Books: Times Eleven (!)

[woodwardiocom]

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

I took my honeymoon as an opportunity to re-read these classics, which I had not read in full since a few years before the movies came out. The movies have only increased my appreciation of them, and I was cheerfully entertained throughout. I wear my Tolkien-geek badge proudly.

The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence by Peter F. Hamilton

This is the first volume in a complicated six-book space opera series. It's a little difficult to describe, but the main players are a couple of starship captains, and some colonists on a grubby little world, all of whom get embroiled in the emergence of a strange new power that threatens to shake their civilizations. I was not entirely delighted, and reading five more books to get to the end sounds like a lot of work, but I'll probably do so eventually. (Yes, I know they were originally three books, not six.)

Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

A bio-thriller in which a new kind of virus suddenly starts causing pregnancies across the world to go horribly wrong . . . or to go different, depending on your point of view. The biology is thick and fast in here, and most of the book is people standing around talking, but I found it worth the read.

The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel

A lot like every other UFO book, and not much like the movie. I don't think I'll keep it.

Dubious Shards by Kenneth Hite

A collection of essays on the Cthulhu Mythos by my occasional colleague princeofcairo. I picked it up at Dragon*Con and enjoyed it, particularly "The 'How' of Hastur" (the basic principles of constructing a Cthulhu story), and "The Man Who Shot Joseph Curwen" (on the similarities between Cthulhu stories and Westerns).

Doctor Strange: A Separate Reality by Englehart and Brunner

A collection of classic Doctor Strange stories from the early 70s, with excellent art, imaginative writing (if over-wordy by modern standards), and epic scope. Hmm, maybe I should try to put together a Doc Strange costume for some Halloween . . . (with pants, not tights, I think).

Exiles by Bedard, et al

I'm continuing to pick up this reality-hopping Marvel comic in trade, and it remains a gripping read, particularly since the writers are free to kill anyone at any time. I'm up to volume 12, which is just after their confrontation with the Timebroker/Timebreakers, and is the beginning of their Proteus-chasing World(s) Tour. Highly recommended to Marvel fans.

GURPS Supers (for Fourth Edition) by William H. Stoddard

A study of how to handle superheroes-qua-genre in GURPS. While a lot of this is stuff I know (this is not the first nor the fifth superhero RPG book I've read), there were still valuable insights in here.