Book Club «

May 31 2012

Book Club: Kingdom Come, A Princess of Mars, Zatanna: Shades of the Past, Anansi Boys, Tranmetropolitan, Unwind

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Kingdom Come

A Princess of Mars

Zatanna: Shades of the Past

Anansi Boys

Tranmetropolitan vol 2-10

Unwind

Anansi Boys Anansi Boys takes place in the same universe as one of my favorite books American Gods, and I feel like a bad geek that I took so long to pick it up. This book took me back to my childhood days when, encouraged by an episode of Reading Rainbow, I read Anansi stories. This book made me wish for more stories in American Gods’ world.

Unwind This book was suggested by a librarian friend during a conversation about The Hunger Games and young adult fiction. The story has a vaguely similar plot device, there was a civil war and to quell the masses a unthinkable law was put in place that involves children. That is where the similarities to The Hunger Games end. Unwind’s unthinkable law is that “Between the ages of 13 and 17, parents or guardians can choose to have their children unwound, which involves having every part of their bodies harvested to be “donated” to another person so, technically, they don’t really die. “ A good read, with some disturbing scenes, that I would suggest.

The short and sweet;

Kingdom Come was lent to me by a DC fan, it was fun to see how DC heroes aged and were dealing with past conflicts. A bit of Superman/Wonder Woman shipping made me laugh
A Princess of Mars As a scifi classic I felt obligated to have this one on my list. I enjoyed it, but the antiquated writing (from the 20’s) shows.
Tranmetropolitan vol 2-10 As previously mentioned, I started this series at the suggestion of a friend. The series’ signature sarcasm and brutal politics continued up until the end.
Zatanna: Shades of the Past Love Z, that is all.

Mar 14 2012

Book Club Post: The Hunger Games, The 4400, Witchblade, Zatanna, Marvel 1602, Transmetropolitan

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Some of My Newest Reads

Mockingjay

Catching Fire

The Hunger Games

Transmetropolitan vol 1

Zatanna: Mistress of Magic

Marvel 1602

Zatanna Everyday Magic

Witchblade 1-6

The 4400: Promises Broken

Thoughts and musings;

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Having been published first in 2008, I’m a bit late getting on The Hunger Games bandwagon. Despite this I have to say I’m glad that I did not find time for them until recently, because of how entirely engrossed I became with them I would have been frustrated waiting a year for the next book. I did not enjoy the process with Harry Potter. Lucky for me I had all of them available immediately when I started reading, I easily devoured one after the other in little more than a week.

Several people have asked me whether I would compare it to the Japanese novel Battle Royale. I have not read it and have only seen the movie, but if pressed to compare the movie to The Hunger Games Trilogy I would not say they are alike. Though they share the plot device of having children fight each other in a game to the death, there are so many other things that set the two apart. They each have their own tones, characters, back stories, and such that make them unique. The Hunger Games sets itself apart more apart as the first book revolves heavily around what happens in the Games, the next two in the series focus greatly on politics and the emotional fallout of the Games. I would not make a recommendation of one property based purely on like for the other.

My sister, who has read both, agrees with my sentiments and did not care for the Battle Royale novel herself despite her great love of The Huger Games.

The 4400: Promises Broken

As I mentioned in an previous post, I was a fan of the television show The 440o and picked up the books that continued the series after its abrupt cancellation. This book is the final one that shows us the great catastrophe that supposedly the mysterious 4400 characters are to stop. Being a perfectionist this book made me question too often the theory of “If you go back in time to stop something and it doesn’t happen then you have no reason to go back it time, and then nothing stops it and you’re back to square one again!”

I palm-faced myself a few times and decided to just be content with closure to the series.

Transmetropolitan vol 1, Zatanna: Mistress of Magic, Zatanna Everyday Magic, Witchblade 1-6, Marvel 1602

The sort and sweet;

My friend Brian told me to read Transmetropolitan and so far I love the sarcasm and political commentary
I love Zatanna but haven’t read a lot of her comics, fixing that now
I’m giving Witchblade a try as it’s one of my sister’s favorite comics at the moment
Marvel 1602 had been sitting on my “to do” list for too long

Feb 15 2012

Book Club Post – New Reads; The Graveyard Book, Welcome to Promise City, Exalted, Knight and Squire 1-6

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Some of My Newest Reads

The Graveyard Book
The 4400: Welcome to Promise City
Exalted
Knight and Squire 1-6

Thoughts and musings;

Knight and Squire 1-6
There are so many comics to read and I am always adding new ones to my pile. Unfortunately when Knight and Squire was released they were quickly hidden under more comics. After hearing my friend Paul get so much praise for them I felt bad I had not gotten around to them and pulled them out from under my reading pile. Paul’s sense of humor and storytelling were very obvious in the quirky and fun take on British super heroes. The mimicking of American counterparts was fun and seeing heroes in laid back and humorous setting is always a fun read for me. One of the fun extras in this series was Paul’s letters to the reader at the end of each comic explaining British colloquialisms and hidden references.

Exalted

I received this at NYCC from my friends at DriveTHRUComics when they told me about their print on demand line up. Normally I am weary of print on demand books as they are too often of poor quality and look as though they were made on the cheap at the local print shop. I was pleasantly surprised quality wise, this looked and felt wise like any trade paperback you would pick up at a book store, so I took it home to add to my book pile. High fantasy RPG based comics aren’t my normal cup of tea, but this was a nice vacation read for me. It was a usual RPG like adventure of loner meeting a band of outcasts, a mysterious tomb, some old magic, and someone out to get them all. A good change of pace in my reading and it held up to my backpack-o-doom that normally shreds comics. Even though I love a good game I’m not enthralled with the RPG comics genre now, but I will be lending this out to my friends that are.

The 4400: Welcome to Promise City

I was a fan of the television series The 4400 and was disappointed when the series was abruptly canceled leaving a cliffhanger with no resolution to the story. This book picks up where the series ended, it and it’s sequel promise to wrap up the series with some resolution. I would not suggest this book for someone that had not seen the series as the characters are not fleshed out in depth and without the prior knowledge from the series I would think it would be confusing. As someone that did like the series, and even recently rewatched it, it is entertaining. There is a self contained story in the book, but the overarching plot is setting up the characters for the next. I look forward to getting the next one to complete the story.

The Graveyard Book

I received this book as a gift from attending the “Gathering at House on the Rock”. The story is of a boy raised by the supernatural inhabitants of a graveyard and to me it had an almost fairytale like feel to it. I enjoyed that while the characters were supernatural creatures the story was about the main character’s experiences growing up and learning, and not necessarily about supernatural occurrences. I loved this book. It was the kind that I stayed up too late for, skipped meals to read, and always had in my purse to steal any chance get further.