My Reading-in-Progress

As I mentioned in a recent episode of the Book Guys Show podcast, I have an embarrassing number of books in progress. Here they are, and the reasons why:

The Maze, by Jason Brannon. Approximately 45% complete. I have been tasked by Paeter Frandsen of Spirit Blade Underground podcast to review this book. Another person submitted a review already, but he is holding back to he gets mine, and will play them in the same episode as a "dueling review" segment. So reading this one on the Nook is a top reading priority.

Elizabeth The First Wife, by Lian Dolan. Approximately 30% complete. We spoke with Lian on episode 079 of the Book Guys Show, and I started reading it, to prepare for the interview. As I have written before, I am a big fan of Lian's writing.

The Shambling Guide to New York City, by Mur Lafferty. We spoke with Mur on episode 080 of the Book Guys Show, and I started reading it, to prepare for the interview. Teaser for the book is here.

Bread & Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, by various. Approximately 85% complete. This is a devotional I started during Lent, but when I needed emergency eye surgery, my wife began reading it to me. Even though my eyesight has (mostly) returned, my wife and I enjoyed reading it so much that I don't read it alone. About once a week, my wife and I find a chance for her to read part to me.

Atlantyx, by Chase Dalton. Approximately 40% complete. I picked this one up from a library sale at least 5 years ago, and my daughter read it right away (and she thought it was OK), and it has sat as part of my book pile ever since. It has always been on the "gotta read this one soon" list, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I actually decided to read it.

Callahan's Secret, by Spider Robinson. Approximately 60% complete. This is the audiobook I am currently working on, after knocking out Karen Kingsbury's Take Four last week. I have read the first 2 books in this series, and enjoy the lightness of the language combined with the seriousness of of the topics.

The Black Prism, by Brent Weeks. Approximately 7% complete. This is a large hardcover (600+ pages), and I am going to review it eventually for Spirit Blade Underground, but that is down the road a few months, so I am taking it slow.

Faith of the Fallen, by Terry Goodkind. Approximately 20% complete. My daughter and I are listening to this together, but it has been a while since we made any progress.

Book Guys Show: updates!

We have talked to some terrific authors recently on the Book Guys Show podcast. For more details, check out our new website, which contain the videos for the shows (also embedded below, and on YouTube), as well as book-related links. Audio versions of the podcast are available through iTunes.

In episode #81, we had all four hosts and two great guests -- It was a full house! Authors Selena Coppock and Lian Dolan joined us. Selena talked about her humor book, The New Rules for Blondes. Lian talked about her second novel, Elizabeth the First Wife (her first novel, Helen of Pasadena, was reviewed here), as well as her many podcasting efforts, some of which I covered here.

In episode #82, Paul and I spoke with Mur Lafferty. She has produced many audio novels and podcasts, and has just released her first major-publisher work, The Shambling Guide to New York City.  We also talked about book news, as well as some future podcasts that Paul & I may have coming out in the future.  

Book #29

Take Four, by Karen Kingsbury. Unabridged audio.


I have mixed feelings about this book, and about the series as a whole. As I wrote when I reviewed Take One, Karen Kingsbury pushed the boundaries of safe Christian fiction. She portrayed a more nuanced view of the arts and movie-making than is often seen in this genre of fiction. But books two and three in series fell back into the more typical attitudes, and were standard Christian novels.

Take Four, the end of this series (but not the end of Kingsbury's handling of these characters), contains an interesting background piece of a Christian father mocking his son for choosing theatre over sports. The father asks the son if he is gay, and this attitude pushes the son away from Christianity and towards a profligate lifestyle, of the heterosexual variety.

This was a short scene, but stands out for putting a Christian father in a bad light, on what is a delicate subject in the Evangelical subculture. It is scenes like these that make me appreciate Kingsbury's writing skill, but also frustrate me that such scenes about such topics are so rare in this type of novel. I read a fair amount of Christian fiction, and it tends to stay well within safe boundaries.

The story of Take Four continues the story of the Keith Ellison's career in movie production. He and his new partner Dayne Matthews, former Hollywood star, are working a new movie as their prior one is coming out.  But their new star, one of Hollywood's hottest young talents, is causing them trouble with his comments and actions. He is also trying to use his Hollywood charm on Bailey Flanagin, his co-lead in the film, whose own relationship is rocky, at best. Andi Ellison, Keith's daughter, is dealing with a surprise pregnancy, and is struggling with whether  to keep the baby, or give it up for adoption.

The plot moves along predictable lines, with little unexpected occurring, save for the scene mentioned above. The movie production wraps without a hitch, the prior movie is well-received, and Andi's baby finds a fine family.

There are definitely some soap-opera moments here, especially in the relationship between Bailey and her boyfriend Cody. Both need serious counseling,  and I doubt that either one is ready for a long-term relationship. Although I appreciate much of what Kingsbury did here, I doubt that I will read the next series from Kingsbury, which features Bailey as the main character.

source:  public library

Quarter-Bin Review: Starslayer

Starslayer: The Director's Cut, issues 1-8, by Mike Grell, S. Clarke Hawbaker, Tim Burgard, and Jeff Albrecht. Windjammer /Acclaim Comics, 1995. 

This book had an interesting journey to publication. Starslayer was scheduled to be published by DC Comics, but as the economics of the industry changed, the book was axed from DC's schedule. Pacific Comics released six issues in 1982, written and drawn by Mike Grell, after which the series moved to First Comics. Grell wrote and provided breakdowns for issues 7 & 8 for First, before leaving Starslayer. The title continued without its creator for another 26 issues. These eight issues, titled Starslayer: The Director's Cut, are an expanded version of Grell's original six. The main new material is the framing sequences appearing in the first and last issues.

Tamra.  or is it Shakira?

Celtic warrior Torin Mac Quillon rallies his outnumbered clan against the invading Roman legions. As he faces death at the hands of Roman soldiers, he is pulled into the far future by the beautiful scientist Tamra. She has been tasked by the Earth's Board of Directors to find the perfect warrior from Earth's distant past to aid in their efforts to save the planet's dying sun. Along with their robot companion S.A.M. (symbiotic android mindlink), Torin and Tamra fight enemies without and within to save the Earth. It is a very fun romp of a story, a nice blending of ancient and future. 

or is it Tamra?

Grell handles the time-travel aspect of this tale well. Torin was selected for transport at the moment of his death, so there can be no "butterfly" effect from his temporal extraction. In a nice twist at the end, it is revealed that Tamra is a distant progeny of Torin's wife Gwyneth, from her second husband. This means that Torin cannot be sent back to his own time, because his continued life would cause Tamra to never have been born. In addition, the space aspects of this is also handled well. All of the action takes place in our own solar system, meaning that the travel and communication occur without relying on future technologies such as wormholes or transporters.

I am a big fan of Mike Grell, and have enjoyed his work on a wide range of titles, from Warlord and Jon Sable, Freelance to Green Arrow and the Legion of Super-Heroes. There are enough cosmetic similarities that an appropriate shorthand description of this series could be "Warlord ... in space!"

Mike Grell has a distinctive art style, and one that I enjoy. But I do need to say that there are numerous moments in this story that are similar to his work on Warlord. The most obvious how eerily similar Tamra's outfit is to the one worn often by Shakira in Warlord. Torin's facial hair bears some resemblance to Travis Morgan (also from Warlord), as well as Grell's version of Green Arrow. But his use of unique panel layouts and two-page splashes (usually one per issue) more than make up for that minor quibble, and overall the art adds much to this already enjoyable science fiction story. 

Source: my local comic shop's 25-cent bins!

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 2 of The Shambling Guide to New Your City, by Mur Lafferty. "Cities had a heartbeat.When she wasn't in a city, she felt soulless, with an ever-present itch telling her something was missing."

I have listened to some of Mur's audio novels before, and am a big fan  of her I Should Be Writing podcast.

Source: Amazon

Out With The Old, In With The New

I am pretty well booked up on podcasts, and so I only add new ones if I can replace an existing one. With the ending of one podcast by a comic-book blogger, I was able to start listening to a new podcast by a comic-book blogger. As a matter of fact, there is a clear path that led me from the former to the latter.

The excellent Longbox Graveyard podcast is ending its run as a 12-episode maxi-series. The monthly episodes that Paul O'Connor (guest on the Book Guys podcast, episode 76 - video here) put out covered a range of interesting comics-related topics. My favorite episodes were #3 (digital comics), #4 (father and son discussion of Frank Miller's Holy Terror), #9 (Hollywood pitches), and #11 (Top 10 issues of Amazing Spider-Man).

Episode #11 of the Longbox Graveyard podcast introduced me to Mark Ginocchio, proprietor of the Chasing Amazing blog. On the blog, he chronicles his thoughts on comic books, mostly set against the backdrop of his goal to collect every issue ever of Amazing Spider-Man. As of this writing, he is missing five issues, not counting annuals.

On the Chasing Amazing blog, Mark mentioned the The Superior Spider-Cast, which he co-hosts with Dan Gvozden. This is a new podcast (3 episodes, as of this writing), covering new issues of Spider-Man. They claim it is going to be a monthly podcast, although less than two weeks passed between the first and second episodes, and then a few days more than two weeks between the second and third. It is a very informative and entertaining look at the current Superior Era of the character.

May Reading List

28. Skull-Kickers, Treasure Trove volume 1, by Jim Zub and various artists
27. The Dalek Generation (pb), by Nicholas Briggs
26. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
25. The Areas of My Expertise (pb), by John Hodgman
24. The Skin Map (ua), by Stephen Lawhead
23. Catching Fire (ua), by Suzanne Collins

earlier in 2013:
22. Quitter (ua) , by Jon Acuff.
21. The Bone Bed (ua), by Patricia Cornwell.
20. Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart (hc), by J.D. Greear
19. Left Behind: The Kids #28 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins, Tim LaHaye, & Chris Fabry
18. Left Behind: The Kids #27 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins, Tim LaHaye, & Chris Fabry
17. Left Behind: The Kids #26 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins, Tim LaHaye, & Chris Fabry
16. Time Travelers Strictly Cash (aa), by Spider Robinson
15. The Devil's Company (ua), by David Liss
14. Deadly Straits (ua), by R.E. McDermott
13. Doctor Who: Paradise Towers (ua), by Stephen Wyatt
12. DC Universe Secret Origins (gn), by various writers and artists
11. The Gods of Mars (ua), by Edgar Rice Burroughs
10. Craving Grace (hc), by Lisa Velthouse
9. The Sign of Four (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. DC Dead (ua), by Stuart Woods
7. A Study in Scarlet (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. The Hunger Games (ua), by Suzanne Collins
5. Take Three (ua), by Karen Kingsbury
4. Mary Through The Centuries (hc), by Jaroslav Pelikan
3. Roil (ua), by Trent Jamieson
2. The Devil You Know (ua), by Mike Carey
1. Ender's Shadow Ultimate Collection (gn), by Mike Carey