TV Review: Stranger Things

We were a couple of weeks late to the Stranger Things party (although it's nice to see it's still carrying on even now) because it's initial trailers and synopsis don't look that promising. Hey, it seems to say, you remember those 80s movies you liked, a bit of Speilberg, a bit of Carpenter, a bit of Stephen King? Well we made some fan fic about kids on bikes, scary monsters suspect government men in small town America. Enjoy!. But yes, I thought, I did like those things, but I'm not sure I need more of them. It turns out, however, that I did need more of them, and Stranger Things is rather more than the sum of it parts.

Book Review: Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel

As some of your may recall, I pretty much flipped out for the Welcome to Night Vale podcast last year, as I got sucked into its compelling vortex of deeply strange storytelling in 25 minute bursts. The news that there was to be a Night Vale novel, however, was both exciting and slightly troubling; exciting because, hey, more Night Vale, but troubling because it feels so natural in a Radio Station format, and I wasn't really sure how it would translate onto the page with Cecils' voice to work some magic. Regardless, it was at the top of my Xmas list, and then the top of my read pile for the New Year. And only a week in, I've finished it - and here's what I think.

Audio Review: Welcome to Night Vale

It's fair to say that I've been neglecting my growing backlist of podcast listening in the last few weeks. Hours of content lie dusty and unheard, voices crying out into the digital wilderness, their stories left unheard. I have been distracted, absorbed, and entertained by something new and strange, something that has drawn me in obsessively, in a way that feels pretty rare, these days. In a lot of ways I should have been onto this months, if not years ago, only picking it up as it's popularity seemed to explode across the wider geek-scape through the summer. But I'm here now, and, after about 6 weeks of commutes, totally up to date. I am speaking, of course, of Welcome to Night Vale.