A.T. Jackson

After the disappointment that was Caliban's War , James S.A. Corey's Abbaddon's Gate is a welcome return to the excellent form of The Expanse series of novels. This review contains spoilers. Abbadon's Gate brings the mystery, and potential threat, of the alien protomolecule which has served as the primary narrative thrust of this series, back to the forefront of the plot, whereas Caliban's War was content with reducing the alien protomolecule into nothing but a plot device, serving nothing more than a minor plot point in a different, and far less interesting, story arch. Despite Caliban's War being sub-par relative to Leviathan Wakes , the epilogue promised that Abbadon's Gate would be an improvement. And that it is. The return of Miller (kind of) provide James Holden with a much-needed foil. Let's face it, James Holden himself has always been a poorly written character. He's toxic, reckless and self righteous, taking action with little-to-no...

Stephen King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower, begins with a gripping, if somewhat narratively bare, prologue in the form of The Gunslinger. The Dark Tower I: The Gunlinger is a fine introduction to the realm of All-World, the titular Roland Deschain and his decades, maybe centuries-long quest to reach the eponymous Dark Tower. As the very fabric of reality begins to break down, Roland decides to venture towards the dark tower, a monolithic structure that serves as a pillar of reality. As the dark tower begins to collapse, reality itself begins to unravel. The laws of time and size begin to bend seemingly at random, and the rising and setting of the sun is inconsistent, ever-changing. During this first instalment of the series, we learn of the backstory of Roland Deschain, and how the arrival of a young boy by the name of Jake begins to unravel the world around him. The history of All-World, and the gunslinger himself, is excellently weaved, create a fantasy world quite unlike ...

James S.A. Corey brings us their second novel, Caliban's War , is the sequel to Leviathan Wakes , and the second novel in The Expanse series of novels. The series have been adapted into a television series by Syfy. Unlike the first novel, which was told from only two points of view, Caliban's War is told from the viewpoint of four different characters, three of which are characters that are newly introduced within this book. While some of these POVs, such as UN Under-secretary Christjen Avarasala, add a great deal to the narrative, others, such as Roberta "Bobbie" Draper, feel completely redundant. While the fourth POV, Praxidike Meng, does develop into an interesting voice throughout the novel, I kept thinking that with a few edits, a majority of the chapters written from his POV could have easily been edited to be told from Holden's POV, thus rendering a majority of his chapters redundant, much like Bobbie's. Prax and Bobbie are thoroughly likeable char...

Cambridge Professor of Classics Mary Beard brings us a recitation of the history of Rome, from the greatly mythologised founding of the city to the reformation of citizenship law under emperor Caracalla in 212 CE. The book begins (after the prologue) with a griping account of the various myths surrounding the foundation of the city of Rome, including the famous legend of the brothers Romulus and Remus and also another popular legend of the establishment of the city as detailed by Ovid's Aeneid . The history of the early days of Rome are mired in mythology, with very little archaeological evidence available to substantiate the claims of the writings of ancient Roman historians. Mary seamlessly weaves some of the greatest moments of Roman history into a brilliant chronology of the days of Roman dominance, from the establishment of the Roman Republic to the Republic's descent into violence and corruption, and the subsequent reformation of the Republic into the Roman Empire u...