Reading List
Ghost by Alan Lightman is another thought-provoking, sensitively written novel from a writer whose day job is theoretical physics. Some would consider him brilliant since he's served on the faculties of both Harvard and MIT (where he had a dual appointment in physics and the humanities). I do and have ever since I read his first novel Einstein's Dreams.
This book is about David Kurzweil, a man who is going through a mid-life crisis after losing his job at the bank he's been at for years. He's told his mother that he's the manager of the bank, when he's really an assistant and he's not close to anyone especially since his wife Bethany left him eight years ago. But when he starts to talk about what he saw one day in his new job, working in a funeral home, he is thrust into the center of a controversy that shakes his life to the core. The media, scientists and the metaphysical all collide in David where he struggles to find himself. Ultimately, it's up to the reader to decide what he saw but David ends up sort of satisfied, like any of us would I think.
Lightman's writing is deft and descriptive. He handles feelings exceedingly well, and takes the reader through David's feelings like a father driving the family on vacation. It's a short, quick read, and if you're familiar with the inner workings at all of a mortuary (and my knowledge is limited to what happens on Six Feet Under) you'll be swept up in this book. I really recommend it to anyone needing a quick diversion who enjoys 'real world' stories.
Starman vol. 1: Sins of the Father by James Robinson, Tony Harris and Wade von Grawbadger
I miss Robinson and Harris together, especially on this book. When the world was on fire with silly superheroes, this book was the prime example of what comix should be. Jack Knight is unwillingly pulled into his father's lineage to become the third Starman (and there are more, but not until later volumes) from the Knight family after Ted's retirement from the game and Jack's brother David being killed mid-flight. Ted's old nemesis The Mist decides it's time for one last hurrah before he dies and has annointed HIS son to take up the mantle. Together they launch an attack on Opal City (the Opal is as much a character in the book as any of the bipedals who wave guns or fly around) that directly affects the Knight family and Jack rushes in to defend his family's honor, as well as that of the city. Having had only the most cursory of training, he should have been killed by The Mist's daughter (who is delberately unnamed in this first arc) but she shows some mercy and ends up regretting it. When all is said and done, the Knights are rescued by The Shade, a villain at times but only from a certain point of view, and in turn save the city. Jack decides to continue being Starman, but really only after talking with his dead brother at the finish.
This is the best writing you'll find on superheroes in the 90s. Hands down. The art takes a while, but Harris and von Grawbadger finally get going in time for the Talking With David story and then they start to shine.
Terminal City by Dean Motter and Michael Lark. This is early Lark, but Motter's second try at creating an incredibly deep, deco-inspired and early sci-fi realized city as he did in Mister X with Radiant City. This is better because the story is shorter and tighter and the art is more consistent. As much as I didn't like the 'definitive' edition of Mister X with all its shortcomings and bad printing mistakes, this book is very comparable. As a matter of fact, you'd be doing yourself a favor to read both books. Remember they're both about cities, so there are blocks that have to be placed just so, edifices that must be evocative and facing the correct ways, and streets that have to be laid out so that the mysteries that involve the people can unfold seamlessly and in the most interesting ways. Designer Motter and Architect Lark really shine in Terminal City and again in the second volume that I think has yet to be released.
What's up next? Interworld by two guys you should recognize if you're a comix fan at all...
Yeah, that's a cover by James Jean, in case you're wondering.