Author: mountainwashere

Nothing to see, move along.

Weekly Pull Review 1/14/15

Jupiter’s Legacy #5- Image

Holy hell, it actually came out. Issue #4 came out in March of last year- I’d essentially given up on seeing this one. This one’s got a bit of a hefty price tag, at $4.99, but you do get 29 pages out of it, which is pretty impressive. I picked it back up surprisingly quickly, so it was at least memorable for me. Many comics I read I forget things just month to month- Mark Millar, love him or hate him, at least does pretty memorable work. Jupiter’s Legacy, while good, however, hasn’t especially felt groundbreaking. I’m somewhat doubtful that it’s possible for many superhero comics to be groundbreaking anymore, of course. The art in Jupiter’s Legacy is odd- it looks really good, but at the same time very spartan and minimalist, but not in the way you’d usually imagine it. I’m having trouble explaining what I mean here, but you’ll understand when you see it.

Copperhead #5- Image

Copperhead’s first story arc ended in a very different way than I expected. It played it as a straight mystery- no plot twists, no sudden reveals, just a steady path to the conclusion. It’s a fresh breeze in comics, where the big twist is king. The mystery here, though, isn’t the brilliant, convoluted plot that it takes a genius to solve- it’s the kind of crime you expect a small-town sheriff to be able to solve. The characters of Copperhead don’t exist to support the plot, though- the plot exists to support them. The story is about Sheriff Clara Bronson and Co solving the mystery, not about the mystery being solved by Sheriff Clara Bronson and Co. It’s a fine distinction, but an important one. It’s part of what makes a good story. Also, don’t get me wrong- I’m talking about this story like it’s a mystery, but it is definitely a Western, and a good one at that.

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Weekly Reading List: 1/1/15-1/11/15

Hey, look, I’m actually keeping my New Years Resolution! I’m going to

Yes, I know, I know, that’s more than a week listed in the title. But I didn’t do any reading this year until Monday the Fifth, so stop complaining. Also, I didn’t want to do this and my Weekly Pull Review on the same day, so I’ll be publishing my weekly reading lists every Sunday.

This was a pretty slow week for me- I was sleep deprived and cranky all week, and definitely fell a bit behind. Also, I’m working 40 hours a week, and I have a 3 mile walk to work and a 3 mile walk back, which comes to nearly ten hours of walking a week, so I’m not reading anywhere near as many books as I was when I was working part time (I was reading twice as many books then, if not more) or as when I was unemployed (three times as many, at least, especially since I was living in a new city where I didn’t know many people). I know, excuses, excuses. (Totally not humble bragging at all. Totally not… wait, no, yes I am. Stroking my ego was the whole point of these.)

Anyhow, on we go!

Firefight (Reckoners Book #2)- Brandon Sanderson

Fiction, YA, SF, Superheroes

It was a pretty damn good book to start out my year on. Check out my review.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player’s Handbook- Wizards of the Coast

Non-Fiction, Roleplaying Game

Admission: I started this one back in December, so it doesn’t really fully count.

I’m going to do a review of the three core rulebooks when I finish them soon, so I’m not going to go in depth right now. Suffice it to say, this may very well be the best edition of D&D yet. It’s elegant and simple, yet allows for great complexity of play. I’m absurdly excited to start a group.

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Weekly Pull Review 1/7/15

Anyone have any suggestions for a DC title I should give a try? I’ve got Vertigo stuff, but I don’t have anything main-universe DC.

ODY-C #2- Image

Slightly less action packed than the first issue, Matt Fraction and Christian Ward still hit it out of the park with this one. This issue focuses more heavily on Zeus and Poseidon, and really plays up the spiteful, vicious, petty, and dangerous facet of the Greek gods, which largely gets ignored in modern takes on Greek mythology. While Zeus and Poseidon are plotting Odyssea’s downfall, the captain and her crew have arrived at the planet of the Lotophages (The Lotus Eaters), which is a colossal hedonistic park-like planet, with the world-sized, delirious, drug-addled, near-comatose body of Promethene, creator of the third gender sebex, chained to it. This book is insane in all the right ways. Also, it’s written in dactylic hexameter. Matt Fraction is shouldering his way in among the great comic book writers, and Christian Ward is tossing down the gauntlet to all challengers with his gorgeous visuals. If ODY-C keeps being this awesome, I’m going to start being as excited for issues of it as I am for issues of Saga.

Birthright #4- Image

The newest title from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound studio, it once again proves that the Walking Dead creator is absolutely right in chaining up comic book creators up in the basement and depriving them of food and water until they produce art is the way to go. (Kirkman isn’t actually on the production team for this one). Birthright is great, though. Essentially, it’s a what-if title that riffs off the classic C.S. Lewis/ Susan Cooper story, involving children being taken into magical worlds for grand adventures, but it goes a step farther, to explore what happens when the child gets back. (The story archetype goes much farther back, of course- the fairy changelings of European folklore, the fairy rings, etc.) A young boy, Mikey, is stolen into a fantasy world to become a chosen hero. One year later, his family has collapsed. His parents are divorcing, his dad is suspected of murdering Mikey, his older brother is getting in fights at school, the whole thing has become a media circus. Then an enormous behemoth of a man, covered in armor and carrying dozens of medieval weapons shows up in town. (Surprise, surprise, it’s Mikey). Issue #4 opens with Mikey, his dad, and his brother on the run from the cops, and, well… spoilers. Check this one out.

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Book Review: Firefight, by Brandon Sanderson

I should presage this review by stating that I’m a Sanderson fanboy. Seriously, the dude produces consistently amazing books at a rate you’d expect from one of those ghostwriter hiring hacks you see in airport bookstores. It’s nuts, we’re getting multiple books every year from him- though it still isn’t nearly enough for my taste.

Firefight, the sequel to Steelheart, is set in a world where super-humans (called Epics) started appearing, but universally turned out evil. America and the other world governments have collapsed, and the few bastions of civilization left exist solely at the whim of the mighty Epics that choose to allow their existence. The story follow David Charleston and the other Reckoners, an organization dedicated to hunting down and killing the worst of the Epics.

The Reckoners trilogy is actually Brandon Sanderson’s third foray into young adult fiction- there was the decent but not super memorable Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians series and the excellent Rithmatist (to which I am eagerly awaiting a sequel). It’s one of those rare superhero novels- though they are popping up much more often these days (V.E. Schwab’s Vicious and Lavie Tidhar’s The Violent Century spring to mind). I literally downloaded Firefight off Amazon at midnight, and immediately read the whole thing. I was not disappointed. Sanderson’s action scenes remain as kinetic as ever, and his settings are absolutely top notch. Firefight keeps up with many of the quirky, interesting characters from the first book, though a few are only seen near the beginning of the novel, then are left behind. The new characters are just as quirky as the old, though it would be nice to see a few more… not normal people, certainly- the Reckoners, the titular organization, are extremely dangerous Epic hunters- but people not defined by quirks in this series. In addition, the love interest in this book (can’t tell you any more, spoilers) could have really used a bit more screen time. Also, not a huge fan of the American cover, though the British cover looks amazing. Still, though, this is one of the best YA novels I’ve read in some time, and an excellent book to start the year out with. (I’ve read other books this year so far, I just haven’t finished any yet. Stop judging me.) Steelheart, the first book, is super cheap right now as an ebook- pick it up. Right now. Then pick up Firefight. Also, read both.

Weekly Pull Review 12/31/14

This one’s several days late, because New Years. Plus, you know, the absurd amount of comics that come out the last Wednesday of the year. (That’s a lie).

East of West #16- Image

East of West continues to please- the art is great, the story is awesome, if a bit dense and hard to follow at times. My only real complaint is that the characters aren’t super sympathetic, but then this isn’t the type of story that you want particularly sympathetic characters in. The Endless Nation has started- and finished- its conquest of the Texan Republic with ease, but Governor Bel Solomon isn’t done yet. The creepy child Horsemen of the Apocalypse continue their hunt for Death, and… well, it’s hard to explain if you aren’t reading it. (Why aren’t you?)

Great Pacific #18- Image

Great Pacific #18 is the rather abrupt conclusion to the series. It’s not a bad one, necessarily, but it does feel rushed. For those unfamiliar with the series, it follows the rich scion of a Texas oil fortune as he embezzles the entire fortune of his company and uses it to found a nation (New Texas) on the Pacific Gyre- specifically, atop the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (The book fictionalizes it to make it sturdy enough to walk on, which isn’t possible in real life. The actual patch largely consists of tiny plastic particles suspended throughout an area between the size of Texas and twice the size of the Unites States, making a kind of plastic soup- clumps are pretty rare.) The series follows him solidifying the Garbage Patch into an actual continent and forming a new nation atop it. (Also, finding old Soviet Nukes floating around. Don’t forget the giant octopi and genetically engineered, plastic eating anglerfish, either!) The art is good, though I don’t much like the faces. They frequently seem to slide around the faces. Overall, the series is pretty good. If you get the chance to read it, I’d go for it. The ending is kind of rushed, and leaves a lot open for a potential future followup, but I have my doubts about seeing that. As for actually buying the trades- well, read it first.