Book #111 of 2024: Translation State by Ann Leckie Like her previous novel Provenance, this latest sci-fi story from author Ann Leckie technically stands on its own, yet is set in the same continuity as her earlier Imperial Radch trilogy, which provides a fair degree of important background context on the various species, technologies, and …
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Book #110 of 2024: A Whisper in the Walls by Scott Reintgen (Waxways #2) This second novel in the Waxways YA fantasy trilogy has quintessential middle volume problems, laying foundations for the conclusion ahead at the expense of the immediate story at hand. It also represents a significant step down in quality from its predecessor, …
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TV #34 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 13 Tom Baker’s second year as the Doctor — Elisabeth Sladen’s third as his intrepid feminist reporter friend Sarah Jane Smith — is a pretty good one, although it finds the series still shaking off the final vestiges of his predecessor’s era. This season gives us the …
TV #33 of 2024: Farscape, season 1 Another sci-fi series that I missed at the time and am belatedly getting into now. I like this one a lot so far! It feels a bit like Star Trek crossed with Stargate — the latter in part because Farscape stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black would later …
Book #109 of 2024: Doctor Who: I, TARDIS: Memoirs of an Impossible Blue Box by Steve Cole A cute idea with a fairly adequate execution, attempting to retell nearly all of Doctor Who — from An Unearthly Child in 1963 through The Legend of Ruby Sunday in 2024 — from the perspective of the alien …
Book #108 of 2024: Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories by Agatha Christie This Agatha Christie collection, published posthumously in 1979, turns out to be a bit of a misnomer, as all nine of its assembled stories are ones that had been previously collected in decades past: The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories …
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Book #107 of 2024: The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton This 2024 sci-fi novel develops into a cute queer hopepunk piece by the end, but it takes some time to get there and makes a lot of strange choices along the way. I’ve found it difficult to remember that the main characters are supposed …
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Book #106 of 2024: Second Sight by Chris Archer (Mindwarp #4) This fourth Mindwarp novel follows the same general structure as the first three: another kid in this fictional Wisconsin town turns thirteen, discovers they have special powers, and then quickly has to use them to avoid falling into the clutches of a shapeshifting alien …
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Book #105 of 2024: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin While not quite as strong as author Gabrielle Zevin’s recent bestseller Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, this 2014 title is the first of the three books I’ve now read from her backlist that clearly demonstrates her creative talents growing in that …
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Book #104 of 2024: Teckla by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #3) Another crisis with antihero Vladimir Taltos, sorcerer-assassin and crime boss of his local fantasy city. This third adventure takes place soon after book one (the second volume being a prequel), and offers probably the most straightforward plot yet: the protagonist’s wife has gotten involved …
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