Book #35 of 2024: The Bride of the Blue Wind by Victoria Goddard (The Sisters Avramapul #1) Much as I’ve been enjoying author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy saga, I’ve found this title to be a refreshingly distinctive change of pace for it. In lieu of her typical writing style, the novella is told …
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Book #34 of 2024: Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder by Mark Morris This is a stronger novel than Gary Russell’s adaptation of The Star Beast, but only because Wild Blue Yonder is the superior episode of Doctor Who. Author Mark Morris’s novelization of the Russell T. Davies script faithfully captures the familiar plot beats, yet …
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Book #33 of 2024: Book of Earth by John Peel (Diadem #5) This is by far the best of the original six Diadem novels published by Scholastic from 1997 to 1998 (and perhaps of the entire series, which resumed many years later under Llewellyn). It picks up on the cliffhanger ending of the volume before, …
Book #32 of 2024: Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham After two decades, Carlotta Mercedes has been released on parole from the men’s prison where, under her original name and gender presentation, she was sentenced as an accomplice to her cousin’s armed robbery. (She claims she was just in …
Book #31 of 2024: Sphere by Michael Crichton I went through a big Michael Crichton phase when I was younger, and I had vague memories of this 1987 title being one of my favorites from back then. Revisiting it now, I’m not quite so impressed, although that may have something to do with how the …
Book #30 of 2024: Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #41) This isn’t necessarily the worst Agatha Christie story, but it’s certainly one of her more repugnant ones. Multiple characters are casually racist, ableist, and homophobic, often to the point of spouting eugenic beliefs about certain people’s predisposition to violence, which come alongside their …
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Book #29 of 2024: The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard Another interesting little Nine Worlds / Lays of the Hearth-Fire prequel novella that sheds light on a minor character from The Hands of the Emperor — in this case, his Radiancy’s esteemed personal valet Conju an Vilius — but isn’t quite robust enough of …
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Book #28 of 2024: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian The Weird Western vibes of this adventure novel are delightful, presenting a version of the post-Civil War midwest that’s populated with demons, ghouls, and similar entities, all treated matter-of-factly as threats that an unwary traveler might encounter like any other. I’m less sold on the plot, …
TV #8 of 2024: True Detective, season 4 Officially subtitled Night Country, the latest installment of this sporadic anthology series takes place in a remote section of Alaska, during the time of year when it stays dark for weeks on end. Unsurprisingly, that turns out to be a great setting for showcasing the program’s typical …
Book #27 of 2024: Book of Thunder by John Peel (Diadem #4) The third Diadem story wrapped up the major plot arcs that had been driving the action thus far, which means that this next volume has to function as a bit of a proof-of-concept for the saga moving forward. What are these books about, …
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