Whats everyone reading?

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

chernobyl - the zone by natacha bustos and francisco sanchez.
a graphic novel published by centrala a few years ago ... i've been reading it now, for obvious reasons, but i wish i'd discovered it long before. i'm not going to spoiler it, because the story is so affecting, and intelligently crafted in order to speak to every possible reader. It's form, brilliantly, is that of a slavic doll, constantly opening to reveal new characters and ideas and plot lines. the dialogue is sparse but shockingly sharp and right. the art is a mixture of accomplished clean lines and apocalyptic scrawl.
it's a magnificent achievement, a disturbing and moving entertainment with so much to say about now.

[Colin YNWA]

I finished reading Tom's Mister Miracle (for the 4th time or something) this morning. Brilliant book. Each time I finish it I come up with new ideas about the ending

So my take is....

Scott Free is trying to escape the super-hero comic reboot/relaunch cycle. His life won’t progress because our reality demands the status quo. He tries to kill himself, the comic won’t let the title character die So he forces the issue, killing off other characters, having a baby. And story keeps trying to rerail him back to a status quo. In the end he manages to break the cycle by burning nearly everything down, but even that is only as temporary as the end of the last page.

That’s my interpretation at least.

That's a cool one!

Mine (my latest) is a bit similar. Scott is having trouble thanks to letting his real life getting "invaded" by comic stuff, or if it's a comic which is "invaded" by reality. Scott is sure he can escape, which he "does" with the "Mister Miracle won't be continued".

I also really like the He's stuck in hell or heaven, but choose to stay hinted in the last issue by Bug and Orion

Just finished this and I breezed through it. Its an easy 'read' but I defo need to go back and read it again to get more out of it. I go with Apestrife pretty much. By killing himself in the 'superhero' world at the being Scott (and Barda) escape the comics world (the art changing straight after that comic book continuity recap.). He does, he escape a comic book death by going into a 'real' world of change and growth and struggle and pain. Real life is Heaven and Hell. It really is. The antilife equation is all around us, but we carry on. He is offered countless chances to escape back into the comic world, specifically emphasised by the chance to repeat Highfather's pact in that classic story. The chance to repeat the same story again and again. He chooses not to and Highfather specifically tells him he fails.

So he's condemned to a 'real life' and in that the death of closing his eyes Jacob sees when he counts the four worlds.

Its brilliant... or it could be. I need to read it again taking that meaning with me to see if its there... I have a long history of getting this type of thing wrong!

[pictsy]

Is this Tom King's Mister Miracle?  Been a while since I read that one.  I think I took it more at face value that it's about Scott need to escape from developing to his need to escape to.  I dunno, I don't remember much of the story, but I do remember having a blast reading it.

[Colin YNWA]

Is this Tom King's Mister Miracle?  Been a while since I read that one.  I think I took it more at face value that it's about Scott need to escape from developing to his need to escape to.  I dunno, I don't remember much of the story, but I do remember having a blast reading it.

Yeah the Tom King one.

[pictsy]

Maybe I should give it another read again soon.  Perhaps after I finish Berserk.

[RookieNerd]

Went on a little binge over this weekend.

Artifact Vol 1 (Art B-, story C+)
All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #1-9 (Art B+, Story A-).
Judge Anderson PSI Files Vol 3 (Art C-, Story C).
Civil War (Art B, Story B+).
Aphrodite IX Vol 1 (Art A+, Story B-).

I got three more Artifacts Volumes left to read 2,3 & 4. I did not know The Darkness computer game was based of one of these characters Jackie Estacado until recently.

[pictsy]

Men at Arms.  A lovely story about prejudices and... er... making small beginnings in overcoming them?  And murder.  There's murder, too.  I always enjoy the Big Fido stuff in this book.  Men at Arms is a good read but is overshadowed by Guards, Guards and Feet of Clay. 

Next up, Soul Music.  After that I may start my Michael Morcock Marathon.

[RookieNerd]

Yeah Moorcock Eternal Champion arc is a very long and fun run. I culled 50% of my book collection, but every Moorcock novel survived the cull.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

the island of missing trees by elif shafak

best book ever narrated by a fig tree.

it's also a shot of transcendent beauty - and therefore so necessary right now.

[pictsy]

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

This is the first Pratchett book I ever read and was the book that got me into reading novels.  That's as far as my nostalgia for the book goes.  On it's own merits it's a solid Discworld novel.  I mean, it's Pratchett so it's hard to go wrong.  I enjoyed the climax.  It built up at a nice pace and had a satisfying pay off.

I started reading Warriors of Mars/City of Beasts by Michael Morcock.  The only other Morcock book I've read is Elric of Melnibone.  I'm assuming Warriors was Morcocks first book.  I am immediately struck by how light and easy it is to read.  Although 'Michael Kane' is taking some getting used to.

[pictsy]

Warriors of Mars/City of Beasts by Michael Morcock

Overall I found it to be silly fun.  I really liked thinking of it as a story told by an unreliable narrator and wondering which parts Michael Kane was exaggerating and where the half truths lay.  This mindset made me giggle when I got to the epilogue.  It will be fantastic if, in the next book, Kane's self-aggrandising catches up with him.  I don't see that happening.  What I expect to be reading is more sword swinging adventures.

[pictsy]

I finished off Morcocks Kane of Old Mars trilogy.  Peculiar.  It kind of just meanders around the place.  The books were light reading, but I'm not going to say they are good or particularly entertaining.  The charm wore off quick enough and the narrative structure was so fractured and aimless that I wasn't disappointed when I was done.  I'm not expecting much at this stage so I'm happy to move on to the Multiverse trilogy next.

[RookieNerd]

Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stovers

Which added depth to the story and characters that the movie so lacked.

[Barrington Boots]

I really dig those Morcock books!

I like an easy read on my commute and I'm reading book 2 of the Dresden Files, which came highly recommended by a few people and by Crom it is terrible. It's marginally better than book 1 but still suffers from uninspiring characters, boring writing and a protagonist who is whiny, sexist, down-on-his-luck yet supposedly insufferably cool and to boot a pretty useless detective. 

I bought a five book set of these in a sale and I'm not sure I can face the other three.

[pictsy]

I finished The Sundered Worlds/The Blood Red Games and The Fireclown/The Winds of Limbo by Morcock.  An improvement, I have to say.  I have no idea why these books are listed on wikipedia as part of a trilogy as I see no connection between them.  The Fireclown is the best of the bunch so far, but there's no mention of the multiverse.  Unless these get referenced in later books and the grouping is retroactive.