The Union of Superlative Heroes/The Order of Nefarious Villains
by Chet Phillips (Etsy Store: http://www.etsy.com/listing/78536654/superlative-heroes-and-nefarious)
I bought this as part of an April's Army drive on Regretsy.com. I thought a book would be my best bet as I'm not a jewelry person at all--I don't even wear my wedding ring and I'm freaking crazy about N.Ham!
Chet Phillips is a great artist and writer. The book is short, but very well put together with DC and Marvel characters reimagined into a steampunk universe (Stupendous Miss instead of Super Girl, for example). My only complaint is that I want more short stories! My favorite was Marquis Le Bat's letter to Gentelman Mint explaining how to bypass the many traps in order to visit his lair.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
"World's Fair"
World's Fair: A Novel (E.L. Doctrow)
After throwing City of God spitefully into the donation pile, I realized I have another Doctrow novel on one of my to-read shelves. And it's..... okay? Unlike City of God, this time we only have two narrators, and you can actually, you know, tell what's happening. Except that what's happening isn't really that interesting. A kid is born, and he grows up (the book ends when he's just about in the fifth grade). And.... that's it. It's not really that gripping or interesting, unless you really NEED to read, for example, three pages about the protagonist buying and eating a baked potato. I liked the parts written by the main character's mother, which are written in second person, but they're just trimming on the main, bland course. Maybe I'm missing something; People apparently love this novel, while I basically dozed off reading it. Shucks.
Grade: D+
After throwing City of God spitefully into the donation pile, I realized I have another Doctrow novel on one of my to-read shelves. And it's..... okay? Unlike City of God, this time we only have two narrators, and you can actually, you know, tell what's happening. Except that what's happening isn't really that interesting. A kid is born, and he grows up (the book ends when he's just about in the fifth grade). And.... that's it. It's not really that gripping or interesting, unless you really NEED to read, for example, three pages about the protagonist buying and eating a baked potato. I liked the parts written by the main character's mother, which are written in second person, but they're just trimming on the main, bland course. Maybe I'm missing something; People apparently love this novel, while I basically dozed off reading it. Shucks.
Grade: D+
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
"City of God"
City of God (E.L. Doctrow)
This may be one of the most unreadable books I've ever attempted; I want to go back and bump "V." up a full letter grade after reading this disaster (can you bump a grade of "Weird" up?). The back of this book says that "With brilliant and audacious strokes, the author... creates a breathtaking collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thought, all centered on the idea of the modern reality of God". The reality is that what you have here is a big dumb mess of non-sequitur nonsense, with the author jumping between unconnected charecters, all of whom write in the first person, with no identification as to who's who, ruminating on what they had for dinner and walking around New York while nothing happens. The poison icing on this sewage cake is that you also have mixed in high school philosphy level musings about the Big Bang, and what if, like, God is like, inside of each one of us, man?
I usually try to get at least 50 pages into a book, but I only managed to endure 20 pages of this crap and regretted every single one. What the fuck.
Grade: F-
This may be one of the most unreadable books I've ever attempted; I want to go back and bump "V." up a full letter grade after reading this disaster (can you bump a grade of "Weird" up?). The back of this book says that "With brilliant and audacious strokes, the author... creates a breathtaking collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thought, all centered on the idea of the modern reality of God". The reality is that what you have here is a big dumb mess of non-sequitur nonsense, with the author jumping between unconnected charecters, all of whom write in the first person, with no identification as to who's who, ruminating on what they had for dinner and walking around New York while nothing happens. The poison icing on this sewage cake is that you also have mixed in high school philosphy level musings about the Big Bang, and what if, like, God is like, inside of each one of us, man?
I usually try to get at least 50 pages into a book, but I only managed to endure 20 pages of this crap and regretted every single one. What the fuck.
Grade: F-
Thursday, September 20, 2012
"Old Man's War"
Old Man's War (John Scalzi)
I guess I'm kind of an impatient reader, because when I start a new book, I want to be interested and gripped right away, and if I'm not interested by page 50, I usually put the book down. The kind of opening I appreciate is one that grabs you immediately, such at this book, which starts with "I did two things on my 75th birthday. First I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army." Boom, I want to see what happens right from the first three sentences. The book held my interest from there, as our hero signs up, finds out why the army is recruiting senior citizens, and is catapulted out into space where, uh, I can't think of a way to finish this sentence without either giving away too much of what happens to our hero or sounding like the back of a book promising an action-packed rollercoaster ride!!1. Let's just say I liked the book a lot and slap on a well deserved
Grade: A
I guess I'm kind of an impatient reader, because when I start a new book, I want to be interested and gripped right away, and if I'm not interested by page 50, I usually put the book down. The kind of opening I appreciate is one that grabs you immediately, such at this book, which starts with "I did two things on my 75th birthday. First I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army." Boom, I want to see what happens right from the first three sentences. The book held my interest from there, as our hero signs up, finds out why the army is recruiting senior citizens, and is catapulted out into space where, uh, I can't think of a way to finish this sentence without either giving away too much of what happens to our hero or sounding like the back of a book promising an action-packed rollercoaster ride!!1. Let's just say I liked the book a lot and slap on a well deserved
Grade: A
Saturday, September 15, 2012
"V."
V. (Thomas Pynchon)
This is a tough book to review. This isn't just a novel, it's Literature, and Pynchon isn't interested in telling an interesting story so much as showing off how well he can write. And he can write very well - to be fair, although nothing much happens in this book, nothing much does happen interestingly, which was enough to keep me happy for a while. After enough pages, though, I just got tired of our heroes wandering around sleeping on the subway and trying to score and found myself getting bored. It never really gets bad, but when the novelty wears off, there just isn't enough to hold my interest, no matter how good a writer Pynchon is.
Grade: Weird
This is a tough book to review. This isn't just a novel, it's Literature, and Pynchon isn't interested in telling an interesting story so much as showing off how well he can write. And he can write very well - to be fair, although nothing much happens in this book, nothing much does happen interestingly, which was enough to keep me happy for a while. After enough pages, though, I just got tired of our heroes wandering around sleeping on the subway and trying to score and found myself getting bored. It never really gets bad, but when the novelty wears off, there just isn't enough to hold my interest, no matter how good a writer Pynchon is.
Grade: Weird
Monday, September 10, 2012
"The Glorious Cause" (Oxford History of the United States)
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763 - 1789 (Robert Middlekauff)
I'm kind of running out of things to say about huge, nerdy history books that I really enjoyed. So here's another huge, nerdy history book I really enjoyed, everyone. Even though the bulk of the book by necessity is about the Revolution, Middlekauff wisely, I think, stays away from writing too much military history, giving sketches of the important battles and using the war as a framework to hang investigations of the social, political, and everyday lives of Americans on. This sets the book nicely apart from some of the other dozens of military histories of the Revolution I've read. Overall, I did find myself skipping pages a few times, but this is a great book, even for someone who's already well-versed in the subject.
Grade: A
I'm kind of running out of things to say about huge, nerdy history books that I really enjoyed. So here's another huge, nerdy history book I really enjoyed, everyone. Even though the bulk of the book by necessity is about the Revolution, Middlekauff wisely, I think, stays away from writing too much military history, giving sketches of the important battles and using the war as a framework to hang investigations of the social, political, and everyday lives of Americans on. This sets the book nicely apart from some of the other dozens of military histories of the Revolution I've read. Overall, I did find myself skipping pages a few times, but this is a great book, even for someone who's already well-versed in the subject.
Grade: A
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
"Citizen of the Galaxy"
Citizen of the Galaxy (Robert Heinlein)
This is not Heinlein's best work. I'm not sure if this novel was published in serials, but it seems plausible, given the fact that it reads more as four connected short stories with the same hero. Unfortunately, only the first one of these is very good. The middle two see Heinlein at his worst, laying out complex new human social structures and (I imagine) perspiring heavily while cranking out the pages about trading nubile young space girls between ships. The last fourth picks up a little bit, but it eventually devolves into not terribly interesting legal and economic wrangling, and the book doesn't so much end as peter out.
Still, for all I complained, it's not a bad book, it's just middle of the road. Heinlein's done far better than this, and I'd recommend passing this one over unless you really need to have everything he's written.
Grade: C
This is not Heinlein's best work. I'm not sure if this novel was published in serials, but it seems plausible, given the fact that it reads more as four connected short stories with the same hero. Unfortunately, only the first one of these is very good. The middle two see Heinlein at his worst, laying out complex new human social structures and (I imagine) perspiring heavily while cranking out the pages about trading nubile young space girls between ships. The last fourth picks up a little bit, but it eventually devolves into not terribly interesting legal and economic wrangling, and the book doesn't so much end as peter out.
Still, for all I complained, it's not a bad book, it's just middle of the road. Heinlein's done far better than this, and I'd recommend passing this one over unless you really need to have everything he's written.
Grade: C
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)