News The Magic Faraway Tree The Magic Faraway Tree Trailer Brings Enid Blyton’s Classic Fantasy Book to Life There are more than a few laughs in store as well in this very British film By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 3, 2025 Screenshot: ONE Media Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: ONE Media The fantasy adventure movie The Magic Faraway Tree has its first trailer, and in it we see a father played by Andrew Garfield and a mother played by Claire Foy move their family to a farm in the woods where their three children—Joe, Beth, and Fran—have trouble adjusting because of the lack of Wi-Fi. The woods near the farm, however, are magical! And Fran first travels there and meets loads of magical beings, including Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan, Sweet Tooth’s Nonso Anozie, and Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning. The trailer, released today, also includes some quick shots of Rebecca Ferguson (Dune and Silo) as the dubious Dame Snap, and sees the other children get in on the magical action as they visit different magical lands. The movie is based on the popular children’s books by Enid Blyton that were originally published between 1939 and 1951. They’ve been updated since then, as they have in this film, given that Wi-Fi wasn’t really a thing 80 or so years ago. The trailer today looks delightful and, in my opinion, bodes well for the film. What also bodes well for the movie is that the script comes from Simon Farnaby, the co-writer of Paddington 2, so expectations are high for this one. Fatherhood filmmaker Ben Gregor also directed, which is another sign in the film’s favor. There isn’t currently a release date for The Magic Faraway Tree in the United States, though fingers crossed we’ll be able to see it in theaters soon. In the meantime, check out the trailer below. [end-mark] The post <i>The Magic Faraway Tree</i> Trailer Brings Enid Blyton’s Classic Fantasy Book to Life appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts fantasy Read an Excerpt From Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez She was never meant to be seen. Now she’s a weapon the world can’t ignore. By Isabel Ibañez | Published on December 3, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez, a historical and romantic fantasy out from Saturday Books on January 13, 2026. As a sculptress, Ravenna Maffei has always shaped beauty from stone but she has a terrible secret. Desperate to save her brother, she enters a competition hosted by Florence’s most feared immortal family, revealing a dark power in a city where magic is forbidden.Now a captive in the cutthroat city of Florence, Ravenna is forced into a dangerous task where failure meets certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the immortal family’s mesmerizing but merciless heir. But as he draws her closer, Ravenna realizes the true threat lies beyond Florence’s walls.The Pope’s war against magic is closing in, and Ravenna is no longer just a prisoner but a prize to be claimed. As trusting the wrong person becomes lethal, Ravenna must survive the treacherous line between a pope’s obsession and the seductive immortal who might be the end of her—or surrender her power to a city on the brink of war. Capitolo Due The hour grew late, and the night became longer and darker as Ravenna laid her tools in a neat row on the scarred wooden table in her studio. The flat and claw chisels, the rasp, a file, her hammer—practically an extension of her palm—her favorite pumice stone, and a soft-bristled brush. Ravenna glanced at the single window that allowed spools of moonlight to gloss over the cramped space. She’d lined the sill with eggshells filled with cinnamon and cloves, painted stones, and snips of parchment with poetry, riddles, and fragments of stories written on them. Offerings to keep the fae at bay. Her mother was as superstitious as she was practical, and she’d raised Ravenna to be the same. Magic had no place in Volterra. Best to keep it out by any means possible. And stifle her own. Ravenna turned back to her worktable. It was her favorite time to sculpt marble, during the midnight hours while all the world slept. She inhaled deeply, comforted by the familiar scents the storage building kept trapped within its stone walls: flour, vanilla, aged wine, canvas, and pine. Outside, the wind began its nightly howl as winter gave its final cry across the rolling hills of Volterra. Ravenna tied a clean linen apron twice around her waist, lit another candle, and then eyed the bozzetto critically. It stood only a foot tall, but there was something about the figurine that seemed to overwhelm the quiet of her studio. For her subject, Ravenna had chosen Pluto, god of the underworld, and even without his face completed, the air around him swirled menacingly. The lushness of his clothing accentuated the broad width of his shoulders, and his strong hands were edged with blunt fingers capable of wielding the most dangerous of weapons. Even without a face, he seemed threatening. Finish me, topolina, or you’ll regret it, he seemed to say in a deadly hush. Ravenna had never been called a little mouse before in all her life. With a burst of annoyance she took the flat chisel and hammer and struck the marble. It gave way easily, the white stone as pure and sparkling as if it had come from the moon. With expert strikes, she nibbled away at the stone, angling cheekbones, carving the fine line of his eyelids, trapping the shadows that made up the contours of his face. With the claw chisel, she scratched the long sweep of eyebrows into place, the arched curve both sardonic and stern. With every step, Ravenna worked to improve each strike: deepening the lines, softening his mouth, adding the wavy details of his shoulder-length hair. It wasn’t until Ravenna finished that she’d realized what she’d done. The face that stared back at her belonged to the man from the alley. Not the Capitano, but the one with the perfect face, coldly beautiful and aloof. Ravenna gaped at the statue, annoyed at herself. How could she have immortalized his face in a work that was meant to save her brother? She shook her head, furious at herself. The wind outside the studio gave a sudden howling protest, and the wooden door burst open with a sudden slam. She jumped at the sound, dust swirling off the worktable, covering her homespun dress in speckles of white and gray. She gaped at the whirlwind as if she were caught in snowstorm, but then the wind abruptly retreated, as if satisfied with the mess it had made. The wooden door swung shut. Her mother would say it was an ill omen. Buy the Book Graceless Heart Isabel Ibañez Buy Book Graceless Heart Isabel Ibañez Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleIndieBoundTarget Ravenna stepped away from the bozzetto and tilted her head. There was still something missing from the piece, an elusive something that would set her work above the rest of the competition. Her calm demeanor wobbled. She’d never presented her work before, other than to her own family. But now there would be an audience, critics evaluating her work. And she knew exactly what they would say. She was an impostor. Her creation was amateur, with no heart and soul. She was a woman doing the noble work of a man. Ravenna set her tools on the table, thrust her hands on her hips. She couldn’t control what the others thought, but she could control what she did now. And that was to create something to save her brother. “Ravenna!” She half turned. Her littlest sister, Tereza, stepped shyly inside her studio, dragging her favorite blanket behind her, a ratty thing that had kept company with all the Maffei children. “Amorina,” Ravenna said. “Little love, did you come here by yourself?” Tereza walked to the tall wooden worktable and stood on tiptoe, clutching the edge to keep balance. “All by myself. Who is it?” she asked. Her dark brown hair was fitted in a braid that draped over a slender shoulder. At only five, Tereza exuded a calming presence, at odds with the rest of the family who spoke in loud and louder volumes. She tucked her index finger inside her mouth, a habit their mother had tried to curb. “Pluto,” Ravenna said. “Do you know who he is?” Tereza nodded once, her delicate features scrunching. “Not the hero.” “Depends on who you ask,” Ravenna said with a wink. “I’ve always thought villains are misunderstood.” Tereza pulled her finger out of her mouth with a small pop. “It’s not done.” The corners of Ravenna’s lips deepened. “I agree. What’s missing, do you think?” “Something shiny,” Tereza said, shrugging. Ravenna pulled at her bottom lip with her teeth. Something shiny. An idea flickered in her mind, one that terrified her even as it sunk deeper in her, a stone tossed into a river. Tereza dropped down from her tiptoed position and turned back to the door. “Mamma says for you to come inside. That your eyes will suffer in the dark. That your work is done, and no one is asking for perfect. But she said to tell you it is perfect. I don’t know why. She hasn’t seen it.” Ravenna tugged at her sister’s long braid. “And what else?” “She doesn’t want you to go tomorrow.” Her heart squeezed. “You’re a good little messenger.” “She also said your breakfast is cold,” Tereza said seriously. “And that it serves you right. She says you are too thin and lonely.” “Five more minutes,” Ravenna said, rolling her eyes. “Will you tell her?” “Yes, but Mamma won’t like it,” Tereza said before slipping out the door. Ravenna stared at the door, unseeing. Her idea tugged at her. She flicked her eyes to the long wooden shelves lining the storage walls, where she’d hidden a terrible secret. It was locked in a box, out of sight, but the air seemed to pulse around it. The hidden magic swirled around her. It whispered against her skin, coaxing her to come closer. No one in Volterra knew she had a whisper of that magic living inside her. From Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez. Copyright © 2026 by the author, and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Graceless Heart</i> by Isabel Ibañez appeared first on Reactor.

News Amazon Prime Anime Studios Claim Amazon Added AI-Generated Dubs Without Their Permission The No Game, No Life: Zero distributors deny giving Amazon their permission to upload the controversial AI-generated dubs. By Matthew Byrd | Published on December 3, 2025 Photo: Kadokawa Animation Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Kadokawa Animation In what is rapidly becoming one of the stranger and potentially consequential entertainment stories of the year, some anime studios have confirmed that they did not approve (and were not aware of) Amazon’s efforts to add AI-generated dubs to their works via the Amazon Prime service. This whole thing started last week when Amazon quietly added AI-generated dubbing options to various anime projects such as Banana Fish, No Game, No Life: Zero, Pet, Journal of the Mysterious Creatures, and Vinland Saga. Some of those anime works received AI-generated English and Spanish dubs, while others (such as Vinland Saga) only received Spanish dub audio options. The decision was made with essentially no fanfare and wasn’t really noticed until fans spotted the new audio options and decided to give them a shot. The results were, perhaps predictably, disastrous. The decision to add an AI-generated audio option to these works understandably drew the ire of various voice actors who spoke against the decision to incorporate such an audio option and deny them, audio engineers, and associated studio personnel work in the process. While there has been some confusion regarding whether or not there were ever any plans to give these works more traditionally produced dubs (more on that in a bit), the very idea that you could unleash such an option in the effective dead of night and declare it a viable alternative did not sit well with various professionals and fans in the anime community. More to the point, some of the AI-generated dubs in question are quite bad. You’re probably not going to be surprised to learn that AI-generated voiceovers lack the nuance and audio quality that you’d get from professional actors working in a studio. However, you may not entirely be prepared for the ways those poor quality AI-generated “performances” fail to even vaguely match the timing of what’s occurring on-screen. No familiarity with the show Banana Fish is required to appreciate how poor this dub is: Amazon has started using AI to add English Dubs to anime like BANANA FISH. It’s really quite terrible and shows how important real actors are. pic.twitter.com/POgy4oIq1p— DansGaming (@Dansgaming) November 29, 2025 Since those AI-generated audio options were added late last week (the exact timing is unknown, though it was believed to have occurred late last Thursday or Friday) Amazon has quietly removed the English dubs for Banana Fish and No Game, No Life: Zero from Prime Video. However, the Spanish AI dubs for works such as Dororo, Karakuri Circus, Banana Fish, and Vinland Saga and the English AI dub for Pet have not been removed as of the time of this writing. The ethics and results of these dubs will undoubtedly continue to be discussed, but the biggest question at the moment may be “What really happened here?” Were these dubs created with any consent or input from the various anime studios involved, or was this purely an Amazon initiative? Who knew what about this project when, and what kind of approval process was involved? Were these works selected because there had been no official indication that they would otherwise receive an official English dub, or were other arrangements considered for their “participation” in this program? Recently, we got at least a few answers to this whole thing, though they arguably make the whole situation even more bizarre. Anime News Network reached out to some of the studios and distributors behind these works and received some troubling replies. No Game, No Life: Zero distributor Kadokawa Animation said they did not approve “any form” of an AI dub, while sources at North American distributor Sentai Filmworks reportedly stated that the studio was not made aware of this decision “in advance.” Banana Fish distributor Aniplex did not respond to Anime News Network with a comment at this time, but we have reached out to them, Amazon, and several of the other studios involved with this recent batch of AI-generated dubbing options for more information. For now, the situation remains volatile and ongoing. Anime studios and distributors like Crunchyroll have already had to address controversies regarding the use of generative AI in their works, and Crunchyroll representatives have since stated that they are “not considering” the use of AI in their creative processes, including voice acting, as a result of that reaction. We certainly know that there is backlash against the idea of using such technology in ways that not only impact the quality of that work but potentially cost performers, artists, and engineers their jobs. So while the idea of more studios choosing to go that route despite the pleas not to is troubling, it’s more disturbing to consider that these decisions were made without explicit permission. It should also be noted that Amazon previously added AI-generated audio dubbing options to international works such as El Cid: La Leyenda and, at the time, argued that the decision to do so was based on their belief that such works would otherwise not receive professional dubbing options. It’s unclear whether Amazon considered using their own considerable resources to produce said dubs as an alternative. What happens next is worth keeping an eye on. The timing of this situation makes it likely that the dubs were removed due to the reactions to them (and their seemingly obvious issues) rather than formal disputes from the creators (which would seemingly take time, if such permission was even technically required in the first place). But how long will that last? Is the argument that such techniques should be used for series that would otherwise not receive official dubs really strong enough to stand on? Will these dubs go up with “fixes” in the near future, or is the blowback greater than that at this point? Will potential disputes hinder Amazon’s attempts to reupload these dubs in any form? Perhaps most importantly, will this entire situation eventually set some kind of precedent not just for anime dubs but the rights of creators and distributors regarding similar modifications? It’s that last question that will perhaps generate the most interest in this situation regardless of your familiarity with and interest in the specific works that this technology has been used on so far. [end-mark] The post Anime Studios Claim Amazon Added AI-Generated Dubs Without Their Permission appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu Is an Imaginative High-Tech Thriller Ken Liu’s latest examines the “complexities of artistry…” By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 3, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Julia Z is a hacker in the not-so-distant future who, after a childhood of ignominy, is trying to stay under the radar in a quiet town outside of Boston. One day, however, a man named Piers shows up on her doorstep. His wife Elli has disappeared, and an unabashedly evil man named the Prince says he’s kidnapped her and will kill her unless Piers gives back something Elli stole from him.  Piers, a corporate lawyer who really loves his wife but is a self-professed luddite, believes he hasn’t been followed to Julia’s home. Piers is wrong, and Julia finds herself now entwined and on the run with him, trying to find Elli and save them all from the Prince’s wrath. Ken Liu’s All That We See or Seem is marketed as a sci-fi thriller, and there’s certainly elements of that, but I’d argue that other aspects of the book give it a solid foot outside that subgenre as well, including into hard sci-fi. Let’s start with the technology. It’s clear that Liu has done intensive research into how AI could develop and become integrated into society. Almost everyone, for example, has a personal artificial intelligence that has grown up with them (Julia’s is named Talos), which has turned their AI into de facto extensions of people. There are benefits to this—no one’s organic brain can crunch numbers like their AI one can—but it comes with a loss. Later on in the book, for example, we get this illustration of humanity’s new dependency: In the same way that few contemporary writers could compose even a five-hundred-word essay with the help of AI as research assistant, fact-checker, dictionary, thesaurus, grammarian, and, in extreme cases, amanuensis, very few contemporary programmers could create a functioning nontrivial application without the help of codedaemons, bug-genies, patchsprites, scriptpixies, and a whole fairyland of similar artificial intelligences. In half a page, Liu has painted a future that feels depressingly plausible: It seems more likely than not, the way things are going, that this will be the world when my five-year-old is Julia’s age.  But What We See or Seem explores other potentialities as well. Take Elli’s profession as a dream guide, a person of some celebrity who guides thousands of people through a shared vivid-dream experience that is created by the hopes, fears, and thoughts of those involved. How vivid dreaming works, specifically how the technology interacts with people’s brains and how Elli constructs the shared experience, is intricately explained and developed. Julia Z’s various hacking abilities (Is there a seemingly insurmountable problem? Julia knows the AI for that!) also reveal the level of detail Liu has thought through.  Buy the Book All That We See or Seem Ken Liu Buy Book All That We See or Seem Ken Liu Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Liu also has imagined how this technology would work in a capitalist world, including how the companies that create these products can use them to alter what their human consumers may perceive: Does some Saudi prince, for example, not want their photo taken? The camera you use will automatically black them out of any images. Through this and other, more horrible means, the elite can alter the shape of the internet and, as a result, what is perceived as reality.  Through Elli, Liu also examines the complexities of artistry, and how creative desire, for many, cannot be completely divorced from external validation and perceived success. “There is so little certainty in art, so few ways to concretely judge where you are, that the hunger for approval, for the magic that comes from having sold, from being desired by many, becomes the polestar by which all steer,” Liu writes about halfway through the book. Here, he’s talking about Elli, but it’s clear that we see that tug everywhere today, and that behind the personas people put out in their quest for creative success, there’s a complex person (Bo Burnham’s songs, “White Woman on Instagram” and “The Internet”, also tackle this, and makes for an unexpected but delightful pairing with All That We See or Seem.)  These are meaty questions, and Liu weaves these larger themes over the course of the story. Doing so slows the story down a smidge, especially when considering that “Thriller” label, but things still move along at a decent pace. And without getting into spoilers, the book also takes a major turn a little over halfway through, plunging the reader into a story that’s different from what they might have been expecting. (Whether that turn works or not will likely vary from reader to reader.) One thing I would have loved to see more of is the development of certain characters. Julia as the protagonist (and as the main character in what will reportedly become a series), is fairly fleshed out: We get her backstory, which not only explains how she got her hacking skills, but reveals why she’s afraid to put her trust in or even connect with others. Piers, however, is disappointingly less developed, although we’re given more of Elli’s motivations to understand her better. There are also a slew of characters from Julia’s past and present whose primary purpose, like NPCs in a video game, seems to be to move the plot forward. Their introductions and subsequent exits from the story felt abrupt and wedged in—mainly there because Julia needed some kind of assistance or a sounding board. In the same vein, the Prince as the villain of the story, along with his main henchman Victor, are also one-dimensionally evil. Are there people like them in the real world? Sadly, yes (I can even think of some candidates). But for fiction, it would have been interesting to explore how people can break bad so completely.  Thrillers, however, usually do spend more time on plot than character development, and sci-fi thrillers usually do get into the details about the technology in the (usually) dystopian future that they paint. All That We See or Seem also gave me some Caprica vibes at certain points, which I appreciated. And so when the next Julia Z novel comes out, I’ll happily add it to my TBR list. [end-mark] All That We See or Seem is published by Saga Press. The post <i>All That We See or Seem</i> by Ken Liu Is an Imaginative High-Tech Thriller appeared first on Reactor.

News 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Trailer Has Ralph Fiennes Wielding a Potential Cure His test subject? None other than everyone’s favorite infected, Samson By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 3, 2025 Screenshot: Sony Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Sony Pictures When the infected attack, what do they see? That’s a question Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Kelson raises in the latest trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the sequel from director Nia DaCosta that follows up on the story Danny Boyle and Alex Garland established in the first film in their planned 28 Years Later trilogy. The trailer also reveals what Kelson is up to and what’s in store for Spike, something that the synopsis hints at as well: In a continuation of the epic story, Dr. Kelson (Fiennes) finds himself in a shocking new relationship—with consequences that could change the world as they know it—and Spike’s (Alfie Williams) encounter with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) becomes a nightmare he can’t escape. In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival—the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying. Dr. Kelson’s shocking new relationship is with Samson, an infected who, as we see in this trailer, the good doctor thinks he can cure of the zombie-like disease. Will Dr. Kelson be successful? Will young Spike survive his time with the blond-haired Jimmy, who, as we also get hints at in this trailer, remains mentally unwell (as does Dr. Kelson, for that matter, with his titular Bone Temple, which he explains is a memorial for the dead)? Whatever else the film has in store for us, one thing is clear from this trailer: Dr. Kelson is taking a leap into the unknown with his potential cure. We’ll be able to go with him when 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple premieres in theaters on January 16, 2026. Check out the trailer below. [end-mark] The post <i>28 Years Later: The Bone Temple</i> Trailer Has Ralph Fiennes Wielding a Potential Cure appeared first on Reactor.