Book #184 of 2024: Notes to a Science Fiction Writer: The Secrets of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova I saw this 1981 title on my mom’s shelf over the holidays, and since I’ve read plenty of the late author’s fiction here and there, I decided to take it down and see what …
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Book Review: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Dr. Chris Kempshall
Book #183 of 2024: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Dr. Chris Kempshall A staggering work that I would unequivocally recommend to any obsessive-minded Star Wars fans like myself. This book, written by an actual academic historian, applies the investigative principles of that field to the continuity of the franchise …
Book Review: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire
Book #182 of 2024: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #9) Broadly speaking — although this is as inaccurate in the details as Eleanor West’s flawed Logic / Nonsense dichotomy that she tries to fit all the student experiences into — there are two types of stories that the Wayward Children novellas …
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TV Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5
TV #51 of 2024: Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5 I’ve never quite loved this cartoon, but I’ve come to appreciate its place in the Star Trek canon, which it regularly comments upon with the most lovingly esoteric references imaginable. (In one episode this season, for instance, a Klingon gets cut off in traffic and …
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Book Review: Dzur by Steven Brust
Book #181 of 2024: Dzur by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #10) In this story, the former assassin Vladimir Taltos returns home to sort out some trouble with his ex-wife and the criminal organization they both used to work for, which still has a bounty on his head. That’s pretty standard plot fare this deep into …
Book Review: Ithaca by Claire North
Book #180 of 2024: Ithaca by Claire North (The Songs of Penelope #1) An extraordinarily effective Greek mythology retelling, centering on the character Penelope and the wider kingdom around her while her husband Odysseus is still lost at sea following the victory at Troy. (He’s been gone for 17 years, placing this novel roughly three …
TV Review: What We Do in the Shadows, season 6
TV #50 of 2024: What We Do in the Shadows, season 6 A strong and funny sendoff to the gory vampire mockumentary, although not one that necessarily gives everyone in the ensemble a shared chance to shine. Nandor and Guillermo are as usual the (un)beating heart of the matter, and this farewell season is a …
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Book Review: Traveller’s Joy by Victoria Goddard
Book #179 of 2024: Traveller’s Joy by Victoria Goddard A short but sweet prequel / interlude in the madcap lives of Jemis and Hal from author Victoria Goddard’s Greenwing & Dart series, and one that I think would stand fairly well on its own for newcomers — although as ever, recognizing the web of sprawling …
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Book Review: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Book #178 of 2024: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman This historical fiction novel unfolds across two alternating timelines, set six decades apart. In the 1920s, teenager Augusta “Goldie” Stern works in her father’s Brooklyn pharmacy, growing close with his delivery boy Irving and learning some of her great-aunt’s homeopathic medicine …
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Book Review: Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson
Book #177 of 2024: Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson This 1913 short story collection consists of six entries initially published in various British magazines a few years prior, all concerning the titular occult detective, Thomas Carnacki. His methods are somewhat like those of Sherlock Holmes, but his domain is the supernatural and especially …
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