Movie #1 of 2026: The Matrix (1999) This sci-fi parable of an artificial reality that surrounds us all is just a stone-cold classic, instantly iconic in its confident vision and worldbuilding. The Matrix really was like no other movie to come before it, or even any that followed, including its own sequels. The script is …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher
Book #1 of 2026: Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher This is a solid but basically unspectacular Star Wars novel, unfortunately saddled with a misleading title, publisher’s summary, and cover art. It’s only a Darth Vader story in that he’s around for a lot of the plot, but he gets just a handful …
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TV Review: Stranger Things, season 5
TV #1 of 2026: Stranger Things, season 5 A satisfactory-enough conclusion, although not one that ever lives up to the early years of this show, when it felt more like an intimate character-driven horror thriller meets Amblin adventure and not a Marvel-ified action blockbuster. In fact, I’d say this final season is about on par …
Book Review: Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith
Book #203 of 2025: Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith (The Ripliad #5) Author Patricia Highsmith’s final novel about the amoral Tom Ripley is unfortunately also her weakest. The only thing driving the plot this time is that a new couple has moved into town, seemingly with the express purpose of tormenting the antihero whom …
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Book Review: The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green
Book #202 of 2025: The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green (Nightside #12) And so the Nightside series comes to an end, more or less. (There’s still a collection of short stories in the setting, which I’ll be rereading next, and a few crossovers with some of author Simon R. Green’s other works …
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TV Review: 12 Monkeys, season 2
TV #58 of 2025: 12 Monkeys, season 2 The debut year of this program offered an uneven but promising sci-fi premise of a dystopian soldier and a contemporary doctor working together to try to prevent the pandemic that’s ravaged the planet by his era. It’s a loose reboot of the 1995 Terry Gilliam movie, less …
Book Review: Superboy: A Celebration of 75 Years by various
Book #201 of 2025: Superboy: A Celebration of 75 Years by various This 2020 anthology commemorates three-quarters of a century of the titular junior superhero via a selection of comic book issues from across that span. In fact, it turns out that four different Kryptonians have each worn the mantle of Superboy at one point …
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Book Review: A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo
Book #200 of 2025: A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #6) Another short but immersive tale of Cleric Chih on their wanderings around this East Asian-inspired fantasy land, recording local stories and trying to sift fact from legend. As usual it’s a fairly standalone adventure that doesn’t rely on readers …
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Book Review: We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer and Joelle Murray
Book #199 of 2025: We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer and Joelle Murray I don’t read a ton of graphic novels, but this one came so highly recommended that I wanted to make a point to check it out. And it is super cute — less so for the romance, which is fine but …
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Book Review: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Book #198 of 2025: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia An excellent horror novel that unfolds across three quasi-related timelines. Primarily we’re following a graduate student in 1998 as she pursues research on her thesis topic, which concerns a lesser-known (fictional) female contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft. She’s investigating a rumor that one of the author’s …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 