Books I read January 2011

Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan-The Strain

Being a huge fan of Del Toro's cinema I knew it would simply be a matter of time before I got around to reading this. First and foremost you can absolutely feel the cinematic quality to this book, and while flawed, I did ultimately enjoy it on a pulpy level.

The authors do a fine job of building tension early on, and the characters are mostly appealing, if somewhat cliched.

For me, the biggest problem here is that the climax felt rushed. While the book was moving along at a nice clip, it was as though the authors realized that they needed a big scene all of a sudden to wrap it up and justify the succeeding volumes. If fast-paced, pulpy writing appeals to you, then this will also.

James Fenimore Cooper-The Pioneers
I finally pulled this volume off my unread shelf, delved into the first novel and was rewarded with a richly textured, beautifully painted portrait of life in the wilds of upstate New York near the end of the 18th Century.

The Pioneers is the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking novels and much of what is written about the burgeoning town that serves as the setting of the novel, was culled from Cooper's own reminiscences of his father and the founding of Cooperstown, New York.

The novel beautifully juxtaposes the lives and philosophies of the white settlers and the natives, who were quickly being crowded out. Cooper never judges either perspective, and explores, much earlier in history that I had thought extant, ideas of conservationism and proper use of nature.

A beautiful novel, and one that has me salivating for the remaining Leatherstocking tales.

Graham Joyce-The Facts of Life
Graham Joyce is one of my favorite contemporary novelists, but the multiple-award winner seems little known here in the U.S. This is the 7th novel of his that I have read and they are all well worth the time and effort.

The Facts of Life tells the magical tale of the Vine family, the mother, her seven daughters and their spouses, and her youngest daughter's newborn, illegitimate son Frank, and is set during the hellish, blitzkrieg raids over England during WWII.

Joyce writes lovingly of the family's personal trials and tribulations and, as he does so deftly in most of his books, sprinkles it with just the right amount of the supernatural. Heartily recommended.

Kenneth Fearing-The Big Clock
Written in 1944, The Big Clock is a swiftly-paced noir set in the publishing world. While it lacks the swagger of Hammett or Chandler, the grit of David Goodis, or the psychological depth of JIm Thompson, The Big Clock strings you along its not too many pages and drops you off unruffled, but entertained.

Kirill Bulychev-Gusliar Wonders
I have read quite a bit of Soviet science fiction, and after the Strugatskys, Kirill Bulychev is probably the best of the bunch. This collection of short stories, half of which are loosely connected through their locale and central character, is full of insight, comic touches, clever circumstances, and assured writing. If you have exhausted the works of Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, which I nearly have, give Bulychev a try.

Robert Kirkman-Invincible Volume 5-The Facts of Life
Invincible is off to college, falling in love, battling supervillians, foiling plots, and ultimately finding time for his mom. Good stuff.

Books I Read December 2010

Robert Kirkman-The Walking Dead Volume 13 Too Far Gone

Kirkman keeps the tension high as the survivors begin to assimilate and splinter within their new community. These can't come fast enough.

Mac Carter-The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft Vol. 1
Quirky, but unsatisfying comic about H.P.Lovecraft and the fictional origins of some of his stories. I'm a huge Lovecraft fan, and that might be a detractor here as it is hard to swallow Lovecraft as the individual portrayed within. I'll give Vol. 2 a shot and reappraise.

Neil Gaiman-The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman is a supremely talented storyteller. Combine that with his obvious erudition and you get some damn fine books. The Graveyard Book, geared for younger readers, is a clever and fun read throughout.

Edward Anderson-Thieves Like Us
Early noir novel is good, simple storytelling that, in many ways, is similar to Bonnie and Clyde. I really enjoyed the characters speech, cadence, and dialect. This was filmed as They Live By Night is 1948, and again by Robert Altman in 1974.

Boris and Arkady Strugatsky-Hard To Be A God
This Strugatsky novel is set on a planet that has not yet advanced beyond a phase similar to our Middle Ages. Envoys from Earth have become assimilated to observe, but not interact. Though they are sickened by the barbaric society they observe, they are forbidden from intervening, hence the title. The novel's central ideas explore how the progress of science and civilization is often stymied by religious and magisterial oppression.

Dan Simmons-Ilium
I've read a lot of Dan Simmons and this was really one of my favorite novels by him. A seriously epic space opera that is concluded in an even longer sequel entitled Olympos. I'm not even going to attempt a plot synopsis here, but suffice it to say that if big scope, epic sci-fi is your thing, you'll probably like this.

Books I Read November 2010-Late

Horace McCoy-They Shoot Horses Don't They?

McCoy's murder tale of a young couple and the dance marathon they entered doesn't really justify even the short length of the novel. This story could easily have been told in far fewer pages. The dance marathon routines become tedious, and I found it hard to believe the male protagonist found it necessary to "put her down."

Robert Kirkman-Invincible Vol. 3 & 4

The tone of this superhero series continues to become grimmer and grimmer after a somewhat light-hearted beginning. I like it.

Philip K. Dick-Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I tried to read this when I was 13 after sneaking in to see Blade Runner, but couldn't do it. It only took me 29 years to finally get back around to it. Dick's novel is quite different from the film, as to be expected, but no less successful. The thing I appreciated most about this book is that it helped me understand the movie better. This is actually one of Dick's better novels, but it is pretty straight-forward and doesn't contain the mind-fuckery he likes to play with in his greatest works.

Wilkie Collins-The Woman in White
The Woman in White was a far better read than The Moonstone, which I read last month. The characters were more interesting and far less annoying and the suspense was sustained to a far greater degree. I have more of Collins novels and will be checking them out sooner or later.

Ted McKeever Library Book 3-Metropol
Image comics has collected some of McKeever early creator-owned series and republished them in handsome hardcovers. I read all of these series in the 90's, but it's cool to have them all bound in a single volume and the stories are well worth a second read. This apocalyptic tale of battling angels and demons is pure McKeever; distinctive art, good storyline, and engaging characters. Indie comics don't get better.

Stephen King-Full Dark, No Stars
It has been awhile since King has really hooked me, but these four stories all succeed. These stories are lean and mean and show that King, when working within a limited palate, can still bring it.

Brian K. Vaughn-Y The Last Man Deluxe Hardcover 4

Volume 4 of 5 starts to bring many of the storylines together. Still engaging, fun stuff.

Books I read October 2010

Boris and Arkady Strugatsky-Space Apprentice

This month started off with an early novel of the Strugatsky's. Written before the brothers began to write more social science fiction, Space Apprentice applauds Soviet ideals of work and how work fulfills the individual and helps center the individual into his or her place in society. Yet is there a tongue to be found within a cheek here? Hard to say. This novel is far more straight-forward than later works, yet still contains the warmth and humanity also found in later, and far more satirical and subversive works. A success? Definitely.

Wilkie Collins-The Moonstone
The Moonstone, claimed by many to be the first mystery novel, is as much a novel of manners, as evidenced by its foremost narrator, as it is a mystery novel. Collins book is told from around five or six different perspectives, but the one that dominates the narrative, that of the old servant Betteridge, whose whole life philosophy can be found between the pages of Robinson Crusoe, is so strictly observant of place and propriety that the story sometimes suffers. I'm a huge fan of fiction from the 19th Century, but Collins pedantic tone is sometimes quite irritating, particularly through Betteridge's mouth. The detection is also very much founded on assumption instead of facts. For all that, I did quite enjoy this book, my first by Collins, and am looking forward to The Woman in White in November.

Robert Kirkman-The Walking Dead Volume 12 Life Among Them
The survivors find themselves being incorporated into a seemingly perfect community on the outskirts of D.C. This volume keeps you waiting for what is wrong in this community, but it never comes, in fact, at the end it seems as if our heroes might be on the verge of spoiling something good themselves. I am really looking forward to 13.

As a side note, the premiere of the TV series last night was a fun and faithful adaption of the series first couple issues.

Robert Kirkman-The Astounding Wolf-Man Volume 1
Well I've been walking with the dead for a couple years now, and I started Invincible a couple months ago, so when I found this at a used book store I jumped all over it. Kirkman seems to be on a roll these days and who am I to say stop already. The Wolf-Man seems another success, and I am seeking out Vol. 2.

Eric Powell-The Goon Volume 6 Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker
I love Powell's The Goon, but had left off reading it for reasons I can't exactly explain, so when I found this, in a nice used hardcover edition I grabbed it. Powell gives some backstory to The Goon character in this volume along with the usual monsters, dames, grifters, and gangsters that usually fill these pages. Why did I ever stop?

William Gibson- Spook Country
What I really liked about Gibson's Spook Country was the quick-hit, snap shift from one character's perspective to the next. Gibson never lingers long with one character and this plays well, specifically when tension mounts, as when a few of his, at first, disparate threads begin to converge on the streets of New York. Gibson spins a simple, yet seemingly complex yarn of espionage and cultural exploration that tantalizes with the questions it asks, but has difficulty in ultimately achieving the heights it aspires to. But for me its always been about the trip, not the destination.

Books I read June 2010

Alastair Reynolds-Thousandth Night/Minla's Flowers

Subterranean Press released these two novellas back-to-back in the fashion of the old Ace double novels. Finish one, flip it over, and start the next. In my humble estimation, Reynolds is the best sci-fi writer going today, albeit I don't read

a ton of sci-fi. In these two stories Reynolds is in solid from. Thousandth Night is the genesis of Reynolds' novel House of Suns. In Minla's Flowers Reynolds shows mankind, even under the threat of annihilation, unable to work together to

resolve our issues. Good stuff.

Jonathan Lethem-The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye

This is the first book I have read by Lethem, and I after finishing this collection of short stories I think I would like to try one of his novels. These stories were strange and insightful, not quite gripping, but very entertaining nonetheless.

Joe Gores-Spade & Archer The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

My mom knows I love vintage crime novels, so when my wife and I were going out of town, and she came over to get her grandsons, she gave me this book to read on the trip. I was dubious at first. I can be snobbish about books, film, and music (my friends all know this) and this 'contemporary' crime novel didn't really fit into my idea of the classic crime oeuvre. But, being the dutiful son, and not wanting to seem unappreciative, I read the damn thing. It was pretty good after all. I'm not going to go out and get any more Gores novels, but the overall effect of this book was a positive one.

Various-The SFWA European Hall of Fame

This collection of sci-fi short stories features 16 stories from across the European continent. I was not familiar with a single contributor to this book, but it was a fantastic read. I really enjoy short story collections and this was as eclectic and varied, yet strong in quality, as they come. Not one of these stories was a bomb and all of them were quite entertaining. I have my eyes open for a number of these writers now, and hope I can stumble across some other volumes of their work.

Alexandre Dumas-Georges

If you've read these posts before, then you know I love Dumas. When I saw that Modern Library was releasing this I was very excited. I finally got a copy and was not disappointed. If you've never read Dumas this novel of pride and racial inequality is probably not the place to start, but for the well-read lover it is like sweet music. I guess you can tell I enjoyed it.

Stephen King-Blockade Billy

It is hard giving up something that has been with you through thick and thin. I have been reading Stephen King since middle school, trust me, a long time ago, and even though I haven't really loved a novel of his since, hmmmmm, hold on, let me think...since I don't know when, I still read everything he publishes. I don't buy them anymore, but get them from the library, I've learned that much. Blockade Billy is a short somewhat grisly story about baseball. There is also a second story included called Morality, a...correct! moral fable. Again King can still keep my interest, he was pushing it though with Under The Dome, but just.

Stanislaw Lem-The Futurological Congress

In this slim volume Lem imagines a future society where drugs and hallucinogenics are more real, or at least more appealing, than reality. Lem is one of my favorite writers, but this was not his strongest work. Read it after you've read The Cyberiad and others.

Robert Kirkman-Invincible Vol. 1 Family Matters

I like a good graphic novel, and am an avid follower of Kirkman's Walking Dead series (looking forward to the AMC series), so when I came across a cheap copy of volume one of Invincible I thought I'd give it a try. Nice, easy, entertaining, unchallenging read that I will follow assuming I can continue to find used copies.

Zoran Zivkovic-Steps Through the Mist

This is my first book by Serbian fantasist Zivkovic and I'd like another please. This collection of stories are linked thematically by the idea of the future, the mist of the title, and the possibilities it holds.

William Beckford-Vathek

Another seminal work of the gothic tradition. Beckford's arabesque is essential if you are a fan of the gothic novel. Other readers will probably find it boring and melodramatic.

See you next month.