woodwardiocom

Books Read, 2019

2020-02-05T18:24:42Z

Counting these is always tricky. If I count only non-comics works, that I finished, I get 42, which isn't bad. Comics TPBs (which I often read in a sitting) would add dozens more. Books I started and didn't finish would add another ten, maybe. (I do need to get better at knowing when to stop reading a book, instead of being stubborn.)

It looks like this will be the last year I track this, as I'm finding better things to do with my time. Thanks for reading!

Trickster's Choice/Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

Dwellers In The Mirage/The Face In The Abyss by A. Merritt

The Corporation Wars by Ken MacLeod

The Books Of Earthsea by LeGuin, illustrated by Charles Vess

Remaking History And Other Stories by Kim Stanley Robinson

Kings Of The Wyld and Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Competence by Gail Carriger

Fantastic Four: Mr. And Mrs. Grimm by Slott, Simone, Braga, Kuder, Hughes, Allred

Avengers: No Road Home by Waid, Ewing, Zub, Medina, Izaakse, Barberi

Warriors Of The Spider-Verse: Electroverse by Costa, Baldeon

Spider-Geddon by Divers Hands

West Coast Avengers v1 & v2, by Thompson, Caselli, Farrell, Di Nicuolo, Lim, R.

Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 & v2, by Slott, Schiti, Delgado, Zub, Villanelli

The Iron Tactician by Alastair Reynolds

Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Agent To The Stars by John Scalzi

24 Frames Into The Future by John Scalzi

The Complete Uncle by J.P. Martin

Marvel Masterworks: The Savage She-Hulk, Vol. 2 by Kraft, Vosburg, et al

Niels Bohr by Ruth Moore

The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum

Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn

Star Trek: The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamone Shirahama

The Mammoth Book Of SF Stories By Women, edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane

Flashing Swords v1 & v2, edited by Lin Carter

The Journal Of The Two Sisters by Amy Keating Rogers

Daring Do And The Marked Thief Of Marapore by G.M. Berrow (writing as A.K. Yearling)

Romancing The Inventor by Gail Carriger

The Warlord Of The Air by Michael Moorcock

Hiero's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier

The Silver Call Duology by Dennis L. McKiernan

Line To Tomorrow by Lewis Padgett

The Dreamblood Duology by N.K. Jemisin

Vision: The Complete Collection by King, Walta, Bellaire

Ms. Marvel: Destined by Ahmed, Jung, Vlasco, Herring

Marvel Comics #1000 by Divers Hands

Infinity Warps: Two-In-One by Divers Hands

The Immortal Hulk: Abomination by Ewing, Bennett, José, Mounts

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Taylor, Cabal, Cinar, Franchin

Champions: Beat The Devil by Zub, Cummings, Ramírez, Menyz

Asgardians Of The Galaxy by Bunn, Buffagni, Landini, Lolli

Swamp Thing: Roots Of Terror by Wein Et Al

At the Mountains Of Madness by Gou Tanabe

Sandman: House Of Whispers by Gaiman, Hopkinson, Stanton, Rauch

Goddess Mode by Quinn, Rodriguez, Renzi

Savage Avengers by Duggan, Deodato, Martin

Heathen by Alterici, Deering

Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase by Divers Hands

BPRD: The Devil You Know: Ragna Rok by Mignola Et Al

Real Science Adventures: The Nicodemus Job by Clevinger, McClaren, Wiedle, Murphy, Stone

Die: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Gillen, Hans, Cowles

Mage: The Hero Denied by Matt Wagner

A Collection Of Fantasy Maps by Guillaume Tavernier

The Marvel Art of Conan The Barbarian

Hornblower's Navy by Steve Pope

House of X/Powers of X by Hickman, Larraz, Silva, Gracia

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide To Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer

Scooby Apocalypse, Volume 6 by Giffen, DeMatteis, Oliffe, Palmer

The Lavalite World by Philip José Farmer

Spaced Out (Three Novels Of Tomorrow) by Judith Merril and C.M. Kornbluth

The Sea Wolf by Jack London

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Hide Me Among The Graves by Tim Powers

Chicks Dig Gaming, edited by Brozek, Smith?, and Pearson

Frankenstein and Foreign Devils by Walter Jon Williams

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Unknown Worlds Of Science Fiction and Epic

Enough As She Is by Rachel Simmons

Scratch Monkey by Charles Stross

The Willful Princess And The Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb

Giant Lizards From Another Star by Ken MacLeod

Deathworld by Harry Harrison

comments

Books: Clearing The Deck, Vth And Final Part

2020-02-05T02:08:18Z

Deathworld by Harry Harrison

A 1960 SF novel about a planet where the flora and fauna are out to kill all humans. The colonists (presented as tough but rigid in their thinking) hire a smart, lucky outsider to help them with the problem. He uproots their whole system. Mildly interesting novel that named the "deathworld" subgenre, though it's far from the first example.

Giant Lizards From Another Star by Ken MacLeod

A reasonably good collection of poems, stories, and nonfiction, including the conspiracy bouillabaisse "Cydonia". The con reports are a bit dull for anyone who wasn't there, and his essays on socialism mostly make me suspect he's using the term to mean something very different from how I use it -- and there's a distinct subtext of, "I became a socialist to get laid." Might be my imagination. But still.

The Willful Princess And The Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb

A novella set in the same universe as her Assassin/Fool series, this is an account of one of the legends of the Five Duchies, in which a lot of good people make bad mistakes. Stands alone pretty well, recommended.

Scratch Monkey by Charles Stross

An earlier novel by Stross, and far from his best, in which humans are deluded pawns in interstellar AI conflicts played out over decades. Our heroine gets put through one nasty mission after another, and the ending is bleak. Includes some interesting back-material on publishing.

Enough As She Is by Rachel Simmons

Fascinating book on how to raise daughters in a society that places impossible standards on them, while devaluing them. I am certainly going to hand this book to my daughter before too many more years go by, and I hope I can put its advice into practice. Recommended.

Unknown Worlds Of Science Fiction and Epic

Odd publishing realities led Marvel Comics to put out a number of magazines in the 1970s, distinct from comics. UWOSF (I picked up 3 issues) was a short-lived, black-n-white magazine, consisting of a mix of comics adaptations of SF stories, new comics stories, and non-fiction articles and interviews. The authors represented are the A-list of the era, including Ellison, Niven, Herbert, Van Vogt, Silverberg, etc. And, the "Slow Glass" framing conceit of each issue is nice. Epic (I picked up four issues) was similarly a mix of adaptations and new material, and much of it was in color. Again, the authors are A-list, including Howard, Ellison, Moorcock, and more. Both, forty years later, seem a bit juvenile. They were pushing the edge of what was allowed in "comics" format for the time (so there's violence, boobs, and even the occasional genitalia), and it comes across a little, eh, graceless? Like the target audience is teenage boys? Which it probably was? Still, both manage moments of beauty, and it's rare to see comics adaptations of contemporary SF these days.

comments

Books: Clearing The Deck, Part IV

2020-01-31T01:46:31Z

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Conclusion to the Machineries of Empire trilogy, in which a fascist interstellar empire is riven to its core by disparate, odd revolutionaries. A very different take on space opera, highly recommended.

Frankenstein and Foreign Devils by Walter Jon Williams

A nice collection of short stories, several of them being alternate histories featuring Elvis, Mary Wollstonecraft, and others. Recommended.

Chicks Dig Gaming, edited by Brozek, Smith?, and Pearson

A fine collection of essays by women gamers, often touching on the sexism rampant in the hobby, but always speaking of the joys found in it. Recommended.

Hide Me Among The Graves by Tim Powers

A fine occult tale of pseudo-vampires and ghosts in Victorian London. I like Powers a bit better when his setting is the 20trh century, but this was still a fun read. Recommended.

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

A mostly-episodic tale of a small spaceship crew tasked with "digging" wormholes through space. It's primarily about relationships intimate, friendly, strained, and other. Comparisons to Firefly are obvious. It doesn't quite hold together as a novel, but you're mostly there for the characters. Recommended.

comments

Books: Clearing The Deck, Part III, Unfinished Tales

2020-01-28T00:27:46Z

The Sea Wolf by Jack London

Rich dilettante Van Weyden is rescued from a shipwreck by Wolf Larsen and press-ganged into service. Larsen is a violent idiot who thinks he's smart because he's read a few books. He has to be violent, because he can't convince anybody of anything through reason, that's for sure. He may have made an interesting character study 120 years ago, but now he's a very dull, very common type. Unfinished.

Spaced Out (Three Novels Of Tomorrow) by Judith Merril and C.M. Kornbluth

I'm afraid I just found these boring. In Gunner Cade the protagonist never knows what's going on, bleh. Shadow On The Hearth was too depressing. I did finish Outpost Mars, which is a relatively interesting story of a Martian colony, but I can't hugely recommend it.

The Lavalite World by Philip José Farmer

Fifth in his World Of Tiers series, third to not actually take place on the Tiered World itself, and second to deal more with 1970s social issues than interdimensional adventure. Suffice to say, Farmer probably should have actually talked to some black people before and after writing this book. Unfinished.

comments

Books: Clearing The Deck, Part II

2020-01-26T02:18:02Z

Scooby Apocalypse, Volume 6 by Giffen, DeMatteis, Oliffe, Palmer

"What if the Scooby Gang were caught up in a nanotech monster apocalypse? What if Scooby was a cybernetically-enhanced dog? What if it was a lot less funny?" This epic alternate take on the Scooby-Doo franchise comes to an end here. People live, people die, people are born, and the apocalypse ends, for better or worse. I certainly wasn't bored by this tale, and my biggest complaint is that Giffen & DeMatteis only have a few tricks for writing dialogue -- and they wear thin after a few volumes. (Well, and the weird back-up stories starring Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant are pretty much a waste of paper.) Mildly recommended.

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide To Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer

A solid writing guide, if maybe just a bit too quirky. Still, lots of interesting writing exercises. Recommended.

House of X/Powers of X by Hickman, Larraz, Silva, Gracia

A whole new status quo for the X-Men, in which they have declared themselves a nation, established a utopia, conquered death, and dared the rest of the world to provoke them. It is genuinely good SF, and a very interesting take on the X-Men. It expects you to pay attention and take notes. I do have some criticisms, which are unfortunately rooted in the nature of X-Men as a serial medium: First off, they've done this before. The last Utopia storyline wasn't that long ago. Second, we know it won't last. Comics always return to the status quo ante eventually. Third, in order for this story to work, a lot of the X-Men are acting out of character, to the point that I think it's on purpose -- is Xavier mind-controlling them all? Regardless, they've got me intrigued for now!

Hornblower's Navy by Steve Pope

A light introduction to the Age of Sail, well-illustrated. Fine for its purpose.

The Marvel Art of Conan The Barbarian

A lot of great artists worked on this title back in the day, and this is a fine collection of their work, as far as it goes. The problem is that Marvel had two Conan titles back when: the traditional comic Conan The Barbarian, and the black-and-white magazine with fully-painted covers, Savage Sword Of Conan. I was rather expecting this book to cover both titles, and was looking forward to those covers, but noooooo, there's a companion volume for "Savage Sword" coming out in a few months. I feel a bit ripped off.

A Collection Of Fantasy Maps by Guillaume Tavernier

A beautiful collection of this guy's map and illustrative work, including lovely cross-sections and orthograpic maps. Highly suitable for fantasy RPGs. Recommended.

comments

Books: Clearing The Deck, Part I

2019-12-29T01:53:25Z

My to-be-reviewed shelf is rather full, so commentary is going to be brief.

Mage: The Hero Denied by Matt Wagner

An entertaining conclusion to the Mage urban fantasy series, but on the whole, the trilogy does not quite live up to its hype.

Die: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Gillen, Hans, Cowles

A new entry in the "what if the players got sucked into the RPG" genre, and likely to be one of the definitive ones. Grim, gorgeous, highly recommended.

Real Science Adventures: The Nicodemus Job by Clevinger, McClaren, Wiedle, Murphy, Stone

An 11th century heist story, recommended.

BPRD: The Devil You Know: Ragna Rok by Mignola Et Al

The conclusion to the Hellboy/BPRD story that's been told over the past quarter-century. The world trembles on the brink of extinction. Hell is in chaos. And Hellboy will save us... right? Not suitable for those new to Hellboy's world, but a fitting conclusion to the saga.

Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase by Divers Hands

An unfortunately-slim collection of stories by female creators, involving Hasbro's toy properties, including Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and Jem. There's a little something for everyone in here.

Heathen by Alterici, Deering

The adventures of a heathen, lesbian, Viking, as she fights demons, rescues immortals, and stumbles through all her relationships. Recommended.

Savage Avengers by Duggan, Deodato, Martin

Many "Avengers" teams these days are ad hoc ollections of heroes who don't call themselves a team, let alone Avengers, and only come together for one problem. This book is no exception. Doctor Voodoo, the Punisher, Elektra, Venom, Wolverine, and Conan The Barbarian (!) meet up in the Savage Land to fight a wizard bent on conquest. The delight here is seeing Conan cope with the modern world while refusing to acclimate to it -- and watching him covet Wolverine's claws. A different Marvel story, mildly recommended.

Goddess Mode by Quinn, Rodriguez, Renzi

A cyberpunk tale of a group of women fighting to free cyberspace from corporate domination and the occasional freaky demon. A touch frantic, but pretty good overall.

Sandman: House Of Whispers by Gaiman, Hopkinson, Stanton, Rauch

A houseboat from the real world, home to the unique magic of New Orleans, is sucked into the Dreaming, and the gods' powers come unstuck. I had a little trouble following the plot, but it's still quite good.

At the Mountains Of Madness by Gou Tanabe

The second comics adaptation of Mountains that I'm aware of, and overall the better one, this two-volume manga is lush in detail, and 95% faithful in plot. The history discovered in the lost city is directly illustrated in flashback form, which I think was the best choice. Recommended.

Swamp Thing: Roots Of Terror by Wein Et Al

A collection of Swamp Thing one-shots from the past decade or so, including Wein's last work on the character he created. They, predictably, vary in quality, but "The Talk Of The Saints" is quite good, while "Heart-Shaped Box" suffers from having been done before, with the same character. Mildly recommended.

comments

Books: Assorted Marvel Comics

2019-11-19T01:54:17Z

Asgardians Of The Galaxy by Bunn, Buffagni, Landini, Lolli

An oddball team of Asgard-related heroes (Angela, Valkyrie, Throg, Loki, Skurge) get out into the universe to deal with Asgard-related threats. Fun, but requires some knowledge of Thor lore.

Champions: Beat The Devil by Zub, Cummings, Ramírez, Menyz

Our favorite team of young social justice warriors deal with the trials of teenager-hood, and the fallout when Mephisto makes a deal with two of them... and you should never, ever, deal with the devil. Recommended.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Taylor, Cabal, Cinar, Franchin

A "back to basics" Spider-Man title, except that it deals with a major geographic addition to Spidey's New York-based mythos. It nevertheless captures the "everyday" nature of Spider-Man. Recommended.

The Immortal Hulk: Abomination by Ewing, Bennett, José, Mounts

This horror title continues to be scary, deconstructing how gamma-based transformations are both body-horror and mind-horror, and how the impermanence of comic-book death is not all skittles and puppies. Creepy, but recommended.

Infinity Warps: Two-In-One by Divers Hands

A collection of stories set in the "warps" universe, where everyone has been combined, giving us the Soldier Supreme, Iron Hammer, Ghost Panther, and more. These are mostly a bunch of fun non-canon stories with weird heroes, and they occasionally even illuminate aspects of the original characters. I found the Weapon Hex story, however, to be too fetishistically interested in pretty women in tight costumes getting dismembered. Otherwise mildly recommended.

Marvel Comics #1000 by Divers Hands

One thousand months have passed since Marvel Comics #1. This is an 80+-page collection of one-page stories telling tales from throughout Marvel's history, often with hints of plots yet to come. There's bound to be something in there that pleases you. Recommended.

Ms. Marvel: Destined by Ahmed, Jung, Vlasco, Herring

Ms. Marvel gets a new writer, who takes her into space, where an alien race insists she's the Chosen One. Unfortunately, her parents came along for the ride, and they think Chosen-One-ing is far too dangerous. Recommended.

Vision: The Complete Collection by King, Walta, Bellaire

I'm late coming to this series, a 12-issue deconstruction of, well, many things. The Vision has built himself a nuclear family, and bought a house in the suburbs, where they try very hard to be normal. Alas, when your family tree includes several mass-murderers, that's not easy, and their barbecue pit begins to acquire a body count. I suspect this series worked better as monthly issues, when your brain had time to fill in blanks between issues. In one volume, you notice how single incidents are meant to stand in for status quos. It is, nevertheless, entirely worth reading. Highly recommended.

comments

Books: Inventors, Journeys, Tomorrows, and Dreams

2019-09-29T18:05:07Z

The Dreamblood Duology by N.K. Jemisin

This pair of fantasy novels are by Hugo-award-winning author Jemisin. The setting is Middle-East-inspired, where the city of Gujaareh is filled with dreaming magic, used to heal, to keep the peace, and (inevitably) for political gain. The novels are as much about culture clash as they are about magic and politics, and all the cultures are drawn with their flaws and virtues. Entirely recommended.

Line To Tomorrow by Lewis Padgett

A collection of Padgett's quirky SF and fantasy stories, which lean as much on the foibles of 20th-century humans as on their contrafactual premises. Mildly recommended.

The Silver Call Duology by Dennis L. McKiernan

Blatant Lord Of the Rings fanfic, with the serial numbers filed off. There are orcs in Moira again, and the dwarves need to return and roust them out, but the only record of the interior is in Frodo's notes. So, the current Hobbit keeper of the Red Book, and his faithful servant, set out with a band of dwarves to invade Moira. It's not bad, by any means, and its publication history is intriguing. Very mildly recommended, if you need a sequel to Rings. (There's also an associated trilogy, which was meant to give these books a proper prequel that wasn't Rings. Slightly less recommended.)

Hiero's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier

A post-apocalyptic fantasy, and one of the inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons. I got about halfway through, and decided I was part-bored, part-offended by its handling of women, and set it aside.

The Warlord Of The Air by Michael Moorcock

Interesting steampunk-y novel set on an alternate Earth where the UK has conquered a lot of the world using airships, with the inevitable reaction by the conquered. Moorcock's handling of race and politics is, as ever, clumsy. The framing sequence (explaining how a man from our world traveled there and back) is lengthy and unnecessary, and the narrator largely just watches events unfold. Mildly recommended, maybe?

Romancing The Inventor by Gail Carriger

Set in Carriger's fantasy-steampunk Parasol universe, this is a lesbian romance novella, swinging lightly into erotica towards the end. If that's your thing, this is definitely your thing!

comments

Books: Ponies, Swords, Women

2019-08-29T00:32:26Z

Daring Do And The Marked Thief Of Marapore by G.M. Berrow (writing as A.K. Yearling)

A My Little Pony spin-off, this is a pulp archaeology adventure, notionally written by a character from the show, and set in the same universe. Daring Do must track down three magical relics that have protected three villages from the neighboring volcano -- but who would steal them, and why? Fun, and it hits the right pulp notes, but it hasn't prompted me to seek out the others in the series.

The Journal Of The Two Sisters by Amy Keating Rogers

Another MLP spin-off, half of this is the diary of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in the time before Nightmare Moon, as they built their castle and grew into their power. My headcanon says that Celestia is more into pranks than this text suggests, but otherwise it's solid. The second half is the Mane Six writing about their adventures after Twilight Sparkle leveled up, with some interesting hints sprinkled in. Again, fun, but not scintillating.

Flashing Swords v1 & v2, edited by Lin Carter

Two original anthologies of sword & sorcery fiction, written in the 1970s. Contributors include Leiber, Vance, Anderson, De Camp, Moorcock, Norton, and Jakes. There's a fair amount of variation in quality, and how well they have aged over the past 40 years. (E.g., there's some sexual assault by the heroes.) While it's a genre for which I'm nostalgic, the best of these stories I have in other volumes (e.g., the Elric and Fafhrd-Mouser tales), and the worst are not worth keeping. I suspect they'll go into my giveaway shelf in short order.

The Mammoth Book Of SF Stories By Women, edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane

Exactly what it says on the tin, amounting to 500 pages and 30-odd stories. Contributors include Fowler, Le Guin, Okorafor, Kress, Hopkinson, Bear, Cho, and more. While the "Mammoth" series books tend to be churned out like sausage, it's nevertheless a solid anthology, and recommended.

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamone Shirahama

A manga series, up to three volumes in America, about a young girl who stumbles onto the secret of magic, and into a nesting series of magical conspiracies. The magic system is intelligently developed, and since magic is all written with fancy pens and ink, will appeal to a Certain Sort. Recommended.

comments

Books: Trek, Wars, And Others

2019-08-03T15:43:52Z

Star Trek: The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane

An older Trek novel in which the Enterprise tests a new FTL drive, which has extremely unfortunate side effects. Some bits of the plot don't make a lot of sense, but you're mostly here for the crew banding together in the face of ultimate weirdness. Has some well-rendered alien crewmembers, including the (per back cover copy) "pretty alien scientist" -- who is a very pretty glass spider. Mildly recommended.

Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn

Set in two time periods, this recent Star Wars novel covers Thrawn's first meeting with Anakin Skywalker, during the Clone Wars, and a much later team-up between Thrawn and Darth Vader, in which Thrawn politely pretends he doesn't know Vader's secret identity. Practically any Thrawn novel by Zahn is a delight, and watching these two very proud men carefully work around each other's egos is entertaining. Recommended.

The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum

They say Weinbaum would be remembered in the same breath as Asimov and Heinlein, if he hadn't died of cancer, terribly young, after less then two years in the business. This is a fine collection of his shorter works, most of them still quite readable, though they obviously burned brighter in the cheesy pulp days of the 1930s. Recommended.

Niels Bohr by Ruth Moore

A biography of the famed physicist who formed much of our modern understanding of the atom. It's readable, not terribly exciting, and I confess it's mostly staying on my shelf because it came from the library of my grandfather, who got it autographed by Moore.

Marvel Masterworks: The Savage She-Hulk, Vol. 2 by Kraft, Vosburg, et al

While I can't honestly call these good stories, they're interestingly different from the standard fare of the time. The issues involved are often social, there's an overarching plot which ascends from political corruption to cosmic and Earth-threatening, and She-Hulk's personal problems (like, her dad thinks she's a murderer) are handled interestingly. She's also in an odd polyamorous relationship, where Jennifer is dating one man, and She-Hulk is dating a different man, with attendant friction. Very mildly recommended.

comments

Books: Giveaways, Scalzi, Reynolds

2019-08-03T15:13:08Z

The Complete Uncle by J.P. Martin

I helped Kickstart this book, despite not being familiar with the stories, on the strength of reviews. About halfway through the first story, I've decided it's not for me. It's no secret that the conflict between the rich, benevolent Uncle and the poor, filthy Badforters is a satire of English class struggle, but it's a satire where all the sympathy lies with the rich, and in this day and age, I find that unsettling. It's going in my giveaway pile.

24 Frames Into The Future by John Scalzi

This is a collection of a hundred-plus columns, by Scalzi, on science fiction film, written for a website between 2008 and 2011. It suffers a lot from being collected in one volume, alas. For starters, there were only so many SF films over that period, so Scalzi ends up talking about the same films over and over. And, because the columns were written weeks apart, he needs to assume that his readers have forgotten stuff he said previously, so he says the same things over and over. Individually, each column is breezy, sometimes informative, and insightful. In a collection, it's like listening to a pop song on endless repeat. I like Scalzi a lot, but I can't imagine needed to return to this book, so it goes in the giveaway pile.

Agent To The Stars by John Scalzi

We've got a bit of a theme of Scalzi and Hollywood, here. In this volume, our protagonist is a Hollywood agent who's hired to help aliens integrate with society. The oddness of the premise is much commented upon, by our hero, who is also disheartened that the aliens are smelly blobs. A lot of the novel is the agent dealing with his conventional clients, but it all dovetails quite neatly in the end, and it seems an interesting look into the Hollywood machine. Recommended.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Our heroes are crew on a Union spaceship, the Intrepid, an Enterprise clone under the command of a Kirk clone, etc. And they can't help but notice that things don't make a lot of sense, and they don't make sense in a way that routinely gets them killed. The fourth wall is eventually rent asunder amidst much philosophical angst. Shares some plot points with Agent, but worth it, in its own right.

Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds

In this novella, the world's ecology is shutting down. The only thing that can possibly save it is a supply of seeds from the past -- but the seed banks collapsed years ago. Time travel could solve the problem, but the only time machines can't bring physical things forward, and can't send anyone back unless there's a time machine waiting on the other end. Fortunately, there are tricks to solve those problems, but time is running out in the grim Russian winter. Recommended.

The Iron Tactician by Alastair Reynolds

Another novella, a space opera, which I read long enough ago that the details have escaped me, but as I recall it's about someone clever scamming a less-clever civilization to gain a Precursor artifact. I recall liking it, so: Recommended.

comments

Books: Assorted Marvel Comics

2019-06-30T15:44:09Z

Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 & v2, by Slott, Schiti, Delgado, Zub, Villanelli

Tony deals with some deeply existential questions, like, if he's downloaded his brain from a digital backup, and rebuilt his body from scratch (not to mention being technically an amalgamation of three different alternate versions of himself, for which see Heroes Return), is he still Tony Stark? Well, maybe this virtual reality he's building will help him answer those questions, oh poop, here's the Controller. Plus the Fin-Fang-Foom-Buster Armor, the Nano Armor, and Rhodey deals with PTSD. Mildly recommended.

West Coast Avengers v1 & v2, by Thompson, Caselli, Farrell, Di Nicuolo, Lim, R.

Goofy fun, featuring both Hawkeyes, Gwenpool, Quentin Quire, Ms. America, and more, in which land sharks are fought, quips are quipped, and Quentin and Gwenpool totally date. (And Quire has to deal with the fact that she's either delusional and having a psychotic break, or reality is not what he thinks it is.) Oh, and, diversity! Fun, recommended.

Spider-Geddon by Divers Hands

Including Spider-Geddon proper, Edge Of Spider-Geddon, Spider-Geddon: Covert Ops, and Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Spider-Geddon. The Spider-Verse event from a few years ago was popular, and the recent movie more so, and thus of course there's a sequel. It's a bit of a rerun, with the same bad guys coming back, the same stakes being fought over, and the same "meaningful deaths". The nicest bit was probably assorted different daughters of Peter and MJ getting together and comparing notes, which led to a lot of tearful bonding. If you liked Spider-Verse, you'll like this, and if you haven't read Spider-Verse, read that instead.

Warriors Of The Spider-Verse: Electroverse by Costa, Baldeon

A Spider-Verse spin-off, in which assorted Spider-Men, -Woman, and -Hams team up to defeat a similar legion of alternate versions of Electro. The resolution leaves too many practical questions unanswered (Like, what jail are you going to put them in?) but it's still fun.

Avengers: No Road Home by Waid, Ewing, Zub, Medina, Izaakse, Barberi

An ad hoc Avengers team of Hulk, Hercules, Rocket Raccoon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Photon, and others, come together to avenge the massacre of the Greek Gods by one of their own, journeying to the lands of nightmare and the farthest stars to gather needed MacGuffins. A cool event, self-contained, well-handled. Recommended.

Fantastic Four: Mr. And Mrs. Grimm by Slott, Simone, Braga, Kuder, Hughes, Allred

Ben and Alicia finally tie the knot! There's a lot of glee in that alone, but the issue suffers from superhero weddings, and superhero bachelor/bachelorette parties, having a lot of tired tropes that all the characters are extremely self-aware of. So, there's a certain amount of, "Gosh I hope there aren't any supervillains in those suspiciously giant cakes!" And then a muffled voice from inside the cake says, "Crap, what's our plan B?" But still, they get married!

comments

Books: Competence, Ravens, History, And The Wyld

2019-05-05T13:59:06Z

Competence by Gail Carriger

Third in the Custard Protocol series, and something-in-the-teens for Carriger's steampunk fantasy books. This volume alternates between the POVs of Primrose and Percy Tunstell, siblings and officers on the Spotted Custard dirigible. This volume is about shenanigans in Singapore, a trans-Pacific flight, and South American vampires, but is also about Primrose coming out to herself as a lesbian, and Percy grumpily trying to figure out social rules. If you liked the previous books, you'll probably like this one, though it feels like not much actually happens.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

A fantasy novel from the author of the Ancillary SF series, this is an engaging, imaginative read. Told in the second person (for interesting reasons) it's a tale of court and church politics in a pivotal coastal town, in a world where gods are real but very cautious. Highly recommended.

Kings Of The Wyld and Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

Being the first two books in the Heartwyld series, a world where heroes organized like rock bands have Dungeons & Dragons-style adventures. The first is the story of Getting The Band Back Together to rescue the daughter of their frontman from a monster horde, with plenty of slayings, death, betrayal, and beer along the way. It plays with a lot of classic fantasy tropes. E.g., one of our heroes saved a kingdom and married a princess, becoming king along the way... and he's utterly desperate to get back on the road again. Rose is about the aforementioned daughter, now a grown adventurer herself, and how she lives in her father's shadow while tearing a bloody swath across the country and incidentally getting caught up in the aftrmath of volume one. Fun, briskly paced, recommended.

Remaking History And Other Stories by Kim Stanley Robinson

I like Robinson's work quite a bit -- I named a city after him in one of my own books -- but in these stories he tends to focus a bit too much on the quotidian. Mildly recommended.

comments

Books: Spies, Moons, Wars, Islands, &c

2019-03-17T14:39:14Z

The Books Of Earthsea by LeGuin, illustrated by Charles Vess

The Earthsea tales themselves (five novels, one collection, and assorted miscellany) are a mixed bag of classics. For me, the first three were formative and are beloved; the later works I have come to appreciate over the years as a necessary fix for the original trilogy. This massive omnibus is illustrated by famed fantasy artist Charles Vess, and I only wish he'd done more. Fifty-odd illustrations for a thousand page book are starkly insufficient. But hey, at least he remembered that most of the main characters are not white!

The Corporation Wars by Ken MacLeod

In a distant star system, a robot colony mission from Earth is in the early years of terraforming one of the planets. Conflict erupts between spontaneously intelligent robots and the corporate/government AIs running the mission, so the later wakes up some human minds to do the fighting (in robot bodies). The humans, as is typical for humans, bring a lot of political baggage with them, broadly similar to current issues, and the conflict quickly gets fractal. Intriguing questions of identity, reality, and freedom ensue. This omnibus collects a trilogy, and is not MacLeod's best, but still worth the read.

Dwellers In The Mirage/The Face In The Abyss by A. Merritt

I think I may have to admit that I just don't like Merritt very much. I got about halfway through Dwellers before giving up. Lots of obsession with race and bloodlines, lots of reincarnation foo-foo, lots of ancient evil lurking in the wilds.

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

I didn't finish this one, either, despite my fondness for Robinson. It reads like he wanted to write an essay on Chinese culture and politics, and wrapped a very thin novel around it. Not recommended.

Trickster's Choice/Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce

Fun two-volume series about a teenage spymaster who gets kidnapped by pirates, sold to a noble family in a neighboring kingdom, and is then instructed by one of the local gods to keep them alive while he throws the area into war. I rather feel like things go a little too easy for her, but there are still enough twists and setbacks for drama. Recommended.

comments

Books Read, 2018

2019-01-15T23:22:32Z

The History Of The Lord Of The Rings by Christopher Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect Of Middle Earth by Daniel Grotta-Kurska
Cibola Burn and Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
Delicious In Dungeon Volumes 3-5, by Ryoko Kui
Josephine Baker by Catel & Bocquet
Marvel Generations by Divers Hands
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, The Unstoppable Wasp, and Ironheart by Divers Hands
Spider-Man/Red Sonja by Claremont, Byrne, Oeming, and Rubi
Wonder Woman/Conan by Gail Simone, Lopresti, Ruan, and Broome
Future Echoes by Al Davison and Yen Quach
If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord by Hota and Chirolu
Black Panther by Christopher Priest, et al
Gotham City Garage by Kelly, Lanzing, et al
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
The Nightmare Stacks and The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
Flowers Of Luna by Jennifer Linsky
Artemis by Andy Weir
Sisters In Fantasy, edited by Shwartz & Greenberg
Quag Keep by Andre Norton
The First Swords by Fred Saberhagen
Seafaring Women by David Cordingly
Big Planet by Jack Vance
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives Of The Inklings by Zaleski And Zaleski
Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon
Rise Of The Black Panther by Coates, Narcisse, Renaud, Pina
Weapon H v1 by Pak, Smith, Anindito, Hollowell
Exiles v1 by Ahmed, Rodriguez, Lopez, Reis
The Mighty Thor v4 by Aaron, Schiti, Gandini, Beredo
Delilah Dirk And The Pillars Of Hercules by Tony Cliff
Songs For The Dead by Fort, Heron, Beck, Bennett
Monstress by Liu, Takeda
Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk
Zodiac Starforce v2 by Panetta, Gancheau, Stern
Rat Queens v5 by Wiebe, Gieni, Ferrier
Bombshells United v1 by Bennett, Sauvage, DiChara, Oum
The Long List Anthology (v1), edited by David Steffen
Tess Of The Road by Rachel Hartman
Ciaphas Cain: Saviour Of The Imperium by Sandy Mitchell
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
The Cold Ruins Of Lastlife by Brendan Conway
The Green Law Of Varkith by Brendan Conway
Fate Horror Toolkit by Divers Hands
Tachyon Squadron by Clark Valentine
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Cadaver & Queen by Alisa Kwitney
Imprudence by Gail Carriger
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Tatja Grimm's World by Vernor Vinge
Star Wars: Last Shot by Daniel José Older
Berserker and Berserker Man by Fred Saberhagen
Behind The Walls Of Terra by Philip José Farmer
The Lost Valley Of Iskander by Robert E. Howard
Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku by Fujita
Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
She Walks In Shadows, edited by Moreno-Garcia & Stiles
More Magic, edited by Larry Niven
Runaways v2: Best Friends Forever by Rowell, Anka, Wilson
Doctor Strange v1: Across The Universe by Waid & Saiz
Domino v1: Killer Instinct by Simone, Baldeon, Shefer, Aburtov
The Mighty Thor v5: The Death Of The Mighty Thor by Aaron, Dauterman, Wilson
Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury v1 by Lee, Kirby, Ayers
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: Remastered by Gillen, Spurrier, Laiso, Rosenberg
Mystik U by Kwitney, Norton, Bellaire
Jughead by Zdarsky, Henderson
Star Wars: Thrawn by Zahn, Houser, Ross, Woodard
Astro City: Broken Melody by Busiek, Anderson, Ross

That's 85, more-or-less, though many are comics I read in a single sitting. Still, that's about typical for me these days. Looking forward to reading more in the new year!

comments

Books: Wrapping Up 2018

2019-01-15T23:12:05Z

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: Remastered by Gillen, Spurrier, Laiso, Rosenberg

Y'know, if someone told me 30 years ago that there'd be a successful Star Wars comic where the main character had never appeared in the movies, and was an amoral Asian lesbian archaeologist, I'd have flat-out disbelieved it. In this volume, Aphra is being blackmailed by the assassin droid 000 (Triple-Zero) into assorted schemes. As she wiggles around for some way to get free, she keeps bumping into a grim female Imperial officer she finds weirdly attractive. Flirting at blaster-point ensues. Recommended.

Mystik U by Kwitney, Norton, Bellaire

Written by my friend Alisa Kwitney, this is a continuity-adjacent story of Zatanna's college days, where Dr. Occult is on the faculty, and her dorm-mates are Sargon, the Enchantress, and Sebastian Faust. Dark deals, dark demons, and really gross dorm bathrooms are some of the challenges she faces. Fun, offbeat, and spooky. Highly recommended.

Jughead by Zdarsky, Henderson

A spinoff of the current "realistic, but still fun" Archie title, in this volume Jughead must save the school cafeteria from the nefarious plans of a new principal who seems to be turning the school into a spy training academy... or is that just Jughead's fevered imagination? (Said imagination pops up once an issue in the form of dream sequnces mocking Game Of Thrones, time travel SF, pirate movies, etc.) Mildly recommended.

Star Wars: Thrawn by Zahn, Houser, Ross, Woodard

This is a close adaptation of the recent novel by Timothy Zahn, reintroducing Admiral Thrawn to the new Star Wars universe. It's serviceable, but I'd recommend sticking with the novel.

Astro City: Broken Melody by Busiek, Anderson, Ross

Man, someone needs to keep Busiek away from writing about racial issues, 'cause despite his best intentions, his white @$$ is showing here. This volume is about a superhero who reappears once a generation in a different form inspired by popular music -- which, since most popular music in America was invented by African-Americans, usually means he appears to be black, and fights for civil rights, in one form or another. It could have been a much better and less-awkward story, but [eh] here it is.

comments

Books: Marvel Comics

2019-01-04T02:12:53Z

Runaways v2: Best Friends Forever by Rowell, Anka, Wilson

The reunited Runaways deal with relationship issues, Doombots, evil destinies, and time travel. Delightfully inclusive, deals very interestingly with issues of disability, and recommended.

Doctor Strange v1: Across The Universe by Waid & Saiz

I do like it when writers put heroes outside their comfort zones. Dr. Strange loses his magic, and borrows a spaceship from Tony Stark to go looking for more power out among the stars. He hooks up with an arcanologist, gets in lots of varied trouble (such as fighting the Super-Skrull for an Infinity Stone), and compromises his ethics more than once. Plus, a surprising twist ending! Recommended.

Domino v1: Killer Instinct by Simone, Baldeon, Shefer, Aburtov

The lusty, laughing, lucky mutant merc hangs out with her girlfriends, gets a dog, learns a little more about her origin, gets an archnemesis, learns kung fu from the (damnfine) master thereof, and generally has advenutres well worth the read. Recommended.

The Mighty Thor v5: The Death Of The Mighty Thor by Aaron, Dauterman, Wilson

We all knew, of course, that Jane wouldn't stay Thor forever. The conflict shaking the Nine Realms reaches its peak, the Mangog walks again, and Thor makes a final sacrifice. Recommended.

Marvel Masterworks: Sgt. Fury v1 by Lee, Kirby, Ayers

It's 1963, and Lee and Kirby are writing some of the hottest superhero comics in the world. So, they take the time to do something different: A war story, based in part on their respective military careers, and with a constant refrain of the evils of bigotry and the strength of America as a diverse land. Fury's Howling Commandos include Irishman Dugan, WASP Jonathan, African-American Gabe, Jewish Izzy, Italian Dino, Southern Rebel, and Englishman Percy, and their day is not complete unless they've all punched some Nazis. While dated in some ways, the message had never been more timely.

comments

Books: Otaku, Binti, Shadows, & Magic

2018-12-29T01:36:14Z

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku by Fujita

A manga series, about a group of office workers/otaku (geeks)/friends in Japan, dealing with the stigma of being otaku, and their different ways of approaching geek-dom. In the opening chapter, Narumi enters into a relationship-of-convenience with childhood friend Hirotaka, so they can both stop fielding awkward questions about their relationship status, and be geeks together. They spend the rest of the volume completely failing to communicate their actual feelings for each other, whilst bickering about different genres of manga, and who can get the highest scores in video games. Their far-cooler friends come out of the closet to them about their geekiness, and hidden relationship, and two more corners are added to the fan-wars. Mildly recommended, mostly as an interesting window into Japanese otaku subculture.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Third in the Binti trilogy, in this volume our teen protagonist, an alien from her birth culture in spirit and in genome, very nearly brokers a peace between warring factions, and learns a great deal about the universe, and her place in it. Books in which authority figures are grossly unfair to kids are very rough for me to read, so this took me a while to get through, but it was worth it. Recommended.

She Walks In Shadows, edited by Moreno-Garcia & Stiles

An anthology of Cthulhu Mythos stories by and about women, providing a much-needed alternate perspective. Varied, and quite good.

More Magic, edited by Larry Niven

A short anthology of stories in Niven's The Magic Goes Away universe, where magic is a consumable resource, and follows something resembling physical laws. A bit dry, but still worth the read.

comments

Books: Tatja, Han, Berserkers, And More

2018-12-25T21:33:07Z

Tatja Grimm's World by Vernor Vinge

Interesting SF novel about technological development and first contact on an alien world. Our protagonist is a teenage girl from a "barbarian" tribe, who makes her way to "civilization" in search of someone her intellectual equal, because she's a genius beyond measure, and is desperate to find someone who understands her. She fails, and decides to bootstrap her world into a space program, and damn the cost. Interesting questions of ethics arise. Recommended.

Star Wars: Last Shot by Daniel José Older

A Han and Lando novel by famed SFF author Older. This story interweaves between four different timeframes (three pre-A New Hope, one post-Return Of The Jedi) showing us the rise of a galaxy-spanning threat. It takes time to give us character development for Han and Lando, though Han's realization that he's not a great father is alternately funny and tragic. Recommended.

Berserker and Berserker Man by Fred Saberhagen

A collection, and a novel, set in Saberhagen's Berserker-verse, where ancient machines scour the stars seeking to eliminate all life. The tone varies a lot, from military SF to teen coming-of-age to cosmic weirdness. They have also dated in a tiresome manner.

Behind The Walls Of Terra by Philip José Farmer

Fourth in his World Of Tiers series, this is one not set on the Tiers, but rather on Earth, in the 1970s. About half the plot is our hero sneering at how the world has changed since the 1940s, and half is discovering that an interdimensional god with access to superscience can't seem to buy decent security for his California hacienda. Kind of tedious.

The Lost Valley Of Iskander by Robert E. Howard

Three adventures of one of Howard's minor creations, Francis Xavier Gordon, in the Middle East. Solid adventure, though often racist and predictably sexist.

comments

Books: Ancillary Cadavers, Imprudent Fire, & Black Future Month

2018-12-22T11:52:51Z

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Award-winning first book in an SF series about a starship AI who has been reduced to a fraction of what she was. Dark politics and weird mind control ensue in the Empire of Radch. Highly recommended.

Cadaver & Queen by Alisa Kwitney

Delightful steampunk horror romance from my friend Alisa, in which American Elizabeth Lavenza, the first female medical student at an English school, falls in with assorted Frankensteins and the question of undead personhood. Entertaining, highly recommended.

Imprudence by Gail Carriger

Also on the horror-steampunk-romance spectrum, this is 2nd in the "Custard Protocol" series, and Nth in Carriger's overall "Soulless" series. Our hero Rue is in the doghouse with the Queen due to her unilateral handling of last volume's events in India, and also needs to deal with her immortal werewolf father getting old. The best solution seems to be a trip to Egypt, with attendant romantic complications and zeppelin pirates. Recommended.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Sequel to The Collapsing Empire, in this volume our heroes continue to deal with the ongoing collapse of interstellar travel, and the following risk of mass starvation, as almost everyone lives on interdependent space stations. Plus, the noble house that failed to secure the Imperial throne last volume does damage control, and contact is made with another civilization. Recommended.

How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

A collection of 20+ short stories from famed, award-winning author Jemisin. They are quite varied, with a tendency toward urban fantasy, and a direct approach to issues often avoided by the white, male old school of SF&F. Highly recommended.

comments

Books: Roleplaying Games

2018-12-22T02:05:23Z

The Cold Ruins Of Lastlife by Brendan Conway

A setting for Dungeon World, this is a fantasy world after all life has perished, leaving nothing but the restless undead. Your characters are desperately, exhaustedly, searching for some shred of hope in the dregs of creation, while around you everything grows cold. Creepy, interesting, recommended.

The Green Law Of Varkith by Brendan Conway

Companion to Cold Ruins, this is another setting for Dungeon World, in which you are inhabitants of a vast city where everyone is required, by law, to be a member of guild. Individual action is prohibited. Rules for competition between guilds (both violent and non-) are included. Interesting political roleplaying, recommended.

Fate Horror Toolkit by Divers Hands

Another entry in the Fate Toolkit series, this one covers issues like trauma aspects, body horror, doom-building, and a great chapter called "Horror Is The New Pink". Recommended, even if you don't play Fate.

Tachyon Squadron by Clark Valentine

A space opera starfighter setting for Fate, featuring a nifty dogfighting system, some interesting rules for stress and blowing off steam, and flexible mechanics for SF gadgets. Recommended.

comments

Books: Big Ol' Books

2018-12-17T16:17:16Z

The Long List Anthology (v1), edited by David Steffen

The 2015 Hugo Awards were dramatically affected by the politically-motivated machinations of the pathetic Sad & Rabid Puppies, and a lot of deserving works didn't make it onto the ballots. This book gets some of them out there in one handy volume. As it is a bunch of stories with no theme or common author, their only similarity is high quality. I particularly remember "A Year And A Day In Old Theradane" by Scott Lynch and "The Vaporization Enthalpy Of A Peculiar Pakistani Family" by Usman T. Malik. Recommended.

Tess Of The Road by Rachel Hartman

Quests and dragons, but not as we knew them. Young Tess has to deal with the (frankly awful) religious and sexual politics of her culture, and ends up falling afoul of them. The results are dire enough that she runs away. The book deals unflinchingly with the problems she faces, and actually shows her growth and rough education, on many levels. Highly recommended.

Ciaphas Cain: Saviour Of The Imperium by Sandy Mitchell

Comprising the 7th, 8th, and 9th novels in the Cain series. these are explicit satire within the implicit satire of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. Cain is a decorated hero who claims to be an abject coward, but unreliable narration abounds. Fun, light military adventure.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

A heavily-illustrated novel about a girl and a boy, in different eras, learning about family, museums, and New York City. Recommended.

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

Sixth in the Expanse series, this is a continuation of the conflict from the previous volume, which has left huge swaths of humanity dead, and the fragile peace of the Solar System shattered. Can our reunited heroes save the day? The series has stepped away from the mysteries of the protomolecule and the gates for a while, and I frankly hope they get back to them soon, but this book still kept me entertained. Recommended.

comments

Books: Comics & Women & Girls

2018-11-27T11:41:49Z

Delilah Dirk And The Pillars Of Hercules by Tony Cliff

Third in the series, in this volume our heroine goes in search of a lost subterranean city, and possibly... respectability? The series has had an on-again/off-again relationship with its fantasy elements, and this volume tries to thread the middle, to some success. Adventure ensues, recommended.

Songs For The Dead by Fort, Heron, Beck, Bennett

A young bard, with an unfortunate case of necromancy, teams up with a sword-wielding ex-bandit, to try and do some good, and find a place where necromancers aren't summarily executed. Plays with fantasy tropes, and the difference between legend and reality. Recommended.

Monstress by Liu, Takeda

Hugo Award-winning series about politics, magic, monsters, and family, in which our hero has to decide exactly how much of a monster she wants to become... and how much she already is. Dark, with extra body horror, but recommended.

Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk

Our young hero tries to navigate ordinary life, and henching for a B-list supervillain, in a deconstruction of superhero tropes. Along the way she finds complicated friends, complicated superpowers, and maybe a path to good? Recommended, though the art may not be to your taste.

Zodiac Starforce v2 by Panetta, Gancheau, Stern

The continuing adventures of a group of ordinary American teens who get hit with magical girls powers, and learn that the universe is way darker than they expected. Another deconstruction, dealing with friendships which don't necessarily survive the stresses of world-saving, the implications of all those bad guys lurking out there in the dark, and, hey, maybe we're not the first Starforce? Recommended.

Rat Queens v5 by Wiebe, Gieni, Ferrier

The dysfunctional, hard-drinking, chaotic-neutral-with-an-option-on-evil adventuring party is back. This volume deals with family issues among the extended cast (druid reproduction is apparently weird) before turning its attention back to the recent "squishy reboot" that saw a lot of the plot of volumes 1-3 wiped away. Turns out, in this world, reboots have consequences... Recommended.

Bombshells United v1 by Bennett, Sauvage, DiChara, Oum

I confess, I sometimes find Bennett's plot and dialogue hard to follow. It's a little more stream-of-consciousness than I'm used to. That said, this series is still worth picking up, as it turns its attention to more home front issues of WW2. This isn't the first Wonder Woman-meets-Clayface story I've read, but it's a good one (and the first to aggressively work with dirt-as-metaphor-for-homeland). Recommended.

comments

Books: Marvel Comics x4

2018-11-27T01:42:29Z

Rise Of The Black Panther by Coates, Narcisse, Renaud, Pina

Interesting story of T'challa's early years, including formative encounters with Namor, Dr. Doom, and Storm. Recommended, as are all of the current family of Panther books.

Weapon H v1 by Pak, Smith, Anindito, Hollowell

A spinoff from Totally Awesome Hulk, Weapon H is the result of a government project to combine Hulk and Wolverine's origin story, resulting in a Hulk with adamantium claws. This story is much more about the man inside, a veteran who would really rather be home with his family, than on the run from everyone who wants to exploit him. Classic Hulk stories with a new spin. Recommended.

Exiles v1 by Ahmed, Rodriguez, Lopez, Reis

This is probably the first mainstream superhero team I've encountered where the majority are women of color! The team consists of returning Exile Blink (who, it turns out, would be brown if she wasn't hot pink), an apocalyptic version of Ms. Marvel, Valkyrie from the Cinematic Universe, a cartoonish Li'l Wolvie, and Iron Lad. Together, they jump from dimension to dimension, trying to stitch the multiverse back together. As is typical for the Exiles, someone dies, but nevertheless: recommended.

The Mighty Thor v4 by Aaron, Schiti, Gandini, Beredo

The tale of Jane Foster as Thor is careening toward its conclusion, and in this volume another Thor shows up, the violent and angry War Thor, who is secretly a different long-standing member of Thor's supporting cast. Interesting character development, recommended.

comments

Books: Planets, Inklings, & Vatta's War

2018-10-20T18:29:02Z

Big Planet by Jack Vance

I like "road trip" type stories, and one set on a titanic planet, where a stranded group of high-tech protagonists try to make their way through a series of low-tech nations, seemed up my alley, but I eventually figured out this novel is more of a Swiftian series of satires, without the epic scope I like, so I didn't finish it.

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives Of The Inklings by Zaleski And Zaleski

I made it through the first couple chapters on Tolkien and Lewis before concluding that their feet of clay were putting me off (Lewis' hypocrisy is vast and tawdry), and their attitude toward privilege doesn't come off well in the 21st century. Didn't finish.

Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon

A five-book space opera series, comprising Trading In Danger, Marque And Reprisal, Engaging The Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions. Our hero is a young woman from a wealthy family, who falls into disgrace and is sent off with a crappy trading ship to get out of the way and, maybe, redeem herself. She ends up falling backwards into leading a war against a viciously organized group of pirates, and saving civilization. Ky Vatta is clearly skilled and noble, but her success depends a little too much on coincidence, and being friends with the right people. That said, I greatly enjoyed the books, the handling of space battles was pretty good, and the occasional dropped plot threads didn't bother me too much. Recommended.

comments