Favorite Things January/February/March: Orcish Baristas, Action Epics, and Creatures of the Deep

2023 has really gotten away from me. Somehow we’re in mid-April? Here are some things I’ve enjoyed so far this year.

MOVIES

RRR
RRR is an over-the-top action epic that takes real-life figures from India’s fight for independence from the British and turns them into mythological heroes. Watching this movie feels like hearing a heavily embellished story second-hand from someone prone to exaggeration; there is no interest in realism, period-specific costumes, or the law of gravity. Instead you get huge dance numbers, absolutely bananas action scenes that revel in ridiculousness, comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and one of the handsomest men I have ever seen. I really enjoyed going into this one without knowing what to expect (there are some good twists) so I’ll leave it at that. RRR is 3 hours long and I’ve heard the version on Netflix is a less-than-stellar English dub, but if you have a chance to see this one, especially in a theater, I highly recommend it.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is exactly what it needs to be: silly, comfortingly predictable, and full of beautiful, charismatic people going on a quest. Sometimes that’s all you want. There are plenty of D&D in-jokes (having characters fail their actions was a particular highlight) but the story of a group of thieves working together to do a heist/save a daughter is broad enough that I think you can enjoy it without being a nerd. But speaking of nerds, one of the main characters looked exactly like the ranger I played in a long-running D&D campaign and this brought me much joy.

John Wick 4
This one’s a bit hit and miss for me but still worth recommending. Like the previous three Wick outings, John Wick 4 is an ultra violent gun-fu spectacle mixing gorgeously filmed action set pieces and cinematography with a surreal, ever-expanding criminal underworld mythology. At this point in story, Mr. Wick is hiding from the heaps of enemies he made in the previous three films and has to shoot his way across multiple countries and through the streets of Paris to get to a church for a big duel. This set-up leads to all sorts of bananas action scenes (and The Warriors references), with fights in the middle of moving traffic, glass-filled display rooms, and up a comically endless flight of stairs. The choreography and kinetic action in these parts is where the movie shines. The problem was, for me anyway, that my suspension of disbelief was stretched extremely thin by the end; John survives falling off of so many balconies and getting hit by so many cars and many of these big action scenes take place in bustling public places where no one seems to notice. Since it’s all played very seriously, I had a harder time buying into the absurdity. Plus there’s an irritating “guy in a fat suit for comedy” bit. But if you’re not bothered by those sorts of issues or at least able to overlook them for the overall spectacle of John Wick 4, I think there is plenty to like.

Honorable Mention: Renfield
Renfield is a fun but not super memorable horror comedy about Dracula’s beleaguered servant, but it’s absolutely worth watching for Nick Cage eating allllll of the scenery as the campy Count.

BOOKS

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
A beautifully illustrated, deeply personal graphic memoir, Ducks chronicles Kate Beaton’s time working in the Canadian oil sands. It reads like a diary, mixing day-to-day observations of how things work in a remote oil refinery, illustrations of the joys and traumas Beaton experienced there, and a bigger-picture examination of an industry that is so dangerous and problematic and also the only job available to a lot of people.

Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
One of two spooky ghosty books I read recently, Heart, Haunt, Havoc follows an exorcist who goes to a haunted house to help the owner clear out a frankly alarming number of spirits. It’s a quick read so not a ton of time for deep character development, but I quite liked the protagonists-with-dark-pasts (who are trans and non-binary), the atmosphere, and the different take on magic and ghosts.

Liar City by Allie Therin
I love Allie Therin’s 1920s Magic in Manhattan books and was very excited to see her venture into a more modern setting with Liar City. The story takes place in an alternate Seattle where there is a sharp divide between the general public and a very small minority of empaths, people who can sense emotions through touch. The government has already imposed a large number of restrictions on empath’s lives and right when a new bill further stripping their rights is on the table, the senator spearheading the effort is murdered. Empath Reece gets a strange call that brings him to the crime scene and soon learns that a shadowy government agent called The Dead Man is also on the case. Everyone’s motives and allegiances are murky, so when The Dead Man requests that Reece come with him to help investigate the murder, it’s hard to tell if the empath is a partner or a suspect. A friendship/romance does eventually begin to develop between the two, but Liar City is the first installment in a slow burn multi-book series, so I imagine that’s going to be simmering and unrequited for a while longer. I struggled a bit staying invested in the story early on due to some pacing issues and it was kind of hard to get a read on the main characters, especially since The Dead Man’s whole deal is an extreme lack of emotion, but overall I liked Liar City and am excited for more of the story.

Rattling Bone by Jordan L Hawk
When Jordan Hawk released The Forgotten Dead, the first book in this series, I was not at all ready for how dang spooky it would be. Luckily I was more prepared for Rattling Bone, which follows YouTube ghost hunter and actual spirit medium Oscar and his boyfriend Nigel, the nerdy parapsychologist, as they return to Oscar’s home town and find themselves investigating a ghostly family mystery at an abandoned distillery. Hawk writes the most bingeable, instantly gripping stories and I can’t wait for Oscar and Nigel’s next ghost adventure.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
I think the best way to describe Legends & Lattes would be “cozy fantasy”. I’ve read a few cozy mysteries, but this story of an orcish warrior retiring from adventuring to start her own coffee shop was different from my usual book choices. The conflicts are minor and most of the story is just friendly vibes, comforting camaraderie, and a sweet romance. It was really nice. Plus, having a bunch of fantasy characters working together to brew lattes and bake cinnamon rolls reminded me fondly of playing D&D with my friends.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
Another great period romance from KJ Charles about misguided gentry orphans falling in love with rakish handsome criminals. Charles has cornered this brand and I devour every new book she writes. This time around the orphan is Gareth, who has inherited a title and a manor house from the father who abandoned him as a child, and the rakish criminal is Joss Doomsday, the head of a notorious and successful family of smugglers. Lovers to enemies to friends to lovers ensues.

GAMES

Dredge
Dredge is part fishing game, part adventure story, part Eldritch horror, and all these parts work really well together. I loved this game. The dread of “dark creatures of the deep” works so well in a game where you have to guide a small boat across the vast open ocean, catching increasingly strange fish and running errands for various unsettling townspeople.

ART

As usual, I spent the first few months of the year in a seasonal slump not accomplishing much. But, looking back I actually made more art than I remembered.