The Queen’s Weapons, by Anne Bishop

The latest in the Black Jewels series sees an ugly threat from the past rear its head in the land of Kaeleer. Early warning signs enable Warlord Princes Daemon Sadi and his brother Lucivar prepare to deal with the growing danger. But how will they combat the manipulation of their own family and train their children to come into their own? The answer is with the help and guidance of their Queen, whose presence still lingers beyond death to meet the needs of those she loves. As ever in Bishop’s books, power comes with a price. The rich and deep worlds she creates have their own idiosyncrasies, but also mirror familiar themes and issues. She deals with complex family relationships; containing the storms and risks of adolescence; and setting and maintaining boundaries. All within a realm of dark fantasy, where sensuality and violence are balanced on a knife’s edge. At the same time she makes you care deeply about her characters and fear for their fates. The Queen’s weapons takes old favourites and new into a different era, with room left for further chapters in the Black Jewels saga as the next generation of the Sa Diablo and Yaslana families matures and faces fresh challenges.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020), directed by Eliza Hittner

Autumn is 17, living in rural Pennsylvania with her mother, deadbeat stepfather and two, much younger stepsisters. There is something NQR about the stepfather, which probably explains why Autumn can’t turn to her seemingly loving mother when she hits trouble. Talented and sensitive, life in a small town doesn’t offer her much and the only person totally in her corner is her resourceful cousin and best friend Skylar. The two scrape up the money to get to New York, two very long bus rides away, but the task turns out to be even more expensive and difficult than they realised. It’s one thing to be aware of how difficult it can be to access abortion in the US, especially when you are underage, poor and live in a rural area, it’s quite another to watch it unfold in all its stark reality on screen. Getting basic health care is a monumental quest for these young women, on top of the constant low to mid-level sexual harassment that is a daily hazard for them. The film gives a bleak view of their world that rings heartbreakingly true. The minimalist and matter-of-fact style, with little dialogue, feels almost more like a documentary than a drama, especially in the sequences featuring NY health care professionals and the local ‘women’s centre’. Compare and contrast. Newcomers Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder excel as the cousins; Theodore Pellerin is very good as the least worst option; and Ryan Eggold plays against his TV type as the creepy stepfather. This is a timely exposition of an intolerable situation, in a country where women’s rights are increasingly under threat. It makes an interesting companion piece to Promising Young Woman. The film underlines the vital importance of female friendship, support and advocacy as the key to survival and to making change to a society not built for women.

When He Was Wicked, by Julia Quinn

In this novel we belatedly hear about Francesca Bridgerton’s marriage to John Stirling, Earl of Kilmartin. His cousin and heir, Michael Stirling, has been in love with Francesca since the day they met, shortly before her wedding. He has a reputation as a charming rake and he buries himself in that persona to hide his feelings from his cousins and the world. When John dies after only two years of marriage, Michael cannot allow himself to comfort the grieving widow and flees to India. His return to London several years later coincides with Francesca’s reluctant decision to remarry, in order to have a child. Can the new Earl possibly inherit the widow as well as the estate? Well duh! As usual the timeline is all over the place and the dialogue and word usage is, at times, cringeworthy. But the romance storyline is stronger and more credible than the last few efforts, with a return to the steamy scenes that made the first Bridgerton novel so successful. The action takes place almost simultaneously with the last two books, covering Colin’s and Eloise’s stories, which is odd and seems to require some retrofitting that doesn’t quite work. One reason that Francesca’s tale is more successful than the other two is that little of it has been foreshadowed in earlier books. It is a pity then that the extra epilogue contains huge spoilers for the next two books.

Dune (2021), directed by Denis Villeneuve

The Emperor has granted House Atreides sovereignty over the desert planet Arrakis and its lucrative natural resource, Spice. But this seeming generosity sews discord with the dispossessed and brutal House Harkonnen. The complex political, social and cultural machinations of this classic sci-fi tale have made it notoriously difficult to film, with many previous attempts falling short. Villeneuve does a great job of transmitting enormous slabs of background information, vital to understanding the story, using a variety of narrative devices to largely avoid extensive dull exposition. But it is hard to pack so much book into one film and at 2 hours 40 minutes it is way too long; it has a slow start and drags in several places. Although the visuals are beautiful there are too many long lingering shots of desert, brooding and militaristic displays. Judicious editing could have shaved at least 10 minutes without losing anything important to the story. Timothee Chalomet is just right as the Atreides heir and portended saviour; Rebecca Ferguson grows into the role of witch and mother after a shaky start. The star-studded supporting cast includes Zendaya, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling and Jason Momoa. The look is great, with some interesting choices in the colour palette; it’s a pity about the sound. The score is portentous and overbearing and at times obscures the dialogue. The film explicitly states that this is part one and just the start, so it will be interesting to see if the box office justifies the cleverly foreshadowed sequels that will hopefully give Zendaya more to do.

The Galaxy and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers

The fourth and final instalment of the Wayfarers saga takes place on a barren planet that serves as a waystation for interstellar travellers. Laru Ouloo and her adolescent child Tupo run a ‘truck stop’ on the planet – a rest space providing food, fuel and creature comforts for all species. When a mechanical malfunction shuts down traffic and communications, three diverse travellers are stranded at the Five-Hop One-Stop. As with the previous sequels, the link to the original Wayfarer novel is with setting and theme rather than characters, although one of the stranded travellers is making a reappearance. Aeluon Pei is on her way to visit her Exodan partner Ashby and is agonising about whether to go public with their taboo interspecies relationship. She and her fellow travellers, Quelin Roveg and Akarak Speaker, could hardly be more diverse in species, occupations, circumstances and personalities. In their enforced rest stop, with limited access to comms, they and their hostess find common ground and even friendship by sharing skills and resources to help everyone. Becky Chambers does an amazing job of blending the fantastical with the fundamentally relatable, to demonstrate how much better life can be for everyone when difference is accepted and accommodated. She covers a huge range of issues, including bodily autonomy, balancing work and family and post-colonialism, against a backdrop of a complex political system. Kindness is the key to the Universe; if only that message could be spread far and wide.

Shadow in the Cloud (2020), directed by Roseanne Liang

Set in 1943, during the war in the Pacific, Flight Officer Maude Garrett is tough, competent and smart, but that cuts little ice with a misogynistic crew that disdains and denigrates her at every turn. She is transporting a top secret and confidential package from Auckland, New Zealand, but it is never quite clear to where or with what aim – something about Samoa. A blessedly short 79 minutes, the film swings wildly between action, horror and cartoon, its absurd plot bolstered by a credible tension. Chloe Grace Moretz pants her way through the action, kicking ass as only she knows how - daintily. The film contends that the female of the species is deadlier than the male, especially when she is protecting something precious. This trite trope undermines Maude’s position as heroine in her own right, but it is notable that the only male survivors are those with some vestige of decency and compassion. It was filmed in New Zealand, which provides some lovely scenery although it makes little sense to the plot.

Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik

Following their return from delivering the dragon plague cure to France, Temeraire and Will Laurence have been separated by the authorities. The dragon has been banished to the breeding grounds in Wales and the aviator has been convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Bonaparte’s invasion of Britain changes their circumstances, as the pair marshals a guerrilla force of dragons, managing to negotiate improved working conditions along the way. The relationship between man and dragon is tested by the fallout from their treason, with Temeraire’s gradual realisation of the consequences of their actions signalling a maturing of the dragon-human bond. Novik has hit her straps in this fifth novel of the saga of the Napoleonic wars with added dragons. She skilfully weaves fantasy with history, using her unique characters to change the course of events but arrive at a similar outcome. Helping to save the day isn’t enough to ensure the two can benefit from their efforts, with Laurence’s sentence commuted to transportation. And so the scene is set for the next book in the series as they set sail for New South Wales.