Book #114 of 2026: Broken Dove by Dani Francis (Silver Elite #2) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the debut of this romantasy saga, which is sort of like Fourth Wing played out against the rebellion story from The Hunger Games, but this sequel offers too much wheel-spinning and predictable plotting for me …
Tag Archives: two stars
Book Review: Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian
Book #106 of 2026: Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian (The Strata Wars #1) [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first author.] This collaborative foray into the urban fantasy genre leaves a lot to be desired, and reading between the lines of the co-writers’ public statements, it sounds like the …
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TV Review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 2
TV #31 of 2026: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 2 On an episodic level, this second and final run of the late-aughts Terminator show works alright, I guess. The character dynamics of a fraught relationship between mother and son and the awkward peace with their spectrum-coded cyborg ally remain compelling, and the action sequences …
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Book Review: The Rock Rats by Ben Bova
Book #104 of 2026: The Rock Rats by Ben Bova (The Asteroid Wars #2) Author Ben Bova’s Grand Tour stories of outer space exploration continue to be hit-or-miss for me, and this title unfortunately isn’t one of the better ones. There’s the core of a neat idea here, involving the small community that’s grown up …
Book Review: Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
Book #97 of 2026: Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven I was expecting this story about a family with their own sixties sitcom to read like Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I don’t think author Jennifer Niven does nearly as good a job at channeling the historical era. I also don’t care for how she populates …
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Book Review: Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
Book #88 of 2026: Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman I have any number of issues with this story, but let me start with the most basic and subjective, which is that I simply don’t like it. This is essentially splatterpunk — the transgressive celebration of gore for its own sake …
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Movie Review: Mallrats (1995)
Movie #25 of 2026: Mallrats (1995) Kevin Smith’s second picture wasn’t especially good upon release, and hasn’t aged all that well either. It’s a slacker comedy about two guys whose girlfriends dump them, who then spend the day at the local mall and subsequently win them back. In the sidekick Brodie’s case there’s at least …
Book Review: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
Book #77 of 2026: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn I struggled a lot with this heroine early on, finding her woe-is-me, not-like-other-girls attitude incredibly childish and off-putting. She’s also the sort of character who bemoans her supposedly plain looks while ignoring how the romantic interest is practically throwing himself at her feet in worship. …
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Book Review: Return to Mars by Ben Bova
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 …
Movie Review: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Movie #22 of 2026: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) Original creator James Cameron left the Terminator franchise after its second installment, which is also when the quality level significantly dropped. Theoretically, then, his triumphant return in this sixth picture — in which he serves as one of two producers and one of five men with ‘story …
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