The final season of Babylon 5 is not it’s best. It really feels the loss of Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova, and there are some turns in character that do not feel organic to the story arc, which is surprising considering the success of the seasons that came before this one. It is an uneven season as well – it struggles when it starts, it experiences a brief upswing, then becomes alarmingly sluggish midway. Yet the final six episodes are so brilliant and so moving you can forgive the season it’s faults. The finale is truly breathtaking.

I’m normally not one for ‘live’ albums, as I feel somewhat cheated as I wasn’t there to experience it, but The Waifs have a special talent for giving you the feeling that you truly were. In fact, I find myself listening to this album more than their studio works – not to disparage those albums, but it just proves how exceptional this collection is.

An interesting tale which is being unfairly compared to “The DaVinci Code” – in any case, it is more well-written and the story itself would be exciting to any devotee of the original Stoker novel “Dracula” or 19th century Gothic fiction. The main problem is that the set up is so long and involved that by the time we get to the end it is so rushed you kind of sit back and think “That’s it?”. Still worth reading though.

Although not a great book by any means, this book is much better than the first in the series and truer to the characters.

A better entry into the CSI fiction category. Unlike the previous two, the author seems to be more on-track with the characters (which had really affected my enjoyment of the first two novels). The isolated hotel setting adds a nice Agatha Christie-like atmosphere.

The first X-Files tie-in original novel, it does have the same first-or-second season atmosphere of the series, but Scully’s quick acceptance of Mulder’s usual outlandish theory makes it a bit hard to swallow. The resolution of the novel is also very rushed.

I love Tim Winton’s work normally – Cloudstreet and Shallows are two of my most favourite novels ever. But The Riders is just turgid to get through. It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the main character of Scully. It’s one thing to be self-destructive, it’s another to take your child down with you. And there is such an air of misogyny that hangs over the book – except for his child all the women are portrayed as evil, soulless bitches out to get our hapless hero. It’s bizarre, considering Winton’s other novels where women play such prominent and equal roles (well, they are at least as equally flawed as their male counterparts). Disappointing.

Although it has a good, interesting plot, the characters in this book seem off – they don’t seem like the characters we know and love on the television show. Perhaps it is because it is the first book in the series and at the time the author didn’t have much material to work with – but they seem cardboardy and almost stereotypes of each other.

Feisty, irrepressible and spunky – Veronica Mars is the kind of person you wish you could have been in high school. Except, you may not want her life. Veronica’s mother has disappeared, her best friend was murdered, her own paternity has been thrown into question, and she is still trying to find out who raped her a year ago. Dark and darkly comic, this lovable and embittered series is hard to describe in such a way as to give it justice – but it is one of the best series on television and deserves a far bigger audience than it receives. Cannot be recommended enough!

This may not be a Springsteen album for everybody, but I think it is one of his best. My siblings and I have been Springsteen fans for decades, but my sister and I are also huge fans of folk music whereas my brother is not. So it is not to large a leap to realise that my sister and I love The Seeger Sessions, and my brother only listened to the first three songs before declaring he would wait for “the next album”. It’s a shame he didn’t give it a chance though, because the orchestrations are lush and lively… and toe-tappingly vibrant. Bruce sings these songs with a passion that was definitely lacking on “Devils and Dust”, and I only wish I was in the US so I could see the more intimate concerts he has been putting on for this release.