an icepick through the keyhole

Happy end-of-2025! Here's to a better 2026 in whichever ways make the most difference to you. (I'm hoping that personal and spousal health challenges abate, and that democracy makes a comeback across the world and in my country.)

I haven't written about media since the beginning of the month because OMG Yuletide! (Let me be clear: it's great fun and enormously satisfying on a personal level to be part of the team that corrals all of the moving parts, but it is also a great deal of work. Also, I had a pinch hit to write, and a treat I really wanted to get in as well.) But now it's all over save the author reveals (for real this time, oog). And I did read and watch and play some things this month!

What I've recently finished reading:

The Daughters' War by Christopher Buehlman, the prequel (written later) to The Blacktongue Thief I didn't love this as much as I did the first, largely because while Galva is a great character, her voice is simply not as engaging as Kinch's voice. She's younger and more earnest here, and it is interesting to see her being shaped by war into the character she is in the other book. But it is war, here, and war is hell, and this war is particularly hellish; not just the conflict between human (kynd) and goblin, but the conflict between Galva and her asshole brother the incompetent general. There is canonical f/f. There is a lot of backstory that illuminates aspect of the first book. I liked it, but I'm looking forward to the actual sequel to The Blacktongue Thief.

An Age of Winters by Gemma Liviero, which I think B got as part of Kindle Unlimited. Historical crime fiction set in 17th C Germany, where mysterious child deaths are attributed to witchcraft, and the clergyman investigates. The narrator (for the most part; there are sections told by a castle functionary) is the clergyman's housekeeper, Katarin Jaspers, and while her narration is engaging, it's also very coyly used to hide the fact that she is an unreliable narrator both because she only knows what she herself can see or deduce, and also because things are left out that she does know, which feels a bit gimmicky. The pacing is terrible and the reveals come all at once in a rush of exposition. However, the story is interesting and the writing is quite atmospheric (and claustrophobic, oof, so glad I don't live in a theocracy), so I read it all but felt let down by the way the ending was presented.

What I'm reading now:

On thistle_chaser's rec, Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Tiger and the Wolf. He is certainly a prolific author with a very wide genre range: this is a fantasy primitive-culture world (it appears to be Bronze Age) where tribes not only identify with a guiding animal spirit, but tribal members can Step (i.e., shapeshift) into the form of that animal at will. The story feels a bit like some African-inspired YA I've read, as the primary protagonist is a 14-year-old girl of the Wolf - whose mother was of the Tiger, and who therefore does not fit in with her clan and her culture.

I don't love it as much as Thistle did, but also Thistle DNF'ed the second book, so it's possible I will simply like the whole series!

(Also, I've been reading Yuletide stories, of course...)

What we recently finished watching:

S4 of The Witcher, which has absolutely terrible ratings on IMDB but I thought was fine, if (as usual) I was more interested in some threads and less in others. I wonder whether the terrible ratings come from the recasting of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt (I thought he was fine), the very non-game-like casting of Laurence Fishburne as Regis (it took me a while, but ultimately I thought he was magnificent), Ciri/Mistle (this is book canon! and nodded to in the game!), or just Jaskier's hair looking, astonishingly, even uglier than it did in the first three seasons. Possibly it was the interweaving of three (or four, depending on how you look at it) very separate storylines that made it feel like either nothing or everything was happening.

(Though I will admit the WTF musical episode was legit terrible, and its 3.7/10 rating seems high to me.)

Death by Lightning, the Netflix miniseries about James Garfield, who was nominated as a reluctant compromise candidate by the Republican party in 1880, won the presidency partly due to the corrupt New York state political machine, whose do-nothing alcoholic layabout Chester Arthur was chosen vice presidential candidate, then promptly went about attempting to reform the spoils system and give black men representation and listen to the people and be generally a upright person and good leader, and was assassinated for his trouble. Some of the dialogue seemed a bit odd to my ear (did 19th century politicians really say "fuck" that much?!?!) and the character of Charles Guiteau was very cringe (props to Matthew Macfadyen I guess!).

But I did enjoy it a lot! And looking at the existing photographs of the principals I'm very impressed with the casting and makeup and such. Mostly I now want to read a really good biography of Garfield, and also of Arthur, who sobered up, cast off his corrupt cronies, and implemented the reforms Garfield had outlined.

What I'm watching now:

Just started The Empress, which is so far reminding me of The Leopard in that it's a foreign-language film about royalty in love juxtaposed against war and revolution, and also, the costumes are fabulous.

What I have played some of but not finished:

Spider-Man Remastered - I got past the Shocker main quest, finally, but - I decided I just don't like this game. It's too much, too many things, Peter is kind of a smart-ass, I'm not a superhero-media fan, and so on.

Death Stranding - this was free on Epic, and had really great reviews, but the whole premise kind of creeped me out. It's not a horror game, but I dislike the horror elements. I also found the story not interesting enough, at least at the start (admittedly I didn't play all that far in), and the looooooong cinematics sort of boring.

Gris - this is actually a cool atmospheric puzzle-platformer! But I suck at platformers and got stuck (a ways in, admittedly). I might give it another try, but it doesn't scratch the itch of "adventure game with a story" for me.

Horizon Forbidden West (replay) - It was kind of fun to replay the beginning, but now really I am just preferring looking over B's shoulder every so often. I remember the fun bits but ugh the hard bits.

What I'm playing now:

I'm maybe 4 hours into Ghost of Tsushima, which B played last year and really enjoyed. I'm liking it so far. I got to pet a fox! (And then real-me leaned forward and petted my real cat Cricket, who has resumed her habit of sitting between my keyboard and monitors. In fact, she's there right now!)

Happy New Year, everybody!