Roundtable: Shiny and New

So, it’s been a pretty brutal winter this year in North America (our home base). Are you as absolutely done with it as I am? It’s blowing snow as I write this, and the forecast predicts another snowfall this weekend. Fortunately, spring is just around the corner, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. When I started thinking about what our roundtable discussion should focus on this month, I kept coming back to spring and what it means. Spring means blossoming flowers, budding trees, and new growth coming in to replace winter’s worn out greenery.

With that in mind, I asked our writers this question: What is something new that you’ve recently discovered you’re a fan of? Not a new favorite, necessarily, just something that was new to you. It’s so easy to watch the same things or read the same authors. I wanted to find out what was fresh on our radar, and I’m intrigued by the responses! Read on! Maybe you’ll discover something new that you’d like to try for yourself!

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Nancy: When it comes to comics, I tend to stick to what I know, but every now and then, something shiny and new manages to grab my attention. In this instance, I’m talking about the new Black Bolt title. In the past, I’ve never had that much of an attachment to Black Bolt, or any of the the Inhuman royal family. How could I connect to such an all-powerful being that never talks, after all? I’m happy to report that the first graphic novel Hard Time showed me how.

The comic opens up with a shot of Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans, imprisoned against his will. He has been muzzled, sealing off the source of his significant power, his voice. What follows is a compelling prison break story, where Black Bolt must investigate why he has been captured, work with his fellow inmates, defeat his captors, and reclaim his voice. Writer Saladin Ahmed does a wonderful job at making the characters presented here truly sympathetic (including the villainous Crusher Creel). I love how Ahmed is not afraid to embrace the weirdness of comic books, but at the same time knows when to poke fun at them. The artwork, done by Christian Ward, really takes things to the next level, crafting the twisted world of Black Bolt’s prison through a shadowy pallet shot through with bright florescent colors.

Black Bolt, vol 1: Hard Time is a surprisingly moving comic with really great artwork. I will be sure to follow up with the second graphic novel, set to come out mid June of this year.

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Lane: I admit it, I live in a rut. I like the things I like, and trying to find new things often seems like a hell of a lot of effort for a dubious reward. The easiest thing to try that’s new-to-me is usually television shows. I can almost always find the time to watch (or skim-watch) a new fantasy/science fictional offering.

In February, I watched the first episodes of three separate shows.

On the CW, Black Lightning. I thought the costume looked cheesy as hell and I’ve been burned on The Flash more times than I can count (Why is that show so aggravating?!), but I thought I’d give it a try. Man, I loved the first episode. It gave me goosebumps, cheesy costume and all. I love that it’s about a family. I love that he’s a reluctant superhero because superheroing has a high cost to him — his relationship, his health, his sanity. Trying to save the day all the time as a superhero gets exhausting, and I loved that he decided to try a different way — and became a teacher/principal. But the gangs are out of control again, and his daughters are now of age to get into trouble, so…. Black Lightning’s back.

Netflix has two shows that I sampled this month.

I have high hopes for The Frankenstein Chronicles partly because it’s gotten good reviews and partly because Sean Bean is just so charismatic. He plays a river cop in 19^th century London and the “Frankenstein” element is that he’s investigating murders of dead children who’ve been stitched together. There’s only a hint of the fantastic in the first episode: the children’s corpse twitches when our hero discovers it, and our hero also has… prophetic dreams (though that may just be the mercury he’s taking for his syphilis). Still, it’s interesting enough that I want to watch more of it.

The other new-to-me show (from 2011) is The Almighty Johnsons, which is (judging by the first episode) a humorous urban fantasy about a family who become the reincarnations of the Norse gods on their 21st birthdays. I’m not in love with it yet, but it’s fast-paced and quirky enough to be entertaining. The antagonistic relationships between the brothers is fun instead of bitter and the stakes are laid out quickly. At the end of the first episode, the newly-reincarnated Odin has two options: 1) find the reincarnation of Frigg and they will all regain all their powers and be real gods walking the earth again, or 2) fail to find her and they all die. Yay!

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Ronya: If you, like me, have never made it past the second level of Super Mario Brothers, have zero idea how to work a game controller, but have fond memories of Choose Your Own Adventure novels, and are a fan of Gail Carriger books or Sam Carter’s Amanda Tapping’s show Sanctuary, then Alice Ripley’s text-based game, The Superlatives: Aetherfall is for you. Superlatives is set in a gloriously Victorian, steampunk London, and frankly, this game has it all: mysterious villains, clockwork minions, mad scientists, homesick aliens, and secret societies abound in an alternate historical Earth populated by Martians, Venusians, and superpowered humans.

You are responsible for leading a team of new recruits of various abilities and backgrounds to discover who destroyed the headquarters for the Society of Advancement of Individuals of Superlative Talent (and the Protection of the Queen) on the eve of your own initiation. The characters are a large part of the allure of the game — which is designed so that you can play as male, female, or NB, as well as gay, straight, bi, ace, or aromantic. There are any number of plot twists, whether you’re dealing with a teammate, finding and following clues, figuring out whether your love interest is a spy, holding off a shady villain, or deciding how to best win a fight. The Superlatives: Aetherfall is an exciting, enjoyable game. No graphics or sound effects, which might disappoint those of us who are more into imagery, etc. But you can expect a great plot, excellent worldbuilding, memorable characters, and a good time.

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Shara: When my husband and I subscribed to Cinemax via Amazon Prime, it was for the express purpose of finally watching the second season of The Knick, which isn’t speculative fiction in the slightest (unless watching a historical drama about the history of surgery grosses you out — some of those surgeries are pretty damn hard to watch!). Upon subscribing, I was informed we’d also be watching the first season Outcast, a horror show based on the Robert Kirkman comic of the same name. I admit, I wasn’t interested. For starters, I’d read over 100 issues of The Walking Dead, and I’m burned out on the show; I don’t feel like Kirkman is a great writer. There are also tons of other shows I’m dying to start when I’m free: The Handmaid’s Tale, Outlander, The Path, American Gods…. the list goes on.

But we watched, because my husband swore up and down that Kirkman is a better writer than The Walking Dead allows, and I’ll be damned (pun unintended) if I wasn’t glued to the screen seconds into Outcast’s first episode, “A Darkness Surrounds Him.”

What’s it about? A man, Kyle Barnes, returns to his childhood home after his wife slaps him with a restraining order. From the start, we’re primed not to like Barnes, but we get flashes as to why he’s living the way he is (no food in the house, no water, no electric, no cell phone), and it’s clear he’s punishing himself. It’s just a matter of us, the audience, understanding why. The first episode also provides some scenes that should give The Exorcist a run for its money, and these scenes are genuinely, truly disturbing.

At 10 episodes, I’m already wondering why the US hasn’t gotten season two yet (it premieres July 2018), because this show is so compelling. It’s gorgeous to look at, creepy to listen to (pay attention to the score by Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Claudia Sarne, especially in the opening credits), and it’s incredibly well-acted. It’s a show that understands character arcs, and how characters have to grow and change from when we meet them, and oh boy, do they ever. I can’t think of many shows where so many characters changed so much from when we met them at the start.

But please, note this show is absolutely horror, and if I listed all the potential trigger warnings I don’t think I’d stop typing, but two specifics are for child abuse and rape. How the show handles these situations is interesting, but I understand and respect not everyone’s going to be up for that. But if those triggers don’t bother you, you’ll enjoy a show that appears to be taking a different spin on possession, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

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Nicole: In case you haven’t heard, Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel video game. Visual novels, typically done in manga/anime style, are pretty much what they sound like. There’s a lot of reading, a lot of clicking, and occasionally a few choices á la choose your own adventure. However, Doki Doki is different. It is not for the faint of heart, and it warns you of this multiple times. Yet it still manages to lull you into a false sense of security as you play, so that once the shit does hit the fan, you’ll find yourself either in full panic mode or go completely deer-in-headlights.

Now, when it comes to being a fan of this game, I feel I ought to use the term rather loosely. It’s almost like the game itself is too messed up for me to be, what some in geek culture might say, a true fan. I’m not going to cosplay as any of the girls (though the best choice would be just Monika), and I may or may not look into the extra downloadable content. But I sure as heck can appreciate a good game when I see one. And Doki Doki does what you don’t expect in a multitude of ways. The writing is very solid, and I really love how the makers of the game — Team Salvato — anticipated a number of things and incorporated them right into the game in order to further scramble the player’s mind. It’s a damn fun ride (albeit, a messed up one) — especially once you’re finished and you start watching other people play it. Because of the potential choices you can make, your playthrough won’t necessarily look the same as someone else’s, and each one is disturbing in its own way.

Even better? Doki Doki Literature Club is free either through Steam or via the team’s download page. Play it if you dare.

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Casey: Long, long ago, in the early dark ages of smart phones, I downloaded a ridiculous little game called OvenBreak. The premise? You are the gingerbread man, and you’re trying to escape from the witch’s oven. Sounds simple, right? In reality, there were obstacles to slide under and gaping holes to jump over, all while collecting as many little candy pieces as possible. You couldn’t control how quickly your cookie ran. You could only jump or slide and hope for the best. I still remember the day that I managed to hit some kind of achievement. I was sitting in a furniture store with my husband. We were taking a break from couch shopping, and I started playing this game. I can’t recall precisely what that achievement was, but I remember being ridiculously proud.

Fast forward to about a month ago. This game came to my mind, for some reason, so I went searching through the App Store to see if it was still available. It wasn’t. There was, however, a shiny new sequel, Cookie Run: OvenBreak! I didn’t think twice about downloading it. It’s the same basic idea as the original, but instead of a single gingerbread man, you have a plethora of different cookies, pets, and treasures to run through different types of courses. Feeling competitive? Try your hand at racing against other players around the world! There’s even an active forum where seasoned players and newbies gather to discuss the game. I am not entirely certain just how much time I’ve spent playing this little game in the last few weeks. I don’t know if I even truly want to know the exact amount of time. I have other responsibilities in my life! But those tasty, adorable little cookies just keep calling me back.

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J.L.: I’m pretty notorious for being an inconsistent podcast listener. I’m not an auditory learner, and I don’t do a lot of things conducive to listening to podcasts when I’d rather be listening to music or NPR instead. But a select few podcasts have caught and maintained my attention, even if it means I binge them every few weeks instead of being a weekly listener.

In 2018, the Ink to Film podcast has joined the esteemed ranks of the Geek Show podcast and the Incredibly Vocal Minority podcast as my go-to listening pleasure. Unlike the other two, which focus primarily on recent pop culture releases and the politics thereof, Ink to Film has a more intellectual slant. Author Luke Elliot and film-maker James Bailey first host an episode where they review literary work, then the following episode features a review of the visual adaptation.

Though this is a relative newcomer to the extensive field of podcasts already available, their topic holds a ton of staying power. On the speculative fiction side, they’ve already reviewed such works as Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and both Blade Runner films, Howl’s Moving Castle (novel and anime), and Altered Carbon (novel and Netflix show). I’m excited for their future installments featuring Annihilation and A Wrinkle in Time. You might even hear me pop up soon as a guest as I continue to expand upon my 2018 Resolution Project!