New Video: Me on Ivalice

 So...this happened a while ago. Other stuff was going on at the same time, specifically the recent release of The Angry House. But here is something I created not long ago. My look at the development history and timeline for one of my favourite fictional worlds: the land of Ivalice, from the Final Fantasy franchise. Hope you enjoy!

It’s here! The Angry House by Thomas Wrightson

 It's here! It's finally here! After the epic trilogy of its origins and development (part 1, part 2, part 3), The Angry House -- a horror audio play written by me, Thomas Wrightson -- is releasing into the world first through Alternative Stories's Spec Fic Radio Theatre; Monday 15 December (tomorrow) for their silver-tier Patreons, then everyone else on Wednesday 17 December.

This post will be updated with links to versions as they release.

Spec Fic Audio Theatre release - Wednesday 17 December 2025 - Podlink, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, PodBean,

Alternative Stories and Fake Realities release - Friday 19 December 2025 - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PodLink

This audio production, produced by Alternative Stories and directed by Chris Gregory, is a Christmas chiller. In 1999, on the eve of a total eclipse, a brother goes with his sister and life partner to refurbish an old house. But as they work there, strange events suggest a hostile presence is haunting them, threatening their lives.

With a wonderful cast bringing it to life--Charlie Richards, Marie-Claire Woods, David Monteith, and Sarah Golding--this is my very first time writing for the radio format and my first production of this kind. Where things may go from here, who knows. But I know this will be a fascinating thing to have floating around for people to listen to.

Read more here!

Review – Novel – Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible

 I've got an...odd relationship with how I came to trying out the science fiction works of Polish author Stanislaw Lem. I first became aware of Solaris, principally its two most notable film adaptations from 1972 (Russian, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky) and 2002 (American, directed by Steven Soderbergh). I didn't really get the story through these adaptations. I then found out about a video game called The Invincible, which was apparently an adaptation of Lem's novel of the same name. Having gone through it and now reading the book, it's more of a prequel but the ideas seemed fun. It wasn't until I heard some of an audiobook reading that featured a new translation directly from the Polish that I got it. Then when I learned that The Invincible had a translation by the same person (Bill Johnston), I decided to keep an eye out for it. And eventually, I got a copy.

The premise of The Invincible is fairly simple. The titular ship is sent to investigate the fate of its sibling ship Condor on Regis III, a planet with land dominated by ice and deserts while the ocean is teaming with life. As the crew land and investigate, they find increasingly disturbing signs of something existing on the planet that not only doomed the Condor, but has destroyed all life on land. The unfolding story, told principally through the perspective of the Invincible's navigator Rohan, is by turns fascinating and terrifying.

Fair warning for anyone going into this; The Invincible is HARD science fiction. It likes to explain itself, and grounds itself within the probable. It's also written from a collectivist cultural perspective that is noticeably different from other notable sci-fi works from the time. While Rohan emerges as the 'lead', the omniscient narration focuses far more on the crew as a body. It's also in an older style of writing where you get vast blocks of text and run-on sentences that detail events and paint scenes. That's not to say there aren't many effective moments; exploring the Condor, discovering an unknown structure, the deployment of a large automated weapon, and Rohan's final exploration beyond the ship. It is also a book of its time in that there are no women on board. At all. Zip. Nil. Nada.

Part of the reason I went for this edition and this translator specifically is that his translation of Solaris is really good, and his work shows here too. Johnston worked on the translation in collaboration with Lem's family, and it is the first direct-from-Polish translation as previous versions were translated via German. From my limited experience with Sapkowski's Witcher series, Polish is a tricky language to translate from; while the first two Witcher titles from one translator were eminently readable, all the rest from another are extremely clunky and put me off the entire series. If the Solaris translation had been similarly clunky, I'd have avoided The Invincible. But it isn't.Both Solaris and The Invincible have really good translations that make what are very technically dense books into engaging reads.

Lem's work isn't easily digested or adapted, because he approaches familiar sci-fi concepts (facing the unknown, the limits of humanity) from an unfamiliar angle. I now see why the adaptations of his work don't land; they all miss a key point. The height of human rationalism can appear childish before something that refuses to conform to our anthropomorphic view of reality. But UNLIKE a lot of modern fiction that takes this approach and adds soap opera levels of stupidity and drama, Lem continues to tackle the issue with cold rationalism. The mystery of Regis III is a subject of horror, but also a thought experiment where the participants of the book approach it with rationality and caution, all while their limited view of the world is violently challenged.

This book, specifically this version of the book, is a must-read for any sci-fi fan. Yes, it's of its time in characters and aspects of its representation, and some paragraphs are a slog to get through. But otherwise it's a brilliant exploration of human contact with something truly alien.

8.9/10

Author Talks — Final 2025 episode

 It's all in the name. Today is when the eighth and final episode of this year's season of Author Talks releases. It's been a long year for me, and hopefully I'll be able to create something more next year. Also, stuff's been happening, and I go into a rough outline of that in this episode alongside something that just...caught my attention about a certain metal-faced person from a certain French adventure novel. I hope you enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas/Yule/Holiday.

YouTube link

Spotify link

The Angry House — The Next Stage

 I've been chronicling the progress and development process of The Angry House, a horror audio drama produced by Alternative Stories. I've already talked the OG awards, and a long behind-the-scenes where I detail the cast and recording progress as a log. Now, the climax.

The next major stage of things was selecting which of the many takes would (provisionally at least) form part of the final cut. I was more than prepared for some heated debate over which take was better or worse, and listened to each and made notes on advice from Chris Gregory. I had to bear in mind that these were the raw audio from Studio Orpheus, without sound re-balancing or positional changes or effects or anything. I had to pick from a number of bits and pieces, and sometimes there were sections of a take that didn't quite fit with the rest, so (as previously outlined) there were some bits of takes that sounded better overall and could be spliced into the whole.

When it came time for us to actually decide, I had listened through the lot and I was prepared for some measure of combat. As it turned out, only one of the takes had any kind of contention around its suitability, but Chris decided to go with my option as a working basis and see how it meshed with the rest of things as a whole. His choice...seemed off to me, which was the best metric I could give for many things. That it was 'right' or was 'off' when it came to both the emotional resonance and the flow from one scene to the next. As to the other takes, we were in united agreement over which whole takes to use, and which bits to splice in where needed.

I also learned something interesting about my writing while talking with Chris. If you read the dialogue just bald, without actors or characterisation or atmosphere, it can seem quite shallow. But because of the scenarios I've created, because of who the characters are in the context of the story, they're actually quite deep and challenging. One bit in particular, where the actor for lead character Harry Wells, Charlie Richards, had a long sentence that needed to be said quickly and with emotion after flipping immediately from a barely-controlled calm. We needed SIX TAKES to get anywhere near right. That kind of thing, a scene turning on a dime more than once, or character interactions that make things so powerful, are the place where my lines were challenging for the actors. And engaging, I hope and believe. They certainly seemed to be having a great time.

The next stage was listening to the final assembly to make sure the takes that we agreed upon were. And when you're listening back with cleaned-up audio and some added directionality, it really adds something. It wasn't the final product, but it was quite a thing. Helped by the fact that part of why I was listening through was not only to judge the takes, but to find any issues. And...there were a couple. But I'm not calling out anyone, these will happen to the most highfalutin production houses and Chris Gregory is a very busy man. It's just...don't go in expecting perfect and then getting mad about it. It doesn't help anyone and only causes problems further down the line.

To quote Chris Gregory following my initial feedback: "Well this went well!" Agreed, and relatable.

But when the final edit came in...oh boy. I think it's enough of a compliment to say that after the initial check of the redone end-to-end reel, I listen again and...just forget I was listening to an in-progress thing. The scenes flowed together well, and it just sounded like a radio play you'd hear on BBC Radio 4 or 4Extra.

---

The Angry House is set for release during December 2025 on these podcast platforms; Spec Fic Radio Theatre, Alternative Stories and Fake Realities, and Pen to Print Write On! Audio.

Enjoy a Christmas time spook fest. Are you prepared to join our characters in entering 'The Angry House'?"

My Anime Life: Zetsuen no Tempest

I hadn't intended this to be the week's post, but I came down with a nasty flu, and this was ready, so I'm doing it now.

In this newborn article series, I've already talked about The Apothecary Diaries and Blood-C. Now I'd like to highlight a series you may never have heard of at all. Zetsuen no Tempest (officially localised as Blast of Tempest) began life as a fantasy drama manga co-written by Kyo Shirodaira and Arihide Sano, and illustrated by Ren Saizaki. The same year the manga concluded, an anime television series was created by Studio Bones and adapted by Mari Okada.

The storyline is...something. The initial premise is that following the death of his adoptive sister Aika, Mahiro Fuwa finds himself allied with Hakaze Kusaribe, a member of a mage clan dedicated to the Tree of Genesis. That clan has splintered, with a large faction seeking to awaken the counterpart Tree of Exodus, which causes giant seeds to appear and wipe out nearby populations. Mahiro seeks out lead protagonist Yoshino Takegawa, a loner who was friends with himself and Fuwa. Since Fuwa was killed with magic, Yoshino and Mahiro ally with Hakaze to find Fuwa's killer, ending up caught in the plots surrounding the Tree of Genesis and its plan for the world.

That sounds like I've given away the whole plot, but I assure you I haven't. The plot takes lots of twists and turns, yet it's paced out fairly slowly. The core drama is how the three core characters--Yoshino, Mahiro and Hakaze--deal with the unfolding path of events and the truth behind the conflict of the Genesis and Exodus Trees. The magic system used here is robust and unique, with mages of the Tree of Genesis sacrificing pieces of modern technology to grant them charges of magic, which themselves have a strict limitation on what they can and can't do.

Technically the initial goal of Hakaze to retake control of her clan is resolved within the series' first half, but the plot continues well beyond that point and builds to a compelling finale that had my head spinning in a good way. There is some repetition of scenes and information here and there, especially in flashbacks, but the writing was good enough that the repetition didn't feel like a drag. Plus, with how overwhelming some of the plot can be, some reminders here and there are a good thing.

Perhaps what brought this series to mind for the next "My Anime Life" article is Overly Sarcastic Productions' Trope Talk video on "Haunting the Narrative". The character of Aika Fuwa, who is dead by the story's opening and only seen in flashback, is the definition of this trope. Her influence on the current narrative is profound, and we do get a good look at her personality and actions, but she never features in the present storyline. Her relationship with her secret lover Yoshino and adoptive brother Mahiro is complicated to say the least, and drives much of the character chemistry related to the two. She is also the sources of some humour, which can be sorely needed as this is otherwise a pretty serious and grim plot.

Last time I didn't feel the need to comment on the anime itself beyond narrative, but here I think it is appropriate. There are some parts of the story which, to be honest, can drag. I may find a verbal debate lasting two episodes interesting, but most would be bored to tears. The animation is engaging enough that some of the boring bits are tolerable, but it's the musical score by Michiru Oshima that forms the backbone of most scenes. A grand orchestral score, it's never used in the wrong place, and despite a surprisingly small number of tracks spread across twenty-four episodes I didn't get the feeling of "oh, this one again again", but instead "oh, I know what this scene is about".

My latest video -- Narrative in Video Games: An Author's Retrospective

 So, over the past year, I've been more serious about creating a multimedia presence for myself. That includes versions of my podcast episodes, game playthroughs including a long one of Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy with a restored content mod, and the new endeavors: videos that are more standalone projects which look at different bits of media I like or topics that I feel need more dedicated time and energy like using video clips. I've done Fabula Nova Crystallis, I've done the Bionicle movies, and now...video game narratives.

In this decided non-exhaustive look at narrative in video games, we go through their history, different attitudes towards them, how they are used, and some of the unique mechanics present in the interactive space. I hope it's enjoyable

YOUTUBE LINK

My Anime Life: Blood-C

Not quite in time for Halloween, I know. But I had a more important post to put out, so instead here's a late theme-appropriate article, the second on the "My Anime Life" series. This time we look at Blood-C, the third anime project in Production I.G's Blood franchise. A collaboration between established Blood staff, and manga collective CLAMP, Blood-C became notorious in its time due to its frequent usage of graphic violence, which was censored in Japan and caused it to be banned in mainland China.

The initial set-up is deceptively simple; Saya Kisaragi is a shrine maiden for the local Shinto temple run by her father, and is something of an airhead at school. But at night, she fights monsters in the surrounding woods dubbed Elder Bairns. People in the village start falling victims to the Elder Bairns, who speak with Saya and accuse her of being a traitor to an ancient covenant. The storyline is something a hybrid between a slow J-horror style creeping dread and unease, and the more action-oriented style of earlier Blood projects. The storyline is concluded in the movie The Last Dark, where Saya is in pursuit of forces tied to the series' events.

To say Blood-C is an acquired taste would be an understatement. Its pacing is purposefully very slow and cyclical, with part of the unease coming from how different events either don't seem to impact each other, or repeat in a kind of forced normality which grotesquely contrasts against the monstrous attacks of the Elder Bairns, many modelled on pre-existing Japanese yokai. Saya's character goes from innocent and air-headed young girl to someone who could easily dice an opponent with her sword in the blink of an eye, and some bits of the lore aren't explained fully until after the series has ended. The characters are also deliberately shallow, with a late-stage twist explaining it in a way I found interesting, but likely wouldn't sit well with a lot of people. It also does became very graphic. For once, I fully understand the censorship it received, because...yikes.

This commentary also partially extends to the movie The Last Dark, which is technically very impressive, but the tone is starkly different. It can still be quite violent, and there is a lingering dread that forms part of the horror, but it feels a lot more like a retread of the original Blood: The Last Vampire than a follow-up to Blood-C. It does properly wrap up the story, and Saya gets her wishes fulfilled, but it doesn't have quite the right kind of oomph. It's something I would watch to close out the story rather than as a good story in its own right. And to enjoy the animation and music for both, which are really good.

So...what about this? I can see why Blood-C is the black sheep of the Blood franchise. It deliberately adopts a tonally dissonant approach to its narrative, has a major plot-altering twists that I personally didn't see coming first time, and a movie that shifts tone yet again and makes the two feel like the products of entirely different teams (they're not, it was again a deliberate artistic choice). Should you try it? Well, maybe, I guess. At your own risk.

New podcast episode: Mass Effect!

 It's finally come to pass! Several months ago, before I recently went down to be in at the recording of my audio drama, I put together a script and recorded it. It was my thoughts on Mass Effect, a series I do enjoy but that I also have some major gripes with. Herein are my thoughts in audio/video form.

Also, today, I saw if I could do something with my aliens in Belle Époque era idea, which had thoroughly stalled. I think because I wasn't actually using humour. At all. And in these times, humour isn't just an option, it's a necessity. We must laugh, and though laughter trimuph! So before the episodes below, have a sample of some dialogue that flowed out and had me laughing when I re-read it. Two Parisian gentlemen observing a fellow diner.

The two gave commiserating nods to each other. It was an unspoken truth among the upper echelons of French society that being English was a malady only trumped by being syphilitic. Or a royal family. Or American. In that order.

And now, the YouTube and Spotify links to the penultimate episode of this year's Author Talks, diving into the realm of Mass Effect.

YouTube Version

Spotify Version

The Angry House -- Its Author's Behind the Scenes

 At the invitation of Alternative Stories's Chris Gregory, I've created this behind-the-scenes article-come-production diary for 'The Angry House', an audio play in the horror genre that I wrote for the Pen to Print Awards. You've got the opening section of this story from several months ago, when The Angry House won their Audio Play Competition, with the most significant part of the award being that the play would be produced by Alternative Stories, an audio production company that you may know for Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy project. I was sort of acting as an assistant for Chris, as well as having input as the original play's writer. I initially thought "eh, split into two articles", then I decided "nah, do a longer article after it's been recorded". That recording date was Monday 20th October 2025.

One thing that I was expecting, but turned out to be both more or less harrowing overall, was the edits that came after the script won the award. Just because it won doesn't mean it was perfect. For one thing, because of the script's inspirations in late 19th to early 20th Century pieces, I needed to update the language to be less formal and--by modern standards--stilted. After that came scheduling meetings, and after that a full hour and a half dedicated to just going through the script with Chris, reading through it, checking for anything I'd missed on a first pass, trimming out some bits that were maybe a bit too 90s. Because the play is set in 1999.

After that, there was the casting, and on my end that included listening to reels as they came in and once everyone had auditioned who would audition, it was time to make the choice. Two of the actors were the only ones to audition for those parts, and thank goodness because they were very good for those roles. The other two were a choice between four or five a piece, and it was a bit of a process narrowing it down to the final choice. We only needed four actors for the roles, as I'd deliberately wrote it to be a small cast, and I was able to get two of the actors to double up roles.

Then, on this last Monday, there was the table read. For those who've seen behind-the-scenes stuff from television or film productions, a table read is basically a run-through of the script so people can get a feel for it. In this case, it was a virtual table-read with some scenes done out of order to accommodate for one member of cast that needed to head off in a hurry. It was also a little longer than expected, as I had added some extra bits at Chris's suggestion for one of the cast members who initially had just one scene. Oh yes, the cast. What a cast it is, all Alternative Studios alumni and with notable CVs in their own right. The recordings well done by the time this goes up so I don't think it should be a bother to reveal them. The cast is;

*Charlie Richards as Harry Wells -- An actor who among other things worked on Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy as Ren Dex, and also appeared in a recent production of The Play That Goes Wrong.

*Marie-Claire Wood as Agnes Wells -- An actor with range, with credits across multiple Alternative Story productions, feature films, television and classical theatre.

*David Monteith as Gerald Fairly -- A voice and mo-cap actor who has done extensive voice-over work across podcast, films and video games. To some he is Minister Rizet from Emily Inkpen's Wasteland, to others Neueirus from Metaphor re Fantazio or a number of voices in Baldur's Gate 3.

*Sarah Golding as Samantha Gregory -- Creator of Quirky Voices, a versatile actress with too many credits to roll off. Just...so many.

The table read went surprisingly well, and it was still a little odd hearing my words out loud from someone's lips other than mine. Or with the cast of actors I've got as simulacra in my head to bring them to life. I was braced for rough reads, fumbles, awkward moments. There weren't many, just a couple of edits that needed to be made; one based on a suggestion, and one that was a genuine mistake. There was also the question of accent, which was mostly RP (received pronunciation), but there was one Devon accent needed and some question about the kind of RP to be used. I also had to account for the fact that the actors were doing it virtually over a Zoom meetings call, so...not ideal. It wasn't a studio environment with specially-designed microphones and a sound-proof space. There were also a couple of casual interactions that were just funny and broke the ice a bit.

With that cast, and joined by the production crew including Chris and myself, we gathered together at Orpheus Studios in London. After, of course, slightly losing my way. Cities always do that, it's always one door further back or further on than I think it must be. The rest of this article is more in the line of a journal or diary. So...enjoy.

(The events of the day during recording start at time codes.)

Cast and Crew at Tea

10:30-ish; At the studio. At this moment, the actors are warming up. The likes of "pepperoni macaroni" and lip burbles are emanating from the green room. I struggle not to burst into unseemly fits of laughter. The sound engineer Richard Campbell is setting up, and the studio is preparing to enter into the realm of "oh help I'm really going to be listening to my dialogue being recorded". The set-up is a large soundproof room with four mics and two booths. The first scene recorded is Scene 3, with Charlie and David. Marie-Claire is a little late, due to other commitments. Edits were required due to some issues related to repetition of some phrases or some odd wording.

11:02: Marie-Claire has manifested during the second take. The takes are going quite well so far, with some adjustments and talk with the actors to get the right tone for scenes. After a time between scenes where we chatted in the green room, we dived into the first scene. Some stumbles, but otherwise some good chemistry appearing to help get the scene on point with the different character interactions. Always important. Golding also doubled-up the voice of another bit part, which was a huge help. After the scene was completed, we completed some isolated parts for a smaller part that book-ended some scenes. Genuinely moving.

12:15: The beginning of another session with lots of stuff. A scene with a lot of dialogue, including some bits of humour that I was afraid would sound better on the page. Turns out, they sound great. It sounds strange in a way, without the sound effects or anything else, but there is a feeling of it coming together. Also, some questions about pronunciations. And then....LUNCH! (or rather, lunch, which wasn't that great in my case, because eating out for me is like spinning a semi-rigged roulette wheel)

Sound engineer
Richard "Orpheus" Campbell.
Image courtesy of
Chris Gregory,
Alternative Stories.

14:11: Back onto scene recording, an emotional scene now and struggling to keep my head straight after the phenomenon of lunch. This one needed some more fine tuning for the script, specifically some word choices so that the actors could have the dialogue flow better. This bit is really showing how much smaller inflections and additions from the actors can make the scene fully come alive. Also the scene in particular is a pretty pivotal and emotional one, so we needed to do an extra take to get as much of it down as possible. And then David had to do some extra bits for a smaller part.

15:24: Next was a very long two-hander between Sarah and Charlie. It's a long and narratively-important scene, and also one with some pretty intense content. Sarah is a great actress, and Charlie was coping very well with a pretty chunky sequence. And yet more pronunciation. Also some small adjustments needed, one in particular at Charlie's suggestion. It's the one that went the best at the table read last Monday, so as expected this went fairly smoothly.

16:24: After a tea break once the scene was completed, we headed into another scene that was a three-hander. It seemed to go fine overall, although the names of some of the characters did somehow derail a performance or two--plus the banter--into the cursed realm of She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named-Ever-More. Overall, it's been going well. Only two scenes left to go; the two final ones obviously.

16:44: The penultimate scene, which has a prolonged period of one person both narrating a scene and being part of it, and this one went so incredibly smoothly. The only one that didn't need three takes, only two. And this was the one scene at the table read we didn't have the time and facilities to go through in full. Moving forward, we hit the final scene, where all the actors came together to perform in one crescendo. We were all feeling a little tired and quite relieved. I got the chance to set the opening fear factor of the scene (on a scale of 1 to 10, a solid 6). The first run went well, although there was some adjustment to tone and wording needed. That seems to be the running theme. Once the big scene was completed, and a b-roll for the final section was recorded, we moved onto Charlie's final narration. He got it first take essentially, but we took a second for the sake of safety.

Recording wrapped up bang on 17:30.

There was of course a nice post-wrapping meet-up at a local pub, where I spent some time with them hearing stories and enjoying the vibes, but I'm not usually someone who stays out late. And I needed food. So I regretfully bowed out, but not because I didn't want to stick around despite being with this small collection of people since around 10 AM that day. It's no exaggeration to say I loved my time during this recording, working with these actors, and I look forward to both the rest of the production cycle, and potentially working with these cast and crew on something again. If the opportunity ever arises.

Lessons I've learned during this session that I shall take forward.

*I have an ear for general mood, but Chris beats me hands down when it comes to particular inflections and line-to-line needs.

*I have a knack of creating complicated sentences and long stretches of dialogue that can easily trip actors up, but that they also love getting used to.

*I must prepare to clarify pronunciations for words that I might think "Really? That needed clarification?"

*Editing on the fly is a necessity up to even this stage when everything's recorded.

*Adlibs aren't dead, and in fact can and will pop up in unexpected places to often enlivening effect.

*Actors in the green room and the pub, and the recording box, have a filthy sense of humour. More please.

*It's never one and done, even if the first take was so good it might as well be. A second is always taken. Sometimes it can run to 4+, or bits of a scene may be re-recorded in isolation.

*Having visited London three times in ten months for various reason, I'm decided: I don't like London that much compared to Oxford or Bristol. I just don't vibe with it.

*I really love being part of a diverse group of people, be that based on ethnicity, background or sexuality.

Thanks to everyone. And here's to the next phase, for all of us.

Cast and writer after recording; 17:40, 20 October 2025, Orpheus Studio in London. From left to right; Sarah Golding, David Monteith, Thomas Wrightson (me), Charlie Richards, Marie-Claire Wood. Image courtesy of Chris Gregory, Alternative Stories.

Next Time on Dragon Ball Wrightson...

 This is gonna be a short, sharp, sweet post. Next week will be a long and involved post on the production to date of my audio play 'The Angry House'. So this week, I'm posting a little early today (as I need to travel down) with some stuff that may tide readers over if they would like to read until next week, when stuff will really be happening.

*A Writer's perspective on Baldur's Gate 3: One of my recent favourite posts, mostly because I got the chance to talk a lot about something I really enjoyed.

*Mononoke yokai explained — For Fun!: By some strange mechanism, my most popular post on the website ever.

*Review – Novel – Stephen Cox’s The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder: My latest review of a genuinely great story, the author's first indie title.

*A (reasoned) defence of Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea: My second most popular post recently. And it's in the title.

*Writing and working for a future beyond sorrow: A piece that I wrote after s*** hit the fan in North America when a certain senile certifiable lunatic got re-elected.

*Short story - The Village: A two-part short story that I published here. Something you may enjoy for the spooky season.

See you next Sunday!

Two new Videos, for your enjoyment.

 Another month, another episode of my podcast. Or rather, a new episode, and a video that came about in--no joke--less than a week.

First, after much research and slight hair-tearing, an episode on the origins and modern version of Sinbad. I go into the character's origins, the whole issue of being bundled in with the Thousand and One Nights, some prominent portrayals in the 20th Century and how they compare to the original tales, and why Sinbad as we know him is anything but the original that entertained audiences since the 14th Century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXKUvC755lo

https://open.spotify.com/episode/489EOojhSfghGqGZOunBt4

Second, a video that I published on Friday. In it, I take a retrospective look at a Final Fantasy project that's close to my heart ans one of my early inspirations. My very first Final Fantasy game experience at that: Fabula Nova Crystallis. I look at its representative titles, how the notorious mythos was supposed to work, and generally do the rounds of analysis and nostalgic but not rose-tinted retrospection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCRvsVnLWn4&pp=0gcJCfsJAYcqIYzv 

October. Oh October...

 For some time, October's been a busy month for a number of reasons. And this year...wow, I guess the Fates are making up for the amount of stuff that had not to happen during the high COVID years. This is going to be a short update more than anything.

First up, from October 4th to 5th, I'll be participating in Rainbow Space Magic, an online convention focused on LGBTQIA+ writers and readers of speculative fiction. I'll be one of seven authors doing readings from their work on Saturday, which take place from 21:30 to 22:20 UK time. Next I'll be taking part in the panel "Writing About the Past as a Way of Talking About the Present" alongside Jessica Lucci, Robin S. Blackwood, E. H. Lupton and Gideon Marcus at 17:00 UK Time. Find the full schedule on their website (all times are Eastern or Pacific).

I'll also be embarking on the next stage of my Open University degree, my first Level 2 module, and consequently I'll be getting into the swing and flow of things. It's been nerve-wracking, but I also know it will be fun. I just need to get into the flow and swing of things.

And finally, I'll be attending both the online table read, and the recording of my audio play, The Angry House. As I've previously written of, it won the Audio Achievement award in July at the Pen to Print Awards, and since then I've been working with Alternative Stories to refine the script, choose the appropriate cast, and schedule recording. That means I'll be travelling down to attend the recording, and... Well, let's just say it will be tiring.

And that appears to be the overall summary of October. It'll be tiring. I had decided to skip BristolCon this year, hoping to have a quiet year. But it turned out to be anything but quiet. Both on a world stage (insert lunatic, nationalist or warmongering policy here) and in my personal space. Here's to...2026? I guess?

My Anime Life: The Apothecary Diaries

 Today's the start of a new article series: me, an anime lover, talking about anime I've watched and my opinions. Today, one of those that will doubtless become a modern classic. The Apothecary Diaries, produced by Toho and OLM and based on a novel series by Natsu Hyuga, is set in an alternate world based on Tang Dynasty China and follows Maomao, a woman trained in apothecary and medicine, who ends up working in the Imperial Palace and collaborates with the mysterious official Jinshi on a number of cases.

The premise of The Apothecary Diaries seems...mundane? Almost rote. But the way the setting has been constructed is incredible. There are so many complex relationships within this series that it can make your head spin. But if you know even a little about how complex and fraught Imperial Chinese clan and dynastic politics were, you will soon realise this is a surprisingly faithful interpretation. Schemes within schemes, long games, subtle one-upmanship, and the dynamite of not having a designated successor. It also doesn't shy away from the brutality of Imperial law and how the dynasties stayed in power: it doesn't show overt violence very often, but it makes clear the penalties of that era which have been carried over into this fictionalised version.

But it's the writing and characters that truly make this world so engaging. Maomao is one of the most engaging and down-to-earth protagonists I've met in a long time, regardless of gender. She's also one of the best-written female characters I've seen not just in Japanese media, but in general media. She doesn't feel like the shrinking flower many other non-warrior Asian women are in media. Indeed, most of the women in this series are a joy to watch, either for their personality and interactions up front, or their growth. Yes, some fall back on stereotypes, but they are the minority rather than the majority. Across the two seasons it's figures like Consort Gyokuyou and her attendants, the other consorts and concubines, the many maid servants, the bouncy and enigmatic Shisui, the aloof and tragic Suirei, the women of the Verdigris House, and the greater majority of the antagonists that really hold your attention. Despite being set in a patriarchal society, or perhaps because of it, it's refreshingly focused on the roles and limitations of women.

Of course I can't not talk about Jinshi, Maomao's superior and would-be love interest. I love how he is initially portrayed as frivolous and infuriatingly serene, but the more we learn about him and his role within the Imperial Court, the more his mask of the beautiful youth slips away. There is the big red flag of the fact Jinshi outranks Maomao in social status many times over, and there were a few times he edged towards overstepping a line with Maomao before fate or someone else intervened and made him look and feel foolish. I don't know how this relationship will go before it starts becoming properly toxic, but I can only hope that there is a way it can be resolved. There are a few other male characters like the attendant Gaoshun and the dog-like Lihaku, but it's telling and charming that their primary purpose in many sequences is comedic relief or as an extra official arm for Maomao.

I've recently finished watching the first two seasons of its anime adaptation, which cover the first four volumes of the light novel series. I'd seen clips of it through Crunchyrole's YouTube channel, and been intrigued. I have a soft spot for very well written court intrigue. Not your standard fluffy fare, but one where it really feels like there are stakes. And if you like political drama with real heart, and without gratuitous violence, then this is absolutely a must-watch. It's one of the few series set in this culture that doesn't focus on a hyper-masculine wuxia overtone, instead staying grounded in the actions of one woman whose low status means her life is worth less than nothing to almost everyone in the court. And it's also a refreshing fictional world that creates an alternate Imperial China without falling back on magic, instead creating an original grounded story inspired by true history.

Author Talks: New Episode Out Now

 Fun fact, this was going to be a blog post, then I realised it would make a good episode of Author Talks, and decided to combine it with a short story reading. Specifically a reading of "The Cleaner" (with some on-the-fly amendments for grammar and flow). Otherwise, enjoy this episode which also features updates, and my experience with how video game music helps me write.

YouTube version

Spotify version

Review - Novel - Stephen Cox's The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder

IMAGE CREDIT: AUTHOR WEBSITE. BOOK COVER DESIGNED BY MATT AT INKSPIRAL DESIGN

 In a previous post, I gave a recommendation to a duology of sci-fi novels written by Stephen Cox, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds. Out of curiosity, I decided to buy the paperback of Cox's newest novel, self-published for paperback and ebook. That novel is The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder.

The set-up is simple; taking place in 1880s London, Mrs Ashton and Mrs Bradshaw are lovers who mainly live off of Mrs Ashton's work as an evangelical spiritualist medium. Mrs Ashton has a secret ace up her sleeve; she can "read" people she touches, sensing their emotions and memories, lending her claims some validity. One day, a noble client seeks to hear from her mother-in-law, but her husband appears to stop it, and Mrs Ashton learns from reading him that he is not only a cruel and violent character, but has killed at least once in the past. Under threat from the husband's social and political connections, Mrs Ashton decides to investigate the matter.

In terms of genre, the best way I can describe this novel is 'historical low fantasy mystery". The story certainly doesn't go the way you think it might from the opening eight to ten chapters, which are basically all set-up for the meat of the story set in the English countryside. I think the best way I can describe the pacing is that the first third is over-slow for my tastes, but never so slow as to stop me reading. Then for the next two thirds, it picks up the pace aplenty with events and twists I won't spoil. The language is a part of that pacing, as while it's not entirely done in the style of Braddon, Collins and Doyle, it does have dashes and flavours of their approaches to writing.

Is this novel perfect? Well, no, but then nothing is. It does rely on some character cliches early on, though many are thankfully subverted. I think my biggest issue is with the character of Mrs Bradshaw. Compared to Mrs Ashton and the couple's hired help Maisie, Mrs Bradshaw feels underdeveloped and relies a lot more on her trope of the harsh Irish lass who will clobber unwanted male attention than the deeper characterisation given by Mrs Ashton's troubled past and Maisie's family responsibilities. There are also a couple of issues with the book's current printing: a few typos, one incomplete sentence. But those are well within the expectations of a self-published work, and throughout the book I only ran into less than half a dozen.

Even with these reservations, I would definitely recommend you check out The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder. Not only are you supporting a good writer's first self-published effort, but you'll be treated to a neat little piece of historical fiction with an enjoyable lesbian couple in the lead, and an actually intriguing mystery.

RELEASING 1 SEPTEMBER 2025.

7.9/10

Territories Not To Be Charted

During this last three days, I've been sporadically attending events at WorldShift Summit 2025, and one of the bits that I attended and found interesting was a talk titled "Writing Identities Not Your Own: Speculative Fiction", hosted by author Alex Temblador. During the course of the talk, there were points raised regarding sensitivity readers, research, and making the choice just not to write something (a choice that more authors should follow). I remember commenting in the chat about some areas that I had decided not to touch in my speculative writing, but the thought persisted. It also came to mind with other things I'd encountered, including a discussion within the PBS Storied YouTube posts, and this video from Overly Sarcastic Productions on urban fantasy.

So, I'll freely admit that in my early writing, I didn't have the full sense to not use certain pieces of belief systems or history. I used them, and thank all the deities that writing will never see the light of day. It's not just that it's subpar in quality, but it also ignores.some very basic rules of etiquette regarding cultural representation. There are some things which are relatively open for the usage, such as belief systems or pieces of history that are so far removed from the present day they might as well have happened in another realm. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the pre-Roman Celts, the pre-Christian Norse, and Japan.

But there are some pretty large areas where I don't feel comfortable treading. Many of these are places not only with active and living participants in a belief system, but also countries which have been victims of 19th and 20th Century colonialism, and places where there is already a literary tradition which is finally breaking through to a worldwide audience. You may call foul for having mentioned Japan, but I've noticed that unless an adapter is wholly disrespectful or malicious, Japanese people don't seem to mind as much when their Shinto beliefs are used for fiction. I may be wrong about this, please correct with examples if so, but their attitude seems a lot more--to mix metaphors--laissez faire.

So here are a few big examples of stuff I won't touch for some reason. Extant believers

*Native America: This is a very solid line that I've drawn for myself. The Native American belief systems are a much-denigrated, much-misrepresented, and much-persecuted way of seeing the world. Some of its symbols, such as dreamcatcher charms or what in English is called the "wendigo", have bled into popular culture while losing most of their significance to those who first spoke of them. They're frequently used in a context which is more than a little racist, and while I'd want to avoid those if I chose to use them, I'd rather not use them at all out of respect for the Native American populations whose living believe systems it is. As an example in this article, I won't focus on the Navajo yee naaldlooshii beyond this mention, since it's already misused and abused enough. Unlike a...certain culturally deaf author who shall not be named.

*Africa: A broad one with another very solid line. The rich and varied cultures of Africa have been one of the greatest victims of colonial attitudes during the 19th Century, which saw them as brutish and uncivilised because they were different in how their societies worked, how their knowledge was preserved, and what they chose to believe in. But just a brief look at the history of one country, take Ghana as an example, shows multiple cultural groups, rich history and artistic legacies, and deep folklore and mythology. Many will know of Anansi, a spider trickster from Akan folklore, but this figure is so much more fascinating than just his stories. And I wouldn't want to use Anansi because there are hundreds of thousands from within the Akan people who could write about him far better than I.

*The Indian Subcontinent: Now I must make the line a bit fuzzy here not because I feel I can't write about the culture, at least from the perspective of an outsider, but because its folklore, mythology and religion is dense and far more intricate than someone not versed in that tradition could understand. And on top of that, unlike what might seem like parallel belief systems such as Ancient Greece and Rome, the Hindu sampradaya, plus others such as Jain Dharma or the Sikh or the teachings of Buddha, are a still-practiced and active religion. According to some surveys, the Hindu faiths collectively are the third-largest practiced religion in the world. And while some pieces of fiction have butchered this religion for entertainment (looking at you, Temple of Doom), I prefer not to.

*Abrahamic tradition: I'd initially labelled this section "Jewish traditions", then realised this easily extends across multiple belief systems which fall under the Abrahamic umbrella Today more than ever, there are a lot of hair-triggers surrounding use of perceived misuse of this belief system in a speculative medium. I don't want to use the Golem as it's deeply embedded in aspects of Jewish history and folklore. I'm steering well clear of Islamic belief systems as there is a lot of nuance and strong opinions that I don't want to tread on. There are some aspects of Judeo-Christian beliefs that people have become less tetchy about, but even then I'm not comfortable using them in a big way. As a reference or a template, sure. But unless I really do have a lot of confidence that I'm writing it correctly or in a suitably tongue-in-cheek style, I'd rather not

*South American pre-colonial: This is a more fuzzy example, as the belief systems native to that area, while still practiced to a degree, aren't the mainstream anymore. But there is a ton of aspects that either isn't readily accessible, or just can't be accessed at all. The belief systems of pre-colonial South America are rich and intriguing, filled with nuance and depth. But due to a combination of time's unfriendly march, and systematic destruction by the Spanish of that culture in a brutal wave of oppression and conversion, little primary evidence survives. We have clues, a few surviving documents, and a mountain of deeply-biased accounts from Spanish colonials with a vested interest in painting the peoples of South America as brutal savages. So while I might use a reference to them, I wouldn't want to portray the deities in fiction any more than the people who worshiped them. It feels disrespectful.

*Mainland China: This is a tricky one in a different way, as there are some aspects of Chinese tradition which have become very much internationalized through the popularity of fiction such as Journey to the West and Water Margin. I also admit that I created a story on this very blog which was a tongue-in-cheek homage to Journey to the West. But there are still some parts of its culture and belief systems I don't want to handle. It's even more important as aspects of that old culture seem to be under attack from its present government, meaning it may become increasingly up to diaspora populations to preserve them. There is a prominent example of a Western take on "Chinese" folklore, BioWare's Jade Empire, which I used to like but now just find deeply uncomfortable. It does have a slight escape clause in that it's not specifically using Ancient China, but still too close for comfort. Might have been more tolerable if they had Chinese creatives on the writing staff.

So, there we are. Some bits I don't want to touch, and some of my reasoning for it. These cultures are beautiful and rich, and they should be shown to the world where possible. And as a White British man, that isn't a task I should take on. It should be done by writers who can take those traditions and weave stories of their own devising, stepped in their own cultural background which will lend it a depth impossible otherwise.

The Bionicle Movies: A Personal Retrospective

Note: This is the script for a video which you will find at the bottom of the post. Hope you enjoy one or the other, or both.

Bionicle has been on my mind recently. Why? Well, not just because of the Lego group recently cancelling a fan-made video game project dubbed Masks of Power after eight years of tacit acquiescence. It’s because Bionicle was a formative part of why I became what I am; an author, trying to get into the market alongside all the other things I’m doing. Including living a ‘normal’ life.

I first encountered Bionicle in 2003 through the Lego Catalogue, where I was absolutely terrified by the Rahkshi. I ended up getting my first set in 2004. I forget whether it was one of the Vahki, or the Toa set for Nuju. Either way, I got submerged into the world of Bionicle. I was already into Lego, through things like Alpha Team and the various more generic Lego bits we had at home. But Bionicle was different, and I found it had a story which pulled me in hard. Even after I stopped getting sets in 2007, I still followed the story until its original finale in 2010. And I bought the movies. All four of them. For better, and in the last case...for worse.

The Bionicle fan community is, I believe, unique within Lego’s corpus. It’s going strong to this very day, and the Bionicle Media Project is continuing its dedicated work preserving what might otherwise become lost media. This includes comics, books, web games, video commercials, even restoring some long-lost cancelled projects.

So, how can I best show my own love for this series, as Bionicle is on a lot of people’s minds at the moment? Well, I guess I could talk about the movies that helped me love this series, as the original trilogy remains some of my favourite set of films, even after twenty years. Even after everything else I’ve watched. I’ve absorbed countless pieces of other media, including the more dubious video game titles, but the movies are some of the most easily accessible. I’ve got the DVDs still, so I might as well go back and look over each of them. And find out why I still like them, even though they’re technically aimed at...a far younger audience than I.

Bionicle: The Mask of Light from 2003 tells...half of the story of that year’s released sets. There is a lot of extra stuff that isn’t covered, and while you can follow along, there are some casual details in dialogue that non-fans won’t get. I don’t think it’s an issue in this case. Also fun fact, I first watched this film in 2004, so when I heard the village leaders or Turaga being referred to using the names of the Metru Nui Toa, I...think my brain had a minor freeze. Because... Wait, what, Vakama? Nokama?! What’s going on, what happened!?

Partly due to how much it cuts, and party due to its intended audience, I’ve got to say it isn’t the best piece of Bionicle media in my opinion. A lot of my feelings of good towards it are rooted in nostalgia from when I first watched it. I had literally never seen anything like it; the corruptive Rahkshi, the scheming Makuta, the odd couple dynamic of Jalla and Takua, the internal conflicts of the Toa. All fairly standard, but delivered with real confidence. But that’s not to say there isn’t worth here outside of nostalgia.

I think one of the best plot threads in this movie is with the Fire Toa Tahu. He is painted as powerful, but arrogant and stubborn. When he is poisoned by one of the Rahkshi, slowly falling to its corruption, it forces the Toa to come together regardless of any differences they might have had before, especially Gali, Toa of Water. It shows the theme of unity which is present in...pretty much every piece of this series’ media. There is also Takua’s slow acceptance of his role as the titular mask’s herald, and it has a climax which is genuinely moving even if it dances around some heavier stuff.

And as for the production value? It’s really good for a first time, although it really shows its age in some of its composition and overall quality. This is a movie made with love. The animation feels solid, connected, you can believe the different characters are interacting with each other even if it’s entirely CGI. And Nathan Furst’s musical score ties it together beautifully. It may be a synthesised orchestra, but boy does it have some oomph.

So the first movie isn’t the best. It’s probably the weakest of the original trilogy. But it’s also got the heart and soul which would stand this universe in good stead going forward. And it shows what the original trilogy would do best; nice characters, great animation, and peak atmosphere.

Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui, released in 2004, is a prequel to the original that follows six Matoran as they are chosen to inherit the mantle of Toa and defend their city from an insidious conspiracy that sees them branded as criminals. Honestly, the story has aged too well for its own good in these times. A state police that oppresses more than it aids, secretive operatives who disappear people, a charismatic leader few seem able to overcome.

I’m not sure I enjoyed it as much as I do now partly because its themes weren’t as relevant to me back in 2004 compared to 2025. Also the characters’ struggles didn’t hit me as much as they do now. The story is all about rivalry, self-doubt, discovering yourself separate from other people’s expectations. Due to these, and the overarching theme of a city being overtaken by an unseen shadow, the tone is a lot darker than the previous film. There’s also a greater sense of kinetic flow, with more movement and action, which really brings characters to life.

Something that I fear must be mentioned is that is feels as if Bionicle 2 some parts either weren’t adjusted for rewrites, or some bits were cut. There were some cut moments from the first movie too, but here it feels more obvious. It suffers from the same issue as Mask of Light, in that it cuts about a third of the 2004 storyline, a whole initial threat from a sentient plant called the Morbuzakh. There’s also some clear asset reuse with a few characters that really breaks the flow.

But that doesn’t make this a weak movie. In fact, I think it’s my favourite out of the original trilogy today. My favourite part of it is Vakama’s struggle with self-belief, needing to mostly rely on his wits rather than his Toa powers to get himself and his fellows out of trouble. He really comes across as someone who had a role thrust on him, feels he should follow a set pattern, and isn’t doing very well. The performances really sell each of the characters, to the point that the voice work feels better than the first, even if it’s on a similar level. Similarly improved is the animation and overall production, and Furst once again delivers an entertaining musical score.

All of this comes together to make Bionicle 2 a fascinating entry, if a slightly uneven one. It’s my favourite out of the original trilogy, and features some real strides forward in terms of characters and plot. If it had been given more time, had a little more content, it could well be considered a classic outside the fandom. Honestly it feels like this entire trilogy is in a battle between runtime and content.

2005’s Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows, while a sequel in name, is technically an interqual, taking place during the last few events of Bionicle 2. I’m not sure what I expected initially going into this, but I knew the story would be darker. That was the whole marketing behind this year, we were going into dark and edgy territory. The quest of the Toa Metru to retrieve the Matoran, only to be mutated into half-beast forms by the occupying Visorak army, is still surprisingly compelling.

For one thing, the overarching atmosphere really carries the increased personal stakes, and given the age range this was being aimed at, its themes of struggling with personal growth and feeling foreign in your own skin are quite pertinent. Even more so if the viewer were grappling with something like gender identity. This was the first time I felt real stakes, and also the first time that sudden death was so openly and bluntly portrayed. It also feels the most complete out of the trilogy, like very little if anything had to be cut before release.

There is a slight artificiality with how Vakama has gone from anxious to arrogant, but it’s not too much of a leap that I don’t buy it entirely. The rest of the character dynamics are retained, and it fits the overall theme. And whatever anyone else says, Roodaka is one of the most intimidating villains in the series, and probably helped establish some of my tastes with villainy in general. Secretive, manipulative, apparently soft, but fully capable of destruction when provoked.

As to the production, I think the animation is the best of the movies so far, there’s real weight to things. And while the musical score isn’t as strong as its two predecessors, the voice work has absolutely taken a step up yet again. Alessandro Juliani is almost literally slaying as Vakama, and Kathleen Barr helping make Roodaka even more intimidating than she already is.

I’m not sure I’d consider Web of Shadows my favourite today, but it certainly was way back when. Maybe because the themes resonated more. And it’s still a great gateway into Bionicle along with the other two movies. It’s got maybe the best story out of the three, strong production, stellar performances, and it also closes out the movie trilogy’s story in a satisfying way. If you only watched the movies, you would get a complete story.

ERROR: BIONICLE: THE LEGEND REBORN COPYRIGHTED BY UNIVERSAL, INSERT IMAGE HERE

Bionicle: The Legend Reborn adapts the 2009 storyline—sort of—and acts as an attempted soft reboot of the series. Different studio, different cast, different world. I wish I could say I got this footage from my own DVD copy, but I got rid of that ages ago as I held no value for it, so the footage here is taken from the Bionicle Media Project. Mostly because...oh boy.

The story follows Mata Nui incarnated as a Toa-like being, arriving on the world of Bara Magna and becoming entangled in both a search to reclaim his people from his arch enemy, and an ongoing conflict between surviving pockets of civilisation on the desolate planet.

I’m sorry to say it all feels very....meh. It’s not that the story is terrible, but how it’s delivered in the movie feels borderline bowdlerised. The 2009 comics portray a brutal world beset by gladiatorial conflicts over resources, an entire tribe who regressed to an animalistic state, outlaws who prey on travellers. It’s not a happy place, and the background lore reflects that. But you wouldn’t know it from the movie. It feels very kiddy, and not in a good way. And many of the characters’ personalities bear little resemblance to how they appear in other media, or are reduced to bit-players when they had a sizeable presence in Mata Nui’s journey.

Another huge issue is the casting. The original trilogy used a cast from across the Commonwealth—Canadian, Australian, British—and most if not all of the cast had a background in theatre as well as voiceover. It leant a distinct tone to the movies. For The Legend Reborn, the cast uses more mainstream American voices for many parts, including Lieutenant Worf himself Michael Dorn as Mata Nui. And I’m sorry to say this, I think Dorn was hideously miscast. I just can’t take him or most of the rest of the cast seriously. That, combined with animation that feels disconnected from itself across any scene with character interplay, and an extremely subpar musical score that I’m only using in this video under protest, conspire to rob this movie of any atmosphere of mysticism and otherness the main trilogy had in spades.

It doesn’t help this film was intended as the first of a trilogy following the soft reboot storyline, except the line ended in 2010. They did wrap up the story through other media, but this movie ends the original continuity’s cinematic legacy on one of the most pathetic whimpers imaginable.

Oh yes, and a quite touch upon the 2016 creation. Bionicle underwent a reboot in the mid-2010s, and...it didn’t sell. It was retired after less than two years. Lego seems to have tried recapturing the spirit of the original with an animated series released on Netflix, titled Bionicle: The Journey to One. But it suffers from the same issues as The Legend Reborn, only worse. And...oh boy, I was not feeling the story in the slightest. I just cannot recommend.

Image source: CGI commercial for the 2003 Bionicle video game

A last point to talk of is how the films adapted the Lego figures themselves. There are whole documentary pieces from the development teams on how they turned these figures into CGI characters. I don’t envy the production crews the task of translating the designs between two wildly different mediums.

Technically The Legend Reborn is the most faithful to the sets, practically recreating them part for part while giving them greater movement. The irony is that this faithfulness turns them from actual characters into...toys. The original trilogy took creative license with the models to give them distinct body types, strong facial expressions, even elements such as hair and cloth analogues. It leant each of the models a realness.

And the 2016 series just look like a weird hybrid between static models and free-flow, with zero creative license.

Bionicle is a great story, a decade-long saga of unity, duty, and destiny. Of hope, despair, and perseverance. Of searching, sacrifice, and solidarity. And even if they’re not perfect, the original trilogy captures that atmosphere to a tee. It’s a shame the fourth movie is such an outlier and more an archival curiosity than anything recommendable, and that the reboot television series falls so flat. That still leaves you with three movies of a descent length that will be a fun watch.

I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the production crew, actors and many others who got the original trilogy to happen. They created something truly special. And I think the last word belongs Vakama.

New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered. This is the way of the Bionicle.

CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDEO VIA THIS LINK.

Author Talks S3 E4: Updates, and Voltaire

It's that time again! The next episode of Author Talks has been released. This time, I give listeners updates on how my work and life are going and what's coming. For the fiction offering, I do a reading of Voltaire's 1756 short story "Plato's Dream", which can be classified as either an example of science-fantasy, or of proto-science fiction depending on who you ask. Basically, a fun time for this fairly short episode.

Spotify link

YouTube version

Oh lord, I really wrote that...

"Nobody's perfect." It's a very common phrase. It's a joke, an excuse, a trope and a cliché. But it's also an unfortunate, literal fact. Personally, I dislike perfection. I think of it only as an unobtainable abstract. Leaders creating a "perfect" society, creatives striving for that "perfect" project, people trying to lead "perfect" lives. Aiming for perfection is an easy recipe for inferiority complexes.

At the same time, maybe try not to make colossal mistakes which undermine what you're trying to do. Let's start this off with what triggered these thoughts. The use of the word "female" as a noun. It's actively insulting, especially today, and it makes reading some pieces of fiction more difficult unless you put in a metric tone of cultural relativism or some hefty world-building that explains why they aren't using some other noun to describe an entire gender. This is present in Mass Effect because obviously 'woman' can't be applied to non-human non-male members of a society, right? Except when the writers slip and do use that, and wouldn't translation devices approximate for humans so that genders would be described using their own words--and I'll save this for November.

The mainspring is that Emily Inkpen made a point about men who use "female" as a noun. I assume in their everyday speech and writing. She, with impressive restraint, told them to get off her feed and unfollow her as she didn't have the time. I thoroughly understand, using "female" as a noun is just insulting. But then, a penny dropped. I have read some older literature, and as was raised during a recent discussion for an in-progress project related to this event here, I let some of my archaic inspiration leak into how the characters were talking. And I checked: had I used "female" as a noun? And...well, the results were slightly mixed. More usually I realised I'd been using the word "female" as an adjective, but sometimes it did seemingly slip. I haven't checked to see whether I was doing it to help characterise the person in the writing, but regardless the point stands.

For those who don't get what I've been going on about, let me define noun and adjective as simply as I can, as I'm by no means an expert in the technical side of language. A noun is a word used to refer to something, that being an object or a named person or a location in a sentence. So "noun went to noun" or "have you seen noun". There is the further distinction between common and proper nouns. For proper nouns, think of all the esoteric terminology in fantasy and sci-fi. Meanwhile, an adjective is a word which defines a noun, so "an adjective noun" or "out with that adjective noun", or even "noun, adjective, did this three times".

This was something else Emily Inkpen brought up on a reply through one of her socials, where she was pretty angry at the people trying to defend the use of "female" as a noun, probably without realising that the examples being used were technically "female" being used as an adjective. As in "a female voice", or a "female creature". In the Cluster Cycle, I was faced with the unenviable task of creating three other distinctly not-human species for humans to interact with, and I didn't want to use the terms "man" and "woman" to refer to their traditional genders. Mostly because to me, those words are strongly linked with the word "human".

Now, to deliberately use "female" as a noun is insulting and degrading. One might use it in a character's dialogue to signal as such. One shouldn't use it willy-nilly in their own speech, or their prose description, or whatever else. So when I came across those points, I felt more than a little embarrassed. I'll have to be extra careful going forward, because I know I might end up slipping again. I might write something unintentionally insulting and belittling. And today, with many people on a hair trigger, I need to be more aware of that.

I can take a small comfort in the fact that when double-checking, I found that I generally used both "male" and "female" as adjectives, which seems acceptable. I don't know if there's been any update on that, because not only are cultural taboos changing at lightspeed these days, but English is an inherently difficult language because it's both extremely gendered and gender-neutral enough that it causes problems. It's not like French, German, Japanese, Chinese, and dozens of other languages where gender is baked into words and grammar.

All I can do is remember that before it became an excuse and a cliché, the phrase "Nobody's perfect" had a real meaning. And while I can't be perfect, I can try not to be an insensitive author.

My first awards ceremony (and my first award....ever)

So, on Thursday 24 July 2025, I attended my very first awards ceremony; the Pen to Print Awards 2025. It took place in the Learning Centre in Barking, a town on the outskirts of London. And I had enough fun there that I feel the need to dedicate this week's blogpost to it. I'll recall as much as I can, but apologies if I forget some names.

A small introduction may be warranted. Pen to Print is a publicly-funded initiative which effectively sponsors writers and creatives who are residents of the UK. Their goal is to foster and expose new talent, be that in poetry or prose, accepting fiction and opinion pieces for their magazine, and of course hosting their awards for competitions they run. They have been going for close to a decade at this point, and their awards are varied and offer genuine exposure. The full list of winners and runners-up can be found here on Pen to Print's Instagram. This post is more of an emotive impression from an audience member.

The event that I attended on Thursday took place in a medium-sized conference room on the building's second floor, and while it was very hot, it was nice meeting fellow writers and publishers, and talking shop about aspects of publishing and writing. I was sure it would be an enjoyable evening regardless of what happened regarding me personally. At 7 PM, the ceremony started, with an opening speech from the main organizer Lena Smith, and from the sitting mayor of Barking and Daganham, Princess Bright. The first event was a special "Staff Writing/Poetry Award" as the organizers of the event weren't allowed to participate but it was felt that something should be done for them. The winner was Mazedda Bellevue for "Seasons Of Life", with the runner-up being Samiul Kayes for "Echoes Of Gaza". For the major awards after this, many of them were announced in a semi-joking manner using a golden envelope. It brought a chuckle to everyone, considering how meme-worthy the Oscars have become.

Then came two Speech And Drama performances on either side of the second award, which I'll get to at the end of this piece. Basically, we were given the performances, which were basically a monologue of sorts with some mild dramatization, then we were given paper slips to vote on which we preferred between Liyana Abhram's poem "A Walk In The Woods", and the monologue "News from France" by Julian Walker. Both were lots of fun to listen to. Next was the "Michael Feld Award", named for a local notary and patron of the arts, which was aimed at supporting the work of young people. There were two nominees; Key Stage 2 student Sanjana Arunkumar with "Rumble And Grumble" (which was a fun and funny little skit) and Key Stage 3 student Lurmaya Mathews with the poem "Chaos" (a visceral dramatization of what felt like a massive anxiety attack). "Chaos" proved the overall winner.

Then came the intermission, with snacks and drinks and talk. After that, and some minor drama with the mislaying of the voting bag, we were able to cast our votes. Liyana Abhram proved the winner, with a narrow margin that required a recount to make sure of the result. Then came the "Adventurous Voices" competition, which was split across three age groups and featured writing on a particular theme. There were nearly a dozen entrants who got some form of recognition on that stage. The winners in this category Daisy Higgins with "Elara And The Enchanted Rainforest!" in the Primary School category, Musfira Sharif for "Who Am I?" in the Secondary School category, and Patrick Blosse for "Off The Beaten Path" in the Adult category. All great pieces to hear.

For most of these that weren't orated on the platform, we got an audio sample of the winning pieces, which was more than incredible to listen to. The "Portry" award was given to Gillian Davies with "When The Streetlights Blinked To Life", a piece that can best be described as a nostalgic trip through pre-internet teenage urban life. Truly nostalgic. For the "Short Story" award, the winner was Lianne Warr with "Mouse", and...wow. The sample for that was positively chilling to listen to.

Closing out the ceremony was the Book Challenge awards. Basically a challenge to write a full novel in twelve months, with further mentoring and consultation as part of the prize. As it was ongoing, they instead had finalists appear, giving them awards for their efforts. The finalists were The Revenge Pact by Yana Yanovic, Misery Loves Company by Gulnaz Abdullah, Vigilantes Anonymous by Nick Burdett, The Fisherman's Daughter by Lee James Broadwood, and Elderwood by Ruth Frendo. There were no samples, but it was a nice way to round things off with the awards. The ceremony closed at around 9 PM with a final message from Saima Ashraf, including a poetic message relating to the current times of discord and fear being fostered by authorities the world over.

But, and I've saved this for last not to deprive anyone else of their deserved recognition, I was also the recipient of an award. All the way back in March, I submitted an audio play I'd created, "The Angry House", to their Audio Play Competition, which was being done in association with Alternative Stories. You may know them for Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy series alongside other creations. It was just something I threw together in a brief amount of time, and I'll probably be able to share more about it later. But, in a moment that left me genuinely speechless, I won their award. And part of the prize is that "The Angry House" is going to be produced as a full audio play. The interval and the immediate aftermath before I returned to my hotel was both strange and...oddly euphoric. The nitty-gritty business aspect of what comes next starts after today, but for now I feel like I've arrived in a sense.

This is still a start, but a start is better than nothing. And it's likely the same for everyone else who has gotten exposure and validation through these awards.

This is overwhelming in and of itself, and it's taken me till today for it to truly sink in and for me to find the words to express it. There's nothing like the thrill of getting your first award, especially when you're sure you won't get it. I just froze momentarily when the words "Thomas Wrightson for The Angry House" were read out by Councillor Bright, and I had a photo taken with the award and the mayor. And then, remaining on stage by choice, I heard an audio sample created by Chris Gregory and Emily Inkpen of Alternative Stories, demonstrating a part of what would eventually become...a thing that everyone can listen to. It's an indescribable sensation, hearing your words for the first time being spoken by someone other than you. I imagine that's also how many of the other winners felt.

It may be a ways to go there if you live in distant parts like I do, but it's also worth it if you can. It's a fun event, with a chance to hear great pieces of work across a variety of genres, and perhaps begin either your journey outright, or the next part of it. Here's to the future, whatever that may hold. And congratulations and best to all those who submitted, and all those who have seen this recognition on an evening I won't soon forget.