Book #163 of 2025: Doctor Who: Empire of Death by Scott Handcock I enjoyed author Scott Handcock’s novelization of the recent Doctor Who episode 73 yards, but it turns out that when he has weaker material to work with, the output is correspondingly worse. (And let’s not let him off the hook entirely there either, …
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Book #162 of 2025: Angel Down by Daniel Kraus A harrowingly propulsive rush through the trenches of World War I, full of sickening visceral images of war in service to a bizarre speculative twist: the presence on the battlefield of a literal angel screaming in agony, whom our protagonist, unaware of her identity, has been …
TV #51 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 21 Another bifurcated season of Doctor Who that I wish I could separate into its weaker and stronger parts — although here it’s particularly unfortunate that the former installments bookend the latter. The middle of this run delivers a fine span from RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS through …
Movie #16 of 2025: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (2007) “Movie” is probably a bit of a misnomer here, as this title wasn’t initially intended to constitute a standalone feature at all. Instead it would be merely the first installment of a new Babylon 5 series pitched as an anthology of smaller-scale stories, in contrast …
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Movie #15 of 2025: Jason Bourne (2016) The first Bourne sequel, 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy, opens with its ex-assassin hero off the grid somewhere overseas, minding his own business until his former employers kill a woman that he’s close with, thereby bringing him back into the game and on the hunt for answers to a …
Book #161 of 2025: One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig (The Shepherd King #1) I’m digging the sinister vibes here, along with the general premise of a heroine with the voice of an ancient monster secretly living in her head, a la Vespertine or Venom. Even better is the fact that, although this is a …
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TV #50 of 2025: The Sopranos, season 3 I’ve long heard that episode 3×11 “Pine Barrens” is one of the best individual hours that this show ever produced, and having finally now seen the Fargo-esque caper for myself, I can’t really argue with that designation. Unfortunately, however, the season around it is kind of a …
Book #160 of 2025: Star Wars: The Jaws of Jakku by Cavan Scott I picked up this audiobook-only Star Wars title in the hopes that its premise — following Rey, Finn, and BB-8 on a soul-searching mission back to the young woman’s homeworld after the events of The Last Jedi — would help smooth the …
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Book #159 of 2025: The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (The Ripliad #1) Tom Ripley, as depicted in this 1955 crime thriller, its four sequels, and their various screen adaptations, is a pretty great creation. He’s insecure and sociopathic, with author Patricia Highsmith painting him as almost pedestrian in his casual amorality and petty …
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Book #158 of 2025: The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green (Nightside #8) One of the blander adventures in this urban fantasy series, further hampered by a streak of sexism and unaddressed poor behavior from the protagonist. And look, I get that John Taylor is something of an antihero — the whole crux of this …
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