A Desert Called Peace: A War on Terror Novel That Doesn’t Read the Same Anymore
Rereading Tom Kratman’s A Desert Called Peace in 2026, when the world doesn’t feel nearly as black and white as it did back in 2014.
Rereading Tom Kratman’s A Desert Called Peace in 2026, when the world doesn’t feel nearly as black and white as it did back in 2014.
A review of Mark of the Fool Book 4 by J.M. Clarke, where Alex Roth hits the actual limits of his power and has to find his own way around them.
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester won the very first Best Novel Hugo in 1953. A telepathic murder, an ending that punishes without killing, and a huge legacy.
By Schism Rent Asunder trades naval battles for politics and theology. Still good, still growing its cast, but this is where the brakes go on.
By Heresies Distressed is where Charis starts hanging churchmen and the naval war turns into a ground war. The momentum is well and truly back.
A fan’s rewatch of Star Wars: A New Hope, from Luke at the twin suns to Han’s return over the Death Star, and the genre it started for a generation.
A fan’s rewatch of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, from mashed potato mountains to the mothership, and why Roy Neary’s choice still gets me.
A review of Beyond the Rift by John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer. The series finale sticks the landing, mostly, then runs out of pages to close it properly.
A review of Behind the Veil by John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer. Book three is where the alien plot finally pays off, and it’s the best entry yet.
My honest Practical Magic 2 review: Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return, but the magic doesn’t quite land for me.
Off Armageddon Reef opens with humanity losing an extermination war, then hides the survivors in a fake Dark Age. A book I’ve reread several times.
The last post in the Doomsday rewatch. A separate universe, a frightened Reed Richards and a child on the board all turn out to be exactly the point.
A review of Mark of the Fool Book 3 by J.M. Clarke, where the Games of Roal tournament arc delivers real stakes instead of the filler it could have been.
Rewatching Thunderbolts before Avengers Doomsday, where the team holding the Avengers name and the most powerful character in the MCU are both unsolved problems.
A rewatch of Practical Magic finds a thin story saved by Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and a properly fun family dynamic. An easy 4 out of 5.
Rewatching Captain America Brave New World ahead of Avengers Doomsday, where the adamantium subplot finally looks like deliberate setup rather than filler.
Rewatching Deadpool and Wolverine before Avengers Doomsday, where the Fox handover and one Comic-Con announcement turned out to matter far more than the plot.
Rewatching The Marvels before Avengers Doomsday. Marvel put its first real step toward the X-Men crossover at the end of its least-watched film.
Betrayed By The Hero’s Party has a lovely cozy LitRPG concept and prose that reads like it came out of a machine. Both of those things are true at once.
Rewatching Loki season 2 before Avengers Doomsday. He is the reason the multiverse still exists, and nobody has mentioned him in three years.
Antdustrial Revolution swaps conquest for trade deals and world-building. A slower Chrysalis, and a bridge to whatever the fifth stratum turns into.