I’ve been pretty harsh on recent seasons of Dr Who for having over-plotted season arcs, a poor understanding of time travel, and a lack of conviction that just wore me down. This season could have just given us a female Doctor, told some bog standard, standalone Dr Who adventures and I would have been happy as a woodchuck. Instead, they not only fixed almost all of my problems, but Dr Who feels like it has come back with a purpose – it has things to say and it’s not afraid to say them.
Author: James
2018 books in review
This year sucked…for me and mine. Between an extremely sick family member and finishing out my career, I had a lot of trouble concentrating on reading, and relied instead on Anime as my primary escape method. In the end I read 35 books probably the fewest since I reached double digits in age, though I feel I should get extra credit for reading the three Stormlight archive novels (~3300 pages across three books). Fortunately, while not a year of classics, I enjoyed most of the books I actually managed to read.
Review – Hullmetal Girls
Sometimes I just want the literary equivalent of junk food. Hullmetal Girls has a cover of an earnest women in space armor, the dedication is to the kung fu panda 2 soundtrack, and the blurb is about a girl in a lost fleet who agrees to become a robocop for the government, only to find that all is not well (and it’s obvious both what is not going well and where it is going to go).
Review – Trail of Lightning
I put Trail of Lightning into the urban fantasy box from a look at the cover, and, to be fair, it feels like an urban fantasy book…
Review – The Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman
If the idea of an infinitely sprawling library, filled with unique books salvaged from across the multiverse, where time doesn’t pass for you while you are within its walls doesn’t appeal to you, I don’t know why you would read fantasy books at all.
Review – Just One Damn Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
Being a historian should be easier when you have a time machine and lots of tea…
It’s easy to set to set a single tone – juggling tones is a lot harder. The title and the start of One Damn Thing suggest a particular style that I love, wry British comedy, and when operating in the mode of hard work, punishing bureaucracy, farcical romance and endless tea, it’s a very enjoyable book. Unfortunately…
Housekeeping – Posts are coming
So I haven’t posted since August… in the interim, I’ll fill up my feed with reviews of books I’ve read subsequently, until Christmas, at which point I probably won’t post again til mid January.
Review – Artemis by Andy Weir
The Martian is the ultimate science fiction beach read; a book that was almost impossible to put down. Artemis is a good book, but suffers for not being the Martian.
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Site Selection Voting
Hi, I’ve covered all my ballots, so time for a personal plea. I’m based in Brisbane, but I did most of my growing up in Wellington, New Zealand. At this years Worldcon, site selection voting will occur for Worldcon 78 in 2020, and Wellington is the only venue on the ballot. However, it is theoretically […]
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
Since I managed to see four of the nominees in this category in my normal watching habits, fitting USS Callister and a short track didn’t seem like much of an ask. It’s also worth noting that I nominated three things in this category: Badwater from Alice Isn’t Dead, Michael’s Gambit and Dance Dance Resolution from The Good Place. Given one of these got nominated, it’s clearly going to be top of my list, right?