Artemis is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir and is a follow up to his hit debut The Martian. This one takes place on the moon in a colony known as Artemis. The story is told from the perspective of one Jasmine Bashara, who works as a porter and a part-time smuggler. She lives in a cupboard not much bigger than a coffin. Artemis relies on tourism from Earth. Jazz lets herself be talked into a little heist that will help her out financially. Of course, it all goes wrong and a killer is on her trail. Jazz isn’t a hero, but she has some a little nobility in her and a whole lot of wit.

This is only Weir’s second novel, but it seems evident that he likes to imbue his protagonists with a heavy sardonic view on life. Fortunately, Weir is actually pretty funny so I don’t mind. Jazz is an interesting heroine. She is quite aware of her strengths and faults. Weir has indicated in a printed interview that he really planned out how this city would function if it were real. He apparently made blueprints and created the economy. Although he was kind enough to not bore the reader with all of the details he conceived, he was still able to convey how much work he put into the setting and concepts. He did pretty well with having a woman as his lead character. There were some profound and moving moments as well, however the humor peppered throughout the narrative is what really makes this worth the time. I would certainly recommend some time in Artemis as presented by Andy Weir.

Now that I spent a little time on the moon in the future, I will next return to present day Los Angeles to see how old friends, Dr. Alex Delaware and LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis unravel the secrets of Jonathan Kellerman’s The Museum of Desire.

Mutually Assured Destruction is a Doctor Who audio play released by Big Finish Productions and is another episode in the range known as Time Lord Victorious. Lizzie Hopley is the author of this script with Scott Handcock serving as director. Paul McGann plays the Doctor once again with Nicholas Briggs voicing the Daleks. Samantha Beart and Wilf Scolding also help out as part of the guest cast. They play a couple of last survivors of a world destroyed by the Daleks who have just woken up from cryogenic sleep and have to make their escape alongside the Doctor as the Dalek time ship is disintegrating within the vortex. The Daleks also have the Doctor’s TARDIS, so the Time Lord may have to make a deal he would live to regret.

This is actually a pretty exciting episode. The Daleks are written with somewhat different personalities and motivations from each other, which is a little unusual. McGann seems to be pretty well into it. The two other guest characters were pretty engaging as well. I enjoyed the interactions between the Doctor and Beart’s Tiska. when they finally meet. Anyway, it’s a fun chaotic, claustrophobic sort of situation. It’s not quite the first time that the Doctor has been in this situation, but Hopkins still writes a pretty effectively suspenseful adventure that was reminiscent of a lot of American action movies such as Die Hard. That film was actually referenced in the cast and crew interviews so I can’t full credit for coming up with the comparison on my own. It’s a solid addition to the ever growing Doctor Who universe.

The Grey Man of the Mountain is a Doctor Who audio play released by Big Finish Productions. LIzbeth Myles wrote the script in which Samuel Clements serves as director. The character of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is resurrected once again by Jon Culshaw. Culshaw does a pretty impressive vocal impersonation of the late Nicholas Courtney, who played the role for a couple of a decades in the television series and in a couple of Big Finish episodes. Sylvester McCoy is once again behind the mic as the Seventh Doctor with Sophie Aldred returning as Ace.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Ace to a Scottish mountain of Ben MacDul in which they are reunited with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Brigadier is investigating the disappearance of hikers which seems to be tied to a legendary presence on the mountain known as the Grey Man. Ace and a young woman known as Kristy are separated from the others and face their own challenges as the Doctor and the Brigadier join an expedition that could bring them into the presence of the Grey Man of the Mountain.

The guest cast is also made up of Lucy Goldie, Youssef Kerkour, Vivien Reid, and Guy Adams. They were all well selected as expected by Big Finish casting.

Myles actually uses a well known Scottish legend as an inspiration for her story. Well, the legend is apparently familiar in Scotland anyway. It’s a bad idea and common in the series to utilize such inspirations. Myles does a pretty good job with it.

McCoy and Aldred continue to display their impressive chemistry. It was fun to hear the Brigadier even if he was not performed by the original actor. Culshaw is known in the United Kingdom as a very talented comedian and impressionist, and Big Finish is right to utilize that.

This episode is a solid story with a some very nice treats for the long-time fans and followers of Scottish folklore.

The Death of Superman is an animated superhero film released in 2018 and was written by Peter J. Tomasi. Sam Liu and James Tucker share the director duties on this one. This film was based on a story done by DC Comics several years ago. Jerry O’Connell voices the Man of Steel in this one. Renecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Nathan Fillion, and Jason O’Mara are also included in the voice cast.

Clark Kent is in love with Lois Lane and has yet to tell her about his extracurricular activities wearing a cape and blue tights. As they navigate their romantic situation, a deadly alien intruder has landed on Earth. The creature would come to be known as Doomsday, and Superman will face the bloodiest contest he has encountered.

I knew of the story and remember reading some of the comic book version many moons ago. The animation is pretty good as far as I can tell. It isn’t like I am an expert in this sort of thing. There was quite a surprising amount of blood and death throughout this thing. The cast appeared to be well chosen. I am not normally a viewer of animated movies of this sort, but I have been trying something different lately. Superman also is not a favorite superhero for me, but it still ended up being an interesting diversion. I almost found the climactic scene of Superman’s death to be almost touching. I probably would have have been more touched if Superman still wasn’t around. I trust I am not giving too many spoilers away.

Not a whole lot of analysis is needed here, but it was a pretty well done film overall. For those who really get into this type of entertainment and really know the mythos of Superman and Doomsday, I am sure there are many more observations and discussions to be had. Ultimately I liked it well enough to see the follow up film.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Steven, and Vicki to an attic in which they find themselves unable to leave. The attic ends up being a labyrinth affected by some sort of time distortion. with alien fungi being at the center of the problem. They are also surprised to find that they at 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the Prime Minister.

There was rather a curious decision made to have O’Brien perform the Doctor’s dialogue as opposed to Peter Purves who does often provide a passable impression of Hartnell. O’Brien actually does a pretty decent job with it. The story is fairly interesting. The sound effects are convincing. I like that it was a somewhat claustrophobic setting. Purves and O’Brien continue to perform well together.

This episode is fairly entertaining. In spite of the rather unusual story premise, it didn’t quite enthrall me as much as I hoped. It didn’t really frustrate me either, so that’s an accomplishment of sorts. I will likely listen to it again, however it may take a while.

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The Ranger is a crime novel written by Ace Atkins and introduces Army Ranger Quinn Colson into the pantheon of literary crime busters. It was first published in 2011.

Quinn Colson has returned to his home state of Mississippi to attend the funeral of his uncle, who served as sheriff of Tibbehah County. It was said that the sheriff had taken his own life, but one of his deputies is not buying it and mentions as much to Quinn. Quinn gets curious enough to uncover all manner of corruption and meth dealing. He has been in the Army for a long time and has plenty of skill and a few allies to help him survive the nights.

Colson is one of these stoic tough guys with a rather traumatic family upbringing. He is a fairly interesting protagonist, but there is nothing extraordinary that stands out all that much. On the other hand, this is Atkins’ debut of what was a new character at that time. Atkins also is the writer who continues the Spenser series on behalf of the late Robert B. Parker. I was intrigued enough to try out his original works. Atkins is a talented writer and is well suited for this genre. There is not much that makes him a standout in this genre, but he is competent, and Quinn is just interesting enough for me to see what else is in store for him.

Andy Weir had some significant success with The Martian, which I enjoyed reading a few years ago, Hopefully, the enjoyment will be matched with Artemis, which is the next reading indulgence.

Plight of the Pimpernel is a Doctor Who audio play released by Big Finish Productions and is written by Chris Chapman. John Ainsworth serves as director of this episode which stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri, respectively. The guest cast is made up of Jamie Parker, Anthony Howell, Joe Jameson, Stewart Clarke, Rebecca Crankshaw, and Becky Wright.

So, this adventure features the Doctor and Peri meeting someone in 1793 France claiming to be the Scarlet Pimpernel. Before Batman, there was the Scarlet Pimpernel who was created in early twentieth century by Baroness Orczy. The Scarlet Pimpernel was a masked figure who rescued French aristocrats from the guillotine during a period known as the Reign of Terror. The Doctor is somewhat troubled by this since the Scarlet Pimpernel is a fictional character, unlike the Doctor, for the purposes of this story anyway. Matters get even more problematic when murderous androids turn up,. The Pimpernel, played by Jamie Parker, seems to have all kinds of secrets which puts Earth in trouble. Of course, the Earth is often in trouble when the Doctor is on the scene.

This story starts off as what appears to be a pretty fun romp. There is quite a bit of humor at first. The Doctor and Peri have gone undercover, and Peri is apparently posing as the Pimpernel’s wife when this adventure starts. The second half of the story gets a bit grimmer as the identify of the man playing the Pimpernel is revealed. There are some great performances here. Colin Baker’s version of the Doctor really shines in moments of righteous indignation, and he gets a particularly memorable moment when a rather profound betrayal is uncovered. Peris gets to indulge in a profound telling off, which is performed beautifully by Nicola Bryant. The guest cast is pretty well selected. Jamie Parker has a very distinct voice and was well chosen to play the Pimpernel. This episode has one of the most surprising twits I have heard in some time. The sound effects were also convincing. This is another episode which was recorded while the United Kingdom was in COVID lockdown.

Although it seems that I have not heard an episode from Big Finish that was really bad in some time, I do find this particular episode to be one of the better ones recorded in recent years.

You Were Never Really Here is a thriller film released in 2017. It was written and directed by Lynne Ramsay and is also based on a novella by Jonathan Ames. Joaquin Phoenix is in the lead as some private mercenary known as Joe, who specializes in retrieving young girls who were kidnapped and trafficked. The cast also includes Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Judith Roberts, and Alessandro Nivola.

So, the mysterious Joe is a dude with a lot of violent trauma in his past. He was abused by his father, he joined the military and saw combat, and was also some kind of government agent. He apparently does freelance work that involves finding girls who were taken to be trafficked. He also doesn’t have much concern for the civil rights of these perpetrators and indulges in some pretty brutal revenge. Anyway, a state senator’s daughter has fallen victim to a ring of kidnappers, and Joe is let off the leash. He succeeds in finding the girl, after leaving a plethora of bodies in his wake. However, the aftermath follows him home. He has to find the girl yet again when a couple of phony cops haul her off again.

The film has an intriguing premise, and who doesn’t like watching kidnappers and weirdos getting their heads cracked by traumatized yet noble warrior? The film got some acclaim from the Cannes Film Festival 2017, in which brings us to the other dropped shoe. It’s one of these films that often appears disjointed and does not make a whole lot of sense at times. Some aspects have been compared to Taxi Driver, and I get where that is coming from. Joe is a little too brooding for my taste. Phoenix does fine in the performance as he usually does in some of these weirder roles. He is the guy to pull this off. I didn’t really like this one much. This may have worked better in the original work. Joe was a little too weird at times. I think the sudden scene changes and flashbacks were a little too jarring. I had to work a little too hard to piece together Joe’s past, and I lost interest in that fairly quickly.

It’s safe to say that this is not one I will be revisiting anytime soon.

The Alchemist is a novel written by Paulo Coelho. It was first published in Portuguese in 1988 and was then translated in 1993 where it gained some international success.

The story centers on an Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who embarks on a journey from Spain to Egypt after he has a recurring dream interpreted as a prophecy concerning a buried treasure. He has all kinds of setbacks and meets all sort of people on his journey. Of course, one of those people is an alchemist who teaches of finding one’s true self. Santiago learns of the Personal Legend and how he fits uniquely into the world.

This actually turns into one of the more charming and interesting novels I have read in some time. There are not many names belonging to the various characters. In fact, Santiago’s name is mentioned very sparsely. The prose style is pretty simple, but the imagery it invokes in the imagination is quite profound. The particular novel is a bit of a departure from my usual reading preferences, but it turns out this was a pretty rewarding path to explore.

Next up will be the first novel to introduce Ace Atkins’ tough guy Quinn Colson, which is simply entitled The Ranger.

The Martian Menace is a Sherlock Holmes written by Eric Brown. It is published by Titan Books and one of the recent additions in its range known as The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Brown has concocted a world where Martians now occupy the Earth in the early twentieth century and have done so for a number of years. Holmes is engaged by the Martians to solve the murder of an ambassador. He manages to complete the investigation and is summoned to the Red Planet a few years later to work another case. Holmes and Dr. Watson are soon informed that they are about to be pawns in a more concerted effort from the Martians to fully take over Earth and destroy humankind. They encounter several literary figures of the time including Herbert George Wells and G.K. Chesterton. An old adversary of Holmes’ also seems to be at the heart of the Martians’ genocidal intentions.

Yes, there is another one where a pastiche author takes the crime solving duo into other genres and other realms. It is obviously supposed to be rather ridiculous, but there was not much in this effort to make this unique. Of course, I am biased against these efforts that has Holmes and Watson cross paths with aliens and other historical and literary figures of their era on a regular basis. Brown doesn’t stand out as an especially terrible writer. The story does move pretty quickly, but there is not much that even sounds like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose. Of course, Doyle never had had his best known creation go up against aliens. In spite of the absurdity of this plot, it still seems like an idea that felt overdone, or at least not that well considered. Sorry, but there is not much I found terribly enjoyable or memorable about this particular indulgence of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson stepping outside of their usual Victorian surroundings.

My next read will carry a bit more acclaim as I meet The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.