Book #64 of 2020: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny (The Chronicles of Amber #1) This 1970 series debut is a bit of a ride, but I’ve definitely enjoyed it. Opening on an earthly amnesiac gives the story both grounding and a distinctive flavor, and the fantasy worldbuilding is interesting once it does start …
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TV #6 of 2020: Veronica Mars, season 4 Even setting aside the issue of whether another Veronica Mars revival was in any way necessary, this latest effort feels severely under-baked. Certain elements like the Mexican hitmen barely fit into the established Neptune universe at all, pivotal character moments come off as unearned, and the big …
Book #63 of 2020: Highfire by Eoin Colfer This is a very weird story about the world’s last dragon — really more like a tall, strong humanoid reptile — living in the swamps of Louisiana. It’s very heavy on dialect and other local color, and with its madcap plot of drug dealers and corrupt cops …
Book #62 of 2020: A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic #1) This fantasy novel improves as it goes along, but it’s literally over a quarter of the way through before there’s anything that could remotely be called a plot. I’m also not happy that the only significant female character …
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TV #5 of 2020: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, season 3 I still really enjoy the 50s set dressing, Jewish representation, and Amy Sherman-Palladino banter to this series, but I’ve been gradually losing patience with the overarching storyline and the tedious subplots around people like Sophie or Joel. If the writers could figure out what they …
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Book #61 of 2020: The Man Who Fought Alone by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Man Who #4) From 1980 to 1990, author Stephen R. Donaldson veered away from his usual sci-fi and fantasy genres to pen a loose trilogy of detective novels under the pseudonym Reed Stephens (reportedly the publisher’s decision, not his). In 2001 …
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Book #60 of 2020: The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller This standalone fantasy novel has some definite issues with worldbuilding (like the generic medieval setting that then randomly has a semi-automatic handgun in one scene) and character motivation (like the protagonist who wants to seduce, marry, and kill the king for basically no reason). …
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Book #59 of 2020: Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs (Charlie Thorne #1) There’s a certain ludicrous National Treasure energy to the basic concept of this middle-grade spy novel — in which the CIA recruits a twelve-year-old girl genius to help them track down a secret formula that Albert Einstein revealed on …
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Book #58 of 2020: Shouldn’t You Be in School? by Lemony Snicket (All the Wrong Questions #3) I’ve come around to the idea that this prequel quartet is not really going to add anything meaningful to our understanding of the background for A Series of Unfortunate Events, but I wish it would tell a more …
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Book #57 of 2020: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole This is for the most part an enjoyable madcap picaresque, but its entitled manchild of a protagonist can be awfully infuriating. Admittedly much of the humor of the text is at that character’s own expense, but I still found myself gritting my teeth …
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