TV #42 of 2024: Archer’s Goon, season 1 I won’t lie and say that it’s great television, but for anyone who loves the 1984 Diana Wynne Jones children’s fantasy novel, this six-part 1992 adaptation is a neat way to revisit the story. If anything, it’s faithful to a fault: hardly adding any new material to …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard
Book #146 of 2024: Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard (Greenwing & Dart #5) After several false starts, I’m delighted to report that this series has finally reached the level I had expected from the other titles in author Victoria Goddard’s wider Nine Worlds saga. Every previous Greenwing & Dart installment carried clear potential and a share …
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TV Review: The Umbrella Academy, season 1
TV #41 of 2024: The Umbrella Academy, season 1 This urban fantasy (I guess?) comic book adaptation has some interesting and/or entertaining characters, but it falters significantly throughout its first year in developing a compelling and coherent plot to actually showcase them for us. The stakes are a big issue here; once one person establishes …
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Book Review: Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano
Book #145 of 2024: Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (Finlay Donovan #2) I’m still not totally hooked on this comedy-thriller series about a Northern Virginia suburban writer who gets mistaken for a hitwoman and caught up in some increasingly-convoluted organized crime, but I think this sequel does a nice job of continuing …
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Book Review: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
Book #144 of 2024: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (The Mirror Realm Cycle #1) A lovely fantasy debut, with major vibes of other tales I’ve adored from that genre like Strange the Dreamer or Spinning Silver. Like the latter, this is an #ownvoices Jewish novel, peppered with mentions of ketubahs and genizahs and more …
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Book Review: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
Book #143 of 2024: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White YA horror / thriller author Andrew Joseph White’s third novel is unfortunately the first one that doesn’t wholly work for me, although I appreciate the continued #ownvoices trans and autistic representation. The strongest thing about this story, in fact, is the confidence in its characterization, …
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Book Review: Doctor Who: Space Babies by Alison Rumfitt
Book #142 of 2024: Doctor Who: Space Babies by Alison Rumfitt An okay novelization of an okay episode of Doctor Who. Unlike certain previous efforts in the same vein, this book doesn’t really provide many details or character insights beyond what’s already present on the screen, although it does amusingly add back in the early …
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Book Review: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
Book #141 of 2024: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman As a genre, Arthuriana tends to be at its finest — with Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King remaining the absolute gold standard for me — when pitched as a tragedy, inviting us to invest in the glimmering dream of Camelot so that its …
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Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Book #140 of 2024: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Anna #1) I suspect I would have liked this horror tale better when I was younger, like if I had read it when it first came out back in 2011. (To be fair, it is marketed as YA, while I haven’t been a young …
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Book Review: Flash Forward by Chris Archer
Book #139 of 2024: Flash Forward by Chris Archer (Mindwarp #7) Another propulsive installment of this 90s middle-grade science-fiction series, finally now firmly past its original formula of kid after kid turning thirteen, unlocking special powers, and facing off against a shapeshifting alien assassin. At this point, the core team of Ethan, Ashley, Jack, and …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 