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Featured
Blog Launch
Hello! My name is Joe Kessler, and I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 2004. This is the launch of my new home for that, where I’ll be posting book reviews and other short pieces of writing. I’m also debuting a Patreon site for anyone who would like to support my efforts through… Read more
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Book Review: Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller
Book #162 of 2026: Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller This 2014 novel was the first one published in Disney’s official Star Wars canon, which I’ve enjoyed enough over the years that I decided to go back and read it all through more systematically. It’s also a prelude to the animated Rebels… Read more
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Book Review: Zell by Victoria Goddard
Book #161 of 2026: Zell by Victoria Goddard I always feel a slight twinge about reviewing and rating a ‘book’ this short — only 6000 words! — but since I bought the ebook and it has its own Goodreads entry, I suppose it’s fair game. (And it balances out with the multiple 900-page tomes that… Read more
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Book Review: Titan by Ben Bova
Book #160 of 2026: Titan by Ben Bova Most of these Grand Tour novels aren’t granted an official sub-series name, but this one is a straightforward sequel to Saturn, in which several thousand colonists took a long flight towards that planet, where they’d be setting up a new home as the furthest human settlement from… Read more
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TV Review: Blake’s 7, season 3
TV #44 of 2026: Blake’s 7, season 3 Still not loving this British science-fiction series, but it improves enough in this penultimate run that I suppose I’ll bump my rating up a notch. Two actors dropped out between seasons — including, hilariously, the titular Blake — and their replacements Tarrant and Dayna add welcome new… Read more
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Movie Review: Ghostbusters II (1989)
Movie #50 of 2026: Ghostbusters II (1989) Maybe not a total trainwreck, but still a sequel that never comes close to justifying its existence. The structure is a little frustrating, too: the original film ended with the heroes being celebrated as their city’s saviors and Venkman in a relationship with Dana, and this one picks… Read more
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Book Review: Doctor Who: The Wonderful Doctor of Oz by Jacqueline Rayner
Book #159 of 2026: Doctor Who: The Wonderful Doctor of Oz by Jacqueline Rayner (Puffin Classics Crossovers #1) I half-expected this 2021 Doctor Who novel — the first in a series where the Doctor meets fictional characters from the public domain — to be a transparent cash grab, but it’s thankfully a little deeper than… Read more
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Book Review: Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine
Book #158 of 2026: Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine (Stillhouse Lake #1) More than a little preposterous, but with a few late twists that at least gesture at an explanation for some of the over-the-top developments and otherwise-seeming coincidences (which is perhaps why I was able to guess them, but oh well). If you can… Read more
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Book Review: The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker
Book #157 of 2026: The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker (The Golem and the Jinni #3) I’ve never gone back to reread either The Golem and the Jinni or its sequel The Hidden Palace — each of which I enjoyed at the time! — so it’s possible that this third and purportedly final volume… Read more
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Book Review: Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Book #156 of 2026: Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor #3) This middle-grade fantasy series continues to read like a Star Wars temptation plot wedged into a whimsical Harry Potter-meets-Roald Dahl magical setting, but I do think the storytelling has been improving with every successive volume. Our heroine is now thirteen… Read more
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Movie Review: Ghostbusters (1984)
Movie #49 of 2026: Ghostbusters (1984) Certain elements of the Ghostbusters iconography are truly iconic, and it’s easy to get swept away in the excitement of New York City celebrating its unlikely heroes at this first movie’s conclusion, especially with that excellent theme song roaring in our ears. But is it actually a good picture?… Read more
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