I've never read any of Richard Kadrey's other work, but when I saw The Everything Box being compared to Christopher Moore's novels (which I love), I knew I would have to pick it up.Boy, I'm glad I did.
Book Review: Sleeping Giants
You know how sometimes you read the first chapter of a novel and you just know that you're going to love the whole book?I had that feeling with Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel.
Book Review: The Emperor's Blades
I have mixed feelings on The Emperor's Blades. I want to love it, I really do - but I can't bring myself to get past "like." On paper, this book looks like a perfect fit for my tastes, but in practice I found it somewhat lacking.
Book Review: Red Rising
What do you get when you cross Battle Royale and Ender's Game and then set them on Mars for good measure? Red Rising, that's what.
Review of Game of Thrones S6E4: Book of the Stranger
Remember when I said that S6E2: Home was probably Game of Thrones’ best episode to date?Yeeeah, I might be revising that opinion now.
Review of Game of Thrones S6E3: Oathbreaker
This week's episode wasn't firing on all cylinders the way last week's was, but it was still an okay episode overall.
Captain America: Civil War Takes on Another Adult Theme & Nails It
The Captain America movies have really impressed me. They went from being my least favorite of the Marvel mini-franchises to my favorite in the space of two movies (even though Cap is still not my favorite Avenger), and they've done it primarily through the incorporation of much more adult themes.
Review of Game of Thrones S6E2: Home
How do I feel about S6E2: Home? 10/10, would gladly watch again. This is easily the best single episode in several seasons.
Review of Game of Thrones S6E1: The Red Woman
The Day has finally arrived. The Day when book readers no longer have the smug superiority of knowing what happens. The Day where we officially have no basis to say whether the book or show is better. The Day where we have to address all the problems GRRM created in book five. Crap.
Book Review: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School
Well, this was a weird one.See, for the first 1/3 of this novel, it's fairly typical YA boarding school fare: a minor mystery, a small group of enterprising young girls determined to solve it, quirky teachers, some small magics. Nothing terribly bad, but nothing terribly exciting or groundbreaking either. In fact, by the end of Pt. 1 of the book, I was ready to write it off as a yawn.
Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
I guess I'm getting into a bad habit of thinking books are standalones when they aren't. That was the case for City of Stairs (now with sequel City of Blades) and it's also the case for V.E. Schwab's earlier novel A Darker Shade of Magic. A Darker Shade ranked very highly on my list of top books read year, so when I finally discovered (in January) that a sequel was coming out (in February), I marked my calendar to purchase it.
Once Upon a Time's "Souls of the Departed" Lives Up to Hype
I'm often very bad about watching my TV shows within a reasonable amount of time. So despite the long mid-season break, I didn't watch "Souls of the Departed" until four days after it had aired. I'd already heard from several people that the episode was amazing, so the hype was building. Would the episode be able to live up to the rave reviews?
Book Review: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
You can't hear me, but if you could, you'd hear me sigh. I have conflicting feelings on this book. Let's start with the positive, shall we?
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
This book is, in a word, gut-wrenching. It will make you sick to your stomach - but in all the right ways.
The One Where Lucifer Gets Naked and Then Gets Shot ("Manly Whatnots")
This episode is all about struggles. We've got the struggle to rescue a kidnapped girl - and Lucifer actually gets called in because he has an invite to the suspect's conference (a pickup artist convention).Lucifer struggles with his inability to seduce Claire. Claire, meanwhile, struggles with all the strange things she's seen from Lucifer - still teetering on the edge of the Lucifer-is-actually-the-devil cliff.
City of Blades
Stop. Go read Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs. I'll wait. Are you done? OK, good. Now that you've read what was quite possibly my favorite fantasy novel of the last five years, we can discuss its sequel and the novel that may have supplanted it.
Hail, Caesar - Too Many Stories, Not Enough Time
I feel like I have to start this review with my biggest complaint about this movie - I didn't get what I expected to get.
Deadpool Kicks Ass, Takes Names, Unfortunately Does Not Eat Tacos
Look, when you go to a Deadpool movie, you don't expect a fancy, original plot with surprise twists. You go to watch Deadpool kick ass, rattle off profanity-laden one-liners and then kick some more ass. Preferably all at once. So while my biggest quibble with the Deadpool movie is its tired, un-original plotline, you kind of can't be mad at it.
Lucifer Takes on a Murder Mystery - For All the Right Reasons? ("The Would-Be Prince of Darkness")
This week, everyone's favorite snarktastic devil took on the murder of a wannabe actress, killed during a virgin football player's party and found in a swimming pool. Meanwhile, a nobody is impersonating Lucifer and giving him a bad name and reputation.
Last Song Before Night
I'm really not sure where to start with this book, because the last third of it tainted an otherwise excellent novel.