TV #58 of 2023: Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 1 I can’t complain too much about this show. It’s an animated half-hour comedy that, sure, makes me laugh most episodes. But I don’t think it’s really living up to its mission or its potential, at least in this first year. The series takes its name …
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Book #127 of 2023: System Collapse by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #7) The second half of this latest Murderbot adventure lives up to my high expectations for the series, but the first part is an experimental departure that doesn’t really work for me. We start in media res, with the neurodivergent cyborg showing unusual …
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Book #126 of 2023: The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss An interesting novella focused on the minor character Bast from author Patrick Rothfuss’s ongoing / long-dormant trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle. I have a few outside complaints about this title — it’s the second such side release for the series, all while readers have …
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Movie #7 of 2023: Doctor Who: The Star Beast (2023) Doctor Who is back! In so many ways. David Tennant has returned to the starring role he held in the early days of the modern series (as we learned he would when Jodie Whittaker regenerated at the end of her own run last year), and …
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Book #125 of 2023: Stephen Leeds: Death and Faxes by Brandon Sanderson, Max Epstein, David Pace, and Michael Harkins [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first credited author of this book.] This audiobook production is set within Brandon Sanderson’s existing Stephen Leeds / Legion trilogy, and an afterword makes it clear that he really …
Book #124 of 2023: Orion Among the Stars by Ben Bova (Orion #5) Author Ben Bova’s time-traveling super-soldier Orion was originally introduced as an agent who could be sent by his all-powerful Creators to anywhere in the continuum that was in some way under threat, but for the most part, each subsequent novel in the …
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Book #123 of 2023: MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards A lengthy and informative behind-the-scenes account of the movie and TV juggernaut known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with plenty of in-depth production details that I didn’t previously know, despite my being a pretty big fan of …
Book #122 of 2023: At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #11) This… is not a mystery. It’s not even a spy thriller or an in-depth character study, two other genres where author Agatha Christie dabbles on occasion. Instead it’s the story of a police inspector immediately suspecting an outlandish criminal conspiracy involving the …
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Book #121 of 2023: Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly (Mickey Haller #7) Author Michael Connelly’s latest novel delivers another solid installment of courtroom drama that never quite twists in an unexpected direction or otherwise kicks into any higher gear. The plot: attorney Mickey Haller is contacted by a woman serving time in prison for killing …
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Book #120 of 2023: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean #2) A surprisingly-quick sequel to May’s runaway ‘romantasy’ bestseller Fourth Wing, but I suppose the publisher wanted to strike while the iron was hot — no pun intended. This one is just as great, although truth be told, it probably could have been half …
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