no one else shares?</p> <p>As the film moves into its second act, the same lights that snatched up Elio enrapture the audience’s attention as well. Elio sees the wonders of advanced technology—a liquid supercomputer, a machine that can answer any question—and meets the diverse and visually compelling ambassadors of the Communiverse. Here, the filmmakers use the power of the animated medium to great effect, creating extraterrestrials that go beyond the standard anthropomorphic aliens with ridges—but who still have just enough human features to convey intelligible emotional expressions. I especially liked the character design of Tegman, a sandstone-like alien whose head is positioned in the middle of his body rather than on top of it.</p> <p>The Communiverse ambassadors mistake Elio for the leader of Earth—an error that he does not correct. When the battle-happy Hylurg threaten to attack the Communiverse, Elio volunteers to negotiate for peace, hoping to prove himself and take the fast track to a space ambassadorship and the chance to keep hanging out with cool aliens indefinitely. Alas, Elio’s negotiation attempts do not go well, and he soon finds himself a prisoner—but also befriends Glordon, the unexpectedly soft-hearted son of the Hylurg warlord.&nbsp;</p> <p>Personally, I find there’s a special Pixar sweet spot at the intersection of stunning visuals, creative world-building, and emotional resonance. <em>Elio</em> really starts humming with the introduction of Glordon and the Hylurg—where it hits all three of those elements squarely on the head. We quickly learn that while the Hylurg present as towering armored warriors, in their true form they’re smaller, gooeyer, and much less intimidating caterpillar-like creatures. They weave webs that are sometimes used to wrap anxious children like Glordon in a comforting swaddle. Glordon lacks eyes and a nose, but the deft animation and Remy Edgerly’s equally deft voice acting never lack for clarity of emotional expression. And in Glordon, Elio finally finds the companionship he so desperately missed on Earth.&nbsp;</p> <p>For me as a GenXer, <em>Elio</em> at times strikes a lovely note of nostalgia for a string of 1980s movies about kids connecting with aliens. Elio and Glordon’s connection harkened to <em>Explorers</em>, about three kids who make first contact, only to find that their newfound alien friends are also just a couple kids out for a joyride in their parents’ spaceship. A clone duplicate temporarily subs for Elio at home with his tía Olga, giving shades of <em>The Last Starfighter</em>, in which a robot duplicate fills in for life on Earth while the human protagonist is off star-fighting. <em>Elio</em> is part of a larger lineage of film and literature in which it is children and teenagers who make contact with sentient alien life, from the iconic <em>E.T.</em> and old Heinlein adventure novels to <em>Jupiter Ascending</em> and more recent young adult novels like Charlie Jane Anders’ <em>Unstoppable</em> series.</p> <p>Adult readers and viewers sometimes struggle to suspend disbelief for the premise of these stories—surely, an eleven-year-old would not be properly equipped to make first contact!—yet younger audience members rarely raise such unnecessary questions. My favorite explanation for this phenomenon is found in <em>Ambassador</em>, William Alexander’s excellent middle-grade novel, which also tells the story of a young Latinx space ambassador and shares much of its DNA with <em>Elio</em>. In the universe of <em>Ambassador</em>, it’s <em>only</em> the juveniles of a species who may serve as ambassadors for their world: they have not yet “drawn a circle around those worth talking to” and so are more capable of adapting to the challenges of interplanetary communication. While young people exploring the galaxy may prompt some logistical questions, it also carries an undeniable emotional resonance: our sense of wonder at the unknown is never quite the same as when we’re eleven, the true “golden age” of science fiction.</p> <p>Elio pays homage to many of these other tales, while also rendering an original Pixar take. As the film climaxes, the story brilliantly entwines Elio’s search for connection with humanity’s search for life beyond our planet. All of the seeds planted in the first two acts pay off, with an interstellar confrontation that hinges on family and friendships—human, alien, and across species.  <br><em>Elio</em> has a number of delightful Easter eggs for fans of science and science fiction, including voice cameos by Kate Mulgrew and Carl Sagan, making use of an archival recording in which Sagan reflects on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. We have always wondered about life in the stars, Sagan reflects, but our modern era is unique in that we now have the power to do something about it &#8211; to send out space crafts, search for signals, and scan the stars. <em>Elio </em>offers a reminder that loneliness is part of the human condition, but so is reaching out—to the sky above, and to one another here on Earth.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/">Pixar’s &lt;i&gt;Elio&lt;/i&gt; Grapples With Loneliness on Earth and in the Communiverse</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/">https://reactormag.com/pixars-elio-grapples-with-loneliness-on-earth-and-in-the-communiverse/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816771">https://reactormag.com/?p=816771</a></p>
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Posted by Molly Templeton

News Outlander

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Has Already Been Renewed for a Second Season

If you time travel enough, nothing ever has to end?

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Published on June 23, 2025

Image: Starz

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Molly Templeton</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/outlander-blood-of-my-blood-starz-renewed/">https://reactormag.com/outlander-blood-of-my-blood-starz-renewed/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816867">https://reactormag.com/?p=816867</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/news/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag News 0"> News </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/outlander/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Outlander 1"> Outlander </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Has Already Been Renewed for a Second Season</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">If you time travel enough, nothing ever has to end?</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/molly-templeton/" title="Posts by Molly Templeton" class="author url fn" rel="author">Molly Templeton</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on June 23, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Image: Starz</p> </div> <div 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0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="493" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BMB1_105_032024_0260_a_1800x1200-740x493.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Jamie&#39;s parents in Blood of My Blood" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BMB1_105_032024_0260_a_1800x1200-740x493.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BMB1_105_032024_0260_a_1800x1200-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BMB1_105_032024_0260_a_1800x1200-768x512.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BMB1_105_032024_0260_a_1800x1200.jpg 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Image: Starz</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>No, you didn&#8217;t miss something: The <em>Outlander </em>prequel <em>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</em> hasn&#8217;t premiered yet, and won&#8217;t until August 8th. But Starz has already ordered a second season for the series; production began today in Scotland.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s how Starz explains the prequel:</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>A stand-alone prequel series set in the <em>Outlander</em> universe, <em>Outlander: Blood of my Blood</em> follows the romance between Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), and Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine). From the battlefields of World War I to the rugged Highlands of 18th century Scotland, two fated couples must defy the forces that seek to tear them apart, unfolding in surprising and unforeseen ways. <em>Outlander: Blood of my Blood</em> features new cast, characters and stories, welcoming viewers unfamiliar with the <em>Outlander</em> universe, while also providing existing fans with origin stories of fan-favorite characters from early seasons of <em>Outlander</em>, offering new perspectives that will change what they think they know.</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts said in a statement, “Just as audiences fell in love with Jamie and Claire, we hope viewers will be enamored by these new couples when they meet them this summer.”</p> <p>There is still one more—final—season of the original <em>Outlander</em> to come, but no premiere date has been announced for that show. <em>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</em> begins August 8th on Starz.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/outlander-blood-of-my-blood-starz-renewed/">&lt;i&gt;Outlander: Blood of My Blood&lt;/i&gt; Has Already Been Renewed for a Second Season</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/outlander-blood-of-my-blood-starz-renewed/">https://reactormag.com/outlander-blood-of-my-blood-starz-renewed/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=816867">https://reactormag.com/?p=816867</a></p>

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