The Future is Now, and It’s Not Great. Hello, valued consumer. I see you are engaging in anxiety brought on by literally everything. Would you like a soothing cup of tea? Good. Because today we’re panning for five golden things: Let’s begin. Sci-Fi, AKA the Original Horrible Prophecy Machine I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, a book too close to prophecy to not be unsettling. There’s a lot this book made me think of, not least of which is that no one should ever call a robot Uncharles. Despite that, you should read Service Model. It’s charming, despite the doom. It’s funny, despite us all being dead. It’s prophetic, but the prophecy brings hope with it, and we all need some of that. Let’s begin. Science fiction has been a really good barometer of our future, and I’m not talking about flying cars or Read More …

Think LitRPG started with Ready Player One? Think again. Long before you could grind levels in a LitRPG novel, Dream Park and Guardians of the Flame showed us what it meant to truly play the game. Modern LitRPGs let you exploit the system, but these classics forced you to survive it. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series on LitRPG: its roots, how to write it, and why it keeps us hooked. Before LitRPG was a genre, books like Dream Park and Guardians of the Flame set the foundations for game-inspired storytelling. This is where it all began—long before stat sheets took over. Introduction LitRPG (short for Literary Role-Playing Game) is what happens when storytelling hooks up with game mechanics and produces a deeply nerdy lovechild. At its core, it’s about characters progressing through a structured game-like system, often complete with XP, stats, and level-ups. While it’s Read More …

Man, seventies fashion didn’t treat us kindly, did it? Fashion isn’t the only thing that’s best left in the seventies, but we’ll get to governmental foreign policy in just a moment. Argo is an absolutely superb movie based on the true story of one of the most sublime counterespionage events in history. Or, I guess, known history, because they’re going to save some good shit out the back. Historical Context We follow Ben Affleck’s Tony Mendez, a CIA exfil expert set on the mission of extracting six US Embassy workers during the Iran Hostage Crisis that kicked off November 4, 1979. It follows the real-life Canadian Caper, and on the morning of Sunday, January 27, 1980, the full eight-person party passed through passport control at the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, boarded a Swissair flight to Zürich, and escaped. The great prestige was that Mendez Read More …

Imagine being dropped into a world of danger with only your principles. Kate brings her code of ethics to a gunfight. Kate – The Action Heroine Hollywood Forgot We Needed There’s something to be said for an action film that doesn’t just throw a random actress into a catsuit and hope for the best. Kate, Netflix’s neon-soaked revenge thriller, does something rare. Kate gives us a female assassin who actually looks like she knows what she’s doing. Mary Elizabeth Winstead isn’t here to pose dramatically in leather and execute impractical spinning kicks. She fights like someone who’s… well, let’s have a look. [Montages are in the video ⬆️] Winstead knows her way around a gun because she’s made a career out of playing characters who shoot first and ask questions never. I first encountered her in 10 Cloverfield Lane, but where I remembered her Read More …

What do you get when you combine Marvel heroes, DC villains, and a fantasy world where stars literally fall? Stardust is a 2007 cinematic gem that took Neil Gaiman’s whimsical novel and turned it into pure magic. Featuring Claire Danes as a literal star, Charlie Cox as a lovesick hero, and Michelle Pfeiffer as the most fabulous witch in film history, it’s a feast of adventure, humour, and heart. Sure, it has some 2007 awkwardness (looking at you, Captain Shakespeare jokes), but its charm lingers like glitter. It’s a love letter to magic—and to the stories that surprise us. Read More …

In 2023, Barbie reminded us that a 64-year-old doll could be more than just fashion and pink plastic. Margot Robbie brings Barbie’s “girls-can-do-anything” energy to a pastel world with zero guns, Ryan Gosling delivers 110% pure Kenergy. Together they turn Barbieland into a clever critique of, well, everything. It’s a movie that says “eat a dick” to patriarchy with dance-offs instead of showdowns. Barbie’s charm isn’t just in the nostalgia; it’s the playful nudge to imagine a world with less grudge and more glitter. And honestly, who doesn’t need that? #GivePinkAChance Read More …