#terry pratchett strikes again

[frankly-ludicrous]

[annaholak]

"Well, what do you think?" (Gytha) "No." (Esme) "Ermm.... I don't know, Nanny...." (Magrat) "Definitely no. You're not buying this... thing, Gytha." (Esme) "Who said anything about buying? I'm not gonna buy it - I just wanted to know what you thought of it." (Gytha) Inktober Prompt 5: Flame

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[motion-blur-crowley]

such a good couple archetype tho

sam vimes and sybil ramkin fit in the "10" couple archetype (wrt comment that Terry Pratchett made about his fans and Neil Gaiman's fans)

like aziracrow

send toot

[ookaookaooka]

I’m hardly the first person to compare them but Terry Pratchett and J K Rowling really are polar opposites in terms of the way their writing treats weird characters. In Rowling’s writing, any weirdness is there to be laughed at (for example: Professor Trelawney, the fake seer who doesn’t know she’s an actual seer). In Pratchett’s writing, though, the characters’ weirdness is taken 100% seriously and the humor arises organically from the situation itself and is never at the characters’ expense (for example: in Making Money, the man who was born a clown and was never told so until he was 13 years old). In Rowling’s writing, the main characters poke constant fun at Professor Trelawney, making joke predictions and fudging homework and talking about how divination isn’t a legitimate field of study. Even after she gets fired and more or less drops the act, the joke changes to “look at this sad drunk lady” and the main characters express little sympathy. The narrative is saying she’s there to make one real prediction and otherwise she’s only there for comic relief. This sort of thing happens over and over in Rowling’s writing, where any quirkiness is there to be laughed at and the misfortunes of characters we’re not supposed to like are supposed to be funny, and it sends a message of conformity under threat of ridicule. In Pratchett’s writing, the clown man’s story is treated as a great tragedy: imagine growing up not knowing why you are the way you are, and then finding out the truth as a teenager! And knowing that your own mother kept the truth from you! This man was so deeply traumatized by this he denied himself any humor or fun for decades, and when he has a crisis and runs off to become a clown again, he is given support and medical treatment and is welcomed back to his job at the bank and accepted for who he is. The fact that this whole situation is hilarious is secondary. And again, this sort of thing happens over and over again in Pratchett’s writing, where characters’ quirkiness is embraced and often seen as irreplaceable by the end of the book, and it sends a message that our quirks are valuable and weirdness should be acceptable. It just strikes me as a much… kinder approach to people, you know?

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

David Tennant at This Morning show with Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary talking about Good Omens Season 2, 11.07.2023 :) ❤

DO: And David joins us now. I mean, this looks like a great show.

David: Oh, yeah.

DO: So, I mean, It's pure Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, isn't it?

David: It is, yeah.

DO: The whole thing. So tell us, so if people haven't seen the first series and they want to go back, set the whole scene.

David: So I'm Hell's representative on Earth, Michael Sheen is Heaven's representative on Earth, put there to do the biding of our respective Head Offices. But we found out that if we became mates and sort of helped each other out, it kind of cut out the workload, cancelled each other out. So we're best mates. But in Series One we end up having to avert the apocalypse, which we managed to do, but as a result of that, we get cut off. So we're now living on Earth as independent individuals.

AH: So do you still need each other, then?

David: We still need each other. We've only got each other now because we don't have Heaven and Hell anymore.

DO: Because you both love earth so much, you both like.

David: Oh, we much prefer living on Earth because Heaven's a bit stuffy and Hell's awful.

DO: So you conspire to thwart the Armageddon. Exactly.

David: We thwart the Armageddon. That's fine. But Series Two begins when the angel Gabriel, Jon Hamm, who you just saw there, shows up at Aziraphale, Michael Sheen's bookshop, naked with no memory, holding a cardboard box. So suddenly we're locked into the politics of Heaven and Hell again. We don't know what's going on. We've got a mystery to solve. Why is the angel Gabriel here? The angel Gabriel tried to kill us both at the end of the last series, so we've got to...

DO: But now he's kind of got amnesia and...

David: Yes. So he becomes like our weird child, in this sort of weird sort of eternal marriage that Michael and I are locked in.

DO: So many shows now use a book as their base and then they do really well and you can see the company and the writers go, better come up some new ideas, I suppose. So the book's obviously Terry Pratchett and then Neil Gaiman, correct?

David: That's right. They wrote that together years and years and years ago. Much beloved. And that's what the first series was. But Neil and Terry had always talked about possibilities of this sequel that they never got around to making. Terry's no longer with us. But when the possibility came up, Neil thought, well, listen, I've got some ideas. Let's spin it forward. Let's see if we can tell the story we were always going to tell. So we get to come back.

AH: Should we have a little sneak look at the new series? Let's have a look. So good. Did you ever think it was going to be this successful? Did you even know that you were going to go into a second series

David: Oh, no, not at all. No. There was only one novel, so we just thought we were coming together to do that. And I didn't realise how beloved this book was. I first read a script. But it means a lot to a lot of people.

AH: And the look of you is so striking. Did you have any input into that? A bit, yeah, we sort of all found it together, myself and makeup and costume and Neil Gaiman, who ran the show. So, yeah, we kind of arrived... in the book he's a bit more - because obviously the book was sort of early ninetues, so he was a bit more sharp-suited and a bit more Wolf of Wall Street. So we've kind of had to find the kind of modern equivalent of that.

DO: Is he... obviously you're playing a demon. Has he got any humanity in him or is he purely self-centered?

David: Well, he's not a very good demon. He's good at sort of the snarl and the swagger and pretending that he's terribly cynical, but actually his problem is that he's a bit too...  there’s a bit too much heart, really.

DO: He's alright

David: Yeah, yeah.

DO: Must be wonderful playing a baddie.

David: Oh, it's great fun, but he's not a baddie, is not really a baddie.

DO: Yeah, yeah.

David: And just like Aziraphale angel is not always as goody goody as he likes it, so they meet very beautifully in the middle.

DO: You and Michael Sheen. I mean, you've worked together a fair bit, don't you. I loved Staged. That was such fun.

David: Yeah!

AH: Have you ever not worked together?

David: Now we only work together.

AH: All the time.

David: Yeah. I mean, He's not sitting on this sofa, but he is backstage. We can't be apart.

DO: He's speaking in his ear right now.

David: Exactly, yeah.

AH: But you are... you have got a genuine friendship. You're growing old together gracefully.

David: We're growing old together?!

AH: You look good for it, I'm not going to lie. What's the secret, babe?

David: A lot of makeup. It's very thick.

AH: We've got to talk about the fact that you are returning to Doctor Who.

David: Ah, yes.

AH: I can't believe this. And can you tell us anything at all?

David: I mean, beyond that I'm doing it? I think...

AH: No.

David: Really. Because that's the fun of it, isn't it? Hopefully tt was a bit of a surprise when I showed up. When Jodie Whittaker regenerated into me.

AH: We were shocked.

David: It was a bit of a surprise, so we wanted to sort of keep some shocks, but Catherine Tate's back, so it's a bit like 15 years never happened, to be honest.

DO: Know about it for a while. Like... did Russell T get in touch and say...

David: Yeah, it sort of gradually kind of evolved as an idea and we thought maybe they'd let us do a one off for old time's sake. And then suddenly it became a bit more than that and we were back for a bit of a run.

AH: So how many episodes did you get to do?

David: We did three.

AH: Wow. That's incredible. What's it like to be back? Did he just slot straight back in?

David: I mean, sort of. It felt weirdly familiar. Yeah. And you think, 'Oh, will I still able to run as fast? Can I still kind of...?' But it was like we'd never been away. It was joyous. Yeah.

DO: And could we talk about your son? Because is your son in Good Omens with you?

David: Ty's in... has a part in Episode Two of Good Omens.

AH: Is he?

DO: And I loved him in House of the Dragon.

David: I know. He's very good. He's very good.

DO: What a relief.

David: There he is. I know, what a relief. Exactly. No, I mean...

AH: Imagine if he was bad.

David: Imagine if he was rubbish. How would we tell him? Sit down, listen...I know it's sort of the family business, but maybe joinery? So... no, he's really good. And he's annoyingly good looking. You know, he's just got it all. So it's lovely and great to get to work together. Brilliant.

[marta-bee]

Continuing on with book-Good Omens. Let me just start with two general observations.

Neil Gaiman, or possibly Terry Pratchett, or both, are just ridiculously funny. The humor shot throughout here is some of the cleverest things I’ve read in a long time. The parentheticals! Mister Dowling being so painfully British in a provincial way given the antichrist meant to be cosmopolitan and international, just.... all of it.

Those chapters are just so durned long. Any editor worth their salt would break this one into at least three or four, and boo on them, because I can’t imagine anything being quite so fun as the way the different sections weave together in such interesting ways. It just keeps going.

More substantively, let’s talk about Crowley again, and evil, and people being people. Because one of the aspects I’m finding most interesting in this opening chapter is how it’s not being good or evil that makes you good or bad. Or destructive. Or the characters I should root for or against at an intuitive moral level. I’m actually having a failure of language here, but speaking as a philosopher even so early it’s something that strikes me as a very interesting take on the concepts. True, and also real.

Take this description of one of the chattering nuns:

Sister Mary Loquacious has been a devout Satanist since birth. She went to Sabbat School as a child and won black stars for handwriting and liver. When she was told to join the Chattering Order she went obediently, having a natural talent in that direction and, in any case, knowing that she would be among friends. She would be quite bright, if she was ever put in a position to find out, but long ago found that being a scatterbrain, as she'd put it, gave you an easier journey through life. Currently she is being handed a golden-haired male baby we will call the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness.

And then later:

Most of the members of the convent were old-fashioned Satanists, like their parents and grandparents before them. They'd been brought up to it and weren't, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren't. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and playing guitars at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow. Anyway, being brought up as a Satanist tended to take the edge off it. It was something you did on Saturday nights. And the rest of the time you simply got on with life as best you could, just like everyone else. Besides, Sister Mary was a nurse and nurses, whatever their creed, are primarily nurses, which had a lot to do with wearing your watch upside down, keeping calm in emergencies, and dying for a cup of tea. She hoped someone would come soon; she'd done the important bit, now she wanted her tea.

It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.

Usually when we talk about good and evil not being as starkly different, there’s an element of moral nihilism, or at least relativism, this feeling that that means everything is equally right or wrong. And again I’m struggling with language here because good/evil and right/wrong are usually thought to be, if not synonyms, at least strongly parallel concepts. So if you don’t have good and evil or they don’t function in the same way, then of course you affect right and wrong in much the same way. But this seems to be doing something quite different. Good and evil are more like warring tribes than moral distinctions, what we should root for and against. But there’s still something of morality shot through here. People may be people which means liking dressing up on a Saturday night apparently, and that may explain why they’re just as likely to dress up in white sheets or jackboots as tie-dye; but of course the result is nowhere near the same.

And Crowley gets that, probably better than anyone.

Crowley had always known that he would be around when the world ended, because he was immortal and wouldn't have any alternative. But he'd hoped it would be a long way off.

Because he rather liked people. It was a major failing in a demon.

Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it. It was built into the design, somehow. They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse. Over the years Crowley had found it increasingly difficult to find anything demonic to do which showed up against the natural background of generalized nastiness. There had been times, over the past millennium, when he'd felt like sending a message back Below saying, Look, we may as well give up right now, we might as well shut down Dis and Pandemonium and everywhere and move up here, there's nothing we can do to them that they don't do themselves and they do things we've never even thought of, often involving electrodes. They've got what we lack. They've got imagination. And electricity, of course.

One of them had written it, hadn't he . . . "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

Crowley had got a commendation for the Spanish Inquisition. He had been in Spain then, mainly hanging around cantinas in the nicer parts, and hadn't even known about it until the commendation arrived. He'd gone to have a look, and had come back and got drunk for a week.

That Hieronymous Bosch. What a weirdo.

There’s an interpretation I read years ago, that Crowley’s brilliance as a demon comes down to project management, not hatred or bile or the like, and that that doesn’t make him less demonic. I like that and quite agree with it; it makes him much more modern, and much more influenced by humanity I think, than Hastur and Ligur; but it’s obviously not getting in the way of him doing a good job. What’s so interesting here is this isn’t a project that requires a lot of management at all. 

Is it the deep affect of sin? The world is corrupted and broken etc.? That seems completely wrong for this book, and, for the record, my personal moral and theological intuitions. Or is it that there’s something about the demonic that’s integral to the Great Plan that it’s sort of hard-coded into humanity? The asking of questions, the breaking of things so change is even possible? Or, more uncomfortably, is this need to hurt somehow more natural than we’d like it to be? The flipside of the urge to protect, perhaps, paired with the much less admirable tendency to divide groups too large for us to really bond with into us and them, our side and people our side needs to be protected from?

Maybe. I don’t have hard answers here for myself, let alone for Neil and Terry. But what I do see is Crowley is sd about that. He’d torture and hurt because that was his job, but I think he also wanted humanity to be better than that. Which they are, some of them and some of th time, but when they aren’t: hoo boy. It hurts him. It hurts me. But damned if it isn’t also compelling. I’m definitely looking forward to how this distinction (or lack of same) develops. 

.... And on that note, I just saw Aziraphale’s name mentioned for the first time since the Garden. This seems like a good place to stop and read other things so I can return refreshed, because as I said these chapters are long. 

[invisibleicewands]

David Tennant, Michael Sheen had a hell of a good time making Good Omens season 2

n Good Omens season 1, Aziraphale and Crowley saved the world. Now, they might just have to save each other.

David Tennant and Michael Sheen return for a second season of the hit comedy, premiering July 28 on Prime Video. Originally, the show was only intended as a six-episode miniseries, adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's beloved 1990 novel. But before Pratchett's death in 2015, the two authors had brainstormed ideas for a potential follow-up — ideas that Gaiman later adapted into Good Omens season 2.  

Speaking to EW before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Tennant and Sheen opened up about reprising their roles as everyone's favorite grumpy demon and fussy angel. Originally, both actors assumed the series would be one and done. But they became fast friends on set, and in between shots, they would chat with Gaiman about ideas for a potential season 2. Little by little, Tennant says, the second season "crept into existence."

"Neil would often tell stories of how him and Terry had dreamed of a sequel, and there were some ideas they kicked around that they never got to explore," Tennant, 52, tells EW. "But there was no sense initially that would actually bear fruit."

"They even had a name for the sequel that never got written," Sheen, 54, adds. "It always used to make me laugh so much because the name they had come up with was 668: The Neighbor of the Beast."

Now, that second season is becoming a reality, once again centering on Aziraphale (Sheen) and Crowley (Tennant) as they find themselves in the middle of a celestial crisis. (Last time, they teamed up to help prevent the apocalypse. This time, they find themselves in the middle of an angelic mystery.) Season 1 took a deep dive into the pair's unlikely, millennia-spanning relationship, stretching from the Garden of Eden to Shakespearean England. Tennant and Sheen say that season 2 will go even deeper.

"That was one of the most exciting things, being able to explore that relationship," Sheen says. "It's the most simple relationship — and also the most complicated. On the simple side, they're two beings who love each other. On the complicated side, they're about as opposite as possible. So, there are all these obstacles to their relationship, both without and within."

Season 2 also sees the return of Jon Hamm's glowering archangel Gabriel — who appears suddenly at Aziraphale's bookshop, having entirely lost his memory. The Mad Men star gets to show off his comedic chops as the amnesiac Gabriel, puttering around the bookshop and smiling blankly. "He sort of became famous as this matinee idol, but I always think that Jon is naturally a clown," Tennant says of his costar. "He's a very funny, witty man, and he's got that comic sensibility."

"He's such an aficionado of not just American comedy, but British comedy as well," Sheen adds. "He knows the most obscure British comedy things. It's always ironic that the character that he became best known for and that brought him into the public eye was this very serious character, when everyone who knows him knows how funny he is."

Tennant and Sheen say perhaps the biggest surprise has been how fans have embraced their versions of Crowley and Aziraphale. Tennant notes that Pratchett and Gaiman's book has been "beloved for decades," and while filming the first season, he felt "terror that we would break it." But about six months after the show premiered, he attended a fan convention, where he started to notice a heavenly trend.

"I've been to Comic-Cons over the years, and I often meet people dressed up as a character I played on the BBC — and I still do," Tennant explains. "But increasingly, I was meeting people dressed up as Crowley and Aziraphale. And one of the loveliest things is that you always meet pairs. You don't really meet someone dressed as an Aziraphale, or somebody dressed as a Crowley. You meet an Aziraphale and Crowley. They always seem to come in twos."

"You started to see people reacting to it online, and people starting to respond with their own artwork and their own fan fiction, and you saw it all starting to blossom and grow," Sheen marvels. "I'd never experienced anything like that before. David, of course, had gone through the whole Doctor Who experience, but it really blew me away."

Season 2 relocated filming to Bathgate, Scotland — about a mile from the hospital Tennant was born in, he notes with a laugh. The new cast includes Quelin Sepulveda as a newbie angel named Muriel, Maggie Service as a local record shop owner, and Nina Sosanya as the proprietor of a local coffee shop. But Aziraphale and Crowley are the season's emotional heart, and much of the series will focus on their friendship — or might it be something more?

Returning for a second season also meant that Tennant and Sheen had to slip back into their otherworldly guises. Sheen was thrilled to be back in Aziraphale's bookshop, but how did Tennant feel about donning Crowley's contact lenses and wigs again?

"It's rarely a wig!" Tennant says with mock indignancy. "I mean, that's my hair a lot of the time! Obviously when it gets a bit longer, there are bits added in. But there was a lot of bleaching and dyeing going on before we started shooting. That was probably when I knew there was no going back, when I got the flame-red hair put back on my skull."

[carriagelamp]

Found some excellent horror-related and horror-adjacent books to read this month! Not a common genre for me, so this was fun. Really can't recommend Grady Hendrix as an author enough, Horrorstör was definitely my favourite novel from this month

Eric

I hate saying it because I love the Discworld and Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author, but man Eric did not do it for me. You could see some good bones in it, but as far as I’m concerned all the interesting bits that appeared were done significantly better in later books. It had some humour moments, but the only bits that I really enjoyed were when the Luggage was around.

This story followed a young, teenaged, would-be demon summoner who, instead of summoning a demon, accidentally winds up with the incompetent and fearful wizzard Rincewind. Obligated to answer this kid’s wishes, they end up bouncing through time and space while attempting to survive what each wish had to throw at them. 

Fantastic Mr Fox / Esio Trot / George’s Marvellous Medicine / The Enormous Crocodile

I went on a Dahl kick this month, I wanted to work through some of his shorter works that I’ve never bothered to read before. All of them were honestly delightful, I had a blast. Esio Trot was probably the weakest of the lot, but the other three were so much fun. The Fantastic Mr Fox may be my favourite just by virtue of being the most fleshed out, but listening to The Enormous Crocodile be read by Stephen Fry is an unparalleled experience.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

A story I enjoyed more than I expected. I have a strange soft spot for hockey narratives, but that might just be the Canadian in me. Alix’s one true love is hockey, it’s the one place she feels competent and happy, but her team captain is making the space increasingly hostile until, unable to take the bullying, she strikes out and punches her captain. Shocked by her own violence and given an ultimatum by the coach to get her temper under control, she ends up going to popular and poised Ezra, hoping that he could show her how to deal with harassment without losing her cool in a way that scares her.

Horrorstör

Easily the best book I read this month, this book was amazing, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a “haunted house but in a knock-off Ikea” and I mostly picked it up as a joke because the premise sounded hilarious. But I was familiar with the author (I’d read The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires a couple years ago) and trusted him to do something interesting with the premise. And wow. Just wow. It is very much a classic, grisly, nauseating horror premise, but in a way that explores capitalism, exploitation, and treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill. It’s been  a long time since I read a book that actually gave me chills, but I had to put this book down and walk away from it occasionally, it was intense enough.

The Kaiju Preservation Society

As a Pacific Rim lover, this book was everything I’d ever wish for it to be. It’s such a love letter to the kaiju genre as well as environmental conservation, and it’s speculative biology is fascinating!

After being fire from his job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown in New York City, Jamie Gray is barely making ends meet by acting as a delivery driver. He doesn’t know how he can possibly continue on like this, until he runs into an old friend who offers him a strange and intensely secretive job offer. With nothing to lose, Jamie agrees and finds himself on an alternate Earth, helping to study creatures that he only knows from campy monster movies, now very much real.

The Last Wish

Felt an urge to reread a Witcher book, so I’ve been picking my way through the short stories. They continue to be a lot of fun, and it felt good to reconnect with the original narrative voice again after reading a lot of fanfiction over the years. For anyone who has someone existed post-Netflix version without picking up the general premise: Geralt of Rivia is a "witcher", a person who was specifically trained to wield weapons and magics to hunt dangerous monsters that threaten humans. This is a collection of short stories that show Geralt on some of the various hunts he's had during the decades of his over-long life. (It's significantly better than the Netflix version, very much worth the read if you like classic high fantasy and/or fairy tale retellings.)

Mortimer: Rat Race to Space

A very dull youth novel. Mortimer is a lab rat at Houston who has aspirations to go on the space program and prove that rats are better suited for colonizing Mars than humans. If you’re a seven year old who wants to consume space facts, this is the book for you. For everyone else, it’s a bit of a slog.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Another Grady Hendrix book. This book was undeniably well-written, just as masterful as his others, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. A bit too much high school narrative and not enough all out horror. The conclusion was pretty decent, but the rest was… fine. A fun love letter to the 1980s though as you learn about two best friends and how they grow up together. ...A bit of a debate whether or not it warrants a queer marker or not, I'm not even going to make that attempt.

The One and Only Ruby

The newest book from the One and Only Ivan series. Much like The One and Only Bob this book was… fine. The original of the series was really wonderful and felt quite inspired, inspired by the real life story of a gorilla that’s kept in a small cage in a mall complex. The next two books take place after that one and each follows one of Ivan’s friends (Bob the dog and Ruby the baby elephant). A fun enough addition to the series, the art is still cute, and it has decent things to say about the hunting of endangered animals, but it was nothing amazing. 

Paperbacks from Hell

Look, I really just felt the desperate need to read a bunch of Hendrix novels after being so violently consumed by Horrorstör. This is a nonfiction book in which Hendrix dives into the evolution and popular tropes of horror novels throughout the 1980s, with the cover art being the driving thesis throughout. You can tell how much he loves these weird, pulpy horrors and it makes you want to go and find a bunch of these and read them yourself. It really is an interesting book, even if you aren’t a great horror lover (which I wouldn’t consider myself).

The Salt Grows Heavy

Now this is a fucking novella. An absolutely unhinged, body-horror rich retelling of both The Little Mermaid and Frankenstein. Yeah. After the complete destruction of her husband’s kingdom at the hands (and jaws) of her own children, the Mermaid finds herself travelling with a mysterious Plague Doctor. I won’t go further into this except to say that the way it portrays morality, life, death, and the mutability of flesh is just… something else. Would recommend. But not if you have a weak stomach.

Scott Pilgrim

A classic. I watched the new animated series with my brother and felt the need to go back and reread the entire original series. Absolutely perfect, no notes, continues to be one of my all time favourite graphic novel series. The magical realism is just *chef’s kiss*.

[ereborne]

1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

[nice-and-accurate-ramblings]

⚠️WARNING: GOOD OMENS 2 EPISODE 1&2 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!⚠️

I need to get my live reactions out because I am LOSING IT. Do not read beyond this point if you don’t want spoilers for the first two episodes!!!

I am going insane after the prime premiere so here are my insane ramblings externalized:

THE COLD OPEN IN EPISODE 1 KILLED ME IN MY SEAT INSTANTLY

THE NEBULA. ANGEL CROWLEY (whose name we don’t get, ofc, that made me laugh). HE WAS SO EXCITED AND AZIRAPHALE’S “I WOULD HATE TO SEE YOU GET INTO TROUBLE” AND THE W I N G.

The fjuckin. WING. I AM UNWELL. I AM GOING INSANE JUST THINKING ABOUT IT

AAAAAAAAAA

And then the title music played and I apologized to my friend that I dragged to the premiere for being Extremely Not Normal. And then told her it Would Get Worse.

GOOD OLD FASHIONED LOVER BOY, IM-

Maggie: Oh nooooo, we’re locked in the coffee shop together,,, what will we doooooo (every fanfic author in the room just got so many ideas.)

Hm. Lindsey, huh? Hmmmmm.

That’s uh. Not a normal amount of texts. That seems a bit Not Great. I’m watching you Lindsey. I haven’t seen you yet but I am watching

THE APOLOGY DANCE AHSHDJFJF!!! Stan Pines and Crowley have something in common apparently. Also. Aziraphale what do you mean you had to do it in 1941. what were those other times. Where did this come from. I need EXPLANATIONS.

There’s no way their two-halves-make-a-whole miracle is what set off alarms in heaven. Gabriel Absolutely Did Something.

There are too many flies in the book shop for this to NOT come back to Beelzebub somehow

Re: Beelzebub- why ask Crowley to keep them in the loop if Shax already asked him that? Are they just not communicating, or is this somehow connected to Beelzebub???

My heart fuckin stopped when Gabriel started singing Everyday.

Crowley. Crowley I need you to repeat that bit about Jane Austen. CROWLEY YOU CAN’T JUST DROP THAT, I-

Good to know that scene overlooking the ocean was in fact as emotionally intense as expected. aaaAAAAAA

Re: Job minisode- “I’m a demon. I lied.” Gives a whole new fuckin context to the “Would I lie to you” “You’re a demon” from season 1. AaaAAAA

Another one from that minisode: Aziraphale thinking that heaven could be convinced to not destroy the earth if they just understood properly in season 1… aziraphale being disgusted by human food and drinks until he was tempted to try it and understood… Mr Gaiman I am in your walls for this

Anthony J “You can’t kill kids” Crowley strikes again. And we still don’t get clarification on what kind of kids he meant, which is incredible honestly. Plus, the goats were adorable :)

How is the jukebox doing the same thing as the Bentley. Is this a “every record eventually turns into Everyday in the same way music left in a car too long turns into Best of Queen” or is this a Pointed Thing

Have I mentioned that I would die for Muriel? I would die for Muriel. It has been two episodes and I simply adore the low ranking sunshine angel.

They are so fucking married

“OUR CAR” “OUR BOOKSHOP” they are so fucking married. Crowley why are you sleeping in your car, pls it’s OUR bookshop 😭😭😭

Aziraphale took drivers tests before they were cool (aka mandatory) 🙄 come on Crowley keep up

Aziraphale driving the Bentley is something I didn’t know I needed and yET-

First the “naked man friend” comment and then a random guy stealing the seat across from Aziraphale in the pub… rip crowley

Gabriel with the Terry Pratchett paperback… Gabriel reading off the first line of Good Omens… wait the book exists in the world of the show- Aziraphale owns the book in the world of the show- what

Never thought “Archangels don’t know where babies come from” would be a plot point and yet. Here we are.

Pausing one more time to go absolutely feral over the ending of the Job minisode because that played my heartstrings like a FIDDLE. “I’m like you now” “I’m a fallen Angel” and “I’m not here to take you to hell, don’t think you’d like it”; “I’m on my own side” “Sounds lonely” and “I’m a demon. I lied.”; how heckin PRETTY THE WHOLE SCENE WAS

someone please send help because idk how I’m going to be normal after this.

Okay, scheduling this for a little after the episodes drop and spoiler tagging like crazy! SOON, THE REST!!!

[starseneyes]

Good Omens: The Quest for the Set

Over the course of several months, I slowly checked Ebay, Thriftbooks, and Alibris for old copies of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman on deep discount.

Why? Well, it's a bit of a long story.

See, I thrift most of my books. It's the only way I can buy books most the time. But one chance purchase sent me off on a quest I never expected.

This is the story of how Rachel accidentally collected way too many copies of Good Omens on the quest to complete a set she happened upon by chance. And, yes, it does have a happy ending.

Deep into the heat of Summer 2023, both WGA and SAG-AFTRA were on strike—forced by AMPTP. (Yes, this is actually essential to the story)

And those of us outside NY and LA did our best to support. I was a madwoman on Social Media—posting every single day with links to Picket locations and the Entertainment Community Fund—and used any spare money I could scrounge up on Strike Shirts to support the cause.

I made it up to the lines twice in New York—first with the WGA, then with my Union later in the Summer. The first time, it was a day-trip that coincided with a family trip. The second time, friends sponsored my trip up because they believed in the cause.

And, wow, do I have amazing friends to do such a thing!

We were all a bit burnt out by August, and I was looking for something to distract me and cheer me up. I happened upon an old Prodigal Son interview with Michael Sheen where they mentioned a then-upcoming project—Good Omens.

"I meant to watch that!" I thought to myself. I shimmied to Amazon Prime and was stoked to see two whole Series waiting for me.

Imagine my surprise when I spied David Tennant on-screen with Sheen (yes, this is how out-of-touch I was about the production). I was a fan of both actors separately, though I'd only seen each in a handful of productions.

As Aziraphale and Crowley, I was captivated by them.

I marathoned both Series 1 and 2 in a week. Then, watched, again. Then, forced my husband to watch it, and found out my father had seen Series 1, but not 2, and made sure he got caught up, too.

I sought out the book, and found a Mass Market Paperback on Thriftbooks that was cheap enough I could afford it. But when it arrived, I struggled with handling it. It's just not my favorite size of book to read.

To my great surprise, I discovered my husband had found a regular paperback at the thrift store. Huzzah!

I read the book and loved it. But then I looked forlornly at my shelves. You see, if I really love a book, I like to have a hardback edition. I tend to tear up paperbacks on subsequent readings (I'm just not gentle on them, despite my best efforts).

So, I went online and found a sale at Blackwell's for the Illustrated Edition. And, yes, the shipping was included across the pond, which boggled my mind, but made it something I could afford.

It. Is. Gorgeous. There was only one problem—as soon as it arrived, I realized it was way too beautiful for everyday use.

It would take a month or so before I decided to try to find a decent, used hardback copy that I could use for everyday use.

I didn't want the crème de la crème. I'm a budget shopper out of necessity, and we were just getting our finances in order in October after our GoFundMe wiped out most of our medical debt.

So, I wasn't searching the web for First Editions or signed copies. I simply wanted a Good condition Hardback. And, I was elated to find one on Thriftbooks.

When it arrived, I immediately noticed part of the tagline was missing. I thought it was a misprint, but a lovely person on BlueSky informed me it was part of a set.

Now, this is when Rachel's OCD kicked into overdrive. I couldn't afford another book, just yet, but it felt lopsided to not have both books.

I posted about the conundrum and was surprised to find multiple people in my life who had one half or the other and had never noticed.

Matthew and I both took to the internet, thinking that maybe we could easily find the second copy, and then both our OCD would be satisfied. What we found was a maze of insanity.

See, the 2016 edition of Good Omens has a single ISBN but multiple dustjackets.

There's White. There's Black. There's ones with the full tagline. Ones with the half tagline. There's editions with quotes on 'em, and editions with different buttons: "Soon to be a TV Series", "Now a TV Series".

And nobody on Ebay, Alibris, or Thriftbooks will answer you about which edition they have. I messaged so many and they said, "Sorry, until we pull it to ship it, we know as much as you do!" Because the ISBN automatically pulls up whichever cover it chooses on whichever system, so you are at the mercy of chance.

I'm not a rich person even in the best of circumstances, so I decided to try a few times, and then move on. It would only be thrifted or second-hand items, obviously, but I didn't want to obsess forever.

I tried three times without success. Two Black 2016 Hardback Editions with full tagline. And one that claimed it was a Hardback edition, but showed up a paperback.

This is about the time I decided to give up.

I scrounged up a bit of money and found an SFBC 50th Edition for around $20. I counted my blessings when it arrived in decent shape.

The quest was over, I decided. I would simply look in Thrift Stores the rest of my life hoping that, perchance, the mystery White 2016 Hardback Half Tagline edition would find me.

Funny enough, when I pulled the SFBC edition from my mailbox, I found another package. After staring at it quizzically for a moment, I remembered an $8 "Acceptable" edition I'd found on Alibris and ordered on a whim when I saved money on groceries.

At the time, my Eldest had said, "I bet this is gonna be the one, Mama!" I remembered that with a smile as I picked up the SFBC edition and walked it to the living room bookcase, leaving the unopened second package on the bed.

After shelving the SFBC edition, I returned to my bedroom and tore open the packaging on the mystery copy. I started giggling as soon as I saw the top of the book—White hardback.

At this point, I was thinking, "Oh, of course I finally get a White hardback, now. But there's no way that it could be the right one. That's just not possible."

So, I pulled the book the rest of the way out of the packaging.

And. I. Screamed.

It was... the book. It was the BOOK!! How was it the book!?

I turned the $8 "Acceptable" book over in my hand, shocked at its state and normal wear on the dustjacket. My six-year-old rushed into the room to see what all the hubbub was about.

I triumphantly showed her the book, and then the laughter turned to grateful tears. I had given up the quest, but the prize found me, anyway.

I set the books together on the shelf, and waited for my Eldest to come home. As soon as he spied them together, he shouted, "I knew it! I knew it! I told you!" Yes, kiddo, you did.

For weeks after, I'd stop as I walked by the bookcase and smile broadly. It was so insane how it happened! I had given up! I was done!

And, yet, it reminded me of another time I gave up on something—December 2013 when I went in for a medical evaluation of my Fallopian tubes.

We had been trying to conceive for years. And I knew that if the test revealed my tubes were closed, we would stop trying. We couldn't afford another surgery. We'd already paid for so many procedures, medications, shots, and tests.

The results showed one tube that fired perfectly, and the other that sometimes did. I conceived via IUI the next month—one follicle from each tube. Twins. They're nine, now.

I had given up. And then the good found me, anyway.

In acting and writing, you get very used to rejection, to things not working out the way you want them to. I think I've gotten so accustomed to it, that I've forgotten sometimes the good things do happen.

So every time I walk past those books, it's a reminder to me. It's a reminder that, yeah, sometimes you strike out again, and again. But sometimes the good finds you, anyway.

As for the extra copies—we're keeping them to give them away. If anyone ever says, "Oh, I always wanted to read it, but can't afford it," I can hand them their very own copy to keep. How marvelous it is to be a position to share.

I'm going to face more rejections. I'm going to face more things that don't work out. But sometimes... maybe... just every so often... the good will find me, still.

And it'll find you, too.

[empress-of-snark]

mid-year reading tag 2023

(copying @televinita cause it seemed like fun)

1. best book you’ve read so far this year

Probably Daisy Jones and the Six (Taylor Jenkins Reid). No, I still haven’t watched the Amazon series cause frankly, the book was exhausting and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch the whole story play out all over again, but I’ll get to it one day.

The book was really good, though! Ignored it for a long time because of the hype, but it was deserved.

2. best sequel you’ve read so far this year

I’ve only read two sequels so far, but I’ll go with Thunderhead (Neal Shusterman), sequel to Scythe. I wasn’t quite invested enough in the series to be very upset that my library doesn’t have a copy of the third (and final) book, but I enjoyed it.

3. new release you haven’t read yet

There’s apparently a book called A Song of Sin and Salvation (L. H. Blake) that came out last month and is quite literally published Hellcheer fanfiction (good girl x bad boy, set in the 80’s, music-focused, even the cover art looks like them lmao). Obviously I need to get my hands on it immediately.

4. most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Definitely the new Cormoran Strike book, The Running Grave (Robert Galbraith), which comes out in September (and hell yes I’ve already pre-ordered it). Was not expecting another installment only a year after the last one, but I’ve been addicted to this series since I started it last year, so I am not complaining!

5. biggest disappointment

Gotta be A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness). I was expecting a spooky supernatural mystery but misjudged how much of the story would be devoted to the romance. It’s basically Twilight but with slightly more plot. Not bad really, just disappointing.

6. biggest surprise

Honestly, this hasn’t been a stellar book year for me so far. I guess that’s a surprise in and of itself? Hope it picks up in the next six months.

7. favorite new author (debut or new to you)

A lot of the authors I’ve read this year have been ones I’m familiar with, but Daisy Jones was my first from Taylor Jenkins Reid. I know she also wrote The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I’ve also heard great things about. I’ll definitely give that one a try when I get the chance!

8. newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

I dunno if I would go so far as to call them crushes, but I did love James from Longbourn (Jo Baker) and Moist von Lipwig from Going Postal (Terry Pratchett). Very different characters, but they were both great leading men.

9. book that made you cry

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom). My best friend recommended it to me ages ago, and I finally read it (in one sitting) and got extremely choked up at the end.

10. book that made you happy

Going Postal was a great reminder of how much I love Terry Pratchett. While the prospect of reading his entire Discworld series is a little daunting, I’ve very much enjoyed the two that I have read (plus Good Omens, of course).

I’ve definitely enjoyed some of the books I’ve read this year, but a lot of them have just been a bit lackluster. Hopefully the second half of the year will be better!

[helloquotemyfoot]

Book Backlog Busting Reading Challenge!

Okay, so it's been another hot minute. In my defence... um... Stardew Valley is a really fun game?

Okay, I haven't been spending all of my time gaming, I have been reading too! So here's my (condensed and no pretty pictures) list:

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. For some reason I just didn't find this gripping, which is strange because I loved another of Pratchett's books for younger readers (Amazing Maurice). I gotta admit that the ending got the tears going though.

Reformation Divided by Eamon Duffy. I love Duffy's work as a historian and this was no exception, providing an important counterbalance to the popular Protestant/Whiggish historical narrative. Quite dense, though, not recommended to a general audience.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Not flawless worldbuilding (the main issue being the tension between the author trying to write a feminist critique of the St George and the Dragon story, as well as building a fully realised fantasy world, which leads to things like a black man being told his religion is wrong by someone of a superior religion and culture, he's not allowed to politely ask that people don't disrespect his religion directly in front of him, and the narrative supporting this) but extremely compelling characters and I still enjoyed it immensely. Other fantasy authors should study how to tell a broad, epic narrative without eighty billion povs from Shannon too.

All Things Made New by Diarmaid MacCulloch. Really interesting studies, especially the meta historiographical essays, but I was lacking content for some of it. I need to look for more of his books.

Voices from Morebath by Eamon Duffy. Super interesting local study, Duffy strikes a good balance between the particulars of Morebath and using it as a (possible) generalising example. Very short book that I think would be interesting to general readers too!

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Powder Mage Trilogy #1). Really fun, fast paced book with varied and interesting characters, gritty without becoming grim or too dark. The first time I've ever said this, but possibly a bit *over* worldbuilt, having no less than five different kinds of magic users in one story without any apparent unifying system, making it feel a bit like everything had just been shoved in there. Still, the story was never bogged down by exposition and I remain cautiously optimistic there is some kind of explanation forthcoming in the sequel books.

This leads me onto the topic of also books, but ones I haven't yet read. With my Wheel of Time boxset 4 finally arriving, I can pick up that series again and have added books 10-14 to my reading list. On top of that, per our house rule about sequels, I'm adding the other Powder Mage books to the list, so even though I have finished (brief count) 6 books since we last spoke, these additions lead me to say...

84 books remaining!

(Yes that means it did go up. I will still drag myself out of this bottomless pit of books somehow dammit.)

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 8 - Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

So I loved Discworld growing up, just like absolutely everyone else on tumblr. But the last book in the series I’d read was Making Money (vaguely appropriate tbh, since the first book I read in the series was Going Postal, grabbed at random off a library shelf when I was eleven or so). I was always vaguely aware there was more recent stuff I’d never gotten around to reading published before Pratchett passed, but nothing really beyond that.

Anyway cut to me seeing Raising Steam on a display at the library when picking up some holds and figuring hey, why not.

The answer to that being well, I’m sorry it feels mean to say because obviously there were pretty clear and obvious extenuating circumstances here, but it’s just not very good? Now admittedly a big part of that is probably just the inevitability of it failing to live up to my childhood nostalgia, but still. There were fun bits but still – the humour was mostly broad and unpolished, the politics were blunter and less subtle than some electoral manifestos, it was more stuffed full of pacing-killing cameos and fanservice than a later-day MCU flick, and just generally totally devoid of real conflict or drama, or even compellingly scenery-chewing two-dimensional villains to vanquish. It generally just felt like, I don’t know, something in the shape of a Discworld book but without the detail work and polish. Which again, seems very unkind to say, given the circumstances.

Honestly the blatancy and bluntness of the politics was the most striking thing about the whole book, and really cried out as something that would have been smoothed over and nuanced a bit in earlier works. But, well, Discworld’s always had a thick vein of whiggishness running through it, especially the Ankh-Morpok stories. But this one – a reader can only take so many paens to the glorious tolerance of the modern city, where you’re only oppressed on the basis of the class, you know?

The central thematic conflict of the book being ‘Progress, Prosperity and the Railroad, backed by the full weight of capital and high finance, and every crowned head worth mentioning, against a bunch of reactionary religious extremists who everyone hates without a single virtue the author seems to hold in the slightest bit of regard’ is also just fundamentally not very compelling reading, I’m afraid. If the Grags had some, like, saturday-morning-cartoon-villain charisma they might have been more enjoyable, but no such luck.

This might actually be the first story I’ve ever read where the railroad tycoon is a benevolent, good-hearted fellow who really does care about and look after his workers, though. ‘19th century robber baron’ isn’t usually a historical archtype that gets lionized in most fiction.

All that said – honestly, analyzing this as a novel is probably kind of missing the point. The actual plot and story sometimes feel like they’re kind of besides the point, and the real purpose of the book is a love letter and send off to just about every previous Discworld protagonist. There are so, so many cameos and references and call-backs in this book, which I probably would have found rather more charming if I’d read the rest of the series more recently and had everyone being talked about more firmly in my mind. As it was, a lot of them were just kind of annoying cut-away gags.

The book wasn’t, like, the worst thing I ever read or anything. It was always perfectly readable and got a few smiles. But yeah, safe to say it really didn’t work for me.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Chic Magazine interview with the Good Omens cast and crew by Keeley Ryan, August 2023 :)

'It was wonderful to get the Good Omens family back together'

There were plenty of miracles, mysteries and mayhem when Good Omens returned to the small screen for a second season.

The PrimeVideo series, which was originally based on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's best-selling novel, is heading beyond the source material this season.

The six-part series highlights the ineffable friendship between Aziraphale, a fussy angel and rare-book dealer, and the fast-living demon Crowley.

And while the duo put a stop to the apocalypse last time, there are the sparks of a new mystery that will take viewers from before The Beginning, to biblical times to grave robbing in Victorian Edinburgh; the Blitz of 1940s England to the modern day.

The cast includes David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley and Aziraphale, Jon Hamm, Maggie Service, Nina Sosanya, Miranda Richardson, Shelley Conn, and Derek Jacobi also star in the series.

And Michael Sheen told how the Good Omens "world has grown" with season two - and opened up about his first day back at Aziraphale's bookshop.

In an interview conducted before the SAG strike, he said, "It was lovely to be back in the bookshop after having seen it burnt down the ground.

"Clearly I had managed to save a few books! Actually, it was extraordinary - your brain does a double take - my desk, the cash machine, the record player - everything is all so familiar even though it is a totally different location.

But we have expanded - there is much more of the world of Soho here including Aziraphale's favourite the magic shop and my favourite the pub - our world has grown."

The actor also praised Neil Gaiman's writing, noting how there's "something about the way Neil sees the mundane that is extraordinary."

He said, "His writing has such a breadth of reference and yet is so accessible and entertaining even when taking on big epic or philosophical issues.

There's something about the way Neil sees the mundane that is extraordinary. When things filter through his imagination they emerge in an entirely unique way and yet it feels like it's always been there.

Add in the sprinkling of the imagination of Terry Pratchett and cocktail has been created - utterly familiar."

Producer Sarah-Kate Fenelon told Chic how the second season of Good Omens is "building on the universe" - and how they had been "sowing the seeds of a second season without anybody knowing" last season. "

She said, "I work with Neil Gaiman and know in part that Gabriel, who is played by Jon Hamm, his character is not in the book of Good Omens - but it was included in the first season. We were sowing the seed of a second season without anybody knowing.

"That character was written by Neil and Terry as a potential second book. They never got to write it, but now we're able to tell Gabriel's story. It's kind of a lovely evolution, where we're just expanding the universe.

"A lot of locations on the set are locations from season one. We've also been able to explore new shops, like we've got the record shop and we've got The Dirty Donkey pub, which we go into - it was in season one, but we never got to go into it.

"Season two is just building on the universe."

The Wicklow native added that it was "wonderful to get the Good Omens family back together" for a second season.

She said, "We were lucky that a lot of our crew and creative talent were able to come back for a second season. But also, we had our cast return. Miranda Richardson plays a totally different character this season and we have a new Beelzebub.

"And then obviously, we've got Maggie and Nina playing themselves, Maggie and Nina, as written by Neil. It was wonderful to get the Good Omens family back together again."

Noel Corbally, who works as an associate producer on the series, recalled how they marked a special anniversary of the first season's release while prepping for season two.

The Irishman said, "We went for dinner that night to relive the celebration, happy to be back again.

"Even now, it's been more than a year since we wrapped and to be able to come back into the studio that's just been frozen in time with everything wrapped up — we had a week to turn it back to life, have it be a live street again.

"It's been a week. But it's been amazing. We had our original lighting team come back, our original art department — and they've just done a fantastic job."

And while there are plenty of easter eggs for fans to spot throughout the six episodes, the pair shared their favourites.

Noel shared, "I think that my favourite easter egg is actually in the record shop. It's a song that we play in the background. It's so subtle, but it's from the musical Happy As A Sandbag.

"Maggie's character Maggie runs the record shop, which was owned by her grandfather in the story. But the musical, Happy As A Sandbag, Maggie Service the actress - her mother and father met on the musical and fell in love. Having that was an homage to them for bringing us Maggie."

Sarah-Kate said, "I quite like the easter eggs in the title sequence. If you look really closely, there is a Gabriel or Jim in every shot, which people tend not to notice. It's like Where's Wally?"

Rob Wilkins, who manages Terry Pratchett's estate and serves as narrative EP, told how he was "elated" for the second season to be out — and about moving beyond the book's source material.

He explained, "There were lots of nerves, because there is no source material. There's no book. I went through the whole of season one with the mantra that we've got a beginning, a middle and an end.

"And at the end of season one, which was the only season at the time, I felt very relaxed - we're all grounded through Terry and Neil's words, and that's fine. We know where we're going, we've got the novel to refer to.

"And so with season two, of course there's going to be nerves — there's no source material.

"But Neil is 50% of the creative team that brought you Good Omens, so in him we trust. And we genuinely do, from the bottom of my heart - of course we do.

"There's excitement about what Neil is going to bring from the page and from the page to the screen, but trepidation as well — I'm a fan as much as anybody else, I want to know where the stories are going."

Rob added that some of his own favourite easter eggs within the second season include a nod to Terry in The Dirty Donkey pub - as well as a special sight in the bookshop.

He said, "I love the fact that in the bookshop, Teny's hat and scarf are just hanging there. Terry, as a huge patron of bookshops around the world, he just left his hat and scarf in there and moved on one day and left them behind.

"That's a lovely one for me, as well - it means more to me, I think, than anything else."

Rob opened up about the success of the first season - and why it was something that he didn't necessarily expect.

He continued, "There's the Terry Pratchett fandom, there's the Neil Gaiman fandom and push them together and there's a big crossover. But what we created with season one, we created Good Omens fandom from the show.

"People came to Neil's work and Terry's work through the show. It created something entirely individual of its own making, and that freaked me out because I didn't see that one coming.

"I didn't see that as a thing. I thought the fans would be rooted in Terry or Neil. I didn't realise that the ineffable husbands in all of that - I love David and Michael, but I didn't realise the love people would have for them as our demon and our angel.

"I shouldn't be surprised. It's just my admiration for them as actors and for what they do, and for people getting it I think that that's the thing that's meant a lot to me, that people have understood what we tried to do."

Costume designer Kate Carin told how having the opportunity to join Good Omens' second season was a "gift" - and opened up about why it was impossible to pick a favourite scene.

She explained, "When you see the whole show - you think, when you're watching episode one, you're like, 'oh my god, that's the best'. But then you watch something in episode two and it's like, 'that's awesome!'

"I would say that I'm a disciple of the show now. I didn't know the book when I was approached about the job. I'd obviously heard of it, and I'd seen season one — as a punter, I watched it.

"To get the opportunity to come and work on season two, it's a gift for a costume designer.

"You do fantasy, you do period, you do contemporary and all of the wavy lines in- between - you're given a lot of rope to play with."

The character of Shax, played by Miranda Richardson, was a "really fun character to design for" - as Kate told how plenty of ideas jumped to mind after reading the description.

She said, "When Neil writes on the page that you have a 50s inspired female demon, that gives you a lot of scope to play with. "

And when I started drawing her, I actually had to stop myself because I kept coming up with ideas."

And with the series jampacked with magical moments and settings, set decorator Bronwyn Franklin told how there was one particular shop that has a "certain magic'!

She said, "I actually think the magic shop is my favourite shop. The bookshop used to be, but now that l've done it twice - it's still beautiful. It is Aziraphale's home. It feels more magical because Aziraphale lives there, and there's the whole angelic side.

"But this one, it really has a certain magic. From a set decorator's point of view, it's a joy. Will Godstone, he gets to sit there and he's got his little cash register and if he's got no customers, he can sit there and have a little cup of tea.

"You just have to feel that person, live that person and think that it's yours. I always come into a space like this and think, 'how would I like to be?' Because if it makes me happy, it'll make the cast member happy, it'll make the viewers happy."

Michael Ralph, who is the series' production designer, told how while it's impossible to pick a favourite set, the bookshop is "one that will resonate most'.'

Aziraphale's bookshop contains more than 7,000 real books and Michael noted that it was important for the setting to feel real, not just for the audiences at home but for the cast and crew.

He said, "There's not a fake book in here. Couldn't do that. In a way, if you look at any bookshelf - I spent almost a day just moving books around, to make the bookshelves look like they're real. They could be flat dressed, and then they're not real. But this is real, when they're just moved around a little bit; or people have pulled them out and put them in incorrectly.. .that's what's real about a bookshop."

[invisibleicewands]

The second season of "Good Omens" will give us more of many people's favorite supernatural entities: Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), the angel with a penchant for fine wine and old books, and Crowley (David Tennant), the demon who can't help but have a conscience.

The supernatural entities' time on Earth, however, gets disrupted when an amnesiac angel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) shows up (naked, no less) on the doorstep of Aziraphale's bookshop. "I loved playing the scenes where Jon just sits there with that stupid grin on his face and just drives Aziraphale bonkers," Sheen told me in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike about his experience shooting season 2.

Sheen and I talked about what it was like to don Aziraphale's robes once more, how the story in season 2 grabbed him, and his favorite details of the production's Soho set.

What it was like for you to don Aziraphale's robes again in the second round of episodes?

Well, it was wonderful. Yes, it was absolutely wonderful. I mean, during "Good Omens," the first season, was one of the most enjoyable professional experiences I've had — working with David [Tennant] and playing these characters and working with Neil [Gaiman] on something that I've been a fan of since the book came out. So it was just an absolutely joyful experience, that first [season].

So to be able to come back to the character and that world and to take the story forward into new places, it was just glorious. Yeah, I loved it. And it was very moving, the first time I put the costume back on. It was very moving to meet the character again, to feel him suddenly appear again. It was wonderful.

Then seeing David appear as well, because David was ill when we started filming on season 2. I think he had Covid and so he couldn't start. So I did the first week or something, or the first four or five days, without him, and then suddenly there he was. He walked onto the set in full Crowley garb and it was very emotional.

How did Neil describe what Aziraphale would be doing in season 2? How did he lay out the season at a high level for Aziraphale?

I can't remember now. I'm sorry. I can't remember that, how he described it, because having done it, I now have no memory whatsoever of how he described it to begin with. But I know what we wanted to explore and I always remember what he was aiming to get to by the end of the second series, because of ideas that he and Terry [Pratchett] had talked about with where the story might go. So I remember him talking about where we were aiming to get to, and obviously it begins with [Aziraphale and Crowley] no longer working for their respective companies. They're sort of out on their own. They're a team unto themselves now.

And then this fly gets stuck into their ointment and everything changes again. So I feel like, if my memory serves me correctly — which it invariably doesn't these days — I think it was about the idea of Gabriel coming into their lives again in a very unexpected way, and then that eventually building to the point that they get to at the end of this series, which I won't say because that would be to give things away.

Speaking of Gabriel, and you see this in the trailer and especially in the first episode, Crowley and Aziraphale are like an odd couple in certain ways and it's almost like they got a child. How is that dynamic with Jon Hamm [who plays Gabriel]?

Well, certainly for a character like Aziraphale, it's great comic material. For a character like Aziraphale, who frets and worries, stresses, and gets exasperated, to have a character who just is totally exasperating that he has to look after was just a very rich area to explore. But yeah, very much so.

I mean, they are like a married couple, even though they're a very odd couple, they do complement each other in all kinds of ways. And yes, they suddenly have this person who's dependent on them […] but they're also aware, having had past experiences with him. So it was a brilliant idea to have Gabriel suddenly show up with apparently no memory of who he is and to have them have to look after him and deal with him. It's a brilliant device, I think, and it was great to play.

I loved playing the scenes where Jon just sits there with that stupid grin on his face and just drives Aziraphale bonkers. They were great scenes to play, and I really enjoyed them. And it was great to see Jon again. I mean, we had such a great time together on the first one, and I know Jon anyway, outside of "Good Omens," and it was just so great to get to spend more time together.

I know for the second season, the Soho lot, it was a whole street, right? Created in Scotland?

It was a whole block, or more than a block even, of Soho that was built in the studio. It was extraordinary. I mean, in this series, not only do we expand the world of Soho in story terms to where we meet all the people who run the different shops and cafes and stuff around there, and we get to know that community a lot more. But also it physically grew as well.

I mean, in the studio, in Bath Gates up in Scotland, there was just this huge Soho set with cars driving around in it and hundreds of people and all these shops and the detailed work in these shops. I mean, this is what I always get blown away by on productions, is the detail that goes into the design. I mean, Maggie's record shop, every single album in there had to be made up. It was just made-up albums, made-up names of bands. I would spend hours in between takes, just wandering around looking at the designs of these records and the ridiculous names of bands that they'd come up with. It was brilliant. And the pub and the magic shop — oh my God, the magic shop, I just wanted to live in. It was just brilliant. All that detail and all that design work was fantastic.

You've had a long and very impressive career, and among many other roles, you've played now an angel, a vampire, and a werewolf. Is there any other supernatural being you'd want to play next?

I played a lot of different things. I'm not sure. Have I played a ghost? I'm not sure if I've played a ghost. Maybe I have. Yeah. I'm up for any supernatural beings. I'm open to any and all.