Praetermancy June, 2025
Monthly Roundup
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Introduction
It's been a good month, but honestly not great for writing. Life has been busy, but hopefully that will change some in July and August. Currently my wife and I are working with our new dog, Daphne to get her trained and rebuild some of her stamina (as well as ours) after several months of heartworm treatment.
Articles
This series continues to be good for my metrics. It's also a lot of fun to write and work on.
I love this story, and I enjoyed doing the write up for it. There was quite a bit more here than I initially thought and a little research revealed layers.
I enjoy what I've read of Malazan, and this one encouraged quite a few thoughts. I look forward to continuing this series. The next one is already written, it's just a matter of finding the appropriate time-slot to put it in.
Bibliomancy: What I've been Reading
Note: ratings are balanced with 5 being average.
Not a great month for writing, but an excellent one for reading. The month had a couple of slow starts and flops, but generally things have been pretty good here.
The Bands of Mourning - Brandon Sanderson
Steampunk/Fantasy
6/10
Another case of Era 2 Misborn being a lot better than people said it was. Don't misunderstand, there is nothing mind-blowing here, but Bands of Mourning is another fun adventure, this time feeling a lot like Indiana Jones.
Shadows of the Apt Book 5:The Scarab Path - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Steampunk/Epic Fantasy
7/10
Do I have a Tchaikovsky problem? No. No, no I don’t. And so long as I don’t acknowledge the problem, it can’t get to me.
This one is more epic fantasy than Steampunk but it definitely has both genres.The Scarab Path is a really good book. Not brilliant, but really good. It's been a lot of fun to see these characters develop over the course of 5 books, and I look forward to the next 5. Not much more to say about it.
Charlie Parker Book 2 Dark Hollow - John Connolly
Noir/Horror
7/10
This one was not quite as good as the first Charlie Parker book, though it is close. It's a little tighter, a little shorter, a little less exotic, and a little more predictable. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book. It's still well above average, but isn't quite excellent. I definitely enjoyed it and I'll probably pick up the next one soon, but it isn't a must read.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix
Horror
5/10
This books was... Fine. Not good, not bad. Actually it was good, but I didn't enjoy it or the process of reading it for a couple of reasons. The largest is the long period of time before anything happens. The first 8 or so chapters are tedious to say the least. They are well written, but a lot of time gets spent on this woman's relationships and responsibilities before we get to anything remotely interesting.
The second reason I didn't enjoy my time with this book is the subtext. There isn't any really. Everything there is to say, is said. Blatantly. And usually it's repeated ad nauseum in case you might forget. It feels a bit like being the choir boy and hearing the same sermon for the third time in a row. It doesn't matter how good the sermon is: you've heard it three times already and you are struggling not to slump in your chair while the pastor drones on.
Again, I don’t think this book is bad. It's just... Not for me.
Walking to Aldebaran - Adrian Tchaikovsky
SciFi
7/10
While Tchaikovsky isn't known primarily for horror, he writes it so very well. Walking to Aldeberan isn't a masterpiece, but it is quite good, effectively blending cosmic horror with Tchaikovsky's hard Scifi sensibilities to make something unique, even if it isn't brilliant. Aldeberan is a retelling of the first part of Beowulf, though I must admit I didn't notice this during my read through and only realized after someone on the r/adriantchaikovsky subreddit pointed it out.
Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher
Romantic Fantasy
8/10
I've always thought that Kingfisher wrote romance well. There's something in her style, the way her characters banter effortlessly, that just fills you with a degree of warmth. Her characters have a way of slipping past my defenses, and burying themselves deep into my heart. I highly recommend this one for anyone looking for a book that blends epic fantasy with romance.
The Southern Reach Book 3: Acceptance - Jeff Vandermeer
Weird Fiction/Cosmic Horror
?/10
So I am honestly not sure where I stand, both on this book and this series as a whole. Certainly there is something compelling here beyond just the setup, otherwise I wouldn't have read three books worth of material to get here.But I don't know what that thing is. In otherwords: I don't get The Southern Reach trilogy.
It's well written, well plotted, the characters and setup work for me. It blends SCP style government organizations, Thoreau-like prose, and a bit of David Attenborough style nature documentary's into a single package that is very effective. I just don't understand what it is trying to effect.
These books are trying to say something, but what that something is remains as impenetrable and elusive as Area X. Until that mysterious thematic something is resolved though, I'm not sure how to feel about this book. I like it, I'd recommend it, but I'm not satisfied with it.
Maybe this is the intent, or maybe my mind is over-actively looking for thematic notes that aren't there. But I don't think that’s the case. In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep having to think on it.
Ironclads - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Military Sci-fi
7/10
I don't like the cover on this one much. Actually, I do like the cover, just not for this book. It makes it seem a lot more steampunk than it actually is. In reality, Ironclads is a cyberpunk novella following a team of corporate soldiers dropped well behind enemy lines. It's good! Not brilliant, but well above average. Unlike Walking to Aldebaran, it's themes are a lot more visible and well crafted if more than a little predictable.
Ludus: What I've been playing
Rimworld - Ludeon Studios
It's like I said last month: A lot of fun. That said, I jumped back in at the wrong time, and my recent saves won't be compatible with the new patch and expansion.
Unicorn Overlord - Vanillaware
Unicorn Overlord is a great game with awful writing and it will probably need a full review when I finish it. The TLDR though is that Unicorn Overlord's gameplay is quite robust, with plenty of complexity and a lot of tactical depth... But only on harder difficulties. On normal it's a cakewalk, requiring no understanding of most gameplay systems throughout the early game.
In contrast to the gameplay, the writing is hilariously, charmingly bad. So bad it starts to become good again. Characters are shallow and one dimensional caricatures that nevertheless manage to create something genuinely heartwarming in their totality. Each one is little more than an archetype, brought to life by excellent, if overly sexualized art design, and tropey dialogue.
All together it works, creating an earnest story and characters. But individually each piece is so much less than the sum of the parts. The tropes are in full force here, and they are incredibly cheesy.
Cinemancy: What I've been Watching (Yes, I know that's terrible Latin.)
Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities - Netflix
This anthology of horror is fantastic. None of these stories last too long, but they each work well. Pickman's Model is probably the best of the lot, and it managed to update the short story and transform it into something that would be effective for the medium of television. That said, any time CGI needed to be used in this anthology, it looked pretty cringy. The oneish exception is The Autopsy, which looked pretty good throughout.
Love + Death +Robots - Netflix
Another really good season of this series. While I don't think the high's were as good as previous seasons, there were no real lows either. The episodes based on John Scalzi's work were hilarious, but not groundbreaking. Still the magic isn't gone yet, and I'm curious to see what the next season has in store if it is renewed.
Auguary: Looking Forwards into July
Upcoming Articles
July 5th, Beneath the Boughs: Session 3
July 12th, Friends of the Barron Read-along 4: Corpsemouth by John Langan
July 19th, In Review: Cage of Souls (Also a Rerelease of my In Review: Grave Empire since I wasn't happy with it last time.)
July 26th, Praetermancy July 2025
Long Term Project Status
Same place as last time, though I have done another edit of the Kelpies. I genuinely believe this is going to be the story that gets me published and I've received some fantastic feedback from beta-readers.
Auspices: Things I'm Interested in
This is another slow month. The summer tends to be a fairly thin for new releases in books and Video Games. Movies are a little different, but there aren't many I'm actually interested in releasing the next few months.
Books
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions - John Langan
I got an ARC for this one, and I'm reading it right now. At the moment, I've got nothing but positives, and I'm looking forward to the book's release.
TTRPGs
Nothing this month.
Video Games
Another thin month on my end. The only game release I'm even tentatively interested in is Grounded 2 by Obsidian Entertainment. And I'll probably hold off on that one. I enjoyed the idea of the first game, but struggled to connect while actually playing it.
Movies & TV
Superman releases this month. As does Fantastic Four: The First Steps. Currently I plan to make it a double feature with a few friends which could be a lot of fun.