Book #144 of 2026: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #5) [Note: this is an updated version of my review from 2020.] This was always my favorite Narnia volume growing up, and it turns out I actually like it even better as an adult. The nautical adventure …
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Book #142 of 2026: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (The Talisman #1) I wasn’t overly impressed when I read this novel a decade ago, but with the news that another sequel would be coming soon, I wanted to return to it to refresh my memory. On this reread I was joined by …
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Book #120 of 2026: Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #4) [Note: this is an updated version of my review from 2020.] Although perhaps not as enchanting as the original Narnia story, this first sequel (in writing / publication order) does much more to flesh out the worldbuilding, providing a sense …
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Book #108 of 2026: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) [Note: this is an updated version of my review from 2020.] This is the second volume of its series by internal chronology, but I maintain that these stories are best approached in publication order instead. …
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Book #71 of 2026: Return to Mars by Ben Bova A largely pointless rehash of a sequel. I really enjoyed Ben Bova’s novel Mars in his loose Grand Tour saga of early space exploration, but there’s little that this second visit to the red planet accomplishes that wasn’t done better in the first. You also …
Book #60 of 2026: Moonwar by Ben Bova (Moonbase Saga #2) Author Ben Bova’s novel Moonrise was a somewhat scattered prelude about life in a near-future lunar settlement, but it built nicely to the situation that’s front and center for this sequel: the facility’s leaders declaring their independence from Earth, so as not to be …
Book #52 of 2026: The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1) This is my very favorite book, which I’ve now read four times in as many years. (I’m not necessarily committing to maintaining an annual rereading tradition, but I’m not exactly ruling it out, either.) That’s once in my …
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Book #49 of 2026: Moonrise by Ben Bova (Moonbase Saga #1) I remember liking this mid-90s duology about the first lunar settlement within author Ben Bova’s larger Grand Tour sequence of space exploration stories, but mainly for the political element, which it turns out is mostly in the sequel Moonwar. Here that takes a backseat …
Book #47 of 2026: The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker (The Prince of Nothing #1) I know that I read this fantasy novel around when it came out back in 2004, but I couldn’t remember anything about it and I don’t think I ever got to any of the sequels. Revisiting it …
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Book #38 of 2026: Mars by Ben Bova This is probably the Grand Tour novel that stood out the clearest in my memory before my current reread, telling a thrilling yet grounded tale of outer space exploration that paved the way for so many subsequent releases (and not just from author Ben Bova, though it …
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