Whats everyone reading?

[Jim_Campbell]

Having recently read The Peripheral and Agency* I've been on something of a William Gibson binge. I'm just re-reading Pattern Recognition as a warm-up to the rest of the 'Blue Ant' trilogy, which I'm pretty sure I haven't read.

Pattern Recognition is fascinating... I mean, it's a great book and Gibson's prose is as brilliantly, surgically precise as always, but it's also a present day novel set not long after 9/11. As a result, it's a window into twenty-odd years ago that's very technology-focussed and sharply accentuates just how much the world has changed in the last two decades... particularly the seismic changes the smartphone, the ubiquity of the internet, and social media have brought about — people are carrying portable DVD players and hauling out cellular-enabled laptops to check their emails. It all feels remarkably quaint and oddly alien, even to someone like me, who's old enough to remember a world before the internet.**

*Not sure why I drifted away from Gibson's work, but I wanted to read them having enjoyed the flawed-but-watchable (and, sadly, now cancelled) Prime series.

**And I was a fairly early adopter — I remember having to Google the number of web pages that made up the World Wide Web when I first got online, because I genuinely couldn't believe it when someone mentioned the number a few years ago. (It was about 35,000. Pages. Not sites, pages.)

[Fortnight]

In the earlier days of t'internet there wasn't even any google to do any googling. You had to google with AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, or something. Or you'd be using usenet to find your porn literature. Back in the day I'd "acquire" countless .lit ebooks from assorted binaries groups on usenet, replete with transcription/OCR errors that made them entertainingly hilarious, but not so enjoyable to read.

[Jim_Campbell]

You had to google with AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, or something.

Oh, yeah... I remember that — you often had to stick the same query into two or three different search engines before you got a useful result. Which was particularly annoying, given how small the bloody internet was back then.

And I basically used to live on UseNet discussion groups in the second half of 90s into the early 00s. *nostalgic sigh*

[Tjm86]

Currently working my way through Heinlein's Friday, a novel that I've had sat on my shelf for a while but strangely not got round to.  I do wonder how much of that is due to the complete lack of blurb so it's anyone's guess as to what the novel is about.  As one of Heinlein's more substantial tomes, it does make for interesting reading.

So the Friday of the story is an artificial person, genetically engineered, working as a courier for some arcane agency.  Part of me is wondering whether this was in anyway relevant to Gibbons' decision to name the new Rogue Trooper Friday or that was just a coincidence but that is merely an aside.

Set in a future balkanised America, the plot revolves around the lead character's misadventures during an obscure crisis that sees her on the run and trying to get back to her employers.  The nature of the crisis is unclear but the effects are enough to make life difficult for her and involve several near misses of a potentially fatal kind.

Like much of Heinlein's writing, a lot is made of polyamorous situations.  Various different kinds of marriage and relationships feature, as does Heinlein's rather 'flexible' perspective on sexual mores (for when the novel was written).  Written in the first person it rattles along at a brisk pace, almost breathlessly at times.  It is definitely of the 'pulp sci-fi' era but quite an enjoyable tome.

One of the interesting aspects of the novel is that it is so difficult to discern where things are going.  The rather peculiar nature of the crisis at the heart of it, the fragmented nature of North American society and the speed with which Friday has to navigate the crises she faces makes for a considerable amount of unpredictability.  In that respect it is all the more intriguing a piece of work.

Personally I've always felt that Heinlein is a little under-rated as an author.  Far more attention is given over to Dick, Asimov or Clarke from that generation.  Heinlein has more in common on some levels with Dick in that his characters tend to inhabit a shady world and struggle with complex situations whereas Clarke and Asimov's characters tend to be officials or persons of influence, largely able to control events.  Admittedly his libertarianism can be problematic at times.  Overall though, his work deserves far more attention.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

House Of X / Powers Of X (Parts 1 - 12) by Jonathan Hickman - My local library had this pretty hefty collection available to borrow and so while I've only ever dipped in and out of various X-Men runs I thought I'd give it a go. I really loved it as well, I have to admit that I did visit https://www.polygon.com/2019/8/22/20828371/house-of-x-powers-of-x-comics-reviews-spoilers-jonathan-hickman a good few times to fill in some of the gaps in my x-men knowledge, but overall this had a lot of interesting ideas and themes and is beautifully drawn as well. I gather that Hickman left without finishing the story and that it's only about to come to an end this year, and to read it all (including the spin-off's) would be really pricey, but I'm looking forward to the next omnibus and plan to keep an eye on ebay and amazon to see if I can get it at a reasonable price. 5/5

Cinema Purgatorio by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill - A collection of short strips which are all connected by a monologue from a woman who keeps on returning to the cinema despite it being run down, seedy and the man at the end of the aisle hasn't moved for quite a while now. Initially the framing device annoyed me a fair bit as it droned on about what the obvious meaning of each "film" was, and the sense of unease felt forced as it kept on repeating how strange and unusual the films and cinema were, but about half way in her narrative starts to become a little more intriguing if only as the characters around her become increasingly bizarre and I liked the way it ended a lot. As for the films / main stories themselves, I'd say I liked three quarters of them, The Time Of Our Lives, Otz The Cat & Pat The Dog, The King At Twilight, It's A Breakable Life, and Tod  being my favourites, but a few fell flat, or felt repetitive, and a couple had a sort of "I bet you didn't know this famous Hollywood type was an absolute ********", but I did, so it failed to make the intended impact. Still, overall I liked this a lot, and while it's not O'Neill's best art it's still often really grotesque and gruesome. 4.5/5

[BadlyDrawnKano]

House Of X / Power of X Omnibus (Essentially two six part mini-series) - I loved this a lot and I wasn't initially sure if I would, as the first issue left me a bit cold. But after that I became really gripped by the refreshingly smart change of scenery for all of the Earth's mutants, and all of the jumping around timelines was something I loved too. The only problem is that the storyline is only coming to an end now, so if I wanted to read all of it along with the various spin-offs it would cost a huge amount. And I'm not going to do that because...

Dawn Of X Volume 1 - I was pretty disappointed by this, I liked Uncanny X-Men, Marauders and X-Force issue 1, but the rest didn't do it for me at all. Some felt really soap opera-esque, others featured characters I didn't care for, while a major event occurs in one but then is only briefly referred to in the next comic, which felt plain weird.

Both of these were borrowed from the library but it's all they've got in stock (and that applies with the rest of the libraries in my borough), I've been advised I could just read Hickman's run on X-Men up until issue 16 and quit then, but even that's going to be around £50 unless I get it cheaper in an ebay auction (I almost got one for £27 this week, but was outbid by a pound at the very last second!) so I don't know, I'd like to read more of it but I don't know if I will.

[Colin YNWA]

House Of X / Power of X Omnibus (Essentially two six part mini-series) - I loved this a lot and I wasn't initially sure if I would, as the first issue left me a bit cold. But after that I became really gripped by the refreshingly smart change of scenery for all of the Earth's mutants, and all of the jumping around timelines was something I loved too. The only problem is that the storyline is only coming to an end now, so if I wanted to read all of it along with the various spin-offs it would cost a huge amount. And I'm not going to do that because...

Dawn Of X Volume 1 - I was pretty disappointed by this, I liked Uncanny X-Men, Marauders and X-Force issue 1, but the rest didn't do it for me at all. Some felt really soap opera-esque, others featured characters I didn't care for, while a major event occurs in one but then is only briefly referred to in the next comic, which felt plain weird.

Both of these were borrowed from the library but it's all they've got in stock (and that applies with the rest of the libraries in my borough), I've been advised I could just read Hickman's run on X-Men up until issue 16 and quit then, but even that's going to be around £50 unless I get it cheaper in an ebay auction (I almost got one for £27 this week, but was outbid by a pound at the very last second!) so I don't know, I'd like to read more of it but I don't know if I will.

Yeah dipped into this stuff when looking for new things to read, it was getting good press and I was curious about what would be here and how the X-world had developed. So picked a few up and... did not like them at all.

Things had moved on so far from what I'd looked for from this type of comic and I didn't really have a route in, within the comics themselves, to get me orientated. So I moved on very quickly.

Now this isn't me doing the old man rant, screaming into the internet void saying "BUT I WANT MY X-MEN FROM MY YOUTH BACK." ... well okay it kinda is, but I don't like the X-Men comics I loved as a kid anymore anyway way. Rather I was fine with the fact this didn't work for me. The franchise had moved on and that can only be a good thing. The trouble was this new opportunity didn't bring me a long with it, so I happily moved on feeling the clink of the spare money I'd saved in my pocket and tried others things instead!

[Tjm86]

To be honest Hickman's X-universe left me cold.  There have been some dire runs since Claremont quit as lead scribe.  The worst has to be Chuck Austen's run but even then there have been few runs that have inspired.  Post House of M it picked up in places but only marginally.

It really is quite difficult to figure out what is going on with this current generation of X-men.  The resurrection idea is an odd one to throw into the mix, taking away any sense of risk.  The only one I thought they did a good job on was the Excalibur reboot.  Possibly because it was totally divorced from everything else and picked up on ideas rooted in Moore's Captain Britain stuff.

[PsychoGoatee]

I'm in the middle of a bunch of stuff, here's a few.

Mega Man by Ian Flynn and several cool artists. Some good Nintendo/Capcom nostalgia, fun read.

Saga by Vaughan and Staples, I'm 15 issues in. Solid start, pretty smooth so far, getting more invested in the characters a bit.

Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen, always. Just got the latest extra size wedding issue 267, it rules. One of the back-ups is a recolored Megaton comic from the 80s, always cool.

Usagi Yojimbo, I'm near the beginning, great stuff from the get-go. I've been collecting it for a while since Stan rules and want to support it, yet I am decades behind. Got into it a couple years ago. Lot to enjoy!

Deadpool by Kelly and several artists, the 90s run that made him such a fun character. I'm really liking it. I feel like Marvel bounced back with some titles like this from say 1997, with the more cartoony style and looser vibe.

Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, I'm on the From the Ashes collection, issue 168. Classic.

One Piece by Oda of course. Bless him. We are on the cruise, yes indeed.

Fist of the North Star by Hara and Buronson. Iconic. I read the first 4 or 5 master edition versions 20 years ago, they stopped at 7 or 8 vols. Now Viz picked it back up and they've gotten much more out, finishing the first major saga and getting to the ever classic time skip. Love a good time skip.

Judge Dredd by John Wagner and many cool artists. I have up to Case Files 42 on my shelf, but I am on Case Files 26.  I will read all this, that's a promise to you fine people here.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

House Of X / Power of X Omnibus (Essentially two six part mini-series) - I loved this a lot and I wasn't initially sure if I would, as the first issue left me a bit cold. But after that I became really gripped by the refreshingly smart change of scenery for all of the Earth's mutants, and all of the jumping around timelines was something I loved too. The only problem is that the storyline is only coming to an end now, so if I wanted to read all of it along with the various spin-offs it would cost a huge amount. And I'm not going to do that because...

Dawn Of X Volume 1 - I was pretty disappointed by this, I liked Uncanny X-Men, Marauders and X-Force issue 1, but the rest didn't do it for me at all. Some felt really soap opera-esque, others featured characters I didn't care for, while a major event occurs in one but then is only briefly referred to in the next comic, which felt plain weird.

Both of these were borrowed from the library but it's all they've got in stock (and that applies with the rest of the libraries in my borough), I've been advised I could just read Hickman's run on X-Men up until issue 16 and quit then, but even that's going to be around £50 unless I get it cheaper in an ebay auction (I almost got one for £27 this week, but was outbid by a pound at the very last second!) so I don't know, I'd like to read more of it but I don't know if I will.

Yeah dipped into this stuff when looking for new things to read, it was getting good press and I was curious about what would be here and how the X-world had developed. So picked a few up and... did not like them at all.

Things had moved on so far from what I'd looked for from this type of comic and I didn't really have a route in, within the comics themselves, to get me orientated. So I moved on very quickly.

Now this isn't me doing the old man rant, screaming into the internet void saying "BUT I WANT MY X-MEN FROM MY YOUTH BACK." ... well okay it kinda is, but I don't like the X-Men comics I loved as a kid anymore anyway way. Rather I was fine with the fact this didn't work for me. The franchise had moved on and that can only be a good thing. The trouble was this new opportunity didn't bring me a long with it, so I happily moved on feeling the clink of the spare money I'd saved in my pocket and tried others things instead!

Weirdly I was never really in to Marvel as a teenager (1987+), there were some titles I liked like She-Hulk and Groo (and some Spider-Man), but I was mostly in to DC and Vertigo. My friend used to buy a lot of Marvel comics though so on the return from a trip to Croydon or London we'd read what the other had bought, but I've never had any strong feelings about the X-Men. I did however like Joss Whedon's run when I read it a while back, and I'm going to start on Grant Morrison's soon as I've picked up the first and third volume in charity shops recently, but overall there's so much of it that I'm sure I've missed out on some great comics. But I may well never know that, if only because there's so many other highly recommended comics I do want to read.

(Oh, and as an aside, apart from British and indie comics I'm currently far more in to Marvel and haven't read much DC at all, and am very much enjoying discovering a whole bunch of series I've missed out on).

To be honest Hickman's X-universe left me cold.  There have been some dire runs since Claremont quit as lead scribe.  The worst has to be Chuck Austen's run but even then there have been few runs that have inspired.  Post House of M it picked up in places but only marginally.

It really is quite difficult to figure out what is going on with this current generation of X-men.  The resurrection idea is an odd one to throw into the mix, taking away any sense of risk.  The only one I thought they did a good job on was the Excalibur reboot.  Possibly because it was totally divorced from everything else and picked up on ideas rooted in Moore's Captain Britain stuff.

That's interesting as I didn't click with the first issue but only read Moore's Captain Britain a couple of months ago and loved it, so I may well investigate the series further if I can find it inexpensively.

Saga by Vaughan and Staples, I'm 15 issues in. Solid start, pretty smooth so far, getting more invested in the characters a bit.

I loved the first 30 or so issues but then I heard Vaughan was taking a break on the series and so stopped reading it. I know he's returned now, and I do have the first nine trades, but my plan is to wait until he eventually finishes it and then read it all then. Currently people are predicting that will be 2030 at the earliest, but eh, I waited longer for Twin Peaks to return so I'm sure I'll cope!

Judge Dredd by John Wagner and many cool artists. I have up to Case Files 42 on my shelf, but I am on Case Files 26.  I will read all this, that's a promise to you fine people here.

I'm up to 16 and at the moment as long as nothing happens health or work wise my plan is to buy a new volume ever six to eight weeks, so I might have read them all and any further releases around about the time my planned Saga read begins.

[PsychoGoatee]

Very cool! Can't beat Wagner Dredd. And love David Lynch too.

[Barrington Boots]

I've finished A Green Bough by the mighty John Ware and hugely enjoyed it. I'm already into the third (and final?) book of the trilogy.
Having described the book to my wife as 'a bit of a mix of Charleys War and Jerome K Jerome' I was delighted to find both the number 9 pill and housemaids knee referenced in a single paragraph. (I know the number 9 was a real thing and not invented for CW, but that's where I always associate it)

On the comics front I've been catching up on Barbaric via the trades, and working my way through a bunch of stuff from Cinebooks. Long John Silver is the pick of the bunch: it's fantastic. Alderbaran is great stuff. Less into Blake and Mortimer so far, which reads very awkwardly despite looking lush, plus I picked a book at random with a lot of wildlife murder. Mixed feelings on Red Baron: again it looks glorious, but its glacial pace and unpleasant protagonist make it a bit unengaging.

[Doomlord66]

So here's some graphic novels/comics I've finished recently

Crossed - all volumes
Ice Cream Man v1 - v8
Supreme Power v1 - v11
Nailbiter v1 -v8

I'm currently reading through

Astro City v1 - v17
100 Bullets v1 - v13
My Bad (as recommended on this forum)

Next up on list to read

Ed Brubaker's Kill or be Killed and Criminal
Powers v1 - v14
Stray Bullets v1 - v3

[Colin YNWA]

Ohhh some interesting things I'd like to hear more about there Dormlord66.

I think I'm about to start on 100 Bullets as someone very kindly gave me a copy of the first trade at a mart I sell at on Saturday and looking forward to digging into that. I gave them the first volume of Stray Bullets - Sunshine and Roses as I had it for sale so would love to hear how you get on with Stray Bullets.

Ice Cream Man v1 - v8

Is this any good? Its on my radar.

My Bad (as recommended on this forum)

Gulp! Did you enjoy it?

[Doomlord66]

Ohhh some interesting things I'd like to hear more about there Doomlord66.

I think I'm about to start on 100 Bullets as someone very kindly gave me a copy of the first trade at a mart I sell at on Saturday and looking forward to digging into that. I gave them the first volume of Stray Bullets - Sunshine and Roses as I had it for sale so would love to hear how you get on with Stray Bullets.

Stray Bullets is partly a reread as I bought it when it came out back in 1995. I had been mainly reading Marvel and DC comics and wanted to try something completely different. I'd heard some good things about it. It was a bold choice at that time, no superheroes, no colour etc. But I found myself enjoying the stories and was hooked because it was so different to other stuff I was reading. I only got the first 20 or so issues back then which I've sold at some point so now looking forward to reading all the issues of the first series plus Killers and Sunshine & Roses

Ice Cream Man v1 - v8

Is this any good? Its on my radar.

I saw a review or something somewhere and it peaked my interest so thought I'd give it a go and really enjoyed it. Graphic novel back blurb reads -
Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, drug addiction, musical fantasy...there's a flavor for everyone's misery. ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate 'one-shot' tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man-a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers-lickety split-can change the course of your life forever.

My Bad (as recommended on this forum)

Gulp! Did you enjoy it?
[/quote]
 Yes I did. I'm quite into reading stories with different takes on superheroes atm.
This one is certainly different, it's crazy, it's mad and it's funny, even the take on the old adverts!
I saw an advert for Second Coming which looks interesting so I'm going to take a look at that.