OK, I hate to admit it, but I’m so over mediocre books. Life is too short for that mess, and unfortunately I have been making too many of them lately. With this set of five, one gave me hope (Sandman Slim), then let me down (Kill the Dead), one I couldn’t finish (Becoming Odyssa), one I enjoyed (Rogues) and one I fell in love with (The Slow Regard of Silent Things). I have no clue what I am going to read next, but I wish I […]
You might love To Say Nothing of the Dog if…
I’m 97% sure that To Say Nothing of the Dog is my new favorite book. My old favorite, Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus, is also a romantic drama with the additional sci-fi element of time travel, set in the future but taking place mostly in the past, heavy on world history and motives, causes, effects, and the arc of humanity. It’s lovely. But TSNotD is all that, and funny! and it has a dog! and a cat! And it discusses parts of history with which I am […]
I CAN relate to teenagers via YA fiction!
I’ve been struggling with how to review the Divergent series for months now. I’m having trouble because I honestly can’t figure out how I really feel about them: there are parts I really appreciate, like that our hero Tris possesses an active sexuality that only freaks her out a little, and she pursues a dude that she likes (Divergent). Some parts were incredibly tedious to me, like our hero Tris’ many stupid fights with her dumb boyfriend, I DON’T CARE, GOD, BOTH OF YOU SHUT […]
A fun collection of utter nonsense, framed as the pretentious ramblings of a delusional director.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace hit me at just the right time, the perfect blend of mocking satire and charming daftness being just what I needed in my last year of senior school. Directed and co-written by Richard Ayoade, it presented itself as the lost tapes of a forgotten 1980’s hospital-horror program, interspersed with talking head segments by the “crew” involved. My friends and I had a taped-from-TV VHS of the series (ugh, I feel old) that we passed around daily, memorising the dialogue and cracking up at […]