I admit that I had not been planning to watch another Spider-Man movie in the same way that I had anticipated watching The Odyssey. My MCU-love had seriously waned. However, after hearing the cheers and reviews, I was excited to watch Brand New Day. I thought the other two movies featuring Tom Holland as Spider-Man…
Author: alving4
The Odyssey — Movie Review
Christopher Nolan’s big budget, big screen adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey was so exciting to me that it brought me out of a nearly one-year absence from cinema-going. I have been a lifelong mythology nerd. I even read Stephen Fry’s Odyssey retelling a month ago to remind myself of this classical epic tale. This film was…
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender – Movie Review
It’s been a long time since I reviewed a movie and so it feels appropriate for me to resume with this long-awaited sequel to one of my favourite animated series of all time: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Over the years, I have watched the original series at least four times through (maybe more), and so…
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman – Book Review
I have had a really good time with Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters’ War, so I was excited to dip my toes into his horror writing with Those Across the River. Instead of being set in a medieval-style fantasy world full of thieves, soldiers, wizards, corvids and goblins, this story is set…
Odyssey (Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths, Book 4) by Stephen Fry — Book Review
Choosing between Homer’s original (read by Claire Danes) and a reimagining of the timeless tale by Stephen Fry himself as part of his Greek Myths series, wasn’t easy. I wanted to prep for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation, and since I’d read Homer’s epic poem back in university, I decided to give Fry a try…
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Singing Hills Cycle, Book 1) by Nghi Vo — Book Review
I was very surprised by how much I liked this novella, because I had a challenging time and didn’t understand it. This is a layered tale of a royal consort (named In-Yo) exiled from the imperial court. The story is being told by an old, former servant, named Rabbit, to a wandering cleric, named Chih,…
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers – Book Review
This novella from one of the proponents of “cozy” sci-fi was impressive in both scope and fullness. We follow the perspective of Ariadne, an engineer/scientist who’s part of a 4-person crew of explorers being sent by Earth to reach and study distant planets. As we get to know the four scientists waking up from the…
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle – Book Review
I have a long history with The Last Unicorn, even though I’ve only just finished reading it for the first time. As a child, I won tickets to the animated movie based on this novel and fell in love with the story of a unicorn who leaves the safety of her magical forest and sets…
Murder at Spindle Manor (Lamplight Murder Mysteries, Book 1) by Morgan Stang — Book Review
Lately I’ve been reading a number of books fitting into the category of magical murder mystery, or fantasy detective story, and I’m really enjoying them. That’s not surprising, since I love fantasy fiction, and ever since watching BBC’s Sherlock, I’ve been a fan of Victorian detective stories. Starting last year, I read The Tainted Cup…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 