What’s on our shelves: A very sci-fi September, with classic and cosy sides

Book: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Have recently finished Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. First time I read this was in my teens, I think I was focussing on the randomness and horror of human as beetle and missed a lot. On a second (older!) reading I found the fear in the sheer viciousness of said beetle’s environment. 

A brief synopsis:  Gregor wakes up one morning and finds that he is a huge bug. After futile attempts to communicate he is ostracised from his relatives, especially because he can’t earn money as a travelling sales-beetle. He never leaves his family house again, wastes away and dies. His family celebrate, reinvigorated. 

Yes, it is grim. We never find out why he’s turned into an insect. What we do experience could be a metaphor for human behaviour to irrationality, illness, grief maybe? It’s a short book and you could just read it as a crazy psychological fantasy. Maybe it would have been more fun to read it that way! 

Sticking with the Russian literature theme I’m now working through Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, talk about anguish and moral drama…

Janet McGowan, Director of Operations – Open Fifth

Audiobook: Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze

Narrated by Mr Krauze himself, Who They Was is told in thick MLE with the steeze and sharpness of the most interesting roadman you’ve ever met in the kitchen of a Brixton houseparty. The language is florid, harsh, and properly beautiful in a way that this sociolect is not often enough said to be. It drags you into the reality of a chronically violent life, and gives solid form to the lures and trapdoors keeping those lives so violent. It never winks or implies or euphemises. There are direct and tight-fitting descriptions of both the beauty and the horror experienced by a perpetually stoned robbery enthusiast, and so much is captured so vividly that it’s uncomfortable. I’ve rarely enjoyed an audiobook so much.

Jake Bateman, Linux System Administrator – Open Fifth

TV series: Foundation by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman

Apple TV

This is a 3 series show based on Isaac Asimov’s epic series of science fiction novels.

The concept is: science has become so advanced that you can use it to predict the future.  What if, the future it foretells is that of a total collapse of civilisation? What would you do to defend knowledge to help shorten the dark ages or try to keep your own power forever?

The characters and their development are brilliant (not Asimov’s strong point), Lee Pace as Brother Day, Laura Birn as Lady Demerzel and Jarred Harris as Hari Seldon are great favourites of mine. So the writers have done a great job to enhance the novels’ storytelling with believable characters.

Lots of twists and turns and the budget must have been very high as the backdrop to the drama is always believable and suitably spectacular.

Sam Goldsmith, Business Development Manager – Open Fifth

Film: Nonnas directed by Stephen Chbosky

If like us, you have just put the heating on for the first time, or just lit the wood burner and the curtains are drawn on the gloomy early autumn evening, Nonnas might be the perfect choice for a two hour diversion from the thought of winter round the corner. It isn’t a complicated film and the plot borders on the predictable, however it is the sort of film that feels like a snuggle in a warm blanket with some tasty snacks and a soothing drink! Set in New York’s Italian American community, it tells of a recently bereaved middle aged bachelor, mourning the loss of his mother and the comfort and love she provided him, not least through the food she cooked for him. It is unapologetically focussed on great Italian food and the role it plays in family life, particularly for this community. It is based on a true story and, in a nutshell, tells of the seemingly mad idea that the lead character has of investing his mother’s inheritance in a restaurant that he staffs with ‘nonnas’, Italian grandmothers, to cook food that is just like you would eat at home and reminds you of your loving family. The cast is great, the food looks delicious and the story is gently lovely. Happy snuggling!

Andrew Auld, Commercial Director – Open Fifth

Novel: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness is strange, but in a deep and subdued kind of way, not wacky and glaring like other stories as surreal as this one. Soft sci-fi for the distinguished. I think I may not be sufficiently distinguished, as bits of this book began to lose me with their unrelenting bleakness. The meditations on suffering, duality, sexuality, trust, kinship here are all really careful, and imply to me a significant thoughtfulness on the part of the author. Also worth noting is that Le Guin coined the word “ansible”, used in this book for the faster-than-light communication widget. I feel she would probably be surprised to learn that people like us use this word every day at work now, 56 years hence.

Jake Bateman, Linux System Administrator – Open Fifth

Book: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

This book swings from scene to scene so gracefully that I rarely ever had to go back and re-read paragraphs in the way that my alarmingly leaky brain usually requires. As a jolly and warming palette cleanser following the other entries I’ve written here, I couldn’t have wished for anything more. I made a point of reading it before bed, and allowing the playful rapport of the ensemble to fill the place in my chest where the omnidirectional dread otherwise goes.

Jake Bateman, Linux System Administrator – Open Fifth

TV series: Alien Earth by Noah Hawley (various directors)

Prime Video, 8 episodes

Well what can I say? As a long time fan of the movie franchise I am blown away with the attention to detail in this series. We start on a very familiar looking ship, carrying samples of alien life on a long term mission. 

The series explores the politics of Earth during the timeline of the first film, whilst Ripley is in cryosleep. Three warring corporations control the planet. We follow one in particular “the boy genius” who has perfected the technology to place a human consciousness into a synthetic body. The downside? It only works on children, giving terminally ill kids a “second chance”… or perhaps a tragedy waiting to happen?

Timothy Oliphant as Kirsh the android is my favourite “bipedal” – so incredibly creepy! But the series explores quite a few aliens that you would not want to meet too.

Sam Goldsmith, Business Development Manager – Open Fifth

Film: Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg

The 50th anniversaries for many classic films have been cropping up over recent years (go 1970s!) and local cinemas have been showing them. This has been excellent for getting to see The Godfather (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Godfather part II (1974) on the big screen. And for 2025 – a re-release of Jaws. One of the many classic films that I should have watched, can quote from, but haven’t ever actually seen.

I haven’t watched a film in 3D since Cameron’s Avatar was released and it took me a moment to adjust to the effect but I was fully absorbed from there. I think experiencing the film big, loud, and coming towards me was a great way to get something of the impact it had on its first audiences 50 years ago. 

My biggest jump (with flailing arms because of the 3D) was when the underwater body in a boat was discovered! Quint’s USS Indianapolis monologue was stunning, I recommend In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton for a chilling read on that disaster. 

I went to the cinema with a film buff friend who shared lots from the ‘making of’ documentary he’d watched in preparation the night before, JAWS @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story directed by Bouzereau, so it was a real crash course and ticked off the ‘must see’ list. 

Lauren Purton, Marketing Executive – Open Fifth