One Book, One Videogame, One Band
by Arrate Hidalgo
2025 has been a year. I find it impossible to summarize it in a way that may sufficiently acknowledge the horrors and the joys of it. But 2025 has been a year in which I have been alive and fortunate enough to enjoy books, videogames, music. Here are three samples.
One Book
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
“To celebrate the lexis of landscape is not nostalgic, but urgent,” says Macfarlane in the introduction to this rich, vibrating word-horde, in which he provides a loving journey through nature writing and the role that this —some would say very British— genre has had in shaping the imagination of landscape by humans and their relationship with it. Interspersed with these in-depth looks at works of literature, Macfarlane includes, divided into landscape families —e.g. waterlands, woodlands, edgelands—, glossaries with hundreds of words he has collected, either found, learned or gifted, in a variety of the languages and speeches of the British Isles, most of which share the quality of being incredibly evocative and lyrical, sometimes comical, in their precision. Just two examples, if you’re curious:
rionnach maoim: shadows cast on the moorland by clouds moving across the sky on a bright and windy day (Gaelic)
squatted, squat-up: splashed with mud by a passing vehicle (Kent, north Staffordshire)
Macfarlane argues, and I agree, that while being able to name does not mean to understand, to use language well is “a species of attention,” one that is key for us not to lose our sense of place and, in the process, of ourselves.
One Videogame
The Longing by Anselm Pyta and Studio Seufz
Inspired by a German legend about a king that sleeps underground for thousands of years and the dwarf that must check on him once every century, The Longing is an exploration of solitude, empathy, and the passage of time. In it, we will follow the Shade, a lonely creature born to serve an ancient king, who goes to sleep with the order of being woken after 400 days have passed. These 400 days are actual, real-life days, which will begin passing the moment you start the game and will not pause even when you close it to get on with your real-world duties. You may choose to let the Shade wait it out and wake the king after a bit over a year, or you may decide to let the Shade wander and explore the underground land in which they must wait, and, in that way, bring some variety into their life. This will lead the Shade to discover the tunnels surrounding them and even find trinkets with which to decorate their otherwise bare little cave-room. The pace is such that, in my case, I ended up developing a sort of quiet companionship with the Shade. They would sit in their armchair reading —actual books! such as Moby Dick (you can read the whole thing, and many others, within the game)—, and I would do my work, translating, sending invoices, or whatnot, while the Shade would sometimes muse about boredom and the possibility of a world beyond. The art, the melancholy dungeon synth soundtrack, the writing — it all contributes to a wistful, intimate experience I have rarely found in any other medium.
One Band
Castle Rat
Often described as “a Dungeons & Dragons fever dream,” Brooklyn-based Castle Rat provide traditional doom and heavy metal sounds and visuals of a quality and earnestness that are absolutely disarming. Chain-mail bikinis, Conan-coded swords, plague-doctor masks — Castle Rat has it all, combined with skull-rattling doom riffs and powerful vocals —by frontwoman and “Rat Queen” Riley Pinkerton—, which must be experienced live. The band not only has created an entire epic sword and sorcery narrative that they perform between songs —which at times will have the audience pointing and possibly yelling “It’s behind you!” (picture a medieval-themed fantasy play with a mosh pit)—, but also they just sound really good. Try “Cry for Me” for a power ballad “for grave side regrets and moonlight laments,” according to the band, with an accompanying video filmed entirely in VHS.
Among other things, Arrate Hidalgo is Associate Editor at Aqueduct Press. She is also an English to Spanish translator, a founder and organizer of a feminist sf con, and an amateur singer. Visit her website at arratehidalgo.com. Her English-language translation of the Basque science fiction classic, Memories of Tomorrow, by Mayi Pelot, was released by Aqueduct Press in 2022 as a volume in Aqueduct's Heirloom Book series.
