Reading diary

[trochee]

Inspired by queenofhalves, I am going to try to include a reading diary. Many of these posts may be "read another ten pages of novel X while on the bus" but I hope to have some more useful/interesting commentary.

Today's inaugural reading diary entry, I've decided to include images for fun; if you don't like them, don't click through the cuts.

Comics!

Lucifer #53, which came with a silly DVD/PS2 game and movie trailer for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Dark and unfortunately confusing. Mike Carey is still writing this, but the shuffling of mythological genres isn't working as well for him as it did for Gaiman.

Ex Machina #3. I don't know if I like where this comic is going. It seems like West Wing, only the mayor's a superhero, and I don't really like the sense that I have that he'll have to put on the tights to save the day. Political drama can be plenty complex without needing to have superheroes too. This seems like the flip side to Powers, which follows normal people around a super-powered world -- and I don't like it this way round. This issue particularly stinks -- there's a fight, gratuitous nudity, and superhero moments all thrown in, and the author (Brian Vaughn) has the gall to do it in the context of a dream. I could still be wrong about this, but if this storyline continues in the direction it's going, then I'm stopping after issue #4. (Subverting the superhero genre is one thing, but this ain't it.)

Chosen #3. This is the end of another Mark Millar comic series. This one reminds me of his others -- a solid attempt at the kind of subversive theme and ideas that characterized the best science fiction of, well, 1972. The theme here: Jody Christianson (subtle, huh?) is a young man with surprising powers. No, he's not an X-man -- but is he the returned Christ? The twist at the end ain't terribly surprising if you've read (for example) Millar's stint on The Authority and somehow, disappointingly, manages to fail at being chilling while succeeding at being slightly gross.

Magazines!

I'm still working on the latest issue of The Nation. Favorite article so far: Fables of the Reconstruction, by Christian Parenti. "The effort to rebuild Iraq looks less like an aid mission than a criminal racket."

I've just finished the latest issue of American Scientist. Favorite article: Leaves, Flowers and Garbage Bags: Making Waves: "Rippled fractal patterns on thin plastic sheets and biological membranes offer elegant examples of the spontaneous breaking of symmetry".

Books! (well, book!)

The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. An alternate history of Eurasia, supposing that the Black Death had wiped out the Europeans rather completely, instead of (merely!) killing 30%. A sort of novelized "what if?" companion to the decidedly non-fiction Guns, Germs and Steel. So far, so good, although Robinson is resorting to reincarnation to keep a continuous storyline through history. (This is true-to-form for Robinson, I suppose, as a strategy; in the Red Mars books, he introduced a convenient life-extending technology for the same purpose.) It's a difficult challenge to try to maintain a story of a planet without having a few individuals (in some form) continuing through the history. I'm only about a third of the way through, though.

Comments

[chachachana.livejournal.com]

interesting!

i wish i knew how to put images in my posts. hopefully i can learn how to do that next time i'm up there. does it require any programs or can you do it directly?

[queenofhalves]

love KSR. years of rice and salt is a favorite of mine, although i have some criticisms to share when you're through.

reading list

[lapartera.livejournal.com]

Great idea! I'm going to get Years of Rice and Salt from Charis (our wonderful feminist bookstore in Atlanta -- now celebrating 30 years of survival despite the encroachment of big chains. Buy your books at local independent bookstores. you can even do this online! If you want to support Charis go to http://charis.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp and order -- they'll send them to you or if you're in Atlanta you can pick them up at the store. If you're not in Atlanta and have a favorite independent bookstore, they may also be involved in this web access project.

Supporting independent bookstores with a feminist, radical, etc. bent is essential!