As mentioned in my previous post, I tend to forget stories not long after I’ve consumed them. So in an effort to prevent the creeping forgetfulness, I’m going to review what I’ve played and read here.

Spoilers ahead. You have been warned

Games

Astro Bot

Oh gosh, this was the cutest game. An actual masterpiece and a strong contender for my game of the year. In terms of story, it’s a pretty simple one - Astro Bot and his pals are flying through space in their PS5 spaceship when they’re accosted by an alien that assaults the ship, steals the PS5’s CPU and scatters the remaining parts (memory, cooling, GPU, and SSD) throughout the galaxy. Your job as Astro Bot is to retrieve the parts, adventuring through various worlds with the help of several cool power ups, from a chicken pack that launches Astro vertically to a VR headset that lets you slow down time.

There are tons of worlds to explore, discovering Astro’s pals dressed up as a variety of iconic PlayStation characters from the entire back catalogue - PS1 through to current day. Each world sees you complete a number of worlds before facing the final boss, once that boss is defeated, you acquire an iconic character bot and they unlock an additional world where you get to play with their special power - e.g. there’s a world where you get Kratos’ axe and all its powers and another where you play as Loco Roco. Once that level is beaten, you get another piece of the ship and there’s a mini-game to get it back into working shape and installed in the PS5.

I loved this game so much that I got the platinum trophy and I’m honestly sad that it’s over.

Dead Space (2023)

I grabbed this game coz it was a freebie on PlayStation Plus during October. I had owned the original on PC but never got around to playing it and at this point, I’m kind of glad I didn’t because apparently it hasn’t aged very well. The only thing I knew about the game going in was that it was a survival horror game set in space. The story follows Isaac Clarke, an engineer with a crew sent to answer a distress call sent by the planet cracker spaceship USG Ishimura. On arrival, it quickly becomes clear that something is amiss as there seem to be no people around. It isn’t long before Isaac and his crew are set upon by mutated creatures (later identified as necromorphs).

As the story progresses, we encounter various logs left behind by the inhabitants of the ship, learning of a mysterious artifact called the Marker that was removed from Aegis VII, the planet the Ishimura was harvesting for raw materials (planet cracking) and the beliefs of the religious Unitarians that believe it may be a way to extend human life beyond natural limits. The climax of the game involves returning the Marker to the planet to quiet the Hive Mind with the final battle taking place on the surface against the Hive Mind. The game closes out with Isaac leaving the planet on a shuttle and some strange/disturbing visions, hinting at more to come.

I watched some reviews of the remake compared to the original and it seems like they’ve been very true to the original story, and certainly, when discussing it with someone that had played the original game, there were no points of contention over the plot or gameplay. It was an excellent game and there have been rumours that remasters for the second and third games have not been greenlit (and may not be), which is a bit of a shame. This genre of game is not usually within my interests, so it’s a rare treat to come across a game as enjoyable as this.

The Last of Us Part I

Including this here for completeness because this is my third or fourth time through the game. This is the remake in which they redid a whole bunch of the motion capture and added a few quality of life things that were included in Part II. As always, it was a delight, though I did find myself struggling a few times to figure out where to go - I forget enough of the game each time to make it a fresh experience. A blessing and a curse.

Books

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Another book down in the Discworld series. This one follows the story of the Great God Om and his singular follower, Brutha. Om falls from the sky, having been dropped by an eagle in his tortoise form, right next to Brutha. Om can only be heard by Brutha as he is the only true believer in the city of Omnia (a religious city that worships Om). Brutha is chosen to travel to Ephebe with one of the high-ranking priests to negotiate a peace treaty as he has a perfect memory. That fails though and they leave the city in a hurry, but not before Brutha memorises every book in the city library even though he can’t read.

Honestly, I lost the thread of story somewhere around there. This is one of the more popular Discworld novels and I can kind of see why because the characters are really well written, I just wasn’t convinced by the plot.

Truckers by Terry Pratchett

And for something a little different - this is the first in the Bromeliad trilogy which is one of Terry Pratchett’s children’s book series. It follows the story of little creatures known as nomes (not gnomes), whose size and short lifespan means they live life at a pace much quicker than humans. It turns out that they are originally from space and have crash-landed on Earth. The main characters start off living outside, then jump on a truck and are taken to the Arnold Bros (est 1905) store where the nomes that live there don’t believe in The Outside, and worship the mythical “Arnold Bros (est 1905)” as a god. Their seasons are defined by the sales and families/factions by the departments, with many of them taking names like “Haberdasheri” and so on. The main conflict of the story is that the store is being shut down, so the outside nomes hatch a plan to drive a truck from the garage - a task that is made difficult by their diminuitive size. They escape and establish a home under the floor of a quarry office.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and thought it was refreshing change of pace. Cute and easy read because it’s a children’s book. There were some weird sexist undertones, but I can’t tell if that’s just a symptom of being written in the late 80s/early 90s or what.

Diggers by Terry Pratchett

The second in the Bromeliad trilogy and immediately following the previous one follows the Nomes’ lives now that they have moved outside. There is much squabbling amongst the factions that worship Arnold Bros (est 1905) and those that come from the Outside. Masklin and some of his followers disappear early in the novel to explore the airport in the hopes of finding the heir/now-owner of the Store, “Grandson Richard, 39”. Thus, much of the book follows Dorcas’ secretive endeavours to repair a CAT backhoe¹ and the incursion of humans upon their new home in a quarry. t Eventually, Dorcas reveals the CAT to Grimma and it is used to help them move from the dangerous quarry office. The ending of the book was extremely confusing for me and I’m not sure if it’s because my copy of the book was poorly OCRed but the Wikipedia page cleared it up for me. You can read it yourself if interested.

Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

I started reading this book all the way back in July but only finished it this month (December). The audiobook was around 20 hours long and I only really listen to these (at 1x speed) when I’m in the mood for it on my commute/while driving or when going for a walk. As such, the first bits of the book are a bit of a blur to me and the main beats of the story are what I remember - Ganymede gets attacked by protomolecule creatures, James Holden and his crew rescue a biologist from the planet and search for his daughter who was taken by scientists working on weaponising the protomolecule. The child, Mei, is considered to be a prime candidate for being transformed by the molecule because she does not have an immune system.

James Holden and his team, joined by the biologist, a Martian soldier that was posted on Ganymede at the time of the attack, and an Earth politician trying to prevent her UN colleagues from weaponising the protomolecule travel to Io to locate Mei. On their way, they engage in a deadly ship battle with the rogue UN element, and ultimately prevail with the assistance of the Martian Navy. They manage to save Mei from the scientists holding her on the moon’s surface and fly back to Luna to wrap up the loose ends of the narrowly avoided war between Earth and Mars.

I really enjoyed this, even if it was a 5-month long slow burn for me. The newly introduced characters such as Bobbie, Prax, and Avasarala are complex and likeable and I’m excited to see the roles they play in future books.

God of Risk by James S.A. Corey

This book was a novella, 64 pages long, or about 2.5 hours long for an audiobook. I listened to it as an audiobook during a couple of commutes and a long walk. I liked this little story that slots in just after Caliban’s War and follows the story of Bobbie’s nephew, David, navigating his way through university applications and leading a secret life as a manufacturer for a drug dealer. He falls in love with a girl named LeeLee who then goes missing - seemingly abducted by the drug dealer. David confronts the drug dealer, is saved at the last minute by Bobbie, and rescues Leelee and realises that she had been using him.

As is usual with these novellas, I enjoyed the added world building. I did find David obnoxious to begin with, because as the narrator, he was a bit critical of Bobby, who was one of my favourite characters in Caliban’s War.

Conclusion

And that’s it for my 3 months of books and games. I am undecided if I’ll continue in this format on my blog or if I should drop it into my daily journal. The main reason I’d consider continuing here is that it keeps my blog alive. My 2025 review post will come in the next week or so and from there I’ll ponder on what to do with the blog going forward.