Book #94 of 2018: Blindness by José Saramago This novel about an epidemic of sudden contagious blindness has a strong start of creeping desperation and a ruthless military quarantine, but it loses me in the back half of the story when society has effectively crumbled due to everyone losing their sight. There’s so much ableism …
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Movie Review: Doctor Strange (2016)
Movie #8 of 2018: Doctor Strange (2016) I watched and reviewed this movie last year, and my thoughts are about the same: I’m still happy with my decision to wait until Doctor Strange was on Netflix to watch it (so as to hurt box office returns in protest of the casting). But having now finally …
Book Review: A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas
Book #93 of 2018: A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock #2) Although I really like the character of Charlotte Holmes, she’s yet to have a truly engaging novel built around her. This second adventure at least centers the clever detective more than the first, but it relies far too heavily on coincidence …
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Book Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Book #92 of 2018: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1) A gloriously uplifting space opera, featuring a diverse crew of interstellar travelers who are fascinatingly drawn and who all care deeply for one another. The setting is sort of like Firefly amid a Star Trek or Mass Effect-like …
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TV Review: ReBoot: The Guardian Code, season 1
TV #22 of 2018: ReBoot: The Guardian Code, season 1 I have so many mixed feelings about this — apologies in advance — reboot. I loved the original show and have been longing for a revival ever since it went off the air back in 2001, but this new version is pretty different… and pretty …
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TV Review: Bosch, season 4
TV #21 of 2018: Bosch, season 4 Of all the shows I watch, Bosch is usually the one I have the least feels about. The first season was a little hokey, and after that it’s generally been this quietly competent urban crime drama that I mostly watch so that I can talk about it with …
Book Review: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
Book #91 of 2018: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small #4) A solid but kind of unremarkable Tortall adventure. The Protector of the Small series is generally marketed as a quartet, but it honestly feels more like a cohesive trilogy followed by this somewhat vestigial afterthought. I’m not trying to be too …
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TV Review: Orange Is the New Black, season 5
TV #20 of 2018: Orange Is the New Black, season 5 The latest chapter of Netflix’s flagship dramedy is somewhat experimental, spending the entire season on what turns out to be a three-day prison riot. For the most part, the experiment works: it shakes up the show’s usual storytelling rhythms and offers one of the …
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Book Review: Warcross by Marie Lu
Book #90 of 2018: Warcross by Marie Lu (Warcross #1) There’s a lot of Ready Player One in the DNA of this sci-fi adventure about a poor teenage orphan who becomes a sudden celebrity after finding something strange in a wildly popular VR game. But instead of an intentional easter egg, Emika Chen discovers a …
Book Review: Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
Book #89 of 2018: Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach #2) I liked but didn’t love Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation, and I was hopeful that this sequel, set outside the mysterious Area X that clouds everyone’s thinking, would offer a more straightforward story. Unfortunately, it does not. Instead there’s the same creeping horror and hypnosis-fueled …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 