Between Audiobooks (5)

I have written before of my habit of listening to a few episodes of PodCastle or Escape Pod in between audiobooks -- short story palate cleansers between novels. I am still waaaay behind (12 months!) on these podcasts), so I listened to a bunch of Podcastles last week, just after The Athena Project. I listened to these episodes:

PodCastle 234: The Tricks of London, by Elizabeth Bear. A terrific long short-story by a terrific novelist.


PodCastle 238: Sleep and Wake, by Holli Mintzer. A fairy tale retelling, this time of Sleeping Beauty, and what happens when she is awakened in New York City after a century-long slumber. A very sweet story, truth be told.

PodCastle 239: Catching the Spirit, by Heather Shaw. A predictable Christmas story about how giving is good and capitalist commercialism is bad.

PodCastle 240: Seeking Caption Random, by Vylar Kaftan. Looking for the person of one's dreams is different from looking for the person of one's dream.

PodCastle 241: Everything You Were Looking For, by Samantha Henderson.A heartbreaking story of love, loss, and earthquakes.

PodCastle 242: A Memory of Wind, by Rachel Swirsky.Distinctive mostly because it is written in second person.

Review of The Athena Project

Book #21. The Athena Project, by Brad Thor. Unabridged audio.

This is my first Brad Thor novel. I have seen and heard him interviewed, and he seems like a fine fellow, and my father is a fan of his works, and I like thrillers, so ... I figured this book would work for me.

And it did.

The premise is simple: The first all-female Special Ops squad has been assembled, tasked to handle assignments where their genders provide an additional asset. In this case, they take down a leading arms dealer, which provides a lead as to a potential plot against the Denver airport. There are great action scenes, fun interaction between the "Athenas," bad Federal agents, Nazi science, and dangerous conspiracy theorists.

My only quibble is the inclusion in the novel of wild extrapolations of "transporter" science. There are two problems I have with this, actually. The science is presented in the novel as dating from the middle of the century, when in fact the little bit of real-world science upon which this is based is very recent. That would be fine inmost novels -- I understand that this is fiction. But te novel opens with a Dan Brown-style statement to the effect that all the science in the novel is real. Without that single line, I would have enjoyed the book even more than I did.

There is at least one sequel to this novel, and I anticipate adding it to my list, as well as looking into other of Thor's work.

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 Chapter 1 of Ghost Train to New Orleans, by Mur Lafferty.

"The death goddess and Morgan the water sprite had been Zoe's first friends in the office. But the death goddess was the polar opposite of the bubbly water sprite ... it also wasn't comforting that Gwen could sense at any time how close Zoe's death was, and sometimes seemed comfortable telling Zoe when her offs of dying changed.”

Podcasting Update!

The Relatively Geeky Podcasting family just released the last episode of a 3-part crossover extravaganza with comics podcasting veteran Michael Bailey. We covered the 12-issue miniseries The Kents, written by John Ostrander, with art by Tim Truman and Tom Mandrake.The story tells the tale of the Clark Kent's earthling family in the days before, during, and after the Civil War. Family drama, social issues, hard decisions, consequences -- this story has it all.

The discussion for the first four issues was hosted by Emily & I, and was released as episode 18 of the Shortbox Showcase podcast.

The discussion for the middle four issues was hosted by Michael, and was released as episode 185 of his Views from the Longbox podcast.

The discussion for the final tour issues was back at our site, and was released as episode 19 of Shortbox Showcase.

This was the first podcasting crossover that we've participated in, and it was quite an enjoyable experience. Michael is a great podcaster, as well being a general good dude.

Download all the episodes!

May Reading List

20. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (ua), edited by Phyllis Tickle
19. Billion Dollar Batman (ua), by Bruce Scivally

18. Wonder Woman: Iron (gn), by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and others
17. The Innocent (ua), by David Baldacci
16. Song of the Quarkbeast (ua), by Jasper Fforde
15. Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man (gn), by Carl Banks

Earlier in the year:
14. Doom's Day, Book #1: Rampage (pb), by Danny Fingeroth and Eric Fein
13. The Guild of the Cowry Catchers: Book 5 (ua), by Abigail Hilton
12. Aquaman: The Others (gn), by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Joe Prado
11. Doing Hard Time (ua), by Stuart Woods
10. Star Wars: Scoundrels (ua), by Timothy Zahn
  9. Shadow Ops: Control Point (ua), by Myke Cole
  8. Little Black Sheep (Nook), by Ashley Cleveland
  7. The Last Dragonslayer (ua), by Jasper Fforde
 6. Before Watchmen: Comedian & Rorschach, by Brian Azzarello, J.G. Jones, and Le Bermejo
 5. Inferno Revealed (hc), by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker
 4. The Gearheart (ua), by Alex White
 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 Billion Dollar Batman

Book #19. Billion Dollar Batman, by Bruce Scivally.Paperback.

Following up on similar books on James Bond and Superman, Bruce Scivally produced an in-depth look at almost all of Batman's non-comic-book appearances over the first 70+ years of his existence. He starts with the radio show and the original movie serials from the early days of Batman.

Of course, a large section of the book covers the 1966 Adam West TV show. Scivally does a good job defining and describing the nature of "camp," and discussing the sensation that was the first year of that show. The fast fade of popularity is also covered, and this section is one of the most fascinating in the history of the Caped Crusader, and Scivally does a good job presenting this era.

The wonderful DC animation of the 1990s and 2000s does not get the coverage that I think it deserves, as I sense Scivally wanted to devote more pages to the recent big screen versions. The Burton and Schumacher era is covered in depth, and the behind-the-scenes shenanigans about the rotating cast of Batmans in that era is an interesting read. The book was released after The Dark Knight, so the last film in the Nolan trilogy is not covered.

There is a very brief discussion of the disastrous Catwoman movie and the attempts to bring Batman o television in the early 2000s, which were also interesting. The book is thorough and detailed, and Scivally has definitely done his research in putting this book together.

This is an "unofficial" work, which has advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, Scivally is able to be more objective, not telling DC's or Warners' "side" of the story. On the other hand, there are only a few illustrations and photos in the book, and it does suffer from that. But on the whole, having the depth and detail outweighs Scivally's inability to include more pictures in the book.

Source: public library

Podcast marathon

Memorial Day Weekend + visiting my in-laws = lots of time to listen to podcasts. Here is what I listened to yesterday:

Just One of the Guys #114 -- Shawn Engel's terrific Green Lantern podcast. In this episode, Michael Bradley joined Shawn for the discussion.

Back to the Bins #151 -- Another X-Men themed special episode, for "X-Men Month." Chris Tyler joined Paul & Dr. Bill for this episode, which focused on X-themed mini-series.

More Than One Lesson, minisode #40 -- Continuing their "Best Picture" miniseries, Tyler Smith and Josh Long discussed Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, the 2004 winner of Best Picture. 

Alton Browncast -- I learned bunches listening to this "mail bag grab bag" episode.