Finished reading: Bad Actors by Mick Herron 📚

Probably Herron’s best installment of the Slow Horses series. This will make a great season if the Apple TV+ show makes it this far.

Finished reading: Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell 📚

Bernard Cornwell’s Arthurian trilogy The Warlord Chronicles reads much like his The Last Kingdom series (which is, by the way, the basis of a great Netflix series). In fact, you might be forgiven if you blindly pick up a book from one series and think you’re reading the other.

You might also be forgiven for wondering in frustration, “Where is Arthur?” If the books were turned into screenplays (there was one short-lived attempt), the artist portraying Arthur would only qualify for a supporting actor award because warrior-turned-monk Derfel Cadarn is the true main character.

Cornwell’s strength is taking characters who actually existed and weaving realistic storylines around their lives. But if you’re a fan of Arthurian mythology, I might suggest you skip this series wherein Arthur is portrayed as a reluctant but oath-bound leader around whom warriors coalesce. Somehow he’s able to command their respect despite the author’s unwillingness to treat him as any sort of hero. Guinevere is smart and conniving. Lancelot is an arrogant usurper. And Derfel is the real hero.

Brilliant. Disturbed. Disturbing. Brilliant.

Just like The Hobbit, Andy Serkis excels at retelling J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien has woven a masterful tale that has easily withstood the years since its first publication. It has captured the hearts and minds of readers for decades. Serkis’s narration brings the entire story to life in a way that not many can.

Now to rejoin Frodo and Sam on their continued journey to Mordor, if you catch my meaning. 📚

The story of Charles Manson is always intriguing, but this Netflix documentary loses all credibility within the first 10 minutes by subscribing to conspiracy theories that are based purely on speculation with no supporting evidence.

The title of this post should be read as including a rating of 0 out of 4 stars. Every time I agree to watch a movie like this with my wife, I finish it thinking, “Well, that was stupid!”

I finished listening to The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien. Andy Serkis’s performance is incredible! If you like the Tolkien tales, you owe it to yourself to revisit them through Serkis’s artistry. I’m looking forward to his reading of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 📚

I just finished reading Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell. This second book in the trilogy felt more tightly constructed than the first installment. Cornwell’s trilogy presents his version of the Arthurian legend, featuring characters who actually existed and were later connected to the myth. Is it myth? Legend? History? In the first novel, Arthur was barely more than a supporting character. The second book features him more prominently, but I still wouldn’t say it revolves around Arthur. It seems that Cornwell is building up to the third book, where Arthur will undoubtedly fulfill his destiny. 📚