BFG Podcast #160: 'Deadpool & Wolverine' 'The Bright Sword,' and 'The Book of Everything'

We discuss the most popular movie in the world on this week's podcast, and also discuss two...books. We are BOOK and Film Globe, after all. You can't pigeonhole us.

Frequent sci-fi and fantasy reviewer Dan Friedman joins Neal Pollack on the podcast to discuss 'The Bright Sword,' a very modern retelling of the Arthurian legend from Lev Grossman, who wrote The Magicians series. Did you know Sir Bedivere was gay? Lev Grossman does! In any case, The Bright Sword is quite engaging and fun to read, and both Dan and Neal reserve praise for this book, which injects fresh life into a moldy mythology.

'The Book of Elsewhere,' by China Mieville and, we guess, Keanu Reeves, is a bit more of a lift, despite being half the length. Based on an ultra-violent comic book series by Reeves, this is the story of 'B,' an 80,000-year-old immortal warrior who cannot die, or who at least comes back to life after he dies. Think John Wick meets Highlander. It's not as much fun as it sounds, if it sounds fun at all. Mieville fills the pages between grisly action sequences with philosophical rumination on the meaning of identity, approach at your own risk. Both Dan and Neal found this book to be a bit much.

Stephen Garrett crosses over from another realm in the multiverse to discuss 'Deadpool & Wolverine' with Neal. They both found this meta-entry in the MCU to be kind of cheap and a load of fun. There's not much else to say about the #1 movie in the world, other than "Marvel is back," and nothing is going to stop it from reasserting its dominance over the pop-culture landscape. They also discuss, along those lines, the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. The years of Dr. Doom are in front of us. It's Marvel's multiverse, and we just live in it.

Enjoy the show, people of The Gambia!