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 the prologue of Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer, by William Knoedelseder: "Untethered from both family expectations and company responsibilities for the first time in his life, Augustus IV quickly descended into an abyss. According to friends, family members, and court documents, when the police came for him in February 2010, America's last king of beer was holed up in his mansion, grievously addicted to drugs, gripped by paranoia, beset by hallucinations, and armed with hundreds of high-powered weapons, including several .50-caliber machine guns."

Book #61

Crucible of Gold, by Naomi Novik. Unabridged audio.

This is one of my favorite ongoing series. Naomi Novik presents a plausible narrative of life during the Napoleonic Wars. Except that the world contains dragons. These are not mythical beasts, not magical beasts, simply very large (and reasonably intelligent) animals. It is a great premise, and more importantly, Novik has spun some great novels out of it.

At the start of this one, Laurence finds his rank restored, although he does not believe himself worthy. But Napoleon's arms have reached Brazil, and the country (and her dragons) appear poised to ally with the French, via the powerful African Tswana empire. The British government sees Laurance and Temeraire as their best hope of negotiating peace in South America. But the trip from Australia to Brazil is fraught with peril, with death and despair rampant.

Napoleon makes an appearance in the novel, arriving in Rio with a retinue of dragons and gifts. Having left Josephine, he is available as a potential spouse for the queen of the Incas. This is the last thing that Laurence needs if he is to accomplish his mission. The sense of dread, of the long odds against success in this mission, add a great sense of drama to the book.

There is a bit of repetition here, as Novik may be running out of interesting places to send Laurance and Temeraire. But the character aspects are strong as always, and all the characters (both human and dragon) have had interesting arcs over the sweep of the series. The discussion of marriage in this book gave the characters something new to discuss, and there are surprising revelations throughout.

Quarter-Bin Finds!

The local comics shop in the town where I work hold a 25-cent sale, every 3 or 4 months. Most of the books in the quarter bins deserve to be in the quarte bins, but I have fond some fun and enjoyable reads there in the past. The last time, I spent under $5, and got some potentially great reads, including these:

I picked up Thor 409 simply because it has Doctor Doom on the cover,and the rightful ruler of Latveria is my favorite character in comics. To give context to the Doom story in 409, I grabbed 407 & 408. As it turns out, there is a slight cliffhanger, and now I need to track down 410!

I used to have the final 100 or so issues of Warlord, and sold them more than a decade ago in order to cut down my collection before a major move. Via the quarter bins, I have re-collected about 40 of these issues over the last few years, and in this trip I picked up the double-sized 100 and issue 125. I am a huge fan of Mike Grell's work, and although he was long gone from the title by the time these two issues came out, I remember enjoying the story (albeit not as much) after his departure. Disclosure: Although I have found many of the issues my original collection, I have not read any of them. There are sill too many holes in the run.

The terrific podcast From Crisis to Crisis is covering a particular range of Superman-related comics, and they are approaching the 1994 books. I enjoy "following along" with comic book podcasts if I have the book on hand (or can get it for a quarter!) that is being discussed, and the quarter boxes contained a few from this era.

Another podcast I am a fan of is Shawn Engel's Green Lantern show, Just One of the Guys. Shawn focuses on the character of Guy Gardner, so when I found Guy Gardner: Warrior 25, I decided it was well worth all 25 cents. The show will not cover this issue for another 4 or 5 months, but I can wait.

Books I'm Thankful For

In honor of Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow (in the US), I am listing book I am thankful for. These are not necessarily my favorite books, but books that have impacted me, books that I am glad exist, glad that I have read. There are listed alphabetically, so as to not imply an order:


The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. This was the first "real book" I ever owned. I assume it was a birthday present, from when I was maybe 10 years old or so. I still own it.

The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. I remember reading it at the school library. I don't think I checked it out, I just remember going there regularly and reading a few pages at a time. It opened my eyes to the world of fantasy fiction, a genre I read regularly to this day.

The Holy Bible. For inspiration, wisdom, and truth.

Superman from the Thirties to the Seventies. A hardcover collection of Superman stories, published in the early seventies.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. I read this in high school, and it was the first time I could not put a book down. I was up until almost 3 AM one night to finish it. I re-read it every 5 years or so.

The World of Pooh, by A.A. Milne. We owned a hardcover version of this volume, which contains both Winnie-the-Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. I loved these stories, from having them read to me, to when I was able to read them myself. Somehow, my older sister managed to snag this book for her kids.

Book #60

Renegades of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey. Unabridged audio.

I confess that I am not as passionate a fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels as some are, but I do enjoy reading one every year or so. What I like about this series is that each book tries to do something a little different, to tell a Pern story from a different location, or different time, or different point of view.

Renegades of Pern takes place in the general timeframe of the novel DragonFlight, and covers the time leading up to (and perhaps slightly past) the events of The White Dragon. But it covers the Southern continent, whose inhabitants have not been central to previous Pern novels.

This novel looks at the events from the perspective of the holdless, nomads who may have ended this way as a punishment, or who chose to live the free life. We meet Jayge, a member of a trader clan, and Aramina (who has a telepathic link to dragon), whose family had lost their holds through the cruelty and injustice of others. Whatever the reason one lives without a hold, living like that is a huge risk -- when the deadly silver threads fall from the sky to ravage the land, the holdless have no natural allies to protect them. There are no dragon-riders who will protect them. Lady Thella, a leader among the holdless, is trying to forge this nomadic people into a force.

This is a fine work, telling a range of interconnected tales of these holdless families and characters. I loved the ending of this story, which is the discovery of ancient artifacts that have important implications on the future (and the past) of Pern. This may have whetted my appetite for more Pern novels, and I will probably not wait as long as I usually do to pick up another one.

A medium, not a genre

In writing a review of the last arc of Y: The Last Man (to be posted here in the near future), I was writing about how great it was that in the 2000s, comic books had moved beyond their superhero heritage and were embracing a wide range of genres.

But I have been reminded by a series of entries at TheLongbox Graveyard blog that comics have long been a way of telling a wide range of stories, far beyond just superhero tales. Paul O'Connor often writes about his love for Marvel's horror comics of the 1970's, and for Master of Kung Fu and Conan. 

To be fair (to me), Paul is a few years older than me, so these particular books were not on my radar screen when I started reading. The only non-hero comics I ran across in my early days of reading were the decidedly not-very-good Gold Key Star Trek, and the disappointing Logan's Run adaptation. These experiences colored my opinions of non-hero books for more than a decade. So I firmly set my feet in the "capes & cowls" world of the mid-seventies, becoming a fan of (of course) Batman and Superman, but also Flash, the Legion of Superheroes, Iron Man, and Captain America. 

There was a local comics shop within walking distance of my college campus, and that was the first time I browsed full shelves for reading, as opposed to subscribing to a few titles, or picking from the limited selections on the spinner rack at the local drug store. At this time, independent comics were breaking into the mainstream, and some of the ones I liked the most from these publishers were non-hero books, including the excellent Jon Sable Freelance (First Comics, 1983), from Mike Grell, whose writing and art I have always been a fan of. Over the years, I also discovered Somerset Holmes (Eclipse, 1983), Eternity Smith (First, 1986 & Hero, 1987), Evangeline (Comico, 1984 and First, 1987), Maze Agency (Comico, 1988 and Innovation, 1989) and Baker Street (Caliber, 1989). 

Somehow I forgot all of my love for these non-hero books when I began to wax poetic about the 2000's boom in this style of books. Yes, these publishers were unstable, and some of these books did not last very long, but I was simply wrong in thinking that the comics world has recently moved from superhero to non-hero books. 

Comics have always been a medium, not a genre. And even though Superman and his powered friends have always dominated comics, there have long been creators using the form to tell very different types of stories.

Book Guys Show!

We have done some exciting episodes the last few episodes of the Book Guys podcast. Go to the website or check us out on iTunes. And if you like what you hear, leave us a review, and maybe even 5 stars!

Episode 57:We had some audio issues, dealing with the Frankenstorm on the East Coast. We spoke with Brian D. Anderson (for the second time in a few weeks) co-author of The Godling Chronicles series. He was riding out the storm, speaking with us on a cell phone from his automobile (he wasn't driving, he was just in the car). We also talked to Carl Brookins, about his book Reunion, and he was a total delight.

Episode 58: This was a guestless show, or as the say on the Nerdist podcast, it was a hostful show! This one included our discussion of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow, as well as comic book news and other interesting stuff.

Episode 59: Scott McKenzie joined us all the way from England, to talk about the new version of his seasonal book, Krampus: A Christmas Tale. We played the brief audio version of the book, and also talked about Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. And other stuff, too!

Enjoy!