Many years ago, Neal Stephenson catapulted onto my A list with the mind-blowing Snow Crash. He held me for a while with The Diamond Age and the brilliant Cryptonomicon, but I got bogged down in volume one of the Baroque Cycle, missed Anathem, and watched him fall off my radar. REAMDE (2011) is clearly the [...]
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After the disaster of the previous season, I’m happy to report that the seventh outing for 24 was a considerable improvement. Oh, it’s still late-run 24, rife with preposterous turns, familiar ideas and time-filling subplots — and in general the shine’s been off the apple since its groundbreaking early days. But it’s much more engrossing [...]
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The British miniseries Collision (2009) is a solid, enjoyable drama that occasionally buckles under the weight of its high concept. The story involves a major traffic accident on the A12, which comes with more than its fair share of mysteries. One of the drivers vanishes from the scene; another car has the air-conditioning going full [...]
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It’s been a while since I’ve done a TV round-up post, so here’s a summer viewing report: New seasons are underway for two shows I’ve been following casually for a while now, TNT’s Leverage and USA’s White Collar. To me, the quality of Leverage has dropped a little this season, while White Collar has shown [...]
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I finally finished up season six of 24. Compared to the previous seasons, this one was definitely a stinker, but I kind of “embraced the suck” and soldiered through to the end. I did like Powers Boothe as the villainous war-mongering veep, and the season had a few redeeming moments. Even though it’s not terribly [...]
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It’s been a busy few weeks, slowing my usually rampant listening, reading, and viewing efforts, but I have been able to check out a few things now and then… Said goodbye to Dollhouse…and finding I’m not particularly missing it. I think it was a weird, interesting show with moments of brilliance, but overall was kind [...]
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I found Stella Rimington‘s first novel (At Risk, reviewed here) promising, and I’m now happy to report that its sequel, Secret Asset (2006), continues to fulfill that promise. With three more novels after this one, Rimington looks to be a reliable source of engaging, intelligent spy thrillers for a while, and I’m looking forward to [...]
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For the unindoctrinated, MI-5 is a BBC spy series involving the domestic branch of the British Secret Service. (In the UK, it’s called Spooks – evidently Americans get spies and poltergeists confused easily.) Headed by ruthless, hard-nosed survivor Harry Pearce (Peter Firth), the team responds each week to the latest terrorist threat. In many ways, [...]
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Greg Rucka’s A Gentleman’s Game (2004) is an espionage thriller based on — and crossing over with — his comic book series Queen & Country (2001-2007), which is a direct and loving homage to an old British television series called The Sandbaggers (1978-1980). The entire project has the feel of being a pop culture, cross-media [...]
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