Culture Consumption: May 2025

Books

Their Kingdom Come is the final book in Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Night Eaters trilogy. In the face of an apocalypse accidentally unleashed by the twins, Milly and Billy, the world is roiling in the wake of surreal powers flooding the world. Facing off against Keon, a warlock who wishes to shape the chaos into his own reality, the Ting family gathers all their will and resources to save the world — and themselves.

It is so satisfying to see the story come together in this final volume. The story and art created by Liu and Takeda is wonderfully complex, weaving together a tale of family and love amidst immense horrors.

Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a modern retelling of the classic Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. The novel explores the life of young Demon who grows up orphaned in the American South, facing poverty, hunger, and drugs. The novel is beautifully written, providing a stunning humanity and illustrating the ways people, particularly children, in impoverished communities are failed by the systems and institutions that abandon them. It’s a heartrending, beautiful read.

Books Finished This Month:

1. The Night Eaters, Book 3: Their Kingdom Come by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

2. All Systems Red by Martha Wells

3. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

5. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

6. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Total Books for the Year: 20

Still in Progress:

Network Effect by Martha Wells, Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. and Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, edited by J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado.

Short Stories & Poetry

A selection of works I recently read in journals and online publications, with a few lines from the text shared here.

Poetry: “The Witch Recalls Her Craft” by Angel Leal (Uncanny Magazine):

Horror: "Grottmata" by Wendy Wagner (Nightmare Magazine):

Poetry: "Are You a Good Witch" by Marisca Pichette (Strange Horizons):

Poetry: “The Witches are Without Work” by Angela Liu (Strange Horizons):

Movies

Sinners is hands down one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. When the Smoke Stack twins return to Mississippi to set up a juke joint, a place where the local black community can come together, drink, and enjoy the blues, they get an unexpected surprise in the form of an ancient vampire longing for a touch of history — and willing to kill and turn everyone to get it.

While that description is the essentials of the plot, it in now way encompasses this film, which is rich in history, traditions, and incredible human depth. The filmmaking and cinematography is masterful, the acting is top notch, and the music — oh, the music — reaches right into your soul. Midway through the film is a one-shot set piece that is simply magic, showing the way music connects to the past and future in a sequence that is sure to be taught in film studies classes for decades to come.

I honestly need to return to the theater while I can, because this movie deserves to be seen on the big screen many times over.

New-to-Me Movies Watched Last Month:

1. Thunderbolts* (2025)

2. Sinners (2025)

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

4. Mary and The Witch’s Flower (2017)

Television

Based on the Murderbot Diaries, a series of six novellas and one novel by Martha Wells, Murderbot (Apple TV+) is the story of a socially awkward and chronically anxious and depressed security unit that just wants to be left alone to watch entertainment media (such a vibe). Instead, it has to spend its time preventing humans from doing things that are recklessly stupid and protecting them from dangerous fauna (and each other) on planetary missions.

The show is four episodes in, and I’m so in love with it. It perfectly captures the tone of the books, with Murderbot’s sardonic internal narration and excellent action sequences. My only complaint at this point is that the episodes are only about a half hour long, and I wish I had more to sink my teeth into each week as I wait for them to be released. (I put up a longer review at Once Upon the Weird.)

I finished up season two of The Last of Us, and maybe it’s just that I’m fresh off playing the games, but this season didn’t hit as hard for me. I still enjoyed it for the most part, especially episode six when we get into the flashbacks about how Joel and Ellie’s relationship got complicated by her being a teenager and his past lies (which were also some of my favorite moments in the game). I’m curious how they’ll handle the second half of the story from Abby’s perspective.

After binging several seasons of The Flash last month, along with several crossover storylines, I got curious about how often the narrative crossed over in Arrow (in terms of how often Flash or other non-present heroes are mentioned on the show). As a result, I ended up getting absorbed into the story and characters and watched roughly seasons two to four. Arrow is definitely a darker series, while still having a significant amount of humor — especially with the introduction of Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), who brings a bright, nerdy charm to the team.

I also watched a single episode of the new Black Mirror season. “Plaything” mostly takes place in an interview room, with two cops questioning an eccentric game designer, Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi), who is obsessed with a game in which he claims the digital community have become sentient. The thrust of the story centers on the question of why this game led him to murder — and what it means for humanity.

Games

Due to travel and other distractions, it was a slow gaming month, and I didn’t have a chance to get back to finishing the last few The Last of Us 2, which I’m excited to do. There were a couple of other smaller games that I finished, however.

Wayfinder is a lovely little game created by Matt DesLauriers to evoke respect for the beauty of nature. The player takes the form of a red-robed figure wandering through pastel landscapes in different seasons, with the sounds of wind, soft soft rustling leaves, and chirping birds providing an relaxing soundscape. Exploring allows the player to discover tokens that unlock words that come together to unfold small haiku-like poetry. It’s a short (five minutes or so), but soul-soothing experience — and since the visuals and poetry are procedurally assembled, the game is able to create a unique experience for each player.

As a side note, the game was produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which has a selection of interactive projects, some more game-like than others.

I downloaded Black Mirror: Thronglets (Night School Studios) after watching the Black Mirror episode “Plaything,” because I was curious about how the game would tie into the story. Essentially the player is in the role of Cameron Walker (the game designer in the show), who opens a game and ends up connecting with the tiny Thronglets and helping them to grow their community through increased computing power. But where Cameron approached the entire game experience and the Thronglets with compassion, the player is able to approach it these characters with indifference, abuse, or kindness — as they see fit.

The challenge is that there’s a narrative disconnect. In the show, Cameron is convinced almost immediately that these creatures are sentient, while here the player is fully aware that this is nothing more than a game with an imagined narrative about sentience. Starting out as a management sim, the game introduces interaction with the creatures, shows how to care for them and help them populate — but doesn’t quite create enough of a narrative connection to care and ensure their safety.

In fact, the game system almost seem set up to encourage abuse, or at least neglect. Properly caring for the Thronglets causes them to populate into expansive numbers, and as they populate, it becomes increasingly difficult to care for them properly. Setting up systems for them to care for themselves are never quite efficient enough, and if the player is not hand feeding, washing, and playing with each of hundreds of creatures (extremely tedious and note exactly fun as a game mechanic), then they start to die off and leave their corpses lying around. The cycle led me to thought processes like, Well, if they’re just going to die off anyway, then I might as well recycle their bodies to make more gems. 

As a result, I don’t think Thronglets as a game is able to ask the kind of interesting questions about sentience and life that are addressed in the “Playthings” episode. But I do think it was fun enough for the few hours that I played it.

That's it for me! What are you reading? Watching? Loving right now?