Book (Manhwa): The Dark Lord’s Confession by Topseoung

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The Dark Lord’s Confession
by Topseoung
published by Webtoon (100+ chapters, ongoing)
2022 – present

Lapis is a girl living in a world divided between people naturally marked with a symbol of good / holy magical power, ordinary people, and unfortunate people naturally marked with the symbol of an incurable curse and magical powers. Those with the mark of the curse are automatically deemed evil as a result of their potentially contagious illness, and must live in hiding or risk being murdered at any age upon discovery. Their murderers blame their victims for being inhuman, so that they can feel better about slaughtering their own friends and neighbors who bear the mark. Those who survive by hiding their mark will inevitably turn into literal monsters if they don’t kill themselves first.

Lapis has the curse. Optimistically, after living with two sweet girls who have their own sad backstories, Lapis is determined to go to a holy school to become a holy knight – surely, if she can master holy powers, she can find a cure!

After failing the entrance exam for knight school countless times, Lapis is attacked by monsters while practicing magical symbols, and accidentally summons the Dark Lord, the being who is supposedly responsible for the curse. When holy soldiers turn up to see what all the ruckus is, Lapis… somehow barely passes the holy power test, and can study to be a Holy Knight!

If anything goes wrong, Lapis will be murdered in cold blood by her classmates and teachers. If things go right, Lapis will be forced to murder innocent people who bear the curse, something she is far too kind and ethical to do.

Illustration of Lapis and Calla dressed up in a scene from The Dark Lord's Confession by Topseoung
Lapis and Calla dressed up in a scene from The Dark Lord’s Confession by Topseoung. Topseoung’s style is fun – the characters are so bold, Calla’s hair goes on in curls for many panels, and women warriors are giants!

Meanwhile, the Dark Lord, to the extent she can be trusted, is telling Lapis that holy and magical powers are the same, and that the curse CAN be undone – but the holy knights and will try to prevent that from happening. Lapis has a role to play in fixing the world, saving those with the mark, and exposing the thousand year old plot that made the world this way – if she can survive in the heart of a holy place founded by the Dark Lord’s rival.

This is a story of religious corruption, a goddess from outer space, cults with their own agendas, lasting traumas over murdered loved ones, the persecution of minorities, land poisoned with curses/diseases/magic based on Roman mythology, health crises, girls swooning over handsome women, secret basements, broken swords, unique powers, dancing with romantic interests who would kill you without a moment’s hesitation if they knew which mark you had, violent sibling rivalries, betrayals, arena duels, the unconditional love of friendship, and falling stars.

I didn’t want to put it down (see me recharging my phone after hours of reading), and read through 100+ chapters in three sessions – and I’m eager for more! I like high stakes fantasy tales, and look forward to this story continuing.

Book: Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Cover of Book: Don't Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

Don’t Go Without Me
by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
published by Shortbox (link to their X page, their website is broken)
2019

This is an enjoyable and visually pleasing collection of three illustrated stories: of a couple becoming unintentionally separated during an inter-dimensional trip, a spacecraft that runs on human memories malfunctioning explosively, and people preparing for a giant to wake.

Valero-O’Connell’s illustrations are extremely charming – I love the shapes of their inter-dimensional animals, the softness of their characters’ noses (some so similar to my bi-racial nose), and the detailed illustrations created with such nicely chosen limited color palettes.

Whatever you want to do, do it now.
Wherever you want to be, be there tonight.

Concise, well-told stories; skilled and pleasing illustrations; and somehow also lessons about valuing life and what you have. This is a great collection!

This selection was highly praised by the staff at Silver Sprocket, but there are so many good choices to be made there, that I can’t take too much credit.

Film: The Creator

The Creator
published by 20th Century Fox
2023

This science fiction film is stunningly beautiful.

The story takes place in a future where robots, synthetic people, and artificial intelligence HAD become part of modern life, until a disaster attributed to artificial intelligence occurred in the U.S. As the U.S. turned against its technology, Asia continued to use it, and this leads to overwhelming U.S. military aggression in pro-technology Asia.

The story centers on the experiences of Joshua, an American soldier who infiltrated a pro-AI group in southeast Asia. While on assignment, he falls in love with Maya, a medical scientist who had helped him with this prosthetics, then loses her due to U.S. military action. As he mourns her, he is called back into action after someone who resembles her is recorded, giving him hope and his own personal mission as he attempts to locate a new AI super weapon.

This film was directed by the Rogue One director, and all the things I loved about the use of locations and landscapes in that film is vastly expanded in scenes that vary from science fiction military bases to tropical beaches and riverside refugee towns. The vastness of U.S. military equipment, the culture of them-versus-us, the determination of Colonel Howell who wishes to get the mission done and avenge her sons… The pace is fast. Flashbacks are used effectively to explain Joshua’s motivations. The focus on the super weapon and Joshua’s private mission keep the action focused. It is intense, high-stakes, persuasively acted, and the world and its technologies are compellingly designed.

It is gorgeous. I purchased it as soon as it was available, and have enjoyed watching this film several times. (I also blame it for putting Dream On by Aerosmith onto my playlist.). I highly recommend The Creator for sci-fi fans.

Film: The Marvels

The Marvels
published by Marvel Entertainment (which feels self referential, but isn’t)
2023

[Me, shouting:] THIS IS AN ACTION COMEDY. Viewers laughed loudly in the theater with delight at appropriate moments when I saw it! I enjoyed it. It was intentionally silly. It was perfectly FINE.

But whoever was responsible for most of the ad campaign should be interrogated and maybe have to spend a few years locked up with Loki, or perhaps reading rival DC’s hate mail.

The film previews were misleading. Maybe the ads came out during the writers-strike or were the work of an evil intern, but they featured dead Avenger flashbacks about fighting great evil, rather than costumed musical numbers involving a hot prince singing to Captain Marvel while she dances in a ballgown-version of her battle costume. (This was a surprise worth saving to delight my fellow movie-goers, but STILL.)

Captain Marvel herself doesn’t seem to be having fun through much of the film, as the weight of possibly being a war criminal weighs heavily on her (ooopsie). Luckily, Ms. Marvel is having enough fun for everyone. And Monica Rambeau is grounded, consistent, and capable, playing it straight between star-struck Ms. Marvel and gloomy Captain Marvel.

If you like action hero comedies with mismatched buddies, disapproving parents, musical numbers, hot princes (hello, Park Seo-Jun!), secret marriages, flerkin kittens consuming Nick Fury’s staff, fangirls, and very poorly timed body swapping, this is a ‘light romp’ in superhero-dom that you might enjoy.

Film: Dune & Dune Part 2

Dune
published by Warner Brothers
2021 (Part 2) 2024

The most beautiful science fiction films I’ve seen recently are these two films. Based on books by Frank Herbert, they tell a story of extractive settler colonialism, in which one feudal family is assigned by the emperor to rule a colony, but this leaves them vulnerable to the jealous emperor’s sabotage. Instead of being fully destroyed, the survivors foment an uprising that takes control of the substance that makes intergalactic travel possible, which threatens to undo the emperor completely.

Dune (part 1) shows the fall of that sabotaged feudal family, House Atreides. Dune Part 2 shows the beginning of uprising against the emperor’s go-to saboteurs, House Harkonnen, which will lead to war for the galactic empire itself.

The architecture is striking; the scale of it, the focus on shade and shelter, the efforts to shape the machine-like city to withstand sandstorms… The vehicles are impressive, with the vast scale that space would logically lead to (though landing such craft on planets with gravity seems less practical from an engineering standpoint, and more as a display of power toward unwilling subjects). The dragonfly-like craft are especially pleasing…

The acting is GOOD. If you’ve seen prior versions of this story on tv or film, you’ve seen both sincere efforts and cartoonish camp. This story plays it straight; the actor playing Paul Atreides is young enough to pull off the role of a conflicted youth persuasively, rather than being played by a full adult with painted rosy cheeks who is bigger than the people referring to him as ‘the little one;’ the villains remain over the top, but in a properly menacing way, more as plausible abusers of power than merely as monsters in appearance.

There are many things to admire, including the scale and pomp of many large gatherings, and the parts of the story that are simply about a boy and his mother trying to survive. The story scales up and down without losing the narrative. Technology scales from space weapons to knives, and still works seamlessly.

It’s really lovely to watch. You’ll need time – these are long movies – but there is a lot of story to cover in these books, and it never hurts to spend time looking at the beautiful patterns wind makes on sand – or how spaceships look when they explode in flames.

Film: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
published by Apple TV+ (1 season/10 episodes so far)
2023-

We San Franciscans can be vain about our beloved City, so OF COURSE we have to watch the Godzilla movie about the “G-Day” attack on SF in current times, and remark on the rendering of the monster-smashed high-rises and relocated subway stops that appear in this fun series.

The premise: Godzilla and other giant Titans are real, and can periodically leave their connected universe to appear on (and destroy parts of) our world. How our worlds connect was the focus of the parents and grandparents of two of our three young current-era protagonists, who track down solider Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell now and by his son, Wyatt, in Shaw’s youth) to learn more about Titans, their world, the missing father of two of the leads, plus the government agency, Monarch, that turned against Shaw.

The series does a good job of telling the past and present stories without jarring us – we always know which era we are in (thanks, Russell father and son!) – and of showing a version of our current world where Titan evacuation drills are just a thing we do.

The older generation of characters, Doctors Miura & Randa and Lt. Shaw, have great chemistry, and I love seeing scientists as the leading characters. Their monster-chasing adventures have an old-school, Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark feel in the best kind of way (and in a different era), but with less camp. Their grandkids are persistent in the right way, though their shaky bonds are shaky for plot reasons; once they free him, older Shaw herds them to where they need to go.

This is a fun, San-Francisco-smashing version of a Godzilla mythos, and I would like to see another season.

Film: The Old Guard

The Old Guard
published by Netflix
2020

This is a fun action film about a group of near-immortals who work as soldiers for hire in the modern world. Charlize Theron shines as Andi, the leader of this group that has come together over centuries after finding each other (often through dreams) and fighting side by side. If practice makes perfect, this army of five is very close to perfect – and almost impossible to kill.

As they take on ethical-yet-violent jobs, they come to the attention of an evil biotech bro who wants to turn what they’ve got into profit – and he isn’t going to wait for them to agree to his invasive study plan.

The backstory flashbacks across time are well done; the settings are good; the fight scenes are well choreographed; the logistics of supporting oneself over centuries are addressed in bite-sized realism; the camaraderie between the near-immortals is adorable. I’ve watched this at least three times, and recommended it strongly when it first came out, to ensure my circle had a chance to see it.

It’s well done American-style action. I’d buy this if it were for sale. I’d watch sequels.

Film: Foundation – Seasons 1 & 2

In early 2022, I wrote out a retrospective of what I had been watching, and I feel like it is time to do that again.

Foundation
published by Apple TV+
2021 (Season 1) & 2023 (Season 2)

These are the first two seasons (20 episodes total) of a series based on Isaac Asimov’s books about a galactic empire, and the organization set up by a mathematician to cushion that empire’s fall.

There are several stories overlapping across these series. Key figures include Hari Seldon, the mathematician who predicts the fall of the empire; Gaal, the mathematician who leaves her anti-knowledge planet and is immediately at risk of execution for associating with Hari; the Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk, genetic emperor clones who rule as a set in staggered life stages, decanted whenever one of them needs to be replaced; Demerzel, the last survivor of the empire’s attack on her kind, who is a ruthless and eternal enforcer of the empire’s rule; and the people who follow Hari, who appear to pose an existential threat to the empire.

Elements I enjoyed about it, that kept me eager for new episodes:

  • a high-stakes story about the future of humanity and its variations on thousands of worlds
  • scientists as leading figures within the story, including women of African ancestry in key science and leadership roles, in a ‘diverse’ future that looks like my port-city culture NOW
  • pleasant futuristic design of objects, grand spaces, technology, and mathematical displays, but with grubby and worn elements (away from the wealthy) adding realism (including truly remarkable interstellar ship life/suspension pods)
  • the character variations of Brother Day, as played by Lee Pace, who seems to enjoy the role, especially the Season 2 version of him I described to a friend as “louche” (which Google/Oxford describe as “disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way”).
  • the general lack of warp-speed travel for most people, meaning that going to sleep in a suspended-aging pod and leaving your planet for a long trip meant everyone you knew would be dead long before you reached your destination
  • the display of the dirty elements of empires, such as genocide, prison camps, slavery, exploitation, obligations to provide young people as tribute to the ruling class, and so on
  • the disappointing persistence of anti-knowledge religions, and anti-knowledge repression, which I appreciate because it is entirely too realistic
  • Good pacing.

Foundation is enjoyable sci-fi / drama, and I look forward to future seasons.

Book (Manhwa): In the Bleak Midwinter by Kat, Ali

Cover art for in the Bleak Midwinter on Webtoon

In the Bleak Midwinter
by Kat, Ali
published by Webtoon (37 chapters, ongoing)
2020 – present

Finally, another sci-fi story! YAAAAAAY!

Anya decides to cryogenically sleep for a year to avoid processing grief for her mother and sister in android-related accidents, only to wake up 25 years later in a human-versus-android hellscape.

Worse, the digital readout on her wrist which was counting down the years and minutes until she meets her “soulmate” lights up when she leaves her cryo-pod and sees a man… who immediately shoots her dead.

What the hell? Well, that was a short review, onto the next… wait, she comes back to life? And multiple people are after her as an advantage they could use to win the war they’ve been waging while she slept?

Everyone has Russian names, it snows constantly, Anya has terrible nightmares, and her brother is still a jerk (because some things never change). The art is a mix of video-game textures, eerie lights with convincing halos, and characters that look best straight on or in full profile. I like the eeriness and ambiguity of the characters called The Ten, and Anya’s combination of being terrified yet also being willing to try very risky plans rather than watch other humans die.

Each episode has music, which adds to the mood (but you can keep it very low).

I’m delighted to find a sci-fi story on the Webtoon platform.

Book: System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries)
by Martha Wells
published by Tor
2023

This is the 7th or so book in the Murderbot Diaries, so if you haven’t read these, you should go start at the beginning, as this volume rightly jumps into the action immediately without introducing the characters, including Murderbot itself.

Our favorite, broadcast-drama-obsessed, autonomous human+synthetic Security Unit is back in another round of saving humans from bad situations on planets with sketchy alien contamination!

Murderbot has even more on its mind than usual, because of a recent incident that is undermining its confidence. Confident or not, there are murderous agriculture-bots, scary ruins, evil human-enslaving corporations, and the constant threat of alien contamination that can’t wait for Murderbot to even pretend to get comfortable. Which Murderbot would not convincingly pretend anyway, despite its practice routines about imitating full humans.

I continue to appreciate the alien contamination threat that lurks in the background. The idea that ancient civilizations left behind tools to perpetuate their societies, only to have them accidentally infect later civilizations whose individuals AND machines go on to build crazy stuff under their influence… It intrigues me. There is so much potential for trouble there!

I also like Wells’ vision of nearly constant communication channels, so that information/situations/data can be shared so efficiently. I mean, I hate it in my current life, because all of those channels are filled with people who want something at work, but I love it in the wandering through abandoned ruins on unfamiliar planets practicality way. Good communication tools could support actually good communication – it could happen!

The humor, the debates about which kinds of hatches are scariest, the swearing / sarcasm / name-calling – it all gives the relationships between the characters a warmth that shows Murderbot is building meaningful relationships, especially with other machine intelligences.

This is another fun read from Wells, and a satisfying adventure.