"Recent" Readings
Mar. 15th, 2009 03:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tirinianSince ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
skuffle did his job and kicked me, here we go, but quickly, 'cause it's late.
(I should clearly use the "make skuffle make me do it" for other things I've been putting off for ages, too. :-) )
Terry and the Pirates, Volume 1: The first two years of possibly the most influential action adventure newspaper comic strip ever. It's certainly better than anything that runs in the papers today, but I still can't say I was amazingly fond of it. Partly, it just hasn't aged well - the stereotypes are too strong and too pulp. According to the introduction, this is actually a bit before it hits its peak, too, and Volume 2 is where the really good stuff is. I might get around to reading that sometime, but haven't bothered too yet. Lives 7 days of game before getting blown up with the Junk they were trying to steal.
Echoes of an Alien Sky: By James Hogan. It's pretty readable, as I find all Hogan, but it has a weird take on science that I found very distracting. (It's set in the future, with a bunch of human-ish Venusians exploring the destroyed Earth having lost most of their history, and the 'here are the parts of science that modern humans had Just Wrong' is very distracting, particularly where some of the Venusian beliefs about how the world works are also clearly Just Wrong, so it wasn't clear at all to me in several bits whose science we were supposed to believe.) The only real tension in the plot comes from an irritating side plot, too, which doesn't really fit well with the rest of the "scientific exploration of ideas" that's going on in the main story. Call it also 7 days of game before dying of plague.
Zot! A collection of the black-and-white Zot! issues by Scott McCloud. This is the stuff that made him a well known comics author before turning into a well known comics genre theorist in Understanding Comics. It's technically a re-reading, which I don't normally bother with, as I'd read all the individual issues as they came out, but this was my first time reading the collected work as a whole. I like it a lot, although it clearly has some problems, particularly in that it's not structurally coherent, as he moves from one sort-of-arc to a completely different one halfway through, and the two only sort of gel. Worth reading anyway, though. Lives 9 days of game before getting electrocuted.
Complete Dorothy Parker: I don't think it's actually quite complete, but it's a sizable percentage of her output. She has a bleaker view of the world than I do, but she's also remarkably witty, which makes up for a lot of that. It is too much of a good thing, though, and I'd recommend reading a few at a time, with palette cleansers, rather than reading the whole thing straight through, the way I did. In addition to the short stories, there's also poetry and literary/theater criticism, which is just as nice, and some left-wing political bits, which are interesting. Lives 8 days of game before dying in the Spanish Civil War.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher: The first Dresden Files book. Also very readable, as I find Jim Butcher, but very much a First Book, to an annoying extent. I really felt like the first 8-9 chapters were "and now I wander over to introduce the next character you'll be seeing through the rest of the series" rather than "here we go with the plot of this book." Once you're past that, it works better, though, and it's possible that not all of the people who felt like they'd become recurring characters will. I'll probably read the next couple at least at some point, and see how I like the rest of the series. Lives 8 days of game before getting killed in a terrible Magic Sex Ritual.
Parasite: Some manga about an invasion of aliens that take people over, give them remarkable shape-shifting powers, and start eating humans. The hero is a kid who traps his in his arm, so it doesn't get to take over his brain and they have to come to an accommodation about living together. I think the series has ended in Japan, but the English translation is not all out yet, so I've only read the first ~5 volumes. I'm not generally a fan of manga (I find the differences in the artistic conventions too distracting), but I thought this one was pretty good. I'll keep an eye out for the rest when they come out. Lives 8.5 days of game before getting eaten by an evil alien invader.
1776 by David McCullough: A history of that year of the War of Independence. The thing that really struck me is how much of a loser it makes Washington seem, despite clearly trying to make him the hero. It's pretty clear that all his men love him, but he comes across as dithering and indecisive, and mostly only succeeding by luck. Still, he succeeded, so there you go. Not really a full plot arc, either, as it ends before the war does, but it was intended to be a companion piece to his John Adams biography, so presumably it reads better in conjunction with that. Lives 7 days of game before getting killed by the Redcoats.
Princeps' Fury, also by Jim Butcher: The fifth of six in the series, it ends on more of an out-and-out cliffhanger than the previous ones, but I suppose that's ok. I reviewed the rest of them a while back, and my opinion isn't changed by this one. Lives 8.5 days of game before getting eaten by Zerg.
Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage: A review of each of the seven deadly sins in America Today, and an attempt to approve them. Some of the examples are kinda stretched, and some of the approval doesn't really ring true, but Savage is funny and liberal and I like reading his writing anyway. Lives 8 days of game before getting shot by the NRA.
Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling: A set of fairy tales as told by Wizards in the Potterverse, with commentary by Dumbledore. Really, most of them I could have done without. Ok, that's not quite fair, but they're written for five year olds, without much to interest adults, in a way that the series is written for kids, but has things to interest adults. The best part is the commentary by Dumbledore, which is amusing. Lives 6 days of game before losing to Death, but would probably be fine if you wanted to read it to your kids.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley: Mom has been pushing this book for years, and I finally got around to reading it. It's also for kids, apparently (it's got a Newbery Honor in '83), but perfectly readable by adults. It's set in a fake-india-under-the-Raj, or at least, it starts in the pseudo-British side of that. It's not clear to me that the natives are actually particularly Indian or pseudo-Indian, they're just "natives in the hills with magic powers". The Heroine gets kidnapped by them, as it turns out she also has magic powers, and they need her help to fight off the Bad Demonic Evil to the North. It's fine little adventure story, nothing particularly new, but well done and a setting that's moderately distinct for adventure stories. Lives 9 days of game before getting killed by Demons.
skuffle did his job and kicked me, here we go, but quickly, 'cause it's late. (I should clearly use the "make skuffle make me do it" for other things I've been putting off for ages, too. :-) )
Terry and the Pirates, Volume 1: The first two years of possibly the most influential action adventure newspaper comic strip ever. It's certainly better than anything that runs in the papers today, but I still can't say I was amazingly fond of it. Partly, it just hasn't aged well - the stereotypes are too strong and too pulp. According to the introduction, this is actually a bit before it hits its peak, too, and Volume 2 is where the really good stuff is. I might get around to reading that sometime, but haven't bothered too yet. Lives 7 days of game before getting blown up with the Junk they were trying to steal.
Echoes of an Alien Sky: By James Hogan. It's pretty readable, as I find all Hogan, but it has a weird take on science that I found very distracting. (It's set in the future, with a bunch of human-ish Venusians exploring the destroyed Earth having lost most of their history, and the 'here are the parts of science that modern humans had Just Wrong' is very distracting, particularly where some of the Venusian beliefs about how the world works are also clearly Just Wrong, so it wasn't clear at all to me in several bits whose science we were supposed to believe.) The only real tension in the plot comes from an irritating side plot, too, which doesn't really fit well with the rest of the "scientific exploration of ideas" that's going on in the main story. Call it also 7 days of game before dying of plague.
Zot! A collection of the black-and-white Zot! issues by Scott McCloud. This is the stuff that made him a well known comics author before turning into a well known comics genre theorist in Understanding Comics. It's technically a re-reading, which I don't normally bother with, as I'd read all the individual issues as they came out, but this was my first time reading the collected work as a whole. I like it a lot, although it clearly has some problems, particularly in that it's not structurally coherent, as he moves from one sort-of-arc to a completely different one halfway through, and the two only sort of gel. Worth reading anyway, though. Lives 9 days of game before getting electrocuted.
Complete Dorothy Parker: I don't think it's actually quite complete, but it's a sizable percentage of her output. She has a bleaker view of the world than I do, but she's also remarkably witty, which makes up for a lot of that. It is too much of a good thing, though, and I'd recommend reading a few at a time, with palette cleansers, rather than reading the whole thing straight through, the way I did. In addition to the short stories, there's also poetry and literary/theater criticism, which is just as nice, and some left-wing political bits, which are interesting. Lives 8 days of game before dying in the Spanish Civil War.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher: The first Dresden Files book. Also very readable, as I find Jim Butcher, but very much a First Book, to an annoying extent. I really felt like the first 8-9 chapters were "and now I wander over to introduce the next character you'll be seeing through the rest of the series" rather than "here we go with the plot of this book." Once you're past that, it works better, though, and it's possible that not all of the people who felt like they'd become recurring characters will. I'll probably read the next couple at least at some point, and see how I like the rest of the series. Lives 8 days of game before getting killed in a terrible Magic Sex Ritual.
Parasite: Some manga about an invasion of aliens that take people over, give them remarkable shape-shifting powers, and start eating humans. The hero is a kid who traps his in his arm, so it doesn't get to take over his brain and they have to come to an accommodation about living together. I think the series has ended in Japan, but the English translation is not all out yet, so I've only read the first ~5 volumes. I'm not generally a fan of manga (I find the differences in the artistic conventions too distracting), but I thought this one was pretty good. I'll keep an eye out for the rest when they come out. Lives 8.5 days of game before getting eaten by an evil alien invader.
1776 by David McCullough: A history of that year of the War of Independence. The thing that really struck me is how much of a loser it makes Washington seem, despite clearly trying to make him the hero. It's pretty clear that all his men love him, but he comes across as dithering and indecisive, and mostly only succeeding by luck. Still, he succeeded, so there you go. Not really a full plot arc, either, as it ends before the war does, but it was intended to be a companion piece to his John Adams biography, so presumably it reads better in conjunction with that. Lives 7 days of game before getting killed by the Redcoats.
Princeps' Fury, also by Jim Butcher: The fifth of six in the series, it ends on more of an out-and-out cliffhanger than the previous ones, but I suppose that's ok. I reviewed the rest of them a while back, and my opinion isn't changed by this one. Lives 8.5 days of game before getting eaten by Zerg.
Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage: A review of each of the seven deadly sins in America Today, and an attempt to approve them. Some of the examples are kinda stretched, and some of the approval doesn't really ring true, but Savage is funny and liberal and I like reading his writing anyway. Lives 8 days of game before getting shot by the NRA.
Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling: A set of fairy tales as told by Wizards in the Potterverse, with commentary by Dumbledore. Really, most of them I could have done without. Ok, that's not quite fair, but they're written for five year olds, without much to interest adults, in a way that the series is written for kids, but has things to interest adults. The best part is the commentary by Dumbledore, which is amusing. Lives 6 days of game before losing to Death, but would probably be fine if you wanted to read it to your kids.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley: Mom has been pushing this book for years, and I finally got around to reading it. It's also for kids, apparently (it's got a Newbery Honor in '83), but perfectly readable by adults. It's set in a fake-india-under-the-Raj, or at least, it starts in the pseudo-British side of that. It's not clear to me that the natives are actually particularly Indian or pseudo-Indian, they're just "natives in the hills with magic powers". The Heroine gets kidnapped by them, as it turns out she also has magic powers, and they need her help to fight off the Bad Demonic Evil to the North. It's fine little adventure story, nothing particularly new, but well done and a setting that's moderately distinct for adventure stories. Lives 9 days of game before getting killed by Demons.
