John Stewart, rocked back on his heels by the horrific events in Charleston, improvising, and unable to come up with a single joke, nevertheless manages more coherence and resolution than I could, even when I have time to prepare.  Which is why he’s the TV star and I, obviously, am not. Not that I feel […]

Behold, it is the corpus of St. Celestini— taking a rest, I guess, from his holy labors in the apse of the cathedral in St.-Malo, where I encountered him last autumn. I have been unable to find out anything about St. Celestini— there is a St. Celestine, but he was a pope and was buried […]

In critique, “Signal from Fred” is shorthand for those moments in a text in which the author’s subconscious issues a cry for help, usually by pointing out that the action doesn’t make any sense.  A character might say, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it!” or “This was unbelievable!” or “I can’t […]

Nemesis Games, the new book by my pal James S.A. Corey, appeared a couple days ago.  I’ve been reading it, and it’s a winner, which I know because I’m having a hard time putting it down. This is the fifth book in The Expanse, the first book of which is Leviathan Wakes, so you should probably start there. […]