The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket

Book #358 of 2021:

Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket

This new novel from author Lemony Snicket is very discursive, a word which here means wandering down endless alleyways of thought instead of sticking to the nominal plot of the narrator investigating his discovery of a note warning he’s eaten poison for breakfast. As he revisits the places where he procured each ingredient, he regularly interrupts himself to reflect on his past and make charmingly witty observations on literature, philosophy, and life in that inimitable Snicket way. (He appears to be growing more outspokenly progressive as he ages too, with pointed jabs at racist systems, cultural appropriation, and capitalistic excess.) I feel like this title is going to be divisive among fans, as the writer’s droll commentary is usually deployed in service to colorful characters on an exciting adventure, rather than this sort of meditative and unadulteratedly stream-of-consciousness approach. But a shaggy dog story can work when the result is entertaining enough, and for whatever reason, while I can see what some people might find frustrating about this one, it just hits all the right notes for me.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat

Book #357 of 2021:

Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat (Dark Rise #1)

I’m quite torn on how to rate this historical fantasy novel, but ultimately I think three-out-of-five stars is a fair reflection of my overall reaction to it. Although I really love the ending and the broader shape of the story that’s revealed once we get there, the fact remains that this is a plot constructed around a twist at the 90% mark, and the build-up to that point is a somewhat slow and tedious affair whether you see the pivot coming or not. The early section feels overly generic too, with the latest iteration of dark riders hounding a young farmboy into a world of danger and the ancient secret order of knights who oppose them. Other than having both male and female romantic interests, that hero is a bit flat himself, displaying little apparent motivation beyond the genre-mandated task of standing up against the forces of evil — a status that’s recontextualized by the concluding segment, but again, isn’t terribly exciting to follow until then.

Our secondary protagonist is more immediately engaging and reads as less of a trope, carrying personal stakes, legible relationships and conflicts, and the omnipresent hazard of racism from her nineteenth-century London surroundings. But the narrative isn’t focused enough on this character, nor probably could it be for that development I’m trying to avoid spoiling to land remotely effectively. As is, we’re left with a title that seems to set up its sequels to be fantastic, but at a significant cost to the entertainment value of this lengthy prelude.

[Content warning for torture, gore, and incest.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: Hook, Line & Sinister: Mysteries to Reel You In edited by T. Jefferson Parker

Book #356 of 2021:

Hook, Line & Sinister: Mysteries to Reel You In edited by T. Jefferson Parker

This 2010 collection is… fine. The subtitle is a bit misleading — the entries are generally more like crime thrillers than mysteries per se — but as a charity anthology of original fiction involving fishing, written by authors who engage in that pastime themselves, it gets the job done. None of the stories strike me as exceptionally good or bad, and I feel as though most are already blurring together in my memory, but they’re all entertaining enough in the moment. I suppose readers who likewise fish might get more out of the experience.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the Harry Bosch title “Blue on Black” that inspired me to check out this book in the first place; in addition to a very short length, it bizarrely reuses a highly specific plot detail from earlier in its series (the portable GPS unit in the novel The Narrows, lost in a poker match and storing the coordinates where a killer has left their victims) without any comment from the detective whatsoever. That strains my credulity too much, and renders it one of the weaker offerings of the lot.

[Content warning for gun violence, drowning, rape culture, and gaslighting.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: The Reunion by K. A. Applegate

Book #355 of 2021:

The Reunion by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #30)

I’m not a fan of the coincidence-heavy setup to this Animorphs volume — Marco has a nightmare involving his mom, the Controller to the Yeerk Visser One, which leads him to skip school and randomly go to the city’s business district, where she literally bumps into him — but once we’re beyond all that happenstance, the rest is pretty great. As typical of the books narrated by this protagonist, we get to see how his sarcastic comments are hiding a lot of anguish and trauma, and when he coldly shuts down to work out a plan to fatally pit this enemy against their mutual foe Visser Three, it’s again an obvious front just waiting to crack.

His mother’s captor has long figured as a key element in Marco’s motivation for the fight, but she hasn’t been around since Animorphs #15 The Escape, when her Andalite-controlling subordinate saw evidence that she was likely colluding with the team. In the meantime she has apparently been demoted and declared a traitor (although everyone still calls her by that higher rank, much as they did for the former Visser Four in Megamorphs #3 Elfangor’s Secret), and is on the run with a portable Kandrona generator looking for a way to turn the tables on Visser Three. It’s a welcome reappearance and milestone in the larger series plot, as imagined by author K. A. Applegate and realized by new ghostwriter Elise Donner.

Visser One is in many ways a more capable opponent than Three, despite her lack of morphing ability. In addition to the inherent personal stakes she brings via her connection to “her” son, she’s proven herself a clever schemer in the past and now comes to an insight that seemingly no other Yeerk has before: that the respective casualty count for human Controllers is fairly low compared to that of the Hork-Bajir and Taxxon forces, which might suggest that the “Andalite bandits” have some of the local population among their ranks. That’s a dangerous piece of information for anyone in her species to even suspect, and though the Animorphs all valiantly and hilariously attempt to imitate Ax while thought-speaking to her, it’s evident that she’s on to them.

The threat is exacerbated further in a moment of weakness when Marco reveals his specific identity, and although she plummets to her apparent doom soon after, we’re emphatically told that no body can be found, and this is a saga that has taught us what that means. In this story alone, the heroes temporarily think Jake and Cassie have been killed by Visser Three blowing up the car they’re in, and Eva and her Yeerk have already been presumed dead twice. Readers should correctly assume that she’ll return, and worry what she’ll do with her new knowledge when she does.

It’s hard to fault Marco, however, who’s under an extreme amount of stress here. He’s at his most brutally ruthless, plotting the death of a parent that also puts his friends, the free Hork-Bajir colony, and even Erek the Chee at needless risk. Several times he’s reminded that he can sit this mission out, and that Visser One can be quietly dispatched rather than used as bait to try and take down her rival at the same time. He does ultimately falter and save her from that fate, but then he steels himself and tries to push her off the mountain ridge on his own. When a returning Jake restrains him and she falls nonetheless, the boy lunges to grab her. He really doesn’t know what he wants, no matter all his brave talk about “seeing the bright, clear line that leads… from motive to means” and theoretically ignores the morality of the cost.

But those flaws make him interesting and realistic, and if this book primarily functions as a character study of an aching psyche, well, I’m satisfied. It’s furthermore funny and thrilling — have I mentioned the staircase-railing roach slalom? — and it covers an important development in the wider narrative. The opening could be a lot smoother and I don’t feel like the supposed teammate deaths are sold convincingly, but overall, this is a fine adventure.

[Content warning for body horror and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

Book #354 of 2021:

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (Vespertine #1)

I’ve described author Margaret Rogerson’s fantasy fiction as an Old Kingdom readalike in the past, and she proves it again in this latest novel, in which a trainee nun fights undead spirits with the help of one bound to her that only she can hear (and who can even possess her body if she risks trusting it that far). It’s sort of like what you might expect if Garth Nix were to write Venom, a fun tale of possession as a reluctant partnership amid the rising threat of medieval-esque necromancy. Or Joan of Arc versus zombies, if you prefer, with a fascinatingly flawed and traumatized heroine at its center.

The lone element I don’t really care for is a certain haughty individual who gets a redemption story I’m not convinced he entirely earns, and who feels as though he’s being set up as a love interest for the series ahead. But there’s no overt romance here, at least, just lots of bickering and mutual murder threats between the protagonist and her revenant passenger as they come to terms with their own peculiar relationship. With that pair as the rightful focus, I can mostly ignore the jerk of a sidekick for now.

[Content warning for disordered eating, gore, institutionalization, and self-harm.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands

Book #353 of 2021:

Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands

This is a solid history of the American Revolution, with plenty of specific details that I didn’t previously know. It’s burdened with a misleading title, however, as there’s no real attempt here to apply an analytic lens of rebellion-as-civil-war upon events and only a minimal effort to explore the loyalist perspective, especially post-1776. Author H. W. Brands also has a tendency of reifying the ‘great men’ of the era, such that we hear a lot about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in particular and less regarding lower-profile individuals and common citizens.

I would say the core strength of the text is in its scholarly rigor, which leads to excerpts of many primary documents that flesh out the conflict. I appreciate the early accounts of how those two future Founding Fathers gradually came to support independence too, as well as the explanations of why the British tax situation grew so steep (beyond the simplistic motive of greed that’s often attached to that story). This isn’t a bad book overall, but it wasn’t what I expected given the name and ultimately doesn’t distinguish itself much from other works on the subject.

[Content warning for slavery, racism, and gore.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

Book #352 of 2021:

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

An interesting little oddity, and author Agatha Christie’s apparent sole foray into historical fiction — easy as it is now to forget that all her quaint drawing-room mysteries were actually set contemporaneously upon release — not to mention one of only four Christie novels that remain unadapted for television or film.

This title takes us back 4000 years to Ancient Egypt, although it’s largely the popular imagined version of antiquity rather than any triumph of detailed research or immersive worldbuilding. There a priest’s household, seen primarily through the eyes of his recently-widowed daughter, faces the upset arrival of his arrogant new concubine, whose subsequent death kicks off a series of murders ultimately comprising one of the writer’s highest body counts. It’s a decent diversion, but not as clever as her best works, and somewhat lacking in its eventual reveal of the culprit’s motivation / psychology. Without a detective character or any concerted investigation, our protagonist mostly just reacts to each new killing of her family with a gasp and a shrug.

[Content warning for slavery, racism, and the heroine’s romance with an older man who’s loved her since she was a child.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Book #351 of 2021:

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

I enjoy the protagonist’s magic here, which is limited to spells about baking and eventually gets put to creative use in defending the city from an invading army. I also approve of the dark and creepily realistic portrayal of a growing extremist movement in this fantasy kingdom, stirring public sentiment against perceived outsiders — wizards, in this case — and undermining loyalties to attempt a political coup. I just don’t know that those two ideas fit naturally together; it’s a little like the shift from whimsy to grit over the course of the Harry Potter series, only back and forth and in far fewer pages. There’s an element of tonal whiplash in the text that never really gets resolved, fun as it is to see a carnivorous sourdough starter attacking one of the traitors.

I have some additional nitpicking, too. The minimal worldbuilding is okay for a generic fairy tale vibe, but characterizing the sole foreign ethnic group as a uniform barbarian mob who eat dogs and people and are apparently dedicated to razing civilization to the ground is a pretty obnoxious writing choice, especially in a plot that is nominally opposing bigotry. It’s bizarre too for the heroine to mention that she’s fourteen years old literally twenty separate times (I counted!) in such a short book. Standards are often lower for a self-published work like this, yet these are issues that a good editor should have been able to catch and fix regardless. As is, the final product is a decent standalone adventure, but one that’s definitely hindered from ever living up to its full potential or seeming like more than the sum of its parts.

[Content warning for a very gross scene involving climbing up through a dirty toilet pipe.]

★★★☆☆

TV Review: Doctor Who: Flux

TV #86 of 2021:

Doctor Who: Flux

Doctor Who is a franchise that thrives on change, and so I have to credit soon-to-be-former showrunner Chris Chibnall for structuring this season as basically one single six-episode story, an experiment in serialization the likes of which the show hasn’t attempted since maybe Trial of a Time Lord back in 1986. It doesn’t always work, and in fact, I found the first hour woefully overstuffed and chaotic, at least on an initial viewing. (Perhaps it will fare better on a rewatch when I already know the shape of the larger plot and don’t have to wait a week in between installments.) But the rest is a degree stronger, and the ambition throughout is fantastic to see. Although it’s hit or miss overall, there are moments in this abbreviated run that absolutely deliver on all its potential.

Granted, it’s a little disappointing for offering one of those premises that goes so big you understand well before the end that it won’t have any lasting continuity impact — future writers aren’t going to accept that almost all the universe has been destroyed when they can undo that with a line or two of technobabble or simply ignore the development altogether — but I’m glad it follows up somewhat on the previous momentous reveals about the Doctor’s early incarnations, instead of leaving that explosive topic dormant. It’s the Division stuff that seems likely to stand out when we look back on this period later, rather than the Flux itself or the skull-faced baddies with their vague mission and nebulous talk of time.

Whenever the program slows down and remembers that it can be about people with real legible emotions and not just cool-sounding yet empty sci-fi buzzwords, the narrative soars. That’s what makes Karvanista’s and Yaz’s respective last scenes with the Doctor so touching, but the companions’ easy dismissal of being stranded on earth for a few years (!) fall flat. It’s why Vinder and Bel light up the screen each time we see them searching through ruins for one another, while none of the exposition about reality’s fate in general ever registers as particularly significant. I don’t even care that much that the Flux devastation lingers on, except to idly wonder whether the three specials next year will pick up that train before the Doctor’s regeneration and Russell T. Davies’s triumphant return.

As a whole this has still probably been my favorite of the Jodie Whittaker series, and that star actress remains a charmingly dorky delight in her line readings and other acting choices. But the unevenness in plot and tone is keeping me from embracing it quite as fully as its higher aims ought to deserve.

[Content warning for genocide and gore.]

★★★☆☆

TV Review: ReBoot, season 3

TV #85 of 2021:

ReBoot, season 3

An absolute delight, all the way through to that daft but earned Penzance recap number that closes everything out. This run starts right where the last one left off (although a year and a half had passed for viewers), and it continues the strong streak of serialized plot and character stakes that had begun around 2×7 “Nullzilla.” The original series hero is gone, and the cliffhanger resolution honors that without an immediate walkback, but rather a focused look at how it impacts the remaining cast dynamics.

Structurally, this era of the program is divided into four 4-episode blocks, each with a distinct narrative throughline and opening credits narration. First, new guardian Enzo and his friends must try to defend against Megabyte and the games in Bob’s absence. After another shocking loss, we cut to a grown “Matrix” and AndrAIa wandering from system to system seeking their former home, culminating in a surprise reencounter with the Crimson Binome from way back in season one. The next stage follows the pirate crew’s journey across the murky Web, and then the battle to restore Mainframe once they finally make it there.

Not every individual episode necessarily moves the story forward, but overall they’re a propulsive bunch that go by almost regrettably fast. The writers are just burning through ideas at this point, practically showing off compared to the static status quo of most animated features of the era. It’s easy to imagine — and want! — an entire expanded season of each quarter here, not to mention additional tales spanning the time jump between 3×4 “Game Over” and 3×5 “Icons.” But the creative team keeps us hungry instead, opting for sixteen installments of genuine quality over the potentially weaker adventures that would be needed to fill out a longer stretch. It’s a bold gambit, but as with so much in this epoch of the series, it ends up working like a charm.

The continued expansion of the worldbuilding beyond the scope of the initial premise is impressive, and the characters go through so many changes that, again, simply were not being seen in comparable children’s programming. The humor and cultural references have always been great, but they seem to have leveled up further here, to my intense enjoyment especially of all the Star Trek nods I didn’t pick up on as a kid. I’d even venture to call this a family show, with a darkness that’s never quite too bleak for the younger audience amid all the action-adventure excitement but offers plenty of realistic emotions and thematic complexities for us older folks as well. Not every title that stood out in my youth has been nearly so rewarding to revisit.

[Content warning for animated gore and gun violence.]

★★★★★