Book #106 of 2023: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #4) At its best, this fantasy series offers powerful meditations on stories: why we share and find meaning in them, how they don’t necessarily match an objective historical record even when purporting to, the reasons they might shift over time …
Continue reading “Book Review: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo”
Book #105 of 2023: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid A feel-good comeback story from the master of other such recent historical fiction celebrity novels as Daisy Jones & The Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (all of which apparently share a loose continuity). In this one, our heroine Carrie Soto …
Continue reading “Book Review: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid”
Book #104 of 2023: Secret Identity by Alex Segura [Disclaimer: I won a free paperback copy of this title from the publisher Flatiron Books on Goodreads, in exchange for an honest review.] For many readers, the natural comparison point for this 2022 novel will be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer-winning …
Continue reading “Book Review: Secret Identity by Alex Segura”
TV #49 of 2023: Star Trek: Short Treks, season 1 I wasn’t sure what to expect of this series going into it, and I’m still somewhat bemused after finishing this quick debut season. It turns out to consist of only four episodes, each about ten-to-fifteen minutes long and spinning off in some way from Star …
Continue reading “TV Review: Star Trek: Short Treks, season 1”
TV #48 of 2023: Wednesday, season 1 A pitch-perfect Addams Family update, made even stronger by the choice to focus on the title character alone. While her relatives are also included on the series, they’re generally relegated to a few quick scenes that are charming but don’t overstay their welcome, a structure that allows the …
Book #103 of 2023: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean #1) The majority of this fantasy novel is pretty terrific, a fine addition to that thriving sub-genre of speculative fiction about specialized academies that blatantly allow/encourage/require their enterprising cadets to murder one another to get ahead (Ender’s Game, Battle Royale, The Scholomance, Red Rising, …
Continue reading “Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros”
TV #47 of 2023: Star Trek: Enterprise, season 4 I gather conventional wisdom holds that the latter two seasons of this TOS prequel series are better than the first, and sure, I’ll mildly agree to that. The writers understand their characters and the other strengths (and limitations) of the program a little more clearly now, …
Continue reading “TV Review: Star Trek: Enterprise, season 4”
TV #46 of 2023: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, season 1 Three-and-a-half stars, rounded up. There’s a lot of things I enjoy about this unexpected Netflix revival, which aired in 2016 after the original WB/CW program ended in 2007. In a review at the time, I mentioned: “It really feels like ten years …
Continue reading “TV Review: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, season 1”
TV #45 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 8 The Third Doctor’s sophomore season leans into the strengths of the previous year, which showed how the venerable sci-fi program could adapt its time-traveling and space-hopping premise to an earthbound format, with the hero assisting the UNIT military forces fend off alien invasions. He’s now joined …
TV #44 of 2023: What We Do in the Shadows, season 5 Another delightfully funny season of this vampire comedy, and one that finally pulls the trigger on a long-mentioned possible direction for the show. (I’m trying, as ever, to avoid major spoilers in the space of a review.) Guillermo starts the year keeping a …
Continue reading “TV Review: What We Do in the Shadows, season 5”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more