The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

Book #132 of 2018:

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #4)

A thrilling return to the Red Rising series, set ten years after the conclusion of the original trilogy. This time author Pierce Brown is juggling three new character perspectives in addition to his returning hero Darrow, the slave who rose up to topple an empire and must now face ruling in a tentative peace amid the remnants of his enemies. The new characters are equally engaging, and I love how they continue to expand the scope of this universe, taking us places that Darrow can’t see. The chapters set in the outer rim of the solar system in particular offer some excellent worldbuilding to contrast with the familiar society of Mars and Luna where we’ve previously spent most of our time.

My one criticism is that these four narratives don’t intersect much (although two become more closely linked halfway through), and there’s no apparent rhyme or reason for which chapters fall where. That’s by no means a trait unique to this story, but it results in the novel sometimes feeling like the middle seasons of Game of Thrones, where nothing truly connects the disparate storylines beyond their nominally happening in the same fictional world. I hope that as this series continues, Brown finds more ways to have these characters interact with one another. Overall, though, this is an outstanding continuation of a great sci-fi saga.

★★★★☆

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Movie Review: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Movie #14 of 2018:

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

This is a weird movie to review. On the one hand: I really enjoyed watching it! The 2:40 runtime absolutely flies by, and it’s such a joy to see all (okay, most) of the characters Marvel has built up over the years finally bouncing off one another. There’s really no comparison for a movie like this; the closest would have to be the original Avengers or Captain America: Civil War, and they both fall well short of what Marvel has accomplished here in terms of weaving in characters from across the MCU. This is a movie that by design can’t stand on its own; you practically have to have seen all (okay, most) of the 18 earlier films in the series to understand who these people are and where they’re coming from.

On the other hand: the movie ends in such a way that you know it’s going to be somehow undone by the events of the next Avengers movie. I’ve seen some comparisons made to The Empire Strikes Back, lauding Infinity War for having such a downbeat ending, but I feel like that misses the mark. Without getting into spoilers, this movie doesn’t just end in the heroes’ defeat; it ends in a huge event that should be catastrophic across the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet, it obviously won’t be. The Marvel movies and TV shows that are coming out between now and the next Avengers are coyly set either before this one or in some undefined time, but clearly not affected by the events here. Several movies that are already in pre-production for a post-2019 release seem impossible without a reset of what we see happen to their characters in Avengers: Infinity War.

And that would be okay if this movie were to be judged on its own merits, because it isn’t a weakness in Infinity War per se that the MCU won’t have the courage of its convictions for a universe-shaking event to actually shake the universe. But that sword cuts both ways: if this is a movie that inherently rests on its predecessors and can’t be considered in isolation, then it seems fair to judge it by what will likely come after as well. And from that perspective, the bold ending of this movie feels pretty hollow after all.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

Book #131 of 2018:

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #6)

The first few Vorkosigan books haven’t really gripped me, so I decided to jump forward to this one (which was the third to be published, anyway — these books are all out of chronological order). It’s more of a spinoff, sharing the same general space opera setting but not focusing on the Vorkosigan family themselves for once.

In lieu of our typical protagonists, this novel centers on the title character, a gay man from a world with an entirely male population. The denizens of Athos use medical technology to reproduce, and when their supplies of female genetic material need to be replenished, Ethan is sent off-planet for the first time in his life. The result is a solid fish-out-of-water story that offers the action-adventure thrills of the rest of this series, but I was sad to leave the distinct setting of Athos so soon. There’s a lot worth exploring there that is only hinted at, and I didn’t find myself as interested once Ethan blasted off.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Book #130 of 2018:

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Grief memoirs are tricky; they’re obviously cathartic to write, but can easily turn into a wallowing in loss that shuts out their readers. Author Joan Didion largely avoids that trap by focusing on the more mundane aspects of her husband’s death, centering this narrative on her dissociative thoughts as she grapples to come to terms with his absence over the following year. It’s a little clinical at times, and the author can’t seem to keep from endless name-dropping, but her knowingly illogical fixation on the idea that there must be something she could do to change things will likely be relatable to anyone who’s gone through such a loss of their own.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper

Book #129 of 2018:

The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper

Much like his on-air news persona, there’s a certain boyish earnestness to journalist Jake Tapper’s debut novel. It’s fun to see the author venturing into the world of historical fiction, and to speculate on possible connections between his tale of government intrigue during the heyday of McCarthyism and the contemporary stories Tapper reports on for his other job. Unfortunately, none of that makes this a good book in and of itself, and at its heart, The Hellfire Club is a clunky airport thriller that likely owes its publication almost entirely to the author’s pre-existing fame. I feel a little bad about judging what’s clearly a goofy passion project, but the flat characters, cheesy tropes, and Dan Brown plot shenanigans really do little to recommend this book on its own merits.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Book #128 of 2018:

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

A fierce and elegiac tale of early female empowerment, first published in the decade before (white) American women won the right to vote. The heroine, introduced shutting down a catcaller with an “Amazonian” glance, is the eldest sibling in her family and the one tasked with running the frontier farm after their father’s death. Over the years that follow, she proves more capable than her shortsighted brothers or their male neighbors at the business of managing a successful homestead, even at the potential cost of her personal hopes and dreams. Author Willa Cather — who never married but lived with a close female friend for many years, leading to later speculation about her romantic orientation — writes with real poignancy of both the unforgiving Nebraska landscape and the struggle for women to prove themselves apart from men.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

Book #127 of 2018:

One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

A hilarious and heartfelt collection of essays from Canadian author Scaachi Koul, focusing on her life as the millennial daughter of Indian immigrants. It’s a short book that finds humor in heavy subjects, from online harassment and rape culture to racism and shadism at home and abroad. Koul’s anxieties are relatable and her observations insightful, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

★★★★☆

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Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Movie #13 of 2018:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

I went into this movie with fairly low expectations, but ended up really enjoying it. Jurassic Park films have a tendency to copy the major plot points of the original movie’s storyline, but this one takes serious risks that pay off tremendously for me as a viewer. (The trailers and posters that I saw, like the above, play this very close to the vest. I’m not sure if that’s good marketing or not; it made the movie a pleasant surprise but I also wasn’t particularly excited in advance and could have easily missed seeing it at all.) This is the most interesting and thematically rich JP sequel yet, and the physical comedy had me in stitches the whole way through. Hands-down my favorite of the series since Jurassic Park itself.

★★★★☆

Book Review: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

Book #126 of 2018:

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

I think I would like this historical fiction novel better if it had focused solely on the Polish girl sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp to be the subject of Nazi medical experimentation. Her story is understandably poignant, but it’s weakened by splitting its time with two other, less compelling narrators. The first of these, an American socialite with a boyfriend in France, is somewhat bland — and unconnected to the rest of the book until near the end — and the other, a rare female doctor at the camp, is a literal war criminal who never does anything to remotely earn my sympathy. (These two women are real historical figures; the prisoner is more of an original creation, although her experiences are still based in fact.) With the extra perspectives and an accelerated storyline after the war, the result is fine but not as strong as it could have been.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis

Book #125 of 2018:

Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis

A solid if somewhat unremarkable Star Wars adventure, fleshing out Jyn Erso’s early life after she gets adopted by the terrorist Saw Gerrera at the beginning of Rogue One. The whole book reads mostly like a series of deleted scenes from that film, and it’s sure to appeal to diehard fans of the movie or this character. But her growth into the weary skeptic we meet on screen contains few surprises, and the overall plot is hampered by an awkward framing device and a last-minute time jump.

★★★☆☆

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