Strange and Beautiful Book Club

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A quick spoiler free review of "The Curse of King Midas" and then our chat with Colleen HERSELF about this book and a little bit about writing and writing advice in general.

From Colleen's website:

THE CURSE OF KING MIDAS IS REAL.
In the ancient kingdom of Phrygia, tribal boy Karem Savas thirst...

 Matt and Rachel discuss the movie adaptation of Pierre Boulle's classic novel. What did they get right? What didn't they? Do we think this is a rare case of the movie being better than the book? Listen and find out!

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On this month's Book episode:

"Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle is a science fiction novel that tells the story of a group of astronauts who land on a distant planet where intelligent apes are the dominant species and humans are primitive and mute. The protagonist, Ulysse Mérou, along with two other astronauts, find themselves captured by the apes and treated as experimental subjects.

As Ulysse navigates this strange soc...

Matt and Rachel discuss the short(ish) but awesome fantasy epic, "Godkiller" by Hanah Kaner. Refreshing change from 900 page mega-epics that are half filler with a novel that packs 900 pages of story into a third the size. With ten times as much representation as any other book we've read. 

Get it, read it. You'll love it. 

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"Anguish" is a 1987 horror film directed by Bigas Luna. The movie revolves around a mentally unstable mother, who hypnotizes her son John to commit murder and harvest eyes for her collection. The mother is portrayed as a controlling and manipulative figure, and John becomes increasingly disturbed as he struggles with his mother's influence. The film explores themes of psychological manipulation, the blurred lines between r...

I absolutely adored this book. I thought the concept was interesting, the execution was flawless, and the journey that Alex goes on was heart-breaking, inspiring, and believable. The conceit of time-travel is not new but the way that James Goodhand shapes it in this novel made it feel seamlessly fresh and integral to the story rather than a plot device to make an otherwise boring world intriguing. The main character, Alex,...

The 2002 film "Solaris" is a psychological science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem. The movie stars George Clooney as Dr. Chris Kelvin, a psychologist sent to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris. Upon arrival, Kelvin encounters strange phenomena, including the appearance of his deceased wife, Rheya, played by Natascha McElhone. As Kelvin g...

We finally did it. After over a dozen episodes of Dune content, we made it to the epic release of Denis's Dune: Part 2! What did we think? Did we like it? Was it worth all the time and hype? Is one of Tim's legs shorter than the other? Trust Strange and Beautiful to ask the truly important questions around here. 

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"Solaris" is a 1972 Soviet science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem. The film follows psychologist Kris Kelvin, played by Donatas Banionis, who travels to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris. There, he encounters strange phenomena that seem to be manifestations of his own memories and desires. As Kelvin delves deeper into the mysteries of Sol...

A book recommendation from Rachel and Matt! The Unknown Best: Book 1 by Matt Wilkening! Get it here!

Do you have problems? Good. Michael Malbon doesn’t, and he hates it. His supernatural synesthesia confuses smell with normative information, so Mike always knows what to do to produce the best outcome despite not even knowing what the best outcome is.

But success is a paradise, and a paradise which one cannot leave is a priso...

Rachel and Matt discuss the novel "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem which has been adapted into film twice (episodes incoming!) was it an easier read than Star Maker? Did we think this author was also on some really good hallucinogens? You'll find out!

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Soc...

Rachel and Matt mostly talk about "Radius" from 2017 but also sort of talk about a lot of unrelated stuff too. 

From Wikipedia: 

Radius is a 2017 Canadian science fiction thriller film directed and written by Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard. It stars Diego Klattenhoff, Charlotte Sullivan, and Brett Donahue. Klattenhoff and Sullivan play two survivors of a car accident who discover that one causes the death of anyone who...

"Dune - Part 1" directed by Denis Villeneuve is an epic science fiction film based on the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. Set in a distant future where noble houses control planets and a valuable resource called "spice" is mined on the desert planet Arrakis, the story follows Paul Atreides, the young heir of House Atreides, as his family assumes control of Arrakis. As Paul learns about the political intrigue surro...

The first in our informally themed February episodes where we talk about love and monsters and how sometimes, enjoying a movie that isn't afraid to be wholly romantic (even with the zombies) is exactly what you need. We watched and loved this Zombie movie with heart, Warm Bodies, which was originally released in 2013 and stares Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer. 

...

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Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the third episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years.

Find the "Dark Shadows" reboot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETBpUCVYz_s...

May we all one day experience whatever chemically induced metaphysical journey Olaf went on in preparation for writing this book. Possibly while writing this book (as we surmise in the episode). Truly a unique, completely wild work of scientific speculation that must have been an absolute revolution in it's day. This is no pulp "Damsel in Space" drama like other 1930's science fiction. This is an epic journey beyond the bo...

Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the second episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years.
....

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, seriou...

Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the first episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years.
....

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podc...

The next installment in our long form Dune series. In this episode we discuss the sequel to Dune Messiah, Dune: Children of Dune. If you've heard it's no bueno and to just stop at Dune, don't listen to that noise. Frank Herbert wrote parts of Messiah and Children of Dune before he ever wrote the first book. You can't understand Dune completely unless you understand that the first three books are really a play in three acts...