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New Who Kid Watches Classic Who: Genesis Of The Daleks

Introduction

Classic Who is something I owe a lot too even though I have never seen it. Without Classic Who my Grandma never would have gotten my Mum into Doctor Who and without my Mum getting into Doctor Who I never would have become obsessed with New Who. Its a generational cycle in my family that only my brother has broken.

With all of Classic Who being put on BBC I Player well most of it. (I'm gutted about an unearthly child) I decided it was time to get into the era that thrived my Grandma (Rip) and Mum's love for scifi. But before I started from the beginning there were three episodes I knew I needed to check out, let's say they were for lore curiosities sake. The TV Movie, Genesis Of The Daleks and The Five Doctor's. I'll share my thoughts on The TV Movie and The Five Doctor's in separate blogs, for now I gotta talk about Genesis Of The Daleks. It's gonna take me a white to get use to the 6 part stories and dramatic cliffhangers but I'm willing to give it a chance.

Okay I will say as a disabled person I see what Russell T Davies means but he needs to rewatch this episode as The Disabled Villian trope becomes worse if the character is motivated by their disability Davros isn't. I completely understand the thoughts though I just hope that skit was non cannon or an alternate universe and they treat him with respect. He was a manipulative menace in this episode and its pretty ironic that in the end he got out manipulated. I hope his other appearances are just as good and they explain his survival well.

What I Liked

There's a lot I loved throughout this six parter it was very tense and climatic. I also thought our tardis team of The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan worked together masterfully. Whilst The Ponds reminded me of A Married Couple Babysitting their goofy Son, These three reminded me of Two Siblings trying to keep up with their Older Wise But Mad Sibling. It's the first time I've seen Sarah with a Doctor other than 10 and 11 and they work together beautifully.

Firstly I have to praise the incredible cinematography. Man the shots despite this episode being filmed so long ago are absolutely beautiful even on a wide screen TV. The angled shadowy shots of the Daleks are really menacing and it adds to the dark tone of the story as it is. All the settings including the clean white aesthetic of the karld labs create a deeply unsettling feeling in your stomach. I also think the cuts to Davros make you very uneasy as well, his introduction and reveal was absolutely magnificent.

Secondly I have to praise the incredible themes and philosophy incoperated into this story. Toxic Fans like to scream and yell at Moden Doctor Who calling it woke when it always has been. Terry Nation crafted a really good story about the ethics of war and genocide even if you know that the very think you plan to stop might become an earth shattering unempathetic killer. It was very heartbreaking but seeing all the karld scientists wiped out by the Daleks was so important to include as it shows the deep juxtaposition between Davros and The Doctor which makes them brilliant rivals. Despite all the Daleks will do The Doctor can't bare to initiate a genocide of them in their earliest form, a mistakes that will haunt The Doctor's character for many years to come. Whilst Davros would happily kill his own men and play a Palpatine chess like game between The Karld's and The Tharls just for the survival of his creation. Its a story with very important messages and themes that the audience need to evolve. Its also a bold one as we finally get to see the orgins of The Daleks and why they are so Heartless. My mum pointed out but I already knew that the Daleks are definitely a metaphor for a certain group in World War 2. The Cybermen too you could argue.

Finally I have to praise the high stakes and thrills. My mum stared at my gasps and started laughing when I said that Classic Who seems to be more of a blood bath than the New Series. I know Bad Wolf and Parting Of The Ways was brutal but this story is just on a whole other level. As well as laughing with me she did hold my hand too I was absolutely heartbroken at some of the deaths and was routing for The Doctor, Harry And Sarah to survive and over come everything. Not to mention the cliffhangers showing this deep danger are characters were in. I was glued to my seat anticipating what might happen next. Nobody was safe and I definitely felt for all the characters that fell to The Daleks peril. This story is definitely worth it for The High Stakes alone.

What I Disliked

Okay so it might be because it's early days of me watching but I didn't like the cliffhangers as they felt disruptive to the flow of the story and very repetitive as half of the cliffhangers were are tardis team in peril or being kidnapped. My mum saids its just the fever of being a new who baby and that it was exciting at the time but for me it was a bit frustrating.

Secondly I feel like Sarah who was beautifully written in New Who didn't get much too do at all. It feels like she was running around for the sake of it and I would have loved her to play an even bigger role then she did. Whilst Harry got to help The Doctor rescue Sarah I felt like Sarah only got to hang around with other characters for the sake of it. I loved Elizabeth Sladen and will forever miss her so I want to see more awesome moments with a younger Sarah.

Conclusion

So those are my first thoughts after watching Genesis Of The Daleks. It was a really good story arc to the point I can tell why it haunted The Doctor so much even in The Time War. Poor Eight especially was haunted by it. I think it still holds up well despite the effects. My mum's right I just gotta lose myself in the story considering it's media that came out during her time. Very invested though. I can see why so many people like Four but like how everyone loves Ten he's probably not gonna be fav Classic Doctor as I tend to route for the underdogs.

Davros is so menacing and I generally can't wait to see his other appearances in Classic Who apart from the one where he's a floating head as I do think that's problematic and it makes me uncomfortable. I seriously admire the boldness of the stories and can see how they've shaped New Who. I hope New Who can make the Daleks as scary as they were in this episode. I miss when the Daleks weren't just a running gag.

I'm gonna definitely be excited when I get back to this Tardis Team. Sarah and Harry are companions that beautifully compliment the 4th Doctor. I really am excited for this journey though as a whole.

This has been Mel with a classic who review over and out.

-Melody-

They/Them

#doctor who #classic who #new who #4th doctor #tom baker #sarah jane smith #harry sullivan #fourth doctor #davros #the daleks #genesis of the daleks

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Readalong For Palestine 2: This Arab Is Queer

Introduction

We are all horrified and enraged about the vicious slaughter happening in Gaza especially in Rafah at the moment. No food, no hospitals something that breaks my heart into a million pieces over and over again. I unfortunately don't have the money but have decided instead to set up some readalongs to try combat censorship and help educate those when the media and news has become biased and unreliable. I've been reposting fund raisers but have still felt like this isn't enough so I knew I had to try set up something else. All books used in the Readalongs apart from this novel will be donated to my local library so that hopefully a few more people will be able to pick it up. I know it may seem small but I truly believe one small action can make a difference.

Censorship is becoming a rife problem with what's happening and a ton of people are getting misinformation so I believe the best way to combat that is by reading books from Palestinian Authors and fighting back against Censorship to get Palestinian Voices heard. It might not seem enough but I hope to make a little difference. There's also the issue of pink washing where tons of people are saying Palestinians deserve to be mistreated because it's not Lgtbq+ friendly, I shamefully once fell for this myself. Everyone deserves freedom and in fact that place is not as Lgtbq+ friendly as it claims. So due to this my second Readalong For Palestine will be This Arab Is Queer and Anthology edited by Elias Jahshan a Palestinian author.

This readalong will go through all the way to the beginning of May and I have several discussion boards open. I know that this Anthology is not solely by a Palestinian Author but I still found it important to include as unfortunately there is a stigma that comes from being ARAB. Most ARAB people don't feel safe with their own community but they also don't feel safe with the queer community as we like to strongly assume you can't be both queer and muslim. I believe this will be a key read for those that need to work on their internal racism and biases. I promise you this will a hundred percent be worth reading.

My Aims

My aims for doing these readalongs are pure and not for any malicious reasons. I was one of the people brainwashed by the deadly and brutal narrative that the media is pushing. So because of this I want to fight back and help educate people as there's no justification for Genocide. I also as a queer person want to fight back against the deadly narrative of Pink Washing as I'm sorry nothing justifies taking away life.

So here's all my aims and hopes with these readalongs.

1: Get more books from palestian authors out there.

2: Getting people to talk about what's happening through reading and discussing palestinian content.

3: Fight back against censorship and allow people to access to palestinian media that they want to silence.

Please be assured that these are my own intentions. I hope that for those that want to take part it's there intention as well.

Other Readalongs

This is not the only readalong I will be doing. Minor Detail has come and gone but I will also be doing Readalongs for On Palestine By Noam Chamsky Ilan Pappé and In My Mother's Footsteps By Mona Hajjar Halaby. I picked On Palestine as I've seen the book recommended a lot especially when it comes to educating those who are completely unaware of the severity of what's happening. Its a quick read but also a super important one. I then chose In My Mother's Footsteps as I realised the important of hearing from the child of a Palestinian Refuge and fully learning what it's like. If this goes well I might host some more next year doing a sort of similar thing to the Trans Rights Readathon. It'll depend how uni's going for me though.

Unfortunately I'm not out of the closet yet so this one is being kept quiet on some of my socials but I still hope to get some people involved with each readalong.

Conclusion

The dates for the other two readalongs will be posted in a separate post once confirmed but for now This Arab Is Queer is the next one on the list. I would especially recommend joining this one if you've accidentally been part of the pink washing crowd. Once I've got my hands on this one I'm definitely keeping it as it's a super important book to have as it shows queernesss from a none western lens.

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookworm #bookish #booklover #book tumblr #bookblr #free palestine #palestinian voices #palestinian authors #palestine #palestinian genocide #free gaza #lgtbqia+ #pinkwashing #this arab is queer #storygraph #storygraph readalong #read along

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Doctor Who: Immortal Beloved Review

Introduction

I'm super excited to be diving into one of my most favourite big finish listens so far and sharing my thoughts with you all. Man I'm so glad that I used The 8th Doctor Adventures as my Big Finish starting point as they're all incredible and highly entertaining.

Blown away especially with this one and I'm not even a Greek Mythology geek. This is gonna be so hard not to spoil as its a banger from start to finish. I've even talked about it in the Facebook group due to how much I've enjoyed it. Even if you don't want to listen to the whole first season of the Eighth Doctor Adventures Range, this is a 100% the story I'd recommend the most out of all of them. It gets dark so absolutely make sure to check trigger warnings for the sights that list them.

Really seriously loved the whole concept of this story and loved its inventive. Its a dark story with a lot of layers once you peel back all the layers and I don't think even a simple review from me can do how good this story is justice. If other Big Finish Stories are as good as this I will seriously sell my soul to bank my pockets full of Big Finish. I know Doctor Who is suppose to be for "kids" but I also love when adult whovians are acknowledged and we get content geared specifically towards us and this story, well it was certainly something.

What I Liked

Gosh there's so much I could praise about this story but I'm gonna do my best to simply it down and not give any spoilers because I don't want to ruin this treat of a story.

It may keep coming up in every single review but the performances are so damn good. Big Finish knows how to cast memorable and talented people who really do give it there all. Man everyone killed it and amplified this story from a ten to an hundred. Paul MacGanns Doctor is again magnificent in this story. His Doctor is so interesting and multilayered, he's developed a high lot compared to The Post Regen 8th Doctor from the movie and it's brilliant to hear. He really gets to show The Doctors darkside in this story whilst also balancing it with his Doctors wise sage nature. Sheridan Smith again killed it as Lucie Miller and again has allowed me to grow more attached to the character in this story. I love how Lucie has her own morals similar to the Doctor but she's also not afraid to stand up for herself. It's clear how much Russell T Davies got inspired by this character and made Donna Noble. Ian McNiece also perfectly portrays the sinister and "powerful" Zeus, he gave it his all in this role and a hundred percent delivers. Credit also goes to Elspet Gray who portrays Hera really well and puts her own unique spin on the role completely different from her mythological counterpart. Despite not being featured much Jennifer Higham and Anthony also give brilliant performances as forbidden lovers Sarati and Kalkin. Acting clearly runs in the MacGann family as I felt like Jake MacGann son of Paul MacGann although again a small role did great as Ganymede. Everyone did wonderfully so it's definitely worth giving this a listen to for the cast alone.

Secondly I absolutely adored the villians. It makes a nice change from the more typical and conventional style of Doctor Who villian. Considering how flawed they are in Greek Mythology I think it was super interesting to have Hera and Zeus be against a marriage but in a way that's not the reason you thing. When the twist happens it leaves you reeling on the edge of your seat. Really don't want to spoil anything as when everything unfolds it leaves you disturb and it absolute faces. The Doctor has faced things like The Daleks, The Cybermen and The Master but Zeus and Hera are truly on their own level. They're not like anything The Doctor has ever faced and that's great. You think Hera and Zeus are just these awful controlling parents but when the truth gets revealed it hits you in the gut hard and your in absolute shock. It's also just nice that for once we have a villainous couple as it breaks away from the usual format. Really hoping other Big Finish Stories have fascinating villians like this.

Then finally, there's the themes. Maybe because I'm a Star Wars nerd but I love it when sci-fi explores the consequences of creating human life and then dehumanising it. Its a trope that really makes you look at who's really the good guy. Please be rest assured that this is not your typical Forbidden Lovers story it's complex and so so much more. Clements through his writing asks the audience about the ethics of cloning and gaining immortality through hurting others. We're asked to think about human life and how we treat others. Listening to Doctor Who's take on this topic Star Wars has done through characters like the clones was fascinating. Stories like this are what truly help me connect with the sci-fi genre as Sci-fi should be used to have this ethical debates about the use of technology and how we treat others. Paul MacGann and Ian McNiece have a great chemistry with both characters confronting each other about their morals being super interesting. I also feel like we also get to see how far The Doctor is willing to go to protect the people he cares about. The moral clash of the story creates a truly wonderful deep dive into human nature. You may think you know what's happening but trust me when I say there's so much going for it underneath the service.

What I Disliked

Nothing absolutely Nothing. This story was perfect and everything I could have possibly wanted and more.

I was confused at some of the character choices for Lucie but sitting on it, it made sense to me and fit the context of the situation. She's in witness protection, doesn't trust anyone and also doesn't want corrupt technology to get into the wrong hands. Lucie did have her highlights in this story that I really appreciated.

Immortal Beloved may not feel like your conventional Doctor Who story but I feel like that's good and that if Big Finish sticked entirely to the same format as the show it wouldn't be as entertaining. I really appreciate this stories experiment style when I'm not even a huge Greek Mythology person myself.

Honestly I really want to give this one a relisten in the future as its earned it.

Conclusion

Best episode of this first story in The Eighth Doctor Adventures and A Must listen if your not so sure about listening to this first series of adventures. Immortal Beloved stands out in its own unique way and is certainly a story that I won't be forgetting anytime soon. Its so worth checking out trust me.

Listening to this left me so gobsmacked that I just sat their gaping at my computer screen. I love it when Doctor Who can pull my mind under the roof. Sci-fi is meant to be twisty even in the audio format. My emotions were definitely all over the place to the point I just rambled and info dumped to my mum.

Honestly listening to these 2006-2007 stories makes me to jump back into these earlier stories but based on my enjoyment of these I think I'll enjoy the otters. I'm so interested in all of the Big Finish catalogue now but understand that I have a tiny wallet and need to save my money. I am however am definitely gonna try check out some modern stuff including The 11th Doctor Chronicles: Geronimo and The War Doctor Begins collection.

I could only imagine how listening to this 8th Doctor Adventures Series for the first time when it came out. The writing is all very consistent as well as the quality. I'm seriously speechless myself. I'd do an overall series review but due to the quality, I absolutely think these episodes are worth being reviewed standalone.

Cannot recommend enough.

Bonus:

I'm logging all of my big finish listens on Storygraph and to assist with this year being the first year I'm diving into Big Finish, I'm hosting a public reading challenge on Storygraph that anybody can join. My username is melsage1823 for anybody interested.

Honestly think tracking and counting these Big Finish stories has helped keep my memory fresh similarly to reading.

Here's the link to the full challenge:

-Melody-

They/Them

#doctor who #the eighth doctor adventures #the eighth doctor #lucie miller #big finish #doctor who big finish #audio drama #audio production #eighth doctor #whovian #Spotify

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Top 5 Books I'm Excited To Get Off My TBR In 2024

Introduction

2023 was an absolutely amazing year as it was the first year of full reading after getting back into in the middle of 2022. It's going to be very hard to follow the wonderful stack of main + side reads I picked up last year but looking at my tbr this year I'm very helpful.

I've already had an amazing year so far with fabulous books like Different Not Less and The Rising Storm but I'm confident it will get even better as the year goes on. When I say my tbr is stacked I mean it's stacked. My tbr isn't just Marvel, Star Wars and Doctor Who there's some interesting both Nonfiction and Fiction novels but there are some I'm anticipating more eagerly than others, so I want to share some of the many novels on my tbr that I'm excited to get too this year if I can.

I'm praying that every novel lives up to my expectations.

5: Pageboy

When I heard Elliot Page was writing a memoir I put it on my tbr as speedy as possible and pre ordered it on release with amazon vouchers. I've not seen much of his work but have appreciated what I have seen. Elliot came out and fully affirmed himself around the time I was really struggling with my identity as a Nonbinary person and in denial about my girl hood but his journey really helped my own in a small way.

I don't know what to expect but from what I've been told from other trans people at my support group it's a good one. I'm so glad I got a copy when I did as there's always those books you need to read and I think this is one of those. Elliot has come so far and I'm really happy that he's able to share some of his journey in this novel. I've also heard that the structure goes against the typical binary of a novel and that's great. Plus I definitely think I'm in for a treat as its him that narrates the audio.

My prediction is that will either be a 4 star or 4.5 Star Read as despite my excitement the book is very short and I think the perfect Memoir should be around 300 pages. I've read a 400+ page Memoir and also understand that Memoirs can accidentally drag on. Different Not Less and The Princess Diarist worked so I might just be presumptionous but we'll see.

4: Welcome To St Hell

Another trans memoir but this time a graphic novel. I truly did not expect to add this to my tbr but as soon as I saw it on the Waterstones bookshelf I just felt this massive spark and new, new that it was meant to be mine. It's another book that calls to me and makes me feel like I need. I grew up very similar to Lewis uncomfortable in my own body and in a Catholic School where I couldn't really explore my identity and I think reading about their experience will help me come to terms with mine. Terfs review bombed it on the Waterstones website so that's how you know its worth picking up.

This will be the very first graphic novel I've read and Lewis Hancox definitely deserves that honour. Having seen his art style I have a strong feeling that it's gonna really help enhance his story. I also love the fact he's interviewed his family and got them involved in the process of the graphic novel. I'm just bursting to get it to it now but also understand that I've got to commit to my tbr and stick with the order. If I like it I definitely will be recommending it to my other friends trans and cis a like.

My prediction is that I'll love this graphic novel and that it's gonna be a wonderful experience. I seriously think it's gonna be either a 4.5 Star or a 5 Star Read. I haven't even read the graphic novel yet but I just have that strong feeling its gonna be a good one. My only negative is that the art is all in black and white but it can't be helped if it was nesscary for publishing and printing. We'll have to see how it goes but my excitement is building as it gets further up the list.

3: Cinderella Is Dead

Trying my best to read diversely and this is one of the novels that I have been dying to read as I'm in love with the concept. Every concept Kaylnn Bayron has fascinated to the point I want to buy nearly all of her novels. I love fantasy and I'm really excited to read a fantasy with some great black and queer representation. I hope it'll be an informative read but also a good stories that shows the damage of a heteronormative society as well as media soley representing straight people.

I'm really excited to follow Sophia's journey and route for her to escape. The cover art looks great and shows how the story is gonna be. Although Star Wars is in a galaxy far far away along time ago, most books I read are set in modern day so it'll be nice to read something in the past for once. Looking at my stats so far science fiction is definitely going to dominate so it's nice to get some fantasy in there. Kaylnn Bayron is really popular so I hope at least some of her books are good. Although I'm also gonna hopefully get to This Poison Heart I'm more excited for Cinderella Is Dead as I kill for a spooky world where we shun the powers above.

My prediction is that this will be a 4 star or a 4.5 star read. Don't get me wrong I'm sure it'll be great but reading other reviews im not sure it'll be 5 star worthy even if it's good. Sophia has a crush on her best friend and the feelings are unrequited. Problem is regardless of gender this trope is so common and annoying that it has to be done right. I feel like in the context of Cinderella Dead it won't work and YouTuber Jesse who I trust said that they didn't like how closted people were shamed in the book and as a partially closeted person that does put me off a bit. However I'm still really excited for this novel and curious about how it'll all play out.

2: Star Wars: Lost Stars

Claudia Gray is an author who I've adored. I've picked up nearly all of her novels and loved all of them with Leia Princess Of Alderaan being one of my favourites. I love the High Republic but Claudia Gray has become one of my favourite authors so I'm excited to read any Star Wars book by her. Talking about romance tropes I like I love Forbidden Love Stories and Enemies To Lovers and this book seems to be it. I'm also just incredibly excited to see perspectives outside of our core main cast in the original trilogy. Since it is Claudia Grays first Star Wars novel it'll also be super interesting to see how Grays writing has developed and changed. I've also been aching for a long read as it's fun to have a variety in my stats more.

One thing that does have me super hopeful is the fact that novel is over 500+ pages long, whilst still not much time to cover the events of the whole original trilogy it's still a fair enough amount of time. Lots of other novels would only be given 400 pages at least. With a story like Lost Stars it's nesscary to be able to stretch out your story over a period of time and I'm super glad that Claudia was given that chance. It also has my favourite romance dynamic mainly dominated by Obitine where you have to put duty over your own happiness. This story has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see how it lives up to that. I hope that by the end of the book we might be routing for Ciena and Thane. A cool theory from Star Wars Lawyer is that the couple in this novel are Finns parents which if the case is sad but also cool.

As I've had a lot of enjoyment from Claudia Gray novels my prediction is undeniably for this to be 4.5 Stars or 5 Stars. It might not be perfect due to how much story it has to tell but I still think its gonna be a really enjoyable read. Its a love story that's never really been done before in Star Wars so I definitely think it has a lot of potential but we'll have to see what happens. I've mostly heard positive things about this novel though and even had some Star Wars fans recommended it to me so I don't have a bad feeling about this I have a great feeling.

1: Jamie

And my number 1 most anticipated read for 2024 is Jamie By L.D Lapinski. It might sound silly for a middle grade book to be my most anticipated read but it's again like some of the other books on this list for deep and personal reasons. Jamie from the moment it was announced by the author is something I knew I needed to pick up. I'm not reading Jamie for me I'm reading it for my inner child who gotten beaten up and bombarded with Gender Norms. I'm a person who will pick up a book regardless of age rating (apart from picture books) as to me the most important aspect of a novel is its story and themes, not the target demographic. Some people might want to only read YA or Adult and that's perfectly valid but to me I'm here for the story and messages. I also got bullied my whole life for liking "childish" things so after getting my autism diagnosis I frankly don't get a damn about other people's opinions.

The whole story of Jamie hits super hard for me because even though I didn't know the words Nonbinary and Trans I still felt really out of place with the other girls so half of my friends were boys and because of that stupid heteronormativity every boy I was friends with had to be my "boyfriend." . Even worst we always split into boys vs girls for sports day, games in the playground and in pe. I hated it, it made me super uncomfortable but I never knew why so believe me when I say I relate to Jamie's struggle. The thought of an all boys and girls school may sound nice but as someone who's grown up Mormon let's just say it's very awkward. I wish there were novels like Jamie around in my youth as it would have helped me come to terms with all my confusing emotions a lot faster.

High expectations and I definitely think this book is either gonna be or a 4.5 star or 5 stars. Anything less would be impossible. I know how to pick my reads and am often quite generous when it comes to rating novels. The Ever After High Books I've read have never been rated below 4 stars. So I definitely can get into middle grade books. We'll have to see what happens but judged on the synopsis alone and how short books like Here And Queer and The Evolving Truth Of Ever-Stronger Will have been good and I've connected with them I don't think Jamie will disappoint. Mama G a popular drag queen storyteller has also been hyping it up so I definitely have high hopes.

Honourable Mentions

And here we have our two honourable mentions that I might not even be able to get to this year as they're so further down the list but with how my reading was ignoring the side reads I do have faith. It all depends as I'm going to be studying creative writing at university so I'll be even more clogged down but I still have huge faith and am hoping for the best. For my 5th reading year I will have to do something special but we'll see as I'm only on my third reading year currently.

So as put above the first of my honourable mentions is How To Be Ace By Rebecca Burgess. Another graphic novel this one focuses on Rebecca's journey growing up as an asexual person trying to discover and accept her identity. I'm very excited for this short graphic novel as an Ace person as it'll be nice to read about another Asexual person's experience and what's its like to grow up unsure of your identity. Currently us Asexuals are starved of content so it's really nice to get representation like this. I definitely think despite its short length its gonna be another 5 star read but we'll see.

My second honourable mention has to go to Tempest Runner By Cavan Scott. Im not sure if I'll get to it this year but it all depends. After reading the Rising Storm I'm very excited to listen and read this full cast audio drama script even better it focuses on Lourna Dee. I love Lourna she's one of my favourite Nihil and I'm glad there's a piece of media focusing on her. I'm really buzzed as I loved Cavan Scott's writing in The Rising Storm as it proved how capable he is. I honestly don't know what the star rating might be and that's the exciting part. I've never read an audio drama script before but if I like it I might check others out like Dooku Jedi Lost and Doctor Aphra.

Conclusion

Overall I'm very excited for 2024 reading and think it's full of potential. I've already enjoyed most of my reads this year with only Fazbear Frights 1:35 AM majorly disappointing me. The prospects are looking good as I truly believe I know how to pick my reads. All I'm hoping is that I can try my best to avoid having all my main reads be just Star Wars books. I really am trying to go beyond my Autistic brain and read diversely but do believe I'm making baby steps.

One thing I'm happy about is that I've made and am making more of an effort to include Nonfiction on my tbr as I truly do find it laughable that I only picked up one Nonfiction book this year and I just knew that had to change for my own sake as I truly believe there's a lot to learn and engage with from nonfiction. It's a commitment I'm sticking with and I'll keep you all updated how it's gonna through my 2024 Reading Wrap Up and my monthly ones.

There's alot of tbr I didn't mention so despite not being on the list I'd like to shout them out in a similar way people mention they're pateron subscribers. So a big shout out too...

Brotherhood By Mike Chen, The Cabin At The End Of The World By Paul Tremblay, Against The Tide By J.Elle, Jedi Battle Scars By Sam Maggs, Race To Crashpoint Tower By Daniel José Older, A Test Of Courage By Justina Ireland, The War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells, The Deviant Strain By Justin Richards, The Evolving Truth Of Ever-Stronger Will By Maya MacGregor, Prisoner Of The Daleks By Trevor Baxendale, This Poison Heart By Kaylnn Bayron, The Legend Of Shadow High By Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, Out Of The Shadows By Justina Ireland, Wings Of Fury By Brittney Morris, Jurassic Park By Michael Crichton, Unmasking Autism By Devon Price, The Courage To Be Disliked By Fumitake Koga And Ichiro Kishimi, The Courage To Be Happy Bu Fumitake Koga And Ichiro Kishimi and Verily A New Hope By Ian Doescher.

To 2024 and a hopefully good reading year.

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookworm #bookish #booklover #book tumblr #bookblr #storygraph #reading #lgtbtq #pageboy #elliot page #transgender #trans masc #trans author #graphic novel #graphic nonfiction #nonfiction #fiction #cinderella is dead #fantasy #star wars books #claudia gray #star wars #nonbinary nerd #nonbinary representation #nonbinary books #middle grade

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March 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

Another incredible reading month and I'm so glad I managed to keep my streak this time despite still recovering from illness. It's been a scifi packed month and I absolutely will do my best to fix that next month. I'm one of those people who want to do their best to diversify their TBR. I'd also dub this the Aftermath month as I decided to reread Aftermath to prep for reading Life Debt. And despite the still obvious flaws im so grateful I decided to give Chuck Wending a second chance.

The biggest excitement of this month is that I'm proud to announce that after three agonising months I finally finished Black Spire. When I re-read it in the future I can absolutely assure you that the read will be shorter. I don't know what happened it just took absolutely ages to read. It was a fairly decent novel and I adored the themes of Rebellion and Resistance. I just wish the other characters were fleshed out more as Vi and Archex are the only ones that are. 10th of March was the best day ever as I was just so glad to be finally rid of this side read as I have a whole block of other side reads I wanted to get too.

The High Republic comics are an absolute delight and I definitely want to get more of them in the future but they're still not my focus. The High Republic Adventures Vol.1 was incredible, I borrowed it off my brother and was really excited to read it and it was incredible. Lula and Zeen are an absolute power couple. The story telling was super enriching and fun. I definitely want to get my hands on Vol.2 sometime as I've also weirdly already read Vol.2. After I've read Fallen Star I definitely will need to re-read Vol. 3. I'm not suprised it took five days as that's normally how long comics usually take for me.

And then to finish off my side reads I managed to miraculously finish Vol.5 of the Animal Crossing New Horizons Manga. Vol.5 was really good and I loved how it incoperated the final 2.0 update and the dlc. Especially since Dark seems to be my reading mood preference I always love to incoperate a few lighthearted reads in there to save my shattered heart cos lord I need it, need it massively. This series is awesome and i'm happy it's gone on to have nine volumes but im definitely only sticking to eight of them thank you.

Then we have of course the Doctor Who Big Finish audio dramas. I'm very close to the end of The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1 now and have really enjoyed the series. It's gotten me deeply into Big Finish. Phobos and No More Lies were very fun and easy listens. I think unless it's a box set I'm definitely gonna be able to listen to single Big Finish stories in one day as you can tell by the calendar.

March has been fun but I really wish I'd read more than scifi and I hope April will be the chance to improve upon that.

March Stats

I'm using all my stats and log templates from LEEBEE_READS from now on as their all beautiful especially this flowery March theme. I've also got the hang of using it better so it looks neater. So here's a breakdown of all my stats for March from left to right.

I "read" 6 books in total this month. Four physical books and two big finish audio dramas. I didn't expect to read as much as I did in February due to missing my support group and getting another FNAF book off my friend but I shouldn't have been as I still have a lot of side reads I need to get through. Pages was good too as I didn't think I'd reach 1000 pages but I did. This March I read 1047 pages only 47 more than March 2023. I don't care about beating records but I still find that quite the achievement. For listening it went as well, I managed to listen to 2.43 hours. A number that will go up as I listen to the longer audios. We'll see what April brings but I'm very proud of myself.

Genre was very scifi this month. The only none scifi book I read was the Animal Crossing Manga which just cracks me up. Scifi is an amazing genre and I've love all the scifi stories I've listened too and read but I feel like it doesn't hurt now and then to go outside of the box. After hopefully getting to Brotherhood I have 3 none Star Wars books to help break this spell which should hopefully balance out the stats. So my genre's ended up being very simple with only Scifi, Fantasy, Video Games, Manga and Graphic Novel. 5 Scifi listens and reads is just mind blowing its definitely helped me understand and figure out what my favourite genre indeed is. With what I have planned for April I'm very curious how my genres will look.

Mainly reads like I said last time is budging as I'm into very adventurous books that are dark and also have mystery. I also still adore 300-499 page books and that's never gonna change but we'll see.

March was a very interesting month for moods as last year I only logged three moods but this year I've managed to log eight moods. Through out my reads and listens I've managed to pick up the moods, Adventurous, Tense, Mysterious, Lighthearted, Hopefully, Funny, Dark and Challenging which is in my opinion the most impressive streak of moods so far. Adventurous is always gonna take the top spot but im really happy at how balanced this chart is. I read a pretty Dark Comic in terms of The High Republic Adventures Vol.1 and then balanced it out with Vol.5 of The Animal Crossing manga series. People may want to read all dark reading month but I still think it's super important to balance things out with lighthearted stuff as Dark books are dark for a reason as they can be super heavy. Really curious about how April's stats will turnout.

Finally the Star Ratings which shocked me as for the first time ever I remembered quarter star ratings existed and rated too reads/listens 4.25 stars. In the future I'm definitely gonna try remember quarter star ratings and be more critical about how I rate books. I had two 4 star rated reads one being a re-read, two 4.25 star reads/listens as both were good but had flaws which meant it didn't quite deserve 4.5 or 5 stars and one 5 star read. That resulted in and average rating of 4.33 stars. Which is the same average rating I got a year ago. Haven't got an average rating below 4 yet but we'll see what happens.

Overall a very good month for stats I'm very intrigued to see what April shall bring.

Reads/Listens

Looking at this lineup is hilarious and amusing for me because you can tell the Animal Crossing Manga is the odd one of the group. It's giving and Peggy 🤣. I'm still proud of the lineup but I'm disbelief at how much sci-fi I've consumed.

Phobos and No More Lies were really good listens I'm super impressed at how talented the Big Finish team are. The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1 was definitely the best place to start as from Blood Of The Daleks it's only gotten better. I enjoyed both stories due to how experimental they were. No More Lies hit me right in the feels once the explanation for the timeloop was revealed and Phobos gobsmacked me at how dark it got. Judging on my journey I think I might enjoy the stories with orginal villians more.

I deserve a medal for how long it took me to read Black Spire I'm absolutely gobsmacked that it took me 42 days to finish this book especially since some of the chapters were short. Sure I took breaks so I could read my main reads and recover from being ill and it sending me into a reading slump. I did enjoy this book for the most part it was just a drag to get through. I'd still recommend it as it's themes are really deep and relevant for today. I loved the characters of Vi and Archex and definitely want to get my hands on the Phasma Audiobook so I can understand the story better. Good birthday present.

Oh the High Republic is my comfort franchise and I love it. I never planned on picking up the comics but when an opportunity presents yourself you take it. Very much enjoyed this volume and loved the themes of found family. Considering Zeen is queer it was very purposefully metaphorical that her friend betrayed her and disowned her after she had to out herself as a force user to save people. I also think it fleshes out the Nihil recruitment process and shows how easy it is to turn to the wrong people. I hope in the future I can get to reading Vol.2 but I'll definitely be re-reading Vol.3 of the High Republic Adventures that's for sure. Vol.1 was a delightful read and hit me right in the feels its well deserving of 5 stars.

Aftermath after mistakingly picking up the book as my first Star Wars read I was absolutely done with this novel. I knew I'd have to continue the Trilogy as a completionist but I was absolutely done with Aftermath as far as I was concerned. Having completely forgotten the events of the book though I knew it would be best to Reread Aftermath before I dug my teeth into Life Debt so I did and it helped a lot. Reading alongside Marc Thompsons narration on audio gave the book so much of the life it needed. It was a much more pleasant experience on Reread. I thought I'd hate it even more but the rating did not change. Infact it got me in the mood for reading Life Debt. Glad I gave Chuck Wending a second chance and I hope Empires End is even better than this book.

Finally Animal Crossing. One of my favourite video games and I think this manga series has not only faithfully adapted what made New Horizons charming but also actually added personality and life into the npcs and villagers. Vol.5 was a welcome suprise as I didn't think they'd add the 2.0 update and dlc into the series but its a very nice and welcome suprise. This manga series is just a nice breath of fresh air and I can't wait to get my hands on Vol. 6, Vol.7 and Vol.8. I seriously haven't enjoyed an entry in the series this much since Vol.2. Rumba does a wonderful job.

Conclusion

After the end of February's reading took a down turn I'm proud I managed to pick myself back up again. March was very interesting and I'm glad even if mainly Sci-fi that I managed to read and listen to a good bunch of stuff. I'm very optimistic for April and think it'll be just as good. I do know that the Calendar is for sure gonna be interesting.

If you want to see my full reviews for the audios and books featured in this post you can find me on The Storygraph and Goodreads.

Goodreads: Melody Soundy

Storygraph: melsage1823

Well this has been March's reading wrap up until next time...

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookworm #bookish #booklover #book tumblr #star wars books #aftermath #bookblr #star wars #star wars batuu #star wars comics #high republic phase 1 #high republic adventures #animal crosing new horizons #animal crossing manga #manga

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who: Phobos Review

Introduction

"You're scarier than the monsters."

Phobos a Big Finish story that walked so that The Rings Of Akhaten could run. I've mentioned in other reviews that the stories show the darkside of Paul MacGanns Doctor but this story aces as it. Listening to this story without any spoilers, gave me full goosebumps as once everything comes together your left in disbelief.

This story explores fear in a really creative and complex way. Again we get a unique "monster" compared to the usual things The Doctor has to face and deal with it. Its very mythical and creepy throughout. "Phobos" is Greek for fear and we truly get to experience fear throughout the story even if it it isn't a listen. Phobos absolutely blew my mind it took so many twists and turns I didn't expect.

This is another story I definitely recommend listening to individually if your not sold on The Eighth Doctor Adventures.

What I Liked

Again there's so many things that I could praise about this story as listening to Big Finish I've been shocked at the 100% good quality every time. The cast was once again stacked and they all played their roles too absolute perfection. To cut it down though I'll only talk about a few of the things that stood out to me.

As a musician the music in this story was like that feeling when you first go to an orchestral live concert. I had literal goosebumps. Out of all of the stories I've listened to Phobos definitely had the best music. Andy Hardwick is an absolute genius, he did a great job making the music so atmospheric and mystical. The composition was awesome. Every piece of music composed perfectly matched the aesthetic of each scene. The best theme had to be the chilling motif that played anytime the mysterious Phobians were mentioned. Doctor Who is a difficult piece of work to compose due to how diverse and unique each episode is but Big Finish have handled this challenge really well and delivered. The best part of sci-fi music is when it matches the atmsophere and tensity of the scene and Phobos does that perfectly. From its chilling and thrilling moments to its lighthearted fun moments, it's all composed perfectly in the right way that brings out the right emotions. If there's anything you want to get out of the story, listen deeply and closer to the music. I really hope that once I start by big finish releases they also come with the music because the scores really do slap.

Secondly I just have to talk about the incredible twists and turns throughout. I really wish I could film me listening to Big Finish in real time as trust me when I say that my mouth was a gape when the twists came, my mouth was a gape. My mind was well and truly blown. Again it's another one of those stories where you think it's going one way but then it goes in a completely different direction. Similar to Blood Of The Daleks your stuck guessing what's truly going on. It dives into some really heavy and dark themes and becomes unpredictable every minute that passes. To me, a good story steers away from what's expected of it and builds a twisted narrative that leaves you mind blown, Phobos does just that. The twists in this really allowed for Paul MacGann to shine and show off his Doctors darker side eloquently. All of the resolution is teased throughout the story but it comes as a massive shock to the point even Lucie is now doubtful about The Doctor and his character. It creates an interesting Doctor, Companion dynamic for the rest of this series of adventures.

Finally the incredible creativity and inventiveness of the story. I hate to admit it but Phobos walked so The Rings Of Akhaten could run. A lot of people not agree with me but with the way the stories include the Doctor feeding a creature with his memories it gives me a lot of déjà vu. Phobos feels so fresh from your typical Doctor Who story you'd get and I absolutely love it for that. This story really shows how experimental Big Finish are and how willing they are to explore entirely new concepts which I think is brilliant. Immortal Beloved perfectly showed the darkside of cloning whilst Phobos shows how powerful Fear is and how it has shaped The Doctor in his long life. As a result of the monster soley being on audio we get to be disturbed by on it a more physiological level, which is definitely effect in this series. The cries of people being chased by the creature was enough alone to bring me chills. I also adore the whole concept of the setting. On the surface it seems unoriginal for Phobos to be a chilled holiday destination until you peel back the layers and discover the conflict our side characters are facing. This story really embraced the fact its an exclusively audio story and I hope other Big Finish Stories are like that too.

What I Disliked

I loved this story but I have to be honest when I say that my enjoyment was spoiled due to its pacing. I've loved listening to the 8th Doctor Adventures but I have to be honest when I say that I have struggled with the pacing of these stories and Phobos was no acception to this. Some of these stories benefit from New Who style pacing whilst others don't.

Whilst the build up had so much pay off it did drag alot. All the build up took long and it felt way too slow paced given the context and threat in the story. I was just waiting for the huge action to happen every time somebody was attacked. Apart from that though I really did enjoy this story. Love your typical Doctor Who Monsters but it's more interesting when it's something entirely new.

Conclusion

Overall another fun and interesting Big Finish story. It deviated from what would normally be expected and was really inventive. It really flipped the whole monster on the lose killing tourists story and made it crumble beneath your feet. The side characters were an absolute delight and Lucie and The Doctor both got a lot to do here too and they both shone in their own ways. Again I'd heavily recommend giving this one a listen as it's a very interesting story.

My overall rating would be:

It's a story with a lot of meat that surprisingly works well on audio considering it's action packed and twisted nature. I also really liked that so many tropes were flipped on its head. This is one of the stories that have certain that im doing right by sticking with Big Finish and delving further into their catalogue. Paul MacGann is bumping up my favourite Doctor's list because he's just so endearing and charming in the role.

I definitely plan to in the far future save up to afford some of the season 2 stories and explore more of Lucie Miller. I'm sad that they don't have the rights to Grace and Chang Lee but 8s audio companions sound awesome. I'll give my thoughts on Charlie once I've actually explored that full arc. But as a first time listener I'm really appreciating the diverse stories Big Finish are able to tell.

I'm very excited for the future.

Bonus:

Since this is my first year getting into Big Finish I decided to publish a listening challenge on The Storygraph with certain prompts to follow that I will eventually fill as the year goes on.

I'm really impressed by all of the stories and am excited to dive into the main range, a few Destiny Of The Doctor audios and some short trips. I've really excited to delve into more Doctor Who adventures beyond the TV series. The Eighth Doctor Adventures have matched and even gone beyond the quality of the show.

The Challenge Is Public And Anyone Can Join:

-Melody-

They/Them

#doctor who #whovian #big finish #doctor who big finish #the eighth doctor adventures #the eighth doctor #lucie miller #audio drama #audio production #big finish review #Spotify

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

The Star Wars Book That Broke Me- The Rising Storm Review

Introduction

It's been a long time since I reviewed a High Republic novel on my tumblr but I have to just have to talk about this novel. Loved reading a Test Of Courage and Into The Dark but at suggested in the title, this novel broke me in all the best ways possible. My brother is moaning at me for taking so long to get through Phase 1 but after reading The Rising Storm I totally think that for my emotional wellbeing it's definitely best to take it all in at a slower. The novel was tense throughout but that ending man. As of this review I'm onto my 6th main read of 2024 and I'm still not over it. I don't think I'll ever be. For those who've read the novel you know.

Star Wars is mainly targeted for kids but I love how their still able to make really emotional and heavy books for adult fans too. Whilst Light Of The Jedi is the perfect introduction to the era of The High Republic, The Rising Storm is the perfect introduction to the stakes and how destructive the Nihil are. We get to see the cost of War and Violence. I was shocked at how tense and high stakes this novel was. Trust me none of your favourites are safe when it comes to The High Republic. It makes a nice change as the orginal two movies in the OT don't allow you to focus on death very much.

I also felt like the new characters fit in very well and didn't feel unesssacary. Nearly all the reviews I read insulted the inclusion of characters like the chancellors son and the workers at the fair but I thought they were all nesscary compared to Aftermath where you get an interlude of two people randomly fighting in a street. I'm also just really grateful that the writers of Project Luminous have clearly planned and communicated with each other.

What I Liked

Everything! I seriously did not think it could get any better than Light Of The Jedi but it has. Not only did is pass my expectations it exceeded them, it also in my personal opinion improved heavily on some people's criticisms of Light Of The Jedi. I also think all the povs are sewen perfectly together through the narrative of a single goal. I'm also really excited to pick up more of Cavan Scott's books now.

There's so much I could talk about and analyse when it comes to this gem of a novel but I'll do my best to trim down my praise to the three best aspects of this incredibly action packed novel.

First I have to praise the incredible character arcs throughout the novel. Cavan Scott manages to pick off from where we left some of out characters from Light Of The Jedi to the point you can't even tell there's been a change in writer. Elzar, Stellan, Ty, Lina Soh, Bell, Lourna, Pan and Marchion are just some of the many characters that grow throughout the novel really well. It's an impressive achievement in itself since the adult high republic novels love to include such a large cast of characters. Every character felt like they had reason to be there and like they made a difference to the story. There was also brilliantly foreshadowing in earlier parts of the novel to where some of the characters might end up. Out of all of the character arcs through Bell and Elzar's arcs definitely hit home the most as it is important to remember that asking for help isn't shameful as well as reaching out to others when grieving. The character development is the glue of this book and it really does pay off if you've read Light Of The Jedi.

Secondly the stakes. I dreaded putting this book down everyday due to how much danger Cavan manages to put our core cast through. If you had me attached me to a heart monitor whilst I was reading this novel you'd see it stay spiked up throughout. Whilst Light Of The Jedi gave the reader time to breathe the opposite can be said for The Rising Storm and I think that's what made this such an enjoyable read. This book is none stop action from start to finish and absolutely intense, from people backstabbing each other, villians that don't know when to stop and suprises that even shocked me. It's all like one big massive game of chess. Whilst Light Of The Jedi introduced us to several characters and made us feel attached to the High Republic era as a whole, The Rising Storm makes you get attached to all the characters and then makes you worry for their lives every five seconds. I promise you that I'm not exaggerating. Worst is that some of those characters do indeed die. This book does not play it safe at all and shows you just how deadly the villians are. A good action or war story should build up suspense and high stakes and Rising Storm does that very well. Nobody is safe at all! Expect to be emotionally destroyed.

Finally The Multi-POV narrative. I know a lot of people don't like this aspect and that the bombardment of characters ruined but for me it had the complete opposite effect.  The High Republic writes in a multi-pov style that adds to the mystery and intense action. Through the fast pacing of chapters and sudden pov switches Scott communicates not only the danger but also the chaos of the situation. It showed the wide scale conflict of the story and how intense things get. You could be with one character fighting on the ground before you instantly cut to the chaos in the skies. And some of the pov cuts are actually necessary.  I want Fallen Star to be happy but judging on the title alone probably not so I hope Claudia keeps the similar style Cavan nailed in Rising Storm.

This was an awesome sequel and is well worth your time. I'd talk about Dislikes but I don't have any so I'm instead going to dive into spoiler territory. Once you scroll past and get to a headline called conclusion that's how you'll know you've avoided the spoiler section.

Spoiler Discussion

That last sentence still haunts me, "For the first time Stellan Gios was afraid." It's a gut punch that adds further salt to the wound. The other character deaths still hurt but Loden Greatstorm's death was on a whole other level. Throughout the novel Cavan has made the reader go through several death scares to the point you think that Loden and Bell really are going to stay reunited.

The Nameless are the most terrifying and inventive villian ever made and I can't wait for the next appearance as I go through Phase 1. I didn't think it would be possible for the jedi to struggle so much when there's no Sith in The High Republic but oh boy I was wrong. These mother f*** literally can turn force users into pure dust and lure them into agonising visions. Ro unleashing them is so scary to think about. I felt super bad for Loden and the Nihil member Dis. The way it was written showed how brutal the creatures are. The Nameless make Palpatine look like a wolf. The Nameless are like burn blazing dragons. Heartbroken over Lodens death but these guys are like dope.

Finally I have to how ironic is the way Lourna, Pan Eyta and Marchion all turn on eachother and back stab. Even with a new Tempest Runner replacing Kassav in the mix those three were literally giving each other hell throughout the novel. Marchion is so cold and threatening whilst Pan is cocky, egotistical and blood thirsty. It'll be interesting to read how his character grows now he's "faked" his death and fled. Even Lourna knew staying loyal to him was a bad idea. I'm really looking forward to read how the Nihil develop and change as threats.

That's the spoiler discussion.

Conclusion

A perfect sequel to Light Of The Jedi that not only expands on the threat of the Nihil but also raises the stakes perfectly. This story is an absolute master piece and manages to work so well despite the odds stacked against it.

It's both slow and fast at the same time and a breath of fresh air when it comes to the Star Wars Books I have picked up so far. This is another Star Wars that's gonna be on Reread as frequencantly as possible.

As of phase 1 I know Cavan also wrote the audio drama Tempest Runner and I'm definitely excited for when I get to that. His writings brilliant and he absolutely has got me hooked. If I like Tempest Runner, I'll perhaps consider reading and listening to Dooku Jedi Lost as well.

High Republic is the goat and I'm loving it.

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookworm #bookish #booklover #book tumblr #star wars #star wars books #star wars the high republic #the high republic #the rising storm #bell zettifar #loden greatstorm #elzar mann #stellan gios #marchion ro #lourna dee #storygraph #high republic phase 1 #high republic spoilers #star wars spoilers #star wars book spoilers

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

ngl it's hilarious being currently on 11th "bowties are cool" doctor's seasons then seeing gifsets of 15th "slaying absolute penis" doctor on tumblr. i want a crossover special between them that goes like this

#fifteenth doctor #eleventh doctor #doctor who #genderfluid #genderfluid king

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who: No More Lies Review

Introduction

No More Lies was a very interesting listen I went from confused, to emotional, to heartbroken to shocked all in the span of a whole hour. It's a very dark but heartfelt story at the same time. Out of all of the stories I've listened to this is one that managed to cut really deep. When it all came together I thought it was super clever.

My journey into Big Finish has been an interesting one and Series 1 of the 8th Doctor Adventures has really shown me what Big Finish has to offer in terms of story telling. I'm completely sold. My heart is overjoyed at how much Paul MacGann and the rest of the writers team at Big Finish have really been able to develop the character of the 8th Doctor and help form his own era. This is all cannon to me even though I know cannon is a very lose term in the Whoniverse.

No More Lies as a story was a superb action packed treat. It was a welcome but unexpected suprise that the action was super immersive and worked really well in the audio format. It stands out very much from the other stories I've listened to in the way it plays with the format and makes you dive head first into the thick of things. I love it when stories break away from their format and this one definitely does that. This story was great and its another one I might come back to in the far future.

What I Liked

I really struggled with this story at the beginning but once it got going I instantly fell in love with it. Its another fun concept with very unique villians. You think Zimmerman is the bad guy but then the story flips on itself and it becomes super surprising. The performances were once again top tier and the side characters were very memorable. Your definitely going to get a lot out of listening to this story I promise you.

There's so much to praise about this audio drama but to nail it down I want to highlight the incredible sound design and editing. No More Lies has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing Big Finish Stories that I have ever listened to. From the sound of the soft footsteps of characters walking about to The Doctor taking part in some fun action, every sound effect really immersed me to the point I felt like I was watching a TV episode, it was an absolute delight to listen too. It was also so well edited and designed and that made it super immersive. Tim Sutton also scored great music which really suited the timey whimey tone and aesthetic of the story. The ending really hit me hard on an emotional level, it gave me full chills and goosebumps. The composition style is very much similar to the new series and its great. Gareth Jenkins really put his hat into the sound editing and made it fabulous. I promise you that this audio is worth it for the sound editing and score alone.

Next the character development of Lucie and The Doctor. This is the story that got me really attached to this tardis team. The Doctor and Lucie as a pair really shine in this story and work well together, you can tell that they're both use to each other and ready to save the day. The opening moments of the story show how well Lucie and The Doctor have gotten to know and understand each other. Sheridan Smith and Paul MacGanns performances are wonderful and together they perfectly portray and action packed tardis team ready to solve the mystery in the story. If you've listened to the other audios prepare for a dramatic cliffhanger ending that effects their dynamic even more. I also love how due to how much The Doctor trusts Lucie he's willing to break his typical companion rules. I'm really excited to listen to more of this duo in the future when I can.

Finally I have to praise the incredible writing. Paul Sutton writes in a very unique and conventional way that's not often done on Doctor Who. It was truly an amazing story. No More Lies is a truly emotional wibbly wobbly time loop story with twists that punch you in the gut. Every story beat with time pays off really well but in the end it makes you sad. Time loop stories are often boring and very stereotypical but No More Lies uses it in a way that makes it a unique listening experience that has you on the edge of your seat deeply wondering what's causing the loop and why Zimmerman is so determined to keep it closed. The stakes also get added when you have the Tar-Modowks trying to break through. All I can say is that the time plot beats our ones that pay off immensely and create a forfilling listen.

It's just all at the end of the day brilliant absolutely brilliant. No spoilers but this story really does pay off.

What I Disliked

As much as I think it was nesscary for Lucie and The Doctors character development I really struggled to engage with the opening of the story before Lucie and Doc enter the mysterious garden party time loop.

The pacing is what's preventing this story from being top tier. It was pretty minor but the more I listened to the story and we got to the really good garden party bits the more it bothered me. There was absolutely no set up and it felt very difficult to know what was happening. I appreciate that I'm a new listener to Big Finish so it might just be me but if Season 1 of the 8th Doctor Adventures are a jumping point for listeners it might feel very alienating and I think it's important to be noted.

It all felt very random and out of place. I feel like diving straight into the action on audio doesn't work considering that the listener can't visually see what's happening. Until we got to the krux of the story it was very hard process and understanding what was going on. Without any spoilers I feel like the character dynamics would have been more polished if the beginning set up had been longer. Its one of those things where I feel like it should have been a two parter or at least twenty minutes longer.

Apart from that I really did enjoy the story and it's very creative nature.

Conclusion

Overall another emotional and fun adventure with Lucie and The Doctor. Its a really strong inventive timeloop story, with incredible sound design, amazing performances, fun monsters, high stakes and a well developed tardis team. It also perfectly develops on from the other stories in the series. I absolutely recommended to any 8th Doctor fans out there. All of the 8th Doctor Adventures Series 1 are free on Spotify so it's definitely worth checking it out.

My overall rating would be:

It's very good and so worth it checking it out. No More Lies is such a brilliant story and I very much admire it. I've noticed throughout this series of adventures love is often a strong theme through out. We've had Forbidden lovers, lovers in peril danger and lovers wanting to protect each other. I'm not a very romantic person but it's been very interesting to see different types of relationships and how understanding The Doctor has been about it. I'll be interesting to listen to S2 and see if that has similar themes.

Big Finish has blown me away with it's extensive and creative storytelling. It's set the standard for any other audio stories I might listen and has also inspired me as a writer. I'm seriously glad they've used their licence to expand on each incarnation of The Doctor and create new fun and orginal stories as I agree with Mum in saying that apart from Tom Baker each incarnation of The Doctor doesn't get enough stories.

Bonus:

It might be very controversial as discussed on the Big Finish podcast but I'm logging all my Big Finish listens on my reading tracker apps. Since it's my very first year getting into Big Finish I decided to make a reading challenge on The Storygraph with prompts to follow.

Each prompt fulfils or matches with the Big Finish stories I'm going to be checking out in 2024. As said all Doctors 5-12 are included excluding 10 and War. I'm very excited to dig into the thick of things and I wanted other people to join me so the offer is always open.

Apart from The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1 I also plan to check out some short trips, a bit of the main range, a few of the Destiny Of The Doctor installments and most importantly the infamous Charley arc so this challenge is all tailored to that. So in future reviews you absolutely see the prompt chart fill up.

-Melody-

They/Them

#doctor who big finish #big finish #doctor who #the eighth doctor adventures #eighth doctor #the eighth doctor #lucie miller #Spotify

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who: Horror Of Glamrock Review

Introduction

Having Big Finish free on Spotify is truly a blessing in disguise and absolutely amazing. I do not regret beginning to listen to these now. Something I've noticed is how experimental Big Finish is and I find that a huge strength. This story was very unique and fresh and I enjoyed it alot.

Its hilarious to me that people were moaning about a musical number in Doctor Who when Big Finish did it first in this story. Sure Paul MacGann didn't burst into song but it was quite something and very fun. This is one of the stories that has cemented and helped me understand Paul's Doctor and his complex personality.

What I Liked

There's so much to rave about when thinking about this audio drama.

First I loved how creative the concept was and how unique it was. It embraced it's goofy sci-fi style and was fun to listen to. Although a group locked in a room having to hide from a monster isn't new, this concept absolutely is and it was a blast. Loved how we had to rely on audio cues to get the sense of how terrifying the only ones are. Would love to have these guys adapted into live action sometime but for what they were, they were a great villian.

Secondly, I have to praise the incredible music. Tim Sutton did an absolutely fabulous job scoring as every piece of music was an earful delight. They got the Glamrock music aesthetic down and it was nice to listen too. Campy songs aren't done often in Doctor Who but Big Finish does it wonderfully here. There's another story later in this season that also has great music but it'll talk about it when I review that story. Anyway in short, to rock music fans, your in for a treat. Especially with the campy and fun Doctor Who theme variation at the end.

Again the performances. Everyone killed it and made this fun but weird story wonderful. I have to say that Big Finish know how to create a good side cast of characters and I love them for it. So often I grow little to care for any side characters who appear but in Big Finish they're all memorable in the end. It creates a welcome change that I very much like. Paul MacGann killed it as the Doctor and created a complex Doctor with lots of wisdom but still one who's still eager and desperate to help others. He also perfectly portrayed The Doctor's darkside when stakes got higher in the story. I've found myself really getting attached to his character. Lucie Miller was ace in this story too and Sheridan Smiths portrayal just amplifies the characters brilliance even more. Sheridan Smith walked so Catherine Tate could run. She portrays a character still getting use to the Doctor and his time travel antics really well. Side Characters gave amazing performances too. Bernard Cribbins, I know he did this in 2003 but it tears me up to hear his voice again even if he's in a more villainous and morally grey role, just goes to show his incredible range. Una Stubbs also does a fab job as the witty and sassy waiter Flo, she's so charming that I almost pictured her as a companion. Stephen Gately and Clare Buckfield were wonderful as the Tomorrow Twins and had great chemistry together. Both of them really work well together to sell this dynamic and show their contrasting personalities. Lynsey Hardwick was also great as "Auntie Pat" and I hope she'll appear in other stories. Everyone is great and it's almost impossible to praise anything without mentioning the stellar acting.

Finally Lucie and The Doctors dynamic. My opinion after listening to this tardis team is very fluid but this is one of the stories where they really work. They are much more tolerable than they were in Blood Of The Daleks and they're actually really entertaining. I love how despite being only three stories in they're working together as a team and how much potential for good growth they have.

Overall fantastic, absolutely fantastic.

What I Disliked

Pacing, I love these episodes in the style of a New Who format but sometimes it can cause a lot of pacing issues. One such issue is that it gives us less time to build up the side characters and make us care about any death's that might happen. I know it's suppose to be a Doctor Who story but it still feels a bit fruitless to have character deaths without the proper build up.

Other than that though I really enjoyed it and there wasn't much that spoiled it really.

Conclusion

Another fun and fresh adventure that was a pleasure to listen to it. Its theme blends through the story brilliantly and the villian has a really sinister layer underneath once everything comes together. Doctor Who is at it's most fun when it's embracing it's weird sci-fi campy nature.

I recommend every story I've listened to in the 8th Doctor Adventures range but this one specifically if your look for a fun inventive story.

Really love the 8th Doctor's characterisation and development he's going through in the audios. I loved him in the TV Movie but he's on another level in the audios.

So glad I chose the 8th Doctor Adventures as a start to diving into Big Finish its been really fun and interesting.

The First Season Of The 8th Doctor Adventures are free on Spotify and it has been so worth it giving them a listen. Highly recommend.

Bonus:

I'm hosting a Big Finish listening challenge on Storygraph. My username is Melsage1823 for anyone interested in following.

Just thought I'd set something to motivate me for my first year getting into Big Finish.

Here's the full link to the challenge:

-Melody-

They/Them

#doctor who #the eighth doctor adventures #the eighth doctor #eighth doctor #big finish #audio drama #doctor who big finish #lucie miller #Spotify

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Readalong For Palestine 1: Minor Detail

Introduction

We have all felt helpless over the horrific violence and genocide happening in gaza. The Palestinian people deserve better and it definitely feels like we've failed them. I would love to donate all my money to help people escape and get fed but unfortunately I don't so I've been think about other ways to help spread awareness with this being one of the ideas.

I would love to constantly spam and repost in order to bring to light what governments and the media is trying to censorship but now with the crisis so bad I believe there's more I can do to help. Reading is powerful and a powerful tool which is why countries like America try to ban books. So I believe that even if it's just a small thing hosting a few Readalongs for books by Palestinian Authors will make a huge difference.

So to start I will he hosting a public Readalong of Minor Detail By Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette. It's a novel loads of people have been recommending for people who are uneducated and struggling to grasp what's happening in Palestine. I also have chosen it worse because I'm aware of the situation where Adania Shibli had her award postponed due to the October Attack. She deserves better and although I'm aware there was a read along done in her name, I want to do one again as its super important to keep this novel out there.

Aims

My aims for doing this are pure and not for any malicious reasons. I was one of the many people who were brainwashed by the media's deadly narrative and I want to help educate other people as there's no justification for genocide.

So here's are all my hopes and aims with these readalongs.

1: Get More Books From Palestinian Authors Out There!

2: Getting people to talk about what's happening through reading and discussing Palestinian content.

3: Fight back against censorship and allow people access to Palestinian media that they want to silence.

Like I said please be assured that those are my intentions and I hope they are intentions everyone else has too.

Other Readalongs

I will be doing four other readalongs and I promise that those dates will follow in their own separate posts.

I'd love to read more Fiction Palestinian books but I desperately want to platform books that are educating non biasely on this content really well. On Palestine was again another no brainer as most people have recommended this as a key essential book to understanding the conflict further. Very excited to read it and evolve my perspective in further in this terrible time where tons of awful retric is being spewed out. In My Mother's Footsteps was a last minute one but one I thought that was so essential to understand especially in terms of reflecting on how Palestinians are being cruelly expelled of their own land in the name of Zionism another thing I want to read up further having grown up in a Zionist religion. Another bonus one I'm adding in is This Arab Is Queer as it has content from Elias Jahshan who is a Palestinian author and he's the one who edited the overall Anthology so it's important to highlight I think.

I hope that you might be able to join me and get something out of the content.

Conclusion

As I said the dates for the other readalongs will come in other posts and I will keep everyone updated. I hope those who are on Storygraph can join me and help raise more awareness about what's happening. They don't want us to be aware and it's important we fight back against that.

-Melody-

They/Them

#free gaza #free palestine #palestine #read along #palestinian genocide #palestinian voices #palestinian authors #minor detail #translated #bookworm #bookish #book tumblr #booklover #reading #storygraph

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

February 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

Unfortunately I sadly had to break my 405 reading streak as I have been terribly ill with presumably the 100 day cough. I was just too tired and ill to do anything. I'm on the mend but unfortunately February's reading ended on a low because of this.

Finally finished Will which was such a relief. I was worried it was gonna clog up February but thanks to a unexpected a + e trip I luckily got to finish it quicker. Its a very good memoir but it tried to balance being a self help and account of Will Smiths life and as a result made it very overwhelming. Might Reread this again in the future but we shall see.

Still as of this post Reading through Black Spire but I hope I'll be able to finish it in March, we shall see. Its not a perfect story and really confusing without reading Phasma but still pretty decent especially on the world building. Fazbear Frights 4 is easily the best novel out of the bunch I have read. It focuses on the themes of Family and Fixing Past Mistakes but still expands and keeps to the og lore. Coming Home is the best out of the three short stories.

Man so far I'm loving the 8th Doctor Adventures and agree it was absolutely necessary to jump into Big Finish through this series due to the similar style to New Who. I hope the 2 hour stories are as good. Just purchased Dark Eyes 1 and Out Of Time 1 this month and excited to build up an exciting Big Finish catalogue to listen too. Horror Of Glamrock was a very unique and interesting story as well as incoperating rock music in a fun way. It makes me excited to see what other fun new ideas Big Finish have done with their stories. Miss Bernard Cribbins and it was nice to hear him on audio again. Immortal Beloved used Greek Mythology in a fun way and is definitely one of the best Big Finish audios I have listened to so far. It debated the ethics of cloning and appealed to older Whovians in a brilliant way. Paul MacGann was excellent in this and I feel like this audio allowed him to really develop the complexity of his character. No matter the audio length I vow to devour Big Finish in one day.

I think that this month was so crammed full of books due to how many shorter 200+ books I read. It took about 7 days too read the incredible Doctor Who novel, The Way Through The Woods and Different Not Less, 12. Both absolutely fantastic like I mentioned. I knew Different Not Less would hit hard but I didn't realise just how hard.

Overall a good reading calender that will hopefully improve in March now that I'm feeling a lot better.

February's Stats

Looks so much better than my January Stats layout that I did. Credits to LeeBee Reads as her templates are so much better for showing off Storygraph Stats. Wish I'd shrunk things down a bit but apart from that all good. With that being said let's break down the Stats from left to right.

So in February I read and listened to in total 6 books. 4 Books and Two Audio Dramas. Pages wise I managed to read 1,123 which is 168 pages up from February 2023. An absolute huge improvement which I'm proud of myself for. Then I listened to 2.27 hours between both Big Finish Stories I delved into. Nevermind 2023, February compared to January this year was alot better despite falling off at the end. I'm excited to see what March will bring me in terms of pages and listening hours.

In terms of Genre, Science Fiction absolutely devoured once again but that can be expected considering how much Big Finish I've been listening too. Whilst Young Adult dominated last year, I definitely think Science Fiction is gonna be the winning genre of 2024. In second place was of course Memoir as I managed to finish Will and Different Not Less. Two very informative and life changing memoirs. But with Science Fiction, Memoir, Video Games, Young Adult, Self Help And Horror. February sure was an interesting month when it came to genres.

My profile has not changed much at all. As much as I have started to branch out and look at more Non-Fiction Recs unfortunately my profile will remain mainly reads Fiction. Like I've tracked and compared to Fiction I only have 80 Non-Fiction on it so yeah. My most popular moods are Adventurous, Dark and Mysterious which is again definitely not changing anytime soon but we shall see. I definitely need to balance my Dark and Lighthearted moods better as much as I would love to claw into exclusively dark books. And again I will try to get myself into longer and more faster paced or slow paced books but unlikely to change.

Onto moods, no second place this time as three moods impressively decided to tie. Those moods were as followed; Mysterious, Informative And Funny. Not suprised there as literally most of my reading in February was mutiple genres and types. Ignoring my audio listens it was literally half and half between fiction and nonfiction material so I'm not shocked at their being no winning mood this time round. Will definitely not be the case in March though I'm sure of it.

Finally we have Star Ratings. Thankfully no books went below 3 stars as wether it due to enjoyment or of a good quality nothing this month had mostly slaps. Three Five Stars in one month is very impressive, than again Last Year was the same when I got to experience the wonderful Loveless and Leia Princess Of Alderaan back to back. February tends to be a good month for me which is a huge trend I've noticed. A 4.58 average rating is really good and makes me excited for what March might bring.

Good stats and a fabulous template to use.

Finished February Reads/Listens

Again I can't help find myself smirking at the fact that the month with more books read and listened to is the shortest month of the year.

February was really good and I'm hoping it only gets better from here. Will was a really good memoir and whilst I don't agree with his political views 🍉, I do recommend borrowing this from the library as it has a lot of valuable life lessons and lots of Will Smiths character. Probably gonna borrow it off my brother again in the far future. Just to see how I feel about it with a reread.

I'll include them together but I'm absolutely in love with what Big Finish has to offer and have a future wishlist ready for when my wallet can afford it. Horror Of Glamrock and Immortal Beloved were very entertaining and creative stories that I've never really seen Doctor Who do before. I'm very much going to dive more into the format and might even try some of the BBC audio novels. I've also gone to really care about the 8th Doctor and Paul MacGanns portyal. Gonna try get some reviews out soon and highlight more of the ones that are avaliable for free on Spotify.

From Audio to Physical. I finally managed to pick up my first 11th Doctor adventure and it was absolutely fabulous. The Way Through The Woods is such a well built up mystery that pays off super well and doesn't go too out there. Una McCormack knows how to write Amy, Rory And The Doctor and they all get their moments to shine. It was also super fun and wild and the location was perfectly eerie. Absolutely worthy of five stars and one novel I'd highly recommend to other whovians. Up next for Doctor Who books I'll be re-reading Prisoner Of The Daleks and exploring the 9th Doctor adventure The Deviant Strain.

Different Not Less is another amazing memoir that hugely hit hard and deep. As a newly diagnosed Autistic person back in March 2023, I knew that this was absolutely one of the first books that I had to pick up. Hearing Chloés story really gave me a lot of comfort and hope I didn't know I need. She also perfectly balances out her two reader audiences of Neurotypical readers wanting to learn and Neurodivergent people wanting to understand there self. Fabulous book that I will be rereading without a doubt in the future. Completely recommend this wether Neurotypical or Neurodivergent.

Fazbear Frights: Step Closer, was absolutely the best out of the four books I read. It still had a lot of faults don't get me wrong but it was so much better than the other three. If the Epilogues didn't exist this is the one I'd recommend out of all of them. Coming Home was the best out of the three stories in the book, it made me super emotional and I almost cried. It had a twist I was not expecting and incoperated some of the og lore in such a brilliant way. I'm honestly happy to end there as I am not willing to force myself through all Twelve of these when not all the stories are good. Eventually I plan to read the first few Tales books and we'll have to see what they are like in comparisant.

Conclusion

Overall a very fun reading month jam-packed with absolutely fabulous content that I'd recommend. I'm excited to see how March will compare and what it will bring.

If you want to check out my full reviews of all of these books mentioned you can find me on Storygraph and Good Reads.

Storygraph: melsage1823

Good Reads: Melody Soundy

That's it for now, I'll pop back in April for an update about March.

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookworm #bookish #booklover #book tumblr #star wars #star wars books #nonfiction #doctor who #doctor who books #the eighth doctor adventures #the eighth doctor #the eleventh doctor #neurodivergent #autism representation #celebrity memoir #will smith #five night at freddy's #five nights at freddy's #fnaf books #fnaf #february

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January 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

We had a really good reading month. If people are wondering why it's so chock a block its because I am practicing reading books at the same time before I potentially start uni because I'm planning to study creative writing.

The Rising Storm is peak Star Wars, I really enjoyed it but did not enjoy how much it broke my heart with that major character death at the end. The false hope hurt massively. I'm excited to delve into the rest of Phase 1 but for now I'm definitely gonna have a break. Definitely glad I read Will's memoir after as anymore Fiction would have broken me.

After watching The Doctor Who TV Movie on the 30th December I made it my mission to get into Big Finish without wasting tons of money and Spotify allowed me to do that. The TV movie immediately made me fall in love with the Eighth Doctor so I of course decided to check out his adventures first. So as New Years Day arrived I immediately pressed play on Blood Of The Daleks and did not regret it at all. 2024 is definitely the year for me to feast on Big Finish.

Here And Queer was for a Book Club and Black Spires was a birthday present I'm getting to. Will through was a borrowed book that I really enjoyed and spoilers did indeed finish in February. It was an interesting autobiography with a lot of wisdom.

But overall my reading calendar has been chock a block but very good in January.

January's Stats

From top to bottom lets look at the stats for January. This month has been absolutely fantastic for reading and listening. I had double the amount of books read compared to Jan 2023. I normally read 2 books a month so this is really good for me.

I read 5 books which is a huge rise from my reading stats in Jan 2023. Looking at the moods of course Adventurous dominated the chart with tense a close second. I'm gonna honestly be suprised if there's a month where I read no adventurous books. I'm not usually a contemporary kind of enby. I live for action and adventure and nothing apart from maybe nonfiction will ever pull me out of that mood. Tense well its second because as well as a good adventure I love a tense high stakes ride. Overall I've done really well to try have a variety of moods. Adventurous, Tense, Dark, Lighthearted And Informative is how I lived my January and I'm proud of it.

As for genre I dominated with Sci-Fi at the top and Young Adult at a close second. Again not suprised at Sci-Fi being my top genre at all with not only the factor of me starting to listen to Big Finish but also the fact I am an absolute Sci-Fi nerd I mean Doctor Who was my childhood for bleeding sake. Of course Sci-Fi Books are gonna peek my interest more. So in summary all my genres I read this month were, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Video Games, Lgtbqia+, Self, Horror And Fantasy, January was random and I love it for that.

This month has been super good for listening, I did 2.18 hours thanks to pressing play on Doctor Who Blood Of The Daleks for the very first time. Honestly discounting reading audiobooks along with the book I haven't had any listening hours in the past as I've thought I'd struggle with the audio format on its own but surprisingly I haven't. Bring on more big finish! In January 2023, I read 1,025 pages with only two books but in 2024 I read 3 books with 1,069 pages so in comparisant I read 44 pages more in Jan 2024 than I did in Jan 2023.

My nonfiction and fiction stats are so much better this month. Due to reading one nonfiction book in January I have read 20% nonfiction and 80% fiction. I am very happy that I've managed to fit in a nonfiction read even if it was only for my bookclub.

Finally my ratings. My average rating is 4.1 which is not bad but worse than last year as last year was 4.25 but I've read more books this year in January so it makes so much sense. I've had one 3 star, two 4 star, one 4.5 star and one 5 star. Of course the book that broke my heart the most has five stars, I'm still not over Rising Storm like I said earlier and never will be. Again still continuing my possibly too generous streak of rating books though.

Overall I'm immensely satisfied with my stats and wish the best for February.

January's Finshed Reads/Listens

Six spaces filled which is not bad at all, I find myself internally smirking at how out of place Here And Queer is amongst the other books with its bright and shimmering cover.

Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 + 2 were super fun listens and made me fall in love with the 8th Doctor even more. I also loved the Dalek Vs Dalek concept and all the other twists and turns. Together the story is amazing and a really well written. It's another peak Dalek Story that actually makes the Daleks threatening and stakes super high.

The Rising Storm is an absolutely amazing novel, I didn't think anything could beat Light Of The Jedi but this did. Stakes were High and Intense the entire time that it felt like a rollercoaster of emotions to the point the ending destroyed me. Nobody is safe in The High Republic and this book confirmed that. You are definitely missing out if you haven't checked out The High Republic its an interesting Star Wars era that rocks.

Here And Queer was a pick for my Book Club at college and I loved reading it. It was so informative and a book I would have loved to throw Young Mel. This is a crucial book for Young Queer Girls. I am not a queer girl but I still enjoyed it as I loved the inclusivity and how welcoming it was. I hate exclusions and I am glad this book shut down that side of the community. Definitely recommend and you should absolutely hand it to any Queer Girls you know in your life. Its short but such a jam-packed and informative novel.

Unfortunately we ended on a negative as the 3rd collection of Fazbear Frights was great until the Final story made it crash and burn. 1:35 Am and Room For One More were absolutely fantastic stories in the collection but The New Kid crashed and burned the novel it was absolutely atrocious. Its a shame cos I was really enjoying the stories until that point. I'm a new fnaf fan so I just might not have understood it but it just wasn't for me. I'm still checking out the Fourth one regardless though as the stories really intrigue me.

Conclusion

Wow what a reading month and without spoiling anything I can tell you that February will be just as interesting I'm on 5 Star High this month for some reason.

For now Goodbye 👋

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookish #booklover #bookworm #book tumblr #star wars books #star wars the high republic #will smith #autobiography #here and queer #queer books #lgtbqia+ #fnaf books #fnaf #fazbear frights #five night at freddy's #big finish #doctor who #eighth doctor #the eighth doctor adventures #the eighth doctor #storygraph wrapped #storygraph #reading wrap up #reading stats #reading in 2024

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 + 2 Review

Introduction

New year new me, some might say but as a whovian for me it's been New Year New Desires To Binge Classic Who And Big Finish. It took me only five minutes to fall in love with Paul MacGanns after watching the Camp, Bizarre and fun Doctor Who TV Movie. I wanted more and when I found out some of big finish was free on Spotify it was my lucky day. I aim to listen to 20 Big Finish stories this year and will not back down.

So get strapped in as I briefly review Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 + 2 as a whole story.

What I Liked

As a separate individual stories I'd rate them both 4 Stars but together this is another peak Dalek Story.

I don't know what it is about Doctor Who extended media but Dalek stories just slap so much better outside of the main TV Show. They're actually scary to the point you understand The Doctors fear and caution with them. Especially when it comes to Martez's Daleks as it shows a good example of The Daleks eugenics and supremacist nature. Even with only exclusively the voice of Nicholas Briggs the Daleks are still nerve wracking. I applaud Steve Lyons for his writing here.

Next I have to praise all of the performances, Paul MacGann shines as The Doctor. Without the amnesia and post regeneration symptoms we truly get to know his Doctor. He's not the romantic dreamer in this story he's more like a Tired But Wise Old Sage. Through only a voice performance he impressively manages to show The Doctors old age but also his compassionate nature when it comes to protecting people. I really like his Doctor, his story reminds me of a Greek Tragedy and I'm really excited to listen to more of his performance. I'm do happy and glad Big Finish gave him a second chance as The Doctor. Sheridan Smith As Lucie Miller is an absolute icon. She is super expressive in her performance and brings a lot of personality to the character in so many brilliant ways. If it wasn't for Sheridan I wouldn't be sold on her sassiness and fearless courage. Anita Dobson, Kenneth Cranham and Haley Atwell also give incredible performances and round up the casting well. Nicholas Briggs as well voices The Daleks better then everyone. Everyone is at the best here and because of it the atmosphere it generally feels like visually watching an episode of the show.

The world building especially in part one is so much fun as the planet of Red Rocket Rising is brought to life incredibly despite their being no visuals which is not an easy thing to achieve at all. Through Steve Lyons writing alone I immediately became attached to the planet and routed for The Doctor to do the right thing especially when you realise who is responsible for the state of the planet.

Dislikes

I do not like Lucie And The Doctors dynamic as well developed as the characters are individually their dynamic feels incredibly stale. Lucie and The Doctor are downright nasty to each other for no reason to the point even the characters in the story call it out and say their bickering is becoming unbearing.

I hope other stories are not let down by this dynamic, I infact not only hope but pray because the idea of the timelords forcing Lucie on The Doctor is interesting but not when the pair are downright brutal to each other for no good reason. It falls into tons of tropes with no substance.

Other issues including pacing and the fact that if you put the parts as individual stories they don't stand as strong.

Apart from that I did enjoy both audios though quite a lot and it was a perfect introduction to big finish as I'm now obsessed.

Conclusion

Overall a fun two parter with great villians, great twists, great performances and wonderful world building. I'm really glad that these two were my first ever big finish listens as their an absolute blast.

My rating for both audios would be 4 Stars out of Five

Paul MacGann might become one of my favourite Doctors if I keep binging more of his stuff. So glad Big Finish picked up and gave him his own area.

February Listens are The Horror Of Glamrock And Immortal Beloved. Since its most like New Who I thought and heard S1 Of Lucies adventures free on Spotify would be best to start.

I'm generally excited though especially since Bernard Cribbins is apparently in Horror Of Glamrock.

Bonus:

My user name on Storygraph is melsage1823 and I have a Big Finish listening challenge set up open to any fans who want to join me.

Since this is my first ever year listening to big finish I thought I'd fancy setting a challenge for myself.

Link to challenge:

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/a76cebd1-0101-47da-9da9-8d4c21e326f2

#bookworm #doctor who #big finish #eighth doctor #the eighth doctor #the eighth doctor adventures #lucie miller #audio drama #audio production #daleks #Spotify

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Mel's 2023 Reads 🎉🎉Tier List🎉🎉

F Tier

I would consider this tier the You Sucked Tier

These books all disappointed me in major ways. Some were just two short and underdeveloped whilst Insurgent was just a crime on humanity. It committed Character assassination badly and really underplayed abuse.

I was not the audience for the Leia book as its clearly for kids who aren't old enough too watch the Star Wars films.

Honestly I've had a pretty decent year F Tier is thankfully been minimal.

D Tier

I would consider this the Very Underwhelming Tier.

Sorry Marvel fans the Spider-Gwen comic would be higher if I didn't start with issue 5. It was cool okay I saw it at universal and went mine!! I also apologise to Good Omens fans. As a huge fan of the show I just didn't enjoy it. It works a lot better as a TV show. It was too crowded and I wish similar to the High Republic that there was individual pov chapters.

Allegiant I'm suprised I enjoyed it more then Insurgent but it didn't character assassinate Tris character but instead had weird new characters because the villians in the last book were defeated. I cried and the ending so therefore it belongs in D Tier. Old As Time was the most disappointing out of all of the Disney Twisted Tales I was expecting more. Some really good ideas that weren't fleshed out properly. I also found Belle really unlikeable in the first half of the book. I also wanted more Enchantress, her being Belles Mum was fascinating. Would still recommend though it has a beautiful message.

Again not bad for being one of the lowest tiers.

C Tier

I would consider this tier the Enjoyable But With Huge Flaws Tier.

The two books here I enjoyed but have too many major flaws holding them back. I'm suprised that there aren't more but then again 2023 has been a great reading year so I shouldn't.

Look I'm a new to the World of FNAF so I may not be able to accept weirdness. I also accept and respect The Creator didn't expect his game to be popular and as a result is new to writing but the second Fazbear Fright Book Fetch whilst improving on Into The Pits flaws had its own flaws to the point I couldn't put it further. Don't be angry FNAF fans.😰

I adored the Bullet Train movie and was super excited when I found out that it was a novel originally. But the outdated language, highly visible fatphobia and transphobia meant I couldn't put this any higher. I don't care the year it was published, call me a Snowflake but as a Trans Nonbinary Plush Sized person I do not want to read stories that mock my existence, so it's going in C tier. Still a really good story though.

I'm happy that most of my 41 reads ended up in B, A and S Tier

B Tier

I would consider this the Loved It But Could Have Been Better Tier.

Only six books in this tier again it's very surprising how many books have dodged this tier. I loved also this books but they had wasted potential and could have been better. They definitely would have been in A and S tier if they were.

I hope FNAF and Star Wars fans aren't angry at me but Darth Plagueis and Into The Pit absolutely deserve to be in B Tier. I loved Darth Plagueis as my first legends novel but the pacing was garbage fire. I would have much preferred a Trilogy where Book 1 is Plagueis's Backstory and Training With Darth Tenerbous till he kills him. Book 2 is Plagueis Grooming Palpatine to be his apprentice and then Book 3 takes place a few years before and then during Phantom Menace. It would have made the book feel less like 3 books squished into one. As for Into The Pit well, all three protagonists we're insufferable especially Millie in Count The Ways and the stories as a whole are to vague for me. The ending of Into The Pit had me scratching my head. I'm hoping I have a better time with the Tales Series.

As for the comics I haven't even Read Phase 2 yet so I was way too lost to properly enjoy The High Republic Adventures it also in genuine felt way to short. I loved Maz and Dexters appearances though. 2024 is looking to be the year I delve more into Doctor Who extended media with Big Finish having their first fifty stories free on Spotify but 2023 was a good start. Seventh Doctor comic was a pick up from the library and it was good but it also felt way too overcrowded with characters so in B Tier it goes.

I will come back to Plagueis someday and see how it goes but for now I'm super happy with my decisions.

A Tier

I would consider this the Amazing But Not Peak Tier. All the stories I really liked but they just missed a single step preventing it from being S Tier. Nine stories again which shocks me as it shows how generous I am.

Again hoping that fans of these novels are meant. I loved seeing my favourite prequel film turned into a Shakespearian play but unfortunately but unfortunately the source materials flaws stop this from being rated higher. It has however got me excited to read the orginal Trilogy Shakespeare plays.

Would have loved to put The Story Book Of Legends higher as well as it was very enjoyable and brought back alot of nostalgia for me involving Ever After High as it was basically my childhood but the world building is very nonchalant. It feels like if I hadn't been a fan of the orginal show I would have been dreadfully confused. I hope the next two stories in the Trilogy are less alienating when I get to them.

Bloodline and Spider-Man Hostile Takeover are definitely gonna be the most controversial. I loved Bloodline as a Leia Stan but I do not love Disney assassinating Leia and Han's relationship be like Satine and Obi-Wan. Leia even gave up being a jedi for her family. I just don't think that Han would listen to Leia and stay away whilst she's going through so much. Han would never be satisfied with only a video call. As for Hostile Takeover, Liss really messed up with one of the characters Anika she felt tropey and stale, only there to be Peter's over love interest option. Hostile Takeover is such a good Spider-Man story but Anika really let's down this book for me. Echo was written brilliantly I don't understand why Anika couldn't have been as well.

Congratulations to the books in A tier for coming very closer to S Tier though. 🎉🎉

S Tier

Welcome to the Peak Writing Tier it feels like I just give books the S Tier too generously but trust me when I say that these books have absolutely earned it. These books blew me away and are the reason why I've had to do a Tier list instead of a ranking. I'd mention all the books if I could but then this post would go on for hours so I'm just gonna mention three.

Claudia Gray dominated this year and has honestly become one of my favourite authors. The way she writes Leia is so masterful and awesome. Leia Princess Of Alderaan shined and hugely redeemed Holdo as a character for me. However as usual The High Republic lands on top as usual. Into The Dark By Claudia Gray blew my mind in all the best ways possible. It gave me a rollercoaster of emotions and I enjoyed the smaller cast of characters alot. Each character arc felt well done and hugely earnt. As a Star Wars fan I can say your missing out if you don't check out The High Republic in my opinion its so much better than the sequels cos all the writers actually sat down and talked with eachother laying out a clear plan. Peak Star Wars with amazing representation.

I got to go to my first authors talk this year and it was amazing. The Many Half Lived Lives Of Sam Sylvester is a book I wish I could have shipped off to younger Mel who had been bullied in High School for their Autistic traits and was so confused about their identity. Maya MacGregor is such a lovely person and a great author it was a privilege to meet them. They really did the queer Autistic community the representation we deserved. And their next book which I won an arc copy of was just as good. I will be following more of their stories in the future they deserve the hype.

Finally When Our Worlds Collided was an emotional book that brought out the rage in me. I hope this book gets put on the GCSE English curriculum and replaces the harmful stuff such as Of Mice And Men. As a lighter skinned biracial person I was heartbroken realising the struggles and injustices Black teens might face in the UK. I loved Chantelle, Jackson and Marc and how they managed to come together through tragedy and help eachother through their battles. So glad that I impulsively bought this July 2022. Everyone needs to read this especially if you are White. Read diversely people it's important.

Conclusion

Overall 2023 was a great reading year I'm excited to try dip into more nonfiction and fiction in 2024. I'm also listening to Doctor Who Big Finish this year which means my 2024 tier list will certainly be larger next year.

Here are my storygraph and goodreads if you want to follow me.

Goodreads: Melody Soundy

Storygraph: melsage1823

-Melody-

They/Them

#bookish #booklover #bookworm #book tumblr #star wars #star wars books #marvel #marvel books #marvel comics #star wars comics #doctor who books #doctor who comics #tier list #reading in 2023 #reading #2023 reads #fnaf #fnaf books #five nights at freddy's #fazbear frights #bullet train #autism representation #autism

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

And Me even though I wasn't born yet.

As well as the rest of the queer community.

It was camp af and I loved it for that.

-Melody-

They/Them

Thet

”who even was the target audience of the 1996 doctor who tv movie starring paul mcgann?”

me, i was, it was made for me

#and me #lgtbtq

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

The Doctor - Doctor Who, S014E0