Alrightreads: Comixxxxxxxxxxxxx

Justin Richards and Mike Collins, Doctor Who: The Only Good Dalek

2010 / Ebook / 128 pages

**

Not a very interesting or necessary tale to tell, but Dalek action has always been a good fit for comics.

Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe and Barry Windsor-Smith, Machine Man

1984-85 (collected 1988) / Ecomics / 96 pages

***

Wisecracking metal men scrap in the cyberpunk future of 2020.

Michael Jan Friedman, Carlos Garzon, Kenneth Penders and Peter Krause, Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection: Kingdom of the Damned

1992 (collected 2019) / Ecomics / 160 pages

**

The one where they turn into Klingons was fun by the series' low standards. Otherwise, it's the usual uninspired plots, lousy likenesses and mild racism.

Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy, Rogan Gosh

1990 (collected 1994) / Ebook / 60 pages

**

Incomprehensible aromatic psychedelia.

John Wagner and Arthur Ranson, Button Man: The Killing Game

1992 (collected 1994) / Ebook / 96 pages

****

I don't know if I could stomach a whole series, but it was an entertaining ultraviolent short of a morning.

Alrightgames: Carson City – The Card Game

Carson City: The Card Game

2018 / Tile placement card game / 1-6 players

***

Probably fun with other humans, but the four-way solo mode is like something I'd come up with in desperation to try to get more use out of a multiplayer game and isn't the most satisfying activity, though it's quite nicely fiddly. It was cheap too, and the number cards are already getting a lot of extracurricular use for mocking up games that need more than four suits.

Alrightgames: Star Realms – Fan Solo Challenges

Star Realms: Fan Solo Challenges

Before Frontiers brought further official solo challenges that I could take years to bother getting around to, fans inevitably came up with their own scenarios to entertain themselves. I remember ripping up bits of paper to represent Replicators at some point, but I don't think I tried them all. And still haven't, since most of them are variations on the boring Nemesis Beast and Pirates again, but the custom 90s CGI jobs deserved a shot.

Replicators (Challenges #5 & #11) ***

Theoretically brutal if the right combos come up, but in practice this felt like the olden days of playing the easy AI on the app and seeing how much gratuitously excessive damage I could build up by the end. Dos cards once again served as generic counters so I didn't have to borrow from a game that actually gets played.

The Shadows (Challenge #8) **

A nice tease for a new coloured faction without having to go to the hassle of designing the whole fleet. Unfortunately, the aesthetics are about all it has going for it, as the battle over bases wasn't as tense as I'd hoped, especially as they don't even use their abilities.

SmashMechs of Scarabos (2017 Challenges #2 & #5) ****

Finally a challenging adversary, not being able to take out their assimilated tokens ramps up the difficulty nicely, and sometimes having to buy cards you can't use just so they won't benefit the opponent is a good decision, especially with the 1 in 4 risk that it'll only get replaced by another red card anyway. However goofy the title, I prefer it to the official, plainer Machine Cult scenario and I'd play again.

Steelwurm Insurgents (2017 Challenge #6) ***

Basically more vicious Nemesis Beasts that make you discard good cards an awful lot. A decent, if annoying challenge.

The Hive (2017 Challenge #4) ***

That's a proper card from the game, so why is the image squashed like a bad YouTube upload? A simpler precursor to the Frontiers bosses that play the cards properly, though the added step of not letting you use Blob cards would have helped sell the story.

Fave: SmashMechs of Scarabos

Babyliography CCLI

Tom Mason and Nao Kodaka, Stitch!: Best Food Forever!

2026 / Library book / 176 pages

**

The kids' clothing mascot being in it was apparently enough to keep her engaged. I've been there.

Perdita Finn, Monster High: Passport to Reading – Ghoul Power

2016 / Ebook / 32 pages

*

The shortest Monster High bedtime story I could find online at short notice, she accurately judged it "rubbish."

Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss' ABC

1963 / Library book / 64 pages

**

Not one of his fun ones, but suitable for summer school reading practice.

Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan, The Baby-Sitters Club: Boy-Crazy Stacey

2019 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

It was nice to have a relevant summer read. Shame about the topic.

Ann M. Martin and Chan Chau, The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Snobs

2021 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

A less sunny story of alienation and affecting pet death as we moved on to her second summer boxset. We're gonna need a bigger bookcase.

Babyliography CCL

Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan, The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy's Big Day

2018 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

These responsible teenagers are on another level.

Zoë Clarke and Felicia Whaley, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Witney and Boscoe's Lost and Found

2022 / School book / 24 pages

**

Jazz & Pop's gender swap.

Christina Mia Gardeski, All About the North and South Poles

2017 / Library book / 24 pages

**

Summer Reading Challenge 2026 #1. I got out a couple of easy readers to give her a headstart on the library challenge. She rated this one star, which seemed overly harsh. I guess she was rating me.

Lisbeth Kaiser and Marta Antelo, Little People, Big Dreams: Rosa Parks

2017 / Library book / 24 pages

***

Summer Reading Challenge 2026 #2. Not the most enjoyable reading session, but an important lesson.

Isabel Thomas, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Bear Spotting

2021 / School book / 24 pages

***

Bears.

Aimee's art review 2026

More eloquent opinions on flicking through The Art Book.

Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude No. 27 (1962)

"I mean, like, what is going on in this? This is rubbish."

Jackson Pollock, Number 1A, 1948 (1948)

"This is the worst painting in the whole entire world because it's just scribbles."

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Woman Inspired by Lucretia (1533)

"This is very detailed, and I like the different colours in it and how they made it."

Morris Louis, Alpha-Phi (1961)

"Is that all on the painting? Because that's rubbish."

Lucian Freud, Girl with a White Dog (1952)

"This is incredibly rude because she's showing her boob."

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea (1952)

"Why is this even art? It's just scribbles like other ones, it's rubbish."

Willem de Kooning, Marilyn Monroe (1954)

"What is this? It's stupid."

Jeff Koons, Puppy (1992)

"This is so real and I love that they put lots of detail in it, but I think that it just looks very fake."

Odilon Redon, The Cyclops (1914)

"What is this? This is, like, the worst painting in the whole entire world. Look, he hasn't got an eyeball on the other one!"

Alrightreads: C'est Magnifique...

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: Broken Hearts

1993 / Audiobook / 218 pages

***

A long, soapy bloodbath.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cheater

1993 / Audiobook / 125 pages

**

This cautionary thriller didn't feel very on brand with only one killing and a plot that was just depressing rather than scary. Still better than ghosts, I guess.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Sunburn

1993 / Audiobook / 150 pages

**

The sunny setting and laughable ending made this one of the more memorable ones, though not really in a good way.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: Silent Night 2

1993 / Audiobook / 196 pages

**

I would've preferred a festive anthology series over a straight-up sequel with the same annoying protagonist who disappointingly isn't allowed to die.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The New Boy

1994 / Ebook / 150 pages

***

Hitchcock suspense given a teen chick drama twist, though similarly written, and now ultimately read, by middle-aged men.

Alrightreads Special: Red Dwarf – Titan

Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall, Red Dwarf: Titan

2026 / Hardback / 406 pages

****

Red Dwarf fans had clamoured for Rob Grant's return for decades, but I wasn't especially thrilled when the Titan prequel project was first touted as a recast reboot (and even a cartoon at one point). But when network disinterest led to it morphing into a novel, where I can imagine the characters looking and sounding like they should, it became much more up my dingy alley. Like its predecessors (most of them, anyway), it'll be a book that's with me for the long run, with, hopefully, many return journeys to appreciate its uniqueness, pontificate pointlessly on forums and recreationally nitpick all those cute flaws. The first visit was a real good treat. RIP Rob.

Alrightgames: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: All Members!! Championship Contest

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: All Members!! Championship Contest

1996 / Super Nintendo emulator game / 1-2 players

**

Choose best girl in worst season and beating shit out friends but don't special power not work.

Alrightgames: Basic Fantasy Adventure – The Lost Tome (Adapted)

Basic Fantasy Adventure: The Lost Tome Teddy (Adapted)

2012 / Roleplaying game adventure / 2+ players

****

Dusting off some previously stalled characters – practical handypony Lillie Roase and scruffy alchemist Tatty Bogle – for their first thinly-disguised dungeon delve (this one's a musty occult library with traps and monsters; totally different), which was easily repopulated with established baddies and new allies, culminating in an annoying logic problem of my own invention that I helped her along with to ease the tedium. I should probably put more effort into developing our characters and their talents than just letting us find relevant power-ups in chests, but sometimes you just want the simplicity of Diablo.