If that went long, then I recommend Finna by Nino Cipri, coming out this Tuesday (but Tor is kinda lackadaisical with release dates and we've had it on our shelves for a week).

130 very fast pages. As per my staff review I submitted today:

Ava just had a messy break-up with her ex, Jules, who is unfortunately also her coworker. She tries to avoid them, but that's hard to do when the manager at this knockoff IKEA sends the two of them to find a customer. Who is lost. In another dimension.

On the slim side for a novella, Finna nevertheless delights with its adventure and raw emotion. It tells just what it needs to, and excites me for the prospect for what will happen after the last word graces the page.

Also continues Tor just leaning hard into queer authors and characters; Jules in nonbinary, and the story uses it thematically a lot (as opposed to Gideon, which is still queer as fuck but doesn't use it to drive the story - it just is, which is its own merit).

It's just... racing a vehicle with human ballast. Sidecar motorcycle seems a weird way to do it, that's what's getting me, but I kinda love the idea of having someone climb around to change the driving dynamics of the vehicle. Kinda like pitching forward and up, banking left and right in Star Wars Racer.

I love creative stuff like that. In Neptune, of Holst's The Planets suite, there's a choir in a room adjacent to the stage, where a screen can be lowered to mute them slowly over time.

Nowadays, we'd just turn down the volume on a part of the mix, but at the time, with live orchestras, there was no way to do that while still keeping the richness of all of them singing at a semi-normal volume while also having them get quieter.

I only feel a little bad about how many likes that last post will rack up.

I, uh. Haven't changed? Like, I'm pretty sure I was here when you were here last. And that I haven't changed my profile pic since joining.

Thoughts on seeing Pedro Pascal's face? I thought for sure they were going to cut away, or at least use camera angles to obscure him, but I do like that we got to see his reaction to the droid taking care of him and his reversal of his anti-droid stance on, at least, this droid in particular.

I buy it. I think a Moff would warrant the budget for whatever projects they like. If Krennic can take a peek at blueprints for an unproduced shuttle and convince Sienar to make one for him, someone high in the Imperial Remnant can say, "Hey, what about this, but *usable*?"

....Daaamn.

Alex, I'm really sorry to hear about the break up I'm glad we have a good space here for you to go to and yell about Star Wars in.

...A summation I can 100% get behind.

Morning, and yeah, I'm gonna see it another couple times to live with it before trying tk set my thoughts in cement. I'm going to say that I don't think Kylo earned his redemption and I *know* he didn't earn a kiss from the one he abused so heavily through the saga. The rest, I'm upset that it's not the movie I wanted, and J need to work past that myself.

I liked it on its own merits. I certainly had fun watching it. But I hated it for how it tried its hardest to retcon everything about Last Jedi. It's apparent that Abrams wanted to make a trilogy and stuffed two movies of ideas into this one.

I haven't noticed the score too much - it's fit quite well as I recall but hasn't done anything bombastic to call attention to itself, at least not without rewatching. I'm listening to the main theme now and... WAIT yes okay, that bit about a minute into the main title music. I really like it. Doesn't sound like Williams, I admit, and that's fine. It does call to mind Morricone at times, which is appropriate.

Saniss, for me, Clone Wars took time to get used to (seasons of time). Until I did it felt like a cheaper version of the main theme, a knockoff. Stargate made that transition from movie score to TV theme much better.