Wednesday Reading Meme
What I Just Finished Reading
Marko Kloos, Chains of Command: Another entry in the Frontlines series of mil-SF. If it's not your genre this isn't the kind of book that's going to change your mind, but it continues to be very pleasantly readable (as someone who has read a lot of mil-SF, I assure you that this is not a given) and has things blowing up in exciting ways and spaceships and pew pew laser battles, which is really the sort of thing you come here for. The pacing is kind of weird in that half the book foreshadows the main characters going on a mission to Mars but then the story turns out to be about them going to a completely different planet and deciding they'll go to Mars next. And the the book ends. That... that totally should have been in this book.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday! Whew. Lots of comics.
Avengers Standoff Assault on Pleasant Hill Omega #1: The last Standoff issue! I really, really like Spencer's writing, you guys. I think this is the happiest I've been with a crossover in a while. Even the obligatory Giant Fight Scene was fun, and I love how he keeps throwing in canon references (Tony's reaction to seeing Steve is "You know, I got de-aged once too") and it's just really fun. Basically, everyone defeats the bad guys, Zemo gets away, Red Skull and Sin get away, one of the new SHIELD agents becomes Quasar (apparently we needed a new Quasar? I do miss Phyla-Vell, though), and Hill is demoted to probationary status after this fiasco. And, you see, war is coming. *rolls eyes* How much do I have to pay them not to do Civil War again? For God's sake, Tony doesn't even remember the first one! And at this point I don't think Carol does either!
(Also there's a panel where Maria's talking to all the Avengers at the end and Steve is drawn as Still Old. Whoops.)
Doctor Strange: Last Days of Magic #1: Weird robots are killing sorcerers. Whoop whoop. But, hey, apparently Doom's there?
Doctor Strange #7: Part 2 of Last Days of Magic. More robots. And all the sorcerers are captured and Strange is saaaaad and blaming himself and there's no magic left except maybe in some artifacts so they have to go find it? Hmph. I am actually invested in what's happening to his librarian, though.
International Iron Man #2: I know this is supposed to be a slow, introspective look at Tony's past, but wow, was it ever slow. Even the fight scene at the end was slow. Tony talks to Cassandra's mother, then Cassandra, then Howard (and everyone keeps giving Tony drinks) and blah blah Cassandra might have set him up, then we flash forward and he's talking to Cassandra and she captures him. I am not really invested in this character. You know, Tony already had a canonical girlfriend as a teenager who was the daughter of one of his father's business rivals and therefore Howard forbade them to see each other. I'm not sure why he needed a second one. At least the art's pretty? I was going to say that was really the only thing I liked about this issue but then I got to the panel where Tony asks Cassandra if his father is Doom and I laughed out loud. So it has that going for it. I was just really, really hoping that we could stop writing 616 Tony like he's RDJ, but apparently not. I see why there are so many bitter Tony fans in comics fandom now.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #6: This series continues to be adorable. I don't know that I have anything specific to say about it.
Spider-Woman #6: Still in the Spider-Women crossover. Jess is stuck on Earth-65 and goes to investigate her counterpart, who has their dimensional-travel device and is a dude and also evil. She doesn't meet him, just his wife. And they get the device and Earth-65 Reed (who is apparently 13) sets it up for them and they go back. This is godawful boring. At least it mostly didn't mention Jess' kid.
Ultimates #6: Well, this is cosmic and trippy. Galactus is a good guy now and I think he just punched the universe in the face and then he had some soda with Molecule Man something something omniverse something.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7: This comic GIVES ME LIFE. Also in the recaps today Tony is "#ironmansplaining" time-travel ahaha oh God yes. Petition to have Ryan North write IM instead of Bendis, please. Also possibly I should have read this in paper because it is a choose-your-own-adventure comic. Together, Squirrel Girl and Koi Boi defeat Swarm and it is hilarious and great. I am also a fan of the Secret Ending where we see her fighting bees and getting to wear the Iron Man suit again. (I am still not over the part where it has room for her tail.)
What I'm Reading Next
On the "buying more books than I actually read" front, it looks like there's a third book in that m/m xeno SF series halotolerant recommended to me about the space linguist and his kinky relationship with his giant reptile alien boyfriend. Whee. Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
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Marko Kloos, Chains of Command: Another entry in the Frontlines series of mil-SF. If it's not your genre this isn't the kind of book that's going to change your mind, but it continues to be very pleasantly readable (as someone who has read a lot of mil-SF, I assure you that this is not a given) and has things blowing up in exciting ways and spaceships and pew pew laser battles, which is really the sort of thing you come here for. The pacing is kind of weird in that half the book foreshadows the main characters going on a mission to Mars but then the story turns out to be about them going to a completely different planet and deciding they'll go to Mars next. And the the book ends. That... that totally should have been in this book.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday! Whew. Lots of comics.
Avengers Standoff Assault on Pleasant Hill Omega #1: The last Standoff issue! I really, really like Spencer's writing, you guys. I think this is the happiest I've been with a crossover in a while. Even the obligatory Giant Fight Scene was fun, and I love how he keeps throwing in canon references (Tony's reaction to seeing Steve is "You know, I got de-aged once too") and it's just really fun. Basically, everyone defeats the bad guys, Zemo gets away, Red Skull and Sin get away, one of the new SHIELD agents becomes Quasar (apparently we needed a new Quasar? I do miss Phyla-Vell, though), and Hill is demoted to probationary status after this fiasco. And, you see, war is coming. *rolls eyes* How much do I have to pay them not to do Civil War again? For God's sake, Tony doesn't even remember the first one! And at this point I don't think Carol does either!
(Also there's a panel where Maria's talking to all the Avengers at the end and Steve is drawn as Still Old. Whoops.)
Doctor Strange: Last Days of Magic #1: Weird robots are killing sorcerers. Whoop whoop. But, hey, apparently Doom's there?
Doctor Strange #7: Part 2 of Last Days of Magic. More robots. And all the sorcerers are captured and Strange is saaaaad and blaming himself and there's no magic left except maybe in some artifacts so they have to go find it? Hmph. I am actually invested in what's happening to his librarian, though.
International Iron Man #2: I know this is supposed to be a slow, introspective look at Tony's past, but wow, was it ever slow. Even the fight scene at the end was slow. Tony talks to Cassandra's mother, then Cassandra, then Howard (and everyone keeps giving Tony drinks) and blah blah Cassandra might have set him up, then we flash forward and he's talking to Cassandra and she captures him. I am not really invested in this character. You know, Tony already had a canonical girlfriend as a teenager who was the daughter of one of his father's business rivals and therefore Howard forbade them to see each other. I'm not sure why he needed a second one. At least the art's pretty? I was going to say that was really the only thing I liked about this issue but then I got to the panel where Tony asks Cassandra if his father is Doom and I laughed out loud. So it has that going for it. I was just really, really hoping that we could stop writing 616 Tony like he's RDJ, but apparently not. I see why there are so many bitter Tony fans in comics fandom now.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #6: This series continues to be adorable. I don't know that I have anything specific to say about it.
Spider-Woman #6: Still in the Spider-Women crossover. Jess is stuck on Earth-65 and goes to investigate her counterpart, who has their dimensional-travel device and is a dude and also evil. She doesn't meet him, just his wife. And they get the device and Earth-65 Reed (who is apparently 13) sets it up for them and they go back. This is godawful boring. At least it mostly didn't mention Jess' kid.
Ultimates #6: Well, this is cosmic and trippy. Galactus is a good guy now and I think he just punched the universe in the face and then he had some soda with Molecule Man something something omniverse something.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7: This comic GIVES ME LIFE. Also in the recaps today Tony is "#ironmansplaining" time-travel ahaha oh God yes. Petition to have Ryan North write IM instead of Bendis, please. Also possibly I should have read this in paper because it is a choose-your-own-adventure comic. Together, Squirrel Girl and Koi Boi defeat Swarm and it is hilarious and great. I am also a fan of the Secret Ending where we see her fighting bees and getting to wear the Iron Man suit again. (I am still not over the part where it has room for her tail.)
What I'm Reading Next
On the "buying more books than I actually read" front, it looks like there's a third book in that m/m xeno SF series halotolerant recommended to me about the space linguist and his kinky relationship with his giant reptile alien boyfriend. Whee. Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
comments