books and comics read in July 2013
Thursday, 1 August 2013 10:21![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
Avengers Academy: Second Semester
Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories
Midnight Never Come - Marie Brennan
Empress of the World - Sara Ryan
Crossfire - Nancy Kress
Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body - Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Black Heart - Holly Black
Lion of Senet - Jennifer Fallon
Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Brian Michael Bendis
Wonder Woman: Mission's End
The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
Daughter of the Empire - Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
Doctor Who: Halflife - Mark Michalowski
The Madness Underneath - Maureen Johnson
Green Arrow: City Walls
Didn't finish:
- The Innocent Mage (Karen Miller) which wasn't exactly bad, but didn't look like it was going to do anything interesting enough to counterbalance the fact that I didn't really like the hero at all, or to make up for the irritating phonetic dialogue (not sure if Yorkshire or Mummerset).
- The Anvil of the World (Kage Baker) - I think I got my hopes up too high for this book, because people kept comparing it to Terry Pratchett, but it was not nearly as funny, plus I couldn't really get into the characters, and it did a few gender related things that made me grumpy, so... sorry, book, we were just not meant to be.
Avengers Academy: Second Semester
I felt the same about this volume as I have about the whole series: some great stuff (like Nico and Hazmat bonding, Finesse offering to share her "understanding human emotions" flashcards with X-23, and the scenes with Stryker and Julie Power), some less interesting stuff, far too much Hank Pym ARGH STOP MONOLOGUING AND GO AWAY I DO NOT CARE. Ahem. Sad it's over, though.
Midnight Never Come
Perfectly serviceable Elizabethan fairy adventure story. Didn't set my world alight, but I enjoyed it fine, and if it sounds like the sort of thing you'll like, it probably is. (Though I can't speak to the accuracy or otherwise of the setting: it seemed fine to me, but I know nothing.)
Empress of the World
Sweet, fluffy teen romance, that stands out from most teen romances by having a bisexual protagonist. It was fairly slight, but I enjoyed it and will be looking out for a copy of the sequel.
Crossfire
Torn on this one. On the one hand, cool SF adventure plot and ideas, well written. On the other: far too many eyerolly moments, mostly to do with gender and race, and a protagonist I HATED. He was one of those self-involved middle aged white men you get so many of in litfic; turns out even being in space doesn't make this kind of character bearable. :/
Anatomies
Breezy, interesting pop science book on the human body, its various parts and the cultural myths we attach to them. Readable and entertaining, but also marred by some lazy fatphobia and a weirdly glum and alarmist final chapter. Not to mention the section on gender and sexuality, which got some things right (gender as a spectrum rather than a binary, and as variable, partly performative, and socially conditioned), but was also full of misgendering, dodgy terminology and biological determinism. Alas!
Lion of Senet
This was by no means a perfect book. It was set in a version of fantasyland where everyone is straight and white, as far as I could tell, and there was also a whole plotline involving a drug that makes people uncontrollably aroused which managed to go even worse than I was anticipating. The writing tended towards the clunky, telling us things about the characters' emotional states that didn't quite ring true. And yet, and yet... some combination of the characters (it focuses on two second sons of powerful men, but most of the characters were interesting), the plot (more politicking than quest narrative) and the setting (a world with two suns, a while after the major one disappeared for a substantial number of years, in a time period where vanishingly few people have the knowledge to understand why) really grabbed me, despite it not always all adding up. I don't know. I liked it! I will probably read the rest of the trilogy. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't exactly recommend it.
Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Picked this up on a whim and mostly enjoyed it! The conceit was fun: it's supposed to be the Avengers telling their own story through interviews. Some characters came off better than others - Tony's voice came through particularly strongly. I was a bit meh on the treatment of the ladyvengers, though. I felt they were less present, even taking into account the fact that there just aren't as many female as male Avengers, and that there was a fair amount of heteropatriarcal nonsense going on. But I did like Thor's comment on Janet: "Do not let her demeanour fool you. She is a warrior, with a warrior's heart." (In other news: shut UP, Hank Pym.)
Wonder Woman: Mission's End
So amazing. Rucka writes Wondy with such strength, dignity and integrity. I could read him writing her forever.
Doctor Who: Halflife
So this is the Eight/Fitz equivalent of that Gallifrey audio where Romana and Leela swap personalities (well, actually, this one came first, but never mind). But being the EDAs it's even queerer, and also there is some bonus amnesia because why not. It's really well written, too, especially after the Doctor and Fitz work out what's going on, and it actually deals with both the Doctor's ongoing amnesia and Fitz's history as a remembered version of himself, which many EDAs don't. All this, and Trix gets some characterisation too! Excellent stuff.
The Madness Underneath
The first book in this series described Bristol as being north of London and in the middle of the country, which is wrong in two important respects, so I was on High Britpicking Alert when I read this. (My, that's an... unusual number and combination of A-Levels our heroine is taking.) But that aside, I enjoyed it a great deal. It was pacey, exciting and well written, and I liked the characters. It was a good book! Well, no. It was HALF a good book, because let's be honest, this book is not finished. It doesn't end, it just... stops, with none of its plot threads even remotely tied up. Luckilycosmic_llin warned me about this when she lent it to me, so I was prepared, but still.
Green Arrow: City Walls
This would have been a perfectly entertaining comic involving people I like (Dinah!) and people I want to know more about (Connor! Mia!), if only someone had mentioned to the colourist that Connor is not, in fact, white. Sigh. I don't know how this happens: I remember reading that colourists don't always get references for the characters they're colouring, but they must get something, otherwise everyone's hair and outfits would be off all the time, and they're not. And I don't know how an editor could look at some whitewashed art and go "eh, that'll do". I could understand it if it were a one-issue fill in colourist or something, but I checked and the same colourist did this whole volume, apparently without anyone at any point going "oh btw this character is not white". So instead of a reasonably fun read (apart from the "no Mia you can't be Speedy" stuff, which I had exactly zero time for), every panel of this comic that Connor was in just grated so badly. It did get a little better as it went along - Connor started to be slightly darker and less pink than Ollie - but too little, too late.
(I am always vaguely sad when one of these posts ends on a rant, but oh well, it's too late to squeeze in a happier book experience now.)
Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories
Midnight Never Come - Marie Brennan
Empress of the World - Sara Ryan
Crossfire - Nancy Kress
Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body - Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Black Heart - Holly Black
Lion of Senet - Jennifer Fallon
Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Brian Michael Bendis
Wonder Woman: Mission's End
The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
Daughter of the Empire - Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
Doctor Who: Halflife - Mark Michalowski
The Madness Underneath - Maureen Johnson
Green Arrow: City Walls
Didn't finish:
- The Innocent Mage (Karen Miller) which wasn't exactly bad, but didn't look like it was going to do anything interesting enough to counterbalance the fact that I didn't really like the hero at all, or to make up for the irritating phonetic dialogue (not sure if Yorkshire or Mummerset).
- The Anvil of the World (Kage Baker) - I think I got my hopes up too high for this book, because people kept comparing it to Terry Pratchett, but it was not nearly as funny, plus I couldn't really get into the characters, and it did a few gender related things that made me grumpy, so... sorry, book, we were just not meant to be.
Avengers Academy: Second Semester
I felt the same about this volume as I have about the whole series: some great stuff (like Nico and Hazmat bonding, Finesse offering to share her "understanding human emotions" flashcards with X-23, and the scenes with Stryker and Julie Power), some less interesting stuff, far too much Hank Pym ARGH STOP MONOLOGUING AND GO AWAY I DO NOT CARE. Ahem. Sad it's over, though.
Midnight Never Come
Perfectly serviceable Elizabethan fairy adventure story. Didn't set my world alight, but I enjoyed it fine, and if it sounds like the sort of thing you'll like, it probably is. (Though I can't speak to the accuracy or otherwise of the setting: it seemed fine to me, but I know nothing.)
Empress of the World
Sweet, fluffy teen romance, that stands out from most teen romances by having a bisexual protagonist. It was fairly slight, but I enjoyed it and will be looking out for a copy of the sequel.
Crossfire
Torn on this one. On the one hand, cool SF adventure plot and ideas, well written. On the other: far too many eyerolly moments, mostly to do with gender and race, and a protagonist I HATED. He was one of those self-involved middle aged white men you get so many of in litfic; turns out even being in space doesn't make this kind of character bearable. :/
Anatomies
Breezy, interesting pop science book on the human body, its various parts and the cultural myths we attach to them. Readable and entertaining, but also marred by some lazy fatphobia and a weirdly glum and alarmist final chapter. Not to mention the section on gender and sexuality, which got some things right (gender as a spectrum rather than a binary, and as variable, partly performative, and socially conditioned), but was also full of misgendering, dodgy terminology and biological determinism. Alas!
Lion of Senet
This was by no means a perfect book. It was set in a version of fantasyland where everyone is straight and white, as far as I could tell, and there was also a whole plotline involving a drug that makes people uncontrollably aroused which managed to go even worse than I was anticipating. The writing tended towards the clunky, telling us things about the characters' emotional states that didn't quite ring true. And yet, and yet... some combination of the characters (it focuses on two second sons of powerful men, but most of the characters were interesting), the plot (more politicking than quest narrative) and the setting (a world with two suns, a while after the major one disappeared for a substantial number of years, in a time period where vanishingly few people have the knowledge to understand why) really grabbed me, despite it not always all adding up. I don't know. I liked it! I will probably read the rest of the trilogy. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't exactly recommend it.
Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Picked this up on a whim and mostly enjoyed it! The conceit was fun: it's supposed to be the Avengers telling their own story through interviews. Some characters came off better than others - Tony's voice came through particularly strongly. I was a bit meh on the treatment of the ladyvengers, though. I felt they were less present, even taking into account the fact that there just aren't as many female as male Avengers, and that there was a fair amount of heteropatriarcal nonsense going on. But I did like Thor's comment on Janet: "Do not let her demeanour fool you. She is a warrior, with a warrior's heart." (In other news: shut UP, Hank Pym.)
Wonder Woman: Mission's End
So amazing. Rucka writes Wondy with such strength, dignity and integrity. I could read him writing her forever.
Doctor Who: Halflife
So this is the Eight/Fitz equivalent of that Gallifrey audio where Romana and Leela swap personalities (well, actually, this one came first, but never mind). But being the EDAs it's even queerer, and also there is some bonus amnesia because why not. It's really well written, too, especially after the Doctor and Fitz work out what's going on, and it actually deals with both the Doctor's ongoing amnesia and Fitz's history as a remembered version of himself, which many EDAs don't. All this, and Trix gets some characterisation too! Excellent stuff.
The Madness Underneath
The first book in this series described Bristol as being north of London and in the middle of the country, which is wrong in two important respects, so I was on High Britpicking Alert when I read this. (My, that's an... unusual number and combination of A-Levels our heroine is taking.) But that aside, I enjoyed it a great deal. It was pacey, exciting and well written, and I liked the characters. It was a good book! Well, no. It was HALF a good book, because let's be honest, this book is not finished. It doesn't end, it just... stops, with none of its plot threads even remotely tied up. Luckily
cosmic_llin warned me about this when she lent it to me, so I was prepared, but still.Green Arrow: City Walls
This would have been a perfectly entertaining comic involving people I like (Dinah!) and people I want to know more about (Connor! Mia!), if only someone had mentioned to the colourist that Connor is not, in fact, white. Sigh. I don't know how this happens: I remember reading that colourists don't always get references for the characters they're colouring, but they must get something, otherwise everyone's hair and outfits would be off all the time, and they're not. And I don't know how an editor could look at some whitewashed art and go "eh, that'll do". I could understand it if it were a one-issue fill in colourist or something, but I checked and the same colourist did this whole volume, apparently without anyone at any point going "oh btw this character is not white". So instead of a reasonably fun read (apart from the "no Mia you can't be Speedy" stuff, which I had exactly zero time for), every panel of this comic that Connor was in just grated so badly. It did get a little better as it went along - Connor started to be slightly darker and less pink than Ollie - but too little, too late.
(I am always vaguely sad when one of these posts ends on a rant, but oh well, it's too late to squeeze in a happier book experience now.)