Cream Maid by Mark Dickson – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Cream Maid sees the world as theirs for the taking. Cream Maid wants to be the individual in the room that everyone adores. Cream Maid still has a long way to go.

'Honey and Darling—an affluent couple living in the English countryside—take on the infuriating feline on a whim, soon discovering that Cream Maid is something altogether unique, blurring the lines between employee, child and trickster god.

'Well-meaning but ill-fated, Cream Maid’s destructive wake serves as the beacon that this newfound family starts to steer towards.'

Would you like to have a Cream Maid in your life? What do you mean ‘What’s a Cream Maid?’ – what a silly question. You see, a Cream Maid is a cat, but not really a cat; they’re big, like a human, and they live in your house as a maid, but they don’t really work, and they cause chaos and destruction, but they make your life better. What’s so confusing about that concept?

Cream Maid is the latest graphic novel offering from writer Mark Dickson and artist Rebecca Burgess that tells the story of Honey and Darling, a couple with a tough marriage who live together in a large house that needs some extra help to keep clean and tidy. To assist them with this they’ve hired Cream Maid, a four foot tall anthropomorphic cat-like creature who can’t speak, and barely seems able to understand basic instructions.

When the book begins Honey and Darling seem to be having marriage issues, and Cream Maid is a big part of it. Unsure exactly why they hired the strange cat creature, other than the fact that they came with an adorable maid outfit so they must have been qualified, things take a bad turn when they banish Cream Maid from the house after they cause a bit too much chaos. What’s worse, Honey tells darling that she’s not sure she loves him anymore, and perhaps the marriage cannot last. Thankfully, this is only the first section of the book, and it means that there’s plenty of time for them to work through their issues; and a big part of getting the relationship to work seems to be getting Cream Maid to come home, and forming a new bond with them.

The plot of Cream Maid is split up across four distinct chapters, each of which has its own story and its own isolated challenges and issues to resolve; yet these four stories form one broader narrative that shows the evolving life of Honey, Darling, and the titular Cream Maid. Ultimately, it’s a story about learning to communicate with the people in your life, opening up about your issues, and being brave enough to take risks with new things, to build towards making a better life.

Now, one of the big things that will need talking about with this book is Cream Maid themself. What is Cream Maid? Honestly, I don’t know. When the book begins they’re already employed with the family, and the reader isn’t ever really given an explanation about what they are. Over the course of the book the character evolves and becomes a kind of child to Honey and Darling, even being enrolled in school and helping work on the family business. Yet they’re not the child of Honey and Darling. There are points in the book where they acknowledge that they’re a cat, but not a cat, but no one ever seems to question this, despite their being no evidence there’s anyone else like Cream Maid in the world. One of the descriptions for them makes reference to them being like a trickster god, and I can see the comparison, as they are like a chaotic fey creature.

Ultimately, I don’t think it really matters what Cream Maid is, as what they are isn’t as important as who they are. And who they are is part of the family. Over the course of the book Cream Maid goes from a problematic employee that they throw out of the house to being a part of their family, to being someone that they love and care about. And the journey to this is a big focus of the narrative. During the story Honey and Darling have to confront their own personal issues, their fears, their flaws, and their worries about their future, and Cream Maid helps them to do this. By accepting this strange creature into their lives they learn to be better people. And I think that this is a wonderful message that Dickson is able to convey in delightfully funny ways.

The art on the book, provided by Rebecca Burgess, is really lovely. Having read some of Burgess’ previous work on How To Be Ace, I was familiar with their style, and knew that they were good at making the ordinary world look bright and eye-catching. However, it was the work on Cream Maid themself that was a definite standout here. From the first panel where they appear the character looks wonderfully weird and out of place, and the more weird things they do the more I loved it. Burgess is able to create art that is able to appeal to readers of any age, although this art will appeal a lot to younger readers.

Cream Maid is the kind of book where you never know what to expect next, where the world of the ordinary and that of the fantastic crash into each other in unexpected and delightful ways. It takes a look at some very real issues, such as unhappy relationships, work troubles, and interpersonal relationships, yet manages to make it feel fresh and interesting all the time.

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Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #13 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It feels like Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures has been building to something big for a while now. At first I thought it was going to be the confrontation between the Jedi and Nihil, more specifically the confrontation with Krix Kamerat, but it looks like that wasn’t the end goal. Instead, this issue showcases how things have been more about the matters of the heart than intergalactic war.

This issue sees our heroic Jedi bringing Krix into custody, and what happens after they’ve completed their mission. For some, like Farzala and Qort, this means spending time with some new younglings and making friends, but for Lula it means a ton of introspection. I’d mentioned in a previous review that it felt like perhaps something romantic was brewing between Lula and Zeen, that it seemed like these two young women were more than just friends. Well, this issue does away with subtlety and makes this very much the focus.

So yes, Lula and Zeen love each other; and honestly, I absolutely love this. Love stories have always been a part of Star Wars, and whether that was Han and Leia in the original trilogy, Anakin and Padme in the prequels, or Kanan and Hera in Star Wars Rebels, love has been a big part of this franchise. And in a lot of cases, love involving a Jedi. Jedi aren’t celibate, they’re allowed to have sexual relationships, and in some cases like Ki-Adi-Mundi are encouraged to. It’s love that’s the big no-no. Obi-Wan had to give up Satine, Anakin refused to give up Padme, and now Lula comes to the realisation that she loves Zeen. The question is, will she let that love go or not?

Lula’s questions are the focus of the issue, and it really does feel like someone in the early stages of love, questioning if their feelings are real, if they should say anything to the other person, and if their love could alter their life forever. Now, that last one might not be a feeling that everyone who’s been in love will relate to, but there is one group of people who will understand that: the queer community.

The love story between Zeen and Lula is very much leaning into the fact that they’re both women, but not in a way that’s incredibly obvious. None of the characters seem to care that it’s two girls in love, as you’d expect from a society made up of hundreds of different species. Instead, Daniel Jose Older uses the Force to make it relatable for queer readers. Zeen has a conversation with Krix where they talk about her connection to the Force and how she was told if she would “stop using the Force and it would go away. And we could be normal again”. If this isn’t a ‘Have you tried not being gay?’ stand in I’ll eat my hat.

We get more of this from Lula, who feels that her love for Zeen could ruin her life, because she’s expected not to have that kind of connection, because her life has been planned out for her, because people have put the expectation on her that she’ll become a Jedi. This immediately made me think about how families expect that their children are going to be heterosexual, so when you’re dealing with the knowledge that you’re not, you worry about whether or not they’ll accept that, because they’ve already mapped out in their heads that you’ll get married to someone of the opposite gender and have a family. The two of them are having a queer experience thanks to the Force and Jedi expectations.

This is honestly something that I’d never thought I’d see from Star Wars. The sequel trilogy did everyone a disservice by not letting Finn and Poe be a couple, and the ‘queer rep’ they praised themselves for in the final film was a blink and you miss it same-sex kiss in the background. Star Wars needs a queer relationship. Queer Star Wars fans need it to happen. Whilst the seeds for this have very much been laid here I truly hope that this isn’t going to be the end, that these two characters end up together, and that they actually get to kiss and have a happy ending. Because if Star Wars is dangling this in front of me and it gets taken away I’m going to lose it; especially if one of them dies. But hopefully this is the beginning of the first big queer relationship in Star Wars.

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The Deadly Grimoire: An Arkham Horror Novel by Rosemary Jones - Book Review

 

'A daring actress and a barnstorming pilot team up to save the world from supernatural disaster in this uncanny pulp adventure set in the world of Arkham Horror

'Betsy Baxter is the plucky stunt-actor star of the 1920s serial adventure, The Flapper Detective. While researching a wing-walking scene, she meets the fearless Winifred Habbamock and discovers a shared background of eerie encounters and eldritch phenomena. For years, Betsy has been investigating the disappearance of an old friend during the horror-struck filming of The Mask of Silver, when she learns of his reappearance in Arkham, she and Winifred hit the road to investigate. But Arkham is full of mysteries and danger. Betsy will need all her skills, and new allies, to prevent an otherworldly cataclysm from consuming her and all of Arkham.'

The Deadly Grimoire is the latest entry in the Arkham Horror series from Aconyte Books, and follows up from last years Mask of Silver. 

The story begins by introducing us to Betsy Baxter, the Hollywood star of the popular Flapper Detective series of films, as a shrewd businesswoman who owns the studios that make her movies. Her career has never been better, she's popular, the business is booming, she's recently bought herself a lavish mansion, and she's getting to perform amazing stunts. Things are going great, except for the fact that she's still haunted by the events that happened in Arkham years ago.

During her previous trip to Arkham (during the events of Mask of Silver) Betsy was witness to a strange event, and lost some of her friends during a fire on a film shoot. Her friends didn't die though, they disappeared into a mirror, never to be seen again; including her boyfriend. But when Betsy receives news that one of the missing has reappeared in Arkham, and is being taken care of in an institute, she decides that she needs to return to the city to find answers.

Needing to get to Arkham as soon as she can Betsy asks the pilot who helped her film her latest stunt, Winifred Habbamock, to take her across the country.  Shortly after arriving in Arkham the two of them meet Tom, a bookseller who's in trouble with some local bootleggers because they're after a book that he's ailed to deliver. This book, the Deadly Grimoire, is said to be cursed to bring trouble to however has it, yet thanks to the promise of being able to open special pathways the local criminals want it badly. Now Betsy and Winifred find themselves caught up in Tom's plight, and have to help to find the missing book before it's too late.

I'm sorry to say that Mask of Silver is the only book in the Arkham Horror series that I've yet to read, as such, when it came to reading The Deadly Grimoire I was worried that I was going to start at something of a disadvantage; that I might get lost as to who everyone is and what's going on. Luckily, Rosemary Jones makes the book really accessible to new readers, and whilst it is a sequel for sure it feels a lot like its own adventure where knowledge of the last book isn't needed to enjoy things.

Having been used to seeing Arkham Horror stories following hardened detectives, academics, and reporters Betsy felt like a big change to the kind of person that these stories normally centre on. She's brash, opinionated, has an in-your-face attitude. She's a woman who's used to being the boss, calling the shots, and getting what she wants. She has an energy that we don't normally get to see from people living in Arkham, a kind of life to her that is normally ground down and worn out by long-time exposure to the grimness of the city.

Winifred is very similar in a lot of ways. She's a woman who's had to fight every single day in order to become the person she is. She's not only working in a male dominated field, but thriving in it. She's in a position of power and respect that a lot of people would love to see her stripped from, so she has a fierceness to her that she's needed in order to survive. She's also a woman of colour, and has had to live with being looked down upon by white people, and these experiences have definitely shaped her too. In contrast to the two women Tom is kind of what you normally expect from an Arkham book. He's a bit dour, he's not very outgoing, and he's a very insular man who's more than happy to spend his time around books instead of people (I feel you there Tom).

However, despite these differences in outlooks, these varying personalities, the three of them make for a pretty decent team. Each of them brings something different to the table, and they definitely help to support each other's weaknesses. There are times where they end up getting in trouble, not really thinking things through and get into bad situations, but they're always able to get through it by working together as a team.

Whilst the central three characters are great, they're really the only people in the book that we get any chance to get to know other than the two primary antagonists. These two, a strange doctor who runs a private clinic and seems obsessed with strange seaweed, and a bootlegger who runs a speakeasy and seems to support her local community of Innsmouth, don't really go beyond first impressions. Whilst the two of them are definitely interesting, I always found myself wanting to learn more about them. I know that they weren't the focus of the book, and that Jones had the rest of the story to tell, but I was left wishing we'd had more time with them. Perhaps if Jones ends up writing a third Arkham Horror novel these will be characters that get to make a return appearance.

The Deadly Grimoire is an interesting addition to the Arkham Horror line, one that brings a very different kind of energy to things. It has more of a focus on the glory days of Hollywood, features silent movie stars, stung pilots, and dangerous bootleggers over the more otherworldly horror aspects. Whilst this may leave some people wanting more cosmic horror than is in the book, those wanting to spend some time with some interesting characters and getting to know a bit more about Arkham will come away satisfied.

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Destiny 2: The Witch Queen – Game Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

I remember picking up the original Destiny when it first launched, and being instantly interested in this new world that Bungie had created. It had some cool designs, tons of lore, and the promise of more of both to come, as the game would continue to expand with additional DLCs.

I stuck with the game through to Destiny 2 being launched, but soon fell by the wayside as I just couldn’t keep up with the game. However, I did keep up to date with the story as it came out, and found each new DLC to be a fascinating new chapter. With The Witch Queen coming out, and promising to bring big changes and revelations to the game, I decided to see if this would be a good point at which to jump back in. It absolutely was.

The story of The Witch Queen begins big, with Mars returning to the solar system after being stolen away in a previous story DLC. Travelling to the red planet, your Guardian learns that there are strange time rifts scattered across Mars, showing events from the planet’s past. Not only that, but the Cabal have arrived and are setting up fortifications to combat Savathun, one of the powerful gods of the villainous Hive. Using the Cabal’s tech, your Guardian is able to infiltrate Savathun’s huge ship in a moment that is pretty ridiculous but loads of fun.

Once on board the massive Hive ship, your Guardian discovers something absolutely horrific: the Hive have found a way to access the light of the Traveller, producing their own Ghosts, and giving their strongest warriors the ability to resurrect after death the same way you can. This news changes everything, and sets your Guardian out on a mission to learn how Savathun was able to acquire this ability, and to stop her if possible. This quest will take you to Savathun’s Throne World, exploring her memories, and travelling across the solar system in an attempt to stop one of your greatest enemies before it’s too late.

The story of The Witch Queen is one of the better ones that Destiny 2 has brought out. Whilst they’ve always given players interesting narratives to explore, this is possibly the most intriguing one to date. There’s the central mystery of Savathun having the power of the Traveller that you have to deal with, and this represents the main focus, but over the course of your missions you begin to learn more about the history of the character, the Hive as a whole, and get some pretty big revelations that are guaranteed to ripple out into future stories for the franchise.

As someone who’s not been playing the game for a few years, but keeping vaguely up to date with the story and the lore, the new expansion managed to be accessible enough to the point where I never felt lost. The story was complex, and relied on the player having some kind of working knowledge of the universe, but it was pretty clear that it was also accessible to people without that. It explained things as it went, and even if you didn’t know who Savathun was, you very quickly got a sense of what she was, and why her having this power was bad. So if you’re worried that you’d not be able to pick this up and play because you’d missed out on the last several DLCs, don’t worry, the story will still make sense.

But, what’s the game like outside of the story? The new expansion introduces some big new areas to explore and play in. We get introduced to Savathun’s Throne World pretty early on in the story, a place where she rules supreme and has used the Light to create a huge castle-like fortress. This new area has a big swampland, a huge cave network, a burnt forest, and the fortress itself to play through. None of these areas are small either, and thanks to having patrol objectives scattered around, you’ll never find yourself wandering without having something to do for very long.

In addition to the new areas there are some new enemies to contend with, members of the Hive who have access to the Light. These enemies are bigger, stronger, and tougher because of this. They take a lot more damage to take down, but can also dish out a lot too. These enemies are able to access some of the same abilities that players have been using, and will throw powerful attacks across the battlefield at you. Even worse, if you do manage to take them down, you’ve got to rush in and destroy their Ghost by hand, otherwise the enemy gets back up at full health. These enemies aren’t around too much, thankfully, and are instead used as mini-bosses to great effect. The fights against Light infused Hive make for some great moments, and do prove a pretty decent challenge even on standard difficulty.

The new additions to the enemies make a group of villains that have been in the game for years feel new and interesting. You can’t just fall back on old tactics that have worked forever, and will have to try new things on the fly in order to get through the challenges. The game manages to walk this fine line where it always feels like you’re having to push yourself, like you’re just strong enough to get through but never able to just breeze through everything. You may have to re-spawn in a few times to try a boss fight more than once, but I never felt completely stuck or under-powered.

As someone who has enjoyed Destiny, but has been away from it for a number of years, The Witch Queen was the perfect expansion to get me back into the game. It felt like playing a new game itself thanks to the size and scope of it all. The story was well written and well acted, and felt like it was doing big things for this universe. Whether you’re a long time player, a lapsed player, or coming to Destiny 2 completely fresh The Witch Queen expansion makes for a great experience.

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Caveat – DVD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Caveat is the latest movie from streaming service Shudder to make the leap over to DVD, allowing those who don’t have the horror themed network a chance to catch this strange movie.

The film follows Isaac (Jonathan French), a man who’s recently had an accident and seems to be struggling to get his life back together. When his friend, Moe (Ben Caplan) offers him a few days work for a decent amount of cash, Isaac jumps at the offer; especially as all it entails is looking after Moe’s niece Olga (Leila Sykes). Whilst Moe does explain that that house is remote, and that Olga is going through some mental health issues due to the death of her father and her mother going missing, he doesn’t mention that the house is on an isolated island, and that Isaac will have to wear a special vest with a chain attached that will limit where he can go in the house.

Despite these caveats to the deal Isaac agrees to stay with Olga. Due to Olga’s mental health issues, however, she spends a great deal of time uncommunicative, leaving Isaac to try and fill his time as best he can, searching through the old, rundown house. When strange things begin to happen, however, Isaac starts to question whether or not he might be safe here, and how he might be able to escape.

Even without the strange set-up, Caveat is a bit of an odd film, and there were times towards the beginning of the movie where I wasn’t sure what kind of film this was going to be. The idea of being taken out to a remote location that you can’t escape from and literally chained in place to stop you leaving sounds like a set-up for a film where Isaac is going to be chased through the halls by a frightening Saw-like killer. But when you start hearing strange whispers in the walls, and things begin to move on their own you start to wonder if perhaps there’s something a bit more supernatural going on here too.

Caveat seems to like to stay in this confusing middle-space, and it keeps you guessing for much of the movie. The characters make mention of some kind of accident that Isaac has suffered recently, and uses this sense of mystery to keep a lot of drama happening on screen, and the slow reveal of backstory makes for some of the better parts of the film.

This is the first feature length film from writer/director Damian Mc Carthy, and I would have struggled to have known that. I’ve seen a lot of first time movies over the years, and there’s often a level of quality to them that the films fail to meet. They’re not as creative with the camerawork, they don’t take many risks, and they look pretty average at best. Caveat, by comparison, is really nicely put together in places, and some of the long, creepy shots of the old, rundown house where the main action takes place really help to set the scene.

Whilst the location feels as much a character in the film thanks to the aforementioned work from the director, the core cast is quite small, with only three principal players involved in the drama. Jonathan French does a great job as Isaac, and really sells the idea that he’s kind of lost, drifting through the days. He manages to come across as pretty likeable, despite us knowing nothing about him, and you do start to root for him as things get more and more bizarre around him. Leila Sykes does a pretty good job in the role of Olga, and she manages to walk a fine line between being just a little strange and being quite disturbingly creepy, and you never really know how she’s going to go from scene to scene.

As well as the film, the new DVD release comes with some storyboards, and two full length commentary tracks. These two commentaries, one with the director and one with the producer, are definitely worth a listen to. there are no real behind the scenes extras or ‘making-of” features, so the commentaries are where viewers can learn more about the film. They’re pretty entertaining, and offer insight into how the film was made, and what it was like making a first feature film for many of the people involved in the production.

Caveat is a strange film, one that seems to blend together elements from a few different horror genres and tries to do something interesting with it. Whilst it’s not perfect by any means, it does do really well with what it has, and you can see the passion and skill of those involved coming to the fore.

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Cycles – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

University is a big time in a young person’s life. You’re having to leave home, probably for the first time, travelling to a new city, meeting new people, taking care of yourself without assistance, and all with the added pressure of trying to get through intense education that will land you in debt for decades to come. As such, it’s no surprise that a lot of people face some difficulties with this; and this is what Oscar Wenman Hyde’s new film is all about.

Cycles, a short hour long film made for a scant £1000, follows two brothers as they journey to an unnamed town to get set up for the first days of university. The Older Brother (Henry Wilson) is there to help the Younger Brother (Henry Fisk) drop his things off in his dorm room. The plan is for the two of them to deliver the luggage and head out to grab some lunch together, but pretty soon the two of them start talking about the pressures of university, the expectations put upon them by their mother, love, identity, and plans for the future in a hour long rambling argument between the two of them.

If that description of the film feels a little vague it’s really because not much happens in this movie. It’s pretty much just one continuous scene where we watch two young men talk about their lives in blank, grey-walled rooms. And this is probably intentional. I’m sure that writer/director Oscar Wenman-Hyde chose to have the location for this discussion be a completely blank room on purpose, to highlight the starkness of the change that the Younger Brother is facing, and to have the things that they’re talking about be the focus of your attention, rather than getting bored and looking through the background to pick interesting things out of the set dressing.

Mental health issues are incredibly important, and things that need to be acknowledged and spoken about more; in any type of demographic, but particularly for students. Whilst I didn’t attend university, I did work at one for a while, and I lost count of the number of stories I’d heard about students having breakdowns, or even taking their lives because of the mental stresses they go through. So on paper I was very much on board with a film that would discuss some of these issues.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure exactly what Cycles was trying to achieve. The Younger Brother brings up several different things that are bothering him. He feels that he has no say in his life anymore because of family pressure, he feels that the Older Brother has more of his life figured out, he questions if he really knows what he wants to do. These are some big topics, but the Younger Brother never really seems to get any kind of resolution to his issues, as the Older Brother seems to spend much of the film telling him off or pitying him. The two of them shift so often that one moment they can be shouting at each other, laughing and caring the next, and then storming out of the room in a rage after that.

I often felt a little lost trying to keep up with the constantly shifting discussion, and some of the writing didn’t help either. These are characters that are supposed to be 18 and 23, yet they never really sounded their ages. I don’t know the ages of the writers for the film, but I suspect that they’re older, or at least coming across as older due to having time to think about the words being written rather than being in the moment. The langue didn’t always feel natural, and it seemed like someone trying to write a clever sounding script rather than a believable one.

This also helped to highlight some of the weakness in the acting, as the two actors often seemed like they were reciting lines rather than living in the moment. Henry Wilson and Henry Fisk don’t seem like bad actors by any stretch, and there are moments in the film where they come across as very suited for the roles; but there are more than a few times where they felt forced, as if they were trying too hard.

My final criticism of the film is also something of a spoiler, but it’s heavily hinted at that the Younger Brother is gay, and that him still being closeted about that part of himself is causing him difficulties. The Older Brother is played as knowing his sibling is queer, but rather than being sympathetic about it it feels like he’s trying to force his brother to out himself at multiple points during the film. There are conversations where the Older Brother is practically yelling at the younger to admit who he is to himself, and it honestly felt really crass and borderline abusive.

Cycles felt like it was trying to impress, that it wanted to take the idea of a simple conversation being the focus of a short film and wanted to show off the quality of writing and acting without any additional flourish. Unfortunately, the film feels weak on both of these counts, and as such I struggled to find much to like about this movie. If you’re going through short, low budget movies trying to find promising new talent to keep an eye on it might be worth the rental cost, but be aware that you may be left feeling disappointed.

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The Legend of Vox Machina (Season One) – TV Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

If you’re someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons, or any other TTRPG, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve heard about the DnD live stream series Critical Role, which began life in 2015 on the Geek and Sundry network. Whilst there are hundreds of RPG streams to choose from today, with it seeming like every other home game trying to make it big in an ever increasing market, what immediately set Critical Role apart from competitors was that the cast were made up from professional voice actors.

The game, which originally started two years before the stream as a private one-shot that grew out of hand, consisted of Matthew Mercer as the DM and Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham as players. Thanks to their background in voice acting the game had a rich focus on character led narratives, with the players enjoying the personal drama and role-playing as much as the combat. When the stream went live it quickly gained a following, incorporating guest actors, and growing in size to the point where it became the number one Dungeons and Dragons stream in the world.

Thanks to the popularity of the show, the team announced plans to adapt their first campaign into an animated series, and invited their fans to help finance this via Kickstarter. Thanks to fan donations the series was fully funded, and picked up by Amazon Prime, who also financed an additional 14 episodes for a second season. So, after years of watching, after a long Kickstarter campaign, and a big wait, fans finally have the chance to see their heroes take to the screen in The Legend of Vox Machina.

The series picks up in a place long before the stream, where the heroes of Vox Machina are still nobodies. They begin drinking, getting in bar fights, and worrying about where their next pay-cheque will be coming from. Luckily for them, King Uriel (Khary Payton) has called for help from any adventurers that are willing to step forward. With little else to do, and running low on funds, Vox Machina agree to investigate mysterious attacks that have been plaguing small settlements.

This plot takes up the first two episodes of the series, and helps to introduce new viewers to the world and the characters. Each member of Vox Machina gets the chance to do something here, to prove themselves useful both in and out of battle, and you get a good sense of the basic personalities in play. It also helps to set the group up as the heroes that they will become, getting them allies within the rulers of the kingdom, and giving them their own home base. Those who are familiar with the stream will find some stuff to enjoy here, seeing the team in a way we’ve not had them before. Due to knowing what comes next there aren’t many huge surprises in the narrative, but as I watched this with new viewers I can say that it’s a pretty good primer for setting the stage for the real story.

This story is the ‘Briarwood Arc’, the first big story arc from the stream that tied into a character’s backstory; and for a lot of fans the story that really cemented Critical Role as an amazing show. Whilst attending a function at the capital the team come face to face with Delilah (Grey Griffin) and Silas (Matthew Mercer) Briarwood, the people responsible for the murder of Percy’s (Taliesin Jaffe) family and the occupation of his old home. During a confrontation with the  Briarwoods, Vox Machina discovers that they’ve not only put a spell on the king, but have connections to dark, necromantic forces. Together, the team sets out to return to Percy’s home of Whitestone, kill the Briarwoods, and save the kingdom.

The Briarwood Arc is the perfect choice for adaptation for the first season of the show. It has tons of drama, it gets incredibly dark, has some great action set-pieces, and starts to show that there’s some real depth to these characters. And most of this does translate pretty well. Percy is definitely the stand out character of the season thanks to this being his focus, but he doesn’t outshine any of the others, with everyone getting a big hero moment or two across the season.

This doesn’t mean that things are perfect, however. As a fan of the original stream I was surprised at some of the changes that have been made; some made absolute sense, but others I felt came across as weaker overall. The prime example of this being Scanlan (Sam Riegel). Scanlan is a little too ‘horny bard’ for my liking, and acts way more over-the-top than he did in the stream. He also has his big moment of bravery and combat genius changed slightly in the animated version, and it makes him look worse as a character because of it; turning the moment a lot of fans realised he was a lot cleverer than first appearing into a kind of silly thing.

Most of the changes the show has made do work for the better though, especially as it was adapting a story that originally took place over 58 hours into around six. Certain things had to be streamlined and trimmed, and some characters were altered to better suit a condensed story, and the majority of these choices worked well for me as an existing fan, and for the new fans I was watching with.

The Legend of Vox Machina is a show that was always going to be a hard thing to make, taking a completely different medium of storytelling and making something that still works, and appeals to all kinds of viewers. Considering these difficulties I think the team did a good job, and that the show was entertaining and well made. With a conclusion that hints at really big things to come, a second season already approved, and more than a thousand hours of stories to adapt, I think this could be the start of a pretty good thing.

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Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

When it was first released in 2010, Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake proved to be a big hit. Thanks to its survival horror sensibilities, mixed with inventive game-play mechanics, and a story and script that felt like a love letter to the horror stylings of Stephen King, it set itself out as different from other games in the genre where your aim was to mow down hordes of the undead.

What a lot of people didn’t like about the game, despite it being great, was the ending. Whilst the ending is good narratively, the fact that it sees the hero lost in a world of darkness and evil forces, promising to find a way home, left fans wanting more. Two years later we finally got more in the form of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare; a quasi sequel, although it’s place in canon could change with the upcoming Alan Wake 2, and the fact that the remastered version of the original game made no mention of it.

The plot of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is told a little differently than the original, taking place within the frame-work of an episode of Night Springs, the fictional television show that exists within the game as a Twilight Zone type show. The show’s narration explains that Alan is still trying to find his way home, but first must find and destroy his dark doppelganger, Mr Scratch, who appeared briefly in the original game. Mr Scratch, who is using the powers of the Dark Presence, is trying to destroy everything Alan loves, including his wife Alice.

Alan emerges from the darkness of the other world in a small town in Arizona, called Night Springs. Alan learns that two years have passed, and that the world believes him to be missing. The town around Alan soon descends into chaos as Mr Scratch summons hordes of Taken to fight Alan. Now players must try to find their way through the town, track down the information they need to defeat Mr Scratch, and break their way out of a time loop that sees them playing through events again and again trying to get them right.

Released onto Xbox Arcade, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare never really felt like a full sequel to the original, instead being an Alan Wake 1.5. Though the game was definitely bigger than your standard DLC add on, and sold as an individual game that didn’t require the first to play, it was also a lot smaller than the first. The story for the game, though interesting, isn’t nearly as long as the original, and the game-play does seem to be more of a focus this time around. The game only really has three environments, and thanks to the conceit of the looping timeline and needing to figure out how to get the perfect outcome to break free of it, it means that you’ll end up playing through the same areas multiple times.

Despite this, the game doesn’t really feel repetitive, and manages to keep your attention. This may be due to the fact that the developers seem to know that they’re making you play through the same areas multiple times, so they cut things out and streamline events for you on your second and third times round. It also helps a lot that this time around, the team seems to have had a shift of focus onto combat. Not only are there more enemies, and enemy types, than the original, but Alan himself is much better equipped. There’s a lot more ammo around, as well as new weapons like combat shotguns, machines guns, and as featured on the cover, nail guns. You’re not left dashing desperately for the next patch of light, hoping it will bring you safe haven and some much needed bullets; here you get to fight back, and it’s actually really satisfying.

In addition to the new story campaign the game also came with an Arcade Mode, which drops Alan into different arenas where you have to grab some weapons and fight your way to survival as wave after wave of enemies come at you. You get ten minutes to fight and survive the Taken, which doesn’t seem like that long. But once the enemies are running at you and the bullets are flying it does become a challenge. These missions were a lot of fun, and whilst they felt very different to the main game it made for a great extra to this short but sweet experience.

With the news that Alan Wake 2 is coming in just a few years (I’m hoping the strange compression of time that’s happening during the pandemic helps this come sooner) it isn’t clear if Alan Wake’s American Nightmare will still have a place in the series as an official sequel, or if it will be relegated to a side game that no longer counts. Either way, it will remain an entertaining addition to the Alan Wake universe, one that tried some different things and had a lot of fun along the way.

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The Five Queendoms: Scorpica by G.R. Macallister – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that’s perfect for fans of Robin Hobb and Circe.

'Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other—and new threats to each nation rise from within.

'Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter’s explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends—and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive.'

Fantasy is a genre that has, historically, been dictated by white European history and ideas. When people ask you to think about fantasy settings you’ll probably imagine works by people like Tolkien or George R.R. Martin, worlds where the majority of people are white, and the kings and heroes are almost always men. There are exceptions to this, there always have been, but so often men dominate fantasy; as such, it’s a real delight to see so many of these expectations and tropes turned on their heads for Scorpica, the first book in The Five Queendoms series. And straight away, from the title alone, it’s clear this is a book where women get the spotlight.

Scorpica begins its decades long narrative in the Five Queendoms, five nations that used to be one, but split generations ago. These five queendoms, The Bastion, Paxim, Sestia, Arca, and the titular Scorpica, still maintain connections between each other, and no one queendom can survive without the others. The story begins when the queens of these five nations come together in the Holy City in Sestia, where they will take part in a holy rite to bless the nations, and bring bountiful harvests. During the journey home from the ritual, Khara, the queen of Scorpica, is beset by bandits, and she and her guards stay at a small farm for the night. Here, Khara sleeps with the farm owner. Nine months later Khara gives birth to a daughter; one of the last girls to be born in the five queendoms.

Without warning, and with little fanfare, girls suddenly stop being born across the five queendoms, with only male children birthed instead. With men being second class citizens, unable to hold positions of political power, or even being allowed within the kingdom of Scorpica, this ‘Drought of Girls’ begins to pose serious problems for the five queendoms, and the uneasy peace they maintain. Over the next decade and a half, we follow several characters as they try to navigate this dangerous new world. Queens are overthrown, people are forced to go on the run, war is moving closer to becoming a reality, and something powerful from the ancient past of the five queendoms has awoken seeking vengeance.

The back of The Five Queendoms: Scorpica has a small quote on it calling it ‘a page-turning feminist Game of Thrones‘, and this isn’t too far from the truth. This isn’t a fantasy story about about a chosen one, or a group of brave heroes going on a quest; this is the story of nations, or the changes that they go through when something extraordinary begins to happen, and how people have to navigate this new world. And yes, the book would definitely be considered feminist too, as it is set in a matriarchy.

However, much of this new world does seem to simply be a gender swapped version of our own culture in a lot of ways. Women are in charge and men are subservient, but we never really go into any details about this. We don’t find out if this was always the way, we don’t get to find out why one gender came out on top, and we only get the mildest of teases that not everyone is happy with the gender inequality. These are all things that I wanted to know more about, and whilst the book was already quite long, I’d have enjoyed some extra time being given over to these topics, even if it meant the book being bigger in size.

Much like Martin’s work, The Five Queendoms: Scorpica is split across multiple viewpoints, as we follow a handful of important figures from across the five nations. These characters aren’t picked randomly, however, as they end up being some of the most important people alive at this time, even if at first they don’t appear to be anything more than an average person. The characters grow and evolve over the years that we follow them, and watching their journeys is definitely a highlight, as it’s interesting to see how they evolve over time. Because of the small jumps in time we get throughout the book there are times where I wanted to learn more about the gaps we didn’t get to see, especially when we got to follow one bandit group that were particularly great to spend time with, and who could have been the focus of a book themselves.

The Five Queendoms: Scorpica also has some good queer representation, more than a lot of big name fantasy books tend to give us. There are sapphic characters, as you’d expect to find in a world where there’s an entire kingdom where men aren’t allowed, as well as characters that have more broad approaches to their sexuality, being either bisexual or pansexual depending on how you would quantify such things. Whilst it was great to see such open queer representation, one part of the queer community who didn’t get a look in, and who wold have been interesting to see, were trans people. This ties in with my desire to learn more about the inner workings of this world, and learn more about this matriarchy, but I was very interested to see how trans people would fit into this society, especially with such a difference in how genders are treated. Fingers crossed this will be something that Macallister will explore more in further books.

The Five Queendoms: Scorpica is the start of a new, exciting fantasy series that’s trying to do something different, that’s going against accepted trends and conventions. It works as its own stand-alone story, but also sets the stage for bigger things to come with the rest of the series. Whether you’re looking for narrative where women get the chance to lead, or simply searching for a fantasy epic that will keep you entertained, this is a book well worth picking up.

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Black Cat: Discord, A Marvel Heroines Novel by Cath Lauria - Blog Tour & Interview

 

'Legendary super-thief Black Cat takes on some of Marvel's most renowned heroes and mob secrets in this electrifying heist novel from Marvel Heroines.

'Felicia Hardy always puts her own interests first, but the appearance of a mythical golden apple in New York has everybody with a hint of power scrambling for it. And who’s everyone’s number one choice to nab it for them? The Black Cat, of course. Yet that isn’t the only job on Felicia’s radar. When a smart-aleck kid turns up demanding her help, Felicia finds herself caught between the mob, her morals and some very insistent supervillains. It’ll take all nine lives to wriggle out of this one intact, but Felicia has more than one trick up her sleeve.'

One of the best things about the Marvel novels coming out of Aconyte Books is that characters that have often been in supporting roles are being given the spotlight. Characters that pop up from time to time in other people's books, or as part of a team, but never really get given the chance to headline their own title are being thrust into the spotlight; and the results have been fantastic.

The latest character to get this star treatment is Felicia Hardy, the anti-hero thief known as Black Cat. Often paired up with everyone's favourite wall-crawling hero Spider-Man, this time we follow Felicia as she discovers a strange series of events, bumps up against heroes out to save the day, and decides to help a girl find her missing father. 

The book begins with Felicia attending the Met Gala, an event filled with the rich and famous of New York City; and an event that gives Felicia the chance to scope out some stuff that might be worth stealing. Whilst scoping the place out she comes across a Golden Apple, one of a series of strange, magical artefacts that have begun appearing all round the world. These apples are able to grant the person possessing it anything they wish; and whilst you might first think this would be the perfect thing for someone like Felicia, she sees it and has to get out of there.

Unfortunately, thanks to having been near the Apple and having ran out of the Gala as fast as she did, people assume that she must have it, making her the target of the press and those who want the Apple for themselves. If that wasn't bad enough, that same night someone breaks into Felicia's home; a teenage girl named Casey who needs Black Cat's help to find her missing father. It turns out her father was in witness protection, but returned to New York to give evidence against the son of mob boss Silvermaine, until he went missing. Casey is sure that Felicia was the last person to see her father before he was kidnapped, and begs the thief to help her get him back.

Before this book my main experience with Black Cat came from the 90's Spider-Man animated series, where she appeared in more than twenty five episodes of the show. Other than that, I'd seen her in a few comics where she would appear for a few pages to help or annoy Spider-man. As such, this was my first real chance to spend some time with the character and really get to know her; and knowing what author Cath Lauria did with Elsa Bloodstone, I was super excited to see how she would tackle such an iconic character.

One of the things that I immediately liked about the book was that Lauria didn't have Black Cat going solo, instead giving her a small team in the form of her tech specialist Bruno, and explosive expert Boris. Having been used to seeing Black Cat working on her own in the past I thought that it was a great choice to give her this small team to work with. Yes, she might go out on jobs on her own, breaking her way into places and stealing things without someone there with her, but it absolutely makes sense that she would need someone helping her scope places out, making equipment, and being ready to drive the getaway van if things go wrong.

The addition of these two characters immediately made things feel a lot more realistic, and grounded some of the more fantastical elements in what people are used to seeing in heist movies and novels; a team of people coming together to pull of the perfect crimes. It also helped that both Boris and Bruno were an absolute delight in every scene they were in, often acting like bickering children that Felicia had to manage. It brought some fun energy into proceedings.

The best new character, however, has to be Casey, the fifteen-year-old kid with a massive chip on her shoulder and enough skills to make her dangerous. Casey is the kind of character that seems like she's designed to push Felicia's buttons. She's loud, arrogant, full of herself, and clever enough to not just get rid of right away. It's clear that Felicia sees a lot of herself in this kid, and understands her motivations and her drive; and that's a big part of why she agrees to help the girl.

Some of the best scenes in the book are the smaller moments where Felicia and Casey are interacting with each other, whether that be Felicia trying to teach Casey how to be a thief, or Casey acting like a teen around a woman with no time for kids. The two of them butt heads a lot, but the moments where you see them winning the other over are an absolute delight, and come the end of the book you really do believe that the two of them will genuinely miss each other, and that a real bond has formed between them.

These relationships give the reader a lot of insight into Felicia and how she ticks, and they played a big part in how I came away thinking of the character. But I felt like I also learnt a lot about her from the other costumes heroes that appear in the book too. There are a few times where Felicia's path crosses with some big name heroes, and it was interesting to see how they interacted with her, and how different characters would react to this woman who so often walked the line between reluctant hero and criminal. But it wasn't just how they reacted to her that told us a lot, but the way she saw them too.

Whilst her thinking of Toy Stark as something of a stuck-up dick isn't exactly new, the fact that she reveals to the reader that you can get on his good side by giving him a puzzle to solve showed that she had an insight into him that most don't. She also sees Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, as a loveable goof who's too kind to ever get mad. She thinks that Daredevil is a bit of an arrogant prick at times. And she can't help but love everything about Spider-Man, from his kindness to his heroic nature. She sheds new light on heroes that you think you've already got a good handle on thanks to her unique interactions with them; and this shows us just how different her experiences in this kind of world are to other costumed heroes.

The book isn't just filled with brilliant character interactions, however, as it also manages to pack in a good deal of action. There are moments when Black Cat has to go up against famous villains, engages in high speed car chases, and has to escape exploding buildings; which are kind of all in a days work for a character like this. despite managing to pack a lot of action into the book Lauria never lets it feel dull, and it's always varied and interesting whenever it happens. The best of the exciting bits might be the heists. There are a few moments in the book where Felicia, Cases, and the crew have to infiltrate a place, steal some info, and pull off a con; and these are a genuine delight.

With super hero stories so often focusing on big fights, world ending stakes, or interpersonal drama it was was lovely to see something different for once. Here we get our characters doing something that requires a whole different skill set, and means that it's not all about throwing punches or dodging bullets, but reading people right, bluffing the right thing, and formulating daring plans. I loved it each and every time the characters got the chance to do these things, even if it was just Casey proving she has what it takes by trying to break into Felicia's bedroom multiple times. I'd happily read an entire series of books that are just one heist after another with this group.

I came into Black Cat: Discord knowing very little about the character, and didn't know what to expect from her headlining a solo adventure. But not only was a hugely delighted by what I got, I think that it might be one of the best books that Aconyte and Marvel have done together. The book was filled with great character moments, exciting actions, and wonderfully delightful scenes that could only ever work for Black Cat. An absolute pleasure to read from start to finish.

I got the chance to sit down and have a chat with Cath Lauria, the author of Black Cat: Discord, to find out what it was like writing such a wonderful character, and what else might be on the horizon.

Were you a fan of Black Cat before writing the book, and if so how did you find yourself introduced to the character, and do you have any favourite stories or moments with them?

I didn’t know much about Black Cat before I started looking for someone to focus on this time around. I knew the sort of person I wanted to write, though, and quickly narrowed the list down to her and a few other notable badasses. Then I pitched the list, and Black Cat rose to the surface since 2022 is the 60th anniversary of the creation of Spider-Man, and she’s a big part of his universe.

This isn’t the first Marvel Heroines novel that you’ve written with Aconyte Books, having previously written for Elsa Bloodstone. Was it a challenge to come back and write for another character, or did you find that working on Elsa’s book helped with this one?

Elsa’s book was special because it was my first, and because she’s an archetype UF-style heroine, which I love. There was also a huge learning curve associated with her book though, since every editor/house has different requirements for what they want in a project. Having gotten a lot of the growing pains out of the way with Elsa, writing for Black Cat was quite a bit easier. And in my personal writing, I’m all over the place with my work, so switching from one perspective to the next wasn’t too mentally taxing for me.

One of the things that I really liked about Black Cat: Discord was that it wasn’t just Felicia running solo, but that she had a crew working with her. Was it difficult coming up with the right kind of characters to surround her with, and were there any ideas that you had for her team that didn’t make it into the book?

Her crew is amazing! I love them so much, omigosh. I’ve been collecting her comic run, and Boris and Bruno are just *chef’s kiss.* It’s one of the things I like about Felicia—that she’s not afraid to work with others, and in fact she welcomes it. It made for quite a difference from writing Elsa, for sure. Plus, the potential for cameos and crossovers is HUGE, as you note I took advantage of 😉

In this book Felicia takes on a more motherly, or big sister role to Casey. In your Elsa Bloodstone book there was also a big focus on female relationships. Is this a theme that appeals to you?

The female relationships in my own life are really important to me, and I like reflecting that in my writing. I enjoy writing women getting along, working together, and being friends without fighting over the same boy or the same job or being in constant competition. I also enjoy women beating the shit out of each other, but variety is what I’m going for here.

The book isn’t your average super hero story, and is more of a series of heists and cons than big world saving fights. Did you do any specific research for this, such as reading about con artists or famous thieves, in order to inspire you or to get certain details?

I did! Apart from reading up on Felicia and her mentor Black Fox, I also did quite a bit of research into famous museum heists and watched a lot of YouTube featuring pickpockets and street magicians. It all comes down to team work, which again—Felicia is so good at making that happen.

The book references a number of recent events that happened to Black Cat, such as her becoming a crime boss, and her helping to fight symbiotes. Was this information provided to you by Marvel, did they give you a big stack of comics to read, or was this stuff that you incorporated yourself from your own knowledge?

I wish Marvel gave me a bunch of comics! I had to do my own research, and while a lot of comics are digitized and fairly readily available, I just don’t have the resources to buy everything I want in the name of research, so I trawled a lot of Wikipedia too. Black Cat’s recent comic run was the best resource ever, though. The tone, the art, the sass—it set the stage for Discord, for sure.

One of the most recent additions to the Black Cat character was her coming out as bisexual last year. This is something that you included a couple of times in the book, and was actually the place I learnt of this. Was including this something that you knew you wanted to do?

I was so, so happy to find out that Black Cat was bisexual. That was my “I have to write her” moment. I absolutely knew I wanted to let that shine, because Felicia herself would never tuck it away and make it a tiny sidenote in her life’s story. I thought it was so well-developed in her comic book series, too, and I wanted to continue that.

The book features some appearances from other well known characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and the Fantastic Four (and I believe both Elsa and Mihaela make a cameo too). Which of these additional heroes and villains was your favourite to write?

I actually enjoyed writing Daredevil the most, probably. He and Felicia have a “romantic” history, plus they’ve got very strong but very adversarial personalities, plus…he’s just a snarky guy. I love snark. That said, I fought hard for cameos in this book—I mean, it’s set in New York City, where else could I cram so many superheroes into one story? Iron Man, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, all super fun—and yes, Elsa and Mihaela cameos! Mihaela would absolutely love to go to the Met Gala, and Elsa would begrudgingly oblige her. 

With two Marvel heroes under your belt now are there any characters that you’d like to write for in future books?

Too many! Every time I finish one book, a dozen ideas spring up for another! I’ve actually got a pitch in right now that would place one of the heroines I’ve already written in a strong supporting role, which would be AMAZING to write. Plus someone recommended I look into doing a League of Monsters book, and now my brain won’t shut up about it. I love it when readers tell me who they like and what they’re obsessed with, so find me on Twitter and let me know!

And finally, if people enjoyed this book is there anything that we can look forward to seeing from you in the future, and where can they check out your other books?

I’m on the verge of signing a contract to work with a new-to-me IP on a novel that…I can’t even explain it. There are all sorts of weird and wild and horrific and terrifying things going into it, and if I could do a better job talking about it I would because I’m SO EXCITED to write it, but I can’t give any real details away yet. It’s science fiction, I’ll throw that out there. I love writing science fiction, so I’m thrilled to get going on this one. And please check out my books on Aconyte’s website! I hope to add many more to the list!

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About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL