Homer through Nolan’s Looking-Glass
Joe Breslin examines the good, the bad, and the upshot of Christopher Nolan’s epic attempt to tell the story of Odysseus’s homecoming.
Skullduggery, Published
Skullduggery Pleasant is about as bodiless as its titular character. Notice I didn’t say “protagonist,” for Skullduggery, the skinless magical gumshoe on a quest to stop Serpine from bringing back the Nameless Ones, is not really the center of the story. He is, if you pardon the brittle pun, only its frame. The real honor goes to a plucky and wise twelve-year old named Stephanie Edgley. Stephanie is mature beyond her years, preferring to read books and to correspond with her mysterious uncle rather than get swept up in the…
A Lonely Trip Through the Southern Reach
My very first impression, from the first page of Annihilation, book one of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, was not far from my last thoughts on the series. What insanity have I just stumbled into? Every reveal seems to bring along numerous other mind-bending doubts or questions about the world Vandermeer has created. The story opens with a group of nameless female explorers beginning their expedition into “Area X”, a mysterious portion of the ordinary world that has somehow, inexplicably become subject to laws all its own. Its…
A Sound and a Fury, Signifying Something
For regular sci-fi readers, and for readers able to “clinically distance” themselves from disordered elements in novels, this novel would be one of the best of many choices in its genre.
Ready Player One
The pros, in my opinion, far outweigh the cons. The book affirms the value of online social interaction as a step in the right direction if you’re living in a dystopia, but that reality is still best.
A Story Worth Reading- Maybe
The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, is a highly acclaimed historical fiction boasting awards from an extensive list of periodicals and, most impressively, was named a Newberry Honoree after its publication in 2015. Parents need to give this book’s themes some careful consideration, however, before passing it on to their children. Ada Smith was born into terrible hardship in 1930s London. The story picks up when Ada is ten years old and forbidden by her mother from leaving the family’s dingy one-room apartment. This, and the…