Ryan
There were parts of this that I loved, and parts that I hated. It's interesting to read it in hindsight, as there are a lot of the ideas here in their embryonic form that later become PKD's hallmarks - the questions of identity, sanity, the face of god, and drug use that he later became known for are all here, but in such a way that seemed like he was still trying to figure out exactly what his thoughts on those topics were. I'd say this is a necessary read for people who are fans of PKD's work, but for those that are interest in just dabbling in his work, there are other books that would serve better.
This was a very refreshing take on the “risen dead” concept. Not a zombie story, not even a horror one really, just a look at what the social impacts would be if the dead started being undead.
Revival is a fairly slowly-paced series, and that works really well given the rural setting. It feels like a Vertigo series, as well, with this volume mostly setting up the characters and the overarching plot, which means things should really start to get interesting in the next volume.
There were a lot of individual parts here that I really liked - Professor Khan, obviously, but also newer parts of the world like the adventuring luchador, the Blue Hornet, and the Improbability Bow. It felt like they never really gelled together well on a thematic level, though. That's not something that's the fault of author Harry Connelly, either; he tells the story well enough, and the technical aspects of it are fine. Just not really my cuppa in the gestalt.
Despite the description and the title, this isn't a graphic novel about War of the Worlds. That radio drama broadcast is a Macguffin that lurks in the background, but this is really more about the monsters within the human heart - paranoia, distrust, and hatred. The creators really want to focus on those things, and how stressful situations can reveal those monsters, but pairing it with that legendary broadcast creates a cool context for fans of OTR drama.
Another thing I really liked about this was the art - it's done in a really hasty, scratchy style that would be bothersome elsewhere, but here it fits the story perfectly.
I was excited to hear Valiant comics was going to begin publishing again; not only because I was a fan of a lot of the original series, but also because I think that it's good for the comics industry to have people other than the “big two” creating within the superhero genre. So I was predisposed to liking this series, but I wasn't expecting how much I would like it.
Robert Venditti and Cary Nord tell a simplified version of X-O's origin - aliens kidnap a group of Visigoth warriors to work as slaves, and one of them steals an advanced suit of armor and escapes in it, unaware that relativistic speeds and space travel means he returns to an Earth 1600 years apart from the one he left. It's a story that contains a lot of standard pulp/superhero tropes, but it doesn't really feel like a superhero story at all; rather, it's a sci-fi story that just happens to be set in a larger world that contains people with superheroic abilities, if that makes any sense.
There's still some superhero-type content here; I mean, when Aric begins to fight the Vine aliens that have infiltrated MI-5, they send their best ninja (~!) after him in response. It's a minor element, and it keeps the story from getting too “grim and gritty”. I'm looking forward to seeing what Aric does next.
I'll admit that I was starting to lose interest in Fables. It seemed like in leaving Fabletown, the series had gotten away from what made it interesting in the first place, and I felt like focusing on Snow and Bigby's kids was going to make for uninteresting stories.
This brought me right back into the fold despite being both those things. It reminded me a lot of not only the best that Fables has had to offer, but of other classic Vertigo stories as well (stuff like Gaiman's Sandman and Delano's Animal Man). Cubs In Toyland is dark, it's daring, and it's a damn good read.
This was an exciting, engaging thriller looking at terrorism and war, privacy and security. I was very light on character development, to the point where I was confusing characters at times, but well-paced and tightly-plotted around an intriguing premise. The art was fantastic, as well - lots of experimentation with colour and different art styles, but always in service of telling the story rather than experimentation for its own sake.
Fairest is a spin-off of Willingham's excellent Fables series that takes us away from Fabletown and looks at what's going on in the rest of the Fables' universe while the main narrative drags on.
And for the most part it's a fun read, with Ali Baba finding Briar Rose and awakening her with love's true kiss - and awakening the Adversary's lieutenant, the Snow Queen, that had been trapped under Rose's spell. The lighter pace of the story was enjoyable as a one-off, but I hope future volumes have a bit more meat on them.
It's almost a truism of Vertigo books, by this point, that the first collection of stories is the series finding its feet, and volume 2 is where things really take off. That's definitely the case with Fairest - Lauren Beukes takes over from Willingham, and treats us to a story of Japanese mythology, and of Rapunzel's past catching up with her. I'm not an expert on the mythology of Japan, so there were times I was running to Wikipedia, but that was only for the in-depth stuff - the basics of the story all would have been understandable with zero knowledge of Japan (although knowledge of the mythos of Fables would be helpful). Beukes tells a story that's scary, funny, sexy, and thrilling - she understands the core of what makes Fables enjoyable and stuffs it all into her scripts.
I had a feeling I was going to like this one, based on several fundamental details: airships, pirates, double-crosses. golems, and magically-infused steampunk-like technology. Then there's the Firefly comparison - the crew is just similar enough to the crew of the Serenity to warm your heart if you're a fan of that, but still different enough that they don't feel redundant.
It's been said that a defining aspect of Canadian literature is the realization, on a certain level, that your environment is trying to kill you. This is true in Heart of Valor in a way it usually isn't meant - Torin Kerr's environment, a training planet called Crucible, has literally turned on her and her Marine recruits.
This book felt like it was trying to synthesize the first two in the series - it felt a lot like the first book, with Torin hopelessly outmanned and outgunned, with only her Marine training and stubbornness keeping her alive, while also advancing the plot surrounding Big Yellow introduced in book two. As such it was kind of the best of both worlds.
“What if everything you knew was a lie?” is a bit of a storytelling cliche, but it's one that Huff uses to great effect here. She did a great job of establishing an internally coherent world, full of interesting characters, and then she upends the apple cart to see how they'd react. Very interested to see where she goe next with this.
This isn't the first time that Moore's tapped into the idea that hippies were the real superheroes of the 1960s, guarding the astral plane with their far-out sexmagic and stimulant choices, and I always enjoy when he goes to that well. This part of Century is sexy, it's fun, and it ends on an ominous cliffhanger that makes me excited to see where the story ends up.
A great heist story is like a magic trick - all the elements are in front of you, and it's seeing them put together in a way that you weren't expecting that makes the trick great. Thief of Thieves takes a lot of classic heist elements and weaves them together in a story that's thrilling, sexy, and intriguing. Very highly recommended for fans of the genre.
This felt oddly like reading a prequel, even though it was the beginning of the actual story. But throughout it, I couldn't escape this feeling that Marks was trying to set up the story that she actually wanted to tell, and she needed to get the characters and plot into the state that they needed to be. Thankfully, those characters all seem really interesting and well-developed, and it's left me hopeful that the next book will be even better.
One of the books in the very short list of “titles that bored me utterly for the first hundred pages, but became favourites by the end”. The cast and the world building are as fully realized as you would expect from Bujold, and there is lots of political and social intrigue that, once it get its hooks in you, becomes absolutely fascinating.
This was an absolutely delightful read - Inspector Singh is a great character. Friendly and good-natured, while also being cynical, lethargic, and fond of his indulgences, he reminded me more of Doctor Adoulla from Throne of the Crescent Moon than he did of other police officers/PIs. I'm a big fan of the good doctor, so it was interesting and fun to see that character archetype show up in a completely different setting.
Flint's presentation of India, and how the different characters interpret/react to the setting was intriguing as well. I've never been, but based on what my Indian friends and colleagues have told me about the country, it seems to be an accurate presentation (for good and for ill).
The one thing that keeps this from being a 5-star rating for me is the ending. Which wasn't bad, but as someone who doesn't read a lot of crime/mystery novels, I can think of two other books that I've read in the past couple of years that had the same “shocking twist” ending. It's a little less exciting when you see that ending coming a mile away.
Enjoyed this one just as much as I did the last. It had a lot of the same humour, lighthearted storytelling, and cozy action that the last one did, but the case Deuce was expected to solve was completely different, so it felt fresh. His home situation was different, too; he's still a stay-at-home dad, but this time his wife is days away from giving birth to another child, which put an interesting time pressure on the case.
I was somewhat of two minds with this. On one hand, it's another book with a long, drawn-out flashback. BUT, this one was more integrated to the main storyline, and it featured Father Callahan, protagonist of one of my favourite King novels.
Susannah continues to get short shrift in this one, two, with the rest of the ka-tet holding back important information from her and leaving her out of some important councils. BUT, they admit this is a stupid idea, and there are some other interesting, active female characters throughout the book (the Sisters of Oriza).
Mostly, the good outweighed the bad - lots of “easter egg” type stuff about Breakers, and Low Men, which make me hopeful that Ted Brautigan and Bobby Garfield are going to show up in the future, and lots of interesting stuff about the nature of the Tower.
The ending bothered me, though. I know that King's been weaving modern myths and stories into the series (not just his own), but the ones that he chooses here felt ... silly. Not that they're not good stories in their own right, but because they're still so new and modern, it felt cheesy to have them included.
People had been telling me for months that this was a great read, but I still wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I've always been a Hawkeye fan, but a lot of authors don't really seem to get the core of the character. Fraction does, presenting the former carnie and sometimes Avenger as a regular guy who just happens to be good with a bow, and knows that he has to constantly be convincing others that he deserves a shot alongside people like Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk.
One of the things that surprised me about this book was how much it felt like classic Marvel. The street-level focus, the humour, and the friendly banter between the characters really reminds me of old Stan-and-Jack era Marvel. At the same time, though, it doesn't feel old-fashioned at all- issue 3, especially, with Clint and Kate battling in a Dodge Challenger against a horde of Austin Mini-driving gangsters - had a great 80s action vibe to it, and “The Tape” wouldn't feel out of place as an episode of the new SHIELD TV series.
I disliked the first half of this book for reasons entirely beyond its control.
So, this book came out in 2009. A few weeks ago, in 2013, the company that makes Magic put a new commercial online featuring Chandra, the main character from this story. In that commercial, Chandra was played by one Ms. Felicia Day, playing her in the manner of a typical Felicia Day-type character (think of her slayer on Buffy, her hacker on Supernatural, or Codex from the Guild for reference here). Total onscreen time for Felicia Chandra: about 10 seconds.
Book Chandra is nothing like a Felicia Day character, and I have irrationally chosen to hold that against her. It doesn't help her that she's not much of any kind of character, and we're not given much reason to identify with her beyond “Hey, here's that character from those cards from that game you like.”
Things pick up in the second half, when Gideon shows up, but overall the story remains a bit underwhelming.