Book #178 of 2020: Jingo by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #21) This is a reasonably funny satire on the pointlessness of war, but as with many of Terry Pratchett’s books, there’s a certain degree of low-level racism and sexism underpinning some of the jokes. (Although the most overtly bigoted characters are generally positioned as fools, the …
Tag Archives: books written in 1997
Book Review: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Book #233 of 2019: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant I really enjoyed this biblical retelling, which takes the minor figure of Jacob’s daughter Dinah from Genesis and presents a possible version of her life’s story. In the process, author Anita Diamant goes far beyond what scripture has to say about either the heroine or …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant”
Book Review: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Book #156 of 2019: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #2) I really like how this sequel deepens the worldbuilding of the original His Dark Materials book, expanding the action from the alternate reality of that story into a universe more like our own and one other besides. And the character moments …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman”
Book Review: Doctor Who: Lungbarrow by Marc Platt
Book #202 of 2018: Doctor Who: Lungbarrow by Marc Platt (Virgin New Adventures #60) This is a fascinatingly weird book, the culmination of a series of adventures that the Seventh Doctor continued to have after the classic run of Doctor Who was canceled as a television program in 1989. When that version of the Time …
Continue reading “Book Review: Doctor Who: Lungbarrow by Marc Platt”
Book Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
Book #162 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #1) It’s a little hard for me to be objectively critical about the Harry Potter books, which, although not my first introduction to children’s fantasy literature, were nevertheless a formative and beloved part of my childhood. Still, I’ve always …
Continue reading “Book Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling”
Book Review: Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb
Book #38 of 2018: Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb (Farseer #3) On the whole I love the Farseer trilogy (and the wider series that it begins), but every time I read this particular book, I find myself losing patience about halfway through. It’s one of those fantasy novels that consist mostly of characters walking across …
Continue reading “Book Review: Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb”
Book Review: Warp by Lev Grossman
Book #28 of 2018: Warp by Lev Grossman It turns out this short first novel by The Magicians author Lev Grossman went out of print for a reason, and the success of that later work doesn’t really justify this new edition. You can almost see the origins of Magicians hero Quentin Coldwater in its aimless …
Book Review: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Book #21 of 2018: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #4) This was always my favorite novel in Stephen King’s epic sprawling Dark Tower series, and although I’m a bit longer in the tooth now than when I first read it, I’m excited to see that the story is just as great …
Continue reading “Book Review: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King”
Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Book #88 of 2017: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond A dry but interesting account of world history through the lens of cultural materialism, an anthropological theory holding that differences in environment can explain much of the variation that exists across cultures. For historian Jared Diamond, this approach essentially …
Book Review: The Regulators by Richard Bachman
Book #62 of 2017: The Regulators by Richard Bachman This pseudonymous Stephen King novel has too many characters with not enough characterization, which makes it hard to keep track of them or even care when they kept getting gunned down. It doesn’t help that most of the characters share names – but not much else …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Regulators by Richard Bachman”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 