Mark Lawrence’s Impossible Times trilogy is the latest YA series to be optioned for television. One Word Kill takes its name from the first book in the series, which is about a teenage boy genius whose life gets strange when a new girl joins his Dungeons & Dragons group.
Vampires never die—and neither do stories about vampire slayers. The latest addition to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (pictured above) universe is an upcoming trilogy of YA novels by Kendare Blake (Three Dark Crowns) that will follow Frankie Rosenberg: Willow’s daughter, budding witch, and slayer.
Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children is coming to the big screen. Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures, after “aggressively pursuing” the series, has landed the rights to Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children books.
Gotta say, I miss the Concrete Blonde from the first teaser. But using a much more common trailer song doesn’t make Brand New Cherry Flavor look any more ordinary. The story of a young filmmaker who seeks revenge on a leering producer, Netflix’s upcoming series promises to be creepy, bloody, and just plain weird. (That toenail image! Get it out of my head!)
This isn’t the year of Arthurian retellings and revisitings, because there can’t be only one. The king and his affiliated tales have come before and he’ll be back around, cyclical as nature. But it’s definitely a year for Arthurian stories, from the way E.K. Johnston weaves The Fisher King into Aetherbound to the anthology Sword Stone Table to the upcoming The Other Merlin to, of course, Dev Patel in The Green Knight. I’m sure there are more; these are just off the top of my head.
In the middle of these sits Half Sick of Shadows, a story both familiar and not. The names, you know: Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Morgana, Elaine. There are, it turns out, a lot of Elaines, and this one specifically is Elaine of Astolat, also known as the Lady of Shalott. But like anyone playing in the Arthuriana sandbox, Laura Sebastian tweaks things. In this novel, the story belongs to Elaine—the past, present, and future of it.
Your Thanksgiving viewing is set: Marvel’s long-anticipated Hawkeye series, starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld, finally has a premiere date. It’ll debut on Disney+ on Wednesday, November 24th!
Photo: Gaman Alice [via Unsplash]
What’s your favorite book?
Maybe there are people for whom this isn’t a loaded question. I’m not sure I’ve met any of them. “Favorite” is a freeze-up word, a demand impossible to meet. Picking just one? Are you serious? But there are 17 books from just last year that are my favorites!
The inevitable rumors about the departure of the Doctor have been flying for a while—the typical side effect of a Doctor nearing their third season. Now, we have confirmation: Variety reports that Jodie Whittaker will end her run as the Doctor after the coming season. Showrunner Chris Chibnall is also leaving the series, meaning there’s a lot of change coming when Whittaker regenerates.
There’s not a ton of new footage in the newest teaser for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which is titled “Need,” but it’s worth watching for several reasons. One is that every little glimpse of this movie makes it look incredibly appealing. Another is Awkwafina’s perfect delivery of the first line in the teaser—and Simu Liu’s shrug in response. Who can say where superheroes’ shirts go?
When news broke last week that Amazon is adapting Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, the author said in a blog post that “thrilling” casting announcements would start soon. And he wasn’t kidding: Variety reports that Delroy Lindo will play Mr. Nancy in the series.
Syfy’s upcoming Day of the Dead series is described as “the ultimate love letter to the godfather of zombies, George A. Romero,” but it’s not really clear where the love is in this trailer. A mix of jokes that don’t quite land and generic zombie gore, the two-minute peek at the 10-episode series is less than inspiring.
We’re one step closer to an actual release date: At today’s [email protected] panel, Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins revealed the series will debut in November. So mark your whole November calendar, I guess? Just write WHEEL OF TIME over the whole thing.
Amazon also released a first poster for the series, showing Moraine (Rosamund Pike) standing in a Waygate.
The Star Trek treats keep coming from San Diego [email protected] This year’s Star Trek Universe presentations focused on the animated shows, so it’s no surprise that a new trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks followed on the heels of our first look at Star Trek: Prodigy. And this one’s more than a minute long!
A year ago at San Diego [email protected], we learned the name of the first Star Trek series aimed at a young audience: Star Trek: Prodigy. And now SDCC provides again with a one-minute teaser for the show—along with a release season, if not a date. It’s coming this fall!
Every so often, a friend and I wish for more books in a category I sometimes call “’90s coffeeshop fantasy.” There are too few books in this category. “Something like Charles de Lint, but not” my friend will say. “Like Girl, but with magic,” I’ll suggest. “More books kind of like Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin,” we agree. But it’s a space that’s hard to pin down and define—elusive, magical, but like real life, too.
And then I read Michelle Ruiz Keil’s Summer in the City of Roses, which is all of this and so much more. Lush, empathetic, strident, puckish, infused with a street-level punk-rock magic, it’s the kind of fairy tale my teen self didn’t even know a person could dream of. Much of its magic hums along like a current beneath the book’s skin, bursting out in full bloom for a transformative finale. But it’s there all along, if you’re looking—and this is the kind of book you want to give your full attention to.
