The Infinite Wait and Other Stories (Julia Wertz)
When this blog started waaaaaay back in April 2011, Wertz's previous book Drinking at the Movies was the sixth review published. I only wish I'd started this blog before reading her first two books (the wonderfully named "Fart Party" volumes 1 and 2). Drinking at the Movies is a fairly straight narrative, and I think The Infinite Wait suffers slightly in comparison to it, both because some of the material is re-hashed, and because it's separated into three non-connected sections of Wertz's life. I enjoyed this book, but given its re-telling of some of the same parts of her life, I almost wonder if Wertz either needs to have more stuff happen to her before her next book, or start doing non-biographical work. In any case, I don't want to give the impression that this book is bad; it's merely got a few issues holding it back from greatness. It's also the best comic book I've read in 2013 (disclaimer: only comic book I have read in 2013).
Grade: B+
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
"Soul Hunter"
Soul Hunter (Aaron Dembski-Bowden)
There's a bunch of Space Marine legions that don't get much attention in W40K; The Ultramarines show up everywhere, but the likes of the Salamanders, Iron Warriors, and White Scars never get any ink. This book is about the Night Lords, one of these neglected groups, and it may be understandable why they've been ignored up until now - the concept behind them is Batman, if he went around murdering criminals to keep everybody in line. This is an interesting concept, but in the world of 40k where you can be an intolerant, murderous, paranoid bunch of religious fanatics and you're still as close as the setting comes to being the good guys, "killing criminals" isn't really that evil.
Luckily, they've been placed into the hands of an author who's already worked miracles with one chapter. The result isn't quite the masterpiece of The First Heretic, but it's quite good. The Night Lords are admirably fleshed out so that their underlying concept kind of makes sense. I only have two issues with this, and in fact these are my two issues with the book itself. One is that the Night Lord's leader, Konrad Curze, let himself be killed by an Imperial assassin; the book kind of lays some groundwork for why he let himself be killed, but never comes out and says his reason (or if it did, I didn't understand it). To be fair, there's an earlier novel about the Night Lords that probably covered this ground. The second issue is that the titular Soul Hunter of the novel's title has a long flashback towards the end of the book that explains his name and fleshes him out as a character, but coming where it does also drains a bit of the tension out of the climax.
Both of these are minor issues, though. The rest of the book is great, and the author is able to pull off one of the most difficult literary tricks out there - mixing humor and drama and pulling it off well. He's also able to repeat an effective technique from The First Heretic where you come to root for our anti-heroes even as they go around murdering innocent people and generally acting like, well, Chaos Space Marines.
So, to sum all that up: Book good; you should read.
Grade: A
There's a bunch of Space Marine legions that don't get much attention in W40K; The Ultramarines show up everywhere, but the likes of the Salamanders, Iron Warriors, and White Scars never get any ink. This book is about the Night Lords, one of these neglected groups, and it may be understandable why they've been ignored up until now - the concept behind them is Batman, if he went around murdering criminals to keep everybody in line. This is an interesting concept, but in the world of 40k where you can be an intolerant, murderous, paranoid bunch of religious fanatics and you're still as close as the setting comes to being the good guys, "killing criminals" isn't really that evil.
Luckily, they've been placed into the hands of an author who's already worked miracles with one chapter. The result isn't quite the masterpiece of The First Heretic, but it's quite good. The Night Lords are admirably fleshed out so that their underlying concept kind of makes sense. I only have two issues with this, and in fact these are my two issues with the book itself. One is that the Night Lord's leader, Konrad Curze, let himself be killed by an Imperial assassin; the book kind of lays some groundwork for why he let himself be killed, but never comes out and says his reason (or if it did, I didn't understand it). To be fair, there's an earlier novel about the Night Lords that probably covered this ground. The second issue is that the titular Soul Hunter of the novel's title has a long flashback towards the end of the book that explains his name and fleshes him out as a character, but coming where it does also drains a bit of the tension out of the climax.
Both of these are minor issues, though. The rest of the book is great, and the author is able to pull off one of the most difficult literary tricks out there - mixing humor and drama and pulling it off well. He's also able to repeat an effective technique from The First Heretic where you come to root for our anti-heroes even as they go around murdering innocent people and generally acting like, well, Chaos Space Marines.
So, to sum all that up: Book good; you should read.
Grade: A
Saturday, April 20, 2013
"A History of the Roman World"
A History of the Roman World: 753 to 146 BC (H.H. Scullard)
What do you say about a book that devotes as many pages to neolithic and pre-historic Italy as it does to Rome under its seven kings? Well, in my case, I say that I didn't finish it, and that I didn't like it very much, and that everything in the book I either knew already or had a hard time caring about. The consensus seems to be that this is an old but good book, whereas I just found it unreadable - not only because of the author's weird choice of what to cover, but also because it's devided up by theme instead of chronologically. Sometimes this works, but here it doesn't. I guess all you need to know was that I was already skimming within the first ten pages of how the old stone age turned into the bronze age. Skip.
Grade: D-
What do you say about a book that devotes as many pages to neolithic and pre-historic Italy as it does to Rome under its seven kings? Well, in my case, I say that I didn't finish it, and that I didn't like it very much, and that everything in the book I either knew already or had a hard time caring about. The consensus seems to be that this is an old but good book, whereas I just found it unreadable - not only because of the author's weird choice of what to cover, but also because it's devided up by theme instead of chronologically. Sometimes this works, but here it doesn't. I guess all you need to know was that I was already skimming within the first ten pages of how the old stone age turned into the bronze age. Skip.
Grade: D-
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Law of Superheroes
The Law of Superheroes
by James Daily and Ryan Davidson
Ever wondered if your favorite superhero might actually be breaking the law? Can the criminals Batman arrests actually be prosecuted? Just what citizenship rights does Superman have anyway? This is definitely the book for you. I found this book both a fascinating look into comics and law. We all tend to think certain things are obviously legal or permissible, but what does the law actually say? I highly recommend this book for people, like me, who spend their time wondering "Well, wait a minute...could they actually...?"
Grade: A
by James Daily and Ryan Davidson
Ever wondered if your favorite superhero might actually be breaking the law? Can the criminals Batman arrests actually be prosecuted? Just what citizenship rights does Superman have anyway? This is definitely the book for you. I found this book both a fascinating look into comics and law. We all tend to think certain things are obviously legal or permissible, but what does the law actually say? I highly recommend this book for people, like me, who spend their time wondering "Well, wait a minute...could they actually...?"
Grade: A
Monday, April 15, 2013
"Bizarre Books"
Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities (Russel Ash & Brian Lake)
At first flipping through this book, I was disappointed that it was mostly titles; that feeling wore off as I realized that 98% of the books in here sound pretty terrible (Proceedings of the Second International Potato Modeling Confrence, anybody?). Most of the book's humor comes from either incredibly boring sounding books (1587, a Year of No Significance), titles that were perfectly normal at the time but are now suggestive (Scouts in Bondage), and the just plain fucked up (Planet of the Knob Heads, of which the authors quote: "In about a week I had recovered from most of the effects of the knob operation"). The last part of the book is both the most juvenile and my favorite, being a list of weird authors names (including W. Anker, Twat Booth and of course Ludwig von Baldass). There's really something here for everything is what I'm saying, and this is a great little bathroom book that's very difficult to put down.
Grade: A
At first flipping through this book, I was disappointed that it was mostly titles; that feeling wore off as I realized that 98% of the books in here sound pretty terrible (Proceedings of the Second International Potato Modeling Confrence, anybody?). Most of the book's humor comes from either incredibly boring sounding books (1587, a Year of No Significance), titles that were perfectly normal at the time but are now suggestive (Scouts in Bondage), and the just plain fucked up (Planet of the Knob Heads, of which the authors quote: "In about a week I had recovered from most of the effects of the knob operation"). The last part of the book is both the most juvenile and my favorite, being a list of weird authors names (including W. Anker, Twat Booth and of course Ludwig von Baldass). There's really something here for everything is what I'm saying, and this is a great little bathroom book that's very difficult to put down.
Grade: A
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
"Iron Curtain"
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944 - 1956 (Anne Applebaum)
I've seen this book described as "formidable", and I think that's quite apt. This is not just because of the size, although it does weigh in at 470 big face-crushing pages - (without biblography!), but also because of the subject matter. Split up into two sections ("False Dawn" from the end of World War II to about 1948 and "High Stalinism" from then until 1956), you can probably guess what it's about. I normally prefer straight narrative history, but Applebaum's approach here is to split the changing society up into themes, which are explored by looking primarily at the examples of East Germany, Poland, and Hungary. It's a testament to Applebaum's writing that working under the dual handicaps of a style I don't care for and the exceedingly grim material she has produced a very readable book. I know that sounds like faint praise, but it's no easy task making a book about, well, the crushing of Eastern Europe into both an informative and enjoyable reading experience. That being said, even Applebaum can only do so much to make an entire book about this kind of thing from being too depressing, and I recommend taking occasional breaks to peruse something with a slightly lighter tone.
Grade: A
I've seen this book described as "formidable", and I think that's quite apt. This is not just because of the size, although it does weigh in at 470 big face-crushing pages - (without biblography!), but also because of the subject matter. Split up into two sections ("False Dawn" from the end of World War II to about 1948 and "High Stalinism" from then until 1956), you can probably guess what it's about. I normally prefer straight narrative history, but Applebaum's approach here is to split the changing society up into themes, which are explored by looking primarily at the examples of East Germany, Poland, and Hungary. It's a testament to Applebaum's writing that working under the dual handicaps of a style I don't care for and the exceedingly grim material she has produced a very readable book. I know that sounds like faint praise, but it's no easy task making a book about, well, the crushing of Eastern Europe into both an informative and enjoyable reading experience. That being said, even Applebaum can only do so much to make an entire book about this kind of thing from being too depressing, and I recommend taking occasional breaks to peruse something with a slightly lighter tone.
Grade: A
Friday, April 5, 2013
"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold"
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John le Carre)
The top Amazon user review for this book starts by asking what is to be said about it; I don't know that I have much to say myself, partly because the book is quite short and partly because it's difficult to get in depth at all without spoiling the book's plot. (Cue 150 more words of book review)
What I can say is that for me the book doesn't live up to its reputation as a masterpiece. I think I put this down to a case of Seinfeld is Unfunny - I'm sure le Carre's extremely realistic, drab setting was a revelation when this book was first released to a public fed on Bond novels. Reading it now, though, after this style has become extremely popular, what's left is a well-written but not particularly engaging little story that didn't really make much of an impact on me. I also was not a fan of the ending, which makes perfect sense given what we'd seen of the characters up until that point, but still came off to me as a bit heavy-handed (I half expected the last sentance to be "It's GRIM, get it??? See what I did there??") Given how short the book is, it's pretty easy to recommend, but I wouldn't pick it up expecting the masterpiece its reputation suggests.
Grade: B+
The top Amazon user review for this book starts by asking what is to be said about it; I don't know that I have much to say myself, partly because the book is quite short and partly because it's difficult to get in depth at all without spoiling the book's plot. (Cue 150 more words of book review)
What I can say is that for me the book doesn't live up to its reputation as a masterpiece. I think I put this down to a case of Seinfeld is Unfunny - I'm sure le Carre's extremely realistic, drab setting was a revelation when this book was first released to a public fed on Bond novels. Reading it now, though, after this style has become extremely popular, what's left is a well-written but not particularly engaging little story that didn't really make much of an impact on me. I also was not a fan of the ending, which makes perfect sense given what we'd seen of the characters up until that point, but still came off to me as a bit heavy-handed (I half expected the last sentance to be "It's GRIM, get it??? See what I did there??") Given how short the book is, it's pretty easy to recommend, but I wouldn't pick it up expecting the masterpiece its reputation suggests.
Grade: B+
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
"At Winter's End"
At Winter's End (Robert Silverberg)
I have a rule that books I read have 50 pages to give me a reason to keep reading; by the time I hit page 20 on this book with nothing interesting happening I knew I wasn't going to finish it, and the next 30 pages just draaaagggggeddddddd. The book's premise is that the Earth was devistated by falling meteors 700,000 years ago, and as it opens, one of the surviving tribes of humans prepares to leave its cocoon. I say "prepares" because this is one of the most slow, boring, ponderous books I've ever read. Maybe Silverberg wants us to really feel that 700,000 years as he meanders around, stopping in to visit with various groups of charecters as nothing happens to them. It's a bad sign when a book you're reading is less interesting than watching your wife play Skyrim, and this book's pacing is so glacial that she asked me to stop reading it to her, preferring to just listen to the grunts and groans of her shooting arrows at bandits. Do not read this book.
Grade: F
I have a rule that books I read have 50 pages to give me a reason to keep reading; by the time I hit page 20 on this book with nothing interesting happening I knew I wasn't going to finish it, and the next 30 pages just draaaagggggeddddddd. The book's premise is that the Earth was devistated by falling meteors 700,000 years ago, and as it opens, one of the surviving tribes of humans prepares to leave its cocoon. I say "prepares" because this is one of the most slow, boring, ponderous books I've ever read. Maybe Silverberg wants us to really feel that 700,000 years as he meanders around, stopping in to visit with various groups of charecters as nothing happens to them. It's a bad sign when a book you're reading is less interesting than watching your wife play Skyrim, and this book's pacing is so glacial that she asked me to stop reading it to her, preferring to just listen to the grunts and groans of her shooting arrows at bandits. Do not read this book.
Grade: F
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