The Long Earth by Pratchett and Baxter

In the near future, humanity is provided with a marvelous new technology, the “stepper box”. With a flick of a switch, you can travel to millions of parallel worlds with no people but nearly-identical geography. Unlimited resources and infinite space have been opened up on this new frontier. But where did the Long Earth come from, why has it recently opened to mankind, and what is its purpose?

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Overall: This is fun, rather reminiscent of Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams to me: Given a certain premise and specific rules within that premise, how does humanity react and how does society change? But expect it to feel more like Rendezvous With Rama than any Discworld novel: It’s an exploration, not a narrative.

Invasion (2005 TV series)

When Hurricane Eve hits Homestead, Florida, it brings destruction, devastation, and mysterious lights that leave the people who come in contact with them …changed.

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Overall: This deals with some weighty topics, but deals with them well and the series holds together well. I’m glad it was recommended to me.

Farscape (TV series), Season 1

My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Now I'm lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen, please. Is there anybody out there who can hear me? I'm being hunted by an insane military commander. Doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home.

( It took a while to get through just the first season... )

Overall: Jethrien lost interest in the series as a whole over the course of watching the first season. I’m told it gets better. I suppose I’ll find out, as I run out of other things to watch and drift back to this.

Werewolf: The Forsaken

When Father Wolf grew old and weak and unable to protect the humans from the lords of the spirit realm, his children rose up and slew him to take his place. These children, the destroyers of paradise, though guided by Father Wolf’s other children, the totem spirits, and their ever-changing mother Luna; are feared by the humanity they wish to protect; and hunted by their cousins, those who didn’t rise up against Father Wolf, the werewolves known as the Pure…

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Overall: Like Mage: The Awakening, I played a campaign in this system that OblvnDrgn ran a few years back, but I finally really thoroughly through the book and got a full sense of it. I’m “meh” on the new terms and language, but I never loved Werewolf the way I did Mage, and most of the aspects I did find fun (playing the role of a monster trying to do what’s best for a world that hates and fears him) stayed with the new version. They have some interesting ideas for individual adventures and antagonists, even if the overall mythology is weaker. So, not bad.