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Crowshaw's second outing with the Department of Extra-Dimensional Affairs (DEDA) is a nice sequel to Differently Morphous, in which an arcane organization's entanglement with modern bureaucracy and political correctness goes even deeper. Last time, it was the existence of slime hive minds (fluidics who collectively call themselves Shgshthx) and humans bonded to or possessed by an ancient (dual-consciousness persons), which put the department at odds with the government itself. This time, with legislation passing to ensure extra-dimensional rights and the criminalization of fake magic, its a homeopathic healing cult led by a man in Worcester who's daughter, the sole healer, is a dual-conscious person that can somehow make miracles happen. These miracles result in, say, having a cut on your leg sew itself back up or reversing a debilitating disease, but how does the daughter manage to carry them out?

This is where DEDA's newly formed Office of Skepticism comes into play with Alison Arkin and Doctor Diablerie leading the investigation into the family and the cult who worship an ancient called El-Yetch. Existentially Challenged does a good job at keeping the focus on the main investigation while bringing some side-characters into the spotlight. If you read the first book and remember some of their backstories, you might be interested to see what Crowshaw did for the sequel. His audiobook narration is still pretty solid—all the voices you know and love plus some excellent impersonations—but gone are the extra sound effects and musical intro. They're not necessary, but they helped set up the atmosphere for Differently Morphous.

I also feel like this may be a sequel where it may be imperative to read the preceding book in order for some of the developments to make sense. Crowshaw does get the reader up to speed on most of the important bits—DEDA's formation and Alison Arkin come to mind—but some scenes might have you wondering as to why a character's acting the way they are or who that slime monster is.

On its own, Existentially Challenged, is a simple "whodunnit" story in which a government department stands in as the paranormal police with comedic undertones.

As the second adventure in the DEDA series, Existentially Challenged follows a great opening act with a good second outing. The layers of philosophical intrigue might have been cut down at the edges, but as a comedic take on God versus Ancient (or established religion versus holistic spirituality), it doesn't do a bad job at exploring the idea.

This is another one that I'll need to re-listen to in order to give a proper review. I had a print copy of this book once that I sold back to the Book Barn in Niantic, thinking that I would never get around to reading it—I was looking for a print copy of The Selfish Gene when I first bought it.

I remembered that I used an Audible credit on this and decided to listen to it on a whim. It always nice that Lalla Ward helped in narrating the audiobooks—Selfish Gene was an example of that—and The God Delusion was no different. It went from an audiobook to fall asleep with to one that I spent some of my waking hours trying to understand where Dawkins was coming from.

The review may change once I do a second listen...or read—I might try to hunt down a print copy again, possibly the same one I sold back.

What I can say was this: Dawkins's God Delusion does what it says on the tin, or rather, what he emphasizes in the beginning—to try and make a case for Universal Atheism by focusing on the wrongs of religion en masse.

There are some interesting passageways about his concerns regarding the study of theology in academia and its interaction with the sciences. However, as I mentioned, I need to give this another go before I can give a proper opinion on the book.

Lindsay Ellis’s debut novel, Axiom’s End, is my first encounter with a science fiction novel that is all about first contact with extraterrestrial beings. I must confess that, while most of the typical first contact tropes are present—Area 51’s presence being a huge one—I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobooks narration. Stephanie Willis does a solid job of conveying Cora’s emotions in dealing with Ampersand, government officials, and even her own family who are knee-deep in concealing Ampersand’s existence alongside the other extraterrestrials (Similars). Oliver Thorn does the same for conspiracy theorist, Nils Ortega, by reading off excerpts from the Broken Seal between chapters.

Between the both of them, they made Ellis science fiction novel feel more like a thriller from the word “go” to its conclusion. I would sometimes listen to it for a couple of hours—almost non-stop, because I did not want to be left in the lurch as to what happened next.

I’ve watched Ellis’s video essays on YouTube in the past, and there are some minor references—at least one of them anyway. While Willis does emphasize said reference, they do very little to dampen the narrative.

In sum: Axiom’s End is an interesting take on alien encounters and government conspiracy with an audiobook duo who hit the right notes.

This was a book I initially doubted in a Twitter conversation with one of the Limited Run founders—who was asking for suggestions regarding Boss Fight books after a bad experience with their analysis of Earthbound. There was someone in my undergrad who did their senior paper on the series, plus the game itself has been analyzed to death by many others so I started the book with a "been there, done that" mentality.

I ended up regretting my dismissive attitude by the end. Mike Drucker deconstructs the game and its psychological horror elements for an audience beyond academia—sometimes bringing humor into the mix. Much like with Red Dead Redemption, I have never played Silent Hill 2 in any way so I can't vouch for anything. However, I respect the way that he brings his research together—not just in breaking down the game's narrative and mechanics, but in discussing the advertising for the game and how most of the ads got the game completely wrong.

If you're a fan of Silent Hill, I'd pick this book up.

A late novelization of a classic Doctor Who's story that pits the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) against the Daleks. Eventually.

Eric Saward is not my favorite writer for the show, especially after watching one of the DVD documentaries—in the "Trial of a Time Lord" collection—which highlighted Saward's apathy towards Colin Baker's casting. The idea behind Tranquil Repose—a funeral home of sorts—and what lies beneath it tries to act as both a vehicle of dark humor and and a driving force for Daleks. Even in novel form, the world building is much more intriguing than the Doctor's journey with some of the players also trying to infiltrate the complex or even attempting to assassinate the dalek progenitor—Davros.

The ending turns all that into a flop as the conclusion wraps up a bit too quickly—like in the televised serial. I'm not familiar with the Target Novelizations of the 1970s, but I feel like this one should have taken more advantage of the format. Make it larger, give the ending a slow boil instead of an instant meal, etc.

Either way, this is one of Saward's more decent efforts with the 6th Doctor.

This one of the first books I backed on Unbound—the very first being Larry Bundy Jr's Fact Hunt—and Stim: An Autistic Anthology was worth every penny.

Lizzie Huxley-Jones does a wonderful job in curating these stories and memoirs from autistic individuals who all have different experiences on the spectrum. Many, if not all of these narratives and accounts, are well written and seamlessly allow the reader a glimpse into what having autism is like. There's a section at the end of the book where Huxley-Jones summarizes what autism, quoting the saying, "If you've met one Autistic person, you've met one autistic person," which is another way of saying that not all autistic people are the same. In should go without saying that every story here, much like a short story in a creative writing anthology, is the experience and narrative of one person out of many. The more clever thing is the placement of said section at the end, solidifying this point in an eloquent fashion.

There also some artwork and mini-graphic novels that add to an already excellent anthology, reinforcing the above. Unfortunately, but understandably, they are few are far in-between.

Either way, this book should be a must-read for those interested in neurodiversity advocacy and its associated inclusion initiatives.

Personal favorite piece: "More Human Than Human" by Agri Ismaïl