Відео

I couldn't agree more.

The last of us is my favourite game of all time. It is a 10 of 10. Is it superior to the show? Of course it is. Is the show a failure? Far from it. The game follows Joel and Ellie, you literally play as those characters and walk a mile in their shows. A television show trying to recreate this exactly would never have stacked up. I think it was a smart decision to delve deeper into other characters. We already have Joel and Ellie's story and it is perfect. The show tried to show the outbreak and apocalypse as a more shared experience. I like it. i like the alternative version of Bill & Frank, of Sam & Henry. I liked more insight into David's community and even Kathleen. The actors gave us alternative versions of the characters. I loved the little intros in eps one and two. Showing more of Sarah in episode one was fantastic and Nico Parker was pretty damn perfect in the role. Anna Torv as Tess was another stand out for me. In the game, I understood the dilemma at the end, but having played as Joel and watched him let Ellie into his heart I never really questioned his choice. By the end of the show, which didn't hit nearly the same highs in their relationship building, I was more torn on his decision. I think showing more of the world added to the dilemma, allowed me to question the decision Joel made beyond his perspective. It was never going to match the game but it was still pretty damn great.

I know this playlist is a little old now, but I just wanted to say I really enjoy these videos and have been watching them as I read Absolution. I was definitely struggling to get into this book at first, so it’s nice to hear someone discuss it after reading each chunk so I can process and appreciate everything more. Thanks!

This book is a great example of The Emperor's New Clothes. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go vote for Emilia Pérez to win a record-breaking 14 Academy Awards.

Also, the game is so great that it has TONS of videos fleshing out the story and explaining why it works so well, why it¡s good and those little details and what feelings those angles, segways, even those sitting positions you mentions, so many videos explaining thses important details, and the live action still missed.

I LOVED this book (haven't seen the movie, don't plan to), but during the car ride I actually felt like we weren't getting enough character development / insight as much as a bunch of philosophical banter... I got worried the author couldn't write dialogue. Well. I was humbled because there certainly was a VERY good reason the 2 main characters didn't have super distinct personalities ;)

I agree first half is slow. Second half pick up a paste. And the book is very short, so it never feels like a chore to get to the end.

Personally i really enjoyed the show. Addapting anything from one medium into another is always a bit of a gamble. Even if they had done as you say and made the show more like the game, no one can say with certainty that it would have even been as successful as it is. It could have tanked under the weight of too many duplications from the originl format. After all, as a rull of addaptation you must take calculated chances on where to meet the expectations of estblished fans of the source material and where to surprise them. It's a gamble because an attempt to surprise can always prove instead to be a disappointment. While trying to meet expectation could prove to be viewed as a missed opportunity to fleash a story point out in a way that for what ever reason was not possible or thought of in the original format. Overall what we got was very satisfying for me as well as the 30+ million viewrs that the show averaged per episode. Hopefully one of the things they did with this whole year taken between seasons was to evaluate what worked and what didn't in the first season and ironout some of the wrinkles you mentioned. In any case.. i can't wait to see it.

Lowry's such a lunatic and yet he's the only one who's descent into insanity actually makes any amount of sense. Everybody else will just have these wild thoughts like "there came a sensation of thousand tiny insects crawling upside down on the floor. Only there was no floor, and somehow he felt that was so very sad." And never question it. Lowry being such an unhinged moron at the start actually makes sense that he would have these thoughts and not recognize how batshit they are.

I absolutely love jeff vandermeer and the Area x books. Its was a book suggestion from my husband.

Can’t wait to dig in! I’ve been anxiously looking forward to this particular episode.

Sounds like it's a mess on the editing side of things, structurally speaking? Aside from the one dimensional characters of course. Is it silly fun though? Might give it a go just for that if the prose are great. I've read my fair share of internet fanfic that only got through because the prose are better than average. The only horror western I ever read was Red Rabbit. A rag tag group trying to hunt a witch. It was alright but horror western does seemed niche.

Kafka on the shore

Great review Jason! Sorry it was a disappointment but thanks for sharing your analysis- it was great to hear. Is it bad that I am really smug and chuffed that It Ends With Us got a better rating? 😃🤩😅 Maybe that means 2025 should include a romance read too! 😀

How does their son die?

I didn’t know what to read, so I decided to throw it into the hands of fate or rather ChatGPT. To keep things truly random I asked it from my work computer (because let’s be real, my home algorithm would’ve suggested something way too tailored). My request was simple “Find me a random book to read, no descriptions, just the title and author” And like some literary deity answering my call, it blessed me with This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. Let me tell you it did not disappoint. Quick read, heavy vibes, unforgettable. SPOILER ALERT! Listen, I hear your critique, but I’ve got to disagree, respectfully. As a fellow Latino Dominican, not Mexican I couldn’t help but click with the cultural undertones Moreno weaved into this book. Latin culture is like a patchwork of unique traditions but there’s this shared sense of spiritual unease, a superstition that vibrates between us. It’s like if centuries ago, something was unleashed call it rage, sorrow, or whatever but it stuck around. In the Dominican Republic, we call it El Fuku. It’s not something you fight it’s just there, looming over everything, waiting for its moment. Moreno nailed that. The “thing” haunting Thiago felt so real to me. It’s not just spooky it’s existentially dreadful, in a Lovecraftian, can’t look away kind of way. He captured the unshakable weight of it, the futility of trying to resist. That last quarter of the book? Chef’s kiss. For us, this kind of thing isn’t a monster you can outwit it’s an ancient force, deeply tied to who we are and where we come from. And Moreno took that idea and ran with it, straight into the void. Did the cook REALLY lose by Thiagos final action? And the Itza manual at the end was a the cherry on top what a mind fuck. Like I said respect your opinion I loved this video though you’ve earned a follower keep up the good work.

Just finished this book, came to UA-cam to see what others thought. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I always adore good lovecraft/cosmic horror and something about the genre captures my attention incredibly well. With this one the element of the prose conveying the feeling of sitting around a campfire being told a story really worked for me. It let me excuse the odd pacing changes and some other shortcomings and still really engage with the world. I particularly like the setting he was able to show, and want to read so much more of it! Think I’ll have to check out some of his other story collections. Great analysis of the book by the way! I actually completely agree, I think it’s a solid 7/10 for me as well

My whole Southern Reach experience has been enriched by your videos. When I started Absolution, I began listening to this series from the beginning during the day and it's been a great way to keep the trilogy fresh in my mind while reading Absolution in the evenings. Can't wait for the next one!

Nice vid I agree

Such a great analysis!

Beautiful prose....the descriptions lovely. but the story fell flat for me. Wasn't for me. Where I thought the book was going was that he was undergoing a psychological PTSD episode from having been abducted. The ending didn't work!

Well, I hate you didn't like the book, but something tells me I might not either if I were to reread it now, lol. XD I think you're probably right; the pacing is really quite awkward, and putting the story on pause to tell an extended backstory smack in the middle of the book probably wasn't the best idea. Although I do recall being riveted by the villain's history, even though it's been a decade since I read the book. As for the resolution of the arcs of the principal characters, I agree; if you just blatantly tell the reader how they're supposed to feel about how things came out then it's way too on the nose. Really it would have been better if it had just ended like that old Sidney Poitier movie In the Heat of the Night. Simpler and subtler that way. :)

I didn’t realize it was pitched as horror and definitely did not see it as horror.

So I too am always on the lookout for horror western novels, but from what I've seen, there just isn't many notable ones to go around. A comic that was short-lived Called Highmoon was entertaining. I'm sure you can still get it digitally. The Vampire Hunter D novellas are heavily influenced by westerns in my opinion with sci-fi elements. The other two collections that come to mind are the Outage series by T.W. Piperbrook and the Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter trilogy by Brain P Easton. Piperbrook does a wonderful job of chaotic werewolf horror that honestly did creep me out at times (Read it in winter for the full effect). Easton's work isn't categorically western, but it's a modern western in many respects, especially his protagonist. His werewolves are done in a way I've never seen before and in most cases I'm never really a fan of that, but with Easton, it's everything you want and more. I wish good indie writers like this got more circulation. I hope this helps anyone that is interested.

@JasonFuhrman I've decided to write a cosmic/fantasy titled "The Divine Masquerade." A mythos centering around century-old entities that live a life of playing tricks on mortals and causing mayhem. It's like a memoir from the mythical figure of Loki, but its aimed at young adults.

Are they skinwalkers? I think this review highlights the importance of a cover because if you had just showed me this book I would think "huh, interesting. Let me pick it up." But after hearing how slow it progresses and your comments about the characters...not living up to the cover.

Trilogy of Terror was a legendary TV Movie that had horror fans talking for weeks after it aired. Such a refreshing surprise. It hit the TV audience tha same way Kolchak: Night Stalker did. Both Clasics of TV Horror!👍

I finished reading this novel a few days ago and as a Lovecraft passionate I haven't read anything like this good in a long while, and that is more than 15 years ago when i first read Lovecraft. The primordial anxiety I head reading it was outstanding, and I really like the fact that it is one long story but as if scattered a divided in different stories interconnected between them, from the first story of the main character and the loss of his wife, to the middle section that also has different stories in it, to the last scene of the flood in his "older" age. I really enjoyed this! You are absolutely right when talking about the scale of things. I was in awe with the idea of it. Now I am going around and suggesting this read to the ones I know would appreciate haha The Last part, the final part in the flood, really gave me the chills. We had a flood here where I live in May 2023, and I had the whole river running under my house's window at 3 am. I stayed there, looking at this immense force and wondering what kind of things dwelled under the surface. I don't know how I would react if it would happen again 💀

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Your reaction to The Imago Sequence Collection is not an unexpected one. Early Barron is big on extreme surrealism. This collection in particular was a blend of early pulp writing (i.e Black Mask, Fantastic Detective) with the likes of horror writers that dabbled in weird fiction like Robert Bloch, Peter Straub and Michael Shea. Lovecraft is there too. But the clues are there/foreshadowed to what's going but are very abstract and subtle, sometimes obstructed by the surreal elements. Best examples to this are two of my favourite stories within the collection in Bulldozer and The Procession of the Black Sloth. Spoiler alert Bulldozer does seem like straightforward cops chasing killer story that started at the started at the end of the story before picking up at the start loops back to the end. But Barron does lay several clues to the Pinkerton's agent fate at the beginning. He died there and then or at least ended being a human there and then and had been merged with the killer he's chasing. It took place in the late 1870s (post Lincoln assassination and the Molly Gang skirmish with the Pinkerton) but alluded to years beyond it (Robert Louis Stevenson's death that happened in 1890s). Same with The Procession of The Black Sloth. Talks of hell were as early as describing his plane descending and the airplane toilet feeling like coffin. But if you're afraid of Barron other collection being in the same boat as this, don't be. He doesn't retreat much and every collection does have their own identity.

I have just started this book and a couple chapters into the middle story, I decided I was lost and needed a review to prime me to read this. You have done a fine job and I appreciate your effort here. Thanks! Subbed.

I feel like "understand" is incredibly good for a short story. I often revisit it, and couldn't stop reading when I found it free on the internet.

Nice review as usual. I'm glad I had not seen the movie and was able to experience it as a book first (especially since I like horror more!)

Hello Jason, I hope this finds you well. It is my first time watching one of your reviews. It is very clear to me that you have a profound knowledge and experience with literature and writing. Far more than myself. And you obviously read ALOT. The fact that you can articulate exactly what your preferences are in fantasy certainly speaks to that. There is nothing wrong with not liking something, and there is no point wasting your time if you are not going to enjoy this hulking series. Time is one thing that we all have a very finite amount of. I agree that Malazan certainly risks falling victim to the typical superhero conundrum; where each and every character has to be powerful or dangerous in some regards. I HATE superhero movies/books for exactly that reason. However, I personally feel Erikson tows the line successfully on this... barely. Characters/deities are not omnipotent and in most instances, the perceived strength of a character is exactly that. Perceived. Not necessarily realized. I also agree that is you dislike magic in your fantasy...well this has quite a bit of it. And the reader will spend a lot of time slowly flushing out what the magic system actually is. It is ?intentionally obtuse and vague. Your perceived notion of magic being common is however a little off the mark in my opinion. The redundancy problem is ever present, and for a professional reader such as yourself I can absolutely understand why it would be BEYOND irritating. Malazan is different. It really is. And it certainly isn't perfect. And it certainly is not Tolkien. But it is my favorite fantasy series! If you think it has poor character development, I will have to strongly disagree with you. Some characters suck. But you can't honestly tell me you enjoyed reading Sansa Stark POV either. There are a plethora of characters in Malazan that will follow you until the day you die. Tehol and Bugg. Kruppa+friends. The Bridgeburners;Hedge, Mallet, Trots, Fiddler. Kalam and Quick. To name but a fewwwww! And the storyline! Stories within stories that make most other fantasy look like children books! In my opinion, Malazan requires a different approach to reading. And it is a completely different delivery style. It requires some patience, some willingness to endure; Some tolerance for Sansa Stark like povs. Some appreciation that you will not know everything about each character, place, history etc. A willingness to piece things together (it can be energy consuming). It is a journey. It may take you months or even years to get through it.... But it is incomparable...

Old Jim's ending in Acceptance was horrifying, but in Absolution it was almost beautiful. I can't get over how well this series is written.

you need to rewatch episode 1 now that you know the story- just up to the grocery store parking lot scene, watch kiersten's face

So, fun fact, no two lighthouses are painted the same. A cursory google search later, the lighthouse that is a black and white SWIRL could the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is North Carolina built is 1873.

Thanks for the review. I read “Affliction” which is quite longer and harder to read, you must get into the dark gloomy atmosphere of the novel, but what helps you is the polished style of Russel Banks and his strong metaphors. I read also “The Rule of the Bone” and some short stories. However, I think that guy- young or not- was right to say he is not recognized as he should. Okay, he is acclaimed but you are one of the rare persons who made a review about one of his books on UA-cam. I rank him among best American writers of the second half of twentieth century and early 2000's like Cormac McCarthy, Tori Morrison or Philip Roth, and to be honest I think Roth is quite overrated when he does not have the style of Banks. We are just talking about America, I cannot say Russel Banks is widely known and read in Europe (except Uk) where people tend to prefer Paul Auster or Brest Easton Ellis, when Banks is so versatile in his works. Anyway, I try my best to make people know him more, like you do and some others, I hope ^^

Well I bloody loved it.

Thanks again for making these videos!! I agree that the first section/novella reads more like a long intro to The False Daughter, those two go really well together if you read them back-to-back. The last section though.... after finishing the False Daughter and immediately trying to get into Lowry's perspective, yeah, I had to take a break from the book. I think you need a bit of time for your brain to switch gears because the narrative style is so different. I will say the profanity does tone down a bit later which makes it easier to read, but you have to get through a few chapters with a LOT of "fucks" first. I totally understand why a lot of people were so turned off that they just didn't finish.

46:28 Lowry talks about this more later but I believe when he says "the fucking invaders" he is referring to colonial settlers (the hint is in the mention of "pograms" aka pogroms aka wiping out Native populations). The forts are colonial forts made by settlers.

44:19- 44:36 (& 45:50) - Central (or the government on their behalf) bought this old doll factory on the Forgotten Coast to adapt it into the Southern Reach facility. In the middle of the site ("almost dead center of the main building") is a tombstone/grave of the former owner of the factory. Lowry mention's "the old dead guy['s]" will, and that the grave could not be moved for 2 more decades, so presumably the will had a clause for the new owner of the building about leaving the grave for a certain amount of time before moving it. Lowry notes the irony/weirdness in this, considering that "all the enviro regs in the world [were] quashed" during the SR's installation there, but for some reason the government/Central is honouring the tombstone request instead of also ignoring it like they did with the environmental regulations. The "only disrespect or concession" is that they filled the dead guy's grave room with weird ocean specimens in jars in the meantime, lol.

34:24 I interpreted this line about the past, the present, the future as being about Old Jim finally being able to reconcile (or remember) his past with his present and with the future. He's finally at peace in this scene. It's interesting that you interpreted it more literally only on your second reading. What I like about Vandermeer's writing (among many other things) is that so much of it is dream-like, so you can interpret events on the page as metaphorical or literal. It's also what makes it challenging to parse through on a first read, though, and to determine what's really happening and what is abstract (I had this challenge with the Rogue's scene in the meadow when I first read it - although for that one it helps to have the context from reading the rest of the book!).

I just commented a couple of videos ago, so happy to see a new instalment in this series now that I'm caught up!! 10:43 I think what this section clarifies is that Jack made Old Jim read the Dead Town files as part of his hypnotic conditioning, not to induce madness or a breakdown (the exact opposite, in fact). That's why Cass says it's "fucked up" - because Jack made Old Jim read all those files about a hypnosis black op in order to cement Jim's own hypnotic conditioning, without him even knowing. It hints at a really dark, twisted sense of humor on Jack's part.

41:13 Very interesting to hear your thoughts on Cass! When I read the beginning of the False Daughter section/novella, I didn't doubt that Jim did have a daughter. His grief felt so real and raw. I also trusted that the note Jim found in his glovebox was either proof of a real ghosting or a coverup for some nefarious disappearance (which is also Jim's first thought when he sees it). However, we know that this series is full of unreliable narrators, especially when it comes to anyone touched by Central. The phone call where Jackie asks him if he still has "perfect memory" really stands out - Jim, by his and Jackie's accounts, seems to have some form of eidetic or photographic memory which makes him a great agent/spy, but his episodic memories relating to his daughter and "almost-wife" are shaky at best (the memories relating to his almost-wife are explained later in the book, but not the daughter...). So we have to doubt whether his memories of his daughter are real right off the bat due to this discrepancy (and Jim's own admissions that he has trouble remembering even their most-recent interaction). Jim's visceral reaction to the "false Cass" at first also had me convinced that she was not his real daughter, and was someone trained (and probably physically modified) by Central to be an almost-perfect doppelganger of his original daughter (Jim mentions a few things that are "off" about her compared to his memories, mostly personality traits/mannerisms as opposed to physical characteristics). Again, though, this is also being filtered though Jim's POV, so perhaps he is just in shock and this Cass and the one from his memories are the same. But for reasons relating to what we see in the Old Decomp and Monkey's Paw chapters relating to this Cass' combat training/abilities, as well as what we learn later about this "Cass", I'm inclined to believe that if Jim did have a real daughter, she cannot be the same as the false daughter. This comment is getting long so I'll put a couple theories in the reply below. SPOILER WARNING down there for anyone who hasn't finished the book!

I can't believe you didn't mention the Mudder's "misfiled" fiddler crab specimens at 35:03! This really stood out to me the first time I read it. Jim thinks of this as the delusion spreading, but I wonder if the Mudder, as the first to see a rabbit and camera (up close, too), and as someone who clearly has good perception/observation skills overall (not only about the rabbits not being true rabbits, but she also pointed out in her journal the mismatch between the team leaders' supposed "commands from on high" when all communication tech is broken), noticed something about these specimens that no-one else could. That the wildlife was already being changed by Area X... (remember the plant/animal specimens with human cells in Annihilation?) Also, sidenote, I just finished Absolution a few days ago and as a huge fan of the series it's really captivated me. I had the urge to re-read it immediately but I wanted to give the whole book some space to breathe in my mind. Someone on the Southern Reach subreddit recommended your series for a recap and it's been really helpful in reminding me of the key points as I organize my thoughts. I may go back and watch your videos on the first 3 books too. So just wanted to say thank you for making these!

Even despite the confusion, this was still the most romantic thing I've read, or even experienced, in a WHILE.

The rouge is 100% whitby, Whitby and the Rouge are the only characters described as pale. I remember i read on reddit that some people think that The Rouge is the clone of whitby, the one that he fought on the lighthouse and then disappeared when he push it to the space that was filled with journals

Hello from Turkey. The passenger im reading now. Im still at the first pages but the book fascinates me

What i understood from the Cass storyline, is that the cass we meet it's a fake one, but she is one that cares deeply for Old jim. I think this is because she hates Jack and sees on Old jim the damage that Jack and Central can do to a men. I also think that the real Cass is dead. We know Jack has played with the memory of old Jim, i think the memory that old jim has of crashing a car when he "fights" the rouge is a real memory and that is there when the real Cass died. Maybe Jack has played and fucked up the mind of Old Jim from even before the novel started