Holmes and Moriarty
by Gareth Rubin (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
audiobook read by Michael Fenner & Gareth Armstrong (Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024)
The Holmes/Watson characterisation feels right, and Moriarty/Moran emerge as an equally absorbing duo (Watson and Moran alternating their first-person accounts), yet the titular conflux amounts to little. The plot devolves into explicated mystery where neither Holmes nor Moriarty (nor Mycroft) contribute much.
The River Bank
by Kij Johnson; ill. Kathleen Jennings (Small Beer Press, 2017)
Johnson’s Wind in the Willows sequel captures the characters and setting of Grahame’s original while adding two new principals: Beryl the Mole lady (an authoress) and her flighty female companion Rabbit, who joins Toad on a misadventure and proves rather more capable.
You Don’t Have to Have a Dream: Advice for the Incrementally Ambitious
by Tim Minchin (Penguin, 2024)
audiobook read by Tim Minchin (Penguin Random House Australia Audio, 2024)
A short (1-hour) audiobook that sees Minchin re-read three valedictory speeches he gave in connection with his honorary doctorates. The more zestful originals are available on YouTube, but Minchin has added introductory notes, and the life lessons / underlying philosophy bear collating.
Nona the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir (Tor, 2022)
audiobook read by Moira Quirk (Recorded Books, 2022)
For a third time, Muir immerses her readers without exposition (though characters bleed through and the series backstory is given space). Nona takes up the baton and proves worthy, despite the unconscionably abrupt ending. Quirk deserves a medal for her audiobook reading.
Grace, Series 1
by Russell Lewis (ITV, 2021)
Essentially two feature-length pilot episodes where Lewis hasn’t quite decided which facet of John Simm’s character to emphasise (masterful investigator or flakey quasi-widower). The support cast looks promising and the murder scenarios are very much on the dark side—nothing cosy here.
Revenge of the Librarians
by Tom Gauld (Canongate, 2022)
Catchy title but really a book about writers. Gauld’s cartoons evince a minimalist style and gentle, erudite satire focussing on literary reworkings and the (stubbornly flawed) creative process. Gauld’s humour is rarely laugh-out-loud but his style and introspective commentaries are consistently diverting.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Ghostbusters
by Erik Burnham & Tom Waltz; ill. Dan Schoening (IDW, 2015)
Ho-hum. There’s nothing wrong with this multiverse crossover, as such, but neither set of protagonists benefits greatly from the interaction. The Turtles do ninja things. The ghostly menace is a bog-standard Class 7, contained as per usual. Murky art, underlit action scenes.
The Portable Door
dir. Jeffrey Walker (Stan, 2023)
A remarkably lush feature-length adaptation of the eponymous novel (though Benjamin Speed’s score is a little too overt in pushing the quirky fantasy angle). Leon Ford’s screenplay captures the spirit. Patrick Gibson and Sophie Wilde turn their everyman characters into genuine protagonists.
The Librarians, Season 4
(TNT, 2017-2018)
Freewheeling and creative. A decent end to a series that made productive, playful use of history and magic. The season-spanning plot arc is less obtrusive this time, allowing individual stories to flourish (though at twelve episodes everything still feels a bit rushed).
Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
by Richard Dawkins (Apollo, 2021); audiobook read by the author (Clipper Audio, 2021)
A short though surprisingly unfocussed account of human aeronautical design (minimal detail) and of how creatures of the natural world achieved flight through evolution. The parallels, needless to say, suggest that natural selection amounts to its own continuous (if unthinking) drafting process.