Book #31 of 2024: Sphere by Michael Crichton I went through a big Michael Crichton phase when I was younger, and I had vague memories of this 1987 title being one of my favorites from back then. Revisiting it now, I’m not quite so impressed, although that may have something to do with how the …
Tag Archives: reread
Book Review: Book of Thunder by John Peel
Book #27 of 2024: Book of Thunder by John Peel (Diadem #4) The third Diadem story wrapped up the major plot arcs that had been driving the action thus far, which means that this next volume has to function as a bit of a proof-of-concept for the saga moving forward. What are these books about, …
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Book Review: Book of Magic by John Peel
Book #21 of 2024: Book of Magic by John Peel (Diadem #3) Somewhat surprisingly, this third Diadem novel wraps up the major plot arc that’s been driving the action thus far, and from what I can recall, things are pretty episodic from here on out. One wonders if the series was originally planned as a …
Book Review: Book of Signs by John Peel
Book #15 of 2024: Book of Signs by John Peel (Diadem #2) This sequel retains the juvenile feel befitting its middle-grade audience, but it’s enough of an improvement over the previous volume that I’ll bump my rating up from three stars to four. The story is more straightforward, with a minimum degree of recap for …
Book Review: Book of Names by John Peel
Book #9 of 2024: Book of Names by John Peel (Diadem #1) A solid launch to a fun middle-grade fantasy series about a trio of kids drawn from separate worlds into a magical mystery linking them together. The worst thing about this first title is that it burns through so many of its ideas so …
Book Review: Orion and King Arthur by Ben Bova
Book #3 of 2024: Orion and King Arthur by Ben Bova (Orion #6) This is a pretty good rendition of the classic Arthurian legend, especially in its emotional build-up to the king’s fated tragic end. (I like the initial wrinkle of him meeting Beowulf in his younger days, too.) It’s a little stranger as an …
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Book Review: Orion Among the Stars by Ben Bova
Book #124 of 2023: Orion Among the Stars by Ben Bova (Orion #5) Author Ben Bova’s time-traveling super-soldier Orion was originally introduced as an agent who could be sent by his all-powerful Creators to anywhere in the continuum that was in some way under threat, but for the most part, each subsequent novel in the …
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Book Review: Orion and the Conqueror by Ben Bova
Book #118 of 2023: Orion and the Conqueror by Ben Bova (Orion #4) This isn’t the worst title of the Orion saga — it’s a noticeable step up from the angst-ridden previous volume — but it might well be the most boring. Much how the first half of Vengeance of Orion was little more than …
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Book Review: Orion in the Dying Time by Ben Bova
Book #98 of 2023: Orion in the Dying Time by Ben Bova (Orion #3) This time-travel adventure sequel offers probably the most problematic of its saga’s dabbles in what the back of this book calls ‘speculative theology,’ taking as its premise the wild notion that the ancient Egyptian god Set is the same being as …
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Book Review: Vengeance of Orion by Ben Bova
Book #96 of 2023: Vengeance of Orion by Ben Bova (Orion #2) This first Orion sequel is interesting in its own right, but not nearly as good as its predecessor. That previous novel introduced humanity’s demigod champion by hurtling him progressively backwards in time, having to stop an adversary in each era determined to throw …
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