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Jun. 15th, 2013 05:38 pmOne of my 101 things in 1001 days list is reviewing every book I read in a month on LJ.
I haven't figured out how I count graphic novels, but I figure better safe than sorry.
Graphic Novels
Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman, designed by Chip Kidd. Go listen to the speech on youtube. Go find a transcript of that speech. I will admit, I've become disenchanted by Mr. Gaiman. I still am totally going to devour The Ocean at the End of the Lane but it turns out the few times I've heard him speak, in person or in his blog, it seems like the AFP channel all the time. And love is awesome, and I'm sure they're very happy, but I'm consciously choosing not to consume her media. This presentation is a little too clever, and Chip Kidd's not really my aesthetic.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Amazing. I am totally tracking down other things this author has done. To me, it seemed pointed without being preachy, though I've not had any of the experiences outlined in the book. Also, one of those graphic novels that I am absolute certain is in fact a novel.
Locke & Key #5 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I can pretty safely say, even before having read the other works in this category, that this'll be my vote for the graphic Hugo this year. Last year, I was never not going to vote for Digger, (also, go find the Digger omnibus kickstarter and fund it right now) but this series was a close second. A graphic novel about coastal Massachusetts, secrets and keys? Be still my heart.
Transfusion by Steve Niles and Menton3. In the future, there are vampires and there are machines that need human blood for lubrication. Turns out, high demand on a limited resource leads to problems. Vampires and robots fight! Not my style, hard to follow, but I found the concept a little bit interesting.
Not graphic novels.
Wide Open by Deborah Coates. Bah. Person comes home from Afghanistan, on compassionate leave because her sister killed herself. She died in Afghanistan and was resuscitated, so of course she now sees ghosts. Not particularly useful ghosts, they mostly just seem to give her frostbite. She's determined in a sort of unfocused way, very fixated on the time she has left, very determined to find her sister's killer (spoiler: it wasn't suicide). There's a dude, he's kind of an asshole even though he's portrayed as the Good Person of the story. He ignores her requests, talks over her, doesn't listen to her, etc. Of course, they end up having a special bond. And I wish I hadn't returned it to the library, because there is some truly clunky dialogue I wanted to share.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, book one of the Grisha trilogy. So, at first, I liked this. It was a culture that I'm unfamiliar with, and seemed like an interesting twist on a bog-standard trope. And then I started to look into the Russian-ness of it and it seems a little sketchy. I think the proper response is to probably go try to find something a little better researched and a little less grotesque in the "now I'm pretty" department.
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. It starts strong, and seems like it's going to be an interesting mix of Lord of the Flies and Dawn of the Dead, but it kind of peters out after the first few chapters. Again, some weird-ass gender issues, some creepy stalker tendencies from the main character, and a slightly hokey-sounding disease. (a tsunami makes a hail storm that crashes a bus, that makes some vague governmental toxin leak into the atmosphere, and different blood types either become 1) enraged and try to kill everyone 2) covered in bloody blisters or 3) become sterile/possibly impotent?.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. Loved this, was unsettled by it, almost cried at the end. The world slows down, days get longer, species die, the sun becomes toxic. It's so much harder to talk about books that I love than it is to talk about books I don't love. I can draw comparisons, tell you it's a little bit like To Kill a Mockingbird mixed with something by Atwood, but that kind of misses the point because it's actually its own thing altogether. Read it.
Stealing Fire by Jo Graham. Again, a book I loved. Alexandrian history? Gender fluidity and not super-creepy treatment of same sex relationships in historical context? Subtle magic? All this and more awaits. And now I've checked wikipedia and found out she's been writing tie-in Stargate Novels with Melissa Scott, whose Trouble and Her Friends I still consider to be a formative work? Be still my beating heart.
I haven't figured out how I count graphic novels, but I figure better safe than sorry.
Graphic Novels
Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman, designed by Chip Kidd. Go listen to the speech on youtube. Go find a transcript of that speech. I will admit, I've become disenchanted by Mr. Gaiman. I still am totally going to devour The Ocean at the End of the Lane but it turns out the few times I've heard him speak, in person or in his blog, it seems like the AFP channel all the time. And love is awesome, and I'm sure they're very happy, but I'm consciously choosing not to consume her media. This presentation is a little too clever, and Chip Kidd's not really my aesthetic.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Amazing. I am totally tracking down other things this author has done. To me, it seemed pointed without being preachy, though I've not had any of the experiences outlined in the book. Also, one of those graphic novels that I am absolute certain is in fact a novel.
Locke & Key #5 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I can pretty safely say, even before having read the other works in this category, that this'll be my vote for the graphic Hugo this year. Last year, I was never not going to vote for Digger, (also, go find the Digger omnibus kickstarter and fund it right now) but this series was a close second. A graphic novel about coastal Massachusetts, secrets and keys? Be still my heart.
Transfusion by Steve Niles and Menton3. In the future, there are vampires and there are machines that need human blood for lubrication. Turns out, high demand on a limited resource leads to problems. Vampires and robots fight! Not my style, hard to follow, but I found the concept a little bit interesting.
Not graphic novels.
Wide Open by Deborah Coates. Bah. Person comes home from Afghanistan, on compassionate leave because her sister killed herself. She died in Afghanistan and was resuscitated, so of course she now sees ghosts. Not particularly useful ghosts, they mostly just seem to give her frostbite. She's determined in a sort of unfocused way, very fixated on the time she has left, very determined to find her sister's killer (spoiler: it wasn't suicide). There's a dude, he's kind of an asshole even though he's portrayed as the Good Person of the story. He ignores her requests, talks over her, doesn't listen to her, etc. Of course, they end up having a special bond. And I wish I hadn't returned it to the library, because there is some truly clunky dialogue I wanted to share.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, book one of the Grisha trilogy. So, at first, I liked this. It was a culture that I'm unfamiliar with, and seemed like an interesting twist on a bog-standard trope. And then I started to look into the Russian-ness of it and it seems a little sketchy. I think the proper response is to probably go try to find something a little better researched and a little less grotesque in the "now I'm pretty" department.
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. It starts strong, and seems like it's going to be an interesting mix of Lord of the Flies and Dawn of the Dead, but it kind of peters out after the first few chapters. Again, some weird-ass gender issues, some creepy stalker tendencies from the main character, and a slightly hokey-sounding disease. (a tsunami makes a hail storm that crashes a bus, that makes some vague governmental toxin leak into the atmosphere, and different blood types either become 1) enraged and try to kill everyone 2) covered in bloody blisters or 3) become sterile/possibly impotent?.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. Loved this, was unsettled by it, almost cried at the end. The world slows down, days get longer, species die, the sun becomes toxic. It's so much harder to talk about books that I love than it is to talk about books I don't love. I can draw comparisons, tell you it's a little bit like To Kill a Mockingbird mixed with something by Atwood, but that kind of misses the point because it's actually its own thing altogether. Read it.
Stealing Fire by Jo Graham. Again, a book I loved. Alexandrian history? Gender fluidity and not super-creepy treatment of same sex relationships in historical context? Subtle magic? All this and more awaits. And now I've checked wikipedia and found out she's been writing tie-in Stargate Novels with Melissa Scott, whose Trouble and Her Friends I still consider to be a formative work? Be still my beating heart.
