Report on flist recs
nolly: Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer... etc.: Awesome. This is what graphic novels were meant for. (Well, in the nonfiction category, anyway.) This should be required reading for anyone who is interested in science/physics and the ways in which it interacts with society/politics. (And who, like me, is too lazy to actually read a non-graphic biography.) Also, YAY primary sources! My only complaint was that the changing artistic styles sometimes made it so that I could no longer tell who was who, but that may just be my non-artsy side showing up.
ase: Y: The Last Man (vols 3-10): So, Y did some good stuff. Then... they lost me by being one of those plot-heavy books that does not explain well a huge chunk of the plot. (Other contenders in this area include Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, which sucked that way, and Series of Unfortunate Events, which actually won huge points with me by managing to pull it off.) Still, a graphic novel worth reading if you can find it at the library. Better than V for Vendetta; I still like Watchmen better.
julianyap: Sean Stewart (Galveston, Mockingbird): I am intrigued by Stewart. I also suspect I need to come back to him in a couple of years. Lots of interesting family stuff (Galveston in particular hauled me in with its parent/child relationships), and he's clearly a good writer, but somehow it never quite all clicked for me. Mockingbird, I think, had the problem that I thought the main character was being a little... silly. Galveston had no such problem... if anything, maybe I identified a bit too much with the main female character.
lightreads and abigail_n: Joe Hill (20th-Century Ghosts). I don't usually read horror. I think I will continue not to. The non-horror dark-fantasy stories in this volume (e.g., the title story and "Pop Art") were really well done. The horror stories were also well done, though I personally have a much harder time with horror in general. Still, if you like that kind of thing, I very much recommend the book.
ase: Y: The Last Man (vols 3-10): So, Y did some good stuff. Then... they lost me by being one of those plot-heavy books that does not explain well a huge chunk of the plot. (Other contenders in this area include Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, which sucked that way, and Series of Unfortunate Events, which actually won huge points with me by managing to pull it off.) Still, a graphic novel worth reading if you can find it at the library. Better than V for Vendetta; I still like Watchmen better.
julianyap: Sean Stewart (Galveston, Mockingbird): I am intrigued by Stewart. I also suspect I need to come back to him in a couple of years. Lots of interesting family stuff (Galveston in particular hauled me in with its parent/child relationships), and he's clearly a good writer, but somehow it never quite all clicked for me. Mockingbird, I think, had the problem that I thought the main character was being a little... silly. Galveston had no such problem... if anything, maybe I identified a bit too much with the main female character.
lightreads and abigail_n: Joe Hill (20th-Century Ghosts). I don't usually read horror. I think I will continue not to. The non-horror dark-fantasy stories in this volume (e.g., the title story and "Pop Art") were really well done. The horror stories were also well done, though I personally have a much harder time with horror in general. Still, if you like that kind of thing, I very much recommend the book.