The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Squire by Tamora Pierce

Book #69 of 2018:

Squire by Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small #3)

I’ve noted before that this quartet of books within Tamora Pierce’s larger Tortall series seems to be the author’s take on the classic boarding school literary genre, like Harry Potter without any looming Voldemort-style threat. Indeed, the plot is the major shortcoming to these stories, which basically just track the heroine growing up, gaining combat skills, and overcoming sexist bullies.

Nevertheless, this third novel is the strongest one so far, and it benefits from having an older protagonist with more nuanced, mature relationships. (This goes beyond romance, but the love interest here is possibly the least problematic I’ve yet read from Pierce, so kudos are due in that regard.) Keladry goes from fourteen to eighteen in these chapters, and the end of her knightly training comes to an enjoyable — albeit expected — conclusion. This quartet so far has revolved entirely around her education, so it will be interesting to see what the final book in Kel’s saga has to offer next.

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018)

Movie #7 of 2018:

Ready Player One (2018)

As a disclaimer, I really like the novel this movie is based on, which I think gets a bad rap for some GamerGate-style gatekeeping associations that aren’t really present in the narrative itself. It’s also a story that seems really hard to adapt faithfully, and I think Steven Spielberg mostly succeeds in capturing the feel and ethos of the story if not all its particular plot details. The puzzles that our heroes have to solve are completely different, but they work well on-screen and really bring the digital OASIS universe to life much as I had imagined it while reading.

That being said, the love story somehow ends up being even flimsier in the movie, and I hate that Art3mis is often reduced from someone on Parzival’s level of competence and nerdity to a wide-eyed naif that he keeps having to educate about the easter egg they’re hunting. The plot near the end of the movie (basically from when Z gets kidnapped onwards) is also really muddled and makes me long for some of the scenes in the book that have been left behind in adaptation. In the end the spectacle largely lives up to the hype, but you’ll get a better story out of the original novel.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Book #68 of 2018:

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

This bildungsroman of a young woman growing up in the early 20th century pleasingly recalls both The Color Purple and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but it carves out a distinct space for itself with its vibrant characters and pitch-perfect depiction of Jewish-American life. Presented as an 85-year-old telling her youngest granddaughter about her past, this book is a great example of how characterization and setting can carry a story even in the absence of much plot. There’s never any major drama, but the narrator is a whip-smart and funny first-generation American, and it’s a thrill to see the Boston of a century ago taking shape through her eyes. I do wish the narrative hadn’t ended so abruptly and without apparent motivation right after the main character’s wedding, but I’m holding out hope that author Anita Diamant might come back with a sequel that tells the rest of this woman’s story with the same warmth and humor she brought to her youth.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Book #67 of 2018:

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #4.5)

This book was written after the conclusion of the author’s main Dark Tower series, but it takes place squarely in the middle, just after the fourth novel Wizard and Glass. (As with the prequel novella The Little Sisters of Eluria and other tangentially-related King stories, it’s best read either there, when the Dark Tower world is well-established but the fifth novel Wolves of the Calla hasn’t yet kicked off the series endgame, or else after a reader has already finished the main storyline and is hungry for more Tower connections.)

The Wind Through the Keyhole wasn’t written to plug any particular plot holes, so its events are fairly extraneous to the main Dark Tower story. A reader could easily skip this book and not feel anything was missed, as indeed we all did before its initial publication. But if you don’t mind the lack of plot movement, it’s a fun narrative of nesting stories showcasing King’s trademark weird blend of the fantasy, sci-fi, and western genres. There’s another glimpse at Roland’s ka-tet on their way to the Tower, another flashback to the gunslinger’s youth, and a new Mid-World fairy tale, all woven together and delivered with a master storyteller’s aplomb. It may not move the series plot along, but it’s a pleasant way to sit a spell by the campfire before we get to the Calla.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Star Wars: So You Want to Be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz

Book #66 of 2018:

Star Wars: So You Want to Be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz

This junior novelization of the second Star Wars film is a significant step down from The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farmboy, which was author Alexandra Bracken’s similar take on A New Hope. Whereas Bracken splits her story into three different sections, each from the perspective of one of the lead characters, Adam Gidwitz approaches his assignment primarily through the second-person. Most of the book asks readers to imagine they’re Luke Skywalker living the events of the movie (“You are lying in a medical bed aboard a Rebel starcruiser. You flex the muscles in your right arm.”), interspersed with meditation lessons to try at home (“Stand on one foot or put a book on your head. Count to ten. Okay? Now, while still balancing, say your telephone number backward.”).

I actually find the the latter chapters to be an enjoyably goofy way of teaching mindfulness behaviors to kids under the guise of Jedi philosophy, although it’s an odd fit for a retelling of The Empire Strikes Back. But the passages about Luke are often clunky, and on the occasions when Gidwitz needs to cut away to show what other characters are up to, the third-person perspective floats around without any cohesive anchor. The result is a remarkably poor rendition of a sci-fi story we know can be great.

★☆☆☆☆

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Book Review: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

Book #65 of 2018:

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #1)

This is a very well-crafted story that, while not quite my cup of tea, seems likely to be the perfect book / series for plenty of other readers. Set in a Victorian-style era of a world much like our own, it follows a lady who pushes against the confines of her society to chase her passion and make a study of dragons. The story is presented as the heroine’s memoirs, written when she’s an established scientific expert later in life, and it’s a joy to see her younger self grow in confidence and expertise as she embarks on her first major excursion in this initial novel. Following in the footsteps of Terry Pratchett’s Sybil Ramkin and Robin Hobb’s Alise Kincarron — to say nothing of real-life scientist pioneers like Jane Goodall — our dragon naturalist refuses to let other people’s ideas about her gender prevent her from going out into the wilderness to study the creatures that she loves.

What didn’t quite work for me was the novel’s plot, which revolves primarily around some drama with the villagers who live near the study’s base camp. There’s not much of a narrative arc here, and although I enjoyed the time spent with the protagonist and her notebooks, I kept wanting there to be more at stake than just the present state of scientific knowledge on dragons. As with Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, of which I similarly read only the first book, I like the characters yet don’t really feel compelled to read any further into their non-adventures. But if a minimal plot is less of a problem for you, I highly recommend checking out Lady Trent.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Book #64 of 2018:

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds #1)

This dystopian YA novel struck me as a very capable early draft that was unfortunately rushed to print before its full potential could be unlocked. From the narrator not really seeming like a teenager who’s spent the past six years of her life in a concentration camp to some unclear worldbuilding to the 200-page road trip that essentially adds nothing to the plot, there were a lot of elements in the story that a good editor should have had revised before publication. The ingredients are there for this to be a Hunger Games or Shade’s Children, but as is, it’s just a mess.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Book #63 of 2018:

Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

This princess-on-a-quest story for middle readers recalls earlier gems of the genre like Dealing with Dragons or The Two Princesses of Bamarre, although it feels a tad long and aimless in comparison. Author Garth Nix delivers a capable heroine (with nary a love interest in sight) and some imaginative sorcery, but I kept waiting for something more in the plot or worldbuilding to really elevate this book. It’s by no means bad, but it’s also not likely to go down as anyone’s favorite.

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)

Movie #6 of 2018:

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)

It’s hard for me to be objective about this musical, a personal favorite that I’ve now seen in at least five different productions. So I love that NBC aired it as their latest live stage performance, even if some of the directing choices struck me as less effective than other versions of the show. (The most egregious was probably Judas’s relative lack of energy in “Damned for All Time” and “Superstar,” but Alice Cooper also did NOTHING with his King Herod role, which is normally a show-stealer.) On the bright side, the acting and vocals were mostly pretty great and I loved seeing such a campy take on the normally staid role of Pontius Pilate after Herod didn’t end up bringing that sort of energy to his own scene. In the end I don’t think there’s anything that would pull me back into watching this particular live recording a second time, especially given the occasional dropped microphone cues, but it was fun to watch a new take on the material after all these years.

★★★☆☆

Movie Review: The House (2017)

Movie #5 of 2018:

The House (2017)

This comedy about yuppie parents running an illegal casino to pay for their daughter’s college tuition is more memorable for some gross blood spurt effects than for any particular cleverness in its writing. The cast is great, but they aren’t given much to work with; Jason Mantzoukas ends up being the funniest just by playing the same unhinged character he always does. As with many Will Ferrell projects, this feels like something that could have been an amusing bit of sketch comedy but doesn’t really offer enough to sustain my interest through an entire film.

★☆☆☆☆