This week marked a milestone: the end of HBO’s Game of Thrones! The finale ended Sunday in America and Wednesday for me in Japan. It was impossible to avoid the discussions online about how things went down, so I ended up knowing things before I got to sit down with the episode, but it didn’t really diminish the finale for me. I’m sad to see the show come to an end, and have a lot of fond memories from over the years. And now that our watch has ended, let’s jump in to this week’s recap!
Monday
In honor of her newest release Into the Ashes, we invited New Zealand author Lee Murray to join us for another round of My Favorite Things. Explore fantastical real-life landscapes, mysterious beasts, and windows into author’ worlds. Intrigued? Stop on by for a look!
Tuesday
Join J.L. and Shara for a Sound Off! on the latest and greatest to hit the silver screen: John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum. This *slightly* spoilery post catches you up to speed on the series thus far, and our dynamic duo share their takes on the latest madcap, action-filled offering here.
Wednesday
Kendra reviews the audiobook for Dennis E. Taylor’s Outland, a sci-fi tale of alternate worlds, experimental physics, an apocalyptic natural disaster, and epic survival. Kendra’s no stranger to Taylor thanks to the Bobiverse — did his latest offering whet her appetite? In a spoiler-free post, Kendra does double-duty, sharing her experiences as a reader and listener. Check it out!
Thursday
Calie continues chronicling the speculative genre with the continuation of her series, Changing the Map. In this entry, Calie makes a creative and unexpected connection between Samuel R. Delaney’s SF masterwork Dhalgren and one of HBO’s first megahits, Sex and the City. Beyond concrete jungles and sexual odysseys, what kind of stories do these works tell? For a fascinating breakdown, look no further.
Friday
Nancy crosses another off her checklist for the Resolution Project! This year, she’s knocking out three sequels to books that have brought her joy. For this round, Nancy’s made it to her second sequel — European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss (the follow-up to The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter). As Nancy puts it, this series focuses on “the daughters of literature’s mad scientists” through characters like Mary Jekyll and Justine Frankenstein — and do these characters make or break the story? Read this spoiler-free post to find out!
Book Club
How’s your reading coming along? If you’d like to join us, we’re wrapping this month’s selection, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, for our upcoming discussion. You can also get cracking on June’s pick, David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, just in time for summer solstice! Check out the premise here, and don’t forget to vote for July’s pick!
That’s it for this fun-filled week at Speculative Chic! Because I can’t seem to figure out when John Wick will come to Kumamoto, I’m going to overdose on the internet magic of Keanu Reeves — a lot of stuff has happened while he’s done promotion for John Wick 3, like given sage advice to Stephen Colbert, added his handprints to the TCL Chinese Theatre, and had the awkward-sounding term “Keanussance” made in his honor. Whoa.
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