False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg. While I appreciated his book, Cool It, the dates and examples in Cool It were old enough that I wondered if there was newer information. The answer is False Alarm. This more recent book continues Lomborg’s theme of how Global Warming is definitely a man-made problem and definitely real but hardly the apocalyptic threat being screamed about. He goes into a list of better, less expensive methods of cooling the planet, as well as a list of other world issues that are well within our grasp to solve, cheaper to address, and have massive returns on investment in terms of lives saved and quality of life improvements. He is one of the rational hopefuls pinning his bets on human ingenuity to adapt and solve world crises, and reading his work gives me a measure of hope about the future.
Demon: A Memoir by Tosca Lee. Re-read of a novel on my shelf. This one is difficult to read without getting the crawlies under my skin. This novel follows a editor/novelist who is approached by a demon who wants the novelist to write his experiences into a memoir. The demon shows up as a different person each time and recounts everything from the paradise before Eden through the fall, onto Jesus’ time on Earth, and now. That story twines with the novelist’s own musings on his life. Emotionally gripping and lush with description, this is definitely a keeper.
The Face of God by Bill Myers. The story follows a split perspective of a pastor and a terrorist, each seeking the twelve stones for the breastplate of the Levitical high priest and the Urim and Thummim stones used to hear the voice of God. As the pastor’s heart changes and softens through the story, the terrorist steels his resolve. In the end, both get to hear the voice and see the face of God, with very different results. It’s been a long time since I read this and I don’t get the same feelings I used to when reading it, but the imagery is still striking and the story is a good one.
Soul Tracker and The Presence by Bill Myers. A set of two novels, the first one delving heavily into what life after death may look like and the second detailing what effect the presence of God may have on people and how they look here and now. Both are fascinating ideas and these used to be favorites of mine. I still think the imagery is incredible, though I didn’t get the same fulfillment that I used to when reading them this time around.
Simply Lies by David Baldacci. The Introvert Book Club comes through again. This was an interesting read, but probably a one-time go-through. A thriller about a top-level con-artist who ropes an ex-detective single mother into finding the modern equivalent of buried treasure; in this case, a massive chunk of old mob money hidden by an accountant who defected. I enjoyed how the narrative split between the perspectives of both characters, but I feel like it was a bit mistitled, as lies were not really the main focus of this treasure-hunt story.
Immanuel's Veins by Ted Dekker. I still remember reading this when it came out, and being shocked when I got halfway through and realized it was a vampire novel. A Christian vampire novel. I still don't know how Dekker got away with that, but I have to assume it's because everything he wrote sold like hotcakes. I lean more toward slow-burn relationships, however for a love-at-first-sight tale, it's certainly engaging from beginning to end.
Star Trek Voyager: Old Wounds and also Enemy Of My Enemy by Christie Golden. This pair of books picks up directly after Homecoming and The Farther Shore, also by the same author. As much as I liked those first two, these two follow ups were intensely disappointing. Massive amounts of build-up leading to anti-climactic payoffs that make no sense. People are yanked around the board because... we want to have them there at the scene? One of two villains whiplashes into broken regret so fast at the end I needed a neck massage after reading that scene (he should have had an entire book to himself just to get there!). Also, whoever her editor was, that person let a LOT of mistakes through. I feel like the editor she got for these two didn't care much. If you like Star Trek: Voyager, Homecoming and The Farther Shore were well-written follow-ups, but don't pick up Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy.
Movies
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. One of those fun romps to watch. This is definitely a movie I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who doesn't understand how D&D works, because there are so many moments in this movie where you turn to the person next to you and laugh, “That is SUCH a D&D thing. Somebody rolled a 1.” But guys, they actually did a good job. Surprising, eh wot?
Shows
Star Trek: Picard. I do not regret seeing this series. Visually, it is absolutely everything I ever wanted to see out of Star Trek tech. I’m very glad I didn’t watch it until I’d seen Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the Star Trek movie Nemesis, because the full emotional impact of this series only hit me because I saw all of these first. Yes, that is a warning and a recommendation, Picard is HEAVILY dependent on your knowledge of lore from these titles. Now, the first two seasons have very interesting premises that, to be frank, tend to fall apart into confusion at the half or two-thirds mark. They also tend to snipe heavily about current hot topics, which is a general media thing that bugs me. HOWEVER THE THIRD SEASON WAS GLORIOUS. Well worth waiting for, and had some genuinely deep things to say, and it managed to do so with subtlety and panache. THIS was a return to Star Trek and THIS was where the show most earned its title, returning Picard to the role of hero-making-impossible-decisions. Well. Done.
March Comes Like a Lion. This is an anime that is soothing to the soul. It presents the slow thaw of a gentle character who has been out in the cold too long, a prodigy professional shogi player who develops his game and his personality the more he comes in contact with three loving sisters in the neighborhood. You don't have to know anything about shogi to understand exactly what's going on in these games, and it's amazing how well the animation conveys the sort of battles going on for each character both on the board and off it. This is possibly my favorite anime of all time, certainly good enough that I'm breaking with tradition and tracking down the Manga to see if there's more to the story.
Games
Caligo. It’s a very short walking simulator that makes no sense story-wise. The visuals are gorgeous and surreal and interesting to look at, but the walking speed drove me crazy and the dialogue makes very little sense to me. I picked this up very early in my gaming interests and never tried it until now, but by now I know that this is not the sort of game I’d ever pick up.
There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension. This is one of those meta-games that invites you to deconstruct it in inventive ways in order to proceed, which I find to be fun, however it suffers from something I’ve noticed with such games (having played a couple and noticing a pattern). It tends to harp really hard and long on abusing the user. That’s funny for a while, but if not handled carefully, it gets repetitive. Irony is funny for a while, but if you’re not master-level at it, it grates after the first hour. That being said, I still had fun with this game and enjoyed some of the tropes they poked fun at.
The Silent Age. Fairly short puzzle game centered on time travel and its disastrous consequences. I’ve played a few puzzle games that were overly complicated and I don’t like those very much, but this had puzzles of a reasonable difficulty and I was able to figure them all out without checking online for the answers. Enjoyable for a one-time playthrough.
Batman: The Enemy Within (Telltale Games). I seem to have a penchant for picking things up out of order by accident. This is, apparently, the SECOND game in this Batman thread. Even so, it was interesting see Batman/Bruce Wayne get in deep in shades of gray as an undercover agent. There seems to be a lot of love/hate online for Telltale Game's play style, but personally I enjoy it. You MUST be a bit of a speed-reader to play one, though.
Amanda The Adventurer. Dark little horror game. A nice short puzzle play, probably not something to play right before you go to sleep *cough cough*. I did have to look up solutions to get all the endings, as some of them were pretty obscure. My only complaint is that even with all available information in this creepypasta of a game, I don’t feel I have satisfactory answers to what’s going on in the story. Even so, it’s interesting to play.