TV #44 of 2017: Marvel’s Inhumans, season 1 Oh, my god. This show was so awful that it retroactively makes Iron Fist look pretty decent by comparison. We’re never given any reason to care about the characters or their situation, the villains have no clear motivation at all, and the plot basically spins its wheels …
Tag Archives: one star
Book Review: The Infinities by John Banville
Book #189 of 2017: The Infinities by John Banville This story of the Greek god Hermes narrating the events surrounding a modern patriarch’s deathbed is unbearably pretentious and unforgivably cruel to its characters. Add to that an utterly inconsequential plot and I just couldn’t wait to be through with it. ★☆☆☆☆
Book Review: Pyramid Schemes by Peter David
Book #164 of 2017: Pyramid Schemes by Peter David (Sir Apropos of Nothing #4) I loved the first Sir Apropos of Nothing book back in high school (although I have no idea how well it holds up now), but even back then I felt like the two sequels that immediately followed offered diminishing returns on …
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Book Review: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
Book #134 of 2017: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow I liked Cory Doctorow’s earlier novel Little Brother, about teens using technology to nonviolently resist an overreaching surveillance state, but I couldn’t stand this one about illegal downloading and copyright violation. The characters are like those in an Ayn Rand novel, existing merely as cardboard mouthpieces …
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Movie Review: Suicide Squad (2016)
Movie #3 of 2017: Suicide Squad (2016) A complete mess, squandering some pretty good actors who make the most of the bad material they’re given. I’m not particularly invested in the DC Extended Universe in the first place, but this movie gave me absolutely no reason to rethink that decision. ★☆☆☆☆
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 …
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Book Review: Messenger by Lois Lowry
Book #32 of 2017: Messenger by Lois Lowry (The Giver #3) The Giver series definitely offers diminishing returns as it goes along. This third book at least proves that the books are a single series by tying together the otherwise unconnected first and second novels, although once again there’s a new sort of magic that …
Book Review: The Big Four by Agatha Christie
Book #12 of 2017: The Big Four by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #5) Agatha Christie at her worst. I could be charitable and say that this book is an homage to Poirot’s literary predecessor Sherlock Holmes, as it involves the Belgian detective going up against an international crime syndicate and faking his own death in …
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Book Review: Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury
Book #82 of 2016: Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury I can’t decide whether this was an exceptionally weak collection of Ray Bradbury stories, or whether the author just doesn’t speak to me like he did when I was younger. Either way, I really didn’t care for this collection. “A Piece of Wood” and “Punishment …
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Book Review: The Arrivals by Melissa Marr
Book #48 of 2016: The Arrivals by Melissa Marr People from throughout earth’s history find themselves mysteriously transplanted to another world, where they awaken in bodies that do not age and can come back to life when killed. If that sounds interesting… then I strongly recommend To Your Scattered Bodies Go and its sequels in …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 