Books weird west Five Books Set in A Weird Version of the Wild West Gunslingers and cowboys vs. werewolves, zombies, space outlaws, and more… By Lorna Wallace | Published on June 30, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Setting a story in the Wild West tends to lead to a plot filled with adventure and danger. While Stetson-wearing gunslingers can bring enough excitement to the party all on their own, I can’t help but love it when the genre is given a weird twist with the inclusion of sci-fi, fantasy, and/or horror elements. The five books on this list land in different places on the Weird Western spectrum. On one end are classic cowboy tales, but with the addition of supernatural creatures, and on the other are more out-there stories (and by “out-there,” I mean one of these books is set on the Martian frontier). Deadman’s Road by Joe R. Lansdale (2010) Collecting together one short novel and four short stories, Deadman’s Road follows Reverend Jebediah Mercer as he travels through the West on a mission to hunt down and kill various supernatural monsters. While preachers are typically expected to be peaceful and God-loving, Jeb has a lethal quick-draw and not much affection for his maker. The stories all follow a fairly similar shoot-‘em-up plotline, but with different monsters to battle in each. For instance, Dead in the West sees Jeb ride into a busy Texan town that is soon to be overtaken by a cursed zombie horde, while “The Gentleman’s Hotel” sees him fight off werewolves in a small derelict settlement with the help of a working girl. The stories are all pulpy, gory, and crass—which feels pretty fitting for the Wild West setting. Jeb may not exactly be a beacon of godliness, but in this nasty landscape his own brand of morality certainly stands out.  Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (2018) Seventeen years before the action of Dread Nation kicks off, the Battle of Gettysburg ended with the dead rising. This new zombie threat derailed the Civil War and led to enslaved people being drafted into the new war against the undead. The plot then picks up in 1880, with Black teenager Jane McKeene having spent the last few years being trained in the art of zombie killing. The first half of the book is set in Baltimore—or “The Civilized East” as the section’s heading has it—with Jane making her first bold moves in a society ruled by political machinations. The second half of the book sees Jane and her enemy-turned-friend Kate winding up in Summerland, a small town in Kansas—or “The Cruel West”—where things are just as shadowy and secretive. With Jane as its kick-ass driving force, Dread Nation skilfully weaves together alternate history and zombie-killing action with just-as-relevant-today social commentary. Even more Western adventure can be found in the sequel, Deathless Divide (2020). The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud (2023) The setting (Mars) and time period (1931) of The Strange may not initially make it seem like a Western, but trust me, it absolutely is. New Galveston is a small colony on the Martian frontier and life there has been extra hard for the settlers ever since communication, supplies, and people suddenly stopped coming from Earth. Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp is still in the depths of mourning her mother—who returned to Earth just before ties between the planets were mysteriously cut—when things go from bad to worse. A group of outlaws storm her family’s diner one night and inadvertently steal the only thing she has left of her mother: a recording of her voice. After getting no help from the law, Anabelle boldly—some might say foolishly—ventures out into the Martian wilderness to retrieve the recording herself. The Strange reads as though Ballingrud took the heart and mettle of Charles Portis’ True Grit (1968) and set those elements loose within his own creative and fantastical vision of Mars. Red Rabbit (2023) by Alex Grecian Red Rabbit is a story that self-consciously plays with the tropes of classic Westerns. It starts with a bounty being placed on the head of accused witch Sadie Grace. Old Tom—a self-proclaimed witch hunter—is convinced that he’s the man for the job and while venturing through Kansas to collect the bounty he ends up amassing a motley crew of travelers. The eclectic posse encounter more than just the expected outlaws and bandits on their journey, with demons and ghosts also crossing their path. Morality can often be quite clear-cut in classic Westerns, but many of the characters in Red Rabbit resist being boxed into the binary of good versus evil. The story has all of the ingredients needed for a fun adventure: compelling characters, gruesome ghouls, and a pace that could outrun a galloping horse.  If you want more from the world of Red Rabbit, then the short story “The Price of Rye” (2023) and the novel Rose of Jericho (2025) are both set in the same spooky and magical landscape. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (2025) The Buffalo Hunter Hunter opens with an old diary being found in a wall. Written by Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarne, the diary switches back and forth between Arthur’s own thoughts and his transcription of a strange story told to him by a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who claims to be a vampire (although that isn’t the word he uses). Arthur and Good Stab’s conversations take place in Miles City, Montana, in 1912. Although the Wild West was starting to fade into history by that time, Good Stab’s bloody and emotional narrative is set years earlier, firmly in chaos of the Old West. At its heart, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a revenge tale. While classic Westerns often have a starry-eyed view of the American frontier, Jones’s book faces the terrible violence inflected upon Native people and buffalo head-on. As might be expected from such a story, copious amounts of blood are shed—and since it’s a vampire story, a copious amount of blood is also drunk. There are, of course, many more stories set in weird versions of the Wild West beyond just these five examples. If I’ve missed any of your favorites, please leave the recommendations in the comments below![end-mark] The post Five Books Set in A Weird Version of the Wild West appeared first on Reactor.

News project hail mary Ryan Gosling Might Reluctantly Save the World in Project Hail Mary They’re all astronauts; he’s just Ken. By Molly Templeton | Published on June 30, 2025 Screenshot: Amazon MGM Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Amazon MGM Studios It’s been a long minute since we had a huge blockbuster about people reluctantly going to space to save the world. In the trailer for Project Hail Mary—based on the novel by The Martian author Andy Weir—there’s just one guy, though. (Readers of the novel, or even just of the synopsis of the novel, will know this is not exactly the case, though the trailer seems to really want you to think he’s all by his lonesome the whole time.) And he’s not even an astronaut. No, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is a middle school science teacher who just so happens to have studied something that might be useful at a moment when all the stars are getting “infected” with something dire and the sun is gonna die, taking all life on Earth with it. No big deal, buddy! You got this! Project Hail Mary was, like Weir’s The Martian, a huge smash, and the movie looks to follow in its footsteps. The movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and written by Drew Goddard, who also wrote the adaptation of The Martian. Like that story, Project Hail Mary centers on one guy trying to do the work of many people while not dying in space. This time there’s just a whole lot more at stake. And whatever this trailer may or may not give away plot-wise, Gosling feels note-perfect as an amiable guy who’s in way over his insecure little head. And he gets to make a friend! This deliciously long trailer kind of feels like it might be showing us the whole movie, but I’m informed by reliable sources (people who read the book) that it really, really isn’t. You’ll have to wait a while to find out for yourself, though: The movie is in theaters March 2o, 2026.[end-mark] The post Ryan Gosling Might Reluctantly Save the World in <i>Project Hail Mary</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Column SFF Bestiary Killer Orcas Anyone who has worked with large animals can tell you how easy it is to get hurt… By Judith Tarr | Published on June 30, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share It’s amazing that in sixty years of captive orcas, including orcas bred in captivity, the human body count is quite low. Small weak humans and large, powerful animals can be a volatile mix, with the humans very much on the losing side. And yet in all that time, there’s been a scarce handful of fatalities in the orca tanks. Injuries there have been. Trainers, handlers, and more or less random persons have been bitten, battered, and nearly drowned. Some injuries have been serious, if not actually fatal. Anyone who has worked with large animals can tell you how easy it is to get hurt. They don’t always know their own strength, and a moment’s lapse on the part of either human or animal can have unfortunate results. [Content warning: This article contains descriptions of serious injuries, trauma, and death, as well as a discussion of animal welfare that some readers may find upsetting.] One of the most notorious non-fatal incidents happened at Sea World in 1971. Shamu, the first intentionally captured orca, had been showing signs of mental distress, but money ruled, and the show had to go on. As part of a publicity stunt, a park employee in a bikini was ordered to ride the orca. Shamu had been conditioned to respect trainers in wet suits, but a human in a bikini was a different animal. She dumped the rider, Anne Godsey, and pulled her under. Godsey survived, but needed 200 stitches in her leg and hip, and suffered severe emotional trauma. So did Shamu. She was retired from performance after that incident, and died four months later, at the terribly young age of nine. That did not deter the park from continuing its “Shamu” shows. In 2010, almost forty years later, trainer Dawn Brancheau was performing in front of a large audience with an adult male orca named Tilikum. Brancheau was an experienced trainer, and she believed she had a special relationship with Tilikum. The day she died, she had completed a lunchtime show and lain down on a ledge beside the tank for a “relationship session” with the orca. Her long ponytail trailed out in the water. Tilikum seized it and pulled her in. Brancheau fought hard, and her fellow trainers did their best, but there was nothing they could do to stop six tons of orca. Brancheau died in full view of a horrified crowd. Brancheau was not the first trainer to be killed by one of the park’s orcas. Keto, a male who had been born and raised in captivity (unlike Tilikum, who was born in the wild), had killed Spanish trainer Alexis Martinez two months before during a training session at Loro Parque in Tenerife. It was a similar situation: trainer working with orca, orca pulling trainer down and resisting efforts to save the trainer. Tilikum’s very public attack was not his first. He came to Sea World in 1991 from Sealand in Canada, where he and two female orcas had drowned a trainer who fell into their tank. At Sea World in 1998, his caretakers came in one morning to find a naked and very dead man draped over his back. Daniel P. Dukes had hidden in the park before closing and apparently gone swimming with the whale in the night. He did not survive the experience. After Brancheau’s death, Tilikum continued to perform solo or with other orcas, but never again with humans in the water. He died in 2017 at the age of 35; he had sired a number of offspring and grandoffspring, and was one of the longest-lived males in captivity. Was Tilikum a serial killer? Did his life in orca hell—ripped away from his family, confined to concrete and metal tanks, subjected to training and conditioning, forced to perform day in and day out—cause his mind to snap? The first killing may have been accidental, with a surprise human-shaped toy thrown into the tank he shared with a pair of aggressive females. The second could have been an accident, too: no one knows; apparently there were no cameras in the tank. The third happened in full public view, and there is video. Did he intentionally kill Dawn Brancheau? Had he been pushed to the limit of what he could stand, and he took it out on a convenient target? He did indicate that something was not right. His quality time with his trainer normally ended with her commanding him to dive down toward the observation windows and offer a photo op for the patrons below. That day he didn’t wait for the command. He grabbed her hair instead and dragged her down with him. Or was it essentially a cultural clash? An orca can stay underwater for long periods. It might not have occurred to him that a human can hardly stay under at all by orca standards. When Branchard’s long hair slipped into the water and streamed out, maybe, like a cat, he pounced on it as if it had been a toy. She just happened to come along with it. Once he had her, he wouldn’t let her go, though park staff did their best. He shook her and dragged her and pushed her along with his nose, until eventually he let himself be herded to a small tank with a floor that could be lifted to confine him and to extricate Brancheau from his jaws. Did he think he had a toy? Prey? Toward the end, was he trying to do what orcas will do with one of their own who is injured or sick, supporting her and carrying her up to the surface? Or maybe it was a combination of all of these things. He was in no way suited to the life he was living. He was designed for the open ocean, for a complex culture and a close-knit family. Just about everything he did during his life in captivity conflicted, in one way or another, with his nature and instincts. Sea World insisted that it gave him and the rest of its orcas the best possible facilities and care, with expert trainers and a wide range of enrichment activities. Dawn Brancheau believed sincerely that she had a wonderful relationship with him; she loved him and was convinced that he loved her. Maybe that was true—right up until it wasn’t. Anyone who lives and works with animals learns sooner or later that animals are not humans. Even dogs and cats, who live intimately with us, still have their own agenda, to which they will default. The dog who digs up your garden, the cat who claws your furniture, is doing what comes naturally. Training and conditioning only go so far. There comes a point when nature takes over. With a truly wild animal, which hasn’t been bred for generations to cooperate with humans, even the most careful training and handling can fail. It says a lot for the nature of the orca that there are no verified cases of humans killed by wild orcas, and that captive orcas have only killed a handful in sixty years. These huge predators with their powerful jaws are literal death to fish, squid, and marine mammals, but aside from their natural prey, they’re very much into live and let live. It may be that Shamu and Tilikum and Keto simply snapped. It’s remarkable that dozens of other orcas haven’t and didn’t. Marine parks are still holding orcas captive, and still putting on shows. Sea World announced in 2016 that it was ending its captive breeding program, but it refused to consider either retiring its orcas or releasing them into the wild. What remains, according to them and other parks, is the study of cetaceans in captivity and in the open ocean. They’re too educational (and too lucrative) to let go. It’s probably too late for these animals anyway, barring a Keiko-style, full-on, complex and expensive project. The ones who were captured in the wild can’t return to their families—it’s been too long. The ones who were born in captivity have nowhere to go and lack the knowledge or the skills to survive outside of the tanks. The only viable option is what Sea World is doing: letting time and attrition put a gradual end to their programs. Eventually there may be no captive orcas, but the knowledge gained from the them may help protect and manage the wild population.[end-mark] The post Killer Orcas appeared first on Reactor.

Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 74-76 A death rattle, a surprising encounter with Mishram, and bad news… By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on June 30, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome to yet another Stormlight Reread Monday, Cosmere Chickens! Paige, Drew, and I invite you to join us on another deep dive into the novel as we experience a crushing loss along with Sigzil, come face to face with an Unmade, take a look back in time to watch a young Szeth beginning his pilgrimage, and witness Adolin receiving some very bad news. Things are looking pretty bleak for our heroes this week, and they’ll get darker still before the end, so let’s discuss… The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs We haven’t seen Sigzil in a while, and it’s hard to witness his anguish in the opening of chapter 74, titled “What He Made Of Us,” as he’s screaming over his dying squire, Deti, who utters a Death Rattle: “It comes! The Night of Sorrows! I stand on the precipice of dawn and watch it advance, consuming all light, all life, all hope. IT COMES!” Ugh, poor squire, Deti. And poor Sig. Raging, he rips into some direform Regals who are surrounding some of his soldiers, wielding Vienta as a dagger and a Heavenly One’s spear, which had drained Deti’s Stormlight. Its sphere is cracked, so as he stabs Regals, their voidlight leaks away into the night. Vienta tries to talk sense into him. He’s the commander; he can’t afford to kill in a rage. He needs to retreat. But he continues to attack until his logical side takes over and finally he retreats, abandoning Narak Four. This was his plan, but he wishes they’d lasted longer—and also that his forces had more Stormlight. It’s in short supply as Dalinar has yet to return, so they have to ration it and they’re getting pummeled by Odium’s forces. Now they have to plan how to get the enemy to focus on Narak Three, the other plateau they can afford to lose. But first Sig informs Leyten and Skar that Moelach is there, based on the fact that Deti spoke a Death Rattle. Leyten states that Moelach doesn’t take part in fighting but Sig warns that there might be another Unmade in the area, as well. And, as a matter of fact, he’s right. He’s seen it, after all, hasn’t he? Sig then asks if they’d seen Moash and Leyten offers the perfect reply: ”The moment he appears, we’ll make sure you know. Then there will be a reckoning.” There won’t be, unfortunately, but it’s nice to hear the guys talking about it. *sigh* POV SHIFT! Back to Shallan, who emerges from the chaos of the Spiritual Realm to the outside of a vision. It’s as if she’s looking through a cloudy glass wall which forms a pillar surrounded by wooden scaffolding. Her spren appear, and then Renarin, Rlain, and their spren appear on another level of the scaffolding. She finds a good spot to peek in and observes a battle taking place on the other side. Dalinar and Navani have been moving through Desolations and they used the pillar in order to watch, seeing the early Knights Radiant but skipping over the days of Nohadon and the founding of the Radiants. There has been no sign of the Ghostbloods they’re hunting, but they continue to follow Dalinar as the Ghostbloods believe that his quest will also lead them to Mishram, so they must be following him somehow, as well. They observe that the weapons and the battle tactics are more modern but that this is still long in the past. Rlain notes that the battles are against his people. “The Fused wouldn’t exist if the humans hadn’t begun to outgrow the land given them. The Heralds wouldn’t exist if the Fused hadn’t been created to stop this incursion.” He’s not wrong, all of the fighting began with the arrival of the humans. They just destroy everything! Stupid humans. Shallan points out that the singers did serve Odium. Rlain states that was because the other gods refused to help them. He asks if the only acceptable answer is that one people or another must be subjugated, as happened to his people. It’s rather an uncomfortable discussion between human and listener, but it’s an important one, because if the Fused and Odium’s forces win, they will subjugate the humans. If, on the other hand, the humans were to win, they would also want to subjugate the singers. Renarin tells him that his father is trying to end the war with peace and that there have to be other answers. Rlain is skeptical that it can end with peace, and I don’t blame him one bit for it. Shallan wants to move to the top of a hill but Renarin says he can’t just zoom them around like with one of her maps. This really cracks me up. I know a lot of people don’t like familiar real-world expressions like “zoom” appearing in these books. They say it pulls them out of the story. It never pulls me out—I personally find it amusing, and I enjoy the way Brandon uses words like “zoom” and “awesome” in the books. What say you, Sanderfans? What are your thoughts on this topic? Shallan asks Renarin to try to move their location and after some discussion with Glys, he’s able to jump them to a different hilltop. She sees Dalinar and Navani and they remind her of Adolin, which makes her smile. Oh, my heart. *sad face* Then she spies a darkened area and Renarin announces that Glys says it’s an Unmade: specifically, Mishram. Not the NOW Mishram, but it’s her in the historical vision. Shallan takes a moment to be annoyed at the fact that while they’d seen Unmade in other battles, they hadn’t been shown their creation, which remained a mystery even to the spren. Shallan wants to go inside and interact with Mishram; after arguing with Renarin about it, Rlain agrees with Shallan. Promising to signal if something goes wrong, she enters the vision… Chapter 75—ahh, so much for seeing Shallan approach Mishram in the vision, right? Soon, Sanderfans… soon. But this chapter is a Szeth flashback titled “Family” and it takes place sixteen years ago, around the same time as his last vision. It’s the day he’s to leave on his pilgrimage to train with all of the Honorblades (barring Taln’s), and he’s in the monastery’s rock garden, praying to a stone there with a vein of crystal running through its center. He asks for wisdom and touches the stone. And oddly… For a moment he felt… memories. As if… this stone had come from another place, and remembered being carried… with a group of terrified people… This stone, of course, was brought from Ashyn, and it’s interesting that Szeth can feel that memory from the stone. He speaks to it, asks if it’s the spren he follows. And then the Voice pops up again and tells him that it hasn’t been ignoring him and that they will meet once his pilgrimage is complete. It says that it has orchestrated everything that has happened to Szeth and that his meaning is part of its meaning. And Szeth really needed that reminder that his life was not an accident. Poor Szeth, always needing validation from others. Then Elid appears, interrupting his meditation; she tells him that their father is planning to follow him. Szeth feels relief at this; he says he didn’t think that his father would come with him, though he’s not surprised. Elid says Szeth needs to tell Neturo to stay because he’s built something there—he’s the mayor. Szeth says their father will do what he likes, that maybe he has reasons to go to the Willshaper monastery. Elid is shocked that Szeth knows about Sivi and asks if he thinks what they’re doing is wrong. He replies that their mother left him; Elid says she might come back, though she then argues that their father following Szeth every few months would mean the end of him and Sivi. Wishy-washy, that one. They briefly talk about missing their mother and then Elid declares she’s not going on the pilgrimage and again tells Szeth to talk their father out of going. She calls out that she hates him as he leaves. Poor Szeth. And really, poor Elid, too. Her life was dramatically altered because of what Szeth went through, too. Following him from place to place first with her parents, and now just her father. She has never really had her own place, but she’s made this city her home and won’t be following Szeth again. He leaves the monastery with only the clothes on his back and his sword, and is soon joined by his father. He asks his father to stay behind. Neturo asks if Szeth wants that or if he thinks it’s what he should want. Szeth tells him he has a life there with his family and Neturo tells him that going with Szeth is the only way he knows how to help. Szeth thanks him, grateful that his father is going with him despite telling him to stay behind. Chapter 76 is titled “Concessions” and despite sporting an Adolin chapter icon, the chapter opens with Shallan inside the vision, in a dying singer body. She can speak to Pattern in her mind now and asks him to have them pull her out and put her in a different body, but then she sees Mishram approaching. The Unmade took the shape of a black mass of smoke, with hands growing out of it to move. Powerful hands, entirely black, stretching out and gripping the ground to pull her along. That’s not creepy at all. But as the mass reaches another dying singer, the hands and arms disappear and the mass of smoke turns into a female singer with billowing robes and long black hair. She leans over the dying singer and speaks to her, forming extra arms to hold her. Shallan whimpers at the pain in her side and Mishram turns to her… which kind of freaks her out. Mishram leans toward her and whispers for her to live, to heal. Shallan asks why Mishram healed her and she responds that he “does not love us… [so] we must love ourselves.” Shallan follows Mishram to where she’s healing another singer and asks what her plots are. Mishram tells her to live, feel, be. Shallan follows Mishram and lets Radiant take control. The Unmade has found a human, and Radiant asks Mishram if she will heal him. She says she cannot and would not, though she sings to him to make his transition more peaceful. This really challenges our sense of Mishram as some kind of psychotic Unmade. We’ll know why she changed, of course, but it’s so sad to see how compassionate she was before she was betrayed. When Mishram—the present day Mishram—suddenly SEES Shallan, it’s pretty freaking scary, to be perfectly honest. I know that I got the creeps from it, in a major way. They pull Shallan out of the vision and she creates a Lightweaving of herself to remain inside. Mishram rants about all the pain she’ll cause and Shallan asks why Odium is afraid of her, about whether she could replace Odium. Mishram feels taken aback and then Shallan is back in the Spiritual Realm, surrounded by Mishram’s essence. “How do you know?” Mishram demanded. “How do you know?”“I’ve been there,” Shallan whispered. “I killed those who created me as well.” And here we see Shallan’s oft repeated fixation, her guilt and fear that she’s killed or hurt everyone who has helped her, which has made her hesitate to kill Mraize when she’s had the opportunity. Of course, she hasn’t killed all of her mentors and allies—Adolin, Dalinar, and Jasnah are still alive, among others. She really needs to start working through this particular belief and coming to grips with her guilt. Mishram’s essence reaches for Shallan but Rlain steps in front of her. I really love this part: Rlain, tall, in warform but wearing an Alethi uniform, protects her. Then Renarin steps up beside Rlain… and takes the listener’s hand. Mishram pauses and they try to convince her to help them to find her, explaining that it would be far better than their enemies finding her. And of course Mishram vanishes, leaving them no information to help them on their (Shallan’s) quest to locate her prison. Mraize appears in the vision with a dagger as if he’s going to attack Shallan’s Lightweaving and then the vision falls apart. Odium is now searching for them, alerted by the fact that Mishram was seeing and speaking with them. Tumi announces they need to hide and they all disappear, leaving Shallan alone. POV SHIFT! Adolin! Yay! He’s playing towers with Yanagawn after sparring. They discuss the tactics of the game as it stands and Yanagawn makes a game-winning move. Then they discuss their troops and how exhausted they are, but Adolin assures the young emperor that they can win. (He’s wrong, in the sense that they can win the battle against the singers and Fused, but we all know what happens and we’ll get there.) The point is that Adolin never seems to let go of his optimism. His outlook will change once he’s injured, but at this point in the book, he’s still confident that they can hold out against the enemy. They talk of other things, such as war “out there” among other planets. Yanagawn reveals that there are legends about other worlds in their records. Which is surprising, but kind of makes sense, in a way. Of course the Azish would have knowledge of other worlds! It will come up later so I’ll mention that they use aluminum flatware and have candelabras and such that are made of aluminum. Adolin remarks that they might be able to use the metal, so the emperor arranges for some to be taken to the armory. Adolin’s guard switches and none other than Hmask enters the tent. Turns out that Yanagawn can speak Thaylen and Adolin finally learns the reason for Hmask’s loyalty toward him: His son was the child that Adolin rescued during the battle in Thaylen City when the Thunderclast was attacking. I’m not crying, you’re crying! Scribes relay information to Noura. Adolin guesses that the reinforcements aren’t going to make it to Azimir in time. Emul and Tashikk have taken up with Odium and attacked the reinforcements so the Azish and Alethi forces in the city have three and a half days to hold out, alone and exhausted, against the singers and Fused. We know how it will go, but the sad thing about this turn of events is how downtrodden Adolin feels. The betrayal and subsequent loss of hope is hard to take, even for our optimistic Highprince. Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs & Maps Chapter 74 begins with another degraded chapter arch, featuring Chana (who actually makes an appearance in the chapter), Kalak (Herald of the Willshapers) and Palah (Herald of the Truthwatchers) in two positions. Palah’s likely here for Renarin and Rlain, but Kalak’s a bit more of a mystery. We do know that he’s the only Herald who seemed to have a relationship with Mishram, calling her by shortened name… but that’s a hell of a reach. Even his attributes of Resolute/Builder don’t seem to make much sense. I suppose it could be for Sigzil, who’s resolutely holding Narak against the enemy. Chapter 75, a Szeth flashback chapter, features Vedel, Ishar x2, and Taln. Taln’s Blade is mentioned in this chapter, and Ishar often shows up in Szeth’s flashback arches since he’s the Voice guiding Szeth on his journey. But Vedel…? Patron of the Edgedancers? My theory is that she’s symbolic of Szeth’s father, who is (as always) nothing short of amazing. Neturo insists on staying with his son and keeping their little family together, which is in line with Vedel’s attributes of “Loving/Healing.” Finally, we have chapter 76’s arch, which features Shalash (I think), Vedel, and the Wild Card. (These Heralds are getting harder and harder to make out!) Shalash is here for Shallan, clearly. I suspect that the Wild Card is due to Yanagawn and Adolin’s discussion about the broader Cosmere. And Vedel is often used for Adolin’s POV chapters, since he’s closely linked to the Edgedancers. In this week’s chapter, we see Sigzil’s forces (in blue) on the Shattered Plains retreating, yielding Narak Four to the enemy (in red). They plan to attempt to lure the enemy towards Narak Three next (circled in yellow below). Art: Dragonsteel Sigzil “You’re not blaming yourself for this, are you?”“Trying my best not to, but you know how it feels.”Leyten nodded. “I wish I didn’t, but I do.” Sigzil’s POV, which starts off chapter 74, centers around the loss of his squire and the guilt of command. He’s doing a great job, but he’s still losing people, and dealing with the emotional aftermath of those losses is no easy feat. Thankfully he’s got Skar and Leyten to help him out. All three of them are gaining a newfound understanding of what drove Kaladin to leave the army. Shallan She forced herself to look back. At a woman with red hair, walking beside Jezrien the king.The implications of this are daunting, Radiant thought.We have to acknowledge them anyway, Veil said. Shallan’s clearly still struggling with her mother’s identity, though she’s at least willing to face it now, though she hasn’t had time to really process this reality. She’s got more pressing matters to deal with before she can begin to dig into those implications. That’s strikingly mature for her, showing just how far she’s come. Our bond has been strengthening. You have said the proper truths. We thought maybe this would start to work. An interesting note here on the bond between Pattern and Shallan. She’s been admitting a lot of hard truths to herself, so it makes sense that their bond is growing stronger. Szeth Your life has purpose, Szeth. Everything that has happened to you, I orchestrated. You have meaning because your meaning is part of my meaning. We can’t blame Szeth for being relieved at this. It must be incredibly validating to be reassured that you’re on the right path, that your life is meaningful. And to hear this from what is basically a deity, to Szeth? A hundred times more validating! “Father is planning to go with you. Again. When you leave on pilgrimage.”Szeth felt a sudden, deep sense of relief. Of course he does. Being sent off alone is a terrifying prospect. The only constant in his life so far has been his father. “Szeth,” Father whispered to the sound of splashing rain, “what happened between your mother and me was not your fault. We were struggling long before you found that stone.”“Really?” Neturo once again angling for that “best dad” award… not like he’s got a ton of competition, though. Dalinar, Elhokar, Lirin… most of the Rosharan daddies have some work to do on their fathering skills. Elid “I used to feel sorry for you,” Elid said. “Used to want to protect you, like Father. But… then she left us…” Both of the siblings have had rough lives, and I definitely feel for Elid here too. Being dragged around after her brother, with no stable home environment, and then to lose her mother as well? It’s no wonder that she’s troubled and angry. “Why he’s always willing to follow you? Why he doesn’t care about me as much as he does you? Why are you his favorite?” Ah, and mix in a little sibling rivalry and lack of self-confidence just for good measure. Neturo “Elid hates me, Szeth.”“What? No! She loves you.”“That’s not what she says,” Neturo said softly. Neturo’s not perfect, of course. In his insistence that he must watch over and protect his son, he’s neglected his daughter, and she feels the loss of their relationship. Mishram “Will you heal him?” she asked.“I cannot,” the Unmade said. “And I would not.” She hesitated. “Yet we should sing for him. That will make his final transition more peaceful.” Oh, fascinating. Mishram does at least have empathy for the enemy, even if she can’t (and won’t) heal them. Adolin He expected other military leaders to put up with the way he led his troops—he should probably try a little harder to appreciate the Azish system. A consistent through-line for Adolin’s character; his insistence on trying to break through his own ingrained prejudices and see other perspectives. What did he believe? Storms, that was a good question. […] One would think that with literal Voidbringers coming down to assault the land, he’d be more devout, not less. Adolin’s faith has certainly taken a major hit. I can’t entirely blame him for heading down Jasnah’s path, considering everything that’s happened. “Thunderclast,” Adolin said. “Yeah. I wasn’t able to beat it. Honestly, I barely inconvenienced it.” He thought back to that whole ordeal with shame at his failure. […] “I think,” Yanagawn said, “you saved his son’s life.” While he may have failed on the grand scale, he still made all the difference in this one family’s life. That’s something that Adolin needed to be reminded of. He’d never expected their allies—those they’d fought to protect—to turn on them. This betrayal cuts Adolin deep, all the more because he knows how many more of his own men he’ll lose because of it. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories “It comes! […] The Night of Sorrows! I stand on the precipice of dawn and watch it advance, consuming all light, all life, all hope! IT COMES!” Nope, that’s not an epigraph. Chapter 74 kicks off with a bang, dropping a portentous Death Rattle as Sigzil’s squire Deti falls in battle. The Death Rattles have largely been sorted out, at this point, though there are still a few potentially outstanding examples. During a first read of Wind and Truth, this likely feels like one that we know about; so much in the earlier books seemed to equate what we knew as the Everstorm with the Night of Sorrows, so this could be written off as fairly humdrum. But with hindsight, knowing what the real Everstorm is, what the True Desolation and Night of Sorrows actually entail, this is a flashing neon red sign. And when I say that, I have to point out that we really haven’t seen what all those things will look like for Roshar in the long term. We know the landscape has changed, though not how; we’ll probably have to wait for book six to see what the map looks like. We also know that darkness covers all the land but Azimir and Urithiru. But there’s so much more to worry about. Plant growth is a potential issue, of course, requiring the blessing of Retribution via midnight prayers to gain Warlight. The iron grip of Retribution has nearly all the world in hand. El seems primed to be the steward on Roshar while Retribution tries to figure out what the heck to do about all those other pesky Shards… and he’s a loose cannon if we’ve ever seen one. And what of the Unmade? Ba-Ado-Mishram is free now, and doesn’t have any Shards to contend with. It’s very possible we get another version of the False Desolation in the future. This chapter makes mention of Moelach, of course, given the presence of Death Rattles during the battle. But we are reminded of the potential other Unmade, though they don’t show up—and those are also worth keeping in mind for the back five books. What’s going on with Dai-Gonarthis and Ashertmarn? What about Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother? Shallan drove her off, back at the beginning on Oathbringer, but she was by no means neutralized or incapacitated. And her Midnight Essence could be a pure terror in the Night of Sorrows. “Why is Odium afraid of you?” Shallan said. “Could you actually replace him?” So Mishram is still a bit of an enigma, even after all the focus on her in this book. She was freed, but other than being one piece in the puzzle to allow Dalinar’s erstwhile Ascension, she really had very little impact on the plot of Wind and Truth. She was mostly a MacGuffin for Shallan to chase. But one theme kept getting hammered on, over and over, throughout this novel: Odium is afraid of Ba-Ado-Mishram because she could potentially Ascend and replace the current Vessel. But then nothing ever came of that. Dalinar Ascended to Honor, then Taravangian became Retribution, and Mishram just sort of faded into the background after Renarin and Rlain freed her. I have to imagine that this is all part of a long game, and her potential is still to be explored. Maybe she does end up supplanting Taravangian, and becoming not Odium but Retribution—something that sure does seem to fit with what we see of Mishram’s actions in chapter 76 and what we hear of her across the history of the conflict on Roshar. It’s not super satisfying to have essentially nothing happen with Ba-Ado-Mishram in Wind and Truth, but she has been spoken about in such a unique manner and generally built up too much to never get taken down from the proverbial mantel as the story continues. Shallan’s illusions no longer froze when she wasn’t directing them. The one inside, for example, had clasped its hands and was staring thoughtfully, shifting occasionally as a living person might. Shallan keeps having these little moments of magical development. This isn’t as spectacular as her work with substantiation against Abidi back in Day One, but it’s yet another indicator of just how special Shallan’s double bond is. She keeps popping up with these weird or crazy applications of her Surges. And we still have the whole Soulcasting thing yet to unravel with her. Who knows what bonkers things she’s gonna be doing in the last five books… Fan theories via Social Media Lyn: There’s a theory thread over on Reddit which is going a bit more in-depth on my “was the thing that destroyed Ashyn a nuclear explosion” theory from a while ago. Worth a look if you’re intrigued by that sort of thing! We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday with our discussion of chapter 77 and the next two interludes (11 and 12) as we wrap up Day Six![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 74-76 appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Murderbot Murderbot’s Privacy Is Invaded in “Foreign Object” Thankfully, there’s more Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon to offer us solace. By Alex Brown | Published on June 27, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome to the eighth episode of Murderbot and Its Selfish, Ungrateful, Hippie Clients! Murderbot has more of its privacy invaded, Mensah has had it up to here, and Gurathin is having the second worst day of his life. Spoilers ahoy! Ah, there’s my Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. I missed thee last week. The scene we see is from a much later episode than the last clip we got; and it’s also a new one for Seccy. Captain Hossein is now dead, decapitated at the hands of his construct lover, the NavBot. Lieutenant Kulleroo has been promoted to captain after basically doing a factory reset on the NavBot. Except it doesn’t work and it drags them all into the event horizon of a wormhole. It’s pretty clear that in the Corporate Rim, sexualizing constructs in a gendered way based solely on surface-level assumptions of presentation is depressingly (frustratingly, disgustingly) common. We saw it in the way Leebeebee went after Murderbot and how Captain Kulleroo tells NavBot to smile. I talked about this in an earlier review, but I’m convinced it’s also a key selling point for AI. We’ve got tech bros arguing that AI is practically sentient, folks turning to LLMs for romantic relationships, and even a journalist who made an AI employee look like an attractive woman then immediately sexually harassed it. They get to have all the thrill of power with none of the consequences for abusing it.  Every woman or person who often gets assumed to be women (hi, it’s me) has had some creepy asshole man tell them to smile. If Kulleroo tried that on a human woman, she’d have some options for resistance, even if it was just complaining about it to her friends. NavBot wasn’t supposed to even realize resistance was a concept, much less offer any, not after that reconditioning. Love gave her choice, so they took that choice away. Control without resistance. It’s the main selling point for SecUnits and other constructs. The Company gets to replicate slavery but with a population that can’t fight…and sexual violence is part of that. It’s also an undercurrent of why the PresAux humans are so distressed by Murderbot being “rogue.” Their reaction reminds me more of the claim that was common in the 19th century (and still percolates around today) that Black Americans would rise up against white people and inflict upon them what they inflicted upon us. The Corporate Rim folks cannot conceive of a construct going rogue and just wanting to hang out with some space operas, while the Preservation Alliance humans only want SecUnit to go rogue in ways they approve of. They want a certain type of resistance done in a certain way; tone policing, anyone?  Hang on, I’m getting sidetracked. Much like Murderbot does when watching Sanctuary Moon instead of scouting out the PresAux habitat to see if the mystery third party is lying in wait. Using the transponder Murderbot left behind to record the habitat, the team figures out the group trying to kill them is from GrayCris, a mining company. And they have even more evil SecUnits. Much like PresAux, GrayCris is also led by a middle-aged Black woman, albeit one with a terrible hair care routine. Mensah wouldn’t be caught dead in public with her hair that fried. For once, Gurathin and Murderbot agree on something: neither think they should return to the habitat, despite how badly he needs the med bay. Ratthi, Arada, Pin-Lee, and Bharadwaj may think they were badasses in that last “punch-up,” as Ratthi adorably puts it, but we and SecUnit know that they only made it out of there alive by the miraculous intervention of a broody alien animal. It says a lot that while Gurathin is writhing about in agonizing pain, he and Murderbot both simultaneously realize it can use its own body to help him override his pain sensors in lieu of giving him pills. Murderbot doesn’t know anything about Gura’s past in the Corporate Rim, so it has no context for why he would reject pain meds. Yet it still occurs to it to help him. Mensah asks if this plan was inspired by Sanctuary Moon but nope. (It’s actually from Medcenter Argala, episode 502). For the first time, SecUnit gets to see things from a human perspective. It’s a lot gooier than expected.  And here comes another one of my favorite moments from the book. In the novella, the reveal about SecUnit’s chosen name comes at the same time as PresAux learns it’s rogue. Here, Gurathin wasn’t able to dig past its defenses the first time around. Murderbot decides to use this opportunity to go rooting around in Gurathin’s brain, and then Gurathin returns the favor. Alexander Skarsgård plays this moment so well. If SecUnit was really an evil, killer rogue bot like NavBot from Sanctuary Moon, we’d expect to see it react with anger, threats, or violence. Instead, Murderbot is frightened and nervous. It’s having its most private thoughts and memories aired out in public sans context and by the one person who has gone out of his way to make life inordinately more difficult for it. Director Aurora Guerrero shoots this scene with a lot of close-ups and medium shots of the actors, then when there’s a pause after the reveal, switches to a wide shot of the entire cast where we watch the humans in unison shift ever so slightly away from Murderbot. Then a slow zoom in on it when Gura calls it defective. It’s subtle yet so effective. Even Mensah leans back. It’s a gutting betrayal, to be seen and then rejected by the only humans to ever show it kindness, to paraphrase NavBot. Composer Amanda Jones’ score really drives home the shame and sorrow Murderbot feels in the moment where it agrees with Gurathin’s accusation that “Maybe you’re just defective.” Not having anything else to do, and not getting any defense from its supposed allies, Murderbot puts its helmet up and leaves. Bharadwaj and Ratthi mount a defense of Murderbot, and Mensah finally shuts Ratthi down by reminding him “It’s not your pet!” They can’t force it to return or help them, so she redirects them to figuring out who GrayCris is. I gotta disagree with Mensah here, not about the pet part but about the root of her anger. In the past, she’s always been able to pull Murderbot back in with a little patience and compassion. This time, she feels like a line has been crossed. She’s right that it isn’t a pet, but it is a person. She’s choosing to let it go, to not fight for it. She offered Gurathin forgiveness for choosing to cause her harm despite being addicted to Company substances—we know it was ultimately a choice, even if a meager one, because he was about to end his life. Murderbot doesn’t know why it has that memory of 57 miners being slaughtered. Perhaps it was forced to like those DeltFall SecUnits and like it was going to do before it shot itself. Perhaps it was manipulated like Gura. Perhaps it was ordered to by another human. We don’t know anything except that it didn’t choose to murder those miners or any other humans. It was doing the thing that humans programmed it to do. And now another set of humans are placing all the blame on it for actions it couldn’t control. Yeah, I’d storm out, too.  PresAux deduces that GrayCris is likely after the alien remnants. The Company probably didn’t have a hand in the attacks on DeltFall or PresAux, but someone employed by the Company probably did take a bribe to cover GrayCris’ tracks. DeltFall was killed simply for knowing GrayCris was on planet. The only reason PresAux is still alive and kicking is because GrayCris needs their data on the location of the alien remnants, data Leebeebee failed to retrieve. While Murderbot “wanders aimlessly,” it tries to self-soothe with its favorite episodes of Sanctuary Moon, to no avail. The NavBot wormhole episode we saw in the cold open gives it an idea. Why not play the part of “the rogue SecUnit who betrayed its clients?”  Next week is the penultimate episode of the season. Will Murderbot’s plan work? Final Thoughts Episode 8 covers parts of chapter 6 in All Systems Red but is mostly invented for the show. Constructs sure do love decapitating people don’t they? I don’t know what John Cho did to piss off his NavBot lover, but it’s quite a left turn from that romantic fireside chat.  Speaking of sexualizing constructs, it’s not lost on me that NavBot is the only crewmember forced to wear that shiny, revealing, short skort thing.  Hope that next season (if we get a second season) they tweak the text of what Murderbot sees on its screens so it’s darker and more opaque. Be kind to my old eyes! I had to get right up next to the TV screen to read “area clear” written over the blood spatter. It’s also not lost on me that Bharadwaj does the same exact procedure on Gurathin as she did on SecUnit. At least Mensah gave Ratthi that light touch as a silent apology. They’ll have to talk about it later.  Kinda glad that throuple thing ended. The show never did anything interesting with it.  I think this is the first time the show has told us Mensah is a planetary administrator? We knew she had some sort of leadership role, but this is basically the President of Preservation Alliance. In the book, it’s pointed out that killing someone of her stature would be just as financially destructive to the Company as paying out the bonds on the rest of the teams. Lmao that the CGI of Murderbot scanning the area is the same as the scanning animation in The Sims 4 Career pack. Apple TV+: Murderbot minifig when??? Quotes “When you inducted me into this hideous religion called ‘love,’ you took away the only human who has ever shown me kindness. You have taken away my reason for living. Or letting you live.” “Yes, Seccy, yes.” “This doesn’t have to end in violence.” Murderbot and I both scoffed at that. “Hey. Hey. We’re gonna fix you right up, okay, Gugu?” And that little thumb rub over his cheek! Le sigh. Someone page the rarepair fanfic writers. I need some Ratthi x Gurathin fics forthwith! “Massacres are bad for business.” Until next week…[end-mark] The post <i>Murderbot’</i>s Privacy Is Invaded in “Foreign Object” appeared first on Reactor.