10/13/2011 week in reviews
*Sigh* – I never really promised timely, did I?
Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest (3/5)
#1 of 2
title – “The Devil Does Not Jest”
writer – Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
artist – James Harren
colorist – Dave Stewart
assistant editor – Daniel Chabon
editor – Scott Allie
Mignola writes a reliable horror/mystery story, and I never get tired of it. Arcudi seems to be of the same cloth, but this is the first of his work (in any shape) that I’ve read. From the first page we know Abe’s going to get into some trouble, so from there it’s only a matter of waiting for the mystery to go pear-shaped, and finding out how Abe gets himself (or doesn’t) out of it. We get the first part here – Abe looks into the disappearance of a favored researcher, a cold case 50 years old, when the researcher’s grandson contacts the bureau.
The set up and Abe’s narrative position are more traditionally Lovecraft, with this being unofficial business and Abe being a fan of the missing researcher’s work. Granted, Abe has a lot more agency and is better armed than a lot of Lovecraft’s protagonists, but we know from Hellboy that this isn’t always a good thing.
Teen Titans #1 (3/5)
title – “Teen Spirit”
writer – Scott Lobdell
penciller – Brett Booth
inker – Norm Rapmund
colorist – Andrew Dalhouse
assistant editor – Katie Kubert
editor – Bobbie Chase
Nice character intro to Kid Flash – enthusiastic and thoughtless, but his heart’s in the right place (kinda). The same detail given to the introduction of Red Robin – broad strokes of his basic character type (Bat-ish, slightly creepy, and technologically advanced). I like the implication of larger geo-political consequences to a lot of teenagers ending up with super-powers, and clandestine operations are always a huge draw. I hope N.O.W.H.E.R.E. ends up being a more interesting antagonist than their name.
While I was never an X-Man fan, per say, the possibilities of that tension between human authority and superhuman action that soaked that book are attractive on a deep level. I’m happy to get some of that here in the DCU. It’s nice to see a teenage superhero team come together in response to a threat to themselves, not as a bored extension of their mentors’ alliances.
Birds of Prey#1 (2/5)
title – “Let Us Prey”
writer – Duane Swierczynski
artist – Jesus Saiz
colorist – Nei Ruffino
editor – Janelle Asselin
I was a Birds of Prey fan before – so trying to figure out what was different this time around was really distracting. I think a new reader might actually have an easier time getting into the story – which is a first for the New 52 books I’ve read so far. There’s a lot of situational-exposition and explanatory flashbacks that serve to introduce the Birds, but not a lot of what you might call “plot” yet. Still, the intros are a lot of fun.
From what I gather, the Birds are a group of women on the wrong side of the law, even further than the basic fact that they’re vigilantes. The book opens with them confronting a bunch of bad buys in silver suits (I didn’t realize that the bad guys were supposed to be invisible until the second reading. That makes a lot of the action much more sensical than it was on the first reading). The bad guys have gotten a journalist to follow the Birds as a sort of reconnaissance agent doubling as bait.
The last pages indicate that the Birds are being used as delivery device and scape-goat organization for something much bigger, so the story set-up works really well for making us care that the Birds in turn are being set up.
Superman #1 (2/5)
title – “What Price Tomorrow?”
writer – George Perez
artist – Jesus Merino
colorist – Bruce Buccellato
associate editor – Wil Moss
editor – Matt Idelson
This is more like the animated Superman, in terms of the type of story being told. We’re back into news, and trying to figure out what came before, as the Daily Planet becomes part of a Murdoch-style news conglomerate. Lois Lane is awesome, proving that her skills translate from getting the story to producing a news broadcast. I miss being able to ignore the weirdness caused by her not knowing Clark’s secret identity, and them constantly butting heads because they both have strong opinions, and he can’t tell her the full truth of the situation. They were a good team when they were married, and I’m not looking forward to the situational hijinks that are surely coming up.
Justice League Dark #1 (3/5)
title – “in the dark part one: Imaginary Women”
writer – Peter Milligan
artist – Mikel Janin
colorist – Ulises Arreola
editors – Rex Ogle & Eddie Berganza
Based entirely on premise, I was looking forward to this title. Some of that was curiosity as to whether the things I really like about horror comics (Hellboy, Madam Xanadu, Hellblazer, etc) could be fused with the main DCU.
I think I’m getting what I wanted? A book full of broken people, doing broken things, because the world can’t afford to lose the real heroes? Madam Xanadu does drugs to bring herself peace from precognition, Shade (someone I’ve never read before) disintegrates the girlfriend he made with magic when she wants to leave him (or she disintegrates because the magic can’t hold her together if she leaves?), John Constantine is a con man, and Zatanna gets advice from Batman, then decides to sacrifice herself in the battle rather than take him with her, because he’s too important. The danger? A mad-woman with incredible magical powers. The majority of the book is introducing us to those characters, and the weirdness of the world.
Enchantress is turning the world weird (“The local power station threatens to explode when it is imbued with consciousness…. and gets bored”), a trio of heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg) move to restrain her, and have their assess handed to them. Batman is working on Plan B with Zatanna when she decides to do things her way.
It’s even odds whether this is going to be interesting or a slap in the face.
More New 52 Reviews
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Batman and Robin #1 (2/5)
title – “Born to Kill”
writer – Peter J. Tomasi
penciller – Patrick Gleason
inker – Mick Gray
colorist – John Kalisz
I picked this one up because of how well Tomasi handled Green Lantern Corps #1, and am tentatively planning on picking up issue #2. The prologue with the Russian batman (we never learn his actual code-name, a-la Batwing) intrigued me greatly, and is my biggest clue to the situation of Batman Incorporated in the new DCU so far (in the issues I’ve picked up). My heart hurts for the guy. The whole “Batman Incorporated” thing is still very much unexplained in the context of the reboot – and isn’t very permeable to new readers. The sentimentality of Bruce’s last visit to Crime Alley is touching, though I wonder how long the “plow it under to allow redevelopment of the neighborhood” change to Gotham’s geography will last in Batman’s mythos. The plot moves from the annual visit on the anniversary of Dr. and Mrs. Wayne’s murder to stopping a theft at a nuclear research instillation, with hints of a larger mystery in the kidnapping and murder of the Russian batman.
The argument about recklessness and the sanctity of preserving life that Batman has with Robin will be familiar to long-time readers, and is introduced with little acknowledgment of Damian’s own origins here. The personality of each character is revealed in both dialog and art, but without the benefit of actual exposition. The material is dark and epic – it seems the storytelling stakes have risen significantly from ho-hum robberies (stealing nuclear material, accidentally exploding the thieves, dissolving a living man in acid), which I feel is unfortunate for attracting un-jaded readers. The deaths don’t have weight in an of themselves, making up for that stylistic slightness in shock value.
Red Lanterns #1 (2/5)
title – “With Blood and Rage”
writer – Peter Milligan
penciller – Ed Benes
inker – Rob Hunter
colorist – Nathan Eyring
This is inaccessible to the new reader, as it requires previous knowledge of the Lantern universe to tell what exactly is going on. There is no explanation of the rings, where these lanterns fit in the Green Lantern mythos, where they are, or why the plant exploding all over Atrocitus resolves the conflict of the issue. We just learn that the characters are angry, very angry. Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lanterns, spends the issue getting in touch with his inner rage – the better to function as the leader. There is no indication that the rest of the Red Lanterns are actually producing thoughts, as such. Not much in the way of plot introduced itself.
Blue Beetle #1 (5/5)
title – “Metamorphosis”
writer – Tony Bedard
penciller – Ig Guara
inker – Ruy Jose
colorist – Pete Pantazis
I am a new reader to Blue Beetle, so I can say that it is quite accessible. The prologue is very much in the mode of “long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away”, with evil invaders, a brief cameo by Green Lanterns, the whole bit. The introduction of The Reach and a conquering army is chilling, particularly the forced-conscription and partial-amnesia of the conscripts.
The introduction to Jaime is very well done – letting the reader know his personality as well as where he fits into the high-school hierarchy (including the presence of gangs and friends that have dropped out). We’re introduced his romantic and friendship interests in two concise pages. We are also introduced to a shadowy more organized crime ring (not one, but two sets of violent thieves) which serve as the plot device that gets the scarab of The Reach into Jaime’s possession. When what’s possessing whom switches around, Jaime’s terror is evident.
Batwing #1 (5/5)
title – “The Cradle of Civilization”
writer – Judd Winick
art – Ben Oliver
colors – Brian Reber
This is the title that’s keeping my attention best, so far, with it’s combination of action, mystery, character interaction, and previously-unknown DCU history.
Ben Oliver’s art is amazing, breathtaking even when its depicting brutal and violent acts (see: the last page). The prologue robs the final panel of it’s urgency, due to the timing already established, but that the initial shock was still present.
We are introduced to Batwing – one of the batmen of Batman Incorporated. No, Batman Incorporated is not explained, and I’m assuming even as much as I am based on the solicits copy for the #1s. For this story, it doesn’t actually matter, even if I personally find the lack of explanation frustrating. We begin with a fight, which we do not realize is over whether or not the villain (Massacre) will slaughter a bus-load of people until Batwing becomes pinned. Then we are shot six weeks into the past (which is how I know the last panel of the book doesn’t mean what I think it means) and we learn that Batwing is a policeman named David Zavimbe, are introduced to policewoman Kia Okuru, whom Zavimbe is trying to mentor without, y’know, letting her know that’s what he’s doing, and the murder case most bloody.
The crime they’re looking into is brutal, and the implied state of the police force is so-corrupt-they-can’t-stand. And it ties to the history of superheroes in Africa (a brief mention of a spontaneous appearance of super-powered people, world-wide sometime in the 1960′s, if they’re using the actual date of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s independence from Belgium, which is a nice look into the historical time-line of the new DCU). The final pages were a kick to the guts, and I really hope Okuru isn’t in that crowd scene.
some DC New 52 reviews and a strange proposal
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And now, the Reboot. I will preface this with the fact that I was neither excited about the reboot, nor have I any faith that it will be anything but a temporary shot in the arm to the industry.
Batman #1 (1/5)
title – “Knife Trick”
writer – Scott Snyder
penciller – Greg Capullo
inker – Jonathan Glapion
colors – FCO Plascencia
“Gimmick” – that is my one-word reaction. Like all Bat-related new beginnings, the story starts by introducing the city. Then we get treated to a story designed to manipulate for shock value – tried and true, you know they won’t actually go there but they’ll pull as much emotional manipulation out of the story as possible.
It is a good entry point for new readers who are fans of 1980s TV police procedurals, as the structural elements and character relationships feel are very familiar to that genre. We get introduced to Gotham City, a bevy of characters. Wayne’s company is doing redevelopment work in Gotham, we see he’s not the only one. There’s a gruesome murder with a secret message that only Batman realizes is there, one shocking disguise, and a cliff-hanging shocker related to the secret message and gruesome murder. Dun dun dun… No character beats whatsoever.
Snyder’s plot is safe and it’s elements are predictable even if the details aren’t. Capullo, Glapion, and Plascencia’s art is crisp and very attractive but not emotive or dynamic – great for stills but not necessarily helping tell the story. I had a problem with having to tell Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, and (new to me) Lincoln March (all blue-eyed brunettes) apart by their height (in descending order: March, Wayne, Grayson, Drake, and D.Wayne). I will not be picking up #2.
Catwoman #1 (2/5 – for the middle 11 pages, and Selina’s facial expressions)
title – “… and most of the costumes stay on…”
writer – Judd Winick
artist – Guillem March
colors – Tomeu Morey
I picked this one up in solidarity and nostalgia – Catwoman (Chuck Dixon’s run in the 90′s) is what got me into comic books. I hate the cover and first 4 pages, the middle 11 pages show promise of turning into something worth reading, and I hated the final 5 pages. Ugh.
The title of the storyline accurately represents the first four and last five pages of content – Catwoman is a titillation, with a lot of fanservice; the central turning point of the issue is her sexual relationship with Batman – it’s given a weight in the issue that nothing in her own character gets – her relationship to him becomes the most important thing we know about her in a vehicle meant to introduce her.
Of the middle eleven pages: I do like the presence of Lola, and the art style (different body-types! Actual expressions! Middle-aged faces with what looks like signs of aging!), the dialog grates. The panels showing the beat-down Selina handed the Russian mafia thug (with her shirt open) shows that the framing fo Selina’s breasts and ass earlier is deliberate, because the fight panels were brutal, bloody, and focused on the guy and Selina’s facial expression – no titillation whatsoever beyond her initial distraction. It makes me want to pick up issue #2, just to see if anything comes of that brief glimpse of an actual character under all that cheesecake and the “I am a flippant, cutsey loner” excuse for the dialog.
What I really want? A Catwoman series written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Guillem March. That would be awesome.
I am unable to assess on a new-reader level, because she is so much a part of my comics past. However, if it is accessable to new readers, I see nothing in the story or character here that would make a new reader care enough to pick up issue #2.
Green Lantern Corps #1 (4/5)
title – “Triumph of the Will”
writer – Peter Tomasi
artist – Fernando Pasarin
inker – Scott Hanna
colors – Gabe Eltaeb
I read it twice, and liked it a lot both times.
This is the first that I think provides an immediate “in” for a new reader, Tomasi managed a clever way of introducing Guy Gardner and John Stewart, the Green Lanterns as a police force, and a mystery all at once. Pasarin and Hanna provided the atmosphere for the mystery portions (really creepy, like the good procedurals these days), and the character beats and personality for everyone we’re introduced to (and there are a lot of characters, given it’s a “team” book), cleanly and with a lot of meaning packed in very tightly.
Very quickly, we get the villains that our Lantern Corp will need to catch (even though we don’t technically see them), and have emotional investment in their capture as their first act is to murder two Lanterns. Then we get the two Lanterns of Earth, neither of whom has a secret identity, so we get to see them comfortable with their abilities and using them as an extension of personality and professionalism. The circumstances and manner in which both explain the ring, Corps, and powers to civilians does double duty as showing what kind of men Guy and John are, respectively, and providing the needed exposition on their abilities and responsibilities.
Nightwing #1 (3/5)
title – “Welcome to Gotham”
writer – Kyle Higgins
penciller – Eddy Barrows
inker – JP Mayer
colors – Rod Reis
The exposition monologue isn’t as bad as it could have been. A little clumsy, but it works well with the awkwardness of the reunion at Haley’s – though, it was weird the way that characters at Haley’s spoke to Dick like his parents died only a short time ago (a few years at most). Not a lot of plot to this issue – even when the assassin comes to town (“assassin comes to town”, and “Dick visits Haley’s” pretty much covers it).
The cliff-hanger points to a tie-in with the plot line of Batman #1, either that or Dick being suspected of murder is a plot occurring in two titles, independently of each other.
*quibbling: the advertisement copy on DC’s website and the text of this issue can’t agree whether to spell the circus’ name as “Haley’s” or “Haly’s”
Supergirl #1 (4/5)
title – “Last Daughter of Krypton”
writers – Michael Green and Mike Johnson
penciller – Mahmud Asrar
inkers – Asrar and Dan Green
colorist – Dave McCraig
I am not at all sure what to make of the costume design – but I like the top half. Why is Supergirl’s costume such a headache? Would it have killed them to give her blue leggings, like the ones Superman wears?
The representation of her disorientation is very well executed – Green handles the reveal and escalating panic at a good pace. “Something’s wrong with the sun!” as our yellow sun rises over the Siberia – “This isn’t Krypton!”. And a quick tie to Nightwing #1 in a bit of dialog representing her super-hearing waking up.
The plot is good, with a lot of potential. We start with a disoriented Kara, who doesn’t know (or doesn’t remember) that Krypton is gone, her last memory is heading home with her friends. She wakes up to meet a team of mechanical suits being piloted by a team sent to retrieve the alien (her). As the sun rises, Kara’s powers start manifesting, and she goes from thinking the situation is a dream, to causing damage in her reaction to both the retrieval attempt, the fact that she can’t understand what the retrieval team is saying, and the new abilities freaking her out (as they would anyone). The last shot is Superman trying to stop the combat (we hope).
It’s a good introduction for new readers – though Supergirl’s been rebooted so many times, introducing new readers is something she’s good at.
Batwoman #1 (4/5)
title – “Hydrology, Part 1: Leaching”
writers – J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman
artist – J.H. Williams III
colorist – Dave Stewart
I admit – this was the only title in the reboot that I was actually looking forward to.
It’s also the only title, of those I’ve read, where the story title text isn’t “DC Comics Proudly Presents [book title] in [story title]” here it’s just “DC Comics Proudly Presents [story title]“. Editing error, or something to feel slighted by?
Less a reboot, and more finally launching a long-promised series – the story starts off after the events in Batwoman’s run in Detective Comics, so those are still part of the DCU, and that makes this book a little less permiable to new readers. But the trade from her run in Detective Comics is available, and highly recommended, so it’ll be easy for interested parties to catch up if they want.
The mystery is intriguing, with La Llorona featuring prominently adding the weight of so many missing children to the plot. Also features a threat directly to Kate, as the Department of Extranormal Operations takes an interest in her. They were one of my favorite additions to the cast of Manhunter, and bring in a nice outside Gotham element to the title.
The strange proposal is – there are issues that don’t do anything for me (as the reviews above indicate), but my reaction is not the reaction of others. So – if anyone reading this would like to trade for Batman #1, and possibly other issues in the future please leave me a comment and we’ll discuss the exchange.
cross-posted to my wordpress blog
Buffy, Season 9 and Madame Xanadu
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I haven’t written about comics in ages, but am considering this the first tentative steps back into that world. Comics are a high-maintenance medium to be involved with.
Buffy: Season 9 - #1 (3/5)
When we could shout across the room
Image by Jaimito Cartero via Flickr
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about management. I take refuge in thinking about it theoretically, as an academic problem to be solved, and wouldn’t it be nice if all the people involved would just behave. I am fully aware that theoretically is not how this works, but I use the word “refuge” in good conscience. I’m in a position of learning as I go, and trying things out until I find a style that works for both me and the people I manage. Yes, this method does drive everyone a little crazy – I’m not exactly set in my ways, in a practical sense.
Five years ago next week, I started working at my current company. We all fit into one big room plus three descent offices, with all our inventory and break room amenities, and I’ve been feeling nostalgia for the days when I could hold everything that needed to be done in my realm of influence in my brain.
Today I attended a workshop designed (and designed well) to teach me how to manage people, with all the infrastructure that entails (feedback, planning ahead, clear expectations, consistency), and had an abrupt realization that that infrastructure is necessary because we’re not all living out of each others’ pockets anymore. I’d had the realization before, but something about having to write emails to myself in order to make sure I remembered what I’ve said to whom on a regular basis drove it home. Because I will have to write those emails, or I’m going to end up pulling the ground out from under someone’s project without meaning to, simply because I don’t remember what priority it had relative to the rest of the department last week before that import issue cropped up – and I hate it when people do that to me.
I miss the small business environment, where I could be elbow deep in everything without pissing anyone off or breaking anything. Now I get to look at all the pretty spinning wheels of commerce, but I’m only allowed to touch and muck with the ones in my assigned section (and you’d better believe I muck with them). And I could do so much more damage by touching the wrong thing at the wrong time than I could before, simply because we move like a Destroyer now, rather than a speedboat.
A lot of this is just me whining. What I really want is a data port, because if I haven’t figured out how to learn things fast enough to keep up by now, I never will.
Blackveil – Kristen Britain
Oh, Kristen Britain. I’m trying very hard not to be one of those readers, but you’re making it very difficult. 
Blackveil is the fourth installment in Britain’s Green Rider series, and I find that I still miss the tight storytelling of the first two books. The pacing is just off in these last two.
The first half of Blackveil is loaded down with supporting, side-plot, and set-up scenes told in great (and lengthy) detail, many of them long scenes that have no bearing on the larger story arc except to get a Plot Device into Karigan’s hands or wallow in the relationship angst that is slowly taking over many character interactions. Then, the second half rushes through the continuation of series-arc storylines in broad strokes, with the Plot Devices fulfilling their roles on cue. Reading through it, one would think that the center of the series storyarc was the Monarchy and Succession of Sacoridia, and that the fight with a power-hungry Mornhaven wanting to conquer all that is good and just in the world was the side-plot.
Karigan G’ladheon has become something of a destined heroine while we weren’t looking. Instead of being centrally involved because of chance and her own characteristics (gumption, impatience, a strong sense of duty, a clear understanding of right and wrong), she has become a Chosen One. That sound you just heard? That was my heart breaking a little.
What little resolution there was to the series arc was unsatisfying and handled in a great hurry with little detail at the end of the book. There are a lot of threads that are still stretching off into the future, and more just keep getting added. In High King’s Tomb we were introduced to Amberhill, a Zorro look-alike who becomes entangled in Kerigan’s story through plot machinations (robbing a museum that she’s attending on a date, getting co-involved in a dashing rescue, his interest is piqued). Now, we get mentions of beings called the Sea Kings, which are tied to Amberhill’s future and somehow we must care about this while there’s an expedition to the Blackveil Forest being planned. And his “tune in next time” chapter is one of three that actually takes the place of the climactic battle of the book. The battle-winning explosion ending Kerigan’s face-off with The Enemy (un-named to avoid spoilers) actually happens off screen. “Frustrated” does not even begin to cover my feelings on the decrease in narrative through-line between Green Rider and Blackveil.
And Blackveil does end in an explicit cliff-hanger, though I feel as if High King’s Tomb ended on an in-explicit cliff-hanger, so this doesn’t actually strike me as a change in behavior for the series.
The High King’s Tomb – Kristen Britain
Cover via Amazon
In July, I read The High King’s Tomb, the third installment in Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series. Way back when the second book came out (First Rider’s Call), I somehow got the impression that Green Rider was going to be a trilogy. It may have been the obviousness of the Tolkien homage, it may have been wishful thinking, given the time between books appearing. Whatever it was, it caused severe frustration when I was 2/3 of the way through High King’s Tomb and it became clear that absolutely nothing in the series arc was going to be resolved. Only the specific-to-this-installment plot threads were resolved (sort of).
Of the things left un-resolved in First Rider’s Call, there was the D’Yer wall, Kerigan’s feelings for the King, Second Empire’s plans, and when Mornhaven would return. I’m going to be evil, and issue a set of spoilers here: By the last page of High King’s Tomb the D’Yer wall is still breached, with only hope of knowing how to fix it, Kerigan still loves the King and he’s still marrying someone else while plotting how he can get Kerigan too, Second Empire’s plans are to break the wall… which is what their plan was in book 2, and we still don’t know when Mornhaven is coming back.
What does get resolved are Lady Estoria’s feelings about her impending marriage, the increase in Green Rider ranks, the next step in Kerigan’s unique destiny (treated as a thready side-plot), and the character development of a poor-man’s Zorro wanna-be, whom I hope we never hear from again.
There is something of narrative discipline missing from this third installment. While using a similarly-sized cast of POV characters to First Rider’s Call, there is no real narrative momentum holding them together. Multiple scenes all do the same narrative work, rather than each scene advancing that narrative (either plot-wise, world-wise, or character-wise). The plot seems to hang from the character of Grandmother, rather than Kerigan, which I believe to be a great loss of story-telling potential. Especially given the climax of this book.
This review is a republishing (new blog domain). It was originally published in July 2010.
First Rider’s Call – Kristen Britain
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First Rider’s Call
Kristen Britain
Sequel to Green Rider
It was worth the (years long) wait between the first and this. And so good that Beloved got me the two in hardback so that I’ll have a fall-back position when I destroy the paperbacks with re-reading.
There are more characters who get sections in their POV than in the first one. King Zachary being one of the few recurring that hadn’t gotten his moment in the first book. The delicate balance of realism and magic is maintained, allowing the instances of “standard fairytale magic” to feel as wrong and the sign of a world out of whack as the plot demands they do.
Kerigan still acts her age, which is rare for strong female characters when it isn’t being played for laughs. And everyone reacts as people would, rather than living up to their character-type cliche. It was refreshing, and a relief to know that the trend continued from one book to the next.
The only complaint is that this is obviously a middle book, so things are resolved in a necessarily temporary way. It makes waiting for the next installment difficult.
This review is a republishing (new blog domain). It was originally published in April 2005
Green Rider – Kristen Britain
Cover via Amazon
Green Rider
by Kristen Britain
Karigan G’ladheon finds herself caught up in Kingdom-wide events when she crosses paths with a dying man on the run. He is a Green Rider – of the King’s Messenger Service, and his mission is to get a message warning of danger to the King. Karigan takes up his mission as he instructs her with his last breath, and thus launches herself along a path only legends are made to travel.
Aided by folk who don’t get involved with just any errand, and pursued by enemies who don’t act on whims, Karigan becomes a wild card in a game between highly skilled players. The game board was set before her arrival, the pieces moved as their controllers wished, until she enters and forces everyone’s hands, becoming the deciding factor simply by being where she is, and acting as herself, at any given time.
Author Britain engages in authentic world building here. Each detail is part of a wider picture, and there is the feeling of many details left un-explored, due to the necessities of the plot. This wider world makes the story a joy to follow, even as we learn more with each event.
That said, the world itself will be familiar to Tolkien readers. It’s a riff on the standard mystical version of British/ European feudal Middle Age society found in a lot of Fantasy books, yet a bit more grounded and “earthy” than, say, The Wheel of Time‘s setting. The various populations are not caricatures of societies in our own history, yet familiar as if they had evolved on a tangent branch of the cultural tree of our own historical European cultures. The Green Riders have the flavor of Irish/Celtic culture, as well as Rohan from LOTR, while still being different enough to be something like the younger cousin of those cultures. And the same goes for the other groups represented (though with less delving into their past, due to not occupying center stage).
Britain’s characters are also utterly real. Emotions ring true, and as irrational as emotions should be, as characters perform actions that are true to themselves as well as service the plot. She used the roving third-person limited POV to great advantage, as each character gets a distinct voice, and the reader gets more information essential to the story at the same time as learning the people. Also good with the dramatic tension, as neither reader nor characters have all the information.
The elements of the story are tight, in that there are no stray ruminations or information, no tangents simply to show off some aspect of the world Britain has built. All things presented arise organically from the story rather than the setting. Characters act in character as they’re presented with plot events, which resolve in one way vs another due to the actions of the characters.
Reading the acknowledgments page of a book is usually something I skip. I’m glad I at least gave it a sentence or two this time around. Knowing that Tolkien inspired the author allowed me to see the things this book has in common with Lord of the Rings as a homage instead of derivative. If I had been reading any more shallowly than I was, I may have passed that judgment, but Britain instead weaves familiar elements into something new, and it would have been a shame to miss it.
This story is well crafted, and a balm to clunky storytelling everywhere.
This is a republishing (new blog domain). This review was originally published in February 2005.
He, She, and It – Marge Piercy
Cross-posted from my other blog:
Set in our world many decades after the world was devastated by plague and famine, He, She and It directly concerns the status of a person, as an individual, and as part of a community, and whether people can be the tools and pawns of corporations, of each other, and the moral implications of each status. It touched on the damage the people can do to people, the conflict person against person rather than against government, against god, against nature, or against oneself. The two narrating characters are women, of the same Jewish family, and both are brilliant program designers who work directly with the Net, which functions something like our own, with the added capacity for projection into the virtual world.
I’ve had trouble writing this review. The characters, particularly of Shira and Malkah, are what is important to this narrative; they are the point, the substance, and reason for this story. Yet, anything I say about them seems wrong, because they are full-fleshed characters and any impression that I give could detract from the experience of meeting them for the first time. That would be a dis-service to anyone who decides to pick up the book, for it was a joy to meet every character unawares.
This book is categorized as science fiction, which the trappings of a virtual reality Net and post-apocalyptic setting support, and brings out the spiritual and philosophical deep questions that dealing with a whole new world, and a new way of interaction, should bring out in science fiction. Those questions are the meat of the book, treated textually and as of immediate importance, rather than the more common treatment as subtext or theme. Action and violence are used only in service of the plot. The setting is shown off much more often, and caused me to realize that one of the things that makes sci-fi movies and graphic novels so prominent in their mediums is the ability to take three pages of text description of a place and make two pictures or setting-shots out of it and immediately transport the audience into the strange new world. The book is set apart from “standard” science fiction conventions by the Jewish culture, history, legend, and mysticism that Piercy draws on as the lens through which the narrator, and thus the reader, sees the events of the story. There are parallel stories of a cyborg created illegally in mid-twenty-first century New England, and a bed-time story about a golum created in secret in 1600′s Prague, and the parallel of these two stories showing both the expanding definition of a person, and the ways in which nothing has changed.
I enjoyed the philosophical questions as much as the technology and setting, probably more-so because the answers were very immediately necessary, to how the characters would react, and to the characters themselves. It was a satisfying read, a good literary meal rather than brain-candy.
Philanthropy
Philanthropy. From WordNet at Princton: “S: (n) philanthropy, philanthropic gift (voluntary promotion of human welfare)”
I just spent two days ruminating about stuff. And by “stuff” I mean the things I tend to buy to make myself feel better. Books and jewelry often fall into this category, as I pick the things that I think will match or signal that I am the person I wish to be. It doesn’t really work that way, but there isn’t a reading buff in the world that hasn’t been seduced by the possibilities of symbolism.
So, this last two days, I took a portion of the discretionary part of my latest paycheck that usually goes to new books or impulse purchases, and I reacted impulsively to calls for donations online. In so doing, I realized that I’ve been pretty quiet, as far as online support for good causes goes. This is me not being particularly quiet anymore.
I was introduced to DonorsChoose.org in that great way that online communication works. Someone who I read online frequently posted a link to someone else, who I read less frequently, linking to a classroom project that resonated particularly with the online subculture I hang around in (albeit quietly). A classroom in LA wanted individual copies of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, which I had read not-too-long-ago, and had the book rock my world. So I donated to the classroom project, flush with the enthusiasm of a reader who wanted to share her new favorite book with the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD (seriously, you should read Parable of the Sower).
And then, not too long later, someone else that I read online donated her birthday to DonorsChoose – making a giving page, with projects in her area, and thus introducing me to the concept.
I learned how to use my account, created a Giving Page with projects in my State, set up a monthly donation, and haven’t regretted it since. I had to renew my monthly giving today, which lead to me re-doing the giving page, adding it to my sidebar here on this blog, and in general being more actively aware of what I was involved in than I had been previously.
DonorsChoose is a transparent organization, posting their Financial Reports where anyone on the internet can find them. They recently celebrated their 10th Anniversary as an organization:
- DonorsChoose.Org: Education Charity Celebrates Ten Years In HuffPost Exclusive (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
They are a Charity Navigator 4 star charity, with 92% of their income going to their programs.
And they are a prime example of large-scale crowdfunding, something the Salvation Army has been doing for a while, but which became easier with the advent of a large, engaged online population.
Achievements and my psychology.
The husband and I play a lot of video games. A feature introduced to us with our XBox are achievements for meeting certain criteria within the games. My current obsession is Dragon Age: Origins, which comes on my gaming system with a set of achievements. Achievements are earned by fulfilling a set of conditions during game-play. They are pretty obviously designed to get someone to spend more hours playing the game than they already would have, by appealing to the collector-soul present in the populace. They also get completists to pay up for extra content that they might not have gone for, if it weren’t for the empty slots that will show up on their list of achievements.
What’s all this leading up to? My status as a habitual blood-donar, actually.
Approximately every eight weeks, since the space of time between when I graduated high school and when I started college, my Dad and I meet for breakfast at Dot’s Diner and then go give up a pint each to Bonfils Blood Center. Bonfils gives out neat gold-colored pins for every gallon that you donate. Totally separate from the feeling of civic pride, of being useful to society, of knowing that the line between recovery and not may be my pint of O+, is the nice little adrenaline rush, the sense of collecting, when I get one of those pins.
According to calculations, I should be getting another one – 8 gallons – next time I give.
And knowing that, I realized that what I’m feeling is exactly the same as when I know that I’m about to complete the game-play conditions for another achievement – one of the ones I’ve had to work for. It’s a strange thing to realize that my brain is rewarding me for both experiences in the same way. That rush of having done something.
The psychology is self-feeding, at least for me. Proving that I’m not the do-gooding, altruistic person that does things like give blood just for the betterment of her neighbors. No, I get that nice little adrenaline rush too, encouraging me to come back, to level up, just eight more pints and I get another pin.
And you know what? I’m not going to fight it – because the behavior does better my neighbors, even if that’s not the totality of the reason why I do it.
Colorado Voter Registration Deadline
While I have very definite opinions regarding the races, amendments (!!!) and other ballot issues this year, my primary concern is the voter turn-out. Americans are abysmal at turning out to vote without a sexy Presidential Election or Immovable Opinions to bring them in. Personally, I vote a multi-party ticket, and I suspect that I am not alone.
I am invested in a highly-populated, informed voting public, and I know I appreciate having the Am I Registered? Where’s My Polling Place? and What’s On The Ballot? answers within easy reach. So I share that easy reach with you, Dear Reader.
Deadline to Register is October 4 (next Monday).
Election information, voter registration options (including registering online or checking your current registration status) are all available at the CO Secretary of State website:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/
The electronic copy of the 2010 Blue Book (information, including write-ups of the opposing viewpoints on all state-wide ballot measures, and not produced by any of the political parties), is available here: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CGA-LegislativeCouncil/CLC/1200536134742
An audio copy of the 2010 Blue Book is available here: http://www.cde.state.co.us/ctbl/resources/2010_Legislative_Blue_Book.htm
Crowd-sourced information on ballot measures is a beautiful thing to see this year:
We have awesome resources for voters, some of them even disconnected from Party Politics. Yet, it’s our duty to use them – a free country and a working Representative Democracy are not going to be just handed to us.
Confronting the Complexity
Image via Wikipedia
I am, by nature, given to the melodramatic and portentous proclamations. Not for the sense of importance (though that is a bonus), but for the idea that even the small things, if discussed in epic terms, grow to fit the language.
These days, I’ve found myself describing every project in the words of great diplomatic acts or in the language of warfare. Some of this is for sure influenced by the fact that my current reading is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Jack Weatherford reads as a bit of a fanboy, and I’m currently resisting the urge to go hunting through the bibliography, which would disrupt my actually reading the book. Even so, Weatherford’s book, along with The Checklist Manifesto, have influenced how I’m thinking about logistics vs. communication right now. Logistics is all about communication, which I think I had noticed before, but a targeted sort of communication: the kind that allows the people involved to know each other before they have to entirely depend on each others’ expertise. This is in addition to putting together a team that consists of expertise.
I’ve also been thinking in terms of putting time into my work with AAUW and my work at Work. I get to be creative as well as technical wit the website editor duties for the Branch (you all have gone to see the site right?), while I am getting deeper into analytical work, as I transition from my former position to my new one. The worries are that I am not creative enough to do publicity and a web-presence justice, or that I am not sufficiently laying the foundation for the new job, while shortchanging the transition period for both myself and my successor in the previous one. Between that, and the political calendar (AAUW has a public policy branch, which does a good job of getting the word out) there is no shortage of new things to learn, put together, and connect. I just have to sort signal from noise (a phrase I’ve been using a lot lately, in the context of my job), and to decide where I stand on the various moral continuums. No sweat, right?
Yet, at this time I feel the full weight of a beginning of the story, which is my favorite place to be. As I learned from one of my new team today: you have to earn what you ask for. And currently? I’m asking for a lot.
The Thousand Things
cross-posted with LiveJournal
1. I took a walk tonight, and even knowing that smoke had been pouring out of the mountains since mid-morning, the sky made me gawk in broken, painful amazement.
The smoke was a bruise, streaking across the west/north-west horizon, and as the sun set, I swear I could see bits of flame here and there on the mountain-side. I pray I was wrong, and the 3,000 acres burned as of this afternoon haven’t grown to more than that.
I’ve called my parents twice tonight, making sure they’re ok, even though they’re miles away from the directly effected area, and only ten miles closer to it than I am. I prayed for a quick resolution and end to the blaze, and I pray for those unable to go home tonight (or ever, if news speculation of burned houses is true).
There are three evacuation sites, one in a building I was a student at, nearly two decades ago now. The Red Cross is providing, as they usually do.
2. On Saturday, I crossed the 1,000 cumulative miles mark in the Eowyn Challenge. I’m on my way from Lothlorien to the Rauros Falls, at which point I will have to decide who I am on this particular adventure.
3. Deciding who I am is a bit more than a joke, at this particular point in time. I am changing my position and duties at work – not entirely by choice, though I know the choice is the right one. Part of that is helping to find someone to do what I can’t, and I’m finding it difficult to keep my blasted pride out of the equation. And I mean it, when I say “blasted” – my pride is as blasted lands: barren, cracked, and completely useless to anyone but sadists who leave prisoners out to starve.
4. I possibly need to read less dystopian literature until the changes at work are more settled. Though Hunger Games was quite the engrossing, heart-wrenching read. Follow it up with Imaro and the atmosphere of alienation, protagonist-against-the-world is nigh overwhelming.
5. I hadn’t really thought about it before this weekend, but Imaro might well be the first book in the Sword and Sorcery sub-genre of fantasy that I’ve actually read, though the Conan and Red Sonja movies were well known to me at a relatively early age. I could have done a great deal worse, though I’m not sure I could have found better. There was just enough there for me to get a foothold, and quite a bit that was completely different from other things that I’ve read. It makes me want the other three books.
6. In a fit of anxiety, I washed All The Dishes. Spouse is quite pleased, as xir’s usually the one who breaks first, and takes care of them.
Edited 9/7/2010: fixed spelling errors – oops.
Facing the Future
It’s not often that I get to see the same argument (against another party’s argument) being made by observers of both the Publishing Industry and the Stock Market (vast oversimplification). And yet, waiting for me to catch up with them in my reading lists were both of these:
Book Square’s Kassia Krozser responds to the backwards business logic of “protecting” the book by restricting formats.
And Infectious Greed’s Paul Kedrosky argues against an argument blaming new technology for the dearth of IPOs. Both address arguments that somehow the decline, stifling, or death of an industry is defined by the emergence of new technology and new ways of doing things – not those industries abilities to define themselves and their functions in terms of the new ways of doing things.
It’s the argument to “protect” that both Krozser and Kedrosky address in their responses. The idea that somehow, the old way of doing things needs to be preserved because it’s the old way of doing things.
For myself, I can’t see how it’s ever a good idea to mistake the form of something for its function. That way lies messiness, madness, and cliffs we should have seen coming.
The Story Teller by Margaret Coel
In a week, my branch of AAUW will be hosting it’s annual Membership Tea. Since my previous position of Interest Group Coordinator is no longer in existence, I find myself looking forward to the meeting. In previous years, the prospect of trying to answer questions about fun groups that I didn’t have time to belong to was kind of depressing. This year, I have the website, and a speaker after my own hear to look forward to.
This summer, I saw Ms. Coel speak at Chautauqua, and was impressed by the breadth of her passion for the world around her, the stories she tells, and particularly the people who inspire those stories. Father John and Vicki Holden may not actually exist, but the themes, traumas, and hopes of the stories in which they reside do.
Equality isn’t something that one fights for in only one aspect of the world. It’s something that comes from being unable to look at another than think that they are less. Ms. Coel’s work looks to aim for that in the relationships she portrays, the evils she has her characters face, and the themes peeking out from between the words on the page.
Because I’m all caught up in excitement for this meeting, I’m going to read Story Teller, and am toying with the idea of liveblogging it. I have no idea if I’m even constitutionally capable of putting a good mystery down long enough to blog it before finishing, but I think I’ll give it a go.
Is that buzzing I hear, or is it just the inside of my skull?
This is a companion blog to my LiveJournal, and I have to admit it has been created mostly for name-squatting purposes.
However, since I am also a contributor and admin for the blog/site for AAUW’s Boulder Branch the new location and tools available are growing on me.
I plan to use the two very different platforms to compliment and support each other, and while there will probably be different content on each, readers are unlikely to miss much. As the two links above demonstrate, I do my best to provide context. I’m a big fan of footnotes, you see.
