Welcome to Fandible Picks of the Month! Every month, members of the Fandible crew will tell you about the newest and coolest things we’ve discovered, sharing the wealth with you. Keep reading for new games, books, and TV shows to watch out for.
Fandible Picks of the Month December 2015
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
With best of the year lists popping up every day, and a new office with a library right around the corner, I’ve been doing more reading for fun (as opposed to work) in the last few weeks than I have in years. And one of the gems that popped up on my radar was Everything, Everything, a debut YA novel from Nicola Yoon. Madeline Whittier is allergic to the world. She has what’s colloquially known as “bubble baby syndrome,” and has lived her entire life in her immaculately sterile house, with only her doting mother and a caring nurse for company. When a new family moves in next door, Madeline becomes obsessed with observing their behaviors, especially of the handsome, brooding, teenage boy. A whirlwind romance develops, the ultimate Romeo and Juliet, as Juliet truly cannot leave her window without deadly consequences. In short, this is a book about falling in love – with a boy, with life, and with yourself. Yoon’s writing is beautiful – several times I had to stop and read passages aloud to Billy as I was so smitten with the language – and I devoured this in a few hours one evening. Everything, Everything‘s place on the best of the year lists is well deserved. –Angela
Fallout 4
I really didn’t want to write about Fallout 4 for my pick of the month. Seriously, regardless of what I say, you have either already bought the game or you aren’t going to get it at all, so it feels like a waste for me even to bring it up here. Yet, when Angela asked me to promote something for this month, I looked back in November to see what I have been doing with all my time and… well… all I’ve been doing is playing Fallout 4. So, really, it’s the only thing I can review.
Fallout 4 is fun. The story of the game is interesting, though I still feel the best story was in Fallout 3. In Fallout 3, it felt more connected to the atmosphere since I was chasing after family until the end. In the new game, however, you are playing the fish out of water character – a person who hasn’t been around for the last two hundred years. Radroaches are new to them – let’s not even get started on Ghouls and Super Mutants. So, the story and atmosphere of the fourth game feels like it stumbles along at the beginning. However, the game does come together about midway and you’ll end up enjoying the narrative. Again, the story was solid, just not my favorite.
The one thing I do like about the game is the changes they made. Modding is fun, creating settlements is a complete time sink for people like me, and I particularly like how radiation and HP are tied together rather than each being their separate thing. I’m not in love with the dialog tree, but I think it has promise. It isn’t perfect just yet, but I feel that it isn’t something that needs to be thrown out just yet.
All in all, fun game. If you like Fallout, you’ve already picked it up. If you never played Fallout, I’d recommend playing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas first. Not because you need them to understand the game – I just think they are amazingly great. Play them, and by the time you are finished with them, you can buy Fallout 4 for cheap….er…  cheapish. – Billy
Man Seeking Woman
Modern dating is, to put it mildly, a shitshow. You’ve got your Tinders and your Grindrs and your bars full of predatory aliens that feed off of your suffering- at least, that’s what I hear it’s like, I haven’t dated in the better part of a decade. Anyway, point is, trying to hit the modern dating scene can feel like getting pulled into a surreal hellscape full of monsters and barely understood rules. And no show illustrates this better than Man Seeking Woman. It’s the touching story of a man named Josh who, after breaking up with his long-time girlfriend, tries to move on with his life and start dating again, in a world where surreality and magical realism are the order of the day.
Now, before you even tune in to the first episode, let me warn you: this is NSFW. Send the kids to bed, put on some headphones, and gird your loins for the kind of jokes you only make in private with close friends who you are pretty sure will still believe that, deep down, you’re still a good person, despite the horrible things that just came out of your mouth. Once you’re ready, though, this show has consistently made me laugh episode after episode with incredible sight gags and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it jokes that are so sharp you’ll need bandages after. This is a world where the most bizarre, non-sensical things are simply part of the day to day experience, and all the expected stereotypes of the dating scene are taken to their utterly absurd extremes- and it works. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s hilariously offensive, and in its own way, feels all too real. Highly recommended, and with the new season starting in January, it’s a great time to binge and catch up. -Daniel
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The moon has blown up and you have 3 years before humanity becomes a memory. What do you do? That’s the question asked by every nation on Earth as they race to bring survivors to the only safe place left from annihilation, space. Focusing mainly on the science of space travel and the interpersonal relationships of the last humans alive, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is a wonderful novel on what humanity can and will do once the universe gives them a deadline. And, like The Martian, its focus on hard science makes you understand how fascinating and brutal space can really be. If you’re interested in reading about the steps people will take to ensure the survival of the human race and are a huge fan of aerospace engineering, or just science in general, give it a read.  – Jesus
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