Podcast Marathon

With my wife and daughter both out of the house most of the day yesterday, I was able to listen to a ton of podcasts, including these ones:

Just One of the Guys, episode #79. Shawn Engel has managed to put out weekly episodes of this show for a year and a half. Very impressive. And the show (about the comic book character Green Lantern) is very enjoyable.

On The Page, #312. Actress and writer Pippa Hinchley is the guest, as she and host Pilar Alessandra talk about the difference between writing sketch and film.

Major Spoilers, #535. And a long discussion of the first trade paperback of the World War II era graphic novel Pater Panzerfaust.

Hey Kids, Comics! volume 2, episode #35. Father-and-son team Andy and Micheal Leyland

The Tolkien Professor, Riddles in the Dark, #2.10. Professor Corey Olsen and his sidekicks make predictions about how the Ring of Power will be handled in the upcoming second volume of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy.

Book 45: Shambling Guide to NYC

The Shambling Guide to New York City, by Mur Lafferty. Paperback.

 I have been a fan of Mur Lafferty for a long time now -- I have blogged about her podcast before, and have reviewed one of her small-press novels. We even talked with her on episode 82 of the Book Guys Show.

And this week, I finished reading her first traditionally published novel, The Shambling Guide to New York City. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A range of personal issues has caused Zoe to leave her job as a travel writer in North Carolina, and she lands in New York City looking for a fresh start in the publishing business.  A flyer in a coffee shop leads her to apply for a job with a firm run by monsters publishing travel guides for monsters. To say that "she just won't fit in" may be an understatement.

But Zoe talks the vampire publisher into hiring her, much to the chagrin of her zombie and death goddess co-workers. The incubus is glad to see her, but he is glad to see everyone. She takes her job seriously, and tries to ignore the odd dining habits of her co-workers to produce an informative guide, snippets of which appear at the end of each chapter. But when a life-bringer (zoetist) comes to New York City to wreak havoc, Zoe finds herself in the middle of battle between coterie factions. There is golem vs. golem action on a grand scale.

I enjoyed the world that Lafferty built here. The monsters (collectively called "the coterie") interact with some humans, and this is a model that makes sense. There is no way that this world could be completely hidden from the human world is not believable. The presence of the Public Works Department is an original take -- in addition to caring for the sewers and utilities of New York City, these hard-working people enforce the coterie/human treaties, and "clean up" out-of-control monsters.

There is not a lot of fresh or surprising about this book. There are certain popular elements from urban fantasy and other genre work that play major roles here. The role of the wise elder, for example, was very standard. I was also mildly annoyed by Zoe's name. It is pointed out that her name means "life," and that was fine. But the presence of a group of beings called zoetists and a character named Zoe was a bit silly, I thought. But of course that is the smallest of all possible nitpicks.

I know from Lafferty's podcast that the second book in the series, tentatively titled "Ghost Train to New Orleans," is scheduled to come out in 2014. And I look forward to reading it.

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 1 of Mockingjay,the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy: "The only area that escaped incineration was the Victor's Village.I don't know why exactly. Perhaps so anyone forced to come here on Capitol business would have somewhere decent to stay. "

Revisiting Holmes: The Third Novel

Book #45. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unabridged audio.

First published in 1901 and 1902 in serialized form, this is probably the most well-known of the Holmes novels. Although A Study in Scarlet has its iconic moments involving Watson meeting Holmes, Hound seems to be the go-to Holmes story. For example, when the kids show "Wishbone" did a Holmes story, they selected The Hound of the Baskervilles. It has been adapted into radio plays and movies multiple times.

There are good reasons for the popularity of this novel. Hound has everything a classic Holmes novel should have: fog, a moor, a spooky house, distant family relations, and a vaguely supernatural mystery. There are some very good Holmes stories told in London, but the atmosphere of stories like Hound make for more iconic stories.

The fun of this novel is that Holmes and Watson split up, and what we get of the investigation is almost all from Watson's perspective. These parts are told via letters written by Watson to Holmes, and conversations between Watson and various members of the Baskerville household.  Of course Holmes shows up in a dramatic way at the end to  solve the mystery and set Watson straight. 

I find the Sherlock Holmes novels to generally be more satisfying that the short stores, or at least more consistently good. The extra space allows Doyle to build a more complex plot, and explore character relationships. And he does so here, without the long diversion to Utah we get in A Study in Scarlet. The Holmes opus can be daunting, containing as it does four novels and fifty-six short stories. But this novel may be the best place for a newbie to start.

Book Guys Updates!

We have had some very fun episodes 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 #86, Paul, Father Robert, & I talked about the book news, and about Doc Savage, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and what happens when the Royals visit the Doctor Who set.

I missed episode #87, but in #88, Paul, Sir Jimmy and I spoke about Luke Jaconetti's terrific Earth Destruction Directive podcast, my own new podcast efforts, our new sponsor Tonx Coffee,
the upcoming Ender's Game audio drama -- and some books, too!

Book #44: Guild of the Cowry Catchers, book 4

Guild of the Cowry Catchers, volume 4, by Abigail Hilton. Unabridged audio, full cast.

This fourth volume of the Cowry Catcher epic (subtitled "Out of the Ashes") picks up where the prior volume left off.  I have reviewed the prior book here.

Gerard and Silveo believe that have made peace with their pasts, and the state of their relationship, but time will tell how accurate their assessments are. The pair expected to leave Wefrivain for a new life. However, an unexpected cry for help brought them and their newfound pirate friends back home. In order to help the fauns, they need to circulate Gwain’s forbidden book. Hilton has used selections from the book as chapter introductions throughout the series, so seeing the book make an appearance in the plot was a nice touch.

Gwain himself has already given up the task as hopeless, but Silveo and Gerard disagree. They know where a printing press is located, but liberating it will be just the start of a dangerous adventure. I like that he has been brought into the story as an active character.

I enjoyed the adventure of the first two volumes more than the more relationship-based drama of the last two volumes. But the final scene of this volume gives me hope that the action will be turned back up in the fifth and final volume.

Source: Guild of the Cowry Catchers podcast. There are many versions of this book, including a beautifully illustrated one.

New 52 Review: Wonder Woman, vol 2

Wonder Woman Volume 2: Guts, hardcover collection, containing issues 7-12, by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Tony Akins. 

Continuing the story of the prior volume (Blood, reviewed here), we are faced with an Olympus where Zeus has removed himself from the throne. And of course there are many who would like to take his place ruling the realm.

The mortal (and pregnant) woman Zola has been stolen away to the underworld, and Diana has to find a way to get her out. At one point, she ends up with her own lasso wrapped around her, confessing that she loves Hades. But Brian Azzarello demonstrates his complete control of this world, as he manages to get her out of this situation in a logical way.

Azzarello continues to fuse his experience writing terrific crime stories into this Amazonian world of gods and heroes. Hephaestus the weapons maker supplies plenty of weapons here, Eros has some awesome magic guns, and even Zola is packing a shotgun. Azzarello makes this ohterworldy setting his own.

His writing of dialogue continues to be very strong. Among the words he puts in character’s mouths are:   "There's birth and there's death. And in between it's all improvisation," and "There isn't space in Hell for love. It's too cluttered with memories and regrets."

Tony Akins takes on the art duties for issues 9 & 10, and his style is very different from the unique style of Cliff Chiang. This could have been jarring, but Azzarello made sure that the stories with the fill-in artist took place in Hades' realm. This made the art changes seem “natural,” in that Hades and Earth should look different from each other, and in these two issue, they do. That was very good schedule planning, or perhaps very good luck.

The ending is intriguing, and it has my hopes up for where the story may be going. Diana's understanding of who she is has changed over these twelve issues, as she has learned the extent to which she has been deceived as to her origin -- perhaps a comment on the many comic book origins that Wonder Woman has faced? As I have written here before, Wonder Woman has experienced more than her fair share of re-boots over the years, but this version of the Amazon is one of the best things to come out of the NEW 52 initiative.

The sales for this title continue to be good. The book is consistently among DC’s top 12 selling books. In the years leading up to the reboot, the prior iteration of Wonder Woman’s title was selling fewer copies than this one, and usually landed around #20 among DC books.

Source: public library.