Bone Verse

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Kat Watches Things

The Dune: Part One - Rewatch. Hopefully I'll get to the second part one day. Anyway. Still extremely watchable. Still fills me with yearning for a Paul Atreides/Duncan Idaho fic with a very specific dynamic that I haven't really found yet in the existing fics. 

The Art Detectives, Series 1 - DI Palmer works for Heritage Crime, tries to woo a museum curator and has an art forger for a father. He recruits a DC Malik to help him crack all manner of heritage related crimes. Which, because this is fiction, includes not a single case of metal theft from church roofs which is what keeps the real heritage crime unit busy. Also, they would never investigate murders no matter how many old paintings were involved in the plot. Anyway, reality aside, this was perfect comfort watching, not particularly emotionally taxing. I liked the episode in Belfast best, about Titanic memorabilia, probably because I've been there to the Titanic museum and it was nice to see the vibes. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 1-3 - ITV only had the first series but I abused H's Amazon account to get the next two. And enjoyed this a whole lot! And also, now I need to see Disco again. Anyway, post the events of that shit storm, Captain Pike, Spock and Number One carry on seeking new life and new civilisations. ( this got spoilery ) 


Kat Reads Books

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer - One of the reviews for the book called it 'brilliant and deeply strange' and I would sign that whole heartedly. It's difficult to describe the story. Is it a novel about dystopian future where environmental disaster, rampant biotechnology and unchecked capitalism have resulted in a collapse of all world order? Yes. Is it a tale of urban sci-fantasy with monsters and maybe-alien, maybe-other dimensional being. Also yes. Is this a deeply human story about what it actually means to be a person even if you're not human, and the fluidity of memory and identity and finding meaning in making connections despite it all? Definitely that. Is it body-horror about the unspeakable, visceral cost of survival in an environment where everything and everyone can and will hurt you, consume you, kill you for food, for salvage, for territory, for mindless aggression, or because that's what they were designed to do? Fuck yes. But also, it's a story about a woman who finds a strange creature and brings them home, raises them up, or tries to; a woman who remembers a different world but fights for her current one, her home, her lover, her survival. If you like strange, world building that does very little explaining and expects the reader to cope with that, dystopian struggle for survival and, somehow, a hopeful ending despite everything, this is a book for you.

Skein Island by Aliya Whiteley - Marianne receives an invite to Skein Island, a women-only retreat where her mother went many years ago and then never returned home afterwards. Once there, it's quickly apparent that the island guards a deadly secret, kept placid with the stories the women share. The book winds Greek mythology and archetypes, gender roles and relationships, and the power of stories, especially the small, mundane ones. This is an interesting story but also pretty caught up in gender essentialism given its core premise. There's a later short-story at the end that has a blink and you miss it hint about the protagonist being trans, so I got the impression the author themselves started thinking about the premise beyond the binary. 

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