At various points Harry Houdini lied about where he was born, when he was born, how he met his wife, and he routinely got fictional accounts of his esAt various points Harry Houdini lied about where he was born, when he was born, how he met his wife, and he routinely got fictional accounts of his escapes in newspapers. Hell, Harry Houdini wasn’t even his real name. So how do you write a biography about a man whose entire life was built around tricking people and sensationalizing himself?
What the writer has done here is to focus less on the details of Houdini’s life. Sure, we get the basic facts and educated guesses when necessary, and there’s a lot about various Houdini legends while comparing them to reality. However, that’s not the main point of this book. Instead of trying to figure out who Houdini was and how he accomplished what he did, the book is more interested in examining how Houdini continues to fascinate and inspire people to this day. Considering that this was a man who whose very name became synonymous with amazing escapes of any kind, that’s an interesting topic.
Here’s the odd thing for me. I don't really care about magic, and I'm not even that interested in Houdini although he certainly led a memorable life. So why did I read this? Because I am a big fan of Joe Posnanski.
Posnanski is a sportswriter who was an award winning columnist in Kansas City for many years, and if I had a nickel for every story I read that he wrote about a horrible Royals teams during that time I’d be richer than Bill Gates. I met him once, and he signed a copy of his wonderful book about Buck O’Neil, The Soul of Baseball. I’ve listened to the podcast he does with TV producer Michael Schur and I have even ordered the dish named after him, Posnanski Chicken Spiedini, at a restaurant called Governor Stumpy’s on more a few occasions. (Not only is it really good, but you get a huge portion that gives you great take home leftovers for another meal.)
The fascinating thing about Posnanski to me is that he isn’t your typical 21st century hot-take sports guy. By modern standards his sports writing could almost be called gentle, and he always seems to be looking for the bright side without seeming naive. He is almost effortlessly funny, too. The thing that really always stood out was that Joe had a knack for finding awe inspiring moments in places that might be overlooked. I always had the feeling that part of the reason he was a sports fan is that it’s a thing where somebody doing something unbelievable is always just a play away.
However, Joe left Kansas City years ago, and while he’s had several high profile sports writing jobs since, I’ve missed getting a dose of that that kind of optimism a few times a week when I cracked open a open a copy of the Star. Truth be told, I’ve drifted away from watching sports at all in recent years so I don’t seek out Joe’s writing like I used to. I did get a nice reminder of it when a story he wrote about taking his daughter to see Hamilton went viral that made Lin-Manuel Miranda cry.
So even though I’ve got little interest in magicians, I picked this up just to read some Joe Posnanski. And he delivers by giving us a story about wonder. Houdini might have been a bully, a liar, a jerk, and a shameless self-promoter, but as repeatedly gets pointed out, he was the ultimate showman with a relentless drive. The legend of Houdini has inspired countless other magicians and escape artists, and those are the stories that Posnanski is really telling us here. He wants to figure out why a flawed man whose main talent was putting himself in rigged situations to escape from has managed to flourish in the public imagination for decades after his death.
To try and answer that Joe talks to everybody from David Copperfield to a reclusive former actor who wrote an incredibly detailed book about Houdini that is nearly impossible to find. Along the way we hear about magic acts, tricks of the escape artist trade, debates about Houdini’s actual skill, and a variety of other topics that all are oriented around trying to puzzle out the appeal of the man. In the end I did learn a lot about Houdini, and it also gave me a lot to think about in terms of what creates legendary fame and how one person's image can inspire countless people long after they're gone.
If you’re thinking about reading it, and you’re not sure if it’s your cup of tea, here’s a link to the column Posnanski wrote about taking his daughter to see Hamilton . If you enjoy that, there’s a good chance you’ll like this book....more
What happens when you put time travel, magic, quantum physics, witches, a top secret military operation, alternate timelines, Vikings, a family of shaWhat happens when you put time travel, magic, quantum physics, witches, a top secret military operation, alternate timelines, Vikings, a family of shadowy bankers, and government bureaucracy in one book?
As you might expect, things get complicated.
The story begins with the written account of Melsianda Stokes, a woman from our present who has become stranded in London during 1851. Mel tells us how she’s an expert in ancient languages who was stuck in a dead end academic career until she is recruited by military officer Tristan Lyons to take part in a top secret effort translating old documents that make repeated references to magic being done by witches. Mel learns that magic was indeed once real, but that it ceased working in the mid-19th century. Now Tristan is leading the government’s effort to bring it back.
Mel and Tristan are able to determine what what caused the death of magic, and with the help of a physicist and a very old witch are able to get it working in a very limited fashion. The government demands an immediate practical application to justify the taxpayer expense and using magic to send people back in time to alter events in a way beneficial to the US meets that criteria. However, changing the past turns out to be harder than everyone thought with multiple trips required to make the revisions in several timelines, and causing a paradox has immediate and dire consequences. Soon Mel and Tristan are part of a growing covert department that sends operatives to the past to recruit a network of witches and perform complex missions to make subtle changes, and they find themselves working for infuriating bureaucrats who think they can control everything with PowerPoint presentations and policy memos.
That’s a very boiled down summary which is what you have to do when reviewing a Neal Stephenson novel because as always there’s layer upon layer that you could write essays about. The explanation as to why magic stopped working alone gets into a whole Schrodinger’s cat thing about how observation collapses quantum wave functions which is then tied into the rise of technology like cameras. Throw in the usual Stephenson digressions like an explanation of the sexual harassment policy related to issues like wearing codpieces, and you get one of his typical kitten squishers.
Stephenson isn’t flying solo on this one, and although I haven’t read co-author Nicole Galland I could sense that this was a bit more reined in and scaled down from his usual thing. Still, you can see stray bits from other works, and one of the big sci-fi aspects seem drawn directly from one of his other books. Which means that if you’ve tried Stephenson and get irritated with his quirks then you’re probably not going to like this. Usually I love a big fat Stephenson novel for its tangents and offbeat nature, but I found myself tapping my toe with impatience a bit during this one.
The second act of this book is mainly concerned with the ‘rise of D.O.D.O’ part of it, and it’s told in a series of emails and policy directives which gives us the picture of how a government agency dedicated to time travel would take shape. I’m usually interested in things about how big projects come together and this also lays the groundwork for ‘the fall’ piece by showing the development of David Simon Syndrome in the way that any large institution will almost inevitably become about projecting the image of competence rather than risk failure by doing the job it was created for in the first place. In this case the narrow vision and arrogance of those in charge also leaves them vulnerable to threats from within.
I get what the authors were going for there, and there’s also some good humor laced throughout that part. Yet it just seems to go on for too long, particularly since we know big trouble is brewing because of Mel being stuck in the past.
Secondly, for all the explanation and set-up for how the time travel and magic stuff works we never really know WHY it’s being done in the first place. There’s some mention about the government having indications that others are time traveling and changing things so that would be motivation yet we never get enough detail on that. Plus, no one stops to question whether they should be doing this at all which seems like a glaring oversight. Even when they see first hand the catastrophic results when too big of a change happens they don’t hesitate for a second. With poorly defined motivations this seems especially foolhardy.
It also seems as if the schemes ignore common sense and get ridiculously complex. For example, the first mission is for Mel to travel back to Puritan controlled Boston and obtain a copy of a book which will be incredibly rare in the future. This is supposed to be proof of concept as well as a fundraising expedition. Fair enough. Since the time travelers can take nothing forward or back with them Mel has to get the book sealed up tight and buried near a rock that still exists in the present. She also has to do this multiple times to force the change through the various time strands to the one they’re in.
A problem occurs when her strands undergo a shift that has a new factory built on the spot in the past so that she can’t bury the book in the location they originally pick. So they start a second campaign which involves Tristan going back to London to shift the investor from building that factory, and again, he has to do this repeatedly to get the change to stick in their timeline.
Sooooo….Why not just come up with another location for Mel to bury the book rather than go through the effort of a second mission that requires trips to the past? It’s not even discussed that I remember, and it seems like a much simpler solution to the problem.
That’s kind of the issue overall with this one for me. While it had a lot of stuff I loved (view spoiler)[like a Viking raid on a Wal-Mart (hide spoiler)] and a lot of deep thought was put into the concept it seems like the obvious was often overlooked. I also wasn’t crazy about the ending that seems to be more sequel set-up than resolution.
Generally I liked it, but it wasn’t the usual home run of a book I’ve come to expect from Stephenson. More like a solid double....more
Dr. Stephen Strange is a brilliant surgeon, but he’s also selfish and arrogant. After a car accident screws up his hands he turns to magic hoping for Dr. Stephen Strange is a brilliant surgeon, but he’s also selfish and arrogant. After a car accident screws up his hands he turns to magic hoping for way to recover his old skills, but as a student of the Ancient One he is forced to choose sides against the evil Mordo. Strange races to find three powerful rings and discovers his true destiny as a master of the mystic arts.
These Season One books are obviously not trying to rewrite the history of Marvel’s characters or put a new spin on them like the Ultimate line did. Instead these are just designed to update and modernize the old favorites enough to keep their origins from seeming too outdated, and this one is no different. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’d make a good entry point for someone who had never read Doctor Strange but wanted to give it a try....more
I guess that 5 star streak for all the Saga collections had to come to an end sometime.
This is still the best comic book space adventure/fairy tale/rI guess that 5 star streak for all the Saga collections had to come to an end sometime.
This is still the best comic book space adventure/fairy tale/romance you’re likely to read, It also still has enough weird alien characters to populate a cantina in Star Wars as well as more violence, profanity, sex, and nudity than most R rated movies. However, it seemed to lack of a bit of the pop that made the rest of the series so next level. Part of this is probably due to so many story threads being scattered at this point, but some of those are knitted together by the end of this one....more
If your name is something like Stephen Strange then you’d almost have to be a superhero, wouldn’t you? Either that or Bond villain.
Dr. Strange is veryIf your name is something like Stephen Strange then you’d almost have to be a superhero, wouldn’t you? Either that or Bond villain.
Dr. Strange is very upset to learn that his friend and servant Wong has terminal brain cancer and vows to use every mystical means at his disposal to save him. The cure he finds turns out to have much larger implications that threaten Strange both magically and physically.
This is one of those Marvel characters that I mainly know from his appearances in other books rather than reading his main titles. The whole trippy-psychedelic-mysticism thing has never really been my cup o’ tea, but like a good comic book nerd I saw the Dr. Strange movie and enjoyed it so much I decided to read up on the Sorcerer Supreme.
I couldn’t have picked a better story to try. Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite comic writers, and this is a great read that mixes Strange’s history with a grounding in the modern Marvel universe that puts magic side-by-side with science. The artwork really sells this too in the way that it portrays a ‘realistic’ New York where something like the Cloak of Levitation does seem unworldly. I also particularly liked the use of the Night Nurse as a supporting character.
My only real complaint is that by starting with this particular story any other Dr. Strange comics now have a very high bar to clear so I’m worried that reading more about the Master of the Mystic Arts might pale in comparison....more
I've run out of ways to praise Saga at this point so I'll just say that it continues to be one of the most entertaining, creative, funny, heartbreakinI've run out of ways to praise Saga at this point so I'll just say that it continues to be one of the most entertaining, creative, funny, heartbreaking, profane, graphically violent, and well drawn comics I've read. ...more
Even in a fictional book in which he’s supposed to be the hero Richard Nixon can't help but be an asshole.
The concept here is that when Nixon was an uEven in a fictional book in which he’s supposed to be the hero Richard Nixon can't help but be an asshole.
The concept here is that when Nixon was an underhanded congressman trying to prove that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy he inadvertently stumbled across a hidden occult world of Lovecratfian style horrors. This discovery and his ambition paves the way for him to become a reluctant KGB spy which in turn helps him become vice-president. He then learns that President Eisenhower has control of vast magical powers that he is using as part of a secret supernatural front of the Cold War as the Soviets try to harness these horrors to gain strategic advantages for themselves. As he moves through Eisenhower's administration to his own presidency Nixon becomes a pivotal figure in this underground war.
This book surprised me because I was thinking that it would be done in a tongue-in-cheek way that played off the idea of Richard Nixon being a hero after all, but in fact it’s the exact opposite. The portrayal of him here is still that of an insecure and bitter guy who seemed to lack the charisma and charm of a used car salesmen, but whose relentless drive and willingness to fight dirty enabled him to rise to power. This is more of a character study that just puts a supernatural coat of paint on the man rather than try to shine him up into something he wasn’t.
That’s an interesting way to go, to use this kind of a book to not tell us that what we knew about Nixon wasn’t wrong, it’s just that we didn’t know all of the story. Grossman is a good writer who actually manages to generate sympathy for Tricky Dick as he acknowledges his faults in his first person narration.
But that leaves me not sure what exactly the point of all this was. The idea that all these weird occult happenings have links embedded in the foundation of American government was interesting, and it seems like there was the potential for a good story there. However, we see this through Nixon’s eyes, and he doesn’t really know the full scope of what’s going on until late in the game. Since this is an outsider trying to look in telling us the story it seems like we’re only getting a glimpse of a secret history although some of the historical incidents have an interesting twist on them like the moon landing. It also feels like we don’t know the rules here because none of it is explained in detail as to what’s possible, and most of the book is spent with a confused Nixon trying to figure out what’s happening and never getting a great handle on it.
Essentially it just feels like the whole book was done to give us a supernatural excuse for the reasons behind Watergate. That might have made for an interesting short story, but by writing Nixon as Nixon with a few more secrets and not giving us a deep dive into the occult side of stuff, the book ends up feeling generally unsatisfying....more
It’s seems the most common way of describing this is that it’s like Ocean’s Eleven set in a fantasy world. That’s accurate enough for the first part oIt’s seems the most common way of describing this is that it’s like Ocean’s Eleven set in a fantasy world. That’s accurate enough for the first part of the book that tells how Locke Lamora and his group of Gentlemen Bastards run elaborate cons on the upper class population of the city of Camorr while pretending to be simple petty thieves to the criminal underworld. This early phase certainly resembles the kind of zany schemes that the Ocean’s Eleven crew pull in their movies in which they’re always a step ahead, no one really gets hurt, and the worst crime is rich jerks losing money.
However, I think a much closer crime movie comparison would probably be The Usual Suspects because there comes a point when Locke and his friends are forced to do the bidding of a mysterious villain who wields tremendous power. Things take a darker turn from there with the kind of violence and body count that George Clooney and his pals never had to deal with.
There’s a lot to love in this remarkably strong debut novel. The world building is excellent in the way that Camorr is fully realized in almost every detail including its politics, social classes, and religion as well as how its criminal underworld functions within a complicated set of rules. Characterization is particularly strong with Locke and his friends well developed via flashbacks that explains their history as well as giving readers the sense of the strong bond among them. Locke in particular is a great main character as a cocky con man, but I also liked that he’s not your typical dashing rogue. He’s small, not a big manly man, and he’s not much good in a fight so having him have to use his wits rather than a sword is part of what makes him interesting.
Author Scott Lynch also does a superior job of managing tone. While this starts out as a kind of bawdy romp, he doesn’t hesitate to make things bloody and doesn’t hedge the cost of these events, but he’s able to keep the novel’s original boastful spirit alive even as everything is going to hell without it feeling too jarring. The witty dialogue helps keep things from getting too dark, and it is so profane that it would make the characters in Deadwood blush. (Which is an extra bonus for me because I love colorful cursing.) Plus, Lynch balances the weird elements extremely well by doling out just enough magic and strange creatures to make this a fantasy novel without letting those things overwhelm or distract a reader.
While it’s a serious story filled with violence and deadly consequences, it never gets so bogged down in those aspects that it forgets to be entertaining. ...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.
Just your typical story about a couple from opposing species of an interstellar war falling in love and having a baby, then fleeing the governments anJust your typical story about a couple from opposing species of an interstellar war falling in love and having a baby, then fleeing the governments and hired mercenaries of both sides in a wooden rocketship with their ghost babysitter...
Three volumes in and so far each one has been 5 stars. I'm pretty sure that has never happened to me before. ...more
A couple of star-crossed lovers from two different species on opposing sides of an interstellar war are on the run in a wooden rocket ship with their A couple of star-crossed lovers from two different species on opposing sides of an interstellar war are on the run in a wooden rocket ship with their infant daughter and her ghost babysitter as they are pursued by the forces of both sides including a royal family member who is a robot with a television for a head as well as a bounty hunter who has an oversized cat who can tell when anyone is lying.
Geez, why can’t any comic book creators come up with something original?
Ah, but seriously…. This second volume of Brian K. Vaughan’s wild story is just as good as the first. One of the things I love most about this series so far is that despite all the crazy elements, Vaughan makes everything so relatable. This may be taking place in space during a massive war that involves everything from magic to worlds dedicated solely to prostitution, but whether it’s meeting the in-laws or telling us about how Alana and Marko met, there’s a very human element to all the wackiness. That’s what makes the whole thing so damn awesome....more
1) Star crossed lovers who were soldiers in opposing armies of an intersteller war who have a baby and are being hunted bSome of the elements in Saga:
1) Star crossed lovers who were soldiers in opposing armies of an intersteller war who have a baby and are being hunted by both sides. 2) A royal family comprised of humanistic robots with TVs for heads. 3) Magic 4) Ghosts. 5) A bounty hunter with a giant cat that acts as a lie detector. 6) A forest that grows wooden rocketships
And that’s just the start.
I’m a huge fan of Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina so no surprise that I loved this. What is surprising is just how bat shit crazy he made this story. Yes, Y:TLM was about the sudden deaths of almost every male on earth, and Ex Machina used the idea of a super hero as the mayor of New York right after 9/11, but both of those started with the real world as the baseline and then explored what happened if you introduced a fantastic element to it.
Saga has no similar foundation in a recognizable reality, yet once again Vaughan creates familiar and likeable characters that you can’t help but root for. Alana and Marko’s quest to find a safe place to raise their baby is something that anyone can relate to. When they bicker, it reads like real people squabbling. So even though he has horns like a ram and she looks like Rosario Dawson with wings, they could be any young couple trying to protect themselves and their child in desperate circumstances. That the circumstances are like a dream that Neil Gaiman would have while running a high fever and taking too much cold medicine is just the window dressing that make the story so much fun.
It’s like a sci-fi fairy tale with a layer of gritty realism to it. It’s also one of the best comics I’ve read recently, and I can’t wait to see how this story plays out....more
Abbot & Costello. Mulder & Scully. Starsky & Hutch. Ben & Jerry. Now I’m adding Brubaker & Phillips to that list of great partnerships.
They had alreadAbbot & Costello. Mulder & Scully. Starsky & Hutch. Ben & Jerry. Now I’m adding Brubaker & Phillips to that list of great partnerships.
They had already shown that they can deliver terrific hard boiled stories in their Criminal series, and that they could also put clever twists on the superhero genre in Incognito and Sleeper.
With Fatale they’ve combined a gritty crime story with a disturbing horror tale and created a unique supernatural noir. It’s kind of like if James Cain and HP Lovecraft would have gotten drunk together and come up with a story for EC Comics. ...more
When Tony Stark a/k/a Iron Man was acting like a total dick and appointed himself king of the super heroes, Luke Cage and others that had been part ofWhen Tony Stark a/k/a Iron Man was acting like a total dick and appointed himself king of the super heroes, Luke Cage and others that had been part of the New Avengers went underground and fought back. Now that Marvel’s Civil War and the aftermath has finally ended and the so-called Heroic Age has begun, Steve Rogers wants Luke to continue leading a team of Avengers.
Setting up shop in a rebuilt Avengers mansions that Stark sells to them for a dollar, Luke’s new team doesn’t even get through their first meeting when trouble breaks out. Dr. Strange and new Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Voodoo show up possessed by demons, and some kind of powerful entity from another dimension wants the magical Eye of Agomotto and is willing to tear our universe apart to get it.
I had fun with this on one level because these Avengers are a lot of superheroes I like. Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Thing, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel and Mockingbird make for an interesting team dynamic, and these characters play into Brian Michael Bendis’s main strength of witty dialogue. There’s some great interactions like Spider-Man freaking out after Wolverine claws someone or Ben Grimm giving Ms. Marvel grief in the middle of a mass demon invasion because she’s never seen Ghostbusters.
It’s a solid line-up of cool characters with a good writer and artist, and it's got an interesting niche to fill in the Marvel Universe.
Unfortunately, what I don’t like is that Marvel has spread some of it’s most popular heroes like Wolverine and Spider-Man far too thin. Wolvie is on so many teams, I can’t keep track of them all. Spider-Man is on two Avenger squads as well as multiple books. The Thing is on the Fantastic Four. This trend has been getting worse, and it’s really starting to bug me because it shows a lack of faith in the fans and the creators working on the books. I would read a book about Avengers led by Luke Cage and written by Bendis with almost any line-up.
Instead of cramming the most popular guys into books over and over, how about developing some of the lesser known heroes? Wolverine wasn’t always Wolverine. He used to just be that surly asshole on the X-Men until Chris Claremont made him into something more. No other minor characters are getting that chance anymore.
It undercuts the whole reason why Cage is running a separate team in the story, too. After the Civil War, he doesn’t want to toe a government line or work closely with Stark so Steve arranges it so that he’s operating on his own with only a loose affiliation with the other Avengers, but that doesn’t really work if some of your guys are also on those other teams.
Plus, there’s no consistent internal logic. Steve Rogers tells Luke that he can’t have Iron Man or Thor because they‘re on another team, but doesn’t care that Wolverine or Spider-Man have dual membership. Mockingbird’s husband is Hawkeye who is a member of the Iron Man/Thor/Wolverine/Spider-Man Avengers, but won’t join this group and leaves in the middle of this book because the other team issues a priority call, yet Wolverine and Spider-Man don’t get summoned? Ben Grimm has got enough time outside the Fantastic Four to do this gig? But whenever it’s brought up in any book, everyone just cracks jokes about busy schedules or having a multi-tasking superpower. Weak.
And yes, I’m well aware that I’m complaining about logistical issues in a comic book universe that contains superheroes, magic, aliens, mutants, time travel, alternate dimensions and a tropical zone in Antarctica where dinosaurs still exist. That’s the nature of a fan boy. We’ll buy the wildest stuff imaginable, if you can put a thin veneer of reality over it. Skimp on that, and we’ll start pointing out every crack.
So the whole thing about a group of superheroes fighting a bunch of inter-dimensional magic demons with the future of the world at stake was great, but I really wish Marvel would trust it’s readers and creators enough to put out some more team books without feeling the need to shoehorn their most popular and established characters into them. ...more
“Good evening and welcome to ESPN’s coverage of the 1st World Championship of Assumption Poker Tournament at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Ve“Good evening and welcome to ESPN’s coverage of the 1st World Championship of Assumption Poker Tournament at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I’m your host Mike Honcho and with me is three time poker champion Billy “Busted Flush” Stark. Billy, you can certainly feel the excitement and tension in this room tonight.”
“Mike, you got that right. We all used to think that poker tournaments for money were a big deal, but ever since the recent revelations that magic is real and that much of that power can be harnassed by the use of plain old playing cards, the entire gaming world has been turned upside down."
“Tonight, we’ve got the ultimate in magic poker challenges, a game of high stakes Assumption where the winner will not only be able to claim the very bodies and souls of the other players to become virtually immortal, he will also become the new magical King of Las Vegas while the ladies will be competing to become the Queen. This opportunity only comes around about every twenty years. And if the game didn’t have enough drama, Billy, I understand that several of the players have some history and bad blood between them.”
“Bad blood and spilled blood in some cases, Mike. First, let’s check out Georges Leon, the current king. Georges overthrew the last king of Vegas, legendary gangster Bugsy Siegel, and then extended his own life by essentially killing one of his own sons. Georges has launched the current Assumption craze by using the card game to get people to unwittingly sign over their bodies for his future use.”
“Certainly a player to be respected and feared, Billy. But tonight he’ll be facing another son of his, Scott Crane.”
“That’s right, Mike. Georges actually attempted to take Scott’s life force when he was just a kid, but the boy was saved by his mother even though he lost an eye in the process. And since he’s one of the mystical Jacks who can assume the kingship, you know what that makes him? A one-eyed Jack.”
“Can Scott hope to contend against his father, Billy?”
“Well, Scott was a professional poker player, and he’s a blood heir to the throne. However, the recent unexpected death of his wife, and subsequent alcoholism has left him vulnerable to his father and other threats from Dionysus. And those aren’t even his biggest problems, Mike. You see, Scott has actually already lost his claim on his body in a game of Assumption he played twenty years ago with his father when neither knew who the other one was.”
“That certainly makes it long odds against Scott Crane. But what about his foster father, Ozzie Crane?”
“Now, Ozzie is one crafty old card player, and he knows all the ins and outs of the magic business. But he’s stayed away from the magic end of thing for years so we’re not sure what he’ll bring to the table.”
“Adding to the family drama, we’ve also got Diana, a daughter of the goddess Isis that Ozzie saved and raised. This young woman will be playing to save the lives of her own sons and take on the role of Queen.”
“Exactly, Mike. We’ve also got several other wild cards in the mix like Arky Mavranos, a friend of Scott’s who is dying of cancer and came along to try and tap into some Vegas magic and find a cure.”
“You’ve got to respect a man who rejects traditional medicine and pins all his hopes on finding a miracle in a casino, Billy.”
“There’s also a variety of other Jacks who want to take the throne and see Scott and Diana as the leading candidates to take out. It has been one wild week here in Vegas with gun fights, magic, kidnapping, murder and beheadings. And that’s before the card game has even started!”
“These players certainly better hope that it’s true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas or the survivors will be looking at some long jail time, Billy.”
“Whatever happens, you can be sure that it should be a thrilling game, Mike. I just hope we all live to see who wins.”
“We’ll be back in a moment to kick off this game of Assumption right after a word from our sponsor, Budweiser.”...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
I know Joss Whedon is busy working on The Avengers movie. (Just the sheer idea of it is giving most of geekdom multiple nerdgasms.) However, since he’I know Joss Whedon is busy working on The Avengers movie. (Just the sheer idea of it is giving most of geekdom multiple nerdgasms.) However, since he’s the one who likes to claim that this run of Buffy comics are the actual continuation of the story after the TV series ended, you’d think the Joss-man would have cleared his calendar enough to write a critical piece to this so-called ‘Season 8’ arc of Buffy.
Instead, he handed over the reins to Brad Metzler, who does an OK job, but the story probably would have been better served if The Man himself would have taken the time to do it himself, just as he usually wrote and directed the big episodes of his various TV shows.
Following the monumentally stupid decision Buffy and her gang made in the last volume Retreat to try and magically hide all the Slayers by voluntarily giving up their powers, the ensuing battle has left Buffy’s little army in bad shape. However, Buffy suddenly starts becoming more powerful and displays a Superman-like array of abilities. As Willow tries to track down the friends who have gone missing following the latest attack, the final showdown with the mysterious figure called Twilight (hee) occurs and his identity is revealed.
Oh, and in a trivial note, Whedon finally got the comic rights for Angel back and the brooding vampire and Buffy are reunited. I doubt any of the Buffy fans will care about that….
I’ve had mixed feelings about these Buffy comics. While I love the idea of Whedon continuing the official story, since he’s no longer constrained by the budget provided by a minor TV network, he and the other writers have gone a bit overboard with the big sci-fi concepts. The comic has been at it’s best when it’s focused on the characters and the smaller scale stories. When they do trippy stuff like time-travel or alternate dimensions, it hasn’t been particularly well-explained and has been confusing at times. This volume has a lot of that kind of stuff, so I just didn’t enjoy it all that much. Even the return of Angel got wrapped up in a bunch of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that left me scratching my head and wondering what he hell just happened. Whatever happened to the old Buffy-fights-vampire-Buffy-stakes-vampire-while-dealing-with-her-responsibilities-and-fear stories?
Plus, the artwork seems a little on the cartoony side for what should be a more serious and scary story featuring vampires and demons.
Still nice to read the continuing adventures of Buffy and her friends, but I’d like it more if they’d return to the basics and use the ‘real world’ as a setting more than they have been....more
I would hate to have to pay Stark’s clothing and laundry bills because this guy can’t go ten minutes without getting his duds ripped to shreds or coveI would hate to have to pay Stark’s clothing and laundry bills because this guy can’t go ten minutes without getting his duds ripped to shreds or covered in the gore of various monsters and his own blood.
This series is making me a little nuts. In the first book, Sandman Slim, I thought the first half was a waste of a good idea and that the main character Stark came across as a whining impulsive punk who got regularly beaten like a rented mule rather than the super-tough anti-hero hitman from Hell he was supposed to be. Then the second half of the book ramped up the action and Stark finally seemed like the scary bad ass he’d been claiming to be.
I hoped that momentum would carry over into this book. But Kill the Dead started off badly for me. Once again, Stark was being an asshole just for the sake of being an asshole and he managed to get his ass kicked yet again and another leather jacket ruined in the first chapter.
However, it soon kicked into high gear and again seemed like Kadrey was gearing up for a big finish, but this time the book devolved into a confusing mess more concerned with setting up the next book than delivering a satisfying story here.
The plot picks up a few months after the events of Sandman Slim. Stark is in a bit of a funk. His roommate is a magically animated decapitated head with a taste for beer and burritos. (Don’t ask.) To make ends meet, he’s doing bounty hunter gigs on various demons and monsters for the Golden Vigil, a hybrid department of angels and Homeland Security.
Now a celebrity in L.A.’s supernatural underground due to his breakout from Hell, Stark is still on good terms with the devil himself. When Lucifer comes to Hollywood to supervise a bio-pic being done on him, he hires Stark to be his bodyguard. Fairly quickly, Stark is fighting off a team of kidnappers and hordes of zombies, but at least he’s met a beautiful Czechoslovakian porn star.
The action and overall storyline are good for most of the book and Kadrey delivers some funny lines regularly, but it’s also kind of confusing. I read Sandman Slim over a year ago , and there’s little recapping done to refresh the memory so there was more than once where I was scratching my head and wondering, “Who the hell is that person again? What’s a Jade? Wait, is she an angel?” Someone who hadn’t read the first book would be pretty much clueless.
There’s also still some severe logic gaps. Stark needs money, yet he has the ability to travel to any point on earth or several other universes. So why wouldn’t he just visit a bank vault or two? He certainly doesn’t have any moral objections to stealing since he’s constantly swiping sports car rather than using his traveling trick.
Much like the last book, I thought it was kind of fun and clever in spots, but leaned a little too heavily on the whole Stark-is-a-miserable-asshole schtick. I’m once again left hoping that the next one is an improvement, but I’m still interested enough to keep reading the series....more
John Constantine is in love. Isn’t that sweet? Uh….no. Anyone familiar with the real Constantine and not the pathetic abomination that Kenau Reeves inJohn Constantine is in love. Isn’t that sweet? Uh….no. Anyone familiar with the real Constantine and not the pathetic abomination that Kenau Reeves inflicted on us in the movie theaters would know that anytime the English magician gets close to someone, really bad things happen. Especially after Constantine gets dumped and decides that he needs to use a love potion on his now ex-girlfriend.
I had a problem with this one. Constantine has always been a cocky self-absorbed manipulator who has left a trail of human wreckage in his wake, but this is the first time that I remember him knowingly do something that’s just wrong and dangerous for a silly reason like getting jilted. And of course it ends in total disaster. Plus, there’s also a scene that indicates that John would just run out on his friend Chas and leave him to die as part of the same cause.
I’m OK with Constantine being a complete bastard, but he usually has a reason you can relate to. This time, I just found myself disgusted with him. There’s a bit of a cliffhanger and things are never what they seem in Constantine’s world so I’m hoping there’s some kind of explanation as to why a bad-ass English sorcerer would act like a teen-ager who didn’t get invited to the prom....more
So this is one of those books that I really wanted to love but to my great disappointment ended up being just OK. It’s got Albert Einstein, Charlie ChSo this is one of those books that I really wanted to love but to my great disappointment ended up being just OK. It’s got Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, time travel, ghosts, psychic links, astral projection, Israeli spies and a secret evil organization. So what’s not to love?
In its defense I’ll admit that I probably wasn’t in a good frame of mind for something like this. I’ve been distracted by a couple of things, and it’s that glorious time of year where for 10 days in the spring and fall I can go outside without either freezing to death or collapsing from heat exhaustion.
All of which is just to say that I had a really hard time sitting down and focusing on this and this is the kind of story that demands and rewards focus. Maybe if it’d been a bit more engaging I would have found the groove and got into it more, or maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. Probably a bit of both.
Anyhow, I did enjoy the whole idea of Albert Einstein’s secret discoveries being hunted by opposing sides that use a mix of the occult and weird science, but I would have liked more of that and less of the story of Frank Marrity and his daughter getting caught in the crossfire.
Unique with a lot of nifty ideas, but it just didn’t knock my socks off. ...more
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