Book #40 of 2023: Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first author.] I’m torn between three and four stars for this title. I have enough critiques and reservations that I think I’ll go with the lower rating, but I have enjoyed it, for the most …
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TV #9 of 2023: Star Trek: Enterprise, season 2 I will grudgingly allow that this sophomore season represents a degree of improvement over its shaky predecessor. While the early 2000s Trek prequel series remains the weakest iteration of the franchise that I’ve seen to date, the typical episode in this second year generally approaches the …
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Book #39 of 2023: Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson A fun novella-length follow-up to Margaret Rogerson’s earlier fantasy novel Sorcery of Thorns. With minimal plot and a fairly narrow scope, it’s not a full-on sequel — she describes it on Goodreads as “author written fanfiction” — but simply a chance to spend a …
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Book #38 of 2023: Shōgun by James Clavell (Asian Saga #1) I went into this 1975 bestseller somewhat skeptically, both for its length at 1152 pages and for its potential Orientalism, being a white British writer’s take on feudal Japan circa the early 17th century. And it is firmly a work of historical fiction, albeit …
Book #37 of 2023: The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings A good fantasy novel but ultimately not a great one. I still like it in parts, just not nearly as much as I did in high school, and I suspect that this will probably be the last time I ever reread the …
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Book #36 of 2023: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Kaiju are giant monsters like Godzilla, the subject of a thriving genre of fiction in Japan and elsewhere over the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond. The premise of this story posits that such creatures exist in a parallel world, accessible via …
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TV #8 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 5 I guess I have to concede, based on the average ratings I give its seven component serials below, that this season of old Doctor Who is still narrowly more good than great overall. But it’s easily my favorite of this rewatch yet, with some fun minor …
Book #35 of 2023: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I went through a brief Heinlein phase in high school, and I suspect that if I had read this book back then, I probably would have liked it better. (Even today, I’ll note that I prefer it over Slaughterhouse-Five, the only other Vonnegut work that …
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Book #34 of 2023: Sabriel by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #1) A thoroughly excellent modern fantasy classic, published in 1995 but just as enjoyable now upon my umpteenth reread. (I can’t remember when I first encountered it, but I do recall thinking in amazement that it was like a written version of the Diablo …
Book #33 of 2023: Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie A rather silly beginning, in which we learn that the stranger who could have corroborated an accused murderer’s alibi was hit by a truck, developed a case of short-term amnesia, and promptly departed for a two-year polar expedition, thus missing the publicity about the trial …
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