February Reading List

 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
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Earlier in 2013:
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,

Book #8

Book 8. D.C. Dead, by Stuart Woods. Unabridged audio.

Over the last few Stone Barrington novels, author Stuart Woods has not been shy about killing off characters, and D.C. Dead is no exception. Many people die, mostly women, and in some cases, women whose only mistake was to sleep with Stone.

Stone and Dino are called in by President Will Lee to re-open an investigation into the death of a woman who was killed a year before on the White House grounds. Working with CIA agent Holly Barker, they uncover many of Washington's deepest secrets, and run into a woman who will kill anyone she can to keep those secrets, secret.

All of Woods' novels inhabit the same world, but it is nice when all of his main characters are working together in a single novel. The main plot wraps up with an interesting twist, with a suspect that I did not suspect. The ongoing story arc relating to master villain Teddy Fay advances, and I anticipate that it will come to a head in an upcoming book, as does a very tantalizing plot thread from this mystery.

As always, veteran actor and narrator Tony Roberts does a fine job reading the book, maintaining the various voices and appropriate tone throughout.

Podcasting Opportunity

I have been contacted by my good podcast friends Andy Leyland and Stephen Lacey. They have invited me as a guest onto their excellent Fantasticast podcast, to discuss the seminal Fantastic Four Annual #2. This issue features Doctor Doom, my favorite character in all of comics. The good Doctor, rightful ruler of the Democratic Republic of Latveria, had appeared in Fantastic Four issues off and on for the prior two years, but this issue is the first time that his "origin story" is to be told. We should be recording in a week or two, and I am very excited to talk about this issue with a couple of actual English blokes!

New 52 Review: Demon Knights 1-7

Demon Knights, issues 1-7, by Paul Cornell, Michael Choi, Diogenes Nieves, & Robson Rocha.

Paul Cornell is a terrific writer, having worked in a range of media, from TV, novels, and many comic books. It is hard to think of a better choice of writer for a medieval sword & sorcery epic. Of all of the outside-the-box titles in DC's New 52, this was one I was looking forward to the most, and so far I have been satisfied.

This is basically the medieval version of the Magnificent Seven, bringing together the Demon, Madame Xanadu, Shining Knight, Vandal Savage, Exoristos, Al Jabr and the Horsewoman. Each of these characters have a magical or supernatural  aspect to them, many tying back to King Arthur and Camelot. As we meet this band in issue #1, some of them already know each other, some know each other only by reputation, some are meeting each other for the first time. 

Some of these characters I knew of before reading this, in their prior incarnations, and some of these are brand new (at least to me). The relationship between Xanadu, Jason Blood, and the Demon is a new spin on these characters, and is an odd take on the comics' most famous love triangle, between Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Superman.

Cornell's ability to tell an action-packed story while introducing all of these characters was quite an accomplishment. We got enough character bits to understand who these beings were, what their basic relationships were, and who trusted who. These magical beings come together in these issues to save the town of Little Spring from the horde, commanded by Questing Queen and her consort Mordru. They need to get past this small town in their march to the greater prize of the grand city of Alba Sarum. There are betrayals, magic spells, dragons, battle plans, and some epic fight scenes along the way.

 And the cover to issue 4 is terrific.

Of the original New 52 titles that have survived the first two rounds of cancellations, it is among the lowest-selling books. Critical responses to the title have been strong, and rightfully so. But I do confess that I'm worried about the long-term survivability of the title.

Source: public library.

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 page 11 of Craving Grace, by Lisa Velthouse:"I am questioning if I'll learn anything in the process, if this will be strictly discipline or if maybe something else will break through. I am asking myself if God really could be sweet, and whether or not that would be enough to help me crawl out of this bland and frantic place I've fallen into."

Revisiting Holmes: The First Novel

Book 7. A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unabridged audio.

First published in 1887, the short novel "A Study in Scarlet" introduced the world to the character of Sherlock Holmes. This is the "origin story" of the relationship between Holmes & Watson, telling of their first meeting and first case. If not for the strength of the relationship between Holmes and Watson, and the uniqueness of Holmes as a character, I wonder if the plot alone of this novel would have been enough to begin the massive wave Holmes popularity that has developed over the decades.

The book is infamous for its long (more than a third of the novel) digression about Mormon pilgrims on a wagon train to Utah. This serves as the backstory for the mystery, which is a rather pedestrian case of revenge. The Mormons take in a father and his adopted daughter, who are in danger of dying of thirst in the wilderness. In exchange for rescue, the pair agree to become Mormons, but the father refuses to engage in the practice of polygamy. Upon reaching the age of marriage, the daughter is forced into a Mormon marriage (the father is killed in an escape attempt), although she has fallen in love with a non-Mormon. Her fiancé spends decades tracking down the men involved in the murder and marriage, leading to his killing of them in London, and his eventual capture by Holmes.

Despite the long proportion of time the novel spends in Utah, the strength of Holmes as a character is evident. His observations are impressive and accurate, he is the proper mix of confident and arrogant, he lacks some social graces, and even plays the violin. It is interesting to see how much of the fundamental aspects of Holmes and his world are present in this first novel. His counterparts among the police, the rivals Lestrade & Gregson, both appear. It was nice to see Gregson, as he rarely if ever appears in expansions and adaptations of the Holmes canon. The team of young street urchins that Holmes uses in his work, the "irregulars," also serve an important function in the story.

Because of the odd narrative choice of the extended backstory, it is hard to consider this a great novel, altough it is certainly an important novel. I don't think that I would recommend that Holmes "newbies" start here. There are much better "jumping on" points later in the series.

Podcast Mentions

I mentioned a number of podcasts in my "Personal Podcast Awards" and "Podcast-listening Goals" entries, from earlier in the year, but I want to give each of these podcasts a little more space on the blog. So I am doing brief descriptions and reviews of all the podcasts mentioned in these 2 entries

I am starting with brief mentions and links to the ones I have written about before.

Fantasticast -- Two English blokes chatting about the early days of Fantastic Four comic books.

France Project -- Podcast by an Australian girl living in Paris, talking about her expat life in the City of Lights.

Babylon Podcast -- A podcast that has wrapped up its coverage of the excellent Babylon 5 television series.

The Book Guys -- I am on this show, and talk about it a lot.