Fiction/graphic novels
Jim Butcher et al., Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files: War Cry: Free review copy. Set after Harry becomes a Warden but before recent books, this graphic novel sees Harry sent with three other newly-fledged Wardens to protect an isolated house in Iowa from the Red Court. What’s there is far worse than the Red Court itself, and Harry and his trainees have to fight a desperate rearguard action. The graphic novel format gives visuals at the expense of the dominance of internal voice, and I enjoy the internal voice more than the boom-boom. For some reason, Harry’s impressive powers are more impressive to me when I can imagine them. It was nice to see Thomas come to help out, though.
The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen, ed. Ellen Datlow. Free review copy. Many of these movie-themed stories (and poem, Final Girl Theory by A.C. Wise) prioritize atmosphere over plot, or the internal narration of a disintegrating personality over plot, which creates a similar effect (for example, Steve Nagy’s The Hanged Man of Oz, in which the Wizard of Oz is reinterpreted as a snuff film). That may have something to do with the way many of the stories describe movies, or reactions to movies, and how the written word has different affordances than the audiovisual. So if you want different flavors of dread, this collection may satisfy, but it’s less plot-driven than other horror collections. Genevieve Valentine’s She Drives the Men to Crimes of Passion! tells a creepy story about a misogynist director and the actress he’s compelled to possess, a sort of variant on the selkie myth (though without the denouement). Kim Newman’s contribution Illimitable Dominion is about a Poe story taking over filmmaking, and I didn’t think it was his best work; a similar story, Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer’s each thing I show you is a piece of my death, tells the same “content creep” story in epistolary form and packs a much greater punch.
Rogues, ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois: The stories, written in multiple genres on the theme of “rogues,” are good examples of the authors, at least the ones I knew. Gillian Flynn writes horrible people behaving horribly to one another. Connie Willis writes hijinks in an exaggerated “if this goes on” situation, this time involving the movies, and a woman, totally exasperated by the follies of a man, who ends up forgiving him anyway. Patrick Rothfuss offers a story of Kvothe’s assistant that you’ll like if you like the books. George R.R. Martin gives us some Targaryen history, written in the style of a textbook history with, as far as the narrator is concerned, very little rape in it though plenty of young girls married to older men. Cherie Priest, unfortunately, offers more of a supernatural story than steampunk. Daniel Abraham’s story features a con man in the bad side of a city who takes terrible risks for love of a prince in hiding who loves someone else. Paul Cornell’s story also disappointed me-I either needed to know more about his James Bond figure or the story’s just really disjoined. Other authors include Joe Lansdale, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Lynch (I liked this magical caper better than the book of his I read), Garth Nix, Walter Jon Williams, Lisa Tuttle, and Neil Gaiman (magic under London).
George R.R. Martin et al., The Sworn Sword: The Hedge Knight II: Graphic novel. Ser Duncan and his squire Egg have a modest place with Ser Eustace, whose limited holdings come under further threat when the Spider Lady nearby dams his stream for her own crops during a drought. Unfortunately for Ser Duncan, very few people in his world are honorable, and even those that are by their own lights have a code of honor that has little to do with justice or fairness. Again, the sexual coercion (very young girl married, serially, to older men) is offscreen, and Ser Duncan’s relationship with the Lady is a bit trope-resistant although Martin-consistent (in that he ends up being a jerk and doesn’t know it). I’m hooked on Martin’s crapsack world, is the problem, though I think I don’t need more prequels/histories; I will just try to find out what horrible things happen to the characters I care about.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen, ed. Ellen Datlow. Free review copy. Many of these movie-themed stories (and poem, Final Girl Theory by A.C. Wise) prioritize atmosphere over plot, or the internal narration of a disintegrating personality over plot, which creates a similar effect (for example, Steve Nagy’s The Hanged Man of Oz, in which the Wizard of Oz is reinterpreted as a snuff film). That may have something to do with the way many of the stories describe movies, or reactions to movies, and how the written word has different affordances than the audiovisual. So if you want different flavors of dread, this collection may satisfy, but it’s less plot-driven than other horror collections. Genevieve Valentine’s She Drives the Men to Crimes of Passion! tells a creepy story about a misogynist director and the actress he’s compelled to possess, a sort of variant on the selkie myth (though without the denouement). Kim Newman’s contribution Illimitable Dominion is about a Poe story taking over filmmaking, and I didn’t think it was his best work; a similar story, Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer’s each thing I show you is a piece of my death, tells the same “content creep” story in epistolary form and packs a much greater punch.
Rogues, ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois: The stories, written in multiple genres on the theme of “rogues,” are good examples of the authors, at least the ones I knew. Gillian Flynn writes horrible people behaving horribly to one another. Connie Willis writes hijinks in an exaggerated “if this goes on” situation, this time involving the movies, and a woman, totally exasperated by the follies of a man, who ends up forgiving him anyway. Patrick Rothfuss offers a story of Kvothe’s assistant that you’ll like if you like the books. George R.R. Martin gives us some Targaryen history, written in the style of a textbook history with, as far as the narrator is concerned, very little rape in it though plenty of young girls married to older men. Cherie Priest, unfortunately, offers more of a supernatural story than steampunk. Daniel Abraham’s story features a con man in the bad side of a city who takes terrible risks for love of a prince in hiding who loves someone else. Paul Cornell’s story also disappointed me-I either needed to know more about his James Bond figure or the story’s just really disjoined. Other authors include Joe Lansdale, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Lynch (I liked this magical caper better than the book of his I read), Garth Nix, Walter Jon Williams, Lisa Tuttle, and Neil Gaiman (magic under London).
George R.R. Martin et al., The Sworn Sword: The Hedge Knight II: Graphic novel. Ser Duncan and his squire Egg have a modest place with Ser Eustace, whose limited holdings come under further threat when the Spider Lady nearby dams his stream for her own crops during a drought. Unfortunately for Ser Duncan, very few people in his world are honorable, and even those that are by their own lights have a code of honor that has little to do with justice or fairness. Again, the sexual coercion (very young girl married, serially, to older men) is offscreen, and Ser Duncan’s relationship with the Lady is a bit trope-resistant although Martin-consistent (in that he ends up being a jerk and doesn’t know it). I’m hooked on Martin’s crapsack world, is the problem, though I think I don’t need more prequels/histories; I will just try to find out what horrible things happen to the characters I care about.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.