The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Moonwar by Ben Bova

Book #60 of 2026:

Moonwar by Ben Bova (Moonbase Saga #2)

Author Ben Bova’s novel Moonrise was a somewhat scattered prelude about life in a near-future lunar settlement, but it built nicely to the situation that’s front and center for this sequel: the facility’s leaders declaring their independence from Earth, so as not to be bound by an international treaty banning the nanotechnology that their systems require to operate.

The result is a neat political thriller, very reminiscent of my favorite arc on Babylon 5 when that station likewise breaks away from the corrupt planetary government. The self-styled “lunatics” have few weapons with which to defend themselves against an aggressive military force of U.N. peacekeepers, but they do have the home advantage and the scientific know-how to engage in clever resistance tactics while stalling for time and trying to win the war of public approval back on the ground.

Some of this feels a little dated a few decades on, like the communications blackout that the United Nations is able to get all news agencies to abide by, and the writer’s characters continue to display a higher libido than seems appropriate for either their circumstances or their professional responsibilities. But overall, it’s a great plot, and one that rewards loyal readers by bringing back a minor figure from the otherwise-unrelated title Mars. With an MCU-style crossover like that, it’s the first time that Bova’s Grand Tour has felt like a cohesive series to me and not just a random group of stories all set around a vaguely common theme of early space exploration. I never read much further than this before, so I’m hoping that’s an atmosphere that’s kept up as the wider saga goes on!

[Content warning for racism including slurs, gun violence, rape, suicide, and gore.]

This volume: ★★★★☆

Overall series: ★★★★☆

Volumes ranked 1 > 2

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Book Review: Doctor Who: Deceit by Peter Darvill-Evans

Book #59 of 2026:

Doctor Who: Deceit by Peter Darvill-Evans (Virgin New Adventures #13)

One of the better entries that I’ve read in this 90s spinoff series so far, and especially notable for a few fun developments on the side. First, this is the sole VNA novel written by editor Peter Darvill-Evans, and so offers an exceptionally clear demonstration of his vision for how these stories were meant to continue the Doctor Who franchise following its cancellation on television (in both the main text and an even more direct afterword on the subject). The Seventh Doctor, for instance, is by now a master manipulator who sets long chains of events into motion and then follows through to clean up the consequences, often with a false air of innocence and a ruthless alien morality driving his actions. He’s particularly motivated to protect humanity’s timeline from the malevolent interference of other time-travelers, since — in a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy — he’s become so intimately involved with the species over his lengthy association with us.

Here, his interest is in an emerging gestalt intelligence on a distant corporate-run colony world, although as usual, he keeps his exact aims pretty close to the chest. Having finally cured his TARDIS of its lingering instabilities — which sadly never amounted to much across the past few installments — he’s able to fall into the customary Doctorish pattern of arriving somewhere new, talking to the locals, and toppling the neighborhood tyrant. He’s aided in this effort by his current companion Professor Bernice Summerfield, but also by her predecessor Ace, who makes a triumphant return after three years apart (or six months for readers and roughly half that time for her friends). In her absence she’s finished her transformation from the plucky teenager she was on TV into a grimmer and battle-hardened young woman, and has joined up with a squadron of space marines who are on their way to the planet to investigate its mysteries.

Rounding out the party is Abslom Daak, a brutish fan-favorite antihero from the pages of the Doctor Who comic books. His inclusion is kind of silly — his whole gimmick is that he’s a dedicated Dalek killer, and those enemies aren’t even present in this particular adventure — and though Ace spends the volume trying to keep him alive because she knows he dies in glory elsewhere, she’s ultimately unsuccessful only to learn that he’s a clone whose death won’t impact the course of history anyway. Still, it’s a neat and then-unprecedented crossover that serves to mutually reinforce the canonical nature of both the comics and this sequence of novels.

The plot isn’t the most original, but it’s fine enough as a backdrop for these elements, not to mention the returning cyberpunk era setting and a certain toxic lesbian relationship that the characters encounter. I’ve enjoyed the work for itself and for what it represents alike, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of “New Ace” (as the fandom calls her) in the sequels ahead.

[Content warning for gun violence, sexual assault, suicide, and gore.]

★★★★☆

TV Review: Homicide: Life on the Street, season 3

TV #17 of 2026:

Homicide: Life on the Street, season 3

At 20 episodes, this is Homicide’s first full-length season, following two with 9 and 4 respectively while it was still an uncertain property on the bubble of cancellation. It’s another strong one, taking advantage of the greater space with more serialized arcs — though they didn’t always air in the right order — and experimentation in format like stories that decenter the main cast or end without a suspect getting caught for their crimes. I don’t find the running subplot of some of the detectives buying a neighborhood bar to be particularly enthralling, but it’s nice to see major cases take weeks to resolve and serious injuries linger to the extent that they should. And in a further sign of the program’s growing popularity, it has a brief crossover with Law & Order (a cameo drop-in from Chris Noth as Det. Mike Logan), which would prove to be the first of several such connections and culminate in Richard Belzer’s John Munch joining the Special Victims Unit spinoff after this series ended.

A few casting changes mark the year as well. Reportedly to improve the gender ratio, the new character of Lt. Megan Russert is introduced, while Jon Polito as Steve Crosetti becomes the first original star not to return (so chosen due to NBC not liking his physical appearance, allegedly). In seeming protest of that network decision, the writers turn his departure into a tragic suicide, spending the hour when his squadmates learn the news on a fittingly somber tribute to the man. Actors Daniel Baldwin and Ned Beatty would also choose to leave at the conclusion of this run, although I don’t know yet how that will be handled on-screen.

Notable guest stars this time include Steve Buscemi, John Waters, Bruno Kirby, and Jerry Stiller, while Beau Felton’s previously unseen wife finally appears to give more shape to his nebulous unhappy marriage. It’s a fine outing all around, and one that continues to offer interesting predicaments beyond the typical limitations of a tidy police procedural.

[Content warning for gun violence, domestic abuse, racism, homophobia, and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski

Book #58 of 2026:

Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski

This is an incredibly long novel — 1232 pages in hardback; 58 hours to listen to the audiobook on regular speed — that in my opinion never quite manages to justify its heft. It’s a pretty straightforward story, especially compared to author Mark Z. Danielewski’s infamously experimental House of Leaves: two teenagers in 1982 Utah rescue a pair of horses that their legal owner was going to slaughter, then lead them through a difficult mountain pass to reach a national preserve where they can roam free. Unbeknownst to the young thieves, they also make convenient scapegoats for a murder that happens soon after their departure, leading to an angry posse stirred up by the real killer on their trail.

The effect reads a lot like vintage Stephen King, and was obviously strong enough for me to finish the thing despite its size. But I have a hard time accepting the sixteen-year-old protagonist as such a riding and shooting prodigy, and I don’t care much for the device the writer uses of regularly interjecting random asides of opinions from future strangers as a sort of ramshackle Greek chorus. (Apparently the teens’ ordeal will someday be so well-known as to be the subject of countless songs and paintings and academic papers and beyond. There’s one late stretch of the narrative devoted to an entire art exhibition on the matter that feels particularly egregious and interminable.)

Still, when it sticks to the central action it’s a decent western / wilderness survival tale, and I like how the characters are accompanied by the ghost of a dead friend only one of them can see, who in turn reports that he’s joined by an additional spirit invisible to the living as well. Plenty of individual moments within that framework are striking, but I’d look far more favorably on the title at a fraction of its length.

[Content warning for gun violence, domestic abuse, child sex abuse, racism, homophobia, and gore.]

★★★☆☆

Movie Review: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Movie #18 of 2026:

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

This third Terminator feature is a deeply cynical film. It would almost have to be, since series creator James Cameron famously considered the story to have finished with the exemplary Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991 — and so for the new rights holders to reopen the franchise a decade later, without his involvement, it reads as a pretty naked cash grab rather than an organic continuation or a next chapter that really needed to be told.

It doesn’t help that after two movies that grimly implied the timeline can’t be changed, T2 ended on a genuine triumph for humanity. The apocalypse had been averted, and Skynet’s deadly robots wouldn’t be brought online after all. But you can’t have a Terminator movie without Terminators, so here they are again: both Arnold Schwarzenegger as another T-800 reprogrammed to protect the young John Connor and newcomer Kristanna Loken as a more advanced model opposing him. It turns out that their dystopian present was merely pushed back, not prevented, and the “Terminatrix” even succeeds in her first few assassinations of Connor’s future lieutenants in the modern day. In other words, history apparently can be rewritten, but maybe just to the benefit of the machines.

Our returning hero (now played by Nick Stahl) isn’t one of the T-X’s targets, because he’s been living off the grid and has no known location that his enemies could pinpoint. But by either coincidence or fate, he connects with an old flame (Claire Danes) right when she comes under the crosshairs of the cyborg killer and the Schwarzenegger character shows up to defend her, leading the three of them to flee their shapeshifting pursuer in a dim echo of the previous installments.

The result is big and loud and not particularly well-thought-through when you stop and consider the logic of it all, like why the latest time-travelers have been sent to this specific moment. It ends, again rather pessimistically, with the malevolent A.I. dropping nukes on the world as it was seemingly always going to do, and the human protagonists securing only the meager victory of having survived and positioned John as the potential resistance leader he’ll need to be. It’s also noteworthy, in a piece that insists impending disasters can’t be stopped, how he’s told his older self is dead in the era when the Arnold-bot originates. And the script establishes that his mother died sometime after the last movie too, which feels like a disservice to Linda Hamilton as the original heroine of these things.

Amidst all that, there are some attempts at humor and titillation that mostly fall flat. (You can practically hear the studio executives breathlessly pitching this sequel as, “This time the Terminator is a girl!” especially given how the agents from tomorrow always arrive without clothing.) Guns are fired and cars are crashed, and it’s a competent enough action blockbuster overall, I guess. But it’s quite the comedown from what we’d seen in this setting before.

[Content warning for suicide and gore.]

★★★☆☆

Book Review: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Book #57 of 2026:

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #1)

A pitch-perfect middle-grade portal fantasy, in which our eleven-year-old protagonist stumbles into an underground world via the basement laundry room of his New York City apartment building. There he discovers giant talking animals like cockroaches, spiders, and bats, a strange civilization of humans, and a prophecy that seems to indicate he’s to be their warrior hero savior. He first rejects this role, but when he learns that his father who disappeared two years ago is alive and being kept prisoner in a neighboring kingdom of rats, he accepts the locals’ offer to join him on a rescue mission.

That quest honestly could have been a larger part of the plot, as it feels like it’s still just getting going when everything suddenly wraps up. But I understand the need to keep things shorter for the younger audience, and at least there are several sequels ahead, although this initial volume stands relatively fine on its own. Overall it’s a great time! I especially like the character of Gregor’s toddler sister who falls into the Underland with him — so often as a parent I feel as though kids that age are written rather poorly in fiction, but she’s a believable little tyke in both her behavior and her sibling dynamic with her big brother.

I’m not seeing much in common between this story and the author’s better-known Hunger Games novels (besides the fact that the various factions aren’t either all good or all evil), which are the only other titles I’ve read from her. But it’s nice to find she has the range to do something so radically different, and do it well. I’ll be coming back for the rest of the series for sure!

[Content warning for domestic abuse and child endangerment.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves by Arik Kershenbaum

Book #56 of 2026:

The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves by Arik Kershenbaum

I’ve really enjoyed this 2020 nonfiction title, in which an evolutionary biologist provides his informed speculations about the potential nature(s) of extraterrestrial life. He does this by describing a wide sample of the myriad beings that share a planet with us already, the fundamental principles of natural selection that have produced them (and that we would expect to be universal), and the additional sorts of creatures that might arise under different constraints than the Earth’s.

The primary focus here is on function over form. Legs have evolved independently in our ecosystem multiple times, for instance, because there’s a great evolutionary benefit to being able to move across a surface with less friction — and therefore an alien world would likely exhibit that type of appendage in some of its lifeforms, even if they don’t appear quite like any that we can see closer to home. Dr. Kershenbaum also points out repeatedly that evolution doesn’t work towards any particular end goal: small changes accumulate over eons into larger ones, but each successful mutation in the moment is simply one that serves to help an individual better survive and/or reproduce in its given environment.

We are thus unlikely to find the kind of telepathy so popular in science-fiction, because there’s no clear chain of incremental advantages that would ever produce such an ability in the aggregate. For a similar reason, we would not predict species to evolve wheels, or supersonic speeds, or so on, despite the fanciful inventions that sometimes populate our stories. And because the exact chances that led to intelligent, social, speaking tool-users that look like us were so hyper-specific to our own random development, interstellar visitors we may someday encounter who embody all those same behavioral traits are almost certainly not going to resemble the near-humanoids of Star Trek or the like. But with the writer’s guidance, we can at least begin to imagine what attributes we might plausibly have in common with them and where we will probably differ.

Overall, it’s a fun read. The author openly admits to glossing over the finer details of the scientific theories that he relates, and as someone with an academic background in linguistics, I noticed several such omissions in his discussions of language, animal communication strategies, and how something like either might manifest out in space. I would have preferred a more thorough approach myself, especially there, but he does acknowledge that he’s intentionally dropping nuance to make the text more accessible, and he includes ample citations for anyone interested in reading further. The end result is breezy and charming, while still feeling well-grounded in the available facts.

★★★★☆

Movie Review: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Movie #17 of 2026:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

It’s rare for a sequel to so thoroughly surpass its predecessor, especially when the original piece is already as terrific as The Terminator (1984). This movie makes it all look easy, however. It nimbly channels the sci-fi action thrills of the first film, while effortlessly expanding and establishing its own unique tone. And it even adds a plucky juvenile sidekick, which is almost never a great move for an ongoing series! But somehow, everything about this feature just works.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator from the last picture was destroyed, but because it was a manufactured cyborg, this next script simply writes him in as another copy of the same model. The initial setup also leads us to believe that an identical premise is happening again: the machines of the future have sent an assassin back in time, with an agent of the resistance following to oppose it. We see the familiar hulking bodybuilder-turned-actor and a slender new man both arrive in roughly the present day, and the former soon gets into a violent altercation with some bikers in a bar. The other time-traveler sneaks around and acquires a police uniform, then calmly tries to locate John Connor, the boy whose birth the robots were unable to stop before. All available indicators on-screen suggest that Arnold is once more the villain, and his opponent will be our Kyle Reese figure striving to save the family.

Of course, the exact opposite is actually true, and the character disguised as a cop is subsequently revealed to be the very cool-looking T-1000, a being made of liquid metal that can shapeshift and seemingly heal from any injury (representing a technological breakthrough in special effects). Now, was anyone in the audience ever truly fooled by the ploy? I’m not sure. It’s a twist that’s pretty well-known today, and featured heavily in the trailers and other contemporary marketing efforts that proudly announced, “This time he’s back… for good!” But still, it’s the kind of reveal that’s enjoyable whether you’re expecting it or not, and even if you do know what’s coming, the early feints to hide who the real hero is remain rather clever and fun to spot.

This new T-800 is just as deadly, but we learn he’s been programmed by the adult John to protect his childhood self, a development that gives him more lines and personality and allows for a more comedic atmosphere throughout. Don’t get me wrong — the 1984 Terminator had humor too, and this one opens with a vision of children on a playground dying in a sudden nuclear holocaust, so it’s hardly a complete lark. But there’s an undeniable hangout vibe to a lot of this, particularly when the young boy starts teaching the machine about human things like emotions and catchphrases. (Say it with me now: “Hasta la vista, baby.”) The result situates this version of the character as a spectrum-coded outsider like Star Trek’s Data, a well-meaning but ignorant alien who doesn’t understand our regular ways, but out of loyalty is willing to try them on. It’s quite the turnaround from the near-silent horror slasher of the previous installment, and it’s to Schwarzenegger’s credit that he sells the transition so well.

The final member of the posse is a returning Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, although she’s transformed herself so significantly that she almost could have been recast instead. Since learning about Terminators and humanity’s dark future, she’s trained her body and mind to become a perfect soldier and tried to raise her son the same way. When the story begins, she’s stuck in a mental institution but still keeping in fighting shape, while John is living away from her in a foster home, believing that she’s crazy. After the good Terminator saves him from the bad one, he insists they rescue his mom, and the three of them escape to plan a strike that could finally rewrite destiny and avert the coming apocalypse.

But can the timeline be changed, or not? The debut movie ended in an ironic predestination paradox, suggesting that the malevolent A.I. in fact caused John Connor’s conception in the very process of attempting to prevent it. This second one continues in a similar vein, by establishing that the surviving tech of the original Terminator was what inspired modern scientists to invent such a thing (meaning that if Skynet had never ordered its agents into the past, it couldn’t have been created). However, the protagonists do succeed in wiping all that out by the end, with a strong implication that they’ve managed to win the day. Franchise logic would ultimately walk that back, but if the series had terminated here (sorry) as writer-director James Cameron reportedly intended, it would have been a satisfying and reasonably consistent conclusion.

Obviously, though, we shouldn’t hold the flaws of later titles against this one, which holds up astonishingly well on its own terms. It’s funny and imaginatively thrilling, with big-budget scenes like a helicopter chasing after an armored SWAT vehicle that its leaner forerunner couldn’t have handled. It makes a point of its heroes rejecting killing, but it cheerfully endorses terrorist destruction of property while maintaining a skepticism of authority and reminding us that people dressed as law enforcement don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart. Five-out-of-five stars for what’s easily one of the top sequels of all time.

[Content warning for gun violence, body horror, sexual assault, suicide, and gore.]

★★★★★

Book Review: The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala

Book #55 of 2026:

The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala (The Dead of Summer #1)

I really enjoyed author Ryan La Sala’s previous YA queer horror title Beholder, but this newer release is unfortunately a misfire for me. Although the first chapter sketches some interesting character dynamics — our teenage hero has a meet-cute with another boy on the ferry back to his island home, after having spent the past year on the mainland ignoring his friends to tend to his sick mother, who has recovered but become a person he barely recognizes — that potential swiftly evaporates. The parent-child relationship feels like it should be the core of this story, but then she vanishes for most of the book. Meanwhile the protagonist’s formerly tight clique (who adorably call themselves the Suds because they always stick together) are initially estranged from him, but they all get over that difficulty pretty quickly once a terrifying infection starts spreading throughout the insular population, turning its victims into ravenous coral zombie things who subsequently merge their forms into hulking composite monstrosities.

From there on, it’s a fairly standard supernatural survival tale, which tends to flatten the interpersonal drama. I also don’t care for the structure that regularly flashes forward for later debrief interviews on a mysterious medical ship offshore, and I think the decision to end the novel on a cliffhanger to launch a wider series is an odd one. I’m not sure exactly where the plot could go next with how everything wraps up in this volume, but I’m not seeing any need for me to keep reading to find out, either.

[Content warning for gun violence, body horror, and gore.]

★★☆☆☆

Book Review: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

Book #54 of 2026:

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

Novelizations are often dismissed as weak cash-grabs, but in truth the format is — or at least, can be — an art form like any other. Some adaptations are practically invisible, conveying the action from the screen without embellishment, while others struggle to capture and translate the soul of a piece into its new medium. And then there are a few that prove somehow exceptional, taking the opportunity to add immersive details like interior character monologues while also shoring up flaws in the original work. They’ll of course never replace the standard versions that they’re adapting, but they can be an interesting way to revisit them in a different fashion.

Such is the case for author Matthew Stover’s take on Episode III, the final installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The bones of the plot are inherited from the George Lucas script, but in my opinion the execution is superior, drilling down into individual psychologies and the inherent operatic tragedy of it all. On the very first page, we are told, “This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it. It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage and sacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred line between our best and our worst. It is the story of the end of an age.” That’s a bold statement that sets the tone for the book that follows, and already exhibits the stylistic flourishes that the writer has brought to the task.

In this iteration, Anakin Skywalker is a legitimately tragic figure whose temptation and fall are rendered more convincingly. We’re shown his fears and prophetic visions of losing his pregnant wife Padmé in great detail, and repeatedly reminded of the recent death of his mother and how he was unable to save her. He clashes with the Jedi council not only because he resents their treatment and trusts his mentor Palpatine more than they do — a relationship that likewise feels deeper here — but because he is frantically clinging to the emotional attachments that the order tells him he should relinquish. His sense of powerlessness feeds his worst impulses, goaded along by the villainous chancellor (now openly confirmed to be the former pupil of the legendary Darth Plagueis) at every step downwards.

Some of the structural weaknesses remain. None of the few female roles have anywhere near the depth of the men, for instance, and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s excursion to deal with General Grievous still reads like a dull holdover from the previous movies that conveniently removes him from the heart of the personal and political drama on Coruscant. On the other hand, Stover does liven up the many combat scenes with analyses of the specific styles and strategies that various Force wielders are deploying, which is a neat device to make up for the lack of visuals there.

This novel was published in 2005 alongside the movie, and it was eventually declared non-canonical when Disney bought the franchise a decade later. Its divergences from the source material are now considered “Legends” in the company’s eyes, but I do think it’s worthwhile for fans to seek it out at some point regardless.

[Content warning for domestic abuse and gore.]

★★★★☆