Book #70 of 2025: Lyorn by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #17) And just like that, I’m all caught up with Vlad Taltos (though not its sister series, the Khaavren Romances). This 2024 title is the latest to be released, with reportedly only two additional sequels left to go. It’s another perfectly pleasant adventure with the …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Book Review: Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed
Book #69 of 2025: Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (Reign of the Empire #1) Just in time for the second season of Andor, here’s another recent Star Wars title that grapples seriously with the idea of life and resistance in an era of growing fascism. In this case, it’s the early …
Continue reading “Book Review: Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed”
TV Review: Bosch: Legacy, season 3
TV #19 of 2025: Bosch: Legacy, season 3 Bosch isn’t exactly a great TV show, but it goes out about as solidly competent a mid-tier crime drama as ever. Technically, of course, this isn’t even Bosch but its successor program Bosch: Legacy, although the distinction between the two has never been as clear-cut as I’d …
Movie Review: Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)
Movie #3 of 2025: Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998) This TV movie aired during the middle of Babylon 5‘s fifth/final season, but I’ve chosen to watch it where it apparently falls in continuity, which is immediately after episode 4×8 “The Illusion of Truth.” I’m satisfied with that decision, but in all honesty, this is such a …
Continue reading “Movie Review: Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)”
TV Review: Matlock, season 1
TV #18 of 2025: Matlock, season 1 Look, was there any pressing need for a modern reboot of Matlock, that 80s/90s procedural about the elderly lawyer perpetually underestimated for his age and folksy ways? Of course not. But if you’re a CBS executive who’s going to greenlight that project anyway, you could do worse than …
Book Review: Till Human Voices Wake Us by Victoria Goddard
Book #68 of 2025: Till Human Voices Wake Us by Victoria Goddard Published back in 2014, this was author Victoria Goddard’s debut novel — and unfortunately, it shows. There are a few neat ideas with interesting implications for the writer’s wider Nine Worlds saga, like how the empire of Astandalas originally fell, but it’s an …
Continue reading “Book Review: Till Human Voices Wake Us by Victoria Goddard”
TV Review: Abbott Elementary, season 4
TV #17 of 2025: Abbott Elementary, season 4 As most sitcoms tend to do over time, this series has by now settled into a comfortable rhythm as a hangout watch. Viewers can tune in for a dose of the familiar characters and their banter, but not have to worry too much about any larger plot …
Book Review: Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Book #67 of 2025: Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee I loved Pachinko, but for some reason it took me a long time to circle back around to check out this earlier volume, author Min Jin Lee’s debut. As it turns out, I like this one even better; there’s the same great grasp …
Continue reading “Book Review: Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee”
TV Review: The Bear, season 3
TV #16 of 2025: The Bear, season 3 In an odd way, The Bear the TV series seems to be following the same arc as The Bear the titular gentrified restaurant, growing increasingly artsy and experimental as it goes along. How else to account for the first episode of this latest season, which is basically …
TV Review: Daredevil: Born Again, season 1
TV #15 of 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, season 1 Even for Marvel, this is a wildly uneven show, although the tonal clashes make sense when you know a little about the production process behind it. As a sequel to the Daredevil series that originally ran on Netflix from 2015 to 2018, this revival brings back …
Continue reading “TV Review: Daredevil: Born Again, season 1”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 