TV #46 of 2022: Star Trek: Voyager, season 5 Another solid serving of 90s science-fiction, still satisfyingly tighter all around than this show’s early years. I’d call it a minor step down from the season before, however, which felt more ambitious with its introduction of Seven of Nine and her personal arc of reintegrating into …
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Book Review: Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson
Book #146 of 2022: Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson (Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians #6) [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first author.] Middle-grade book series are odd, in that their release schedule often outpaces the age of their target audience. That’s particularly the case for the Alcatraz …
Book Review: A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith
Book #145 of 2022: A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith This 1984 bestseller about a fictional family’s frontier history is required reading in many Florida schools, which is where I first encountered and absolutely loathed the title. But it has plenty of accolades and its fair share of adherents, and so I’ve always wanted …
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TV Review: Bob’s Burgers, season 8
TV #45 of 2022: Bob’s Burgers, season 8 I seem to have liked this season better when I watched it upon airing in 2018, given my review back then: “I don’t have much to say about this season of Bob’s Burgers that doesn’t apply to the show at large, but it remains impressively strong this …
TV Review: Happy Endings, season 1
TV #44 of 2022: Happy Endings, season 1 This sitcom launch from 2011 is fine, but somewhat unremarkable. Although it improves over the course of these first 13 episodes — not that original audiences would’ve fully realized, with the season airing all out of its intended production order — I still feel as though I …
Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Book #144 of 2022: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot #2) This Monk and Robot sequel retains much of what I enjoyed about the setting in the original novella: its “warm hug of hopepunk goodness… rooted in empathetic respect and curiosity toward different cultures,” to quote from my review last …
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Book Review: A Daughter’s a Daughter by Mary Westmacott
Book #143 of 2022: A Daughter’s a Daughter by Mary Westmacott This 1952 title is a decent character study, but a thoroughly unpleasant and exasperating read about a toxically codependent parental relationship. The fifth of six novels that author Agatha Christie published under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott — at this point merely an affectation, after …
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Movie Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Movie #15 of 2022: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) When I first saw this picture in theaters six years ago, I raved that it was “My favorite sort of prequel, that slots neatly into the existing continuity without the need for retconning AND enhances the viewer’s appreciation of certain elements in the original …
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Book Review: The Answer by K. A. Applegate
Book #142 of 2022: The Answer by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #53) (A quick note from your reviewer here. If you’ve read my past few Animorphs reviews, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been giving away more and more of the plot each time. These final volumes are just so jam-packed with major developments that it’s …
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Book Review: Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Book #141 of 2022: Fairy Tale by Stephen King This new portal fantasy from Stephen King is fine, but its tale of an ordinary kid finding his way into a magical world is not exactly breaking fresh ground for the author of such works as The Waste Lands or The Talisman. There’s also an awful …
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