Welcome to Dab of Darkness Weekly Amusements! Here’s my attempt to give a shout out to things that have made my week a little bit better.
There’s always awesome stuff happening over at these audiobook clubs.
Will be starting discussion of MirrorWorld by Jeremy Robinson soon.
The next upcoming discussion later in the month is The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan.
Histories & Mysteries Audiobook Club
We’ll be starting Stormbreaker (Alex Rider #1) by Anthony Horowitz soon.
The next upcoming discussion later in the month is Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch.
For this week, we finally have the yearly audiobook challenges up! Fant-SciFi Audiobook Challenge for science fiction and fantasy lovers. Histories & Mysteries Audiobook Challenge for those that love books set in the past or fast-action espionage or a cozy mystery, etc. We’ve got a great team this year that worked hard to get them up & running & I couldn’t have done it without them.
I made the delightful mistake of watching The Terror, a dramatic historical fiction series on Hulu. Each season is set in a different historical time period and location. Season 1 is the Arctic, 1840s; season 2 is beginning of WW2 US Japanese concentration camps. There’s a little supernatural stuff happening in each season. I sped through season 1, realizing it’s based on a Dan Simmons book by the same name. The Terror was one of the British ships trying to chart a Northwest Passage. Season 1 was fascinating. Season 2 is a little slower so far, but still worthy (tho I haven’t quite finished it).
Of course, I then had to go on to listen to The Terror by Dan Simmons. I got the John Lee version via BARD. Just finished it and it was very engaging, tho I feel the TV show did a better job with the few female characters and indigenous characters as well.
This week also saw the series finale to The Expanse. I have loved the book series (read them all) and have really enjoyed the TV series. However, I was a little concerned from the beginning when it was announced the final season would be only 6 episodes. Honestly, I wasn’t wowed by this final season. It started off mediocre but did get better. It was an OK ending but I really hope someone takes pity on this yet-again abandoned series, picks it up, and gives us the final 3 books (either as 3 seasons or 3 really good movies). I also wasn’t happy that most of the episodes were pretty darn short compared to previous seasons. We did go watch those short bonus clips (1 each for the first 5 episodes) but I don’t know why they needed to set them aside like that instead of incorporating them into an episode here and there. Book 6 admittedly has a straight forward plot, but there are many characters having internal conflicts as their loyalties are split and they are forced to make hard choices. I know that sometimes that internal conflict can be hard to show on screen, but all the more reason to give the season more time to do some character development. I really wanted to see some bonding, or arguing, while Belters sat in a circle and braided each other’s hair. (I think Marco Inaros would have looked a little more badass with some battle braids instead of the manbun, but he probably doesn’t have time for such frivolity.)
If you’re looking for fact-paced action, advanced tech, & medieval barbarian swords, then check out Lost Kingdom by Terry Maggert. It was my favorite read this past week. Terry Maggert always puts out quality stuff but Zachary Johnson gave this book a great narration as well.
I got hooked into Wu Assassins, another abandoned TV series. There’s just the one season on Netflix and it leaves us on a big cliff hanger. There’s grumbles about maybe being a movie or two to finish out the story, but, hey, world pandemic, so we’ll see what happens. Wu Assassins is an urban fantasy story set in San Francisco with Chinese mythology. Kai is our main hero and he has several friends who make up the team of good guys. When Kai wears flannel, he kind of reminds me of Dean Winchester. I especially liked the little bits of educational history, like the one in the trailer set in the breakfast cafe. I’m glad I watched it even if we never get a continuation of the story.
And that’s it for me this week. What has kept you happily distracted this past week?
The Stars Have Eyes serial over at 
Second season of
The Silent Sea
I did watch the second season of
The Hot Zone
The Americans
The Murder Squad podcast 
American History Tellers podcast
The Wheel of Time TV show
American Gods TV show