Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Just do the following:
Grab your current read.
Open to a random page.
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From Chapter 8 of Crucible of Gold, a Temeraire novel by Naomi Novik:
"In any case, his ornaments of office would have lent even a lesser beast enormous gravity. A band of gold was wrapped about the top of his throat, set into a woolen collar with a tassled fringe in a bright green color, which stood markedly against the deep inense violet of his scales."

New 52 Review: Aquaman 1-6

 Aquaman: The Trench Hardcover Collection, by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and Rod Reis. 

Aquaman was the surprise hit of the last year's New 52 initiative from DC Comics. His book continually sells in DC's top ten, and critical reaction has been equally as positive. And the good news is that the book deserves all of this praise.

Issues 1-4 introduce a great new villain, the Trench, unthinking monsters of the deep that just want food. And by food they mean humans. The 4 issues are mostly an extended battle, with some action-packed art. The entire art team (penciler, inker, and colorist) is at the top of their game here, putting out dynamic page after dynamic page.

  Issue 5 is a solo story featuring Aquaman lost in a desert, but issues 6 is the best of this batch. All Mera (don't call her "Aquawoman") wants to do is buy food for the couple's new dog. She ends up breaking one man's wrist, escaping from the police, and nearly killing an escaped murderer. What makes this issue great is not just how great Mera looks when she is kicking butt (though this is part of what makes this issue great), but Geoff Johns and the art team are also able to communicate just how "other" Mera is. The "stranger in a strange land" motif has been used many times in many types of stories, but this version is terrific. The joint misunderstandings between humanity and Mera cause both sides to err. But this makes her commitment to serve humanity at her husband's side at the end of the issue all the more touching.

There is meta-narrative at work in these issues, as well. Aquaman is considered a lame hero, nothing but the guy who talks to fish, which is a commentary on how comics readers felt about the character before this series started. There is no reason to think that in the less than five years that Aquaman and Mera have been present on Earth (per the New 52 timeline) that these feelings would have generated, but this is Johns' way of commenting on readers' preconceived notions of the character. The scene is issue 1 where he orders fish and chips at a seafood joint is terrific.

The art team will be leaving the book in the near future, moving on to DC's flagship Justice League book. They deserve this honor, but it does leave fans of Aquaman wonder what is next for the king of the seven seas.

Book #59

Hell's Bay, by James W. Hall. Unabridged audio.

Throughout Hall's prior dozen books or so, the character of Thorn has played the role of reluctant hero. He is a loner who would like nothing more than to spend his entire life in the Florida Keys making a meager living as a fishing guide. But circumstances never allow for that, and he always finds himself wrapped up in adventure, drama, and danger.

The combination of Thorn's first-person POV and other characters' third-person POV is a style that I have run across more all the time in modern thrillers or mysteries, but it always strikes me as awkward at first. But once I got used to this style choice, I could enjoy the story itself. Hall writes in a very lyrical way, and his books have a very easily-readable feel to them. His thrillers tends to possess a nice combination of plot, character development, description and dialog.

Thorn has been talked into partnering with an old flame in upscale fishing-guide business, which thrusts Thorn out of his comfort zone and into having to engage in small talk with customers. When it is revealed that the first batch of customers are in fact Thorn's long-lost relatives, he grows even more uncomfortable. When it is revealed that the woman murdered in the first few pages of the novel was Thorn's very rich businesswoman grandmother, his discomfort turns to dread. As the fishing expedition proceeds, the killer tries to pick off members of the party, leading Thorn into a face-to-face confrontation with the killer, a woman seeking revenge. It turns out that the family business (which Thorn has just learned about) has damaged by the woman's family through its business practices.

Thorn's old buddy Sugarman, former deputy and current private investigator, looks into Thorn's newfound family and learns of the death of the grandmother. The local sheriff has declared the death an accident, but Sugarman knows better, and he finds the evidence to prove the sheriff wrong. And he senses a deeper conspiracy involved in the murder and the cover-up. These two plot threads converge in a logical way, and the end of the novel is very dramatic.

This story lays the groundwork for a potential change in Thorn's life and lifestyle. The next book will tell how much of a change actually happens. And I am looking forward to finding out.

This Week in Reading

I always have an unabridged audiobook going, as well as an old-fashioned paper-book going. It doesn't happen very often, but a few times a year based on chance and probability, I finish both of these on the same day.  That is what happened yesterday (reviews coming in the next week), and I am not totally sure what I am going to start next.

I read the dead-tree version of James W. Hall's thriller Hell's Bay, and the only reason I actaully "read" that one was that my library has most of Hall's novels on audio, but not this one.  This novel came out a few years ago, but I put it of, waiting for the audio to become available -- but it didn't. Last time I checked, the audio of the next of Hall's novels is at the library, so I will pick it up soon. I am looking at a non-fiction book as my next paper-book, but we'll see.

The audio that I did listen to was Anne McCaffrey's Renegades of Pern, which is about the 10th Pern novel I've read. I am not passionate about the series, as some are, but every year or two, I pick another one up and generally enjoy it. Next up for my earbuds is probably another dragon-related novel (purely a coincidence), the lastest novel in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

Retro-review: Captain 3-D!

The only issue of this comic came out in December 1953, published by Harvey Comics, and created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Originally, readers needed special green-and-red glasses to view this comic, but the reprinted version in the Simon & Kirby collection restores the story to its original art and full color, both for the first time. The restoration is very well done, as there is no evidence that the book was intended solely to be read in 3-D. And there are no obvious 3-D "tricks" in the art, that the movies of the time so often relied on t oemphasize the gimmick.

The story is a classic sci-fi/fantasy tale: a mysterious book finds its way into the hands of young Danny Davis, enabling him to use magic glasses (hidden inside the book) to bring Captain 3-D from the pages of the Book of D into our world. Captain 3-D reveals to Danny that he is part of race of humanoid survivors,  all but wiped out by their enemies, the Cat People. Following a destructive war, the elders placed their great champion in the pages of the magical Book of D, of which Danny is now the guardian.

The stories in this issue mostly involve the return of the Cat People, and Captain 3-D's battle against them, although he and Danny do a little old-fashioned crime-fighting, as well. In our realm, the Captain possesses strength and speed beyond those of normal humans.

It is certainly a crazy premise, but it is also an interesting read as a curiosity. This comic series lasted about as long as the fad did in movies, as this one issue was the only one published.

Walking Dead, issues 25-36.

The key plot development in this series of issues if that we are introduced to the Governor, a man who runs the nearby town of Woodbury.  He is violent and cruel, but has managed to keep his people relatively safe. The man is obviously a villain from the perspective of our heroes, but I like that Kirkman does show that his reign of terror has been effective in its own way. Perhaps this type of "leadership" is what is needed in this horrific new world.

In a horrifying reveal of exactly how crazy the Governor is, we know that we are seeing in the Governor what (the newly disfigured) Rick may become . After escaping from the Governor, Michonne does some unspeakable things to the man with her sword. Upon fleeing, we see that he may indeed be alive after all that. But that won't come back to haunt Rick and the gang, I suppose. {SPOILER: it does}

Kirkman continues to focus on the theme of man's inhumanity to man, that the living may in fact be a more dangerous threat than the undead. This volume contains lots and lots of blood, relatively little of it zombie-related. The act of killing, relentless killing, even of the undead, even to survive, leaves its mark on the soul.

But the strength of this series, what has turned The Walking Dead into a modern classic, is the quiet scenes that serve as a counterpoint to the zombie horror.  Whatever the surroundings, humanity does persevere, and life does goes on. We get some wonderful scenes of life going on, as a baby is ready to come, and a young couple is figuring out how to get married in this terrible new world.

Book #58

Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card. Unabridged audio.

Not exactly a "sequel" to Ender's Game, this book is closer to being a "co-quel," if you will. It covers the same time frame and events as Game, but this one tells the story of Bean, and Ender Wiggin is merely a supporting character. This change of POV is an interesting idea in storytelling, and the fact that Card is able to in essence tell the same story again in an engaging way is impressive.

The first 80% of the book was very interesting, as the focus on Bean was something entirely different from what I've already read in Game. The introduction of the character of Sister Carlotta helped add originality to this novel, successfully placing the novel in a different world from its predecessor (literally and figuratively). I appreciated much that this new character represented, and felt that she added depth and a sense of reality to this very sci-fi world. The story of Bean's early life in this novel more compelling to me than Wiggin's early life in Game, and Card does a great job explaining the complicated psychology (and physiology) of Bean. 

But the last few chapters of Shadow, the most plot-heavy parts of the novel, felt too familiar. The ending was a highlight of Game, with a terrific twist that I did not see coming at all. The tension that was thick in Game is much lessened here, as the ending of the story is already known. The ending states of the characters were not known, and Card does a good job filling in those, but the story is such a critical part of both Shadow and Game, that is hard to make that part of the book compelling.

The character of Bean, and the overall world that Card has created in these novels, make this a worthwhile read. I will pick up more books in from this world, continuing with either (or both) the Wiggin stories, or the Bean stories.