Things I enjoyed in July 2026
July felt incredibly long. I'm happy August and my well earned Summer vacations are almost there... Just like June, it was a big sci-fi month. You can definitely say I have a bias towards this genre, to the point that...
I convinced my mom to watch sci-fi
In the Summer I'm used to go to open air cinemas with my mom. We don't usually go to the regular cinemas together, but open air cinemas in the Summer are a different thing 1. There are usually a lot of arthouse movies there, but the night I decided to go, Project Hail Mary was airing. I knew nothing about the movie except many people liked it and that it's based on a book by the same author as The Martian. I'd say I liked it even more than The Martian, I absolutely loved it. A teacher without his memory finds himself alone on a spaceship to an unknown system in the Milky Way trying to find a way to save earth. The movie is serious when it should be, but it can also be very funny at times; it's almost 3 hours long, but it flows perfectly. I really like Grace as a protagonist and I also enjoyed how it was portrayed by Ryan Gosling. I'll eventually read the book probably, as well as the other books by Andy Weir. I like his stories. As for movie night with mom, expect unknown italian or french movies next time.
Tackling book backlog
As I've told multiple times in these kind of posts, I've borrowed a lot of books lately. I have a lot of books backlog, though, and sometimes I should really read some of the books I own. The one I chose this time was House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds, a book I got in 2022/2023 because it was chosen for a book club we never actually got to discuss. I didn't finished it back then, but this time, after 4 months since the moment I started reading it, I finally finished it. I could have got through it in less time if I wanted, but I gave other books priority. I really wanted to like it. The premise was pretty interesting: there's a "family" of clones travelling through space, all generated by the same woman named Abigail Gentian. The clones cannot die of old age and they're all very distinct from each other, to the point that the only thing they have in common is the memories of Abigail. They even have different bodies and gender2. The story does absolutely nothing with the clone concept: they could have been a regular family of immortal people and the story would have changed very little. I also don't really get what was the point of the story. I don't know. I don't think it's a bad book, it has a lot of fun and creative ideas, but I'm too passionate about clones3 and I'm very salty about the wasted potential.
More sci-fi and sun
Luckily, the other book I got to finish reading in July was more engaging. Not flawless, but definitely interesting. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro is the story of Klara, an android created to be a friend for children. I really enjoyed Klara's point of view: she's usually smart, but at times she deducts stuff that can be considered silly by us readers. It also deals with a lot of modern themes. I won't spoil the one I found more interesting, as you should discover it yourself. It's fascinating. I wish the worldbuilding was expanded a little bit more, but I understand it wouldn't have made that much sense with Klara's POV. I wonder what they'll do with the movie that should be out this fall 4. Very good book though, I'll definitely read more from Ishiguro in the future, I'm especially curious about Never Let Me Go.
More hate in space
As I brought up last time, I've been playing the Analogue/Hate Plus duology as a group playthrough with friends. Hate Plus is basically the same as Analogue, but the story told here focuses on a different time period of the same timeline. And I found the documents a bit more engaging than the ones in Analogue, even if in Analogue I preferred the banters with the AIs.
The twist in day 3 of Hate Plus' *Mute's route was very unexpected.
There's not much I can say other than that, but I highly recommend this duology to any sci-fi VN fan, especially if, like me, you're interested in dystopic societies and can stomach misogyny and some spicy scene.
More sci-fi, but adventure
I don't usually play Metroidvania games, they kinda scare me for the most part. I've never been very good with platforming. I tried playing Metroid Zero Mission once and I liked it, but it took me two years to finally try Metroid Samus Returns out. It was a nice experience and this time around I really got why so many people like this kind of games. It's a lot of fun to unlock new equipment and go back to places you've already been to progress. Also I quite like how permissive the parry mechanic was here. It took me more than the avarage time to beat the game and I didn't even complete all the maps 100%, and that made me feel a bit ashamed, but I definitely had fun. It's a nice game to turn my brain off and I think this won't be my last 2D Metroid game.
Happy late Odaiba Day
I already told you about my relationship with the Digimon franchise here, talking about my conflicting opinion on Survive. I'm happy to say that the newest Digimon game, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, out last year, might have become my favourite Digimon game. It's from the "Story" series and I remember the two Cyber Sleuth, also in the Story series, very fondly. Time Stranger has a higher production value in general and it is a huge step up in art direction. Beautiful and inspired locations, full of nods to old and new anime series 5. As the title suggests, the story is about time travels and I feel like this might be the biggest point of contention. Admittedly, I did not take them too seriously: I did not ask myself too much if they made sense, maybe because it also features very over the top moments. I enjoyed my ride with the story. I like how it delves on the mythology of the Digimon world, mainly involving the Olympos XII (and the Royal Knights, if you care to do sidequests). I like the characters, despite growing on me slower than the characters in Cyber Sleuth (unfortunately there is no Kyoko Kuremi in this game). I also think the gameplay feels a bit more balanced than the previous games; still quite easy once you know the ins and outs, but I had to try some battles a few times, especially early game. In general, I feel like this was a great game (possibly my favorite game out in 2025 6) and a JRPG that might be enjoyed by most JRPG fans, not only those who consider themselves Digimon fans.
Wait, did you know what Olympos references?
Oh, yes, that's a terrible segway to start talking about the undisputed movie of the month. I've watched Nolan's interpretation of The Odyssey. It was a fine movie: neither a masterpiece or the worst movie ever made. Granted, Ulysses/Odysseus is a different character compared to the one I've learned of studying Homer in school. Many scenes were missing or recontextualized, so he looks less like a cunning man and more like a tired war veteran. I'd lie if I said I remember everything about the poem and I cannot make an extensive dissertation about all of the differences. But what I can safely say is that Agamemnon didn't look like Batman in my mind and that what I got from watching the movie and studying the poem are two very different things. You could say I've seen the Odyssey through the lenses of Christopher Nolan, similarly to what I said last month about the DMC anime. But maybe I like Nolan's lenses more than Shankar's.
From a Journey to the next
Did you know Hayao Miyazaki has drawn several manga? His most famous manga is of course Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, source of one of his first movies. Shuna's Journey is a bit less known, but it's very interesting as well. It's funny because I think it has similarities to the Odyssey (poem) in the way it is told. It feels like epic. Epic as a litterary genre, not as the adjective, of course. And, as the title suggests, both stories are about a journey, even if they have very different targets.
The story is about Shuna, the prince of a dying kingdom, on his way to find a way to make his kingdom flourish once again. A lot of it is told with few dialogue, a bit of narration and a lot of visual storytelling. It is short, but very pretty and if you're a fan of Miyazaki's movies you'll definitely find his themes here.
Losing your loved ones
I've read My broken Mariko by complete chance. Bought it second hand, read it on the train back home the same day. Tomoyo finds out her friend Mariko has killed herself and this is the story of how she deals with that. It's very emotional and all the emotions pictured here feel extremely... raw, genuine, powerful and I like how the drawings have a lot to do with that. And I won't say more. I liked it, but it deals with stuff that might be sensitive for someone, so read at your own risk.
What else?
- I've been to a very interesting play called Gotika in Voltri park (Genoa). The park is very pretty and a bit spooky at night, perfect for a play like this about tales of gothic horror. Now Carmilla is on my tbr.
- I've bought a second hand Wii: on my way to play all the stuff I didn't had the time to play before the one at my parents house vanished.
- If you read my friend Crescendo's monthly log, hi, I was the one dropping This War of Mine. In my defence, I gave it a fair chance, but it really didn't do it for me.
are open air cinemas a thing outside Italy as well? Idk, but I'm pretty fond of them.↩
so different from each other that Purslane and Campion, the two protagonists, both part of the Gentian line, have a relationship with each other and it doesn't even feel wrong.↩
yes, I wrote that post while I was reading House of Suns after realizing that it was doing nothing for me↩
Jenna Ortega as Klara is probably not a casting choice I would have made, but I'm open to reconsideration.↩
One of my favourite experiences playing this was exploring the Digimon City looking for the party of Adventure 1/2, Tamers, Frontiers and Savers.↩
I might have enjoyed it more than Clair Obscur, yes↩