‘Ready Player Two,’ the much-anticipated sequel to the popular novel and film ‘Ready Player One,’ is a loose collection of unlikable characters and precious pop culture references in search of a plot.

The latest entry in Lee Child’s popular thriller series is the first with a co-author, and the changes in tone and style are evident.

Lawrence Wright’s second novel, ‘The End of October,’ just happens to be about a global coronavirus outbreak—it’s fine thriller, if the uncomfortable resemblance to real-life events doesn’t make you squirm.

In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Testaments,’ she expands upon the dystopian vision created by ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ and reveals political complexities that many ardent fans overlook.

In Lee Child’s ‘Blue Moon,’ the popular and indomitable action hero Jack Reacher is back, and the results are typically satisfying.

The new in-theaters release ‘Knives Out’ is inventive, entertaining, surprisingly political, and not without an emotional tug.

In ‘Faber & Faber: The Untold Story,’ Toby Faber tells the engaging history of his grandfather’s literary institution and dishes on many of its more notable authors.

Two much-buzzed-about new books, ‘The Escape Room’ by Megan Goldin and ‘The Need’ by Helen Phillips, have intriguing premises but don’t always deliver in execution.

In ‘Underland,’ nature writer Robert Macfarlane explores mines, catacombs, and even holes in glaciers to examine how what’s underground affects the world above. The resulting prose may be flowery, but it can also be deeply edifying.

This might be the least ‘Black Mirror’-ish series to date, and a possible start to the show’s mature period. That’s a good thing.

Venerable British novelist Ian McEwan’s latest, ‘Machines Like Me,’ imagines an intriguing, but ultimately disappointing, past where Alan Turing never died and humanity is forced to confront advanced artificial intelligence in the 1980s.

Martin L. Shoemaker’s debut science fiction novel, ‘Today I Am Carey,’ asks if robots will become part of our family in the future and, if so, can androids truly be kind or is the emulation of human feelings enough?

Before finding public fame through ‘Civilisation,’ Kenneth Clark was a well-known art critic and youngest-ever director of London’s National Gallery.

Ben H. Winters’ detective novel ‘Golden State’ tells of a dystopian future where honesty is rigorously policed, and succeeds as thought-provoking entertainment.

‘Bandersnatch’ is a breakthrough experiment in audience interactivity, and driving Internet obsessives to geek out over its endless potential story permutations.

‘Watership Down’ is both a deeply, fantastically imagined mythology, and an epic adventure story full of thrills and hair-breadth escapes whose appeal to all ages will never stale.

The World Chess Championship is currently happening in London. What will the future of this ancient game look like as tech speeds up?

Unfocused, charming, a little sappy, a tad more menacing than one may remember, ‘Yellow Submarine’ is silly and innocent, without being insultingly amateurish.

The series taps into a timeless, primitive fear of being trapped in the digital hells we’ve constructed — minds with no bodies, no agency.

A little more claustrophobia may have boosted the suspense. It doesn’t always feel like we’re on a tight train with a killer. But Kenneth Branagh with a massive mustache is certainly a sight.