updatage
Lotsa stuff... I think about 3+ weeks worth...comics, novels, trades, dvds, etc.
Novels:
"Suspense and Sensibility" by Carrie Bebris(historical mystery) While this book is more accessible to non-Jane Austen afficionados, I think it was an even better example of why the writer should have just made up "inspired by" characters, instead of using Austen's characters, primarily because she seems determined to have the supernatural, real or not, play a central in the story. Still, it was very enjoyable, it should just be about original characters.
"Sharpe's Company" by Bernard Cornwell(historical fiction): I'm not sure if this is the third or fourth (original, not added later)Sharpe book. The listings and such I can find say it's the third, but there are too many referrences for there to not be one before it. Oh well. Despite that, this was probably my favorite of the Sharpe books so far.
"Echoes of the Great Song" by David Gemmell(fantasy): On the one hand, I want to praise this book. On the other hand, executionwise, it's like he cut out the first 2 Rigante books, which tell you all the backstory you need to know, then crammed the other two 400+ page books into one 400 page book(not that this book is remotely connected to the Rigante books, just a scope comparison) An interesting story, but way too much for 437 pages, esp when two of the most important(and likely the 2 most interesting) characters aren't arround most of the time.
"Dead Witch Walking" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Undead" by Kim Harrison(urban fantasy): The first book only qualified as "enjoyable enough to keep reading" until about 2/3 through, when it really took off(same thing happened for me with E.E. Knight's "Vampire Earth" books) It takes the concepts of Buffy, Dresden Files, etc(vampires, werewolves, demons, etc are around a kicking, but most of us don't know) and takes it to the extreme by forcing awareness. It's kinda the Stephanie Plum version of urban fantasy(though hopefully, it won't be like Plum where it has a few really great books and then degenerates into "aren't these guys hot? which one should she sleep with?" which resulted in the last book I read being thrown aside and the whole set being taken to the UBS a week or two later and my not touching another modern mystery for over a year and...uhm...moving on...)
Trades/Manga:
Descendants Of Darkness Vol 10-11: WTF? No wonder people screech about the ending. That's not an ending, that's a mid chapter cut off! It's like a TV show with 22 episodes for the season got cut off 2/3 through episode 19. You know, where you know most things and all the big stuff is going on and you just have the big resolution and/or fight and the wrapup left after a little more buildup, and it's GOOD stuff. Grr...argh...
Saiyuki Vol 2-6: About the same as volume one, which means all is well. Except I'm rather annoyed with the monkey for his overly extreme reaction, leading to my favorite character being in a position to be tortured at the end there...
Tomorrow Stories Vol 2: Well, I still have yet to be able to read a Splash Brannigan story straight through, though I did manage with First American...both of those are just too much of parodies that aren't 100% sure what they're parodying. Jack B. Quick and Greyshirt, otoh, I'm liking more and more...Cobweb works for me usually, but starts to lose me a bit when it sinks a bit too close to being a feminist statement by a really hairy british guy. Looking forward to reading the Greyshirt trade soon.
Comics:
52 Week #1: Interesting stuff, but not a lot of it makes sense just yet. Mostly setup for the next few issues.
Annihilation Silver Surfer #2/Annihilation Super Skrull #2: As much as I'm enjoying Annihilation(much more interesting than any of the events Marvel actually promotes) I wish there was better art.Silver Surfer is more "former Heralds of Galactus with a focus on Silver Surfer, while Super Skrull is mostly investigating the negative zone(and is absolutely the LAST book that should have cartoony art...imagine Punisher with cartoony art...)
Cable Deadpool #28: Comicbook readers of less than a decade, meet the real Domino. Stalking is foreplay. Murdering your target is foreplay. Trying to kill you? That's foreplay, too. At least, if you're a part machine temporally messed up guy.
Fables #49: Well it's about blasted time. I don't think ANYONE was expecting that, which is pretty normal for Fables. Now if could just rest assured that Mowgli isn't about to go lurk in limbo-dom for a year or two. Also, CUBS!
Supergirl #6: Well this is...uhm...*scratches head* more out of the blue than any other year one yet, I think. Interesting, but...
Good but nothing in particular to say that I haven't said about other issues:
Firestorm The Nuclear Man #25
Infinite Crisis #7
Jonah Hex #7
JSA #85
Lions Tigers & Bears Vol 2 #2
Teen Titans #35
Thunderbolts #102
New trades I haven't got to yet:
Fray TPB
Gotham Central Vol 3 Unresolved Targets
Hikaru No Go Vol 6
Love Hina Novel Vol 1
No Man’s Land Vol 1
Seven Soldier of Victory Vol 1
Top Cow/Marvel Crossover Collection TP
The Wood Boy/ The Burning Man TPB
Aeon Flux: Pretty and entertaining, which was all I expected. I do wish they'd tried to infuse a little more originality into the designs...fairly standard futuristic utopia.
Ah! My Goddess: The Movie: Rather sweet and very well animated, though I like the OVAs better. Definately have to track down the mini-goddesses set.
Angel: Season 4: I think Joss Whedon is allergic to season 4s. Like Buffy season 4, there are a lot of interesting things here with considerable potential, but the overall result was weak, at least in comparison to the rest of the series. That said, it does feature the bulk of the Wesley/Lilah relationship, which I think is probably the most interesting of the Buffy/Angel pairings, and one of the most endearing(though Willow/Oz and Xander/Cordy still hold the "cutest" positions in my heart) It also featured Gwen, who had a lot of potential, but apparently won't return... And may I just say that the near total dismissal of Arguably the second most important character of the show, as well as its primary grounding force(which seems to have shifted to Fred) in the extras is borderline criminal?
Karas: The Prophecy: An interesting little DVD. The concept shows a lot of promise, but it's a little too caught up in having good fight scenes and not caught up enough in explaining itself. Still, I understand there are only 2 DVDs, so hopefully the second will clear everything up.
Remington Steele: Season 3: Oh happy, happy days. The first third was a touch jarring(though no less entertaining for it) as they spent most of it globetrotting, but they settled down to focus on the homeground detecting before too long. Also, while Mildred is no replacement for Bernice and Murphy, she didn't annoy me like she did in season 2. And the last episode...talk about ripping your heart out and stomping on it.
Novels:
"Suspense and Sensibility" by Carrie Bebris(historical mystery) While this book is more accessible to non-Jane Austen afficionados, I think it was an even better example of why the writer should have just made up "inspired by" characters, instead of using Austen's characters, primarily because she seems determined to have the supernatural, real or not, play a central in the story. Still, it was very enjoyable, it should just be about original characters.
"Sharpe's Company" by Bernard Cornwell(historical fiction): I'm not sure if this is the third or fourth (original, not added later)Sharpe book. The listings and such I can find say it's the third, but there are too many referrences for there to not be one before it. Oh well. Despite that, this was probably my favorite of the Sharpe books so far.
"Echoes of the Great Song" by David Gemmell(fantasy): On the one hand, I want to praise this book. On the other hand, executionwise, it's like he cut out the first 2 Rigante books, which tell you all the backstory you need to know, then crammed the other two 400+ page books into one 400 page book(not that this book is remotely connected to the Rigante books, just a scope comparison) An interesting story, but way too much for 437 pages, esp when two of the most important(and likely the 2 most interesting) characters aren't arround most of the time.
"Dead Witch Walking" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Undead" by Kim Harrison(urban fantasy): The first book only qualified as "enjoyable enough to keep reading" until about 2/3 through, when it really took off(same thing happened for me with E.E. Knight's "Vampire Earth" books) It takes the concepts of Buffy, Dresden Files, etc(vampires, werewolves, demons, etc are around a kicking, but most of us don't know) and takes it to the extreme by forcing awareness. It's kinda the Stephanie Plum version of urban fantasy(though hopefully, it won't be like Plum where it has a few really great books and then degenerates into "aren't these guys hot? which one should she sleep with?" which resulted in the last book I read being thrown aside and the whole set being taken to the UBS a week or two later and my not touching another modern mystery for over a year and...uhm...moving on...)
Trades/Manga:
Descendants Of Darkness Vol 10-11: WTF? No wonder people screech about the ending. That's not an ending, that's a mid chapter cut off! It's like a TV show with 22 episodes for the season got cut off 2/3 through episode 19. You know, where you know most things and all the big stuff is going on and you just have the big resolution and/or fight and the wrapup left after a little more buildup, and it's GOOD stuff. Grr...argh...
Saiyuki Vol 2-6: About the same as volume one, which means all is well. Except I'm rather annoyed with the monkey for his overly extreme reaction, leading to my favorite character being in a position to be tortured at the end there...
Tomorrow Stories Vol 2: Well, I still have yet to be able to read a Splash Brannigan story straight through, though I did manage with First American...both of those are just too much of parodies that aren't 100% sure what they're parodying. Jack B. Quick and Greyshirt, otoh, I'm liking more and more...Cobweb works for me usually, but starts to lose me a bit when it sinks a bit too close to being a feminist statement by a really hairy british guy. Looking forward to reading the Greyshirt trade soon.
Comics:
52 Week #1: Interesting stuff, but not a lot of it makes sense just yet. Mostly setup for the next few issues.
Annihilation Silver Surfer #2/Annihilation Super Skrull #2: As much as I'm enjoying Annihilation(much more interesting than any of the events Marvel actually promotes) I wish there was better art.Silver Surfer is more "former Heralds of Galactus with a focus on Silver Surfer, while Super Skrull is mostly investigating the negative zone(and is absolutely the LAST book that should have cartoony art...imagine Punisher with cartoony art...)
Cable Deadpool #28: Comicbook readers of less than a decade, meet the real Domino. Stalking is foreplay. Murdering your target is foreplay. Trying to kill you? That's foreplay, too. At least, if you're a part machine temporally messed up guy.
Fables #49: Well it's about blasted time. I don't think ANYONE was expecting that, which is pretty normal for Fables. Now if could just rest assured that Mowgli isn't about to go lurk in limbo-dom for a year or two. Also, CUBS!
Supergirl #6: Well this is...uhm...*scratches head* more out of the blue than any other year one yet, I think. Interesting, but...
Good but nothing in particular to say that I haven't said about other issues:
Firestorm The Nuclear Man #25
Infinite Crisis #7
Jonah Hex #7
JSA #85
Lions Tigers & Bears Vol 2 #2
Teen Titans #35
Thunderbolts #102
New trades I haven't got to yet:
Fray TPB
Gotham Central Vol 3 Unresolved Targets
Hikaru No Go Vol 6
Love Hina Novel Vol 1
No Man’s Land Vol 1
Seven Soldier of Victory Vol 1
Top Cow/Marvel Crossover Collection TP
The Wood Boy/ The Burning Man TPB
Aeon Flux: Pretty and entertaining, which was all I expected. I do wish they'd tried to infuse a little more originality into the designs...fairly standard futuristic utopia.
Ah! My Goddess: The Movie: Rather sweet and very well animated, though I like the OVAs better. Definately have to track down the mini-goddesses set.
Angel: Season 4: I think Joss Whedon is allergic to season 4s. Like Buffy season 4, there are a lot of interesting things here with considerable potential, but the overall result was weak, at least in comparison to the rest of the series. That said, it does feature the bulk of the Wesley/Lilah relationship, which I think is probably the most interesting of the Buffy/Angel pairings, and one of the most endearing(though Willow/Oz and Xander/Cordy still hold the "cutest" positions in my heart) It also featured Gwen, who had a lot of potential, but apparently won't return... And may I just say that the near total dismissal of Arguably the second most important character of the show, as well as its primary grounding force(which seems to have shifted to Fred) in the extras is borderline criminal?
Karas: The Prophecy: An interesting little DVD. The concept shows a lot of promise, but it's a little too caught up in having good fight scenes and not caught up enough in explaining itself. Still, I understand there are only 2 DVDs, so hopefully the second will clear everything up.
Remington Steele: Season 3: Oh happy, happy days. The first third was a touch jarring(though no less entertaining for it) as they spent most of it globetrotting, but they settled down to focus on the homeground detecting before too long. Also, while Mildred is no replacement for Bernice and Murphy, she didn't annoy me like she did in season 2. And the last episode...talk about ripping your heart out and stomping on it.