11.28.2007
The Five Fists of Science
by Matt Fraction & Steven Sanders, 112pgs, graphic novel
Overall Grade: A
Terrific! Amazing! Hilarious! Yah!
'The Five Fists of Science' is all those and more!
So I found out a while ago that a genre I like has a name; steampunk. Thus I went in search of steampunk literature (thank you Wikipedia). This was near the top of said list and it was conveniently a graphic novel -because college students can read a whole novel oh-so-quick. Anyway, the premise of the story is that Mark Twain teams up with Nikola Tesla to end war once and for all with a combination of Twain's notority and Tesla's inventions. Basically create arms so destructive that all the major countries must have one, but would never want to use it (anyone with a modicum of history will find this a laughable solution.) But continuing, in opposition is a cabal of tycoons and scientists (Morgan, Carnegie, Marconi and Edison) who for dark and nefarious reasons don't want that plan to work. Delicious steampunk ensues!
Overall Grade: A
Terrific! Amazing! Hilarious! Yah!
'The Five Fists of Science' is all those and more!
So I found out a while ago that a genre I like has a name; steampunk. Thus I went in search of steampunk literature (thank you Wikipedia). This was near the top of said list and it was conveniently a graphic novel -because college students can read a whole novel oh-so-quick. Anyway, the premise of the story is that Mark Twain teams up with Nikola Tesla to end war once and for all with a combination of Twain's notority and Tesla's inventions. Basically create arms so destructive that all the major countries must have one, but would never want to use it (anyone with a modicum of history will find this a laughable solution.) But continuing, in opposition is a cabal of tycoons and scientists (Morgan, Carnegie, Marconi and Edison) who for dark and nefarious reasons don't want that plan to work. Delicious steampunk ensues!
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: graphic novel, genre: historical, genre: steampunk, media: book
The Book of Lost Tales 2
by J.R.R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien), 340 pgs (excluding Appendix & Index), paperback ('84 edition)Series: The Histories of Middle Earth book 2; prequel to The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Overall Grade: C-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Again, you have to be a freakin' Tolkien nut to find earlier drafts of stories from the Silmarillion interesting. Even I struggle, a lot, to care. Hint: this is not a bedtime book - unless you suffer from insomnia. And famous authors should put a clause in their wills about their drafts and scribblings going to a museum or library or something so scholars can have at them but their children can not try to earn posthumous royalty money by publishing more stuff. :gag:
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book, series: Histories of Middle Earth, series: Lord of the Rings
Summer Knight
by Jim Butcher, ~384pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: B+
Series: The Dresden Files
Book 4 of the Dresden Files, sequel to 'Grave Peril'.
Poor Harry, as if life wasn't sad enough with your girlfriend on the lam, now he finds that his "debt" to his godmother has been transferred to the Winter queen of the faeries. She know wants him to figure out who killed/had killed the Knight (read: mortal attache) of the Summer queen. Because they both think the other did it, and are about to start an all-out faery war, which, you know, might throw weather all over the world into a tumult. Oh, yeah, nothing big or anything...
Overall Grade: B+
Series: The Dresden Files
Book 4 of the Dresden Files, sequel to 'Grave Peril'.
Poor Harry, as if life wasn't sad enough with your girlfriend on the lam, now he finds that his "debt" to his godmother has been transferred to the Winter queen of the faeries. She know wants him to figure out who killed/had killed the Knight (read: mortal attache) of the Summer queen. Because they both think the other did it, and are about to start an all-out faery war, which, you know, might throw weather all over the world into a tumult. Oh, yeah, nothing big or anything...
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, genre: mystery, media: book, series: Dresden Files
11.02.2007
Making Money
by Terry Pratchett, 394 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: A
Series: Discworld
This one deserves a solid A. Maybe I'm just missing my fix of Pratchett but I heartly enjoyed this latest Discworld novel. It had all the right mix of humour, ridiculousness, profound statements and plot twists to make me happy. Plot: Our favorite 'nearly hung' con-artist Moist von Lipwig is back, or should I say, he never left. He's still the head of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office when Lord Vetinari (think tyrannical dictator-mayor) asks him to take charge of the Royal Mint/Bank. Moist declines, of course, which means that he'll end up in the job anyway. Then enter paper money, the Medicis of Ankh-Morpork, an ugly little dog, the golems found by his fiancee, a dead necromancer from Unseen University and a bank manager with something in his closet. Yes, it's a Discworld novel. With that list, how could it not be?
Overall Grade: A
Series: Discworld
This one deserves a solid A. Maybe I'm just missing my fix of Pratchett but I heartly enjoyed this latest Discworld novel. It had all the right mix of humour, ridiculousness, profound statements and plot twists to make me happy. Plot: Our favorite 'nearly hung' con-artist Moist von Lipwig is back, or should I say, he never left. He's still the head of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office when Lord Vetinari (think tyrannical dictator-mayor) asks him to take charge of the Royal Mint/Bank. Moist declines, of course, which means that he'll end up in the job anyway. Then enter paper money, the Medicis of Ankh-Morpork, an ugly little dog, the golems found by his fiancee, a dead necromancer from Unseen University and a bank manager with something in his closet. Yes, it's a Discworld novel. With that list, how could it not be?
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book, series: Discworld
Napoleon's Pyramids
by William Dietrich, 370 pages, hardcover
Overall Grade: C+
Entertaining I guess. I like historical fiction. This book promised to marry historical fiction to occultish-scientism, mythology and secret societies. In the end, I felt just as ill-informed and befuddled as the protagonist is for most of the novel. Plot: American Ethan Gage (erstwhile assistant to Benjamin Franklin) has won an Egyptian medallion in a card game. Unfortunately people then start trying to kill him for this perplexing little thing - so Ethan tags along with his bud Talma to escape France and join up with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt... with any luck he'll figure out why the medallion is so important before someone kills him for it!
Recommended to: *shrugs* It didn't whet my literary appetite, why would it whet your's?
Overall Grade: C+
Entertaining I guess. I like historical fiction. This book promised to marry historical fiction to occultish-scientism, mythology and secret societies. In the end, I felt just as ill-informed and befuddled as the protagonist is for most of the novel. Plot: American Ethan Gage (erstwhile assistant to Benjamin Franklin) has won an Egyptian medallion in a card game. Unfortunately people then start trying to kill him for this perplexing little thing - so Ethan tags along with his bud Talma to escape France and join up with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt... with any luck he'll figure out why the medallion is so important before someone kills him for it!
Recommended to: *shrugs* It didn't whet my literary appetite, why would it whet your's?
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: historical, media: book
