media round-up

[sideways]

Returning to the format of old because I'm clearly not organised enough for anything else, haha.

• Like most of the internet I eagerly jumped on Stray when it released, which proved to be a quick and largely delightful little game with more plot than I was expecting. The care taken in rendering dozens of small interactions and discoveries, flush with cat humour and familiar behaviours, was honestly a greater joy than the overarching story though.

• I picked The Space Between Worlds off a sci-fi rec list, and it was decent: I enjoyed the premise, in which 'traversers' are hired to travel to adjacent spheres across the multiverse to collect data for fun and profit (mostly the corporation's profit, of course). The protagonist had a compelling narrative voice, full of cutting bitterness and longing. It lost points for wobbly worldbuilding, though - after a point you can't help but notice how little description we get of anywhere outside two neighbouring population centres, which sits poorly when your personal standard is the works of Hobb or Cherryh or Reynolds - and I found the main romance fairly dull, in part because the love interest receives so little characterisation outside the narrator's perceptions. An understandable trap when you're writing in first person, but one that could have been avoided with a little more effort. Thematically, there was a lot of focus on class and race, and it seemed to be handled well.

• Dug up a bootleg of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 because it's otherwise taking a longass time to come to streaming, and it was pretty much exactly what I expected based on my watch of the first season: incredibly animated and inescapably corny. Every possible declaration of "I will fight for my friends who have made it possible for me to exist in this world!" you could hope for. So yeah, I had fun. I groaned lot, but I had fun. I only wish they did more with Rika because that whole situation had so much potential.

• I don't think I've read such a brutal, bizarre black comedy as Slaughterhouse Five since Catch-22. Apparently war does things to people, who knew. Hard to say I enjoyed it, but at minimum it was interesting to at last experience Vonnegut's peculiar writing style. There's an argument to be made about the extent to which fanfic is often unexpectedly Vonnegutian.

• Watched the first episode of the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman. Interesting enough? Will probably continue? I've never read the comics so at least I can worry less about dissatisfaction than I had to with Good Omens. EDIT: Finished it, loved it :)b

Comments

[seven]

I also found The Space Between Worlds off a queer sci-fi rec list several months ago and was surprised how much I enjoyed it for a book I'd heard nothing about. Totally agree that the worldbuilding was a bit thin and the main romance was lackluster, but overall I was into it. I wasn't sure at the time who I'd recommend it to, so I'm glad to see someone else read it and at least think it was interesting.

[sideways]

The writing was genuinely quite good? And I liked the pragmatic take on the multiverse - less high concept and more what it meant at the people level - and the richness of the Ashtown culture (including its dash of Mad Max flavouring, lol).

The thing with Dell just honestly wasn't necessary - there was a compelling enough story in their little tragedy of miscommunication without it being plumped up as a grand romance. Alas, whatever was going on with Esther and Mr Cheeks managed to be more convincing.

Fun fact, I was convinced early on the big twist would be Cara ascending into the multiplanar stream and becoming Nyame.

[muladhara]

I really liked Stray, but I wish there'd been a tiiiiny bit more to the story, although I do get the focus was more on the exploring and interacting. I hope there's going to be some DLC or a sequel or something!

[sideways]

Yeah... I found myself giving it a 4/5, and that missing star is the extra depth they could have gone into that would have made it a truly exceptional game. There were a number of things that were lightly touched on, made me go "huh???", and then promptly disappeared to be never acknowledged any further. Then again, I suppose that's fairly accurate cat roleplaying.

[muladhara]

Then again, I suppose that's fairly accurate cat roleplaying.

Agreed.

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

My 17-year-old brother really likes JJK 0 (as well as JJK in general really) and got me to read a scanlation of the relevant manga volume. He also gave me an impromptu speech about the bond between Yuuta and Rika. To be clear I was interested in what he had to say about them though I don't have nearly as many feelings about Yuuta as he does.
I do agree with you about Rika and that the situation could have been explored more. In general I kind of thought the JJK 0 felt like a bit like speedrunning a much longer series though I'm not sure we'd have necessarily gotten more about Rika there either, given my experience with shonen.
I liked it well enough that I think I'll join him and his friends when they watch JJK 0 if they do it at a time that I don't mind being awake at. He showed me the first few episodes of the show too and I'd like to keep watching it with him I'm not really interested in continuing it on my own. I'm more interested in what my brother sees in it than what I do.
I read the Sandman comics and quite liked them but I'm not sure I'll check out the show because it would be weird for me to see these characters portrayed as real live action people. I am curious about how they'll adapt some of the stories *cough* A Game of You *cough* in light of modern-day sensibilities though I think most of them hold up decently.

[sideways]

Yuuta is just a fun character archetype. And the show itself is predictable but pretty. Your brother may just enjoy the well-crafted fight sequences, haha! Though it is cute he was into the bond between Yuuta and Rika. Do not we all, deep down, kind of wish we had a protective monster who was devoted to us?

JJK 0 did feel a little rushed, but I'm not too surprised - I'm sure the choice was either change the story so it suited a movie format better or represent the manga accurately, and of course established fans are going to prefer the latter. It was really more three or four episodes strung together into one longer movie, but that's alright. As you say, it's shounen :P

I've been meaning to read the Sandman comics for yonks but never got around to it. That may work out for me though; it IS sometimes very hard to appreciate a live action adaptation, whereas now I get to enjoy the story fresh and then go check out the acclaimed original. And yes, I have to assume Neil is savvy enough to have pitched in with smoothing out anything that didn't age well.

[cloudwrack]

Stray! ♥ I'm having a lot of fun with this one so far; the behaviour/body language is so well-observed and the kitty-specific jokes are a joy. Also, I'm a sucker for that kind of low-key melancholic tone.

I loved Slaughterhouse-Five as a teenager, but have not reread it since then. Maybe I'm overdue. Also: There's an argument to be made about the extent to which fanfic is often unexpectedly Vonnegutian. I'm curious!

The Space Between Worlds sounds like it has an interesting premise, even if the romance and worldbuilding were a letdown. I might keep an eye out for it at the library.

[sideways]

The kitty jokes are so on point. The reaction when you first don the backpack had me in stitches.

It's a fairly short read at least, so it would be an easy enough re-visit! And mostly I'm thinking about things like opening the story with "Listen:" and spinning the whole thing out in short fragments and being incredibly self-referential. It's not standard for a novel, but it's not uncommon for a fanfic.

I'd def give TSBW a go, it wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it overall.