Way back in the ‘70s when I was a kid who rode his pet dinosaur to school I started reading and collecting comic books. One of my favorites was a supeWay back in the ‘70s when I was a kid who rode his pet dinosaur to school I started reading and collecting comic books. One of my favorites was a super-sized Batman collection that featured his first encounter with Ra’s al Ghul, and I probably reread it at least a hundred times. Later, when I was in my 20s, a broken water pipe at my parent’s house soaked some stuff I had stored with them, and that comic was one of the things that was ruined. Oh, and that book which had sold for $2 originally now goes for around $150. More’s the pity.
I didn’t fully appreciate how important that book was in my journey to full blown comic book nerd until much later. Not only was it the introduction of a major Batman villain, but it also came at a time when Denny O’Neil was in the middle of rehabbing the Caped Crusader’s image after he’d become a symbol of camp goofiness. As a stupid kid all I knew of Batman came from Superfriends cartoon and Adam West TV show. So this darker, more adult version of crime fighter driven by childhood trauma was shocking to me.
I also didn’t realize until later how the Neal Adams art locked an image in my brain that became the default setting of MY Batman. To this day that’s what I measure all other versions against.
Revisiting the story after all these years was a treat, and I was shocked at how so many of the panels were burned into my brain. This has some additional early Ra’s stories as well, and while I still think the ones with Adams’ art are the best there’s a lot of fun stuff here courtesy of O’Neil’s writing.
There’s some dated ‘70s silliness to the stories, but this was an important transition phase from the days of Batman using a handy can of shark repellent to the super gritty Dark Knight Returns. It was a great stroll down memory lane for me, and I won’t be storing this copy under any water pipes....more
I enjoyed this collection of humorous drawings so I have posted this message on the part of the computer network known as Adequate Eye Scans. It is owI enjoyed this collection of humorous drawings so I have posted this message on the part of the computer network known as Adequate Eye Scans. It is owned by the same large company from which I purchased the collection so that they might sell more of them and become even larger. I am mildly uncomfortable about this process.
I am also aware that if other beings disagree with my assessment of the drawings, they will tell me in rude tones that I am incorrect.
Ah, but seriously folks...
I find Nathan Pyle's cartoons of aliens going about their daily lives wildly funny. There's just something about how he uses language to describe common things that makes me laugh. For example, instead of teeth, they are your mouthstones, and most of us fail at the recommended daily task of pushing string through them.
Reading his cartoons on social media every day are the closest thing I get to that old feeling when I'd crack open a newspaper and read the comics so I was happy to support him by buying this. It's not long, but it put a smile on my face....more
Because of its format some might say that this is fantastic crime comic. That’s true, but I’m going to take it a step further and say that it’s some oBecause of its format some might say that this is fantastic crime comic. That’s true, but I’m going to take it a step further and say that it’s some of the best noir I’ve ever read which I’d rate right up there with the likes of James Cain or Jim Thompson.
Seriously, it’s that good.
It’s got the ultimate noir setting of post-war Los Angeles, and the plot involves a screenwriter with a drinking problem knowing about the cover up of the murder of an actress that the studio fixer has made look like a suicide. With that as a starting point we meet a variety of characters from despicable producers, publicists who put a glossy coat of paint over ugly truths, movie stars with secrets, blacklisted writers, commie hunting Feds, and even appearances from real people like Clark Gable and Dashiell Hammett.
There’s been no shortage of wannabe James Ellroys who try to do the old school Hollywood thing, and very often it feels just like bad actors putting on fedoras and trench coats so they can mouth clichéd tough-guy dialogue with a cigarette in the corner of their mouths. What really impressed me about this is that Ed Brubaker didn't fall into that trap but instead wrote an ACTUAL noir in which everyone is compromised, nobody is interested in the truth, and seeking justice is a fool’s errand.
Brubaker’s regular partner Sean Phillips does his usual brilliant job of making the art be a perfect marriage to what the story needs, and colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser adds a richness to it that is way more interesting than just a black-and-white comic which is what lesser talents might have done for something like this. This collected edition of the entire run of the title also has some great extras including high quality reproductions of the amazing covers as well as some interesting behind-the-scenes features of how it was all put together from the researching stage to the writing and artwork.
I got this as a present last Christmas, and I’m ashamed that I let it set in a stack of unread stuff for almost a year before getting to it since it’s one of the best things I’ve read in 2017....more
This novel should win some kind of award for Best Character Names. Check some of these out: Henry Skrimshander. Guert Affenlight. Pella Affenlight. AdThis novel should win some kind of award for Best Character Names. Check some of these out: Henry Skrimshander. Guert Affenlight. Pella Affenlight. Adam Starblind.
No John Smiths or Jane Does allowed in this one.
Mike Schwartz is a hard working and ambitious student athlete at second rate Westish College in Wisconsin. At a summer league baseball game, Mike sees Henry Skrimshander play and instantly recognizes that he’s seeing the kind of fielding talent that can only be called genius. Skinny Henry has just finished high school and assumes his days in organized baseball are over because all the college scouts passed him over because of his lack of size and below average hitting ability. Where Henry excels is at playing shortstop where no ball gets past him and all of his throws are right on target.
Mike arranges for Henry to get a baseball scholarship to Westish, and begins putting him through a rigorous training regimen designed to turn him from a talented fielding shortstop into a complete baseball player. As eager Henry flourishes under Mike’s guidance, the Westish baseball team starts winning for the first time, and pro scouts have started talking big money just as Henry is on the verge of breaking the record of his idol for most consecutive games without an error.
Then one bad throw with disastrous consequences shatters Henry’s confidence and suddenly leaves him unable to complete the simplest toss during a game. As Henry struggles to get his mojo back, Mike is realizing that his own ambitions may be bigger than his actual talent. The school president Guert Affenlight, a Herman Melville fanatic, has fallen in love with Henry’s gay roommate Owen, and Guert’s daughter Pella has just come to the campus looking to jumpstart her life after a bad marriage.
You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this one. The author doesn’t engage in the practice of trying to sell the readers on the greatness of the game. Henry loves it because it’s what he was born to do just like a great painter was born to paint, but other characters complain that it’s boring. Even Owen, who is on the team, bitches about it and prefers to read in the dugout rather than watch the games.
For the first half of this book, I was completely sucked in by the characters. Any one of these could have made a great book by themselves: Pella’s backstory about leaving high school to marry an older man and coming to Westish to finally pick up where she left off. Guert’s falling for Owen after a lifetime of heterosexuality and fearing that he was making a fool of himself. Mike’s bitterness over thinking that he’d never be truly great at anything himself while completely dismissing his own talent for motivating and getting the most out of people. All of these were excellent and the writing makes you feel for all of them.
Where it really hits a next level is with Henry’s struggles. Harbach spends a lot of time in the early going telling us about Henry’s development into a top baseball prospect and his incredible grace on the field. And he’s also just a helluva nice guy, the kind of student who doesn’t like to talk in his English class because he’s worried that he’ll hurt his sensitive teacher’s feelings. He works his ass off not for fame and fortune but because he wants to be the best. Then he's helpless to keep it from falling apart just as he’s about to achieve his dream. It’s painful, particularly the way Harbach puts you into Henry’s head on the field where he’s over thinking every play to the point where I almost found myself yelling aloud, “Just throw the fucking ball to first, Henry!”
That’s why I almost consider this a horror story with it’s notion that no matter how much work has gone into something, talent is such a mental thing that it can be destroyed in moments if the wrong set of circumstances cause self doubt to creep in.
Unfortunately, things got a bit too drawn out in the second half of the book, and the various self-destructive cycles that some of the characters enter when things get rough almost turned them from sympathetic into tiresome whiners. Shaving about a hundred pages from this book and tightening it up would have made this a five star read. It’s still an excellent book with some great characters and very good writing. ...more
For being a genre-fusing deconstruction of the fantasy novel, this sure had me on the edge on my seat.
It all started with teenage Quentin Coldwater atFor being a genre-fusing deconstruction of the fantasy novel, this sure had me on the edge on my seat.
It all started with teenage Quentin Coldwater attending a magical school, finding out the fantasy land from his favorite novels was real and then journeying there. Following various quests and a whole lotta heartbreak, Quentin is back in the real world and gives himself a very personal mission to complete even while his friends back in Fillory learn that the end of that world is very nigh.
Quentin has been a Rorschach test of a character since the beginning. Is he a spoiled ass who can never be happy or appreciate the amazing opportunity he has? Or maybe he’s a dreamer so sensitive to all the ways that the world and people in it fail us that he can’t help but constantly look for someplace better? Or is he a potential hero tripped up by the expectations that his fantasy nerdom have instilled him with?
There’s some truth in all of those and no shortage of readers who couldn’t stand Quentin or his friends. I had problems with him, too, particularly in the first half of the second book where it seemed that Quentin had regressed, and I would dearly have loved to give him a slap to the back of the head.
However, I always had the feeling that Lev Grossman was taking us somewhere with Quentin, and that I couldn’t really know the guy until I knew how he turned out in the end. Here’s where that belief paid off for me with Quentin, now 30 years old, finally acting like an adult, and there’s some genuine sadness in the idea that Quentin may have finally outgrown his childish things.
While he’s more mature, he’s still a magician and one thing Quentin hasn’t lost is the wonder and possibilities of the fantastic. Now it’s just tempered with the realism of a guy who is a crusty veteran of many battles and seasoned interdimensional traveler. Grossman also shifts perspective to several other supporting characters in a variety of circumstances from an attempt to steal a magically protected object to witnessing a final apocalyptic battle in a world tearing itself apart.
The other characters have gone through similar arcs so that they seem less like hipsters tossing around ironic comments about being in a fantasy story and more like magicians fighting for things they care about who are still capable of throwing out some one-liners about being in a fantasy story.
This final book in the trilogy pays off on a lot of levels and manages to wrap up most of the loose ends without seeming so tidy that it came in box with a bow on it. All of it feels rich and detailed, and best of all, it feels like it mattered.
The thing I love best about Kurt Vonnegut is that he was both the ultimate cynic and the ultimate humanist. What better character for him to create toThe thing I love best about Kurt Vonnegut is that he was both the ultimate cynic and the ultimate humanist. What better character for him to create to embody those views than a Nazi with good intentions?
Howard W. Campbell Jr. was an American citizen who grew up in Germany and became a prominent Nazi thanks to his virulent anti-Semitic propaganda. However, Howard had actually been recruited before the war began to be an American spy who provided vital intelligence to the Allies via codes hidden in his frequent radio broadcasts. Years after the war has ended, Howard recounts the story as he is being held in Israel awaiting trial for war crimes. As he explains what happened before, during and after the war Howard repeatedly touches on the unasked question that haunts his life: Does pretending to be evil in the service of a good cause still make you evil?
I had always felt alone in thinking that his was actually Vonnegut’s best book so I was happy to be validated by the comments of several other Goodreaders sharing the same thought.
Vonnegut’s gift was looking at the world with clear gaze and acknowledging that people were pretty much shit, but still having enough compassion and empathy to look for moments of dignity. He did it with that that unique bittersweet sense of humor that allowed him to write about the horrors of something like the Holocaust and give it a tone of a very wise man shaking his head with a bitter chuckle at a dark, sick joke....more
Scientists and David Bowie have long wondered if there is life on Mars. There is, but he isn’t very happy about it. And he probably won’t be alive forScientists and David Bowie have long wondered if there is life on Mars. There is, but he isn’t very happy about it. And he probably won’t be alive for long.
A six-person crew made the third manned landing mission on the red planet, but a severe wind storm forces them to leave just a few days after their arrival rather than staying for the planned month. During the emergency evacuation one of them is killed in a freak accident. The remaining crew members reluctantly haul ass back to Earth leaving their fallen comrade behind.
The problem is that Mark Watney isn’t dead.
Now stranded on Mars with no communications Watney faces a grim reality. The oxygen and water reclamation systems can provide enough of both those substances to support him as long as they keep working, but his habitat and equipment were only designed for a thirty day stay. Even worse, his food supply is limited to the rations left behind by the crew. Even if he can find a way to let NASA know he’s alive, physics tells him that a rescue mission won’t be able to get there before he starves to death.
That’s when most of us would just give up and cry. But Watney is an astronaut, one of those mutants who can calmly say, “Houston, we have a problem.” right after their goddamn spaceship explodes halfway to the moon. So after quickly adjusting to the situation, Mark gets to work. Can his knowledge of botany and engineering along with a knack for improvising solutions and a helluva lot of duct tape help him survive long enough to get home?
I’m a space geek who can’t get enough documentaries, books and museum visits on the subject as well as rushing to the theater for films like Apollo 13 and Gravity so this story was obviously right in my sweet spot. Still, I think it’d have broad appeal beyond the rocket fans because of the everyman quality of Watney and general sympathy for his plight as a straight up survival story.
It helps that the character has a playful personality despite the grim circumstances. A good portion of the book is done as his first person log entries with the idea that he thinks he’s making a record to be found long after his death, but rather then give in to self-pity or despair Mark cracks jokes.
These log entries show a sense of goofy humor that initially make you think that NASA standards must have slipped badly, but behind that you see that Mark is bringing an impressive problem solving intellect and understanding of science to his situation. He may make smart-ass comments about how he’ll be the first person to die on Mars, but after a short initial declaration of his impending doom, it’s obvious that he has no intention of going gently into the Martian night.
Despite his upbeat persona, Weir does a nice job of subtly showing us how the time alone on Mars begins to take a toll on Mark by letting him occasionally get serious or reveal how some of the things about his circumstances begin to wear him down. This is much more effective than long angst filled speeches about being the only living soul on an entire planet.
Another part of the appeal is that this is a fight against the calendar, not the clock. After his initial accident, Watney knows he won’t die in an hour, the next day or even the next month. (Assuming nothing goes terribly wrong.) But he’s run the numbers, and the math doesn’t lie. He will die eventually unless he changes the situation drastically. That gives the whole thing a deliberate but tense pacing that also allows for thinking and analyzing the situations Mark finds himself in.
Which brings me to another point I loved. The lack of denial. There is no bullshitting on Mark’s part. He can’t afford it. Every calorie counts and within a day or two of being stranded he’s rationing his food despite having enough to last him for months and working on how he can create more.
However, Mark isn’t perfect, and he’s well aware of this. Despite his careful planning and preparations as he modifies things to get what he needs, he knows that he’s working without a net and dreads the inevitable screw-ups while hoping that they won’t kill him. When he does make a mistake, it seems like the kind of forehead-slapping stupid error the smartest person could make by simply overlooking the obvious. Only in this case any slip-up could kill him.
I only had a couple of minor complaints. This isn’t a spoiler about the ending, but it does reveal a major plot point so read at your own risk. (view spoiler)[ I found the shift from Mark’s first person logs to Earth jarring at first and found myself wishing that the entire book had been done from his point of view. That could have been done, but there is some pretty good stuff that comes out of NASA realizing that Mark is alive and what they go through to try and save him. By the end of the book, I decided that getting the Earth side of the story was good, but I’m still left wondering of how it would have played if told only from Mark’s point of view. (hide spoiler)]
This second one does contain spoilers that give up the ending so don’t click unless you’ve already read it or just don’t care. (view spoiler)[ I liked the idea that Mark’s crew returns for him, and there’s a lot of very good tense stuff there. However, I didn’t care for the way that Mark is essentially just a helpless passenger once they launch the escape rocket off Mars. After the entire book being about him surviving by his own wits and will, letting him just be rescued in the last phase was kind of disappointing although he does come up with an idea that ends up being the spark to save him. I guess an argument could be made that Weir was trying to allow the crew to redeem themselves for abandoning him and that it required the effort of thousands of people to put him in that position, but I still wish Mark could have saved himself right to the very end.
Also, it seemed odd that we got no kind of scene between Mark and Commander Lewis after he was rescued. Her guilt over leaving him becomes a major motivational plot point so it’s weird that we didn’t get to see the two of them together before it wrapped up. (hide spoiler)]
Any complaints are minor bitchery that didn’t make me think less of the book overall. This is a smart sci-fi story, but there are a lot of smart sci-fi stories. What sets this one apart is its likable main character and the clever way he goes about trying to save his own life while being entertaining in the process.
With friends like these, you certainly wouldn’t need any enemies…
Eddie Coyle is a low-level Boston mobster facing serious prison time after getting arWith friends like these, you certainly wouldn’t need any enemies…
Eddie Coyle is a low-level Boston mobster facing serious prison time after getting arrested for driving a truck of hijacked liquor. While awaiting his sentencing, Eddie tries to buy guns to supply to some buddies who have been robbing banks, but he’s also angling to rat out his gun dealer to the cops in order to get out of going to jail.
I’ve been hearing about this book for quite a while, and I was worried that it couldn’t live up to its reputation. When guys like Elmore Leonard are calling it the greatest crime novel ever written, that’s a high bar to clear. While I probably wouldn’t go quite that far, it’s easy to see why it’s so highly praised.
It’s deceptively simple in that it’s mainly just dialogue with little set-up so it takes a minute to understand who these characters are and what they’re talking about. It’s on the reader to fill in the story based on these conversations, but when it comes together near the end, you realize what a neat trick that George Higgins pulled off.
Higgins was an assistant US attorney in Massachusetts, and his first book has a casual authenticity that a couple of generations of crime writers would kill their own mothers to have. The cops are less interested in seeing justice done than they are in getting the guy they’ve currently got by the balls into giving them someone higher in the food chain to get them to relax their grip a bit. The guys who make their living from crime are aware that anyone in a pinch is a potential rat no matter how solid they’ve been in the past. The name of the game is having info on someone doing something worse than you and feeding them to the system.
I checked out the movie version starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle after reading it and found that it also deserves its reputation. There’s just something about the ‘70s that give good crime movies of the era a nice sleazy feel. ...more
Hey, Marvel. Instead of massive crossovers and killing off major characters as publicity stunts, do more like this. Please and thank you.
Hawkeye seemsHey, Marvel. Instead of massive crossovers and killing off major characters as publicity stunts, do more like this. Please and thank you.
Hawkeye seems like an odd character for Matt Fraction to do after his acclaimed run on Invincible Iron Man where he wrote Tony Stark as a slightly dickish genuis who was more interesting than the superhero aspect. He uses a similar style to give us a version of Clint Barton that relies on the character’s history instead of discarding it, yet could be picked up by any casual fan and enjoyed. As a result, we get a fresh perspective on Hawkeye and one helluva of a fun book.
This should be the usual thing of a hero best known for being part of a larger group having some side adventures on their own. Hawkeye is longtime Avenger where his insecurities about his lack of superpowers often manifested in a smart-ass attitude and problem with authority. As Clint points out several times here, he’s just a guy with a bow-n-arrow who usually works with people far more powerful than him. The easy thing to do would have been to revamp him closer to the Ultimate version that was used in The Avengers movie to make Clint a super-secret SHIELD agent who goes out and has covert adventures. That could have worked, but would have seemed very Wolverine-ish.
What’s brilliant about this is that Fraction went in the opposite direction and plays up the angle that Clint Barton doesn’t have any powers and is frequently in over his head. The first panel shows him crashing out a high window and the fall puts him the hospital for six weeks. When he’s not off avenging Clint wants to live a somewhat normal life in his Brooklyn apartment where he enjoys grilling out with his neighbors on the roof, but he keeps getting sucked into bad situations like dealing with a Russian mafia slumlord who owns his building. Even when he does a side job for SHIELD that involves going to sleazy Madripoor, Clint has to fight off thieves trying to steal his wallet. And since he doesn’t have the powers of a Norse god or a high-tech suit of armor Clint frequently gets the crap kicked out of him.
All of this is done with plenty of humor and heart. If the storyline involving Pizza Dog doesn’t get to you, then get tested because you’re probably a sociopath. I also love that they’re using Kate Bishop as a kind of partner/sidekick. There’s a funny dynamic to that because Kate replaced Clint when he was suffering from a minor case of superhero death, and she’s kept the name of Hawkeye, too. So it’s Hawkeye and Hawkeye. Batman wouldn’t put up with that, but it’s perfect for the adventures of a slightly scruffy superhero....more
Since his New York adventure from the last book was wrapped up, Lucas Davenport is again bored and at loose ends. With nothing better to do, Lucas is Since his New York adventure from the last book was wrapped up, Lucas Davenport is again bored and at loose ends. With nothing better to do, Lucas is riding out a long winter in his cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. Once again it’s the murder of innocent people that will give Davenport something to occupy his time. The guy really needs a hobby…
A vicious killer who thinks of himself as the Iceman is desperate to stop a compromising photograph becoming public so he butchers a family and burns their house down to try and destroy it. With the town’s priest implicated in the crime and the small community terrified, the overwhelmed sheriff asks Davenport for help. As Lucas tries to track him down the Iceman grows ever more desperate and violent.
The Prey series has such a generally consistent level of quality that it’s hard to pick a high point for the series, but I’d name this one as my favorite. Having Lucas work with a bunch of small town cops was a new wrinkle to the formula, especially since the last book had Davenport in New York so it really felt like a change of pace.
The Iceman was one of the nastier and more memorable killers in the long list of villains the series has had, and Sandford did a great job of showing us his point of view while disguising his identity so that when he’s finally revealed it’s a very satisfying answer. This one is also a turning point for the series with the introduction of Weather Karkinnen, the doctor who’d become a very important figure in Lucas’s life.
Another aspect that sets this one apart is the backdrop of an absolutely brutal winter. Blizzards and temperatures well below freezing have made simply going outside incredibly dangerous. Sandford has a talent for making you feel the wind chill, and the way he describes a frozen wasteland creates a bleak mood that perfectly matches the crimes that drive the story. This one is Sandford at his best.
It’s probably a bad idea for the US military to allow the troops overseas to get the news from back home. I have this fear that someday the service meIt’s probably a bad idea for the US military to allow the troops overseas to get the news from back home. I have this fear that someday the service men and women in places like Iraq and Afghanistan will finally snap after seeing the people they’ve pledged to defend are less interested in what they’re doing than TV reality shows and celebrity gossip. If the military ever decides that the pack of assholes back in America isn’t worth fighting and dying for, we could find all that hardware aiming back at us someday. I really wouldn’t blame them.
Billy Lynn is a young soldier who was serving in Iraq with Bravo squad. After Bravo got into a hellacious firefight with a band of insurgents that was captured on camera by an embedded Fox News crew, the members of Bravo become national heroes. To capitalize on their popularity, the Bush administration has Bravo brought back to the US and sent them on a ‘Victory Tour’ (Which just so happens to run through critical electoral states for the next election.) to drum up support for the war.
The Victory Tour culminates at a Thanksgiving Day pro football game at Texas Stadium in which Bravo is supposed to play a part in the half-time show. While Billy and the other Bravo members have been enjoying some of the perks of being heroes on tour, it also means putting up with the people who want to prove their support of the troops by fawning over them as well as being used as PR props by anyone with an agenda like the owner of the Cowboys.* Bravo would also like to sign a film deal before they have to deploy back to Iraq in a few days so they can at least get a nice payday for their efforts, but the producer they’re working with is having problems getting Hollywood interested in a war movie set in Iraq.
(*Ben Fountain avoids a lawsuit by creating a fictional asshole owner of the Cowboys instead of naming Jerry Jones, the actual asshole owner of the Cowboys.)
I started noting passages I wanted to quote in this review, but I hit a point where I was finding something on every page so I gave up on that plan. There was so much about this one that I loved, that I don’t really know where to start.
Young Billy Lynn is one of the best and most sympathetic characters I’ve read in a long while. He’s a 19-year-old virgin who can’t legally drink, but he’s gone to war and had more experience with death than most would have in a lifetime. Billy is nervous when dealing with the older, wealthier good old boys who want to glad-hand Bravo at the game, and he has a somewhat naive belief that there is someone wiser than him that can explain all the feelings that combat and the aftermath have stirred in him. However, he also has a grunt's hyper-awareness of hypocrisy and bullshit.
As Bravo endures a long day of being used as props for photo ops and a half-time show, Billy’s musings and observations about the people and events in the stadium showcase a society that will spend billions on sports but pays it’s soldiers a pittance while patting themselves on the back for the way they support the troops by offering them applause and trinkets before sending them back to war.
That’s a powerful point, but what makes this so great is that the message is delivered so deftly and without the heavy handed political left or right wing political manifesto that is part of almost any writing done about these kinds of subjects. It’s also funny and absolutely nails many things that are great and ridiculous about America.
It’s only March, but I think I may have an early winner for Best Book I Read This Year....more
Treasure of the Rubbermaids 17: Marvel At Marvel’s Marvelous ‘Marvels’!
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of RubbTreasure of the Rubbermaids 17: Marvel At Marvel’s Marvelous ‘Marvels’!
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent’s house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.
I would hate to be a New Yorker in the Marvel universe because it seems like the city is constantly being threatened by super villains, invaded by aliens, flooded by pissed off Atlanteans, or beset by some other form of comic book mayhem. I’ll bet it’s impossible to get property insurance at all.
Comic book readers get a ring side seat and full explanations for everything that’s happening, but what would your average man on the street think about all this insanity? That’s what Marvels explores beautifully.
Phil Sheldon is a young newspaper photographer during the Great Depression who witnesses the public unveiling of the original Human Torch followed shortly after by the appearance of Namor the Sub-Mariner. Like most people, Sheldon is initially shocked and disturbed by these new super beings he thinks of as Marvels who routinely turn New York into a battleground. With the coming of WWII and the introduction of Captain America, Phil embraces the costumed heroes who fight the Nazis.
Years later in the early ‘60s, an explosion of superheroes creates an odd mix of emotions in Phil and the general public. The Fantastic Four and The Avengers are celebrities who get put on magazine covers while some don’t know whether Spider-Man is a good guy or a criminal, and the mutant X-Men are feared and persecuted. Phil’s work as a photojournalist puts him in the middle of almost every big event Marvel did during the Silver Age, and he frequently finds himself conflicted about how he feels about them.
This does a great job of exploring that idea of how the public responds to larger than life characters and events that make them feel scared and insignificant, and one of the things I’ve always liked about Marvel’s comics is how they've always portrayed the public's attitudes towards the superheroes as being full of contradictions. People cheer the heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, but some blame them for the fights that cause so much destruction. The mutants are the target of hatred and bigotry while stores sell clothing lines based on the many costumes of Wasp. New Yorkers will cheer on the Fantastic Four as they battle Galactus to save the entire world, but just days later their landlord will try to evict them from the Baxter Building for the danger they attract.
Phil’s a great character to use in the midst of this because he’s a decent, ordinary guy who is still fully capable of giving into his worst instincts at times. He makes a career out of documenting the craziness that comes with the superheroes and thinks deeply about what the heroes mean to all of them. At times he almost worships them but can easily swing to resentment and jealously. Phil’s attitude towards them mirror how the superheroes have always been portrayed with a mixture of admiration and fear in the Marvel comics.
The stunning artwork has a retro realism to it that really makes you feel like you’re looking at people wearing tights in the 1960s, yet still conveys all the wonder of seeing someone otherworldly like the Silver Surfer.
By showing us how one regular person reacted to some of Marvel’s greatest hits, this moving tribute to the past gives a fresh perspective on how fans relate to the characters in these wild and amazing stories....more
If Quentin Coldwater stumbled on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, he’d constantly complain about how heavy it was and how the coins didn’t fit iIf Quentin Coldwater stumbled on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, he’d constantly complain about how heavy it was and how the coins didn’t fit in any vending machines and why couldn't they have just put the money into a nice cashier's check that he could have fit neatly in his wallet and then deposited in the bank?
In the first book, Quentin was a brilliant but disillusioned teenager who found life a boring slog and desperately wished that things were more like his favorite fantasy series set in a magical land called Fillory. (Think Narnia.) Quentin seemingly hit the fantasy geek jackpot when he learned that magic was real, and he was admitted to an exclusive school called Brakebills that trained magicians. Yet he constantly found himself disappointed that he never achieved his idea of true happiness even after graduating. When a classmate discovered that Fillory was real and a path to it, Quentin seized on the notion that going to Fillory was the only way he’d ever finally be complete. Unfortunately, Quentin learned the hard way that there‘s a big difference between reading about adventures and actually finding yourself in magical battle where various beasties are trying to kill you.
The Magician King picks up several years after that. Quentin is now one of the kings of Fillory and lives a life of ease and luxury with his friends. Of course, Quentin is never satisfied with a bird in the hand even when he’s relatively content, and he volunteers to go on a diplomatic mission to an island so he can seek the two birds he just knows are out there in the bush. His desire for a ’real’ adventure leads to him returning to Earth and finding that his wish for a high stakes quest have just come true. It’s much more than he bargained for and the consequences are enormous.
I loved The Magicians with it’s unique twist of what it’d be like if there were magic in the real world, but it seemed like a love-it or hate-it book with my friends here on Goodreads. And I totally understood why some readers could not stand Quentin at all. Here’s a guy who catches the biggest break in nerd history and yet he’s never satisfied and grateful for the opportunity he has.
In all honesty, I was starting to hate him pretty good through the first half of this book myself. It seemed like Quentin had forgotten everything he’d suffered and learned in the first book, and he was once again an obsessed nerd who is convinced that he’d be happy if he could live like he’s in a fantasy novel. However, that changes about halfway through with several big plot developments that I won’t spoil, but by the end of this one, I completely dropped my earlier reservations.
It also helped that Grossman is obviously writing Quentin to be an obsessed pain in the ass early on, and that he has several characters call him out on it. There’s a particularly nice bit where Quentin has traveled to Europe on Earth, and he has a moment of clarity where he realizes that he wrote off the real world when he’d seen almost none of it.
One of the things I also loved about this one in is the backstory of Julia, a former high school classmate’s of Quentin’s who had failed the Brakebills entrance exam, but went on to find another way to learn magic. If they were musicians, it’d be like Quentin went to study at Juilliard, but Julia learned in garage bands and punk clubs.
I can’t mention the stuff that occurs towards the end that made this book so cool to me and left me stunned by it’s conclusion. If you didn’t like The Magicians, this probably won’t change your mind. However, if you did like the first one, you’ll probably enjoy this book, especially it’s moving and incredibly dark third act.
Originally read Aug. 2011 Re-read Aug. 2014...more
“Uh..Mr. Kemper. He’s the one in the vegetative state.”
“Oh, that’s a very sad "Nurse, this patient’s chart is very confusing.”
“Which patient, Doctor?”
“Uh..Mr. Kemper. He’s the one in the vegetative state.”
“Oh, that’s a very sad and odd case.”
“According to the patient history, he was admitted a few weeks ago with cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his nose and ears, but it seemed like he should recover. But yesterday he was brought in again, barely conscious and then he lapsed into a coma. The really odd thing is that I see no signs of injury or disease.”
“That’s right, Doctor. It was a book that did this to Mr. Kemper.”
“A book? How is that possible?”
“From what we can figure out, the first incident occured after he read Hyperion by a writer named Dan Simmons. I guess it’s one of those sci-fi books and apparently the story is quite elaborate. Anyhow, Mr. Kemper had read Simmons before and knew he likes to put a lot of big ideas in his books. But this time, apparently Simmons broke into his house and managed to directly implant much of the book directly into Mr. Kemper’s brain via some kind of crude funnel device.”
“I find that highly unlikely, Nurse.”
“Most of us did, Doctor. But Mr. Kemper kept insisting that Simmons had some kind of grudge against him. He even had a note he said Simmons had left that said something like ‘Don’t you ever learn? If you keep reading my books, I’ll end you someday.’”
“Assuming that I believed this story, I guess that Kemper’s current state tells us that he didn’t heed the warning?”
“Apparently not, Doctor. His wife said she found him having convulsions and leaking brain matter out his nose and ears again. A copy of the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion was on the floor nearby.”
“I can’t believe that reading a silly sci-fi book could turn an healthy man into a turnip, Nurse.”
“Well, when they brought Kemper in, he was semiconscious and muttering. Someone wrote it down. Let see, he kept repeating words and phrases like: Shrike, Time Tombs, the Core, God, uh…no, two gods actually, farcasters, Ousters, religion, pope, death wand, space battles, interplanetary trees, old Earth, AI, mega sphere, data sphere, The Canterbury Tales, poetry, John Keats, Tree of Thorns, and Lord of Pain.”
“Jesus! What does all that mean?”
“Someone looked it up on the web and all of that is actually in the book.”
“That poor bastard. No wonder his gray matter is fried. No one could absorb all that without permanent damage.”
“Yes, I’d think that book should have some kind of warning sticker or something on it.”
“One thing I still don’t understand, Nurse. If Kemper knew that this book would probably do this to him, why did he still read it?”
“I guess he had told several people that Hyperion was just so good that he had to know how it ended, even if it killed him.”
***************************************
I think the word ‘epic’ was invented to describe this book.
What Simmons began in Hyperion finishes here with a story so sprawling and massive that it defies description. In the far future, humanity has spread to the stars, and maintains a web of worlds via ‘farcasters’. (Think Stargates.) On the planet Hyperion, mysterious tombs have been moving backwards in time and are guarded by the deadly Shrike.
Seven people were sent to Hyperion on a ‘pilgrimage’ that was almost certainly a suicide mission, but the Ousters, a segment of humanity evolving differently after centuries spent in deep space, are about to invade. The artificial intelligences of the Core that humanity depends on for predictions of future events and management of the farcaster system can’t tell what’s coming with an unknown like the Shrike and Hyperion in play.
Battles rage across space and time and the virtual reality of the data sphere as varying interests with competing agendas maneuver and betray each other as the pilgrims on Hyperion struggle to survive and finally uncover the secrets of the Shrike. But the real reasons behind the war and it’s ultimate goal are bigger and more sinister than anyone involved can imagine.
I can’t say enough good things about the story told in these first two Hyperion books. This is sci-fi at it’s best with a massive story crammed with big unique ideas and believable characters you care about. Any one of the pieces could have made a helluva book, but it takes a talent like Simmons to pull all of it together into one coherent story....more
Somehow I’ve managed to read a dozen books by Dan Simmons without getting around to Hyperion, one of his most acclaimed works. Frankly, I’ve been scarSomehow I’ve managed to read a dozen books by Dan Simmons without getting around to Hyperion, one of his most acclaimed works. Frankly, I’ve been scared of it. Simmons has been mashing up horror, sci-fi, hard boiled crime novels, thrillers, and historical fiction while often stuffing his books with so many ideas that it was all I could do to keep up so this seemed like it could be a bit more than I could comfortably chew.
Just as I feared, while I was reading and nearing the end, Simmons crept into my house like a ninja and rammed a funnel into my skull. Then he poured his wild sci-fi ideas and concepts into my brain pan like a frat boy pouring the suds in a beer bong. My mind overloaded, and I gibbered like a monkey on meth for fifteen seconds before passing out. When I woke up an hour later with a wicked headache and cerebrospinal fluid leaking out my ears and nose, Simmons was gone, but he’d left a note saying “Don’t you ever learn? Keep reading and one of these days, I will END you!”
So now I’m typing this with cotton balls stuck in my nostrils and ears while I’m waiting to get my MRI scan, and I’m once again left in awe of just how many wildly original ideas Simmons can cram into one story.
Simmons borrows the structure of The Canterbury Tales here. In the distant future, humanity has spread out among the stars, and one of the planets they’ve inhabited is Hyperion which has the mysterious Time Tombs and a deadly entity known as the Shrike which protects the area around them. A powerful religion has grown around the Shrike and many make pilgrimages to try and see him from which almost no one ever returns.
A former Consul of Hyperion is contacted by the Hegemony government and told that he must join a pilgrimage to see the Shrike with six others. The Ousters, a faction of humanity mutated by centuries of living in deep space, has been making aggressive moves against Hegemony worlds and now they’re targeting Hyperion just as there are signs that the empty Time Tombs are about to stop moving backwards in time and finally reveal their secrets.
The Consul meets the other pilgrims which include a priest, a soldier, a poet, a scholar, a detective and the captain of a rare giant tree capable of space travel. (Yes, a giant tree moving through space. Ask Simmons. I’m just reporting the news here, folks.) Realizing that they must have been chosen to make the journey for a reason, they take turns telling the stories of their connections to Hyperion and the Shrike as they make their way towards the Time Tombs.
I struggled with this book at first because Simmons throws the readers into the deep end of the pool with little explanation of the universe he’s created, and I don’t do well with books that start like: “Captain Manly Squarejaw woke up on his Confederated star potato and drank a glass of strained purplepiss juice while checking his com unit thingie to get the lastest news on the crisis involving the Whogivesashitsus.“
Fortunately, Simmons gets the plot up and moving quickly, and then uses the stories of each of the pilgrims to fill us in on the history and setting. By using the different story tellers, Simmons gives different perspectives for tales as diverse as an interstellar war to a future detective story with big sci-fi action to quieter personal tragedies like a father losing his daughter to a horrible fate. All of these stories eventually come back around to Hyperion and the Shrike.
I was also impressed how Simmons writing this in 1989 foresaw a computer network linking people, but also turning them into information overloaded cyber junkies who confuse accumulating news with taking action. There’s so many different big sci-fi ideas in here that many writers probably would have been content to make an entire career out them, but Simmons uses them all deftly to create one unified story. Oh, and memo to George Lucas: the next time you want to make a sci-fi movie with interplanetary politics being a primary driver to your plot, read this first. Or just hire Simmons to write the damn thing for you .
My only gripe is that while I knew there were sequels to this, I thought I was getting a complete story, and it definitely leaves a lot hanging for the next book. And there’s a Wizard of Oz thing near the end, and I hate the goddamn Wizard of Oz. It’s a Kansas thing. ...more
I grew up in a rural area with no shortage of poor rednecks so I thought I knew about country poverty, but the people I knew with their decayed farm hI grew up in a rural area with no shortage of poor rednecks so I thought I knew about country poverty, but the people I knew with their decayed farm houses and trailers lived like Donald Trump compared to the backwoods clan of hill folk in this book.
Ree Dolly is a 16-year old girl who dropped out of high school to take care of her crazy mother and two younger brothers. She lives in a remote part of the Ozarks where the only job opportunities are in crystal meth production. Ree plans on joining the army the second she’s old enough, and she’s trying to prepare her brothers to take care of themselves once she leaves.
Ree’s father, Jessup, hasn’t been home in weeks, but that’s nothing new so she isn’t concerned until a deputy shows up looking for him. Ree is shocked to learn that Jessup is out on bond and used their house as collateral. If he doesn’t show for his court date in a few days, Ree and her family will be homeless during a harsh winter. Ree has no choice but to start asking her extended family if they know where her father is, but this is dangerous because the closed mouth rednecks don’t like people asking questions, even if they’re kin. The only one who even kinda helps her is her crazy Uncle Teardrop who got half his head melted in a meth lab fire, and he’s not exactly reliable. Ree will soon figure out that her daddy got himself into big trouble with the family and looking for him will bring more of the same to her.
Daniel Woodrell created a stark portrait of rural poverty where shooting squirrels for supper and chopping wood for heat are still routine chores. Then he put a character you can’t help but love in the middle of it. Ree is smart and tough, but even rarer in her world, she’s managed to hang on to a sense of dignity. She has no illusions, but she isn’t cynical or cold either. She’s doing everything she can to protect her brothers and mother, and she has a touching relationship with her best friend Gail, who got pregnant and married a man she barely knows.
Short, but powerful, this a terrific novel with a heroine you won’t forget....more
Treasure of the Rubbermaids: The Dude Vs. The Duke
Sometimes you get very clear signs that you should read or re-read a specific book. Earlier this yeaTreasure of the Rubbermaids: The Dude Vs. The Duke
Sometimes you get very clear signs that you should read or re-read a specific book. Earlier this year, my friend Nancy had read True Grit and recommended it to me. I’d seen the John Wayne movie version a couple of times, and I had a hazy memory that I’d read it at some point. The more I thought about it, I was pretty sure that I’d even owned a very old copy of the book once upon a time.
Months later, I heard that the Coen brothers were doing a new movie version with Jeff Bridges taking John Wayne’s place as Rooster. I’m not a fan of the recent wave of remakes Hollywood has produced since the movie studios are too gutless to risk money on new concepts anymore, but with the Coen brothers saying that they were doing another adaptation of the book, not a remake of the original film, I thought it had potential. Hell, you’ve got The Dude replacing The Duke. I thought it’d be worth seeing just for that alone.
Meanwhile, my father made good on a threat he’d been making since the wife and I bought our first house last year and brought down 14 large plastic containers filled with books and comics that I’d kept at my parents due to lack of storage during my apartment dwelling years.
So the new movie version of True Grit came out and was getting rave reviews, and I wanted to see it. I also wanted to re-read the book at some point. The other day, I started going through the boxes and in the first one I popped open, there sat a battered old hardback of True Grit.
Verily, the Reading Gods had delivered unto me a sign.
After going and seeing the movie yesterday and enjoying it immensely, I cracked open the book last night and rediscovered a story written in what certainly feels like authentic Old West speech. The tale of young Maddie Ross hiring a drunken, one-eyed U.S. Marshal to track and arrest her father’s killer is one of those books told in a such a simple style that it can trick you into missing how much there is between the lines.
Told in first person from the whip-smart but extremely headstrong, stubborn and uptight Maddie, the portrait of the time and people like Rooster and the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf and Lucky Ned Pepper feel like you’re reading a story written back then and not in 1969. It’s funny, bittersweet and loaded with all the action on horseback that any western fan could ask for.
If all you know of this story is the cheesy memories of the old John Wayne version, then check this book out and go see the new version. You won’t be disappointed. ...more
*Update 9/23 - Jonathan Franzen was in town doing a reading & signing last night, and after listening to him talk, I’m officially backing off of theor*Update 9/23 - Jonathan Franzen was in town doing a reading & signing last night, and after listening to him talk, I’m officially backing off of theory #1 below. He does not seem like a douche bag, at all. In fact, despite all the Oprah hoopla (Which he described as a fiasco, not because of anything that he or Oprah did, but because the whole thing got blown out of proportion.) and the backlash after the early raves for Freedom, Franzen came across as remarkably down-to-earth and funny. He seems like a very smart guy who doesn’t take the media hype too seriously, but is clearly having a lot of fun with all the recent attention.*
I picked up Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections earlier this summer, and it was one of the oddest reading experiences of my life because while I despised nearly every character in it, I still enjoyed the book. So when I started Freedom, I was hoping that I’d find some more likeable people in this one. After fifty pages, I was horrified to realize that it was looking like this book would be another collection of self-absorbed asshats.
At that point, I thought there were two possibilities: 1) That Jonathan Franzen is a complete douche bag himself and that he actually thought he was creating sympathetic characters. 2) That Franzen has an even lower opinion of people than I do and uses his skill to convey an utter contempt for mankind by creating these pathetic excuses for human beings.
However, as I got deeper into Freedom, and we started getting the history and alternate view points, I started to sympathize with most of the characters. (Except for Joey. I hated that smug little bastard through the entire thing and was really hoping that he‘d get set on fire at some point.)
The Berglunds seem like a prime example of family-first socially conscious living. They bought a house in a run down St. Paul neighborhood and became the first wave of gentrification for that area. Walter is a lawyer who works on environmental causes. Patty was a talented college basketball player who channels all her old competitive instincts into being the best mother and neighbor possible. The two kids, Jessica and Joey, are intelligent and seem destined for big things. And just to give them a touch of cool in their suburban existence, Patty and Walter are old friends with Richard Katz, a womanizing musician who has just gained mainstream popularity.
But the Berglunds quickly fall apart in spectacular fashion. Joey moves in with a neighbor after rebelling against Patty’s overwhelming love, and he and Walter can’t have a conversation without it turning into a screaming match. Patty has turned into a lost and bitter shadow of her former self. Walter has left his old environmental job to work with a rich man with ties to the coal industry, and as the kids leave for college, the parents are off to D.C.
The novel covers a tremendous amount of ground, not just with the elaborate characterizations, but in terms of the backdrops. From Minnesota to New York to DC to West Virginia to South America, Franzen touches on 9/11, the Iraq war, environmentalism, overpopulation, rampant consumerism and the political fracturing of America, but by keeping it in terms of a family disintegration, he keeps the story relatable.
One of the key things that comes up repeatedly is the idea that Americans have about freedom. It’s a word tossed around easily, and as Franzen explores here, many take it as their God given right to engage in mass consumption and lead completely unexamined lives with no regard for the consequences. Those who ask for more social responsibility are derided as ‘liberals’ and ‘intellectuals’ and ’elitists’. (I’m pretty sure Sarah Palin would hate this book. Assuming she could find someone to read it to her and explain the big words.)
But this isn’t about idealizing liberal policies. Franzen makes a lot of valid points about how American politics has become a constant screaming match more concerned with beating the other guy than accomplishing anything. He makes good use of the character of Walter to illustrate how all the pent up rage and frustration, even for a ‘good’ cause, can make for a pretty miserable life. What good is trying to save the world if you can’t stand any of the people in it?
Terrific book that’s almost a pitch perfect statement about what American life has been like since 2000 as seen through the eyes of some flawed, but decent people. (Except for Joey. That kid is a prick.) While freedom and happiness are usually considered to go hand-in-hand, these characters show that poorly used freedom can make you supremely unhappy.
Random thoughts:
-There’s several similarities to The Corrections: Everyone hates their family. There’s a very odd love triangle. A mother/son relationship is pushed to creepy extremes to irritate a father. A character gets caught up in an elaborate overseas get-rich-quick scheme. The daughter of the family is probably the most adult and sensible character. And there’s a really nasty scene involving human turds. Eww. What’s with all the poop, Franzen?
- One of my favorite parts was Richard Katz’s interview where he makes several hilarious comments about the music industry.
-The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality, also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage. That’s just about my entire existence summed up in one sentence.
- There’s a plot point involving cats attacking song birds late in the book. Just as I was reading this section, a stray cat came up on our deck and tried to attack one of our two house kitties through the door screen. It was very startling to be reading about feral cats and then hear godawful yowling, hissing, screeching and general mayhem in the next room. For a second, I thought Franzen was so good that he caused me to have audio hallucinations. ...more
Jim Thompson must have had noir in his veins instead of red blood cells. This dark first-person story has the reader inhabiting the mind of a killer iJim Thompson must have had noir in his veins instead of red blood cells. This dark first-person story has the reader inhabiting the mind of a killer in way that most authors can't even come close to matching. It's disturbing, chilling and one of the best pieces of crime fiction I’ve ever read.
Lou Ford is a small-town sheriff’s deputy in West Texas. He appears to be just a good natured, not-to-bright, good-ole-boy who usually speaks in a series of clichés to the point of annoying or boring whoever he’s talking to. But Lou’s persona is all a mask to hide his true self and to keep what he thinks of as ‘his sickness’ in check.
When Lou is dispatched to give a warning to a call-girl named Joyce, it escalates into a confrontation that unleashes Lou’s sadistic side, and he’s shocked to discover that Joyce is a willing partner. Letting his darker impulses out of the box soon leads Lou to more violence, and then a lengthy cat-and-mouse game with the local power structure as he covers up his crimes with a mixture of his dimwitted persona and even more bloodshed.
Reading this is a really odd experience. At times, you find yourself rooting for Lou to get away with everything he’s done, but at other times you want to scream at the other characters, “Run! He’s freaking crazier than a shithouse rat! Get out of there before he murders you all!”
And I was both horrified and amused at the malicious joy that Lou takes in ‘needling’ people under the guise of playing the fool that can’t stop running his mouth. He’s got a knack for annoying and insulting people while he pretends he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. That’s just one of the many ways that evil Lou has of getting under your skin. ...more
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