Movie #18 of 2018: The Shining (1980) Nearly four decades on, this movie is still terrific. I do think the pacing could be a lot tighter, especially early on, and even though it’s true to the book and what gives the film its title, I don’t think the little boy’s psychic abilities really add much …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Theonite: Planet Adyn by M. L. Wang
Book #190 of 2018: Theonite: Planet Adyn by M. L. Wang (Theonite #1) This YA novel has a neat hook: its thirteen-year-old protagonist has spent her whole life hiding superpowers, only to discover that her new neighbors have special abilities of their own and are here from a parallel dimension in search of a dangerous …
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Book Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Book #189 of 2018: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) A fun novella in what I would have to call the robo-noir genre, with a hardboiled cyborg protagonist reluctantly working security on a planetary survey mission. Murderbot’s narrative perspective is hilarious and relatable: who among of us doesn’t also have bosses …
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TV Review: Marvel’s Iron Fist, season 2
TV #44 of 2018: Marvel’s Iron Fist, season 2 There are two inescapable facts about this season of Iron Fist: that it’s a huge improvement over season 1 and that the series is still one of the weakest entries in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. (I’d say it’s better than the short-lived Inhumans show, but …
Book Review: The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler
Book #188 of 2018: The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler (Emily Windsnap #1) I don’t read too many middle-grade books, but I decided to give this one a try because I share the author’s last name (although we are not actually related, to the best of my knowledge). It’s the first novel in …
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Book Review: Arcadia by Iain Pears
Book #187 of 2018: Arcadia by Iain Pears This novel takes a little while to get going and clearly establish its plot, but it ends up as a mind-trip of the highest caliber. There are essentially three layers of reality that author Iain Pears is playing with here: 1) the twenty-third century, where a brilliant …
Book Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Book #186 of 2018: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Having really enjoyed Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, I knew I needed to seek out this debut novel of hers as well — and I’m quite glad I did, because I think I like it even better. This is a beautifully-written Asian American …
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Book Review: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Book #185 of 2018: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson An outstanding and meticulously-researched oral history of the Great Migration, in which millions of African Americans moved from the south to the north and west over the decades from World War I to around 1970. This …
TV Review: The Middleman, season 1
TV #43 of 2018: The Middleman, season 1 My latest rewatch of this action-comedy cult classic, which lasted only 12 episodes on ABC Family in 2008 before getting tragically canceled. I guess I’m not surprised that the show struggled to find an audience, but it really is so much fun, with witty dialogue, clever pop …
Book Review: Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
Book #184 of 2018: Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (The Expanse #1) I like the setting and plot of this sci-fi thriller, which blends the creepy deep-space body horror of Event Horizon with a less-fantastical version of Red Rising‘s interplanetary political tensions. Author “James S. A. Corey” (actually a collaboration between Daniel Abraham …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 