Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett (320 pp, MMPB, 2003)
Tiffany Aching is unhappy about having to baby-sit her drooly, sticky baby
brother, but when he's stolen away by the faeries, she's determined to get
him back--if only because he's hers. Lucky for Tiffany, she's not
an ordinary little girl; she is a beginner witch. Now, this is the
Discworld, where witching is less about hocus-pocus and more about
psychology. In Tiffany's case, it is also about the Nac Mac Feegle--little
blue men who were long ago kicked out of Faerieland for being drunk and
disorderly, or something like that.
This is a pretty typical Pratchett. If you've read his other books, you
know what to expect. If you've read Lords and Ladies, you'll
know exactly what to expect, since Wee Free Men
covers much of the same thematic territory. I want to say that the book
reads like Pratchett was phoning it in, but that'd give a false impression,
since Pratchett phoning it in is still ten times funnier and
interesting than most other authors working at their best. The one
newish bit in this book is the expanded role of the NMF, who have only
appeared briefly in the other Discworld novels.
Guilty Pleasures, Laurell K. Hamilton (272 pp,
MMPB, 1995)
I'm tempted to say this is the trashiest book I ever read, except that I
also read the sequel, which was slightly worse. (The previous Trashiest
Book Ever was Anne Rice's The Mummy, just for reference.)
Anyway, you know how The Deed of Paksennarion is basically a
D&D adventure? Well, this series appears to be a
Vampire/Werewolf/whatever game. Or, to put it in terms that a
non-gamer will get, it's one part action-adventure, one part gothy Anne
Rice vampire romance, and really doesn't make any sort of effort to
transcend either genre.
The idea is that Ms. Anita Blake is a zombie-raiser by night and a
vampire-slayer by day. Since vampires are a recently-accepted section of
society, she only slays those who have been convicted of killing humans.
She needs a court order. Unfortunately for her, she gets blackmailed by the
local head vamp into investigating a series of extra-judicial vampire
slayings which has hit St. Louis. Over the course of this job, she hooks up
with Jean-Paul, a super-sexy master vampire who owns and operates St.
Louis' only vampire strip club. That should give you an idea of what level
the book operates on. (Disclaimer: Anita thinks Jean-Paul is
super-sexy. To me, he comes across as extremely sleazy and due for a good
staking.)
While I'm harshing on this book a lot, I actually enjoyed reading it. Great
literature it ain't, but it made for good airplane reading. (I read the
first half of the book on the flight from Philly to Chicago, and the second
half on the return flight.) I predict, however, that the series is going
in directions which will eventually annoy me a lot. (That is, an
over-super-powered protagonist and cheezy vampire stuff.)
The Laughing Corpse, Laurell K. Hamilton
(304 pp, MMPB, 1994)
In this one, Anita Blake is on the hunt for a killer zombie, and using all
her wiles to keep away from a wealthy businessman who wants her to perform
a human sacrifice for him. There's an Evil Voodoo Priestess(TM). Oh, and
her vampire buddy from the previous book is getting on her case, pressuring
her to become his "human servant." Yeah, he's a real prince, that
Jean-Paul.
Anyway, this is written at a similar level to the first one, which is to
say, low. Hamilton seems to have an unfortunate tendency to repeat herself.
She uses similar phrasing to describe similar scenes in both
books. It's the sort of thing that probably wouldn't be noticeable if I
hadn't read one book right after the other.
The prediction on cheezy vampire stuff seems to be bearing out (too much
"I'm too sexy for this book" hoo-hah from sleazy Jean-Paul), as is the
super-power prediction (in book 1, she got super-healing from her vampire
buddy, in book 2 she discovers her powers of control over undead are way
more powerful than previously imagined). I think I'll not read the next
book right away. Also, I am glad I did not spend money on these books!
This is out of order, but I want to write these up so I can pack the
comics box.
One thing I've been trying to do is find some American comics which appeal
to me on the same level as manga. Superheroes are okay, and I have read some
good superhero books, but I need variety. So, this month includes some
stuff I picked up, based on good reviews I've seen on comics sites.
The spy genre has gone through a rough patch since the end of the Cold War.
A unipolar world just doesn't provide the same opportunities for dramatic
tension that one had in the bipolar geopolitical order. Queen &
Country is an effort to bring the John Le Carré spy story into
the twenty-first century. Tara Chase is a British spy (MI6) who is on the
verge of burning out. She's sent on a mission to Kosovo to assassinate a
Russian mobster, as a favor to the CIA. The mission is a success, but Chase
is plagued by doubts about the value and morality of what she was sent to
do. Then, the Russian mob decides to get revenge.
I gotta say, this book is pretty good. The characters are quirky and
multi-dimensional. They're a bit too dedicated to their work to be
likeable, exactly, but they're interesting. I also appreciate that
the main character is a tough, capable woman. Even when she's in the most
vulnerable of situations, she maintains control and finds her own way out
of it. And, she's not drawn as some kind of sexed-up bimbo. (I'm actually
kind of surprised this book was drawn by a man. That's so sexist of me,
isn't it?)
The black-and-white art is sharp and clean (sharper than my crummy scan
would lead one to believe), in the "iconic" traditon I like. I'll
definitely get the next book; hopefully the series continues to be good.
Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty, Ed Brubaker, Gred Rucka,
Michael Lark (127 pp, TPB, 2004)
This is a Batman spinoff, chronicling the daily grind of a
station's worth of Gotham City Police Detectives. Not only do these guys
have to deal with normal urban crime, they have to cope with all sorts of
costumed freaks (of both the criminal and crime-fighting persuasions).
There are two plotlines in this volume. In the first, Detective Marcus
Driver witnesses his partner's horrific death at the hands of Mr. Freeze.
In the second, Driver works with a temporary partner, Romy Chandler, on the
murder of a teenage girl. This case also turns out to have a connection to
Gotham's population of superheros/villains.
I got this because I recognised Rucka's name from Queen &
Country, and I was in the mood for a cop story. Unfortunately, it
didn't quite work for me. The main reason is that, well, there's too much
Bat-related stuff. I mean, I know that the whole point of the series is
showing how cops operate in the shadow of Batman, but I think this would be
a better book if it was just a straightforward cop story. I was
sufficiently engaged by the pain of the cop losing his partner, and the
mystery of what happened to the girl, and Batman was just a distraction.
Also, the focus on the cops hurt my suspension of disbelief in the whole
Bat-thing. Like, how exactly can Batman, who doesn't have any special
powers, or even a gun, take down Mr. Freeze single-handedly, but a
half-dozen policemen can't? Also, it didn't help that the writers assumed
that the reader was familiar with the Bat-iverse, its inhabitants, and its
conventions. From where I'm sitting, the operation of Mr. Freeze's
freeze-ray is not consistent throughout the story, but it could well be
that since I'm not steeped in Bat-continuity, I am just ignorant. And what
the $*%^ is up with censoring all the swear words with &^@#ing stupid
punctuation marks? It's okay to show a man being frozen solid and shattered
into large chunks, but it's not okay to write "shit"? #&*@, that's lame.
I'm not dissing on the book so much because it totally sucks, but because
I can see the potential it has, and how it could be so much better. I do
really like the art; there's something nifty and retro about it.
Runaways, Vol. 1. Brian K. Vaughan with Adrian Alphona (144
pp, TPB, 2004)
The premise: a group of teenagers discover that their parents are
supervillains, and witness them committing some kind of freaky ritual
murder. The kids decide to run away from home, and end up forming their own
super-group.
Great premise, great art, TERRIBLE writing. Oh, does the writing in here
suck--both microscopically (dialogue) and macroscopically (plot
construction). Considering that this takes place in the "Marvel Universe,"
the characters make way too many unnecessary references to real-world pop
culture and current events, without any consideration that those things
wouldn't be the same in a super-hero-saturated world. It's a minor thing,
but it's sloppy. There are problems with the story as a whole, at least for
a reader who's not already serious Marvel Comics fan. (The packaging of
this book leads me to believe that Marvel is trying to market it to a
wider, more general audience.) The children don't go through
nearly enough angst or conflict in making their group decision to
run away together, and the part where they visit each of their homes and
discover that each of them has some special power or ability is terribly
contrived, as is the bit where they acquire a lair/base with little effort,
and then decide to take cheesy super-heroesque names. It did make me cheer
when one of them--Alex Wilder, the brains of the operation--chose to stick
with his own name. All of this contrivedness annoyed the hell out of me,
but it occurs to me that it might fit perfectly well within the
conventions of the Marvel Universe. So, not so much with the reaching out
to a new audience. It's a shame, because it could have been a really good,
fun story
Back to the Japanese, now. This one, I liked, in
spite of several glaring flaws. Officer Kurumi Ayaki has just quit her job
in the traffic division, since she's about to get married. Unfortunately,
she and her fiance are not what I'd call fiscally responsible, and so they
discover that they can't actually afford their wedding. So, Ayaki tries to
get her old job back, to no avail. She does, however, get offered a new
position, in the Criminal Investigations Division. In spite of her lack of
experience, she accepts the job, since she needs the money.
Of course, she hasn't been made a full detective, just out of nowhere. Her
job is to assist Kozaburo Himuro, the department's most brilliant
detective. Himuro is a genius, but due to a traumatic event, he's
psychologically unable to leave the basement of his house. So, Ayaki plays
Archie Goodwin to Himuro's Nero Wolfe--she does all the legwork, acting as
his eyes and ears as they go about solving the Department's most puzzling
cases.
What's good: the mystery plot is excellent. It's pretty complicated and
twisty, and while it's not concluded by the end of Volume 1, I'm pretty
sure all the clues have been provided, and I think I know the
solution. Also, the characters are good. Himuro is just the sort of dark,
tortured headcase I enjoy. Traffic-cop Ayaki is clearly in over her head,
but I can tell that she's got a lot of unrealized potential, and that she'd
be wasted as either a meter maid or a housewife. Hopefully, working these
tough cases will help her develop into the capable, independent person she
can be.
What's bad: ARGH, the fan-service! Do we need to look up Ayaki's skirt at
every opportunity? No, I didn't think so! But, I managed to read
Exploitation Now, which was way worse, so I can tolerate it as
long as the story continues at its current high standard.
Since this series is written in well-defined, multi-book storylines, I
decided it'd be easier to log it by plotline, rather than by book. So,
Ishtar and Duzell find themselves in Ci Xenith, a province ruled by
Ishtar's creepy uncle Jened, who wants to kill her. This story arc is
darker than the previous one; with lots of disturbing revelations about the
not-entirely-pure relationships between humans and monsters. The
relationship between Ishtar and Duzell continues to be entertaining--the
Vampire King is so totally under her thumb. I continue to like Ishtar;
she's another unappreciated, underestimated heroine. She's a lot smarter,
and a lot less selfish, than any of her retainers give her credit for. And
Duzell's relationship with his nemesis Phelios looks like it may have been
more complex than previously suspected. Anyway, it's still mostly fluff,
but very well-done fluff.
And yo, check out that Duzell: ethereally beautiful, yup. Silvery hair,
yup. Watch out for this guy, he's trouble!
The spy genre has gone through a rough patch since the end of the Cold War.
A unipolar world just doesn't provide the same opportunities for dramatic
tension that one had in the bipolar geopolitical order. Queen &
Country is an effort to bring the John Le Carré spy story into
the twenty-first century. Tara Chase is a British spy (MI6) who is on the
verge of burning out. She's sent on a mission to Kosovo to assassinate a
Russian mobster, as a favor to the CIA. The mission is a success, but Chase
is plagued by doubts about the value and morality of what she was sent to
do. Then, the Russian mob decides to get revenge.
Back to the Japanese, now. This one, I liked, in
spite of several glaring flaws. Officer Kurumi Ayaki has just quit her job
in the traffic division, since she's about to get married. Unfortunately,
she and her fiance are not what I'd call fiscally responsible, and so they
discover that they can't actually afford their wedding. So, Ayaki tries to
get her old job back, to no avail. She does, however, get offered a new
position, in the Criminal Investigations Division. In spite of her lack of
experience, she accepts the job, since she needs the money.
Since this series is written in well-defined, multi-book storylines, I
decided it'd be easier to log it by plotline, rather than by book. So,
Ishtar and Duzell find themselves in Ci Xenith, a province ruled by
Ishtar's creepy uncle Jened, who wants to kill her. This story arc is
darker than the previous one; with lots of disturbing revelations about the
not-entirely-pure relationships between humans and monsters. The
relationship between Ishtar and Duzell continues to be entertaining--the
Vampire King is so totally under her thumb. I continue to like Ishtar;
she's another unappreciated, underestimated heroine. She's a lot smarter,
and a lot less selfish, than any of her retainers give her credit for. And
Duzell's relationship with his nemesis Phelios looks like it may have been
more complex than previously suspected. Anyway, it's still mostly fluff,
but very well-done fluff.