Book three of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series sees Carl, Princess Donut, Mongo and Katia enter the fourth level of the dungeon, as they continue to garner intergalactic viewers, sponsors, bounties and loot boxes. They find themselves in the Iron Tangle, an interweaving collection of train and subway lines with stations, rest areas, and oh…
Category: The Book Shelf
The Midnight Train (2026) – Matt Haig
Matt Haig seems to have a predilection for tales about death and reimagining of one’s life choices to find a better way to live, love, and be well… better. I was given an advanced reading copy of Haig’s latest novel, The Midnight Train, but it sat for awhile on my To Be Read pile (like…
The Dog Stars (2012) – Peter Heller
When I heard The Dog Stars was going to be Ridley Scott’s new film, it moved up to the top of my reading list. I almost wish it hadn’t. I didn’t not like it, but the event that occurs on third into the book kicked my ass, so much that I almost decided not to…
The Martian Chronicles (1950) – Ray Bradbury
I’m pretty sure I read this book when I was in my tweens, after I was introduced to the miniseries based on the book. It was at the point when my parents were still bringing home movies for me to watch, before I started exploring my own love of film. I’m sure they simply asked…
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (2021) – Matt Dinniman
Book 2 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series picks up where the first installment left us, Carl, Princess Donut, and Mongo the raptor have just made it to level three of the Dungeon World that was once Earth. It was converted into an 18-level dungeon, where the last survivors of the planet have to work…
Firefly: The Magnificent Nine (2019) – James Lovegrove
James Lovegrove takes us back out into the Black with his second Firefly novel, The Magnificent Nine. Once again, he has an ear for the dialogue and the pacing of the series and translated it nicely to a novel. As the title hints at, the story is a bit of a riff on the classic…
Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) – Matt Dinniman
I thought it would be funny. I had no idea it would be as funny as it. I laughed. A lot, and I knew going in that this was the first book in a series, so I wasn’t worried when it got to the ending and not everything had resolved itself. Carl is a bit…
Firefly: Big Damn Hero (2018) – James Lovegrove
If you’ve been visiting the blog recently, you know I’ve been revisiting the beloved series, Firefly. I’m very excited about more adventures in the ‘Verse, even if it’s an animated one. And while I own, and love a lot of the comics that sprang up following the film, Serenity, I had never read any of…
Screaming and Conjuring (2025) – Clark Collis
Clark Collis delivers a fantastic look at the horror genre and its revitalization during the run of films from the game changing Scream in 1996 to the haunted house Conjuring of 2013. That seventeen years of cinema saw countless genre films released, and it documents its growth and evolution. Collis explores them all, the high-profile…
Star Trek: Across the Universe (1999) – Pamela Sargent, and George Zebrowski
Sometimes I just want to travel with old friends. And the oldest of those friends, are the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk commanding. As the Pocketbook series continued, the stories have gotten stronger, tying in with the ever-expanding franchise’s continuity. Across the Universe takes place during the original five-year mission. The…
The Mind Reels 