Book #15 of 2025: Iorich by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #12) In many ways, this Vlad Taltos installment feels like a rehash of #10 Dzur, with the reformed hitman protagonist again lured back against his better judgment to the hometown where his enemies still have a price on his head, in order to sort out …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Book Review: Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent by Scott Lynch
Book #14 of 2025: Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent by Scott Lynch What a delight it is to reenter the world of Camorr, that medieval Venice-inspired city-state with its elaborate criminal underworld staking out rival gang territories along the canals. Author Scott Lynch has published a variety of shorter fiction in the years since …
Continue reading “Book Review: Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent by Scott Lynch”
Movie Review: Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)
Movie #1 of 2025: Star Trek: Section 31 (2025) This spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery had a complicated production history, beginning life as an intended sister series to that show and Strange New Worlds before getting derailed by COVID-19 delays and ultimately scaled back to the form of a TV movie with some potential room …
Continue reading “Movie Review: Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)”
Book Review: Balancing Stone by Victoria Goddard
Book #13 of 2025: Balancing Stone by Victoria Goddard Another interstitial novella in author Victoria Goddard’s Greenwing & Dart cozy fantasy series, this time focusing on Jemis Greenwing’s schoolmate Hope after the events of the sixth / latest novel Plum Duff. As introduced in the book before that one, she’s in love with his best …
Continue reading “Book Review: Balancing Stone by Victoria Goddard”
Book Review: Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Book #12 of 2025: Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean #3) I flitted between three and four stars for this latest Fourth Wing sequel, but was ultimately swayed by how wildly off-base the lower-starred reviews on Goodreads seemed to be. So congrats to those users, I guess, who convinced me to push my own …
Continue reading “Book Review: Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros”
Book Review: A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson
Book #11 of 2025: A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson As a fantasy-lover with an academic background in linguistics, I expected to adore this YA historical fiction title from debut author S. F. Williamson, which reimagines Britain’s WWII codebreakers at Bletchley Park as working to decipher the secret communications of dragons, rather than …
Continue reading “Book Review: A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson”
TV Review: Sex Education, season 2
TV #4 of 2025: Sex Education, season 2 Reliably funny, but not quite as charming as the first installment of this Netflix series. The main problem here is Otis, the awkward virgin and son of a sex therapist at the heart of the program, still dispensing unsanctioned but helpful advice to his classmates. This second …
Book Review: The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
Book #10 of 2025: The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #5) I’ll admit I was a little impatient during the first half of this latest novella in the Singing Hills fantasy series, which seemed to be setting up a fairly transparent Bluebeard plot. Our returning protagonist Cleric Chih is …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo”
Book Review: Doctor Who: The Adventures Before by Mark Griffiths, Steve Cole, Janet Fielding, Gary Russell, Beth Axford, Janelle McCurdy, E. L. Norry, and Ingrid Oliver
Book #9 of 2025: Doctor Who: The Adventures Before by Mark Griffiths, Steve Cole, Janet Fielding, Gary Russell, Beth Axford, Janelle McCurdy, E. L. Norry, and Ingrid Oliver This short story collection has a fun concept that’s mostly executed rather well, depicting new prequel events for eight Doctor Who episodes: The Daleks (First Doctor, 1963-1964), …
Book Review: The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart
Book #8 of 2025: The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart (The Hollow Covenant #1) I appreciate the distinctive premise of this epic fantasy novel, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by two different magical afflictions: the initial curse that made everything a wasteland and another that followed later and is now gradually spreading, …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 