Comics/fiction
Scott Snyder & Jock Francesco Francavilla, Batman: The Black Mirror: Batman is Dick, and Gotham is still an evil seeping into everything it touches. A secret auction of atrocities, the latest escape of the Joker, a mysterious banker who’s the daughter of an old enemy, and the return of Jim Gordon’s estranged and possibly psychopathic son all play roles in this volume. I liked the themes of nightmares and reflections/refractions; Dick is a reflection of Bruce, but the man beneath the mask is different.
Tim Seeley & Mike Norton, Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It: In a small Wisconsin town, some of the dead have come back to life. But they aren’t necessarily the same as they were-they may be darker-and some of them have grudges. And now outsiders want to move the revived into internment camps, or possibly cut them up for parts, while some insiders are happy to have them do just that. I’m neglecting the tangled personal relationships-the sheriff’s daughter is a deputy trying to investigate the murder of her (revived) sister and deal with splitting custody of her son with his father, and also navigating her partnership with the hot CDC representative who’s come to town. The series reminds me a bit of Rachel Rising, though it’s less focused on relationships between women; I really like it and hope it doesn’t suffer comics plot complication collapse.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Rises: Kate Daniels travels to Europe with Curran and a bunch of other weres to protect a pregnant woman whose firstborn will inherit important territory-so important that she needs protection from other packs. The payment: the secret drug that makes it less likely that young weres will turn loup and have to be killed, something the American packs don’t know how to make. Lots of danger, posturing, and intrigue follow, as it turns out the expected trap isn’t for Curran but for Kate. Pretty much exactly what I wanted from a Kate Daniels novel.
Justin Cronin, The Passage: Assisted by bad military experimenters, vampires take over the world, except there’s one nearly-immortal girl who survives and may be able to save what’s left of humanity. Comparisons to Stephen King are obvious; there’s something of the same rhythm-of-life/willingness to spend time on the details in Cronin’s writing (not to mention that the plotof The Passage could be described as sutured together from The Stand, Salem’s Lot, and a dose of The Green Mile). But underlying it is a much more Dean Koontz-like “everything happens for a reason,” whereas King is quite upfront about his basic philosophy that bad things happen because they can. I much prefer King’s take on the problem of evil, because Cronin’s universe (or God) must delight in suffering, whereas King’s is merely indifferent. That’s not to say that Cronin doesn’t create interesting characters and situations, but he relies way too heavily on “X just somehow knew that he had to do Y next” in order to make sure that miraculous Amy gets where she’s going. (Also, magical Negroes who “just know” stuff give largely cryptic advice; the other people in the narrative who “just know” stuff are generally paler and generally get to take more direct action. If this trope is a dealbreaker, consider the deal broken.) Abigail Nussbaum is typically incisive in her review, though she doesn’t think much of King and I do and for once she's more positive about a book than I am.
The 1987 Annual World’s Best SF, ed. Donald A. Wollheim: Unsurprisingly, in 1987 science fiction (at least in the form of Lucius Shepard) expected continued Latin American/anticommunist wars. Doris Egan contributes the story of a possibly sociopathic and definitely interesting time traveler, reminiscent of what Kage Baker would later do and packed with tantalizing hints of a larger world. Suzette Hadin Elgin has a grating story about gender politics (I used to find her work really interesting, and then it just became essentialist and grating) and an indestructible miracle tree. Also represented: Roger Zelazny, Pat Cadigan, Tanith Lee, Howard Waldrop (inexplicable AU Africa), Robert Silverberg, Damon Knight, and Jerry Meredith & D.E. Smirl.
Daniel Abraham, The King’s Blood: Sequel to The Dragon’s Path, Abraham seems to have decided to go the GRRM epic fantasy with multiple kingdoms and POVs, minus all the rape (though not all the discrimination against women). He’s making a good go of it, as the dangerously pathetic regent Geder Pallaiko gains more power due to the intervention of the spider goddess’ priest who can discern any lie; the young budding alcoholic banker Cithrin struggles to come into her own as her story intersects with Geder’s; various rebellions are plotted; and the king-killer Marcus Wester stops waiting for Cithrin to return and signs on with the one man who might be able to fight the spider goddess’ plans to unify and pacify the world. I forgot how much I enjoyed this; everyone is recognizably human, even Geder who is also a monster, and now I’m looking forward to the next book.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
Tim Seeley & Mike Norton, Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It: In a small Wisconsin town, some of the dead have come back to life. But they aren’t necessarily the same as they were-they may be darker-and some of them have grudges. And now outsiders want to move the revived into internment camps, or possibly cut them up for parts, while some insiders are happy to have them do just that. I’m neglecting the tangled personal relationships-the sheriff’s daughter is a deputy trying to investigate the murder of her (revived) sister and deal with splitting custody of her son with his father, and also navigating her partnership with the hot CDC representative who’s come to town. The series reminds me a bit of Rachel Rising, though it’s less focused on relationships between women; I really like it and hope it doesn’t suffer comics plot complication collapse.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Rises: Kate Daniels travels to Europe with Curran and a bunch of other weres to protect a pregnant woman whose firstborn will inherit important territory-so important that she needs protection from other packs. The payment: the secret drug that makes it less likely that young weres will turn loup and have to be killed, something the American packs don’t know how to make. Lots of danger, posturing, and intrigue follow, as it turns out the expected trap isn’t for Curran but for Kate. Pretty much exactly what I wanted from a Kate Daniels novel.
Justin Cronin, The Passage: Assisted by bad military experimenters, vampires take over the world, except there’s one nearly-immortal girl who survives and may be able to save what’s left of humanity. Comparisons to Stephen King are obvious; there’s something of the same rhythm-of-life/willingness to spend time on the details in Cronin’s writing (not to mention that the plotof The Passage could be described as sutured together from The Stand, Salem’s Lot, and a dose of The Green Mile). But underlying it is a much more Dean Koontz-like “everything happens for a reason,” whereas King is quite upfront about his basic philosophy that bad things happen because they can. I much prefer King’s take on the problem of evil, because Cronin’s universe (or God) must delight in suffering, whereas King’s is merely indifferent. That’s not to say that Cronin doesn’t create interesting characters and situations, but he relies way too heavily on “X just somehow knew that he had to do Y next” in order to make sure that miraculous Amy gets where she’s going. (Also, magical Negroes who “just know” stuff give largely cryptic advice; the other people in the narrative who “just know” stuff are generally paler and generally get to take more direct action. If this trope is a dealbreaker, consider the deal broken.) Abigail Nussbaum is typically incisive in her review, though she doesn’t think much of King and I do and for once she's more positive about a book than I am.
The 1987 Annual World’s Best SF, ed. Donald A. Wollheim: Unsurprisingly, in 1987 science fiction (at least in the form of Lucius Shepard) expected continued Latin American/anticommunist wars. Doris Egan contributes the story of a possibly sociopathic and definitely interesting time traveler, reminiscent of what Kage Baker would later do and packed with tantalizing hints of a larger world. Suzette Hadin Elgin has a grating story about gender politics (I used to find her work really interesting, and then it just became essentialist and grating) and an indestructible miracle tree. Also represented: Roger Zelazny, Pat Cadigan, Tanith Lee, Howard Waldrop (inexplicable AU Africa), Robert Silverberg, Damon Knight, and Jerry Meredith & D.E. Smirl.
Daniel Abraham, The King’s Blood: Sequel to The Dragon’s Path, Abraham seems to have decided to go the GRRM epic fantasy with multiple kingdoms and POVs, minus all the rape (though not all the discrimination against women). He’s making a good go of it, as the dangerously pathetic regent Geder Pallaiko gains more power due to the intervention of the spider goddess’ priest who can discern any lie; the young budding alcoholic banker Cithrin struggles to come into her own as her story intersects with Geder’s; various rebellions are plotted; and the king-killer Marcus Wester stops waiting for Cithrin to return and signs on with the one man who might be able to fight the spider goddess’ plans to unify and pacify the world. I forgot how much I enjoyed this; everyone is recognizably human, even Geder who is also a monster, and now I’m looking forward to the next book.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.