MJ Paxton | Unusual Velocity

Blog

  • 7 Word Reviews: Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

    Fuck “redeeming neo-Nazis with five minutes’ remorse.”

  • 7 Word Reviews: Knives Out

    So great! Watch de Armas and Stanfield

  • Nov. 12 is Run For Something Day

    https://www.runforofficeday.com/

    I’m pondering. I only moved to town at the beginning of this year, but on the other hand our town council election this year only had one contested race.

    But whether you run yourself or not, find a way to get involved.

  • This is your semi-regular suggestion to own your content

    Yesterday I saw someone on Twitter criticizing people who post to Medium instead of getting their own domain & site to post to. (I hope they were aware of the irony.) The specific context was Medium taking down a post at the request of Instacart, when said post was from Instacart employees advocating for better wages & working conditions. I reblogged the posts, and then tweeted this:

    “there’s a degree of privilege in domain & hosting costs. unlike a house or retirement, though, it actually is in the “one or two lattes each month” range.

    if you can, control your content. stop making jack, mark, and their friends rich with your unpaid labor.”

    Now I’ve brought it back to a platform I own to self-syndicate.

  • You should be listening to Orphan Black: The Next Chapter

    I’ve been meaning to post for a few weeks now about the Serial Box feature Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. I’m usually doubtful about continuing fan-favorite shows in another medium years after the end; they usually don’t add much and wind up souring me on the whole franchise. I really, really don’t want a West Wing movie or mini-series. But Psych: The Movie was delightful, so maybe they’re okay sometimes? I loved Orphan Black, and the show runner for the new serial is Malka Older, one of my favorite authors. Then they said Tatiana Maslany would be narrating the audio version, and I was hooked.

    It helps if you’ve seen the show, but as long as you know the clone premise you’ll be fine. The series picks up almost a decade later (longer than it’s been since the finale, a neat trick you can do in text), and the main characters are back but dealing with entirely new plots and villains. Older and her team capture the tone of the series wonderfully. Maslany’s narration is amazing, bringing back all the characters she played on the show and taking on her former cast mates’ voices as well.

    I don’t know how many seasons they’re planning to go, but if you like thrillers with a dash of sci-fi (thinking Alias or Nikita) or enjoyed the original show, you owe it to yourself to read or listen to The Next Chapter.

  • “Lesbian necromancers… in space” -Charles Stross

    [I received an advance reader copy of Gideon the Ninth from the publisher at ALA Annual 2019]

    I’d been hearing great things about Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir from most of the authors I follow for a couple months leading up to ALA, so when I saw it at the Tor booth I definitely asked for a copy. Then I saw the Charles Stross blurb on the cover:

    Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless emperor! Skeletons!

    All of those things are true about this book, and the tone of the blurb also resembles Muir’s narrative voice. The action was great, but what I loved about this book was the sense of a handful of warriors and mages trapped in a sprawling complex abandoned by mystic forerunners. It was everything I loved about Destiny without being forced to grind my character’s power level so that I could get stomped in a newly unlocked form of PvP.

    I think that Gideon the Ninth has joined my short list of favorite debut novels with Infomocracy, Ninefox Gambit, and Ancillary Justice. I highly recommend all of those, and I can’t wait to read Muir’s book 2.

  • 7 Word Reviews: Always Be My Maybe

    So great, so funny, so very Keanu.

  • 7 Word Reviews: Good Omens

    Crowley and Aziraphale: an asexual romantic couple. <3

  • 7 Word Reviews: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

    Great at what it wants to be.

  • 7 Word Reviews: Mortal Engines

    More like “Final Fantasy: Bioshock Terminators” amiright?