Books: Mainspring, Notions, BPRD, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four

[woodwardiocom]

Mainspring by Jay Lake

This is a nifty steampunk novel set in a world much like our own, but where the Earth and Heavens are explicitly clockwork. As in, the Equator is a gear scores of miles tall. Our hero is a clockmaker's apprentice in New Haven, who gets a visit from the Archangel Gabriel. He has to go on a quest, you see, to save the world . . .
The plot is a bit (for lack of a better word) mechanical, with our hero constantly ending up heading in the right direction through sheer chance, but the book almost makes a virtue of this; he is on a Mission from God, after all. Highly recommended.

Notions: Unlimited by Robert Sheckley

Sheckley is sort of the 20th century SF equivalent to Mark Twain, except without the respect he deserves. This collection of satirical short stories is quite cool, and a fun read. Thoroughly out of print, but recommended.

BPRD: Garden of Souls by Mignola, Arcudi, Davis

This is the seventh volume of the post-Hellboy adventures of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, and focuses on Abe Sapien continuing to explore his origins. It's a solid read, and I found it a bit of a page-turner. It's also nice to see long over-arcing plot threads in a miniseries-driven title. Recommended.

Spider-Man: Blue by Loeb and Sale

The masters of comics noir turn their attention to the days when Peter Parker stopped being a bookworm and attracted the attention of two beautiful women: Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. While this book has its share of superhero fights, the focus is on Pete and his friends, as they stop being high school kids and start being grownups. It's beautifully told, and captures a 1960s ambience while still being timeless. Highly recommended.

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne

While Byrne has made his share of missteps lately, in the 1980s he was on fire. He took over the writing and drawing duties on Fantastic Four in 1981, and gave the title its second Silver Age. His handling of Galactus, Doctor Doom, the Thing, and the Invisible Woman have all become definitive. Marvel has re-released his run in a series of trades. If you want to find out what the FF are really about, first pick up the original Lee/Kirby books, then get these. Highly recommended.

Comments

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

Don't know if it's part of the short story collection you mentioned but, Immortality Inc.. from Sheckley is rather well done and was the basis for the movie Freejack. I really need to get back to reading him.