Book Review: Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

Book #113 of 2019:

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #3)

Although still not as instantly iconic (or memorable) as the first novel in the Hitchhiker’s series, this next volume has plenty of clever writing and some fun absurdisms about coincidence and fate that raise it above the more middling sequel that it follows. The plot is also probably at its tightest here, presenting a fairly self-contained story rather than the roving comic style that author Douglas Adams usually employs. That structure helps scaffolds the humor, and the whole work is short and breezy and generally hilarious, which is exactly what I want from a book like this.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Book #112 of 2019:

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (Glamourist Histories #1)

This Regency drawing-room pastiche has an interestingly low-key magical element, but the characters and plot leave a lot to be desired. The whole novel is full of wide-eyed speculation over who likes who — which is silly because both a) the signs of that are all fairly obvious and b) this particular social universe seemingly consists of just six marriageable people in the first place, some of whom are related. It’s fine for a debut book, but not nearly as engaging as author Mary Robinette Kowal’s later Nebula-winner The Calculating Stars. 

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Nightingale’s Lament by Simon R. Green

Book #111 of 2019:

Nightingale’s Lament by Simon R. Green (Nightside #3)

I’ve been enjoying this pulp paperback series far less on a reread than I did when it was my first introduction to the urban fantasy genre back in high school. The main plot has yet to really kick off beyond vague portentous rumblings, and although the detective protagonist’s casework offers a bit of an episodic structure to the individual novels, in practice these storylines have very little actual investigation or deduction and consist instead of a string of atmospheric setpieces that could just as easily have happened in any order and in any book. The confrontations over each latest clue — which tend to involve bluffing and quick wits as much as any magic — are fairly imaginative, but I need something more out of a narrative these days.

[Content warning in this volume for casual transphobia including slurs]

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb

Book #110 of 2019:

Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man #3)

On balance, this final volume in Robin Hobb’s The Tawny Man trilogy probably has too much falling action after the major plot stakes are resolved. And it’s odd that the Piebald threat which loomed so heavily over the previous books is mostly discarded here. Yet Hobb has such a rich grasp on her characters and offers such true catharsis to their long-running arcs that it’s still an exciting thrill and an emotionally rewarding experience to read this novel to its final pages. For her central protagonist FitzChivalry Farseer this sixth story in his personal saga offers a well-deserved conclusion, and I remain deeply unconvinced by the author’s decision to roll back that ending with another Fitz trilogy a decade later.

This book: ★★★★☆

Overall series: ★★★★☆

Book ranking: 2 > 3 > 1

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Book Review: The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump by Andrew G. McCabe

Book #109 of 2019:

The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump by Andrew G. McCabe

The goal of this book is twofold: it joins a thriving genre of political tell-alls concerning the dysfunction and corruption of the Donald Trump White House, while also defending the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a bulwark of integrity undeserving of the president’s partisan attacks. These aims are broadly successful, although each has its issues that keep the work from really distinguishing itself.

The first prong of the text is notable mainly for the savage candor of former Acting FBI Director Andrew G. McCabe, who goes further in critiquing Trump’s character than even his ex-boss James Comey in the similar publication A Higher Loyalty. Nevertheless, McCabe covers little fresh ground in his inside account of the administration and its flaws, and I don’t find that I’ve learned much from the author’s side of the story beyond what was already in the news coverage of that time. I also feel like his glowing praise of the FBI glosses over many legitimate concerns surrounding that intelligence agency, even if he’s fairly accurate that the president’s specific criticisms are off-the-mark.

Ultimately I’d say this is a solid if non-essential read for understanding some of the politics and personalities of the era, but I wouldn’t put much stock in its objectivity.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Book #108:

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey 

This debut novel from author Sarah Gailey goes far on its concept of a non-magical detective investigating a murder at a school for young mages, but the worldbuilding is nothing special — more The Magicians than Harry Potter — and the procedural elements could have been a lot sharper. There are clues that are literally stumbled across and some fairly obvious conclusions that take the heroine forever to realize for herself. I like Gailey’s sense of character voice enough to check out some of their shorter published works, but this book isn’t quite enchanting as a whole.

[Content warning for gore and abortion.]

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: Friday Night Lights (2004)

Movie #8 of 2019:

Friday Night Lights (2004)

Having now seen and enjoyed all five seasons of the fictionalized Friday Night Lights TV program, I wanted to check out this earlier film, which purports to tell a true story about an underdog high school football team. And maybe it’s not wholly fair to compare the two, but I just found the movie so unfathomably boring, stripped of all the heart and character insight that the show seemed to spin out effortlessly. I get no sense from watching this version of events why these particular teenage athletes — or their coach or their hometown — should be considered more deserving than any other.

I also found the coach’s aggressive and belittling manner toward his players incredibly distasteful, and nothing like the stoic yet nurturing form of masculinity modeled by his television counterpart. FNL the series made me care about football for the first time in my life; these two hours reminded me of everything I hate about sports culture in general.

I had planned to read the original nonfiction book next, but at this point I’m not even sure if I should bother.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray

Book #107 of 2019:

Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray (Constellation #2)

I’m enjoying the blandly-titled Constellation series overall, but this sequel is nowhere near as fun as the YA space opera’s propulsive debut. The second novel is more than half over before its two protagonists are reunited, and the new stakes don’t seem particularly organic to the story thus far. I also feel like the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers narrative of the first volume allows for some great moral shading, whereas the villains in this piece are more ghoulishly one-note. I trust author Claudia Gray enough to file these issues under middle book syndrome, and I still think the trilogy could have a satisfying ending, but this title has been a bit of a letdown.

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Veep, season 4

TV #24 of 2019:

Veep, season 4

As always, Veep is a funny show that frustrates me with its petty vision of American politics and doesn’t really provide anyone or anything worth rooting for. I’ve given previous years 3-star ratings for that reason, but this one has such an uneven approach to its central campaign storyline and such a weird handling of a character getting sexually assaulted that I’m docking it another point.

This season aired in spring 2015, and was the last one created under original showrunner Armando Iannucci. I’m morbidly curious how the show has changed after his departure and in the era of Trump, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the last season I watch in full.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book #106 of 2019:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle #4)

There’s some interesting philosophizing in this 1969 sci-fi novel (which author Ursula K. Le Guin herself refers to as a ‘thought experiment’ in the Introduction), but the plot is scattered and a lot of its weighty, groundbreaking ideas about gender feel somewhat dated a half-century on. The protagonist struggles with feelings of love for an alien who sometimes presents as male, sometimes as female, and mostly as neither, and it’s hard for a modern reader not to feel he’s the weird one for making such a fuss.

Was this book revolutionary and influential within the genre? Absolutely. But it lacks both the focus and the heart that I’ve found in other of Le Guin’s works, ultimately leaving me as cold as its ice planet setting. Others may feel differently, but I’d say this one is only worth reading as a historical artifact, rather than as an enjoyable story in its own right.

[Content warning for torture, incest, and misgendering]

★★★☆☆

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