Things aren’t looking great right now, are they? The kind of chaos…
Tag: recommended
Movie Review: Superman
Just saw the new Superman movie. Very good. Very timely. It’s the…
#317 – Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
For this column, I like to cover a wide variety of books…
#316 – The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
I went into this novel knowing literally nothing about it other than…
#315 – Caliban by Lorina Stephens
When I first started reading Caliban, I was instantly reminded of a…
All For One!
I went to see The Three Musketeers at the Arts Club Theatre…
#314 – The Rules of Supervillainy by CT Phipps
Subverting superhero stories is old news. You had movies like Mystery Men…
Short Movie Review: The Wild Robot
(I should really do more movie reviews, I think) I was pleasantly…
#313 – Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup
“Writers can treat their mental illnesses every day.”—Kurt Vonnegut Meta is a…
Interview with the Author: Arlene F. Marks
Every so often I like to ask other science fiction writers to…
Other Review: Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Another pre-Off The Shelf mini review I’m bringing back to the main…
Other Review: The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde
Note this isn’t an Off The Shelf review, but just a casual…
From the Dusty Mental Archives: Zen in the Art of Writing
(Slightly edited from a post I made in 2012) Ray Bradbury talked…
#311—Trouble Wore Red by Chris Lewis
So… what if you were to drag Sam Spade out of the…
#309—Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Have you ever retired a character in HackMaster or D&D? Ever wondered…
#308—Reprise by Zilla Novikov
There are several types of readers I feel Reprise is aimed at,…
#307—The Adventure Zone by Clint McElroy and Carey Pietsch
I had never even heard of The Adventure Zone when my wife…
#306—Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Sherlock…
#304 – The Imposters by Toby Frost
Ten years ago (May 2013) I wrote my first book review for…
Issue #273 – Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
Mystery novels are a tricky thing to innovate. More often than not,…
Issue #272 – Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
I didn’t expect to do another romance so soon, but in my…
Issue #271 – A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur’s Court by Mari Mancusi
“All things strive.” – Terry Pratchett It’s easy to dismiss stories that…
Issue #270 – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
This was a book I avoided as a kid for yet another…
Issue #269 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
Going to say this right up front: This was a hard book…
Issue #268 – The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
While it’s always a disservice to play the “it’s like BLANK meets…
Issue #267 – Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
I started Dragonsong under a misapprehension. I found a used copy from…
Issue #266 – Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin
Everyone knows George R.R. Martin because of Game of Thrones (aka A…
Issue #265 – Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
And you may ask yourselfHow do I work this?And you may ask…
Issue #264 – The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
I don’t often do non-fiction because I’m a storyteller at heart. Of…
Issue #263 – The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
This is Neil’s third time on Off The Shelf, but it’s for…
Issue #262 – Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Long time readers of KODT might remember Mur Lafferty’s column Geek Fu…
Issue #261 – Amazing Stories Magazine
The history of science fiction is a history of firsts. Samuel Madden…
Issue #260 – The Foundation Trilogy
Isaac Asimov is unquestionably a genius, but it sure as heck isn’t…
Issue #259 – Eaters of the Dead
If I review an author twice, it’s probably with good reason, and…
Issue #258 – The Man of Bronze (Doc Savage)
What do you get when you cross Superman with The Hardy Boys…
Issue #257 – Mission of Gravity
So, you’ve probably encountered your fair share of unusual protagonists in books…
Issue #256 – One Must Kill Another
(Full discretion, I acted as editor on this book) Good horror doesn’t…
Issue #255 – The Disaster Artist
“Oh, hi Mark…” Sometimes something becomes so famous (or infamous) that people…
Issue #254 – Artemis
Recently, I compared Earnest Cline’s Ready Player One to his follow-up novel…
Issue #253 – The Jane Austen Project
Travelling back in time is a tricky little thing. The fact it…
Issue #252 – A Wizard of Earthsea
I may have mentioned this in an earlier review: Every once in…
Issue #251 – Ready Player One
Last month I reviewed Armada, by Earnest Cline. Though I liked it,…
Issue #250 – Armada
Meta, in case you’re not familiar with the term, refers to being…
Issue #249 – The Moonshine War
“People around here have built their stills and drunk whiskey for more…
Issue #248 – Valérian
I grew up with comics, but they were American comics. Back then,…
Issue #247 – Jane Austen Graphic Novels
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a novel in possession of…
Issue #246 – William Shakespeare’s Star Wars
It is a period of civil war. The spaceships of the rebels,…
Issue #245 – The Road to Mars
“I laughed, I cried, and then I read the book.” – Steve…
Issue #244 – Norse Mythology
While I am somewhat familiar with the Norse pantheon, I must admit…
Issue #243 – Foucault’s Pendulum
Foucault’s Pendulum is a book that changed my life. I partly have…