Speculative Chic year-end roundup

Posted on December 20, 2016 by janicu

If you aren’t a reader of Speculative Chic, the other blog I contribute to, here’s a run down of what I’ve posted there this year.

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Lecki My review of Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

I reviewed Ancillary Mercy, the third and final installment of the Imperial Radch trilogy, over at Speculative Chic as part of our series on 2016 Hugo nominees. I may not have reviewed Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword (books one and two) anywhere — and that needs to be rectified at some point, but I have read them. I’d say Ancillary Justice blew my mind, and the other two cemented Leckie as an author to keep reading.

super-extra-grande-by-yoss My review of Super Extra Grande by Yoss

Super Extra Grande was an impulse read picked up from the library based on the back blurb and the slim size (I can’t often commit to longer books anymore). It’s about a veterinarian that specializes on ginormous space animals, so of course I wanted to read it.

sff-geek-list1 A Geekish Gift Guide – this year instead of posting my usual bookish gift guide, I created a “Geekish” one inspired by my fellow contributors over at Speculative Chic. From SFF movies and TV to gaming and banned books, we have a wide range of interests. This was a fun one to put together. Hope you enjoy!

Finally, I talked about a few of “My Favorite Things” over the year:

Guest post, Christmas stye, at Books Take You Places

Posted on December 21, 2012 by janicu

In case you wondered if I was a giant dork, but you weren’t ENTIRELY sure, I reveal the proof in my guest post over at Alyssa’s blog, Books Take You Places, with a post entirely devoted to my November-to-December addiction: made-for-TV Christmas movies. They are my ultimate in guilty (but not really that guilty) pleasures.

My post is devoted to 10 holiday movies I’ve seen so far. Let it be said that I could have easily written about 10 more. Very easily. Something about this time of year makes me positively gleeful about my TV watching options and what’s going to be on on Lifetime, ABC Family, and the Hallmark Channel.

tv christmas montage

Space Opera on TV: Defying Gravity

Posted on August 21, 2009 by janicu

I know this is a book blog, but I think it’s known by those who read it that I’m a fan of space operas and science fiction romance, and thanks to calico_reaction, I found out about a new show on ABC which I’ve started watching and like so far. It has a few recognizable faces in it: Ron Livingston from the movie Office Space, Paula Garcés from the Harold and Kumar movies, and Christina Cox from TV’s Blood Ties.

Defying-gravity-ron-livingston

Description from Hulu.com:

ABC’s Defying Gravity follows eight astronauts who were handpicked for an incredible six-year journey exploring Venus and other planets in the solar system. Adventures await the crew as they quickly discover their lives and destinies to be intertwined and carefully directed, not only by Mission Control officials on Earth, but also by an unseen force which is much closer and far more powerful.

So far only a few episodes have aired (there’s a 2 hour premiere which hulu calls pilot and episode 1), and you can watch them at hulu here and catch up. The show is on Sunday nights at 10 on ABC.

The show is a relationship drama – there are 8 astronauts on the ship, stuck together for 6 years, and a couple of them left spouses behind who are watching them from Mission Control. It’s being described as “Grey’s Anatomy in space”, but I hope it’s not QUITE like Grey’s Anatomy because I got sick of the partner-swapping there really quickly. Anyway, I want more people to watch it!