The YA dystopian genre feels like it has been done to death in the last decade, mostly as a result of the authors riding the coattails of the popular Hunger Games series. But seven years before Suzanne Collins released the first book of her popular series, Philip Reeve released Mortal Engines. If you have read my other…
Category: Book Reviews
Crazy Rich Asians (and the sequels)
I am writing the review of Kevin Kwan’s bestselling book series, which started with 2013’s Crazy Rich Asians, hours before going to see the film version. I saw the preview for it, picked up the book in an airport, and promptly finished it in less than a week. A few weeks later, I picked up…
The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures
Recommendation: 100% Should Read Short story anthologies vary widely based on content. The popular journals often have very artistic, highbrow tales that I personally find rather dry. I attempted to read some stories out of an edition of Glimmer Train I picked up at a book sale. I did not make it far. As a fan…
The Talking Earth
Like the better known Julie of the Wolves, The Talking Earth is a love letter to nature by popular children’s author, Jean Craighead George. It shares a similar plot, where a Native American girl goes out alone and experiences her world with only her animal companions. I read all George’s Wolves books, but I return to The Talking Earth…
Women Wartime Spies
Women Wartime Spies by Ann Kramer is a glimpse into the secret history of Britain’s bravest women. Kramer tells the stories of women who served in both World War I and World War II, highlighting the dangers they lived through day by day and the secrets many of them took to the grave. Spies is…
Save the Cat!
Let me preface this by saying that I have rarely hated any book as much as I hate this one. Most of this will be me spitting vitriol for being forced to read this for a screenwriting class. I will start with its (few) merits and go from there. Save the Cat! is a well-known tool…
Review of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Or A Long-Winded Explanation of Why Elon Musk Could Be the World’s Greatest Supervillain In 2015, Ashlee Vance published the New York Times bestselling biography of Elon Musk, a man who has almost single-handedly pushed humanity towards a greener and interplanetary future. To many, he is a superhero, accomplishing feats that lesser men could not…
Priest Vol. 1, A Prelude to the Deceased
Spoilers Ahead! The first volume of Hyung Min-woo’s western fantasy manhwe series, Priest, sets a violent scene in the American West that is populated by train robbers and hellish demons. Anti-hero Ivan Isaacs’ first outing shows Isaacs taking on a train of the undead monsters, servants of the fallen angel Jarbilong. A Prelude to the Decease,…
Think Like A Freak
The third book by the authors of Freakonomics, the bestselling book that has been the source of fascination and criticism in equal measures. If nothing else, the book works as advertised; it makes you think. Think Like a Freak is entertaining as ever. In all honesty, I wish it were longer. With fun stories and educational insight,…
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
The collection including the first Elsewhere comic and it’s sequel promise great things from a Victorian Era Bruce Wayne. While both do an adequate job in capturing the Gothic feel associated with the time period, it comes up just short of a truly amazing product. Perhaps I am biased. Perhaps reading League of Extraordinary Gentlemen only a month…