Books and comics read in May 2013
Saturday, 1 June 2013 15:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight
Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares
Black Boy - Richard Wright
Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb
The Nutmeg of Consolation - Patrick O'Brian
Batman: The Black Mirror
The Kingdom of Gods - N.K. Jemisin
The Posterchildren: Origins - Kitty Burroughs
Turing's Cathedral: the Origins of the Digital Universe - George B. Dyson
Thor the Mighty Avenger: The Complete Collection
Batman and Robin: Dark Knight Versus White Knight
A Place of Greater Safety
This is a strange and extraordinary book; its bricolage of styles, tenses and points of view works brilliantly. Recommended.
Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight
Oh Carol you are the BEST. ♥
Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares
I think I would've liked this better if I were more interested in Tony Stark? It was good, I didn't dislike it or anything, it just didn't quite grab me. Also, the art was a bit weird: I'm not sure if it was the pencils, the colouring, or the combination of the two, but everyone's faces looked really off. The action scenes were fine, though. I did love the last issue: Spider-Man's appearance felt like a breath of fresh air. He is delightful.
Black Boy
I accidentally read this in episodes: I didn't realise until I was quite a long way through that my edition was the original one, containing just the first fourteen chapters. Luckily the library also had the last six chapters as a separate volume. Anyway, it was a fascinating and powerful read, full of lots of crunchy stuff, explicitly so in the second half, more implicitly in the first: about race, obviously, but also about class, intersectionality, oppression more generally; about individuals, organisations and systems, and how they interact; about what makes people unite and divide.
Assassin's Quest
I really felt that the ending let this one down - not just because it was something of a downer (although it was), but because I didn't think it NEEDED to be. It probably doesn't help that it hit one of my pet peeves, i.e. skip spoiler) characters not telling other people things ~for their own good~. I felt like Molly and Burrich deserved to know that Fitz was still alive: yes, Molly might have freaked out about the Wit thing, but then again, she might not have. She was quite happy to pretend to be Witted herself, after all. And surely they both would've heard rumours eventually? I also didn't see why Fitz had to cut himself off from everyone else too. *sigh* Other than that, I really liked this book, it was a just a shame it fell flat at the last minute. (Since writing this, I have been reliably informed that this is not it and I should keep going with Robin Hobb's books. And I see the next trilogy has BOATS so onwards I go!)
The Posterchildren: Origins
I backed this when it was an Indiegogo campaign, so I was very much looking forward to reading it, and it didn't disappoint. There were a few wonky moments, and it's definitely the setup book (a lot of things are deliberately not resolved), but I enjoyed it a great deal. Characterwise, I loved outspoken feminist June, delightfully snarky Maks and insecure sunshiny speedster Zipporah; identified with Ernest's epic self-consciousness; and want to know more about lots of the others. :D I also really liked the worldbuilding - if I hadn't already known the author was a superhero fan, I would have guessed, because she clearly loves the genre and has put a lot of work into imagining what a world with metahumans/superheroes in it might actually look like. Plus, queer characters! Non-white characters! YES GOOD.
Turing's Cathedral
I was somewhat disappointed by this book. Partly it was my own fault: I didn't read the blurb thoroughly enough and was expecting it to be more about Turing himself than it was. But also I kept getting stuck in the technical bits, which I mostly did not understand at all. I felt like they either needed to be explained further, or dropped altogether in favour of more on their implications, and more of the social history stuff, which was much more interesting.
Thor the Mighty Avenger: The Complete Collection
LOVELY. Funny, charming comic with some very sweet Thor/Jane stuff. I particularly liked the bit where Thor and the Warriors Three go out drinking with Captain Britain.
Meanwhile in technology, Google Docs is throwing in extra paragraph breaks all over the place, Gmail keeps adding default labels to my emails that don't seem to do anything except annoy me, and LJ has decided that I can't comment on certain posts, with no rhyme or reason as to why (other people can comment on them fine). BUT WHY.
Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight
Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares
Black Boy - Richard Wright
Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb
The Nutmeg of Consolation - Patrick O'Brian
Batman: The Black Mirror
The Kingdom of Gods - N.K. Jemisin
The Posterchildren: Origins - Kitty Burroughs
Turing's Cathedral: the Origins of the Digital Universe - George B. Dyson
Thor the Mighty Avenger: The Complete Collection
Batman and Robin: Dark Knight Versus White Knight
A Place of Greater Safety
This is a strange and extraordinary book; its bricolage of styles, tenses and points of view works brilliantly. Recommended.
Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight
Oh Carol you are the BEST. ♥
Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares
I think I would've liked this better if I were more interested in Tony Stark? It was good, I didn't dislike it or anything, it just didn't quite grab me. Also, the art was a bit weird: I'm not sure if it was the pencils, the colouring, or the combination of the two, but everyone's faces looked really off. The action scenes were fine, though. I did love the last issue: Spider-Man's appearance felt like a breath of fresh air. He is delightful.
Black Boy
I accidentally read this in episodes: I didn't realise until I was quite a long way through that my edition was the original one, containing just the first fourteen chapters. Luckily the library also had the last six chapters as a separate volume. Anyway, it was a fascinating and powerful read, full of lots of crunchy stuff, explicitly so in the second half, more implicitly in the first: about race, obviously, but also about class, intersectionality, oppression more generally; about individuals, organisations and systems, and how they interact; about what makes people unite and divide.
Assassin's Quest
I really felt that the ending let this one down - not just because it was something of a downer (although it was), but because I didn't think it NEEDED to be. It probably doesn't help that it hit one of my pet peeves, i.e. skip spoiler) characters not telling other people things ~for their own good~. I felt like Molly and Burrich deserved to know that Fitz was still alive: yes, Molly might have freaked out about the Wit thing, but then again, she might not have. She was quite happy to pretend to be Witted herself, after all. And surely they both would've heard rumours eventually? I also didn't see why Fitz had to cut himself off from everyone else too. *sigh* Other than that, I really liked this book, it was a just a shame it fell flat at the last minute. (Since writing this, I have been reliably informed that this is not it and I should keep going with Robin Hobb's books. And I see the next trilogy has BOATS so onwards I go!)
The Posterchildren: Origins
I backed this when it was an Indiegogo campaign, so I was very much looking forward to reading it, and it didn't disappoint. There were a few wonky moments, and it's definitely the setup book (a lot of things are deliberately not resolved), but I enjoyed it a great deal. Characterwise, I loved outspoken feminist June, delightfully snarky Maks and insecure sunshiny speedster Zipporah; identified with Ernest's epic self-consciousness; and want to know more about lots of the others. :D I also really liked the worldbuilding - if I hadn't already known the author was a superhero fan, I would have guessed, because she clearly loves the genre and has put a lot of work into imagining what a world with metahumans/superheroes in it might actually look like. Plus, queer characters! Non-white characters! YES GOOD.
Turing's Cathedral
I was somewhat disappointed by this book. Partly it was my own fault: I didn't read the blurb thoroughly enough and was expecting it to be more about Turing himself than it was. But also I kept getting stuck in the technical bits, which I mostly did not understand at all. I felt like they either needed to be explained further, or dropped altogether in favour of more on their implications, and more of the social history stuff, which was much more interesting.
Thor the Mighty Avenger: The Complete Collection
LOVELY. Funny, charming comic with some very sweet Thor/Jane stuff. I particularly liked the bit where Thor and the Warriors Three go out drinking with Captain Britain.
Meanwhile in technology, Google Docs is throwing in extra paragraph breaks all over the place, Gmail keeps adding default labels to my emails that don't seem to do anything except annoy me, and LJ has decided that I can't comment on certain posts, with no rhyme or reason as to why (other people can comment on them fine). BUT WHY.
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no subject
Date: 4 Jun 2013 12:21 (UTC)Also OMG I am excited for you to read Liveships because ALL THE COOL LADIES.
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Date: 5 Jun 2013 13:58 (UTC)Also OMG I am excited for you to read Liveships because ALL THE COOL LADIES.
YAY!
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Date: 1 Jun 2013 21:46 (UTC)I wanted to read Turing's Cathedral when it came out but then I found out it was not really very much about Alan Turing. :/
How did you like Black Mirror and Batman & Robin?
no subject
Date: 2 Jun 2013 21:15 (UTC)Yeah, he got about... a chapter? Maybe? I was disappointed.
I thought Black Mirror was excellent: not the kind of story I usually prefer, but so well done that it didn't matter. I really appreciated the way James Jr torturing Babs was handled: it was about her as a character, not about her as Generic Woman Person. (Also, "I'm a softy, I'm not STUPID", oh DICK. <3) I was a bit meh on the actual stories in Batman and Robin, but all the bits with Dick and/or Damian were awesome. "Worryingly jolly Batman" indeed.
no subject
Date: 2 Jun 2013 21:27 (UTC)Babs was so awesome in that part, when she pulled the knife out of her own leg and stabbed him. And yeah, even though it was seriously creepy, Babs getting taken was very much about who she was, and not even about who she was in relation to Batman or Commissioner Gordon, and so that was pretty great.
"I'm a softy, I'm not STUPID"
Oh my goodness, that is the best line, I forgot he said that. Dick's complete inability to stop saying Dick-sounding things even when attempting to carry out Bruce-style violent interrogations and the like is pretty adorable.
"Worryingly jolly Batman" is kind of my favorite thing. The stories were kind of forgettable, yeah (and confusing...) but they do have such good quips.
no subject
Date: 3 Jun 2013 10:48 (UTC)Dick's complete inability to stop saying Dick-sounding things even when attempting to carry out Bruce-style violent interrogations and the like is pretty adorable.
And possibly slightly terrifying for criminals used to Dour Batman. "Why is he smiling. I don't understand why he's smiling. Now he's making puns. HELP." I also like that Dick can be good natured and think the best of people without the implication that he therefore must be closing his eyes to the possibility that they're actually the worst. <3 Optimism isn't automatically a weakness, even in Gotham.
no subject
Date: 3 Jun 2013 19:34 (UTC)Oh man, if you were a criminal it would probably be a lot scarier to run into Dick than to run into Bruce. Bruce might hurt you more, but it would be so terrifying to have the mental disconnect of being beaten up by someone that cheerful.
Optimism isn't automatically a weakness, even in Gotham
I think especially in Gotham. If you become too pessimistic, then you've already let the city win in some sense.
I kind of want to read Black Mirror again, because I read it pretty early in my Batman-reading career and spent a lot of time being like, "Ahh, why is Dick beating people up?" and "Ahh, noooo, scary creepy stabby things!" and it would probably make more sense to me now, but I don't know if I am brave enough. :P
no subject
Date: 5 Jun 2013 14:02 (UTC)*g* It's so good, but so creepy!