Reviews – Escape Pod

Book Review: “Crimson Death” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:00:54 +0000

Well, Laurell K. Hamilton has done it again. She's written a pretty decent police procedural and then tacked on about 300 pages of relationship angst. Yes, that's right, it's time for me to review Crimson Death, the latest Anita Blake novel.

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Book Review: “Only Superhuman” by Christopher L. Bennett

Josh Roseman — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 14:00:36 +0000

Given that I enjoyed Christopher L. Bennett's Star Trek tie-in novels, I figured I'd like his first original novel, Only Superhuman. And I did. Mostly.

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Movie Review: “Swiss Army Man”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 14:00:51 +0000

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd say: "I have seen the Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie." Here's another one: "I liked it."

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Book Review: “Libertaria: Genesis” by Sabrina Peña Young

Josh Roseman — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:00:55 +0000

Award-winning composer Sabrina Peña Young sourced the entire world for her virtual production of Libertaria. But Young has taken her opera one step further, converting the show into a novel, Libertaria: Genesis.

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Book Review: Murder with Monsters by KT Katzmann

Josh Roseman — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:00:59 +0000

A lot of authors have subverted classic horror tropes, but author KT Katzmann has chosen instead to be aware of them and use their power for good, instead of evil, in his genre detective novel Murder with Monsters.

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Book Review: Snapshot by Beau Hall

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 14:00:16 +0000

Marietta, Georgia, isn't a small town anymore. But fifty years ago it was, and fifty years ago Mary Frances began blackmailing Marvin Hill into becoming a serial killer. Now, in Beau Hall's new novel Snapshot, Marvin wants out. By any means necessary.

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Fan Film Review: Star Trek: Renegades

Josh Roseman — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 14:00:46 +0000

After the success of Of Gods and Men, Tim Russ returns to the fan film arena with Star Trek: Renegades. Though I had high expectations, I think I expected more than what I got. Especially from the writing.

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Book Review: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 14:00:57 +0000

On September 1, my Kindle automatically downloaded my preordered copy of The Shepherd's Crown. By September 3, I'd finished reading the final Discworld novel. Now the book is closed on the Discworld, at least in this form, and... well... I don't think I can wrap my head around that.

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Film Review: “Mr. Holmes”

Josh Roseman — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 14:00:36 +0000

With as much Sherlock Holmes as I've read, you'd think I'd have gotten around to a version of the story where Holmes is nearing the end of his life. I haven't... until now, with the new film Mr. Holmes.

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Book Review: “Dead Ice” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:00:05 +0000

After finishing Dead Ice, the latest Anita Blake novel, I'm worried that things are backsliding a little toward the muddled middle of the series. And that's not good.

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Film Review: “Cinderella”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 14:00:49 +0000

As both Honest Trailers and CinemaSins have recently shown, there are some problems with Disney's retelling of the Cinderella story. But it's such a huge part of the Disney empire that we were bound to get a new one at some point.

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Movie Review: Kick-Ass 2

Josh Roseman — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 14:00:34 +0000

In my reviews of movies, I always try to mention is the film's soundtrack. Sometimes movies that get little or no play can have great soundtracks. Kick-Ass 2 is one such film.

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Book Review: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain by Richard Roberts

Josh Roseman — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:00:37 +0000

In a world where superheroes and supervillains are locked in honorable combat… in a world where science and magic are both real… in a world where superheroism is an inherited trait… three middle-school students are about to discover their true potential. The book: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain. The author: Richard Roberts. […]

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Book Review: Ghosts of Engines Past by Sean McMullen

Josh Roseman — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:00:13 +0000

When I was offered the opportunity to review Ghosts of Engines Past, a short-story collection by Sean McMullen, the initial e-mail said it was a steampunk anthology. I suppose this is broadly true, in much the same way that an anthology about veterinarians might be 80 percent dog stories. In this case, the 80 percent is stories of flight. And if there's one thing McMullen knows how to do, it's make people fly.

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Film Review: “In Your Eyes”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 May 2014 14:00:18 +0000

When Joss Whedon writes something, you generally expect it to have great dialogue and characterization, some stuff that will make you uncomfortable, and an ending that, while not necessarily happy or good, will be satisfying. The new film In Your Eyes has two of those, at least.

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Album Review: Flossophy

Josh Roseman — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:00:56 +0000

Brent "brentalfloss" Black is back with his third album, the intersection of parody, video gaming, nostalgia, and the occasional fart joke, and it hits the spot on every level.

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Movie Review: Upside Down

Josh Roseman — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:00:37 +0000

The concept of a world that's opposite to our own isn't a new one. And the concept of playing with gravity isn't new either. But mix them together and you might just end up with a film like Upside Down.

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Movie Review: Upstream Color

Josh Roseman — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:00:51 +0000

If you thought Shane Carruth's first film, Primer, was confusing, then you ain't seen nothin' yet... especially if you haven't seen his new film, Upstream Color.

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Movie Review: Europa Report

Josh Roseman — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:00:53 +0000

In addition to Apollo 18, another recent found-footage sci-fi film has made its way to Netflix. This one had similar elements to Apollo 18, but the difference was in the nature of the monster. This film is called Europa Report.

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Movie Review: Apollo 18

Josh Roseman — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 16:00:21 +0000

The last American moon mission was Apollo 17, back in 1972. Or was it? The found-footage film Apollo 18 aims to show why we haven't been back. And if this film is to be believed, there's a damn good reason.

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Film Review: Chronicle

Josh Roseman — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 14:00:57 +0000

I recently saw Man of Steel, and I have to say that I may actually have enjoyed Chronicle -- the story of three friends who gain superpowers -- more than that huge-budget film.

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Film Review: Despicable Me 2

Josh Roseman — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:00:02 +0000

Former super-villain Gru and his three daughters (and the Minions, and Dr. Nefario) are back in Despicable Me 2, and this time it's the good guys who want Gru to stop a new menace to society.

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Book Review: “Affliction” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:00:28 +0000

I just recently finished Affliction, the latest Anita Blake novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, and while it had a lot of really good action sequences, some of the problems that plague the other tales are just as evident in this one.

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Book Review: Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 14:00:34 +0000

Terry Pratchett is well-known in the world of genre writing mostly for his Discworld series. However, in the decades he’s been active, Pratchett has written several different stories outside of the Discworld. The latest is Dodger, a historical fantasy with all the charm of Discworld and none of the thousands of pages of background a […]

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Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Josh Roseman — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 14:00:22 +0000

I recommend The Ocean at the End of the Lane to any fans of Neil Gaiman's work, and to anyone who's ever gone back to the home they loved most as a child and realized that all they can do is remember how it used to be.

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Film Review: Man of Steel

Josh Roseman — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 14:00:32 +0000

To tell the story of Superman, you need a big movie. And with Man of Steel, we certainly got that. It's just... maybe there's such a thing as too big.

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Film Review: Monsters University

Josh Roseman — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:00:16 +0000

Twelve years after Monsters, Inc., I have a six-year-old daughter who's just the right age to be seeing Monsters University. She liked it, and I guess I did too, but the more I think about it the more I feel like something was missing.

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Book Review: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Josh Roseman — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:00:20 +0000

There's a reason The Phantom Tollbooth is a classic. Adults will appreciate the humor. Parents will appreciate the lesson the book teaches their kids. Kids will appreciate the fantastical elements and the way that the hero manages to work stuff out more and more the farther into the book they go.

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Fan Film Review: Star Trek Continues Episode 1, “Pilgrim of Eternity”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:00:03 +0000

Despite the furor over the reboot universe and the sci-fi landscape's love for the later iterations of Star Trek, there's still something about The Original Series that keeps bringing people back. And one way they come back is with fan films. The latest is "Pilgrim of Eternity" from Star Trek Continues.

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Film Review: The Raven

Josh Roseman — Tue, 28 May 2013 13:00:26 +0000

Edgar Allan Poe was a well-known American poet and writer, but it's still not known exactly what caused his death in 1849 at age 40. The film The Raven attempts to explain that. Also, there's a serial killer. (I didn't say it made sense.)

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Film Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Josh Roseman — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:25 +0000

So, as if you didn't know, I'm a huge Star Trek fan. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I was going to see Star Trek Into Darkness on opening weekend. Since my birthday was the same weekend as the opening, it was like J.J. Abrams himself gave me a present.

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TV Review: “Going Postal”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:00:25 +0000

You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger Discworld fan than me in my neighborhood. Probably in my zip code. Maybe in my county. So when I found Going Postal on Netflix, my head asplode. Because there was another live-action Pratchett miniseries for me to watch.

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Film Review: The Phantom Tollbooth

Josh Roseman — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:00:50 +0000

Those who've read the classic kids' book The Phantom Tollbooth may never have had occasion to see the filmed version. But if you can find a copy, and you liked the book, it's certainly worth a look.

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Movie Review: Safety Not Guaranteed

Josh Roseman — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:00:13 +0000

If you came across a classified ad saying you could go back in time as long as you bring your own weapons, would you apply? Or would you write it off as a crackpot's attempt to involve you in a conspiracy? That's the central question in Safety Not Guaranteed, which is actually kind of based on a true story. Kind of.

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Film Review: The Croods

Josh Roseman — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:00:42 +0000

The Croods, in case you've been living in a cave, is a new animated film about a family of cavemen who come face to face with the end of the world against the backdrop of a formulaic, sitcom-like plot.

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TV Review: Orphan Black

Josh Roseman — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:00:07 +0000

A young woman stands on a subway platform. She turns to see another woman who looks just like her. The other woman steps off the platform into the path of an oncoming train. That's the first five minutes of Orphan Black. What follows is science fiction. Kind of.

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Book Review: Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Josh Roseman — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:01 +0000

As a fan of superhero stuff, I've been aware of Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible for quite some time. I got an electronic copy of it about a year ago and really wanted to read it, but I've been busy. Lots of books to read. Until now.

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Film Review: “Oz the Great and Powerful”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:00:02 +0000

Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful was certainly an enjoyable movie, but it's rather like the Wizard himself from the 1939 version -- don't look behind the curtain, because there's a lot that doesn't work the way you expect it to.

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Book Review: The Mirage by Matt Ruff

Josh Roseman — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:00:39 +0000

Sometimes, alternate history doesn't require telling the reader what the crisis point was that got changed. Sometimes, the reader just needs to know things are different. And that's where The Mirage by Matt Ruff begins.

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Book Review: This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It by David Wong

Josh Roseman — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:00:54 +0000

I can't even write an excerpt for my review of This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It without spoiling David Wong's previous novel, John Dies at the End. So, if you don't want that one spoiled for you, just pick up both books and read them. That's my recommendation.

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Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Josh Roseman — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:00:03 +0000

I'd written this long intro, but it's kind of pointless, so instead I'm just going to tell you I'm reviewing Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and leave it at that.

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Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Josh Roseman — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:00:15 +0000

Every now and then, a book comes along with a great premise and solid execution that a lot of people like and recommend with great gusto. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline is such a book. And it is good -- very good -- except for the places where it can't get out of its own way fast enough.

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Book Review: John Dies at the End by David Wong

Josh Roseman — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:00:42 +0000

John Dies at the End by David Wong is ostensibly about a drug called soy sauce that immensely sharpens a person's perception of reality. But it's about so much more than that as well. So much that it took me four days to write the review.

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Fan Film Review: Sonic

Josh Roseman — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:00:43 +0000

Eddie Lebron, director and writer of the hugely-popular Mega Man fan film, is back with another venture into classic gaming. This time he turns his attention to a very fast, very blue, very spiky dude with his short film Sonic.

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Film Review: “TiMER”

Josh Roseman — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000

The very first film I put into my Netflix instant queue -- two years ago now -- was TiMER. I finally got around to watching it. It's... well, it's a romantic comedy with just a hint of sci-fi.

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Book Review: “Serpent’s Storm” by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:00:52 +0000

So here's the thing about Serpent's Storm by Amber Benson: at first I thought she'd turned into Laurell K. Hamilton. Then I thought she was writing a madcap roller-coaster adventure. Then I got completely lost. The ending was good, but the journey didn't work for me.

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Book Review: Cat’s Claw by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:00:34 +0000

Amber Benson returned to her Death's Daughter universe in 2010 with Cat's Claw, a sequel that pretty much depends upon the main character making bad decisions for the story to succeed. Make no mistake, I still had fun reading the book, but there was an awful lot of narrative convenience in it.

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Book Review: The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man by Jonathan C. Gillespie

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:00:15 +0000

When author Jonathan C. Gillespie put out his new novel The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man I wasn't sure if it was going to be my cup of post-apocalyptic, augmented humanity, military-style, humans-aren't-so-great tea. Turns out the book had lots of things I liked, even though the tea wasn't ultimately to my taste.

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TV Review: Dog with a Blog

Josh Roseman — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:00:27 +0000

I think it's safe to say that most kids -- at least, most of us who had dogs -- always wanted our dogs to be able to talk. Odds are good it never happened to you, but it did happen to Tyler James and Avery Jennings, the two human main characters of Disney Channel's new show Dog with a Blog.

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Book Review: Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

Josh Roseman — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:00:12 +0000

The current trend in YA is to write an adult novel and then trim away everything extraneous, leaving behind a tightly-written, fast-paced story. Allen Steele's new YA sci-fi adventure, Apollo's Outcasts, definitely fits that bill.

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25 Days of TNG, Day 2: Episode Review — “Encounter at Farpoint”

Josh Roseman — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:00:54 +0000

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before. Then... Stretch. Snap. Zoom. Flash. And an era began.

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Book Review: Wrayth by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:00:50 +0000

As far as a "second-in-the-trilogy" novel goes, Wrayth is a good entry into that milieu. Like its predecessors, the book moves quickly and has strong characterization, furthering the worldbuilding and setting up a very unexpected Big Bad. But it wasn't without its problems.

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Book Review: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Josh Roseman — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:00:26 +0000

If there was an infinite number of Earths and you could move from one to the other, would you go exploring? The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, looks at this idea (and others). I just wish it was more Pratchett-y.

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Short Film Review: Play Dead

Josh Roseman — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:00:26 +0000

Play Dead is the story of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse in Miami, Florida. An unlikely group of survivors bands together to seek out a place where they can ride out the chaos until it ends. But the survivors have a few more legs than you'd expect.

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Web Series Review: The Booth at the End

Josh Roseman — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:00:44 +0000

The Booth at the End is an extremely compelling web series that takes place on exactly one set and contains exactly nothing but people talking to The Man (Xander Berkeley) about the thing they need and the things they'd do to get it.

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Book Review: Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Josh Roseman — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:00:45 +0000

US foreign policy as it relates to immigration is a hot-button issue. US policy in general tends to be getting more extreme by the day. Put those two sentences together and you have Ink, the new novel by Sabrina Vourvoulias.

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Film Review: Griff the Invisible

Josh Roseman — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:00:13 +0000

Fans of True Blood know Ryan Kwanten as Sookie's buff but not too bright brother, Jason Stackhouse. But Kwanten isn't just eye candy. Sometimes, he plays a man with cripplingly-bad social anxiety disorder. This man is named Griff, and the movie about him is called Griff the Invisible.

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Film Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Josh Roseman — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:00:11 +0000

Twenty years ago today, a film called Buffy the Vampire Slayer opened in theaters to unimpressive reviews (and only a 32% on the Tomatometer). Since Escape Pod wasn't around 20 years ago, I'm taking this opportunity to review the film on its 20th anniversary.

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Web Series Review: “Harry Potter and the Ten Years Later”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:00:23 +0000

The Harry Potter phenomenon has spawned countless fan-created works of written fiction, musical awesomeness, and re-cut music videos. Harry Potter and the Ten Years Later is the latest entry in that oeuvre, and, so far, it looks promising.

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Book Review: “Death’s Daughter” by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:00:01 +0000

My favorite Death is the one who TALKS LIKE THIS. I also like the one who dresses in black and wears an ankh. But the one who's a middle child and just wants to work in the fashion industry? The one in Death's Daughter by Amber Benson? Surprisingly, I kind of like her too.

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Book Review: “Kiss the Dead” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:00:54 +0000

I struggled mightily to find some things that stood out about this book. I managed to find a few, but it wasn't easy. Overall, Kiss the Dead was a prosaic entry in the Anita Blake universe, and while fans will probably love it, average readers should just skip it.

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Film Review: Ted

Josh Roseman — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:00:55 +0000

Sometimes movie trailers tell you exactly what the movie is about. Sometimes, the trailer says "you're going to watch a 100-minute live-action episode of Family Guy, and you're going to laugh your ass off doing it." That's pretty much what Ted is -- and it's hilarious.

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Book Review: Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:00:52 +0000

It still amazes me that Philippa Ballantine can do in 280 pages what it takes some authors 800 or more to achieve. Hunter and Fox is an interestingly-built world with compelling characters... but for some reason, I still didn't really feel satisfied when I finished the book.

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Film Review: Another Earth

Josh Roseman — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:00:05 +0000

Imagine that, a year or so ago, you saw a trailer for a film in which humanity discovered another planet Earth growing slowly closer. Imagine someone made a film about it. Imagine seeing that film and realizing that the trailer doesn't really tell you what the actual plot of the movie is. That's Another Earth.

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Book Review: “Railsea” by China Mieville

Josh Roseman — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:00:19 +0000

Unlike The City & the City & Iron Council, when I finally got to the end of China Mieville's new novel Railsea, I wasn't left feeling beaten or empty. But otherwise we're looking at pretty standard Mieville here.

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“Smile Time”, or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust in Whedon”

Josh Roseman — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:00:01 +0000

In watching Angel, I'd heard there was a puppet episode coming up. I didn't have high hopes for it. But after seeing what Whedon and his team did with a musical episode on Buffy, I should've learned to just stop worrying and trust in Whedon.

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Book Review: “Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:00:57 +0000

It doesn't take much effort to observe that I've been on one hell of a Joss Whedon kick over the course of the past year. So when Amazon's algorithm suggested I purchase PopMatters's Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, I figured it would be something I'd enjoy.

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Film Review: “Highlander: Endgame”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:00:37 +0000

What do you do if the first two sequels to your 1986 cult film bomb at the box office? If you're lucky, you have a moderately-successful TV series run for six years and then try to make another movie. And fail miserably.

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Film Review: “Highlander III: The Sorcerer”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:00:55 +0000

I think we all remember the tragedy that was the second Highlander film. I certainly do. I mean, I'd just seen it two days prior. When the third film came out, I decided I liked the story enough to see Highlander III in theaters. Now, 18 years later, I'm watching it again.

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Film Review: “The Hunger Games”

Josh Roseman — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:00:58 +0000

With the end of Harry Potter and the impending end of Twilight, studios were looking for the next big book-to-movie hit. They found it with The Hunger Games. But did the movie live up to the book, or even its own hype?

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Film Review: “Return to Oz”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:00:22 +0000

You may have heard of the Wizard of Oz sequel Return to Oz, but despite its cult following, not that many people have seen it. Still, if you can get your hands on it, it's a decent film with exceedingly-creepy imagery and a couple of worthy villains.

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Portrait of a Slayer at Fifteen: the 15th Anniversary Buffy Retrospective (part 3 of 3)

Josh Roseman — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:00:39 +0000

A retrospective of a wildly-popular and quite-beloved show wouldn't be complete without a top episodes list. So here's the second part of my top-25 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes: 10 through 1.

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Portrait of a Slayer at Fifteen: the 15th Anniversary Buffy Retrospective (part 2 of 3)

Josh Roseman — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:00:57 +0000

A retrospective of a wildly-popular and quite-beloved show wouldn't be complete without a top episodes list. So here's the first part of my top-25 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes: 25 through 11.

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Soundtrack Review: “Once More, With Feeling”

Josh Roseman — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:00:09 +0000

The gold standard for musical episodes is Joss Whedon's "Once More, With Feeling", a sixth-season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The soundtrack to it was released the same year as the episode (2002). But how does that soundtrack hold up if you're not watching the episode at the same time?

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Portrait of a Slayer at Fifteen: the 15th Anniversary Buffy Retrospective (part 1 of 3)

Josh Roseman — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:23:30 +0000

The fashions may not hold up; the slang and pop-culture references might be dated; the effects in the early seasons are definitely iffy. But the storytelling will make Buffy the Vampire Slayer worth watching even twenty, thirty, or fifty years later.

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Film Review: “The Secret World of Arrietty”

Josh Roseman — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:25:12 +0000

Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli present "The Secret World of Arrietty", a film for kids that I found surprisingly average, given its pedigree. Still, if you have young children, they'll enjoy it.

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Three Dragons, Three Tattoos: a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Part 2 of 2)

Josh Roseman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:23:01 +0000

Stieg Larsson's novel of murder, intrigue, history, and hacking, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has been adapted into two films -- a Swedish one and an American one. Despite having the same source material, they're very different movies. Find out just how different in the second part of this two-part review.

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Three Dragons, Three Tattoos: a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Part 1 of 2)

Josh Roseman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:22:45 +0000

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Book Review: “Out of Oz” by Gregory Maguire

Josh Roseman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:25:45 +0000

Although I liked Wicked, I didn't really care for the next two books in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked Years" series. The conclusion, Out of Oz, just came out, and I figured it was worth taking a look. Perhaps I should've just learned my lesson.

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Myths of Origin by Catherynne M. Valente

Sarah Frost — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:39:17 +0000

It is easy to love a book when it has been cruel to you. Myths of Origin by Catherynne M. Valente is a hard book, and one that will encourage most readers to put it down. It contains four short novels, each of which will challenge the reader to make sense of its elaborate metaphors […]

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Book Review: “Bigfoot: I Not Dead” by Graham Roumieu

Josh Roseman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:02:49 +0000

Human who like juvenile humor, poop joke, and self-deprecating retelling of life of mythical creature should read "Bigfoot: I Not Dead" by Bigfoot, as retold by Graham Roumieu. It contain many funny words about what Bigfoot been doing past few years, since last Bigfoot book released. (And not worry: entire review not written in Bigfoot dialect.)

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Book Review: “11/22/63” by Stephen King

Josh Roseman — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:59:20 +0000

The assassination of JFK was a watershed event in human history, one that many people believe should never have happened. In Stephen King's new novel, 11/22/63, we learn that, no matter what we think should've happened, history is a pretty powerful force and it doesn't want to be changed.

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Podcast Review: Astronomy Cast

Sarah Frost — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:00:40 +0000

Astronomy Cast is one of the most informative and entertaining science podcasts that I have found to date. The chemistry between the hosts would be enough to make me keep listening, even if the subject matter wasn’t fascinating. Astronomy Cast episodes are short and focused, usually on a single aspect of the larger universe in […]

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Film Review: “In Time”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:00:37 +0000

I found In Time to be an enjoyable film, but if you haven't seen it yet, I'd wait for it to come out on DVD. The genre hook, while interesting, isn't exactly new, and there's a bit too much heavy-handed moralizing about haves and have-nots.

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Book Review: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Sarah Frost — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:43 +0000

Before the internet, before television, before jets and superhighways shrank the world to a manageable size and science gave us the tools to understand it, men of substance and education created wunderkammer. These rooms showcased curiosities, genuine artifacts and forgeries, from around the world. Their creators did not distinguish between plant and animal, ancient artifact […]

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Book Review: The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein

Sarah Frost — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:00:33 +0000

Rosemary Kirstein’s remarkable book, The Steerswoman, exists in the place between science fiction and fantasy. It looks like a fantasy novel, and uses the familiar story of an improbable band of heroes on a quest through a fantasy kingdom as a backdrop, but its core is made of the hardest science fiction. The underlying story […]

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“The Gift” of Choice… Unless You’re a Borg

Josh Roseman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:00:30 +0000

When I first saw the Voyager episode "The Gift", I thought Janeway had done a good thing saving a human from the Borg. Now, fourteen years later, I wonder just what the hell Janeway -- and the writers -- were thinking.

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Book Review: “Snuff” by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:52:23 +0000

Every cop series has an obligatory "get stuck doing cop stuff while on vacation". In Terry Pratchett's latest novel, Snuff, Commander Samuel Vimes goes on vacation and ends up doing a whole lot of it. Also, his son discovers the wonders of poo.

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Book Review: “Changing Planes” by Ursula K. Le Guin

Sarah Frost — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:49:03 +0000

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin is a book based on a little pun — the idea that the relentless hostility of airports to the human mind can, at times, drive a person out of our plane of reality and into another. While waiting to change planes, then, one might find one’s self actually […]

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Book Review: “The Colorado Kid” by Stephen King

Josh Roseman — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:11:37 +0000

The concept of a TV-show being based on a literary work is stretched pretty thin when it comes to Haven being based upon Stephen King's The Colorado Kid.

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Book Review: City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Sarah Frost — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:10:08 +0000

Science fiction always runs the risk of getting caught up in pointless details. City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is one of those science fiction novels that spends too much time looking down at its feet and not enough time staring up at the wondrous ideas that it is proposing. Half explore-the-ancient-machine, half first-contact, […]

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 10 of 10: Conclusion

Josh Roseman — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:05:11 +0000

After listening to all eight Harry Potter soundtracks pretty much in a row, here's my ordered list of which ones I think are better than the others.

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Book Review: “Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresault” by Genevieve Valentine

Sarah Frost — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:02:05 +0000

In a time of thousand-page fantasy epics, a little book like Genevieve Valentine’s Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is easy to overlook. I recommend making the effort to track it down. Mechanique is a beautifully written book. Genevieve Valentine says more with hints and suggestions than some authors can say in a thousand […]

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Book Review: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Sarah Frost — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:09:23 +0000

Books like The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells are why I love fantasy literature. In The Cloud Roads, Wells has built a world where people aren’t just divided by color and language, but by species and life-cycle. In a surprisingly short time, Wells touches on the kinds problems that a world like hers would have, […]

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 9 of 10: Deathly Hallows 2

Josh Roseman — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:04:43 +0000

Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack for Deathly Hallows 2 provided a fitting musical end to the Harry Potter saga. I especially enjoyed what I'm calling Cycles -- the Battle Cycle, the Snape Cycle, and the Harry Cycle, to be precise.

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Book Review: “H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education” by Mark Walden

Josh Roseman — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:11:10 +0000

Take the tried-and-true story framework of Harry Potter and set it at a school for super-villains and you've got H.I.V.E., a young adult novel by Mark Walden. I found it pretty funny, and think it's worth a read.

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 8 of 10: Deathly Hallows 1

Josh Roseman — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:04:16 +0000

I was very pleased with Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack for the first part of Deathly Hallows. Not surprising, given that he did a lot of the same things Patrick Doyle did in Goblet of Fire -- my favorite of the eight.

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 7 of 10: The Half-Blood Prince

Josh Roseman — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:02:04 +0000

Although I didn't like the film almost at all, and although Half-Blood Prince was my least-favorite of the books, I definitely got some enjoyment out of Nicholas Hooper's soundtrack. He quite redeemed himself after Order of the Phoenix with this one.

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 6 of 10: The Order of the Phoenix

Josh Roseman — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:59:52 +0000

Nicholas Hooper, though a talented composer, seems to have swung and missed with his Order of the Phoenix soundtrack. It wasn't a character in the film, and it wasn't a complete work of art, although it did have some pretty cool cues.

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Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Soundtrack Retrospective — Part 5 of 10: The Goblet of Fire

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:59:19 +0000

For the first time in the Harry Potter series, we had a start-to-finish soundtrack that was a truly complete work of art. Patrick Doyle's Goblet of Fire soundtrack is, without a doubt, my favorite of the eight.

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