Calum Novak-Mitchell
@calumnm.bsky.social
Folk music, ttrpgs, books etc
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
Published as literary fiction, to me this felt like the most trad hard-SF I've read in years? Scientists responding to alien contact with hard work and compex research. Basically like Arthur Clarke, if Clarke had cared about writing characters. I liked it a lot.
Published as literary fiction, to me this felt like the most trad hard-SF I've read in years? Scientists responding to alien contact with hard work and compex research. Basically like Arthur Clarke, if Clarke had cared about writing characters. I liked it a lot.
December 17, 2025 at 2:59 PM
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
Published as literary fiction, to me this felt like the most trad hard-SF I've read in years? Scientists responding to alien contact with hard work and compex research. Basically like Arthur Clarke, if Clarke had cared about writing characters. I liked it a lot.
Published as literary fiction, to me this felt like the most trad hard-SF I've read in years? Scientists responding to alien contact with hard work and compex research. Basically like Arthur Clarke, if Clarke had cared about writing characters. I liked it a lot.
The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard
Nasty prose-poetry about the media-shattered 20th century. Drenched in sex and violence and advertising. Nightmarish and slippery, it's also weirdly compelling?
Nasty prose-poetry about the media-shattered 20th century. Drenched in sex and violence and advertising. Nightmarish and slippery, it's also weirdly compelling?
December 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard
Nasty prose-poetry about the media-shattered 20th century. Drenched in sex and violence and advertising. Nightmarish and slippery, it's also weirdly compelling?
Nasty prose-poetry about the media-shattered 20th century. Drenched in sex and violence and advertising. Nightmarish and slippery, it's also weirdly compelling?
The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro
An elderly couple travel across post-Arthurian Britain, cloaked in a memory-stealing fog. Some moments of striking mythic ppwer, a strong final scene, and a lovely central relationship, but I found this a muddy slog.
An elderly couple travel across post-Arthurian Britain, cloaked in a memory-stealing fog. Some moments of striking mythic ppwer, a strong final scene, and a lovely central relationship, but I found this a muddy slog.
December 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro
An elderly couple travel across post-Arthurian Britain, cloaked in a memory-stealing fog. Some moments of striking mythic ppwer, a strong final scene, and a lovely central relationship, but I found this a muddy slog.
An elderly couple travel across post-Arthurian Britain, cloaked in a memory-stealing fog. Some moments of striking mythic ppwer, a strong final scene, and a lovely central relationship, but I found this a muddy slog.
The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk
1914 - A young man rests at a sanatorium for TB sufferers. There's an undercurrent of supernatural horror here, and some astonishing bursts of prose. Overall, it's dense, obscure, deliberately frustrating, locking away any hint of pulpy thrills. Probably worth the work.
1914 - A young man rests at a sanatorium for TB sufferers. There's an undercurrent of supernatural horror here, and some astonishing bursts of prose. Overall, it's dense, obscure, deliberately frustrating, locking away any hint of pulpy thrills. Probably worth the work.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk
1914 - A young man rests at a sanatorium for TB sufferers. There's an undercurrent of supernatural horror here, and some astonishing bursts of prose. Overall, it's dense, obscure, deliberately frustrating, locking away any hint of pulpy thrills. Probably worth the work.
1914 - A young man rests at a sanatorium for TB sufferers. There's an undercurrent of supernatural horror here, and some astonishing bursts of prose. Overall, it's dense, obscure, deliberately frustrating, locking away any hint of pulpy thrills. Probably worth the work.
Doppelganger - Naomi Klein
Political non-fiction with a delightfully mad hook (Naomi Klein is often confused with fringy conspiracy theorist Naomi Woolf: this is a lens to view the fascism-scarred chaos of the 21st century), but the idea isn't enough to sustain a whole book, which is often banal.
Political non-fiction with a delightfully mad hook (Naomi Klein is often confused with fringy conspiracy theorist Naomi Woolf: this is a lens to view the fascism-scarred chaos of the 21st century), but the idea isn't enough to sustain a whole book, which is often banal.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Doppelganger - Naomi Klein
Political non-fiction with a delightfully mad hook (Naomi Klein is often confused with fringy conspiracy theorist Naomi Woolf: this is a lens to view the fascism-scarred chaos of the 21st century), but the idea isn't enough to sustain a whole book, which is often banal.
Political non-fiction with a delightfully mad hook (Naomi Klein is often confused with fringy conspiracy theorist Naomi Woolf: this is a lens to view the fascism-scarred chaos of the 21st century), but the idea isn't enough to sustain a whole book, which is often banal.
Baumgartner - Paul Auster
Auster's final novel, and it feels whispery, fragile, delicate. A small story of an elderly widower living an intellectual life in New Jersey, it doesn't have the mysterious atmospheres or dizzying ideas of his best work, but it is full of melancholy and decency.
Auster's final novel, and it feels whispery, fragile, delicate. A small story of an elderly widower living an intellectual life in New Jersey, it doesn't have the mysterious atmospheres or dizzying ideas of his best work, but it is full of melancholy and decency.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Baumgartner - Paul Auster
Auster's final novel, and it feels whispery, fragile, delicate. A small story of an elderly widower living an intellectual life in New Jersey, it doesn't have the mysterious atmospheres or dizzying ideas of his best work, but it is full of melancholy and decency.
Auster's final novel, and it feels whispery, fragile, delicate. A small story of an elderly widower living an intellectual life in New Jersey, it doesn't have the mysterious atmospheres or dizzying ideas of his best work, but it is full of melancholy and decency.
The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke
An elegant, atmospheric short story, but it's a bit ridiculous that something so brief and slight was published as a heavily illustrated hardback. For all the merits of the writing, this does feel a bit like a trap for unwary Christmas shoppers.
An elegant, atmospheric short story, but it's a bit ridiculous that something so brief and slight was published as a heavily illustrated hardback. For all the merits of the writing, this does feel a bit like a trap for unwary Christmas shoppers.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke
An elegant, atmospheric short story, but it's a bit ridiculous that something so brief and slight was published as a heavily illustrated hardback. For all the merits of the writing, this does feel a bit like a trap for unwary Christmas shoppers.
An elegant, atmospheric short story, but it's a bit ridiculous that something so brief and slight was published as a heavily illustrated hardback. For all the merits of the writing, this does feel a bit like a trap for unwary Christmas shoppers.
A Maze of Death - Philip K Dick
I read a lot of Dick novels years ago: this is the first time I've gone back to him in a while. This one is deservedly forgotten - some entertainingly queasy psychedelic imagery, but it's mostly bleak and meandering nonsense with a really stupid twist ending.
I read a lot of Dick novels years ago: this is the first time I've gone back to him in a while. This one is deservedly forgotten - some entertainingly queasy psychedelic imagery, but it's mostly bleak and meandering nonsense with a really stupid twist ending.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
A Maze of Death - Philip K Dick
I read a lot of Dick novels years ago: this is the first time I've gone back to him in a while. This one is deservedly forgotten - some entertainingly queasy psychedelic imagery, but it's mostly bleak and meandering nonsense with a really stupid twist ending.
I read a lot of Dick novels years ago: this is the first time I've gone back to him in a while. This one is deservedly forgotten - some entertainingly queasy psychedelic imagery, but it's mostly bleak and meandering nonsense with a really stupid twist ending.
A Tranquil Star - Primo Levi
Fun little short stories; usually deadpan postmodern fantasies in the Cavino/Borges mode. The earlier ones are better than the later ones. The strongest is "The Knall" about a society-wide fad for cigar-shaped personal death-rays. My first Levi, I will read more.
Fun little short stories; usually deadpan postmodern fantasies in the Cavino/Borges mode. The earlier ones are better than the later ones. The strongest is "The Knall" about a society-wide fad for cigar-shaped personal death-rays. My first Levi, I will read more.
December 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
A Tranquil Star - Primo Levi
Fun little short stories; usually deadpan postmodern fantasies in the Cavino/Borges mode. The earlier ones are better than the later ones. The strongest is "The Knall" about a society-wide fad for cigar-shaped personal death-rays. My first Levi, I will read more.
Fun little short stories; usually deadpan postmodern fantasies in the Cavino/Borges mode. The earlier ones are better than the later ones. The strongest is "The Knall" about a society-wide fad for cigar-shaped personal death-rays. My first Levi, I will read more.
Then: it takes two. Now: the forgotten city. Though this exercise is showing me that I *never* play stuff in the year it comes out
December 17, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Then: it takes two. Now: the forgotten city. Though this exercise is showing me that I *never* play stuff in the year it comes out
Let’s say Sunless Skies then, Control now. 2019 was the year I got back into videogames after nearly a decade away, so I was mostly playing Things I’d Missed. So this is the first year I can actually give an answer to the poll!
December 15, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Let’s say Sunless Skies then, Control now. 2019 was the year I got back into videogames after nearly a decade away, so I was mostly playing Things I’d Missed. So this is the first year I can actually give an answer to the poll!
Yeah I agree with that. This is what they said on the website which isn’t exactly *wrong*, but did leave me a bit surprised when I saw what they were doing.
December 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Yeah I agree with that. This is what they said on the website which isn’t exactly *wrong*, but did leave me a bit surprised when I saw what they were doing.
We did their Halloween trail this year, and it was fantastic but I think their advertising didn‘t make it clear how intense it would be. Our toddler had a good time, but she doesnt know what a skeleton is yet…
(And there were loads of young kids having a good time so maybe I’m just being squeamish)
(And there were loads of young kids having a good time so maybe I’m just being squeamish)
December 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
We did their Halloween trail this year, and it was fantastic but I think their advertising didn‘t make it clear how intense it would be. Our toddler had a good time, but she doesnt know what a skeleton is yet…
(And there were loads of young kids having a good time so maybe I’m just being squeamish)
(And there were loads of young kids having a good time so maybe I’m just being squeamish)
I believe it’s a @cooraysmith.bsky.social joke that has escaped into the wilds of the folk tradition
December 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
I believe it’s a @cooraysmith.bsky.social joke that has escaped into the wilds of the folk tradition
The strategy is, of course, for as many people as possible to yell out the taggart and haggard variants, to drown out anyone who hasn’t got the memo
December 13, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The strategy is, of course, for as many people as possible to yell out the taggart and haggard variants, to drown out anyone who hasn’t got the memo
Very much what it also felt like to play
December 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Very much what it also felt like to play
Especially when those checks usually have zero impact on What Happens Next
December 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Especially when those checks usually have zero impact on What Happens Next
I’ve enjoyed playing 5e well-enough as a resource-management game with nicely flavoured menus of options, but it’s really weird seeing APs where it looks like the *only* interaction with the system is constant binary pass/fail checks. (which is my least favourite thing about the game!)
December 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I’ve enjoyed playing 5e well-enough as a resource-management game with nicely flavoured menus of options, but it’s really weird seeing APs where it looks like the *only* interaction with the system is constant binary pass/fail checks. (which is my least favourite thing about the game!)
Into The Odd every time for me. So few rules that learning it is pretty much instantaneous, but every one of those rules makes the world feel Dangerous and Exciting.
December 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Into The Odd every time for me. So few rules that learning it is pretty much instantaneous, but every one of those rules makes the world feel Dangerous and Exciting.
I've had a think about my Top Five Ghost Stories, and I reckon it's:
The Room in the tower - E.F. Benson
Father's last escape - Bruno Schulz
Number 13 - M.R. James
Ringing the Changes - Robert Aickman
Climax for a Ghost Story - I. A. Ireland
The Room in the tower - E.F. Benson
Father's last escape - Bruno Schulz
Number 13 - M.R. James
Ringing the Changes - Robert Aickman
Climax for a Ghost Story - I. A. Ireland
December 10, 2025 at 10:28 AM
I've had a think about my Top Five Ghost Stories, and I reckon it's:
The Room in the tower - E.F. Benson
Father's last escape - Bruno Schulz
Number 13 - M.R. James
Ringing the Changes - Robert Aickman
Climax for a Ghost Story - I. A. Ireland
The Room in the tower - E.F. Benson
Father's last escape - Bruno Schulz
Number 13 - M.R. James
Ringing the Changes - Robert Aickman
Climax for a Ghost Story - I. A. Ireland