January Reading List

 3. The Great Fables Crossover (gn), by Bill Willingham, et. al.
 2. Silent Partner (pb), by Terrence King
 1. His Last Bow (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Review of The Great Fables Crossover

Book #3: The Great Fables Crossover, by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturgis, Mark Buckingham, Tony Akins, Russ Braun, et. al. Graphic novel, collecting Fables 83-85, Jack of Fables 33-35, and The Literals 1-3. Originally reduced in April, May & June 2009.

In the prior Fables volume (War and Pieces), the Adversary was finally defeated, bringing to a close plot threads that had been brewing since the very first issue. This arc is a transition to what I assume will be a different type of story in coming volumes. And the end of the war seems to be a good time to bring all of the characters together, including the first successful (of many) spinoffs, Jack. This is the Jack of all the tales: Beanstalk, Giant Killer, Frost, Horner, etc ...

Fables has always engaged in meta-narrative, but Bill Willingham turns up the meta-knob to 11 for this 9-issue storyline. The presence of the Literals takes this story to an entirely new level of self-reference.These are the literal embodiments of ideals, such as the Pathetic Fallacy, and the various genres. In the final battle, Blockbuster, Western, Sci-Fi and Noir are among the important participants. But the breakout stars of this series are the three Page Sisters, gorgeous and gun-toting embodiments of the library sciences.

With all of these characters at his disposal, WiIllingham is able to give us plenty of humorous secnarios and fun wordplay as the characters prepare for yet another dangerous fight. But after battling the Adversary, this is a new kind of fight.

They are going up against a pretty harmless looking fellow named Kevin, who is in actuality a Literal himself. He is the Writer, possessing the ability to rewrite reality and make a better version. All he wants to do (all Willingham wants to do, perhaps) is to rein in the characters and situations who've run away from him. This is not only a fun story, but it is surprisingly thought-provoking. We learn some things about the nature of story and storytelling, as well as get to wrestle with concepts of reality, fiction, belief, and the power of the written word.

Source: public library

Review of The Silent Partner

Book #2. The Silent Partner, by Terrence King.

Homer is a defiant (but not fallen) angel, with a smart mouth and a shaky opinion of God. But when he brings her out of isolation for a critical job on Earth,she ends up wondering if humanity is worth saving.

Her mission is to help a struggling magazine columnist get his novel published. The problem is the ending, but if Homer can get him to change it, and then get it published, it may just change the world. But God is pretty picky about humanity keeping their free will, and so Homer is stumped as to how to accomplish her mission.

The scenes with Homer are the strength of the novel, and King's portrayal of God is both interesting and surprisingly reverential. The theology of free will is also an interesting plot point to choose.

Unfortunately there are too many other plot threads going on besides Homer and Tom, and some of those are a bit too meandering or disconnected to the main storyline. But the characterizations of the leads, and the snappy dialogue, keep the book moving at a nice pace, and make it an enjoyable read.

As with most independently-produced novels, one more editing pass would have come in handy, but it is much better terms of grammar and syntax than the vast majority of DIY books I've run across.

Source: From the author, in preparation for a potential interview on the Book Guys Show. 

Batman in 2014, too!

In addition to it being another year for Sherlock Holmes on this blog, 2014 is a year for another "world's greatest detective," this one of the Dark Knight variety. 1939 marked the debut of Batman, making this his 75th birthday.

I plan on including some Batman-themes posts this year. Many will be based on the hardcover book "Batman From the 30s to the 70's." My parents gave me this book back when I was around 10, and I have schlepped it to and from college, from state to state, job to job, and house to house. My copy is not nearly as pristine as the cover photo I grabbed from the Internet.

There are a few other books I plan to read this year, including Bruce Scivally's "Billion Dollar Batman," an account of the Caped Crusader's history and cultural impact.

My podcasts, The Quarter-Bin Podcast, and Shortbox Showcase, will both include some Batman-related topics this year, as well. These are both available at the show's web site, and via iTunes.

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 2 of Inferno Revealed , by Deborah and Mark Parker

"His [Dan Brown's] novel uses Dante's poem as a starting point. His Dante is a version of Dante. This book, Inferno Revealed, offers an account of why the Inferno is a great work of literature and why it has proven so inspirational to other writers."

Revisiting Holmes: The Fourth Collection

His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unabridged audio.  

This short story collection features a nice range of stories, some that I remember reading before (The Bruce Partington Plans), and some that I have no memory of (The Red Circle and the Cardboard Box).

After failing to kill off his famous creation, Doyle does tease his readers with stories that speak of Holmes' death, with stories titled "The Dying Detective" and "His Last Bow." But we learn in these "reminisces" that Holmes is alive and well. The retired detective is living as a beekeeper, a plot thread that Lauri R King picks up in her "Mary Russell" series of novels.

I mentioned the range of stories, and that is a strength of this collection. We are in London and out of London, solving small family mysteries and saving Britain from an espionage scheme. I love this variety, and it keeps the stories from being repetitive.

There is a bit of meta-textuality here, which Doyle may not have intended. But Holmes meets Inspector Baines, who is both a fan of Holmes and of his methods. This indicates that in-world, maybe the police are learning from Holmes, which we know actually happened in the real world.

Source: Unabridged audio via LibriVox, and BooksShouldBeFree.Com, a site that records audio of public domain books. Despite the "amateur" status of the recording, the audio quality and narration is very strong. Surprisingly strong, as a matter of fact.

My Own Podcast Awards

Since I (1) listen to a lot of podcasts, and (2) have a blog, I believe I am qualified to talk about my favorites podcasts of 2013. And since none of the podcasts I listen to won an actual, official Podcast Award, so ...

Favorite Podcast That I Have Guested On
Runners-Up: Trentus Magnus Punches Reality, Just One of the Guys
Winner: The Fantasticast, because they had me on first, and they are having me on again soon! That, and they have awesome British accents, and it's a very good show.

Favorite Overall Podcast
Runners-Up: No Agenda, Views From the Longbox, Chaos Chronicles
Winner: The Tony Kornheiser Show, a daily sports and news show. I listen to it every day, often on the live stream. 

Best Produced Podcast
Runners-Up: No Agenda, Star Trek Monthly Monday
Winner: Spirit Blade Underground, the excellent podcast by Paeter Frandsen, that is an original mix of movie reviews, video game talk, original audio drama, and Bible study.

Best New Podcast of 2013 (except my own)
Runners-Up: Dave's Daredevil Podcast, Who True Freaks, Garage Sale Gloat
Winner:  In Country,  in which host Tom Panarese does an issue-by-issue review of the Marvel war comic The 'Nam.



Best New Podcast of 2013 (including my own)
Runners-Up: Quarter-Bin Podcast, Uncovering the Bronze Age
Winner:  Shortbox Showcase, in which my daughter and I talk about topics related to comic books. 

Gonna Miss You Award, for a show that ended (or seems to have ended) in 2013.
Runners-up: The France Project, Longbox Graveyard, The SaintCast
Winner:  From Darkness to Light Online, a show I wrote about here.

Just-Almost-Dead Award, for shows that are on a, shall we say, intermittent release schedule, but I don't think are actually over yet.
Runners-up: Tales of the Justice Society of America, Golden Age Superman
Winner: Super Future Friends, the funniest long-form comic book podcast around. The ladies only released 1 episode in 2013, after doing 1 in 2012, 2 in 2011 and 6 in 2010. I sense a disturbing trend in these numbers.

Special Award
Best Individual Podcast Episode Name
Winner:  Doctor Who X Ultraman: Big Dueling Showdown Across Time And Space: The Appearance of Time Lord Alien "The Doctor!" an episode in the Two True Freaks feed, where The Irredeemable Shagg and Luke Jaconetti do a compare-and-contrast between Ultra-Man and Doctor Who. By the way, it is also an awesome episode.