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HMH Murray

HMH Murray

@nillcord.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.7K following 2.6K posts

Writer of space opera and fanfiction NYC Midnight Finalist SS 2024 Futurescapes 2022 Codexian SFWA http://hmhmurray.substack.com https://books2read.com/u/47LkkR

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HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 16h

books2read.com/u/4DpyXr

Preorder for Navvies' Flight is live, and beta reviews are in.

"MAGNIFICENT."
"The stakes are about as high as they could be for Polla... she might be causing destruction and death... And she might be disappearing into Ledas, losing her very self..."
"DUNE"

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 12h

Yes, if you're interested. I will mail you an arc (and even Book one if you haven't read)

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 16h

books2read.com/u/4DpyXr

Preorder for Navvies' Flight is live, and beta reviews are in.

"MAGNIFICENT."
"The stakes are about as high as they could be for Polla... she might be causing destruction and death... And she might be disappearing into Ledas, losing her very self..."
"DUNE"

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

Probably not. It's bad enough we can read and write.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

Is that dweeb aware that women have always BEEN in the workplace?

Oh, probably not. After all, his life has always been about him.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

Ah yes and those editing typos you get when you make minor changes and forget to delete words.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

Showdown... Also working on page layouts.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

I feel like this hair braiding scene is trolling their red meat base.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

I have just gotten to the "let's talk about childhoods around the fire" scene, which makes the narrative mistake of recapping things the audience knows from the show to tell the characters what they should feel.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

Some of the ways events are truncated and things are summarized makes me wonder if some of the stakes! Writing happened because they had to do stuff in edits--maybe cut episodes?

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 3d

I agree, and loved Cavill, but Hemsworth isn't the problem. I feel like this season is a master class in what not to do. I don't want to belittle the effort that went into it, but it's choppy and weird and there are even things like rooms inexplicably missing furniture in different scenes.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

As with all prisons everywhere, the night before their supposed execution, the prisoners are left together alone to have a good chat about their feelings.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

Now the centuries-old women are learning to Fight! Yay girl power!

(Smashes things.)

So they all need to learn how to fight. Except one. One of them already knows and is perfect and excellent. You can guess which one.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

"You're the king! You get to tell people what to do!"

Wow, I bet the king totally did not know that. Ty for explaining, bard.

(Weeps)

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

"It is one thing to defend a castle, and yet another to seek out a beating from the most powerful mage we have ever known."

Stakes! Again! In case you fell asleep.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

I guess he must have boy heir, being as this is the Phillipa Gregory version of the Witcher, no offense to Phillipa. I love her books. Just... An obsession with a male beir belongs in Tudor England. Not Niilfgaard.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

Doesn't he "have" one?

I haven't read the books. I've only played Witcher 3. But even I can tell this is not how it was supposed to go.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

And although LO is tough! Girl Power! Rah rah! Everyone must save her from her oppressor, who has had some kind of brain transplant and is no longer the cultish leader of a new religion and crusade sweeping the continent... But instead a tantrum throwing buffoon who wants an heir.

Um...

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

Was going to betray her love interest. It would make logical sense, as she also has inexplicably met up with the LO in a totally different city totally accidentally.

But it's starting to look like, nope. Like everyone else in the show, she too lurves the LO.

Who is Tough! Girl power! Rah rah.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

What's more I think they all have mustaches. The show has also--and this might be a hotter take--doubled down on female rep. I'm all over that. It should be good, right?

Reader, it is not. Strong! Female! Characters! do not always need to be right, or good.

I had high hopes that one in particular

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

So like every single scene, the only thing that happens is "main character explains the stakes again to secondary characters who actually already know it."

There's no tension. No real opposing narrative. No questions about who the real villains are--they are all practically twirling mustaches.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 4d

I think what's killing me about this season of the Witcher is, every damn scene--practically every other sentence--someome is like, "We have to summarize the stakes again here now, because with them, our audience will be confused."

It doesn't feel at all like it was written by the same team.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 6d

Anyway it's worth watching seasons 1-3 again. In season 4 the new Geralt is acting more like his old self than most of the other characters who didn't change actors.

I'm only on episode three but I am already rolling my eyes.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 6d

It's out now. It's making me realize what not to do in writing. Lol. Almost a master class. Like every scene begins with the characters re introducing themselves. "I knew when we met some years ago that you and I would work together," begins one character already established as working with another.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 6d

That works for seasons 1-3...

Liam Helmsworth isn't bad--not as pretty, but not bad.

HMH Murray @nillcord.bsky.social · 6d

Everyone is in a therapy session talking about their feelings.