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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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TV Review: Blake’s 7, season 2
TV #42 of 2026: Blake’s 7, season 2 I was lukewarm on the first season of this late-70s / early-80s British sci-fi series, and I think this follow-up is only a marginal improvement. I’m still not even sure what the title is supposed to refer to, and my theory that it’s the main cast including… Read more
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Movie Review: Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Movie #46 of 2026: Jurassic World Dominion (2022) I suppose all franchises have to evolve and take risks to avoid feeling derivative, but this sixth Jurassic Park installment seems like a profound miscalculation of what audiences are looking for from the series. Despite the last film ending on the explicit promise that the dinosaurs would… Read more
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Book Review: Star Wars: Edge of the Abyss by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book #151 of 2026: Star Wars: Edge of the Abyss by Rebecca Roanhorse (Reign of the Empire #2) Even more so than the first book in this loose Star Wars trilogy, this middle volume reads like a love letter to Andor, delivering more of that show’s deep dive into the specific mechanisms of imperial control… Read more
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Book Review: Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne
Book #150 of 2026: Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne (Moss’d in Space #1) A lightweight but charming piece of cozy / hopepunk science-fiction, which helps to paper over some of the issues I’ll mention below. The premise reads like a mix of Skyward and Wayfarers, following as an aspiring pilot acquires a derelict alien… Read more
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Book Review: Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova
Book #149 of 2026: Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova Before my current read-through of Ben Bova’s Grand Tour saga, I had always categorized it as a fairly loose sequence of stories that only technically shared a common setting and history. At this point, however, it’s surprisingly serialized — so that although the heroine and… Read more
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TV Review: Mad Men, season 3
TV #41 of 2026: Mad Men, season 3 I’ve given every season of this show four-out-of-five stars so far, but this third run is easily my favorite yet. The compelling ensemble character drama amidst the tumult of the sixties continues on, and as we’ve jumped forward another six months to 1963 when this one begins,… Read more
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Movie Review: Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (2017)
Movie #45 of 2026: Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (2017) Let me start by acknowledging how little experience I have with Pokémon as a franchise. I’ve been peripherally aware of it in the popular culture since elementary school, of course, but the only games I’ve played have been a few rounds of Pokémon Snap… Read more
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Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Movie #44 of 2026: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) The legacyquel Jurassic World (2015) was closely modeled after Jurassic Park (1993), so it’s maybe only fitting that this next installment feels a bit like The Lost World (1997) in turn. Which is to say that following the dinosaur outbreak that closed the park last time,… Read more
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Book Review: Doctor Who: Birthright by Nigel Robinson
Book #148 of 2026: Doctor Who: Birthright by Nigel Robinson (Virgin New Adventures #17) Structurally, this is probably the most ambitious volume of its series yet, pioneering the “Doctor-lite” format that would later be exemplified in TV episodes like “Love & Monsters” and “Blink.” The Seventh Doctor shows up at the beginning and end of… Read more
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Book Review: One Jar of Magic by Corey Ann Haydu
Book #147 of 2026: One Jar of Magic by Corey Ann Haydu As with author Corey Ann Haydu’s later middle-grade fantasy novel The Ordinary and Extraordinary Auden Greene, this 2021 title stands out in that genre for its realistic portrayal of an unhealthy household dynamic for its twelve-year-old protagonist. Here, though, the adults aren’t simply… Read more
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