Alright, here we go! Every month, I’ll list all the different media I engaged with, along with a short paragraph about what did or didn’t work for me. I watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books, and play a lot of games, so buckle in.

Hell Divers: The Lost Years

A fun little novella that fills in what happened to X between books one and two of the Hell Divers series. Great action-dystopian books if you haven't checked them out. I think there are fifteen entries now, including novellas and spin-offs, and they're especially great in audio format.

Dungeon Crawler Carl (Books 2 & 3)

I mean, what is there to say here? These books are a cultural phenomenon for a reason. I usually live by the maxim that I'd rather play a TTRPG than read one, but DCC is the exception. Tons of heart, loads of humor, and you can count me as one of the Donut Holes.

Trad Wife

Man, what are there, like thirty-two books coming out tackling this topic? There's a reason, though. I quite liked this, even if it went in directions I wouldn't have chosen in some places. Ultimately, it hammered home the message. A solid folk horror read.

Mailman

What a wild little book, and one that resonated with me. It's a memoir, which can be a tough sell, but this guy lost his high-paying job at the height of the pandemic and had to fall back on being a rural mail carrier. I also got laid off during the pandemic, though I didn't have to drive my own car up and down the Blue Ridge Mountains to keep my healthcare while battling cancer.

Seek Immediate Shelter

An alert is sent out telling the population of a small Massachusetts town to seek immediate shelter because there is an incoming missile attack. The alert was an oopsie. The book follows the people of the town as they pick up the pieces and deal with the aftermath of the terrible shit they all did when they thought they were going to die. A touch overwritten, but very good.

Crone

When I grow up, I want to be Keith Rosson. This book is metal as fuck. I finished it in two sittings. We follow a dad who is in deep with a biker gang after doing some terrible shit when his daughter went missing. Everything keeps getting worse from there. 10/10, no notes.

An Empire in the Clouds

This book raised my IQ and expanded my mind. It is one of the most unique science-fantasy books I have ever read. A little slow to get going, but right around the 25% mark, it takes off and never looks back. It's all about the stories we do and don't tell.

The Ship of Death

An epistolary The King in Yellow by way of a board game playtest. "What if MÖRK BORG got the Jumanji treatment?" is the answer to a question I didn't know I wanted to ask. It won't be for everyone, but it hit the perfect blend of my interests.

Shelter

It's Jason Statham doing Jason Statham things. Is it his best movie? No. Is it tons of fun and exactly what I was looking for on a Friday night? Yes. I kicked back with a few beers and watched a solid action flick. We deserve one Jason Statham movie every year.

The Furious

In contrast to Shelter, The Furious was both a good movie and completely batshit insane. Want to watch a dude take down child traffickers with reckless abandon? How about insane fight choreography and sumptuous action sequences? What if I told you all of that was tied together with excellent cinematography? That's The Furious. Watch it.

Masters of the Universe

I did not hate this movie. Your mileage may vary.

Drop

This was a fun one I caught with my wife. A woman who was in an abusive relationship gets back out there for a date. Unfortunately, she finds herself caught up in a conspiracy to kill the man she's with. The movie falls apart in the third act when it shifts into big action sequences, but the claustrophobic thriller that makes up the first two acts is good stuff.

Backrooms

I was not as high on this as most people. I thought Exit 8 was a better liminal-space horror movie.

"Do you think the backrooms are a physical manifestation of Clark's mental health struggles?" — my wife, summing up the movie nicely with one question.

Obsession

STAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

I understand the hype. Very creepy, excellent acting, Bear and Ian suck ass, men are terrible, the end.

Cold Storage

What if The Last of Us became a workplace horror comedy? That's Cold Storage. Great performances all around and a fun flick to throw on when you want something less than serious.

Infernal Affairs

I had no idea The Departed was an American remake of this movie. It makes sense, though. I love The Departed, and I actually liked Infernal Affairs more. It's wild to discover that one of your favorite movies is a worse version of a foreign film. I bought the Criterion trilogy after watching it.

Blast of Silence

This movie is one of the best examples of how to make a compelling noir film with almost no budget. The narrator serving as the main character's internal monologue is chef's-kiss-level filmmaking.

The Sopranos

This is the only TV show I watched in July. I am ashamed to admit I had never seen The Sopranos until last month, outside of catching glimpses of my dad watching it when I was younger. I know. I'm a bad person.

This shit rips. It's some of the best television I have ever seen, and I only made it halfway through season three in July. I'll probably finish it in August and write more about it in that media log.

If, like me, you have somehow avoided watching this show, go watch it.

I did not game as much as usual in July, probably because of holidays, vacation, and such, but I did get to play two excellent tabletop games.

Root

It's a super cute game with amazing art. It's Risk-esque, but every faction has a wildly different play style, with each one represented by a different group of woodland creatures.

I played this with my friend Tom, and because of how our factions worked, we ended up in a kind of death spiral where I was racing toward a military victory before he could find a path to an economic one. We liked it so much that Tom immediately went online and bought the expansions.

I will be playing the Lizard Cult next time because that seems rad.

Quacks

I played this with Tom and my kids. It's kind of a deck-builder meets roulette. The whole game is about pressing your luck to earn currency, which you use to add more tokens to your bag, reduce the chances of bad things happening, and run up your score.

The kids really liked pressing their luck in this one. Remind me not to back them at the tables if we ever go to Vegas.

Event Horizon: Dark Descent

I read the entire run of this comic in July. At only five issues, it was a quick and enjoyable read. I waited for the full run to finish because I knew I would be writing an article about Event Horizon in August.

Dark Descent covers what happened to the original crew of the titular ship. It is every bit as dark and horrendous as you would imagine.

"We're not in hell, hell is in us."

If you are a fan of the film, this is worth the read.

Event Horizon: Inferno (1–3)

Another five-issue run, though only three issues are currently out. This one follows a billionaire two hundred years after the events of the film. He wants to find the Event Horizon and harness its evil for his own gain.

A real stretch to imagine a billionaire acting that way, no?

I'm not loving this run as much as I did Dark Descent, but I am all in regardless.