Stuff

I want to tell you all about it, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil anything because everything I read sparked so much joy I’d hate to deprive you of that. So I’ll do my best to say as much as I can.

I first learned about The Night And It’s Moon when I stumbled upon a TikTok that the author, Piper CJ, made rating the reactions of her family when she came out to them in preparation of her book that would have the occasional non-heterosexual sex scene or two.

I don’t know about you, but I was immediately drawn in. I had to know everything I could about this fantasy book that caused a conservative family to want to disown someone. I was also in a point in my life where I was growing bored of all the books written by cis het white men. I dove down the rabbit hole.

I was hooked. I immediately pre-ordered TNAIM as soon as it was available and devoured it when it got in my hands.

Again, this is a spoiler free post, so please continue reading on about my favorite non-spoilery things about TNAIM.

First off, it has two things that every fantasy book should be required to have:

A map!!!

And a pronunciation guide!

Seriously, these are invaluable parts of a book that contains a hustling and bustling world inside.

Another terrific piece that gives you a unique insight to the author and her thought process is the dedication:

I was reminded of Lord of the Rings when I read TNAIM. It’s the feeling that you’re following a small story in a huge setting, and the story steadily gets bigger and bigger. The thing that puts TNAIM above LotR (wut??) is that queer people are front and center. Explicitly.

The book ends in a satisfying way, but also ensures that you want the next book as soon as possible to find out what the heck happens to everyone. So much crazy stuff happens. Several parties are split! How are they going to find each other again!? Which leads to my next book recommendation!

The Sun And Its Shade! (Also by Piper CJ! Coincidence?? I think not.)

I dare to say that TSAIS is even better than TNAIM. I’m assuming because TNAIM has to set up the world while TSAIS gets to go at full speed as soon as the book starts. We pick up pretty much right where the previous book left off, and zero time is wasted. Several burning questions were left unanswered in the previous book and thank goodness most if not all are answered here. But what drives the plot if not the quest for answers???? Rage. You will read out of rage. This is my reaction to finishing the book:

I already have a list that is two characters long whose deaths I am impatiently waiting for. Long, painful, slow deaths. And one of the book’s main antagonists isn’t on the list!!! (In an objective sense I want this antagonist to be murderized, but not on an emotional level like my main two.)

There you have it. A perfectly written, spoiler-free manifesto about why you should read these books, and then be all ready for The Gloom Between Stars in a couple months!

(Pictured: Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr)

If you’re looking for a new Christmas romcom, this is a pretty good choice. I loved Aimee Garcia on Lucifer, and it’s good to see that she can still bring the charm wherever she is. I never saw very much of Freddie Prinze Jr’s most notable work (pretty much I’ve seen him in the two I Know What You Did Last Summer movies and the one time he appeared on Psych) but it’s clear why he was so successful in his early career. He is ridiculously likable in this.

This is a very by-the-numbers romcom. No big surprises. No big twists. But that’s perfectly fine.

Another positive: There are barely any white people in this movie. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air. Also, I had no idea Freddie Prinze Jr wasn’t white (he can white-pass for sure sometimes) but has Puerto Rican heritage. Cue my wife: “You thought someone with the last name Prinze was white?” In my defense, up until now I thought his last name was Prince 😄. Ignoring that, I was not aware that Prinze was a Puerto Rican name.

So we watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer! We start at the beginning and go all the way to the end at Season 7, and then we start it over again. It works quite well for us.

I bring this up because yesterday we watched Season 5 Episode 15: I Was Made To Love You. Great episode. Introduced Warren as a character (hate that guy so much!!) and it’s a fun romp where a robot woman wanders around searching for her boyfriend/creator and causes mayhem wherever she goes. (See image 1 for Robot April 30 seconds before she throws Spike through a window.) Solid episode. Then you get to the last couple minutes. (See image 2.) Buffy arrives home, looking upstairs not seeing her mother dead on the couch behind her. The episode ends with Buffy asking her mom if she’s ok.

Which means that now we have to get through Season 7 Episode 16: The Body. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a **really** good episode. It’s just no fun whatsoever. The entire episode is a brutal examination of all the characters grieving for the show’s arguably nicest person. It’s visceral and painful. My wife and I dread this episode in every watch cycle. Sometimes we’ll delay watching it. One time we switched shows and watched the entirety of Psych before going back and finishing The Body. But we’ve never skipped it, because that would be worse. You can’t ignore death and everything that comes with it.

Just finished reading: The Tempered Steel Of Antiquity Grey

Pretty good book (with an exception I’ll get to later). It’s set in the FUTURE where Earth is now Erth! And it’s been a couple generations since Erth has lost its independence to the space government. A space government of humans. No aliens in this book. At some point in the past humanity went to the stars! And then at some point formed a fascist collective! And came back to Earth-no wait, Erth and said “Hey! Titanium is kinda the important thing nowadays, give us your titanium.” And Erth said “No thank you!” And then Erth built a bunch of mechs to fight, and then they lost. And then the space fascists plundered Erth as much as they could. And they said “No mechs allowed! Except for our mech!”

The book starts pretty much with Antiquity finding a mech in the desert which gets the ball rolling. Overall, a pretty entertaining book. I do have a criticism (maybe?) of a certain aspect of the story. There’s a religion that some people follow which is split into Arabi and Persai. One of these groups is slightly more peaceful while the other is more violent. The members usually wear robes and face-scarves. Aka fantasy/sci-fi Islam. It made me feel weird to read about a pretty direct analogy of an actual religion, one who’s people are frequently the target of misinformation and bigotry of white people. I don’t know if this was an accurate or sensitive representation of the actual beliefs of Islam. I would have rather the author would have made up a completely new religion for his future mech book. There’s no mention of a sensitivity expert having reviewed the book before publication. So I don’t know how to feel about this part of the book. I don’t know enough to know if this was a good use of people’s beliefs and culture, or if it was kind of insulting. I honestly don’t know. I’m leaning towards the latter.

Currently listening to: Action Boyz: Dirty Harry

This episode is a great example of why I love this podcast. It’s a great overview of a movie that I’ll probably never see, but at least this way I can see how stuff like this fits in the cultural zeitgeist.