The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Book #49 of 2024:

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

A brutal piece of historical fiction about an abused servant girl in colonial Virginia who flees that famine-struck settlement into the nearby woods. Author Lauren Groff’s prose is as wickedly sharp as ever, and she pulls no punches in describing both the natural and human horrors of her nameless protagonist’s young life. There’s extreme gore and repeated sexual assault or threat thereof, not to mention an overall atmosphere steeped in sexism, racism, ableism, and any other -ism you can imagine for how seventeenth-century British society viewed deviance from its perceived norms. That environment is explored via flashbacks, while the heroine’s ordeal in the present constitutes an even more harrowing wilderness survival tale. The book contains an element of magical realism as well, with the animals and spirits of the forest seeming to come alive and aware around her, although the character is suffering from such fever, concussion, and further woes at that point that she’s not necessarily perceiving her surroundings objectively.

It’s a quick enough novel, and definitely won’t be to every reader’s taste. It depicts a ragged sort of existence that is, to borrow a phrase, rather nasty, brutish, and short. But I’m pleasantly reminded of Stephen King’s lost-in-the-woods story The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which I remember enjoying several decades ago (and should probably reread now after this), and I can honestly say it’s my favorite title from this writer yet.

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Seinfeld, season 5

TV #10 of 2024:

Seinfeld, season 5

This season of Seinfeld doesn’t have a major arc like the meta show-within-a-show factor of the previous year, but it’s nevertheless a strong run of episodes made distinctive by the development of George moving back in with his parents, which allows for new kinds of story premises and more hilarious appearances from the two older Costanzas. Even outside of direct plot serialization, the sitcom is also experimenting more with callbacks that reward a loyal audience, such as when the ultimate punchline in 5×15 The Pie involves cutting away to a character from 5×10 The Cigar Store Indian, with no additional context for viewers who missed that one. (There’s a fun running thread involving Kramer writing a coffee table book about coffee tables, too.) With moves like that, coupled with the overall quality of the comedy scripting, it’s no wonder that this series gained such a cult following. I’m really starting to understand how the program inspired certain successors in the genre like Arrested Development.

A few big pop culture moments associated with the show are present in this season as well, from “shrinkage” in 5×21 The Hamptons to Judge Reinhold’s “close talker” in 5×18-19 The Raincoats — bits like the still-upcoming soup nazi or Festivus that everyone always references whenever discussing Seinfeld. Luckily, those elements are no less funny to finally see in their original context, even if you’ve been hearing people talk about them for seemingly all of your life.

[Content warning for racism, stalking, and domestic abuse, all minor but basically played for laughs. The 90s!]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Terec and the Wild by Victoria Goddard

Book #48 of 2024:

Terec and the Wild by Victoria Goddard

For most people within the boundaries of Astandalas, the magic that flows out of their ruler to knit the empire together is either unnoticed or experienced like a gentle balm. A select few with their own strong powers chafe against it, however, and for young Terec, that manifests in feelings of intense discomfort and an inner fire that threatens to spill out if/when his control should ever falter. Aghast at waking up with singed bedsheets each morning and terrified of what further damage he might cause, the teenager flees for the nearest border without telling his family or his best-friend-turned-lover Conju (whose tale continues in The Game of Courts and, much later, The Hands of the Emperor).

And that’s basically it, as far as the plot of this novella is concerned. It’s primarily a character study, and like many of author Victoria Goddard’s more peripheral Nine Worlds stories, it ends without particular climax or resolution to its affairs, although an afterword indicates that additional installments with Terec will be coming at some point. I especially wish that this one could have devoted more time to its aforementioned queer relationship — which the adult Conju lingers over poignantly in his memories — instead of relegating that romantic interest to backstory exposition and a breakup letter that the protagonist sends once he’s on the road.

I do like the early scene where the hero’s father knows his son is leaving but can’t bear to openly acknowledge it, and the general tone of the piece is well-crafted in a slightly-mournful spin on low-stakes cozy fantasy. But overall, it hasn’t added much to my enjoyment or understanding of this saga and its characters.

★★★☆☆

Book Review: The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Book #47 of 2024:

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

[Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.]

I’ve read most of author Brandon Sanderson’s published writing, and this Hugo Award-winning fantasy novella from 2012 remains my absolute favorite, a title I’ve returned to and reread on multiple occasions (both as a standalone feature and as part of the Arcanum Unbounded collection). His pet themes are all here: inventive magical systems explained cogently and brought to life with ingenious exploits of the underlying rules, aspirational models of effective leadership, twisty heists pulled off with expert precision, and more. There’s even mention of the tripartite split across the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms, a theoretical framework that underpins and loosely connects the writer’s various Cosmere stories (though you don’t have to read any of the others first, or even realize that this one is set on the same world as his novel Elantris). All of that in a slim volume of only 167 pages in my paperback copy.

The distinctive Chinese- and Korean-inspired worldbuilding elements are fun too, but it’s the characters who really make this work shine. We start from the irresistible premise of a con artist given a reprieve from her imminent death penalty in order to assist her captors with a secret task, which turns out to involve healing the empire’s ruler from a head injury that’s left him catatonic. Privately she doesn’t think it can be done at all, let alone in the hundred days she’s been granted, but she gambles that playing along will hopefully give her enough time to plot an escape. As she outwardly complies and talks more with the grandfatherly man overseeing the assignment, however, she reluctantly starts to believe in the good that could come of their project if she could somehow manage to pull off a miracle. Simultaneously, he and the reader are learning more about the prisoner and her art, which is far deeper and more philosophically-minded than the simple process of forgery it initially seems.

In essence, Shai’s hand-carved stamps rewrite the history of the person or object that they mark, for instance convincing a shattered window that it’s instead been lovingly maintained or persuading manacle chains that they contain a flawed link that will break the next time they get struck. The blueprint must be plausibly near enough to an observer’s recognized reality for the change to take hold, so if she’s to produce one that will restore the fallen emperor, she needs to know all she can about him to essentially recreate his entire personality from scratch. It’s a sorcery that the imperial advisors consider to be the utmost heresy, though they’re desperate (and hypocritical) enough to employ her services regardless.

What unfolds from there is a deeply humane tale, about as cozy as the genre can get with a looming execution date hanging over the protagonist’s head. It asks profound questions about art and human intention, and it shows how honest individuals who passionately disagree can slowly find a way to see things from the other’s perspective. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a book that believes wholeheartedly in people’s ability to surpass their limits, rise to a challenge, and ultimately prove better than they ever were before — to become the version of themselves that’s needed to meet the present moment. I’m moved anew by its powerful ending, as I find that I am each time.

★★★★★

Book Review: Doctor Who: The Giggle by James Goss

Book #46 of 2024:

Doctor Who: The Giggle by James Goss

This. THIS is what I’ve been hoping for from these recent Doctor Who novelizations, a winking adaptation that elevates its source material into something even madder and ever more brilliant. Don’t get me wrong: this James Goss novel obviously owes its existence to the original Russell T. Davies script, and there are elements of the TV special that can’t be captured well outside of that medium, from the visual effects and a certain memorable dance number to guest star Neil Patrick Harris’s intentionally broad accent work (though the audiobook narrator Dan Starkey does his best to channel that). I wouldn’t recommend it as a substitute for actually watching the episode, if any potential reader out there were remotely considering that approach. But it is a lovely way to revisit the story and find a new spin on its events, beginning with the author’s audacious choice to write everything from the perspective of the omniscient villain the Toymaker.

As he relates this adventure, the antagonistic creature from beyond our reality regularly breaks the fourth wall, offers wittily snide remarks about his opponents, and just generally seems to be having a great time. It’s in line with the overall manic energy of the piece — which finds the character wreaking havoc across contemporary earth by means of a signal he planted back in the first television broadcast in 1925 and culminates in the Time Lord hero ‘bi-generating’ into David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa alike, with the outgoing and incoming Doctors teaming up to defeat their common foe — and is packed with all manner of delightful turns of phrasing. We even get a few bonus scenes and flashback memories, which neither Gary Russell’s version of The Star Beast nor Mark Morris’s take on Wild Blue Yonder found much room for. All in all, a true triumph of its form.

[Content warning for gun violence and racism.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Book of War by John Peel

Book #45 of 2024:

Book of War by John Peel (Diadem: Worlds of Magic #7)

The Diadem series had its ups and downs, but when it ended its initial six-book run with Scholastic in 1998, there weren’t really any major lingering plot threads that made its continuation seem likely or at all necessary from a creative standpoint. Surprisingly, the sequence did later get revived by the publisher Llewellyn, with reprints of the original stories and the release of four subsequent sequels, beginning with this one in 2005 (all under the new series subtitle, Worlds of Magic).

The primary task of this volume, then, is to justify its own existence and convince readers that the basic premise of the franchise still has legs. It’s also an opportunity for author John Peel to flex his talents, showing both how he’s grown as a writer in the years away and how he was probably constrained by his previous editors. Thus, although it’s not especially evident how much time has elapsed since we met our three returning protagonists, they feel like richer and more mature characters — perhaps in their mid-to-upper teens now, rather than the tweens they were to start. The tone of the narrative around them has also deepened, to the point where I’d classify this and the remaining novels as Young Adult fiction instead of middle-grade like what came before. (At long last, all the hokey puzzles and speech distortions are gone!) It’s a glow-up I love to see.

This installment finds the trio of magic-users journeying to Helaine’s homeworld, where we’re reminded that she left considerable unfinished business, including an arranged marriage betrothal, when she was first whisked away on her adventures. Although the feisty heroine has no intention of going through with the wedding, she regrets breaking her father’s agreement and opening him up to political fallout in the form of several rival lords now besieging his castle. A large part of the tale thus involves them mending that parent-child bond, with him eventually coming to respect and accept her as a warrior despite how it flies in the face of their medieval culture’s prescribed gender roles. This isn’t as strong an outing as Score’s return to Earth in Book 5 — among other issues, it’s bizarre that we don’t hear anything about the girl’s swordmaster Borigen, an even more important relationship in her original backstory — and the worldbuilding on Ordin isn’t particularly distinctive. But the character interactions are pretty worthwhile.

This title also introduces a new viewpoint protagonist Jenna, who soon joins the team with her healing powers. She’s the weakest element of the reboot so far in that she’s transparently here just to be a romantic interest for Pixel, with the two of them basically falling for each other at first sight, saying nice things while blushing a lot, and then kissing a few times. At least he’s finally over his old crush on Helaine, whose slow-burn mutual attraction with Score continues to develop nicely. I don’t have much patience for the stammering lovebirds in this book, but the others indicate why they work well as a couple despite all their bickering, as they continually push one another to improve their respective flaws. For Score, that’s his cowardice and rude manners; for Helaine, it’s her arrogance and the surprising degree of classism / racism she directs at Jenna for being a peasant. (The text describes the latter as having light brown skin, though the cover artist at Llewellyn doesn’t seem to have noticed.) Score and Helaine grow by holding each other accountable, and it makes their dynamic of trust feel real and gratifyingly earned throughout.

The teens ultimately resolve the military conflict in an ingenious way, and the conclusion opens up new questions about Score’s parentage as well as the role that Jenna will play in events moving forward, without ending on the sort of sudden random cliffhanger that Peel had sometimes employed in the past. Book of War isn’t a stone-cold classic by any means, but as a proof-of-concept for a series restart, it definitely gets its readers back on-board.

[Content warning for slavery, gore, and implied threat of sexual violence.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: Dark Heir by C. S. Pacat

Book #44 of 2024:

Dark Heir by C. S. Pacat (Dark Rise #2)

I loved the twist at the end of the first Dark Rise novel, but felt like the majority of the book leading up to it was too slow-paced and generic for my tastes (shadowy riders chasing a young farmboy from his home into a wider world of danger, and so on). Luckily, this sequel dives right back into the action, with ramifications for that big revelation that considerably reshape the plot ahead. I still want more clarity / distinctiveness from the worldbuilding — it’s distracting to hear references to Italy and France alongside commonplace magic and worries that the ancient evil king is resurfacing — and the large cast of supporting characters with mostly modern English names like Elizabeth and Violet remains a bit unwieldy. But the core of the story surrounding the protagonist is incredibly sound.

It’s the tale of that hero Will recognizing and repudiating a certain capability for cruelty within himself, while scrambling to keep it a secret from his closest friends. It’s in the slow-burn romantic pull he feels towards his companion James, complicated by his concern that such a relationship could never truly be consensual given particular elements of their half-remembered previous lives. And it’s in his dedication to be better than his history, with a definite narrative tension in the question of whether the tragedy he’s caught up in will ever ultimately allow that.

Via flashback, we also learn more about Sarcean and Anharion — much stronger fantasy genre names, I must say — and their own doomed romance, and a new character in the present turns out to be a warrior of that same distant era resurrected to inhabit a fresh corpse. To author C. S. Pacat’s credit, all of this business of mind/body dissociation — distinct prior incarnations of souls that have left a legacy for their future selves, personalities from the past walking around in the forms of random dead folks now, and a magical ability some people can wield to temporarily possess their sworn servants — is never confusing or hard to follow, and given his/her genderqueer identity, there’s ample subtext for trans readings of such forces as well. Overall, it’s exactly the step forward for the series that I was hoping to find.

[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]

★★★★☆

Book Review: The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson

Book #43 of 2024:

The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson

I was initially drawn in by the protagonist of this work, a troubled gay Black teen struggling to settle into his new Vermont boarding school when the forest just outside its grounds keeps whispering at him. Unfortunately, the novel that follows doesn’t really live up to that promise of YA dark academia fantasy, and instead shuffles along with unmotivated plot stakes and unclear worldbuilding rules to its magic. The PG romance plays a large role in the text, and yet the connection between the two boys feels like it’s based on nothing but instantaneous attraction (and I suppose being apparently the only queer kids in town). I kept waiting for the storyline to find its footing and truly show off the interesting hero at its core, but the whole enterprise stays stubbornly untethered from anything we could meaningfully invest in all the way through to the end.

I primarily put praise and criticism alike of a book on its author, but in this case I’m more inclined to blame the editor after a scene where the headmaster of the prestigious academy uses the word “infer” to mean imply: “I never said I couldn’t enter the forest, Douglas. I simply inferred that I couldn’t.” That sort of usage is widely regarded as a nonstandard / incorrect definition, but it’s common enough in casual speech and probably an easy mistake to make in writing. This particular character wouldn’t be the type we’d expect to say it, however, and a competent professional edit should have caught and revised that. It’s a small detail that didn’t affect my rating, but I do think it’s a handy example to encapsulate my overall frustrations with the title in microcosm.

[Content warning for homophobia, racism, bullying, gaslighting, and gore.]

★★☆☆☆

Book Review: Aurelius (to be called) Magnus by Victoria Goddard

Book #42 of 2024:

Aurelius (to be called) Magnus by Victoria Goddard

From what I’ve read so far, the majority of author Victoria Goddard’s Nine Worlds saga takes place in and around the time of Artorin Damara, the hundredth and final Emperor of Astandalas. This prequel novella, by contrast, is set many centuries prior, and functions primarily as a character study of His Radiancy’s distant predecessor, the forty-ninth personage to hold that title. We find him here early in his reign, but already tired of constantly waging war to expand and preserve his empire’s borders.

The action of the piece is minimal and somewhat underwhelming, even for a cozy fantasy series like this. The protagonist arrives in his mother’s homeland and honors her old teacher by asking for his advice to secure a lasting peace, but the former general’s response basically amounts to a suggestion that he try meditating as though going into battle within himself. When he does, he experiences a sequence of prophetic visions and ultimately unlocks the intuitive understanding to wield magic that had hitherto eluded him. It’s a gift we know will radically reorient his station and that of his lineage to come, but it doesn’t amount to much of a conclusion for the story currently at hand. Although an interesting picture of the reluctant young warrior and his era of the setting, this book isn’t the most satisfying installment on its own.

★★★☆☆

Book Review: Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

Book #41 of 2024:

Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

Author Agatha Christie’s 80th book, published on the occasion of her 80th birthday in 1970, is one of only four of her novels that have never been adapted for television or film. I’ve already read two of the others, Death Comes as the End and Destination Unknown, and found each to be a halfway-decent curiosity. This, in contrast, is an absolute trainwreck.

I’m rating it as highly as two stars solely for my enjoyment of the opening premise: a man waiting for a delayed flight is approached by a stranger in the airport lounge, who notes that they share a striking physical resemblance. She claims she’s being tracked by enemies who want to kill her, and asks if she can borrow his passport and coat and put a drug in his drink. He’ll pass out and be able to claim he was robbed, while she will cut her hair and escape under his credentials. He agrees out of sheer boredom (and because this was several decades pre-9/11, I suppose), and later attempts to track her down again to learn more.

It’s absurd, but charming, and not too far off in tone from the spy thrillers this writer had previously penned. Once the two travelers reconnect, however, everything goes swiftly down into a swirl of conspiratorial nonsense and minimal plot. The protagonist’s new friend and de facto love interest — the story ends with their getting married, despite containing no evidence of romance beforehand and numerous observations that she reminds him of his sister — introduces him to her comrades, who are attempting to stop some nebulous international threat. According to them, all the populist youth movements around the world are secretly run by neo-Nazis, who are planning to bring them together into a global Fourth Reich under a charismatic leader who might be Hitler’s son, born after the führer apparently faked his death in the war (by switching places with a patient at a specialized insane asylum for people who all think that they’re Adolf, of course).

Much of this is delivered to us as feverish exposition rather than relevant action beats or interesting character decisions, and it culminates in the good guys visiting a mad scientist who’s been working on an airborne toxin that will cause its victims to be more benevolent-minded (and therefore resistant to caring about all the silly things kids these days protest over, one presumes). A half-century on, it’s hard not to read Christie’s own reactionary politics into this, but I have to emphasize that it also just fundamentally does not make sense on a basic story level. After a promising start, this title is nothing but a pile-up of kooky ideas that have been poorly shaped into a rough approximation of narrative. The main characters often aren’t even around for what passes as key developments, and the whole business concludes without any particular resolution beyond the reveal of a surprise traitor in the group. It’s a real mess that’s in dire need of a Poirot or a Marple to help sort out the jumble.

[Content warning for gun violence and fatphobia.]

★★☆☆☆