The Age of Lead (Due South)
Jun. 3rd, 2025 07:43 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
polyrecsdaily_feedThe Age of Lead (Due South):
The Age of Lead, by Nos. shrift: “This is the scariest place I’ve ever been, Fraser,” he told me one bright morning. “I feel like anything could happen here.”
Making Bombs For Hitler, by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Jun. 3rd, 2025 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachelmanija
A historical children's novel by a Ukrainian-Canadian author, based on Ukrainian teenagers and children forced into slavery during WWII. After watching her neighbors and finally her family getting dragged off by the Nazis, Lida, a Christian Ukrainian girl, is kidnapped along with her younger sister. They're immediately separated and Lida is sent to a horrendous work camp. She's skilled at sewing, which keeps her useful and so alive for a while. But then the Nazis need bombs more than uniforms...
This book is an impressive feat of walking the line between being honest and straightforward about how terrible conditions are while not being too overwhelming for children to read. Lida and the other girls endure and try to support each other. Lida gives a Jewish girl her crucifix necklace to help hide her identity, and an older girl advises Lida to lie about her age so she isn't killed immediately for being too young to work. The German seamstress Lida works with (an employee, not a prisoner) is occasionally casually kind to her, but also gets a gift of looted clothing from a probably murdered French woman, and gets Lida to meticulously remove the woman's stitched-in initials and re-sew them with her own. A Hungarian political prisoner, who gets better soup than the Ukrainians, advises Lida to say she's Polish, as that will improve her her food. Later, Lida muses, It seemed that just as there were different soups, there were different ways of being killed, depending on your nationality.
( Read more... )
The book is interesting as a depiction of an aspect of WWII that isn't written about much, a compelling read, and a moving story about some people trying to keep hope and caring - and rebellion - alive when others are being as bad as humans can get. It's part of a trio of books involving overlapping characters, but stands completely on its own.
The afterword says that Skrypuch based the book on her interviews with a survivor.
runpunkrunMiserable teenage lesbian makes bad dating (and life) choices while her best friend looks miserable about it: A Graphic Novel.
I didn't love all the bad choices and self-induced misery, but I did enjoy how effortlessly queer this is, and the ebb and flow of the friend group. I also loved how on target the fortune teller's advice was, but that Freddy was just too deep in her own bullshit to understand it. The greyscale art is modern and expressive, with a lot of movement and delightful pink highlights. A good read, and the ending improves on the beginning.
Also the cover is just so good.
Contains: infidelity; unplanned pregnancy; abortion.
I didn't love all the bad choices and self-induced misery, but I did enjoy how effortlessly queer this is, and the ebb and flow of the friend group. I also loved how on target the fortune teller's advice was, but that Freddy was just too deep in her own bullshit to understand it. The greyscale art is modern and expressive, with a lot of movement and delightful pink highlights. A good read, and the ending improves on the beginning.
Also the cover is just so good.
Contains: infidelity; unplanned pregnancy; abortion.
TV Talk: On the Sly
Jun. 3rd, 2025 09:23 amyourlibrarian posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tv_talk
Do you regularly watch any shows you wouldn't like to admit to other people? If so, no need to specify what the show(s) is, but what makes you reluctant to have that known? And if you don't, have you encountered this with anyone else?
Trailer Tuesday: Wes Anderson & Frankenstein
Jun. 3rd, 2025 01:30 pmfrockflicks_feedTwo new trailers dropped recently, and I thought that would make a tidy little twofer
Unbreakable Players (Sports Night)
Jun. 2nd, 2025 07:31 pmpolyrecsdaily_feedUnbreakable Players (Sports Night):
Unbreakable Players, by Punk. shrift: This story makes me smile. Cartoon characters, dust, and foosball. Delightful banter.
this team is so loaded with fire power*
Jun. 2nd, 2025 10:40 pmmusesfoolWork was nuts today, especially since I was out on Friday and some of my cow-orkers apparently just waited around for me to come back instead of sending an email themselves. Plus I had 2 committee meetings (unusual - we try not to do that unless we absolutely can't avoid it) but luckily 1 only lasted 15 minutes, so I was able to knock out the minutes in about a similar amount of time. *g*
Yesterday I roasted some ears of corn, and ate 2 for lunch and then scraped the other 3 into a big bowl and the added some crumbled up bacon, 2 pints of really beautiful grape tomatoes, some little pearls of fresh mozzarella, a sliced vidalia onion, and some salt and pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme, and dressed it all with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Delicious! I will make some orzo to add to it for lunch over the next couple of days and I am looking forward to it.
I also finally hit upon a good way to cook hotdogs without a grill - in the broiler. I don't eat them very often but a couple times during the summer I get a craving, so when they go on sale, I sometimes snag a pack and some soft, cheap buns to eat with them. Of course, since I have the palate of a 5-year-old, I still prefer ketchup on my hotdogs, but since I live alone, there's no one here to judge me. *g*
*The Dodgers, not the Mets. Sigh.
***
Yesterday I roasted some ears of corn, and ate 2 for lunch and then scraped the other 3 into a big bowl and the added some crumbled up bacon, 2 pints of really beautiful grape tomatoes, some little pearls of fresh mozzarella, a sliced vidalia onion, and some salt and pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme, and dressed it all with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Delicious! I will make some orzo to add to it for lunch over the next couple of days and I am looking forward to it.
I also finally hit upon a good way to cook hotdogs without a grill - in the broiler. I don't eat them very often but a couple times during the summer I get a craving, so when they go on sale, I sometimes snag a pack and some soft, cheap buns to eat with them. Of course, since I have the palate of a 5-year-old, I still prefer ketchup on my hotdogs, but since I live alone, there's no one here to judge me. *g*
*The Dodgers, not the Mets. Sigh.
***
Treats for Pinch Hitters
Jun. 2nd, 2025 06:46 pmlongficmod posting in fandom5kWe're grateful to all our pinch hitters! 5,000 words or 5 pages is a big commitment without any guarantee of a gift in return.
A number of people are writing pinch hits but didn’t sign up for the exchange, and we’d like to give them the opportunity to leave prompts for treats. Treats for pinch hitters go in the same location as treats for anyone else, in the main collection.
If you picked up a pinch hit, aren’t signed up for the exchange, and would appreciate treats, please leave your AO3 name in a comment here along with the fandoms you’re interested in. You can specify characters/relationships, fic or comics, genres, prompts, and DNWs--as much detail as you'd like. Linking to past letters is also fine.
A number of people are writing pinch hits but didn’t sign up for the exchange, and we’d like to give them the opportunity to leave prompts for treats. Treats for pinch hitters go in the same location as treats for anyone else, in the main collection.
If you picked up a pinch hit, aren’t signed up for the exchange, and would appreciate treats, please leave your AO3 name in a comment here along with the fandoms you’re interested in. You can specify characters/relationships, fic or comics, genres, prompts, and DNWs--as much detail as you'd like. Linking to past letters is also fine.
Generative AI ban wrt vids and podfic
Jun. 2nd, 2025 11:40 pmextrapenguin posting in space_swapFor vidders and podficcers here from elsewhere: Space Swap is a multimedia fanworks exchange for all fandoms related to space. We currently allow gift works to be fanfiction, fanart, podfic, fanvids, or interactive fiction.
This is also an event where works must be made by humans, not AI. Currently, the rules simply state that
I plan on adding a line that states that works must be produced by the person signing up. Additionally, I want to ban usage of any and all generative AI (so pressing "create vid" on a hypothetical VidGPT is not allowed, for instance). However, as "AI" is the new, trendy way of saying "computer program", and it's possible that e.g. someone's word processor has a spell checker that's built on AI for AI hype reasons, I don't think I can actually blanket ban AI with satisfactory results. Thus, my questions:
1) If I phrase the ban as "By participating, you guarantee that the works produced are made by you alone. Usage of generative AI (for instance, ChatGPT or DALL-E) is strictly prohibited", will people understand this?
2) Are there any other ethical issues related to AI in vidding/podficcing that you would like an official ruling on? I know vidding communities are discussing things like the ethics of AI-based scene extension; I would like to hear about any such discussions going on in the podfic community and also any community consensuses that might have been reached, in addition to discussion and debate.
This is also an event where works must be made by humans, not AI. Currently, the rules simply state that
"AI" works produced using a large language model (such as ChatGPT) or "art generators" (such as Midjourney) are prohibited.
I plan on adding a line that states that works must be produced by the person signing up. Additionally, I want to ban usage of any and all generative AI (so pressing "create vid" on a hypothetical VidGPT is not allowed, for instance). However, as "AI" is the new, trendy way of saying "computer program", and it's possible that e.g. someone's word processor has a spell checker that's built on AI for AI hype reasons, I don't think I can actually blanket ban AI with satisfactory results. Thus, my questions:
1) If I phrase the ban as "By participating, you guarantee that the works produced are made by you alone. Usage of generative AI (for instance, ChatGPT or DALL-E) is strictly prohibited", will people understand this?
2) Are there any other ethical issues related to AI in vidding/podficcing that you would like an official ruling on? I know vidding communities are discussing things like the ethics of AI-based scene extension; I would like to hear about any such discussions going on in the podfic community and also any community consensuses that might have been reached, in addition to discussion and debate.
MCM: Brian Cox
Jun. 2nd, 2025 01:30 pmfrockflicks_feedBrian Cox is getting all KINDS of praise for the TV show Succession, but he’s been
Of endings in many a universe
Jun. 2nd, 2025 10:16 amselenakThis in fannish and rl political matters was not a good past week, but what is anymore, one is tempted to ask. But it wasn't universally bleak, either.
Wheel of Time cancelled: a pity. I was only so so about it in the first season, grew to like it in the second, and was impressed by the third. Where it had felt like starting out on a generic fantasy pattern (heroes called to quest, evil dark overlords and minions wrecking the land), it had truly become its own unique thing. Yes, I could still read the books, but I osmosed that many of the things I liked best about the tv version are in fact different to the books (for example, unless I osmosed wrongly, Rand is the clear main character in the books, while if there is any lead on tv, it's Moraine, Liandrin is a simple Evil McEvil villainess in the book where in the tv version she has backstory and complicated feelings, and "more complicated" is true for other villains as well, Moraine's sister Alvaere (spelling?), wonderfully played by Lindsay Duncan, only exists as a name in the books and her relationship with Moraine not at all, and the books have only same sex subtext where the show has main text, etc.). I wanted to follow this specific version of the tale, and now I won't be able to.
(Also, I'm reminded of how annoying I always found back in the day and sometimes years later when B5 and DS9 were played out against each other; I loved both, and refused to play that game, and interaction with other fans was tricky if you wanted discussions of one only to to come across rants about the other. It's not that I love Rings of Power, but I do like it, and if it was difficult already to come across interesting meta, now there will be additional bile blaming it on a note of "why wasn't this cancelled instead".)
The Mouse channel put up Captain America: Brave New World on its streaming service. I hadn't bothered to see it in the cinema after getting only discouraging noises, and while sometimes I come across media loathed by most which I love or at least like, this wasn't the case here. It had some elements I liked, but simply wasn't very good. I do wonder whether Captain America: The Winter Soldier is for the MCU what Star Trek: Wrath of Khan was for decades for the ST franchise - to wit, the movie most of fandom adores and loves best and which subsequently gets imitated over and over to the detriment of the results because they don't succeed in creating something of equal value and the repeated tropes get less convincing the more they're repeated. In the MCU case, subsequent attempts to combine 70s style political thriller with the superhero formula included the dreadful Secret Invasion which everyone seems to silently agree never to have happened since it's been ignored by the rest of the franchise, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was decidedly mixed in quality and result (though definitely better than Secret Invasion). Some short observations why despite having good actors and some good ideas, Brave New World just didn't stick the landing (imo, as always) in its attempt to recreate Winter Soldier: ( are spoilery. )
Doctor Who ?.08: Reality War: Which felt at times like RTD throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks, at times like (great) trolling, and at times was surprisingly touching giving everything else. ( Spoilery comments await )
***
Peter David the writer died. Back in the 1990s, I loved reading most of his Star Trek novels, especially but by no means exclusively Imzadi and Q-Squared. (I haven't reread them in decades by now, and have no idea whether they would still hold up, but I remember the reading pleasure they gave me, and how they long before the internet provided me with online fanfic showed how a story can enhance and deepen characterisation as given by a tv show.) On the B5 side of things, he contributed two episodes, including Soul Mates in season 2, which is still one of my all time favourites, and in it he created who is definitely my favourite one episode only on Babylon 5 character, Timov. (His B5 books were more of a mixed affair, but this is not the place to repeat my problems with the Centauri trilogy and its (lack of) worldbuilding.) If a writer is able to gift you with characters that remain with you for the rest of your life, that is more than many of us will ever achieve, so, hail and farewell, Peter David.
Wheel of Time cancelled: a pity. I was only so so about it in the first season, grew to like it in the second, and was impressed by the third. Where it had felt like starting out on a generic fantasy pattern (heroes called to quest, evil dark overlords and minions wrecking the land), it had truly become its own unique thing. Yes, I could still read the books, but I osmosed that many of the things I liked best about the tv version are in fact different to the books (for example, unless I osmosed wrongly, Rand is the clear main character in the books, while if there is any lead on tv, it's Moraine, Liandrin is a simple Evil McEvil villainess in the book where in the tv version she has backstory and complicated feelings, and "more complicated" is true for other villains as well, Moraine's sister Alvaere (spelling?), wonderfully played by Lindsay Duncan, only exists as a name in the books and her relationship with Moraine not at all, and the books have only same sex subtext where the show has main text, etc.). I wanted to follow this specific version of the tale, and now I won't be able to.
(Also, I'm reminded of how annoying I always found back in the day and sometimes years later when B5 and DS9 were played out against each other; I loved both, and refused to play that game, and interaction with other fans was tricky if you wanted discussions of one only to to come across rants about the other. It's not that I love Rings of Power, but I do like it, and if it was difficult already to come across interesting meta, now there will be additional bile blaming it on a note of "why wasn't this cancelled instead".)
The Mouse channel put up Captain America: Brave New World on its streaming service. I hadn't bothered to see it in the cinema after getting only discouraging noises, and while sometimes I come across media loathed by most which I love or at least like, this wasn't the case here. It had some elements I liked, but simply wasn't very good. I do wonder whether Captain America: The Winter Soldier is for the MCU what Star Trek: Wrath of Khan was for decades for the ST franchise - to wit, the movie most of fandom adores and loves best and which subsequently gets imitated over and over to the detriment of the results because they don't succeed in creating something of equal value and the repeated tropes get less convincing the more they're repeated. In the MCU case, subsequent attempts to combine 70s style political thriller with the superhero formula included the dreadful Secret Invasion which everyone seems to silently agree never to have happened since it's been ignored by the rest of the franchise, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was decidedly mixed in quality and result (though definitely better than Secret Invasion). Some short observations why despite having good actors and some good ideas, Brave New World just didn't stick the landing (imo, as always) in its attempt to recreate Winter Soldier: ( are spoilery. )
Doctor Who ?.08: Reality War: Which felt at times like RTD throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks, at times like (great) trolling, and at times was surprisingly touching giving everything else. ( Spoilery comments await )
***
Peter David the writer died. Back in the 1990s, I loved reading most of his Star Trek novels, especially but by no means exclusively Imzadi and Q-Squared. (I haven't reread them in decades by now, and have no idea whether they would still hold up, but I remember the reading pleasure they gave me, and how they long before the internet provided me with online fanfic showed how a story can enhance and deepen characterisation as given by a tv show.) On the B5 side of things, he contributed two episodes, including Soul Mates in season 2, which is still one of my all time favourites, and in it he created who is definitely my favourite one episode only on Babylon 5 character, Timov. (His B5 books were more of a mixed affair, but this is not the place to repeat my problems with the Centauri trilogy and its (lack of) worldbuilding.) If a writer is able to gift you with characters that remain with you for the rest of your life, that is more than many of us will ever achieve, so, hail and farewell, Peter David.
empirical (The Avengers)
Jun. 1st, 2025 07:20 pmpolyrecsdaily_feedempirical (The Avengers):
empirical, by Siria. shrift: It’s a perfect snippet of Tony and Jarvis.
In Other Waters (2020)
Jun. 1st, 2025 09:57 ampauraqueHappy Pride! This month I'm going to be reviewing games and books by trans and nonbinary creators.
First up is In Other Waters, a sci-fi exploration game by Gareth Damien Martin (they/them). You play as an AI who's been abandoned on an ocean planet and doesn't remember why. You're reactivated by Dr. Ellery Vas, an exobiologist who came here searching for her missing partner and colleague Minae. The planet is teeming with alien life, but all the human research bases are deserted. Together you explore the sea, collecting data on the alien ecosystem and piecing together what really happened here.
I would recommend this game if you like:
- Ocean exploration
- Detailed speculative xenobiology
- Queer characters
- Thoughtful interactive fiction
( It's kind of like if Subnautica were a text adventure. )
In Other Waters is available for PC and Mac on Steam and GOG for $14.99 USD. There's also a Switch port, but I'd be hesitant about that; I found navigating the UI very awkward with a controller and switched to the mouse right away when playing on PC.
First up is In Other Waters, a sci-fi exploration game by Gareth Damien Martin (they/them). You play as an AI who's been abandoned on an ocean planet and doesn't remember why. You're reactivated by Dr. Ellery Vas, an exobiologist who came here searching for her missing partner and colleague Minae. The planet is teeming with alien life, but all the human research bases are deserted. Together you explore the sea, collecting data on the alien ecosystem and piecing together what really happened here.
I would recommend this game if you like:
- Ocean exploration
- Detailed speculative xenobiology
- Queer characters
- Thoughtful interactive fiction
( It's kind of like if Subnautica were a text adventure. )
In Other Waters is available for PC and Mac on Steam and GOG for $14.99 USD. There's also a Switch port, but I'd be hesitant about that; I found navigating the UI very awkward with a controller and switched to the mouse right away when playing on PC.
K-Drama Update #15: June Releases
Jun. 1st, 2025 02:30 pmfeurioo posting in tv_talkSquid Game: Season 3 | Release: June 27
A failed rebellion, the death of a friend, and a secret betrayal. Picking up in the aftermath, the final season finds Gi Hun, Player 456, at his lowest point yet. But the Squid Game stops for no one, so Gi Hun will be forced to make some important choices in the face of overwhelming despair as he and the surviving players are thrust into deadlier games that test everyone’s resolve. Will Gi Hun make the right decisions, or will Frontman finally break his spirit?
( Click for more K-dramas! )
Interrogative (NCIS)
May. 31st, 2025 07:17 pmpolyrecsdaily_feedInterrogative (NCIS):
Interrogative, by The Hoyden. shrift: I love this story and all its details, but I especially love this line: Tony can take a hint, which is fortunate because Gibbs would apparently rather get divorced three times than talk.