Only this one's about the Icelandic parliament.

Party Like It's 1998, edited by Paul Magrs and Stuart Douglas. This charity anthology focuses on the world of the 1997-2005 Doctor Who novels, and I loved revisiting that era, both as a writer and as a reader. Some really glorious stories and it's huge fun. www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer. The late fourth and final entry in the Southern Reach Trilogy, this goes full-on prequel while maintaining some narrative strands from the earlier books. I found the books increasingly difficult reads... www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims. Recommended to me by the kid, who enjoys Sims' podcast The Magnus Archives. It's 12 ghost stories and a long coda linking them all together -- all quite atmospheric and occasionally scary or disturbing. www.goodreads.com/book/show/55...

Hellblazer: The Devil You Know by Jamie Delano. More classic 80s urban fantasy noir, with more cyberspace magic, some nuclear anxiety and what's probably an AIDS metaphor. This collection throws in a lot of digressions from the main storyline, though. www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. Continuing the Southern Reach Trilogy, this is three stories in parallel, two of them prequels and one a sequel (though not a very informative one), mashing the horror-spy-nature-writing genres of the earlier books together. www.goodreads.com/book/show/37...

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch. Catching up with the more recent Rivers of London books now, this one gets quite angry about the exploitation and instrumentalisation of people (women especially) by those in authority. Good for it. www.goodreads.com/book/show/59...

The second one less so, but it has more allohistorical content (in terms of an alternative history for this timeline's North America), which maybe Kurland was more interested in. www.goodreads.com/book/show/75...

Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery by Michael Kurland. Licensed continuations of Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series (see above). Normally described as "inferior", but I thought the first one stood up fairly well. www.goodreads.com/book/show/75...

If you type "translate from Italian to English" into Google, it will translate the phrase "from Italian to English" into French for you.

Doctor Who story set at "Permian Park" in the time of the Silurians, where clones of extinct species like Dimetrodon, Inostrancevia and Scutosaurus escape and start running amok.

Your quick reminder that the reason the NHS is in this state is specifically because of what politicians have done. The NHS isn’t useless. The model isn’t defunct. Politicians have actively under-resourced our public healthcare system. It’s a travesty. 🚨 www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

I am honestly sick of being told — at a university FFS — that we need to ‘embrace’ this profoundly unethical and irresponsible technology.

What the Bond films get wrong is the idea that these people would need to be evil in secret.

Watching an Australian unexplained-resurrection drama called Glitch, and it certainly takes a turn in season 3. Previously its main fault was being a bit arthousy and dull. Now suddenly the resurrectees are ending the universe, and Pete McTighe's rewriting the Doctor Who TV movie in Melbourne.

"You *can* see the War; It's over there, between the Land and the Sea!" #DoctorWho

Dominic Cummings is calling David Lammy a "useless prick" who only got given his ministerial job because of his background. Dominic Cummings used to work for *Boris Johnson*.

As usual with the volubly cancelled, it's not so much that she thought these things as that she blithely wrote them all down and submitted them for publication, apparently without considering that this might be seen as questionable. And that her publisher agreed with her that that was fine.

Excellent book, highly recommended.

The Spectator are confused. It's not going to be cost free. Billionaires are going to pay more. Join.greenparty.org.uk

I see it's time for me to make the point again that the poppy is a fundraising campaign for the Royal British Legion, a specific, mundane entity that is not exempt from scrutiny and does not own the concept of remembrance. You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...

I'm not seeing much interest on here in The War Between the Land and the Sea. Is this because Doctor Who fandom has turned on RTD like a scurry of rabid chipmunks, or because Doctor Who spinoffs are never very popular and are probably a bit of a bad idea? Or both?

Occasionally on my work laptop a black box pops up with the words "Windows Powershell", and I think "Yes, it probably does."

STAY INSPIRED ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

Just doing what I thought were a few final amendments on The Ark, and a whole new interpretation has just whacked me between the eyes.

Notably, The Daleks is the earliest Doctor Who story the Black Archive has covered to date, preceding The Edge of Destruction and Marco Polo. And, following on from 2025's books on Logopolis and Castrovalva, Frontios will complete our exploration of the works of the late Christopher H Bidmead.

Following on from October's Black Archive title, The Mysterious Planet by Jez Strickley, we can announce the books for the next six slots, covering the remainder of 2025 and most of 2026. Fans of the first and fifth Doctors are likely to be particularly pleased.

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... New on Psychic Paper: New Doctor Who, you say?

A trial involving assault with a loaf of bread is where the Not Proven verdict really comes into its own

Following on from October's Black Archive title, The Mysterious Planet by Jez Strickley, we can announce the books for the next six slots, covering the remainder of 2025 and most of 2026. Fans of the first and fifth Doctors are likely to be particularly pleased.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

I was trying to work out whether a "commoner" had ever been eighth in line of succession before, and I learned that the current Swedish royal family is descended from just some bloke who Charles XIII adopted in 1809. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_o...

It’d be good if they kept stripping names and stuff away until he had no name at all. Nothing. And him ending up with a completely smooth face like the fella out of the old photographs in Sapphire and Steel.

Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted: manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Three handshakes gets me to the entire cast of The Wizard of Oz, if that helps.

I've been getting back into the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series after many years, and the most relatable part is how everyday objects like doors and elevators have been imbued with artificial intelligence and it just makes them obnoxious and frustrating to use and everyone hates it.

New read: really delighted by this dropping through the letterbox this week - another excellent edition of the Black Archive & a really enjoyable exploration of a Doctor Who story I've always been really fond of. Thanks, @cooraysmith.bsky.social ! #newread #theblackarchive #silvernemesis

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. To look on my works, press 1. To despair, press 2. To speak to another Pharaoh, press the star key.

The teen is now watching early X-Files. Which is a massive nostalgia blast for me, but crucially they seem to be really enjoying it as well.

Allow us to turn off the reposts of individuals. Allow us to turn off the reposts of individuals.

I love that Mary Shelley's masterpiece is being recreated closer than ever to her original vision by one of the most compelling directors in cinema at the same moment that Percy Shelley's masterpiece is being spontaneously reimagined as every shitpost meme on the internet. #RelationshipGoals

Closing out October with a review of the third and final Señor 105 novella collection - available in paperback today (along with the other two) from @obversebooks.co.uk ! karadennison.blogspot.com/2025/10/peri... 💙📚

Hi Lisa Nandy! I’m a BAFTA winner from a small town. Instead of asinine questions like this, why not tell us how we can continue to make a living in the eviscerated creative sector over which you notionally preside?

I'm the king of kings I'm not the king of kings but I'm the wreckage of a king but really I'm not actually a king but I am... Shattered visage in the desert by the stone legs wrinkles its lip at you. See my works, ye mighty, and despair!

LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace says King Charles III will strip Prince Andrew of remaining titles including “Andrew”, curse him to wander the Earth as “the nameless one”

I heard there was a pile of junk, a pair of legs with a missing trunk, cut off before they reach the privates and the ass. A pedestal just standing there, inviting tourists to despair: "The king of kings, I go by Ozymandias." Ozymandias, Ozymandias...

And the @blackarchive.co.uk on The Happiness Patrol was a really enjoyable dig into whether this gay, political story about Margaret Thatcher and Bertie Basset is as good/bad/gay/political/Thatchery/copyright-infringing as we all think it is. obversebooks.co.uk/product/68-t... #DoctorWho

An interesting read from the American perspective on recent events in the Doctor Who world: deadline.com/2025/10/why-...