19. The Hollow Hills

By: Mary Stewart

Mostly Merlin just wanders around and prepares for book three. Sort of like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings.

Grade: B
Recommendation: Slog on through to the sequel.

18. Eternity Road

by: Jack McDevitt

I have a huge backlog of stuff I read over the summer. So reviews for the time being are going to be short and sweet- otherwise i'll go on neglecting this blog.

The "roadmakers" were a prehistoric civilization that left massive cities and roads behind, but no evidence of how their incredible technology worked, or where they went. When one of their books shows up unexpectedly - Mark Twain's "Connecticut Yankee", an expedition to find their lost library - hopefully with answers about the lost civilization is launched.

The book doesn't try to hide the mystery of who the roadmakers were- McDevitt tells an engaging tale as always, but the book feels like it could have been more 'epic' if it wasn't confined to a single character's POV and limited timeline. I'm a big fan of his work, but it can be hit and miss- this one is the first that is neither 'hit' nor 'miss', just ok.

Grade: B
Recommendation: Engines of God is a must read. This one can be somewhere further down your McDevitt collection.

17. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier

By: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

What will most likely be the final installment of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series unfortunately misses the epic grandeur of the previous two editions by more than, well, I would have expected from Moore. This sad tome, "The Black Dossier" would more appropriately have been titled "A Short History of Nearly Everything That I'd Like to explore in Further Detail In This Series If I was Actually Serious About Doing It, But I'm Not So I'll Just Tell You What I Would Have Done and Take a Few of Your Hard Earned Dollars For My Troubles". At least, it would have been a more honest title. The writing in this book is so uncharacteristically sloppy, so uncharacteristically disjointed, and often so nonsensical that only the slightest appreciation for Moore's ingenuity and quirky style keeps the pages turning.

Grade: D-
Recommendation: Read the first two graphic novels if you haven't yet. Its better to pretend that this one doesn't exist.

15 & 16. Buffy: Season 8

Part II:
No Future for You

Part III:
Wolves at the Gate

By Joss Whedon

As stated in the review down the page, Part I reintroduces us to the "Buffyverse", picking up where the television series left off.  For the purposes of not spoiling the end of the series, I'll continue to be vague, but suffice to say, Buffy's team has expanded now well beyond the "Scooby Gang" as her friends in the series were known.  

Interestingly, the "boss" villain, who is usually introduced on the early side in the series doesn't make his appearance until Part II of "season 8", and even then we don't know much about him- the mysterious figure called "Twilight" who has yet another apocalyptic plan.   

In order to keep these villains interesting (because they all have apocalyptic plans), Twilight is unique because rather than fight his own battles, he manipulates the various players as chess pieces - pitting slayer against demon, slayer against witch, slayer against slayer, slayer against US Army.  

The beautiful thing about these books is that they manage to capture not just the clever dialog that is so key to the show, but also the comedy, the tragedy, the awkward pauses, the teen abuse of language, and the complicated relationships of the various characters... and what makes it even more amazing is that long after the actors and actresses have abandoned their roles, their characters are still growing and changing.  Moreover, characters who have never appeared "in real life" on the television show are handled with equal depth and complexity.  

My only (minor) criticism is that it still feels a little "cameo happy", but for the most part, it works. 

Recommendation: Its the best thing next to the TV show, and it only gets better. 

Grade: A

7-14: The Walking Dead

7. Days Gone By

8. Miles Behind Us

9. Safety Behind Bars

10. The Heart's Desire

11. The Best Defense

12. The Sorrowful Life

13. The Calm Before

14. Made to Suffer

Written by: Robert Kirkland

Illustrated by: Tony Moore

Ah, I have wanted to read this series for a long time, but 8 graphic novels is a big investment.  So nice to have found them on Bit Torrent.  

The story opens with protagonist, police officer Rick Grimes, taking a nearly fatal bullet which lands him in a coma in the hospital.  Lucky for him, because he sleeps through the onset of  the zombie apocalypse.  Unfortunately, when he awakens, he is alone, his family is gone, and no one is explaining the dead-ish folks who are trying to eat him.

The Walking Dead more or less follows the Romero formula for Zombies: They're dumb, slow, and relentless.  Despite owing this massive debt to its predecessors, in a lot of ways, WD is one of the most successful Zombie stories of all - as it has run for now four years, it has had the opportunity to develop a sense of not just what its like to be faced with the end of the world- but how it must be endured day after day, month after month, and year after year.

...and in this way, WD pulls no punches.   It works exceptionally well as a horror story- no one is safe, and Throughout its run, characters who you grow to know and love will often succumb to the undead horror.  Its a tough world.  

It draws on some of the best elements of the Zombie movies that have inspired it- its crisp black and white is no doubt influenced by the original Night of the Living Dead, the issues of how communities of humans devolve owes a debt to 28 Days Later and the sometimes ridiculous gore tips a hat to the 80s zombie flicks that had to top each other for most grotesque killings.  

However, the sheer scope of this story is what separates The Walking Dead from any other zombie story.  The 48 chapters (so far) allow characters to develop in response and reaction to their world.  The mild mannered and fair Rick must become a fearless -and ruthless leader.  The god fearing farmer must accept a life of violence.  Those who need to cling to their pre-apocalypse self concept are often the most rudely awakened. 

Recommendation: For anyone who is a zombie (or horror) aficionado - this is a unmissable classic. A+

6. Nightwatch

By: Sergei Lukyanenko

Here's one of those odd instances where the movie actually does live up to the book- and the reason that this works is because the movie tells its own story, and doesn't try to recreate the scope of the novel. I don't know if I'd consider that a 'successful adaptation' or not, since the success lies in its non-adaptiveness. Anyway, there is too much that happens in the book to be translated into the movie, and because the book is episodic, it would not make for a good 'epic' the way the film does.

In modern Moscow, the Nightwatch polices the forces of the dark - vampires, dark magicians, werewolves. However, the Daywatch polices the forces of light- the good magicians and shape shifters. The two forces that vie for the fate of man rely on a mutual treaty, without which they would be pitched in a bloody battle that would wipe out the human race, and neither side would be able to 'turn' them. The result is a world in which 'good' and 'evil' do exist, but in compromised form. The result is the grey area of modern life.

Recommendation: Watch the movie, if you like it, go deeper into the story by reading the book.

5. Buffy: Season 8

Part I
By: Joss Wheedon

Buffy was one of those rare shows that managed to to break through the boxy little genres of television to create something that was totally new. It featured a rich universe of believable three dimensional characters with well written dialog whose 'real life' problems fit in perfectly with the fantasy setting. By the end of season seven, these characters had changed and grown to the point that taking them further would have been nearly impossible without creating a massive shark jumping. Wheedon's characters had fought their own demons (pun intended) and saved the world (one last time), and he ends on a note that would have unequivocally changed the direction and content of the show in a way that would have distanced it too much from where it began. The show had run its course and ended when it needed to.

Continuing Buffy's story in comic book form however, was the perfect way to see what happens in the next chapter of the lives of Buffy n' pals. The show is left with an appropriate conclusion, and the comic investigates all of the interesting suggestions of 'what happens next' that the show leaves open.

Its hard to talk too much about even the premise of the comic without giving away the events of the season finale, so I won't comment too much on plot. Suffice to say, there are more demons to be fought, and there's a great 'war on terror' allegory plot that builds in the first part of "Season 8". Wheedon's topical humor is still present - so is his witty writing, and the characters come through in comic form as they would on the show. However, you see the characters continue to grow as well. Xander is older and more together (although still a bit awkward in his geekiness), Buffy has come to terms with her past and has brightened back up, but she's still not the happy-go-lucky kid that was found at the beginning of the series. There are a few surprise faces from the TV series that show up in the dramatic conclusions of chapters, but that plot device doesn't seem to ring as startling without the tense music and commercial break.

Overall, Season 8 gets off to a great start and expands the story line in a way that probably wouldn't have worked on TV, but works quite well in comic form.

Recommendation: Get on your Netflix queue and fill it with Buffy seasons 1-7. Once you're thoroughly wrapped up in the slayer life, read the comic.

4. Slapstick

By: Kurt Vonnegut

The copy of Slapstick that I was reading was so devistatingly old, that it was literally falling apart in my hands. Tiny bits of yellowed pages flaked off from where my fingers held the pages, and I just hoped the spine would hold out till the last page. The cover didn't make it all the way, but the pages did. Sad still, it was a first edition paperback. I left it carefully on a table in the airport, not being able to bring myself to throw it out. Hopefully it was found and taped back together by someone who just *really* wants to read a good Vonnegut book and can't find one in China.

The strange thing is, that I thought I hadn't read this before, but it all seemed so durned familiar! Maybe I read it in college - or maybe I've just read too much Vonnegut? At any rate, Slapstick is an interesting, somewhat post-apocalyptical tale of a half-genius, neanderthal-ish, optimistic, president of the US who attempts to make everything better by giving everyone in the country extended families. Unfortunately, his plans are somewhat thwarted by a mass epidemic, and the ever-shrinking population of China, who have figured out how to conserve resources through shrinkage, communicate with the dead, and travel instantaneously through space.

Not the best Vonnegut in the world, it pales in comparison to what remain my favorites: Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, Breakfast of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five, but still a good read, and more interesting than the more mediocre "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater" and "Jailbird".

Recommendation: If you're a Vonnegut fan, you won't be disappointed by Slapstick. If you're not, you should be, so crack open one of those listed as 'favorites' above. Start with Cat's Cradle.

3. Odyssey

By: Jack McDevitt

The fifth book in the Academy series confirms my earlier suspicion about the Odd books being of better quality than the even books. Although by this time in the series, he has totally abandoned the archaeologic aspects of the series, which has both positive and negative implications for the series. On the downside, it was really what made "Engines of God" a standount book, and drove a lot of the interest in "Chindi". On the upside, the world he's created, and the "Academy" itself has outgrown the scope of just archeology. Odyssey finds greater stakes in the world of Physics in the future at a gripping intersection of politics, science, and business.

The problem with the Academy series as it develops, is that it is still too episodic- it certainly feels as if its written one book at a time, with little interest in bridging stories, or developing characters beyond what is needed for their next appearance. Hutch, the main character, grows a bit with each book, but has little personal growth or change that would make her more compelling. On the other hand, McAllister, a crotchety old writer who was a bit of an anti-hero in the terrible "Deepsix" returns as a more developed, well rounded and interesting character in this book.

Speaking of episodic, this book drops the Omega Cloud story (once again) in favor of a more immediate crisis. The next book (which is the latest offering) looks like it returns to (or finishes) that story arc. Whether it breaks or confirms the curse of the even books remains to be seen...

Recommendation: It bears repeating -read the odd books, skip the evens. Email me and I'll fill you in on the little important information you'd miss in "Deepsix" and "Omega".

2. Omega

By: Jack McDevitt

Omega, The fourth book in Mc Devitt's  Academy series seems to establish a similar trend to the Star Trek movies.  Unless you're a die hard trekker, you can pretty much skip the odd numbered films, right?  Well, unless you're a hard-core-'Acadamite'- you can probably skip the even numbered books. 

Omega picks up the story that was basically dropped in The Engines of God regarding the mysterious Omega clouds (I won't say any more than that for those of you haven't picked up the excellent EoG yet.   

Unfortunately, in we only learn a little bit more about the clouds in this book, as the majority of it is about saving a muppet-like alien race from extinction.  More unfortunately, the most important new revelation about the Omegas in this book doesn't appear until a (sort of) twist ending.  That being said, a quick glance at the back cover of book five Odyssey, shows that it looks like McDevitt is dropping that story line, at least until book six (which apparently is recently available in hardcover).  

The series is still good enough to go on, but I'm hoping that  we get back to stories of archeology of long gone alien races. It tends to be more interesting than the anthropology of muppets. 

Recommendation: If you've read Engines of God and Chindi, and hopefully skipped Deepsix, find a copy of Omega and read the last chapter to find out a little more about the Omegas.  There. You're up to date.

1. I Am America (And So Can You!)

By: Stephen Colbert

While I do loves me my Colbert Report and misses it whilst in China, the joke gets pretty stale pretty quickly. I've never read any of Bill O'Reilly's books (and most likely never will), and I'm sure that most of this book takes the piss out of his writing as much as the show does to its equivalent in that medium. However, its the spontinaity and awkward interactions between a fake conservative and his liberal guests that make the show fun. This is just schtick.

Recommendation: Pick it up in the bookstore, and skip around for a few laughs for a good ten minutes, then move on.

2007 in Review

2007 brought a mixed bag for books. Some good, some mediocre, some bad.

10 Best of 2007

10. Chindi - by Jack McDevitt
9. American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
7. Hearts in Atlantis - Steven King
6. The City of Ember - Jeanne DePrau
5. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell- Suzannah Clarke
4. Making Comics- Scott McCloud
3. A Whole New Mind - Daniel Pink
2. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
1. The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

10 Worst of 2007


10. His Magesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
9. The Regulators - Stephen King
8. The Riddlemaster of Hed - Patricia A. McKillip
7. Flight 3 - Various
6. The Prophet of Yonwood - Jeanne Du Prau
5. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
4. Demo - By: Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
3. Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
2. Mediated - Thomas De Zengotita
1. Starship Titanic - Terry Jones (immitating Douglas Adams)

Happy New Year all!


*note - Jack McDevitt's Engines of God was not included in the top 10 list because it was re-read.

62. Start Late Finish Rich

By: David Bach

Kim and I have decided that one of our goals for 2008 is to put some of our financial ducks in order, and so we used a christmas gift certificate to Borders to get a bunch of financial advice books. This is the first one that I read, and it has some pretty solid advice. A lot of it is obvious advice that is said in a very creative way, but more importantly, a very specific way. For example, he discusses something that we all know, that spending money on little things you don't need adds up. However, he shows you exactly how this works (he calls it the latte factor based on the following example which i took from his website):

$5 per day (the average cost of a latte and a muffin) x 7 days = $35 per week

$35/week = $150/month

$150 per month invested at a rate of 10% annual return =

1 year = $1,885
2 years = $3,967
5 years =$11,616
10 years = $30,727
15 years = $62,171
30 years = $339,073
40 years = $948,611

And the point isn't of course if you don't drink coffee you can make a cool million, but rather if you look at your expenditures and figure out a way to cut out $5 a day, it will add up in the long run. The 'latte factor' is one of the strategies that Bach uses to explain how to save- he also talks about a diversified portfolio, and offers very specific actions and steps to take (which is perfect for us, since its not something we have a great deal of knowledge about).

61. The War of Art

by: Steven Pressfield

This little book is about the reasons we avoid doing anything truly creative. Although it often reads like a motivational manual to 'building a better you' it does make some interesting points about avoidance- specifically, how even productive endeavors can sometimes serve as ways of resisting getting down to the creative work that can be intimidating. Its a pretty interesting read (in parts) when you recognize the excuses that you make to not paint/draw/write/compose music etc. Too tired, too busy, have to cook, writing blogposts on books you've read...

Although the book is short, its not short enough that it didn't cross my mind that after i got the point of the book, finishing it was just another form of resistance...

60. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

By: Haruki Murakami

I started this book at the very end of last year (see Print is Dead 2006), but found it a little slow compared to Murakami's other books that I've read (Kafka on the Shore and The Wind Up Bird Chronicles). However, I picked this up again for the plane ride home, and found an enjoyable read. Note, below may contain *SPOILERS*, but its not really the kind of book you read for the shocking revelations.

HBW & EotW is the story- or rather, two parallel stories, of a guy whose brain has has been partially sectioned off resulting in him living in the real world and a fantasy world at once. In the real world, he has the odd job of using his own mind to code and filter information. In his fantasy world, he is a dream-reader who abandons his shadow in order to release dreams from the skulls of unicorns.

The story, like the connections between his two worlds, is obscure but interesting. This book doesn't hold up quite as well to the epic struggle of a man searching for his cat that Murakami pulled off in Wind up Bird, nor does it hold the mystery of a boy running away from home as does Kafka on the Shore. Perhaps this one just tries to be a little too different?

It is important to note that the main character has lost his cat in this novel as well. That brings the total number of cats lost in Murakami books that I've read to 3. One in each, so far.

59. Interworld

By: Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves

Although Stardust was nearly bad enough to put me off reading anymore Gaiman for a while, Interworld looked interesting, so I plunged back into his bizarre and unique worlds.

Interworld is the story of Joey, a boy who gets lost easily. Or rather, its the story of many Joeys, from parallel earths who realize that they are joined by their common ability to "Walk" or cross through dimensions. The universe that Gaiman creates in this book is explained as an arc- along this arc are various dimensions of parallel earths. On one extreme end of the arc is a fully technological, robotic and logic driven world called 'the Binary'. On the other end is "The HEX" a world based in magic. Our earth (or Joey's earth, which from all indications is ours as well) is located somewhere in the middle, leaning a little more towards the Binary. However, both the binary and Hex are locked in an eternal battle for control of all the parallel earths, and the walkers (the variations of Joey) are the only force that stands between balance and the forces of the techno or magic overlords.

Overall, Interworld is an enjoyable read, (and gives a funny little hat-tip to the FSM) although it races through the plot a little quickly- its one of those books that jumps from event to event without meditating on consequence or significance of events for too long. The afterword describes the intent of the book, which was originally concieved as a television series. That would explain the event-driven focus, but it doesn't explain how Neil Gaiman, who should have learned through the disasterous television adaptation of Neverwhere, the appalling movie adaptation of Stardust and the near-apocalypicly bad adaptation of The Sandman that when he writes a book - he should write the book. Mirrormask which was conceived and executed as a movie (with Dave McKean) was brilliant.

Not every story needs to be told in multiple mediums. Some cross well, some don't. Interworld, to be honest, I can't see as a very good series (who'd want to watch a cast of all the same actor play 10 different roles? even eddie murphy can't pull that off forever!), but a book that reads like a series- well, could have been better. It was a good effort, anyway.

58. Chindi

By: Jack McDevitt

The three books of the Academy series so far, match, if you will, the Indiana Jones trilogy. The first one is an excellent mix of archeology and action. The second is all about the action with some hat tip to bogus archeology to get the story going, and the third basically picks up where the first one left off, thematically.

Picture that in Space with a female lead, and basically, that's where we are by the end of the third book, Chindi.

Other than that, Chindi is a little hard to describe without giving too much away. The Chindi itself is the most interesting mystery of the book, so any description of it would be a spoiler I don't want to reveal.

Chindi opens in a rescue mission, and the first hundred pages are so are more reminiscent of the inferior second novel than the excellent first. However, once the mystery is developed, Chindi matches, and in some cases even outpaces Engines of God for a creative and exciting look at space-age archeology.

It begins when a construceted signal is discovered coming from a supernova. The investigation of this impossible scenario begins what essentially becomes an archeological scavenger hunt across the galaxy, with each peice making the mystery more complex.

Aside from the weak begining, my only other criticism is one scene which usualy bugs me in movies, and haven't often come across it in books: You *CANNOT* even for one second, survive in space. Its a freaking vacuum! I don't care how quickly you can get into your spacesuit.

Other than that, fantastic book, looking forward to picking up the fourth book Omega while we're here in the states.

57. Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic

By: Terry Jones

Starship Titanic was Douglas Adam's last puzzle-based video game (after Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Bureaucracy. Although Adams didn't write this one, when I found it on our school library shelf, I figured it would hopefully be one more enjoyable read in the Adams universe that I thought I had already thouroughly explored. Moreover, I'd figure a book by Monty Python's Terry Jones based on an idea by Douglas Adams would be a hit.

...and I couldn't have been more wrong.

Starship Titanic, is, simply put, exceedingly stupid. The fact that it reads like a walk-through of the video game isn't even the worst thing about it (although its close)- the worst thing about it is that it reads like someone who is not Douglas Adams trying to write a Douglas Adams book. Which is, obviously, exactly what it is. When I was in working on the literary magazine back in high school we had this kid who would try and submit stories that were basically just Monty Python skits that were poorly transcribed. This book has the same sort of feeling. Jones takes Adams' ideas and tries on every page to make a Douglas Adams sounding observations in Douglas Adams seeming situations.

This was by far, the worst book I've read in a long time, in fact, I can't think of anything off hand that was worse.

54-56. The Books of Ember

The City of Ember
The People of Sparks
The Prophet of Yonwood

By: Jeanne Deprau

These books are apparently the big hit of the 'young adult' fantasy world right now, and the first book is currently being made into a movie with Bill Murray. Our fourth graders are reading the first one as a class as part of their curriculum this year.

The City of Ember exists alone in an empty world. Outside the walls of the city is just darkness, and daylight is provided by large electric lamps that click on and off at prescribed times. The city is stocked with canned goods and other necessary items, but nothing new is created (with the exception of some withered greenhouse vegetables). In the city is a box, and the box has a key that will save the people from darkness when the time comes. Only the box has been lost, and its existence forgotten.

The first book creates a world that is at once unique and original as well as a dark shadow of our own. Its powerful stuff for young readers who can appreciate its implications. Unfortunately, while the second two books continue to explore the theme, the world they exist in is not nearly as unique, and the message thus falls somewhat flat. The People of Sparks continues the story of the people of Ember, and is mildly satisfying as a follow-up, although cannot hold a candle to its predecessor. The third book The Propet of Yonwood is not very satisfying as a prequel- its obvious and slow; however, it does raise interesting issues for young readers about the difference between faith and fear, and for that it can be worth reading. However, without its two predecessors, theres not too much to support it.

The Book of Ember though, is an engaging read for any age even if the secret of ember becomes quite clear for adults much quicker than it will for kids.

53. Deepsix

By: Jack Mc Devitt

Deepsix is the second in the "Academy" novels by Jack McDevitt. Although similar in style and action to its predicessor The Engines of God, it pales in comparison. EoG is a gripping story of archeological expiditions in the near future on other planets that uses a good deal of action and adventure to 'up the stakes'. Deepsix on the other hand, is more of an action/adventure novel, using the archeology bit as a backdrop for setting the stage.

While this dynamic doesn't 'fail', it is no where near as interesting. In the first book, the archaeologists are in a race against time to solve a 10,000 year old mystery before the planet they are working on becomes terraformed, and failure in the terraforming or unraveling of the mystery may each spell the end of the human race. However, that whole tension is dropped in the second novel.

Deepsix finds our EoG protagonist, pilot Priscilla Hutchins on a mission to examine recently discovered artifacts on a planet beforei t gets obliterated in a major cosmological event. She lands on the planet with plenty of time to spare, but of course she and her compatriots become stranded, and rescue looks impossible. The archeology of the new planet provides none of the mystery that was present in EoG and serves mostly as an explanation as to why they'd be on the planet in the first place (as well as an almost literal) Deux Ex Machina for getting them off.

Perhaps the book isn't as bad as all that, but compared to its predecessor, it doesn't live up. I'll continue with his series though- I've read he picks up some of the threads he dropped in later books. We'll see!