Library
Welcome to the multimedia library — here is where I'll chronicle what I'm currently reading, plus any other reviews of media I've engaged with recently. Some spoilers ahead.
📖 Children of Memory (A. Tchaikovsky) – 4.5/5
This is the third book in the Children of Time series. I generally don't read series — I find it more fun to jump between worlds and universes. But I literally can't get enough of Tchaikovsky's evolutionary biologies. I love learning about animals and empathizing with species that get a bad rap from society, like spiders, and that's exactly what this series does. I am so invested in the Portiid spider society in these books, and now there's an octopus world and a corvid world.
In the last book, Tchaikovsky invented a totally new lifeform, the hivemind from Nod, which can "infect" other species and take over their bodies and minds. At one point, it seemed like they would be an insurmountable enemy, wiping out an entire ship full of humans. But really, their motivations were about experiencing everything the universe had to offer. In the third book, they have changed their ways to instead use their powers for good, serving as Interlocutors between spider, octopus, human and corvid societies.
Currently, the descendants of ancient human terraformers on the planet Imir are experiencing civil unrest, rooted in the belief that there are malicious actors on hiding on their planet. It's mostly the desolate landscape that's been creating such strife and they're seeking a scapegoat, but the people of Landfall, Imir's major city, have no idea how right they are — a motley crew of the aforementioned humans, spiders, corvids and octopi are present on an exploration mission, having learned that ancient humans made it out to this distant region. They just came at the worst possible time.
Major spoilers ahead. About halfway through the book, I became aware of inconsistencies between chapters. Anachronistic events that couldn't possibly exist in the same timeline, as well as the feeling that our new corvid friends were orchestrating it all. Characters were being killed off and returning without acknowledgement. At this point, I began to suspect that the corvids were prognosticating possible futures for the expedition. In hindsight, that was a pretty good guess, if lukewarm in its accuracy. The real reason was a total deus ex machina — an alien device buried deep in Imir that ran infinite simulations untethered by logic. That was how characters separated by centuries were able to exist at the same time, and also accounted for the death and apparent rebirth of major characters.
I found the alien device minimally disappointing, but still felt relieved by the explanation of events. There's been a major plot twist in the latter third of every book in this series, but I found this one the weakest so far. I still really enjoyed the book and all the new characters, even if some were dead the whole time. I'm also eager to hear more about the device in the next installation of the series which comes out in March, though I'd heard from advanced reader reviews that it leads to a dead end. I'm still hopeful, though — I think Tchaikovsky is such a fantastic writer and can't wait for the next one.
🎬 Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) – 4/5
I was excited to see this after having enjoyed Poor Things (2023) by the same director and also starring Emma Stone. I was a fan of the dark comedy aspect and the surrealist worldbuilding. When I'm watching a thriller, I tend to hedge bets in my mind about what will happen, and correctly predicted the outcome of the wellness check scene — but from there, all bets were off.
Major spoilers ahead. I was honestly elated by the final twist in the film: that she was an Andromedan the entire time. I started to wonder if this would be the outcome when she was left alone in the kidnapper's secret butcher room and didn't flee, which would have been the most logical action to take. I know some people might feel like it was "jumping the shark" to have that final twist, but taking a creative risk like that felt so refreshing. I also heard some criticism that this twist validated the kidnapper's conspiracies, which is a poor message to send given the current political climate. My best friend made a good point to me in response to this: Ultimately, it doesn't matter if she was an alien or not — the pharma executives who take advantage of the masses might as well be aliens, given their lack of empathy. It's almost a requirement to advance to that social station — you need to be willing to forego your humanity to gain that level of success.