Book Review: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Book #261 of 2017:

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Jim Crow was a time of horror for black Americans, which makes it a natural fit for this novel about an extended black family coming up against the sorts of cosmic nightmares written about by H.P. Lovecraft. (Lovecraft himself was also an infamous racist, so there’s an element of reclaiming his narratives here, although that might have been stronger coming from a black author.) In a series of interconnected stories, Matt Ruff presents the Turner family’s dealings with power-hungry sorcerers, mystic cultists, incomprehensible cosmologies, and more. Throughout it all, his characters face the daily oppressions and terrors of black life in the 1950s, which in many ways overshadow the Lovecraftian ones. It’s a smart blend of racism with classic horror tropes, and a thrilling pulp read.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

Book #260 of 2017:

The Waste Lands by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #3)

This third book in my reread of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is just as great as I had remembered. If Book 1 mostly serves to introduce the weird world of this story, and Book 2 serves to recruit the supporting cast, here’s where it all comes together in our band of heroes striking out across that decaying world on a quest for the Tower at its center. I love the skill with which King builds up this post-apocalyptic setting, as he paints not just a land that has “moved on” after the downfall of civilization, but also the many ways in which it differed from our own reality even before then. It’s a huge genre mashup, a Western full of rogue cyborgs and malign AIs alongside magic portals and mystical destinies. And with well-drawn characters at its core and a plot to drive them onwards, it’s really a whole lot of fun.

(It was also neat to revisit this novel after seeing the movie adaptation of the series, which drew heavily from Jake’s storyline here. That film was something of a mess, but there are plenty of cool moments from The Waste Lands that we finally got to see on the big screen. I’m still holding out hope for a more faithful adaptation someday, though.)

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Book #259 of 2017:

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #1)

This space opera skewed a little close to a romance novel, which is not really my genre of choice. (Two enemy soldiers essentially fall in love at first sight, with the protagonist feeling overcome by her counterpart’s rugged manliness.) If you can invest in that central relationship, it’s a decent sci-fi action story with some appealing culture clash frictions, but I found myself struggling to make that leap. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t give a trigger warning for a scene in which the novel’s heroine is stripped, tortured, and threatened with rape. I know this is only the first book in a long ongoing saga, but I don’t feel particularly drawn to read on any further on the strength of this one.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Movie Review: Attack the Block (2011)

Movie #25 of 2017:

Attack the Block (2011)

I’ve seen this movie a couple of times before, but this was my first time watching it since John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker’s careers have really taken off (him as Finn in the new Star Wars trilogy and her starting as the Thirteenth Doctor in tomorrow’s Christmas special). It’s easy to see, in hindsight, why they’ve both gone on to become such stars. And the movie holds up really well! Aliens being driven off by inner-city London kids is such a great set up for a movie to begin with, and it’s executed just about flawlessly. Plus it hides its low budget really well, especially with that ingenious and creepy creature design. Definitely one to seek out if you’ve never come across it before.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

Book #258 of 2017:

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

The troubled teenage anarchist (and budding arsonist) at the heart of this story got under my skin in the best way. She’s so well-drawn in her roughness and her vulnerabilities, with her darkly biting perspective on life immediately distinctive and unforgettable. She’s a Holden Caulfield for a whole new generation, with less posturing and more focus on burning out injustice at its root. I think someone like Lucia Stanton would scare me a little in real life, but as a fictional character I just want to protect her and rave about her to anyone who’ll listen. I wish this book were longer, but it still gets my highest recommendation as is.

★★★★★

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Book #257 of 2017:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach #1)

This was an unsettling sci-fi tale of delirium and paranoia, but there was a bit too much unresolved ambiguity for me to truly love it. The narrator is exploring an environment that’s known to warp perception and impede clear thinking, and that’s even before she gets exposed to a hallucinogenic plant spore or realizes the extent to which her shadowy government commanders have hypnotized and conditioned her. The resulting story is well-told and creepy, but I would have liked just a little bit more clarity in what was really going on. (There’s a movie adaptation coming out soon, so it’ll be interesting to see how these ambiguities are handled on the screen.) This is only the opening volume of a trilogy, but I’m not sure at this point whether I feel like reading any further.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

TV Review: The Mindy Project, season 3

TV #48 of 2017:

The Mindy Project, season 3

This show is getting incrementally better, with the addition of Danny’s mom this season a definite strength. On the other hand, it’s still wildly inconsistent in terms of character logic and the type of show it feels like it’s trying to be. Like I’ve said before, this show is frustrating as much as (if not more than) it’s entertaining for me.

★★★☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: End of Watch by Stephen King

Book #256 of 2017:

End of Watch by Stephen King (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)

This last book in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy is unfortunately a bit of a mess. Partly that’s due to the tonal whiplash of following up two fairly straightforward crime thrillers with a story about hypnotic mind control, telekinesis, and bodyswaps, and partly it’s due to some very clumsy handling of the topic of teenage suicide. There also isn’t really much in the way of plot or character resolution to wrap up the series, and the villain’s motivations and schemes are never particularly clear. All in all it’s a rather poor send-off for Detective Hodges and his friends.

★★☆☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Book #255 of 2017:

Dangerous Women edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Far more misses than hits in this genre-spanning short story collection that purports to be about ‘dangerous women’ but mostly delivers stale femme fatales from a largely male gaze. (Why did it not occur to George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois that they really needed to bring on a woman as another co-editor for this project?) The rare standout entry is Megan Abbott’s haunting “My Heart is Either Broken,” which reaches Gillian Flynn levels of cruelty and creepiness as a husband’s suspicions of his wife grow over time. Read that — and Brandon Sanderson’s “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” if you haven’t come across it somewhere else before — but you can safely skip the rest of this collection without really missing anything.

★★☆☆☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Book Review: Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, Rachael Stott, and Charlie Kirchoff

Book #254 of 2017:

Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, Rachael Stott, and Charlie Kirchoff

This trade paperback collects the complete five issues of a comic book crossover between Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, and I have to admit that I didn’t have very high expectations for it. Franchise crossovers and media tie-ins can each struggle to present significant stakes in the face of a mandated status quo, so I had a fair bit of skepticism over the prospect of both in a single story.

Happily, “The Primate Directive” exceeds my expectations on that front. The plot that brings these two universes together makes sense for each of them, and the ensuing story feels like it really could be either a missing Star Trek: TOS episode or an extended bridge between the first two Planet of the Apes movies. The characters from both franchises are translated believably to this story, and they bounce off one another nicely. The comic even manages to resolve a potential plot hole that has long bugged Apes fans, with the revelation that Dr. Milo based his idea for time travel in part on an offhand comment Scotty makes about the slingshot effect.

You probably need to be a fan of at least one of these media properties already to enjoy this book. But for a project that could have been a lightweight hangout story, it’s a surprisingly solid entry to the canon of both series.

★★★★☆

Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started