Novella cover: “Making History” by K J Parker (Tor, 2025)

What is history? What is truth? Parker crafts a twisty novella in which university scholars are pressganged into fabricating an ancient culture... only to uncover bona fide exemplars of all their meticulously falsified evidence in long-buried situ at the chosen dig location. #MakingHistory #KJParker

Book cover: “The Confessions of Arsène Lupin” by Maurice Leblanc (Éditions Pierre Lafitte, 1913); audiobook read by Maxwell Caulfield, Juliet Mills & Stefan Rudnicki (Blackstone, 2020)

Ten more stories in which self-styled gentleman thief Arsène Lupin outwits the French police (and everyone else), albeit he does survive a few close calls this volume. Leblanc crafts ingenious scenarios, lighter in narrative voice but no less memorable than Conan Doyle. #ConfessionsofArseneLupin

Book cover: Sirens by Simon Messingham

Happy book anniversary to Sirens, a dark and disturbing novel by the ever-prescient Simon Messingham. #dystopia #absolutepower #kakistocracy

www.derelictspacesheep.com/sirens/

Book cover: “Raising Steam” by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2013); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2013)

An uncharacteristically humourless instalment. The fundamentalist Dwarf subplot also seems rather tacked on as Pratchett, for much of the novel, merely chuffs along happily in thrall to steam locomotives that offer no great point of difference from their non-fictional, historical counterparts.

Book cover: “Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead” by K J Parker (Orbit, 2023)

Parker’s insistence on crafting non-romanticised secondary-world historical settings with intertwined military, economic, religious and political interests, again results in a downbeat, fate-pummelled tale. The humour is black at best, wrung from its jaded, openly unreliable first-person narrator.

Film poster: “S. Darko” dir. Chris Fisher (2009)

More mood piece than SF mindbender. Eminently pannable for stilted characterisation and its aimless take on time-fracturing, with an extra demerit star for claiming Donnie Darko heritage (a now 18-year-old Daveigh Chase being the only carryover, arthouse spacey in the titular role). #SDarko

TV poster: “Supernatural, Season 1” (The WB, 2005-2006)

Supernatural leans into its urban legends horror element, which is convincingly enacted, and serves up charm and humour on the side courtesy of brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles, more or less reprising his Dark Angel character) bickering sibling camaraderie. #Supernatural

Book cover: “Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds” by Greg Bear & Gardner Dozois (Subterranean, 2014); audiobook read by various narrators (Blackstone, 2014)

Thirteen stories, four memoir pieces. The anthology starts strongly but loses its way as invited authors, eager to pay homage, craft exposition-laden tales that entirely fail to function as standalones. Tad Williams breaks the camel’s back with a spoofish, egregiously unfunny novella. #Multiverse

Film poster: “The Last Boy Scout” dir. Tony Scott (1991)

Heavy-handed buddy action film, very male at every level of production, with a candidate for worst-ever-acted villain (Taylor Negron as Milo), yet also laugh-out-loud funny and boasting oddly exquisite, throwaway snatches of dialogue. The Last Boy Scout soars higher with every rewatch. #LastBoyScout

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: Slipback” by Eric Saward (BBC Radio 4, 1985)

Slipback captures much of the Sixth Doctor zeitgeist but also attempts a Hitchhiker’s-style humour, which entirely fails to land. Valentine Dyall is given no interaction. The plot strands are barely developed (yet shamelessly rehashed). Hardly an advertisement for a programme on hiatus. #Slipback

Book cover: “Death on the Cherwell” by Mavis Doriel Hay (Skeffington & Son, 1935); audiobook read by Patience Tomlinson (Soundings, 2015)

Hay starts off with amateur detectives (students from the Oxford women’s college whose setting elevates the novel) then discards them—along with the obvious suspects—in favour of an avuncular Scotland Yard man whose deductive skills at no point outstrip the reader’s. #MavisDorielHay

DVD cover: “Alan Davies: Life is Pain” (Live in London, 2013)

Davies works his way through a stock set of middle-aged stand-up comedy topics: bafflement at the incomprehensible ‘now’; self-aware nostalgia for the ultra-crap ‘then’; male-centric parenting woes; and a ‘fuck it’ plunge into sexual taboos and absurdities to finish. Low-key observational humour.

Sounds like the right sort of progression. I shall have to persist!

TV poster: “Yes Minister, Series 1” by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1980)

A slightly patchy satire that in later series would become truly sublime in deriding British government and the Civil Service—both gleefully caricatured yet tellingly believable! The well-meaning but ductile Jim Hacker struggles to make headway against silver-tongued bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Book cover: “A Man Forbid: A Reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth” by Matt Simpson (Greenwich Exchange, 2003)

A slim guide no greater than the scattershot sum of its parts. Simpson holds court across twenty-three short chapters, each riddled with asides and laid down in the order brainstormed. He seems particularly taken with Freudian interpretations that seem, at best, tenuous. #Shakespeare #Macbeth

Book cover: “Cage of Souls” by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Head of Zeus, 2019); audiobook read by David Thorpe (Clipper, 2019)

A turgid standalone of trilogy-length but only a novella’s worth of storyline. Tchaikovsky’s dying humanity is not without interest, but only his characters prove genuinely worth the investment—all save the insipid viewpoint narrator with whom we’re lumbered for the 23-hour duration. #CageofSouls

Book cover: “Third Year at Malory Towers” by Enid Blyton (Methuen, 1948); audiobook read by Beth Eyre (Bolinda, 2021)

Once again, Darrell is largely sidelined, Blyton leaning a little too heavily into everyday depictions... while reserving all the drama for three new characters! Still, the term breezes by and offers some tear-jerking highs amidst all the idyll of Malory Towers life. #MaloryTowers #EnidBlyton

Manga cover: “Flying Witch, vol. 1” by Chihiro Ishizuka; trans. Melissa Tanaka (Vertical Comics, 2017)

Pleasant enough manga. The illustrations are simple and uncluttered but Ishizuka at this stage seems merely to be doodling about in feel of the characters (while sneaking in humorous asides such as pheasant-chasing). Any sense of witch-related storyline is nascent at best. #FlyingWitch

VHS cover: “Benny Hill’s Greatest Hits” (Thames Video, 1990)

Hill’s humour was largely one-dimensional, his urgently titillated, naughty schoolboy expressions suggesting an immaturity that persisted through middle-age and somehow found resonance across two decades of British viewership, tainting even the occasional clever or madcap surreal piece. #BennyHill

Book cover: “Murder After Christmas” by Rupert Latimer (Macdonald & Co., 1944); audiobook read by Kris Dyer (Soundings, 2021)

A murder mystery most notable for obfuscating events behind a blanket barrage of affability. All the suspects have blithely joked about doing in Uncle Willie. Latimer plays endlessly with motive and opportunity, meandering up false trails until it all becomes quite tedious. #MurderAfterChristmas

Film poster: “Maigret” dir. Patrice Leconte (2022)

A remarkably lifeless film. As per Simenon’s template, there is very little actual investigating, which leaves Gérard Depardieu to emote Maigret’s inner thoughts while tottering about like a top-heavy corpse in the making. Jade Labeste gives the only performance of any substance. #Maigret

Book cover: “Revenant Gun” by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris, 2018)

A decent enough novel but not, as spruiked, a ‘stunning conclusion’ to the trilogy. (In fact, it might almost constitute proof that Ninefox Gambit was intended as a standalone.) Lee conjures up an adversary, expands rather aimlessly on the servitors, and— concludes. #RevenantGun

TV poster: “Pantheon, Season 1” (AMC+, 2022)

American cyberpunk anime that remains compelling so long as the mystery element is upheld. Once, however, the plot is dragged into the open, the endgame proves underwhelming (perhaps a cop-out to allow for a second series?). Hard SF of unusually pessimistic bent. #Pantheon

TV poster: “Inspector Montalbano, Season 3” (Rai 2, 2001) [Italian, subtitled]

Two feature-length episodes. The stories of Season 3 feel more accessible, the murder investigations more cohesive (though still reflective of Sicilian cultural quirks and Montalbano’s distinctive ‘lone wolf with minions’ approach). Luca Zingaretti goes from strength to strength in the titular role.

Film poster: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” dir. Peter Jackson (2013)

Not a bad film, but much of what happens is filler, plumping out an already-plumped story. Worth watching, if only for Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel (a non-Tolkien character but a welcome addition), and Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Smaug (a highlight in all respects). #TheHobbit #TheDesolationofSmaug

TV poster: “The Brokenwood Mysteries, Series 1” (Prime, 2014)

Four feature-length murder mysteries: the usual schtick but with a New Zealand flavour. The first episode is a bit so-so but the two leads quickly prove endearing, the dynamic further enhanced once DC Breen is given screen time as their third wheel. #BrokenwoodMysteries

Book cover: “Camouflage” by Bill Pronzini (Forge, 2011); audiobook read by Nick Sullivan (Bolinda, 2015)

Camouflage mostly concerns itself with Jake Runyon’s investigation of a personal matter (the abuse of his partner’s son). Nameless stumbles upon a gruesome but straightforward case. Alex Chavez comes in from the peripheries for some much-welcome development—and even a POV chapter. #NamelessDetective

Film poster: “Blade II” dir. Guillermo del Toro (2002)

Blade II doesn’t 100% fail in tapping the original film’s vibe, yet lacks for both imperative and character. The faster action scenes play out like sped-up computer games. The vampires spin to extremes of either too easy or too difficult to kill. #BladeII

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: Legacy of Death” by Jonathan Morris (Big Finish, 2016)

Essentially Day of the Daleks squared. The back-and-forth time raids introduced in The Paradox Planet are here shown to have been initiated by both sides in response to the other. Lots of timey-wimey plotting fun for Morris but surprisingly little moral quandary. #DoctorWho #LegacyofDeath

Book cover: “A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller Jr. (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1959); audiobook read by Tom Weiner (Blackstone, 2011)

A drawn-out wasteland-without-hope fix-up novel exploring notions of—and interactions between—religious belief, cyclical history, information systems and nuclear apocalypse. Miller builds detailed (if bleak and self-indulgent) scenarios. All three sections come to weigh portentously upon the reader.