Start with a complex murder case, feature a Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson-esque pair of protagonists, and set it in a well-conceived fantasy world full of plant and fungus based semi-science, and I am an easy catch to hook. The Tainted Cup winning this year’s Hugo award for Best Novel didn’t hurt either, allowing its…
Category: (4.5 out of 5)
Tales From The Loop, written and illustrated by Simon Stålenhag — Book Review
This is the third Simon Stålenhag book I’ve experienced this year (and I’ve actually got one more on loan from the library, so another review should be coming soon). I’ve loved them all, but sadly, I got to these books out of order. This book should have been the first one (and I already read…
The Fisherman by John Langan – Book Review
Even though this book came highly recommended as a modern take on the Lovecraftian horror story, from the start, I didn’t really know how we’d get from an upstate New York fish story to a tale of eldritch horror. This story is written with deceptively straightforward language, about some down-to-earth characters. The narrator, Abe is…
The Failures by Benjamin Liar – Book Review
I went into this book not knowing what to expect. Set in a fantasy world known as the Wanderlands, this story has the grand overtones of a legendary epic, the thrills and pacing of a jaunty adventure, and the riddles and curiosity of a complex puzzle. We follow various groups of characters: immortals planning to…
Six Fantasy Novellas
I love fantasy fiction. As a genre, it brings the reader to so many wonderful, scary, imaginative, and vivid worlds and realities. Having magic in a story really opens up the possibilities for fun exploration and creativity. Over the last few months, I’ve read six novellas (i.e. short novels) that represent a pretty good variety…
Oscar (Animated) Schmoscar 2025
Some years I like to give my takes on the Oscar nominees that I’ve seen, but since I’ve barely seen any this year (sadly I saw very few movies in 2024) I decided that I am not going to bother catching up. Disappointments over the last few years have convinced me that perhaps some hope…
Dune Part 2 – Movie Review
The first part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel Dune was amazing. Visually stunning, it delivered an engaging story that brought Herbert’s characters to life and made this incredible, fictional universe feel very real. This second part continues right where the first film left off: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his…
Frightfully Catching Up With Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Us, and Nope
In honour of spooky season, I decided to do a little movie marathon of scary films by the recent horror-meister, Jordan Peele. Part of the comedy duo, Key & Peele, more recently Peele split his career down a very different path, becoming a celebrated writer-director of successful horror movies. When I heard positive reviews of…
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Movie Review
There’s nothing like a smart mystery to get our minds going. We want to see if we can figure out whodunit before the answers are revealed. Yet paradoxically our secret hope is that we won’t guess, but will be so cleverly surprised that our jaws will drop instead. Glass Onion is one of these well-crafted…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 