Book #300 of 2021: The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad A solid children’s fantasy adventure. I think the metaphor of the chess-like board game that recurs throughout would have been stronger with a clearer explanation of its rules, and I wish the protagonists had a greater sense of personal agency, rather than seeming fated to …
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Book #299 of 2021: Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian An entertaining if not particularly deep airport thriller. I enjoy the college setting of this story, since that’s a rarity in fiction overall and especially this genre, but the plot has its share of weaknesses and the characters are a squirrelly and amoral lot. …
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Book #298 of 2021: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder Powerful and uncompromisingly uncomfortable as the title suggests, this debut novel depicts an exhausted and infuriated young mother who is either having a psychotic break or legitimately experiencing herself turning into some sort of canine-human hybrid. Her body hair is growing coarse, her teeth are sharpening, she’s …
Book #297 of 2021: The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip José Farmer (Riverworld #2) It’s two decades later in the Riverworld, that strange place where everyone from earth’s history woke up restored to their 25-year-old bodies, which have not gotten any older in the meantime. (The children have likewise stopped aging after catching up to the …
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Book #296 of 2021: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder This slim volume was published as a very pointed commentary on the newly-inaugurated President Trump, based on his despotic-leaning words and deeds throughout the 2016 campaign. It still works outside of that context, sort of, especially in its warnings of …
Book #295 of 2021: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #2) This prequel is the richest and most complex entry in the Animorphs franchise yet, even more so than The Andalite Chronicles, which I believe was the last time in this series reread that I ventured that claim. It’s also the earliest …
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TV #78 of 2021: Star Wars Resistance, season 1 The debut run of this Star Wars cartoon about the lead-up to The Force Awakens gets marginally better in its last few episodes, but for the most part, it’s a real exercise in frustration. Despite the title and the hero’s nominal role as a spy, the …
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Book #294 of 2021: Echo Park by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #12) Bosch’s latest encounter with a serial killer is a bit rote, and a twist midway through — that the criminal is innocent of one particular murder, which a corrupt attorney got him to confess to as part of a secret deal — is …
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Movie #7 of 2021: Star Trek: First Contact (1996) This is among the better Star Trek films I’ve seen so far, and a definite improvement on Generations, the previous outing with the cast of TNG. Neither the plot nor everyone’s characterization makes complete sense, but the effects are great, and the story generally zips along …
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Book #293 of 2021: N or M? by Agatha Christie (Tommy and Tuppence #3) In this 1941 spy thriller, author Agatha Christie reprises her characters of Tommy and Tuppence, last seen in 1929’s short story collection Partners in Crime. The ‘young adventurers’ are now middle-aged and chafing at not being allowed to assist on the …
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