We Want It! - May 2016

[helloladies]

Because we haven't quite managed to work out a way for us to consume ALL the entertainment yet: to keep us from emerging haggard and zombie like after regular all night box set marathons, book splurges and music overload we've set up this quarterly space where we can express our pure fannish glee at the fact that so many projects of awesome potential are continually being made. All of our past wants and desires can be found in the We Want It! tag.

Ira

Books

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor — I've been meaning to read more widely for a while, and I read and enjoyed Binti, but felt it could have been expanded/filled in a bit more. That sounds like a prescription for a full-length novel by the same author to me! I've heard this book can be hard to read, but is rewarding in the end, and I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold — I've been putting off reading the latest Vorkosigan books because I knew a spoiler about Cryoburn which made me very reluctant to read the book. Well, now I know spoilers about the very latest book that very much makes me want to catch up with the canon, and I'm ready! I'm rereading the entire Vorkosigan series as leadup, and have already finished the first omnibus of two books and one short story, Cordelia's Honor. Just, um... lemme count... 12 novels and four novellas left to go before this one, I think! Haha, shoot me.

Television

Supergirl — Now that Supergirl has been renewed and Agent Carter is over, it's about time for me to catch up with my female-led TV shows. I hear there are some great friendships in this show and some really cute moments!

Games

Gone Home — I know I'm the last person in the world to play this game, but my gaming time had been previously entirely occupied by catching up on Mass Effect. Now I'm ready for another narrative-heavy game, but something completely different, and this seems to fit the bill. I look forward to exploring this game a lot!

Jodie

Books

We Go Around in the Night and are Consumed by Fire by Jules Grant — 'This stunning literary debut, voiced by lesbian gangster Donna and her streetwise god-daughter Aurora, is steeped in the gang and gun culture of Manchester’s criminal underworld.' Just gonna leave this here. I have NO idea who this might be relevant to at all. *whistles innocently*

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera — This book has a cracking cover (so pretty and punk) and a premise that revolves around a young lesbian spending time with her feminist idol. There are so many stories out there about the complicated relationships that emerge when men mentor boys or women who worship them. And, blargh, I am just sick of those stories (ugh, Whiplash, ugh — WHY?!) so I thought I was entirely done with the whole trope. Then after watching Kat and Kara on Supergirl I realised it's really the gender dynamics of those stories that I'm fed up of, and the way those stories give such male mentors a huge pass no matter what they do. So, yes - stories about female mentors, I am so ready for you to come and reinvent this type of tale!

Television

Forty Elephants — Ana recently told me about An upcoming BBC TV show about a 1920s girl gang. Peaky Blinders fans, commence your screaming now! It looks like the show is based around the real life, all-female crime syndicate which you can read about in Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants, a non-fiction book which I picked up completely coincidentally a few months ago.

Preacher — I was pretty 'meh' about the idea of this show in the run up to its release but recommendation by Hello_Tailor has made me reconsider. Knowing Gavia is interested in something is enough to convince me to take a closer look. Her passion and knowledgeable outlook are hard to resist.

Wynonna Earp — This supernatural show about Wyatt Earp's great granddaughter looks to be full of gun-toting, hard drinking women fighting evil. Who knows when I will actually be able to see this (some Syfy programs come to the UK at the same time as the US while others, like The Expanse, seem to get held back) but I remain excited to eventually see it.

Versailles — This show is riling people so much that the BBC put out a show called The Real Versailles before it started to try and reassure people that they care about the real history of France >.> Whatever the reason for the documentary, The Real Versaille turned out to be a great showcase for the upcoming drama. It was hosted by two of my favourite historians — Lucy Worsley and Helen Castor — who made Louis XIV sound like a shrewd manipulator and a terrible guy with a fascinating family. I first got interested in Versailles when Maree's pointed out that Alexander Vlahos (of Merlin fame) would be playing Louis XIV's brother so you can blame her for all the incoherent tweeting about his hair, his clothes and his hot boyfriend that I'm sure to do after every episode.

Renay

Books

Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana — I learned about this via booksmugglers, probably, and it features an alternate Earth, which sounds fascinating. I'm also curious if the novel will use the science fictional conceit to explore more about social structures/life of the main character! YES, I WOULD LIKE SOME METAPHORS.

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey — You know what I thought was coming out in June? This book. BUT NO, it's been moved to November according to Goodreads. Orbit, what have I done? Did I make you angry? Did I not review the previous volume emphatically enough for you? Why am I being punished this way? I need to know what happens to these people. I HAVE BEEN ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT FOR A YEAR PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY, PLEASE.

The Fangirl Life: A Guide to All the Feels and Learning How to Deal by Kathleen Smith — I collect all books written by fans and about fans so I can eventually read them ALL and contain multitudes of fan knowledge. HERE IS ANOTHER ONE.

Rise: A Newsflesh Collection by Mira Grant — I loved the Newsflesh series and am super excited to read all the short fiction in this universe collected together. Plus there are two new stories. The only thing that would make this better is if McGuire announced tomorrow she was planning on writing the World War Z of this universe with Mahir Gowda as the interviewer. I can dream!

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling — I was on Twitter complaining, as usual, about the queerbaiting in recent SF. I just wanted fiction where it wasn't teased and then cruelly denied! And also fiction where we didn't die for dumb reasons or if we were already scarce as characters in the narrative or if we were oppressed! And then quartzen (pretty sure? I mean, she's my go-to person for queer SF) recced this book (probably). I'm excited to read some queer fantasy and plus this has a rogue.

Susan

Books

What Did You Eat Yesterday? by Fumi Yoshinaga — Fumi Yoshinaga is a really consistently decent BL manga creator, and she is really passionate about food (Not Love But Delicious Food Makes Me So Happy! is worth a read if you can get it out of the library), so knowing that she's got a long-running series with queer family antics and a consistent food theme is enough to get my attention!

Film

X-Men: Apocalypse — I have absolutely no faith that this movie is going to be good, but the films have been getting... More redeemably terrible as the series goes on? So I'm really hoping that it has a lot of Erik and Charles failing to resolve the same argument they've been having for thirty years, Charles and Raven attempting to negotiate a functioning sibling relationship, Raven teaching people to throw down, and excellent superpowered fights. ... I'd also really appreciate it if they try not to kill off their entire PoC cast between movies again and also stopped with the casual background sexism, but I am keeping my expectations low on that front.

Television

Kings — I'm not going to lie to you: a big part of my desire to watch this is because I want to see my theologist sister twitch, because it is... Well, it's the modern-day political thriller AU of the biblical Book of Samuel? With bonus Human Golden Retriever David vs Literal Tank Goliath, King Ian McShane, and Crying Sebastian Stan as Jonathan? Like, that is the best thing to show to someone who wrote an essay on David/Jonathan at uni!

Atelier — The review of this that I found described it as a series about a young woman joining a lingerie company which manages to apparently be completely without sexual charge and focuses on a woman growing in confidence and skill at her job and respecting the people around her? Hi, my name is Susan: that is my jam.

Games

Severed — This surfaced in my twitter feed, and I am cautiously excited? I'm wary of touchscreen heavy games, because I learned after I played Elite Beat Agents, but this looks like it could be cool? It appears to have a one-armed WoC protagonist (who might have a magical arm instead) cutting her way through a really bright and colourful world, and that does sound like the sort of game I would play!

Uncharted 4 — I literally have no idea how they're going to do this story, considering the end of Uncharted 3 wrapped up Nathan Drake's story pretty neatly and conclusively (My guess from the box blurb was "Elena gets kidnapped!" and then I had to take deep breaths and believe very hard that the game devs are better than that.), but I still... Want to spend time with these characters? Human Disaster Nathan Drake is fun, but I am here for the relationships in these game, and as long as the creators are offering me More Of That I guess I'm gonna keep giving them my money?

(OH MY GOD NATE ARE YOU BREAKING ELENA'S FUCKING HEART AGAIN?!)
(OH MY GOD I REALLY HOPE EVERYONE LOOKS LESS SQUISHY IN ACTUAL GAMEPLAY.)