I Lost My Blurb-ginity!

The other day I got a really awesome email from my fellow blogger-buddy Bryce from Only The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Bryce was kind enough to give me the heads up that my review of Scourge of the Betrayer got blurbed in the trade paperback edition of said book.   

Bryce also sent me a photo of the blurb, which was exciting, but I really wanted see it for myself. I've been searching around a few of the local book shops here in Seattle, but I didn't come across a paperback copy of the book until today.

Exciting! It was all I could do to not show it off to the random people in the fantasy and sci-fi section.

Thanks go out to Bryce for the heads up, and thanks to Jeff Salyards for blurbing my review!

Kicking it Old School: The Dispossessed

I've been traipsing around in the annals of old school SF again, this time around I decided to explore the fertile ground that is the works published list of Ursula K. Le Guin.  I picked out The Dispossessed based on the back blurb, and a staff recommendation from my favorite local bookstore.

A few generations ago, the moon Anarres, with its bleak desert-like landscape, was settled by an anarchic utopian civilization.  Urras, the mother planet, is a planet much like our own. It has a capitalist system with extreme wealth and severe poverty, as well as it's fair share of warring nations, and savage inequalities.  On the surface, the two planets seem like night and day, and that discrepancy has led to hatred and misunderstanding between the two planets for years.

Shevek, a brilliant physicist from Anarres is underappreciated and underutilized on his own planet. So he decides to undertake a most unheard of mission, and travels to Urras in hopes of pursuing his physics career, learning about this unknown world, to share his knowledge, and reunite the two planets.

The Dispossessed has a unique narrative style that I enjoyed quite a lot.  The chapters alternate between focusing on Shevek's time on Urras, and his time on Anarres.  The cool part is that the Urras chapters deal with the events of Shevek's time on the foreign planet, and the Anarres chapters deal with the events of Shevek's life that lead up to his departure from Anarres.  I enjoyed this quality of the book as it made me feel like I was having to put together a mental jigsaw puzzle so that I could understand the book.

There was a bit of a drawback however, as it makes the reader wait a long time for an explanation as to why Shevek decided to leave his home planet behind.  This long development worked as a double-edged sword as it kept me on the hook... to an extent, because for a large portion of the book I didn't understand Shevek's motives, and that led to some frustration on my part.

For me, the most impressive part of this novel is that Le Guin had to create and make real not one world but two, and she did it incredibly well. There were plenty of parallels between Urras and our own, which was a deliberate part of the plot, but Le Guin also made Urras different enough so that it was fun to explore alongside Shevek.  It was interesting to see how further exploration of each planet brought about more highlights and inadequacies of each. The exploration of these two disparate societies reminded me a bit of books like Brave New World, but The Dispossessed explores both the Utopian and Dystopian side by side which I found much more interesting.

In the past, I have had a hard time getting fully into SF books where the focus is on a political exploration/message.  I've often felt like the politics often overtake the narrative and don't leave any space for an interesting story.  For two thirds of The Dispossessed, I felt the same way. However, once the back story kicked in and gave meaning to the current events of the novel, I found myself enjoying it a lot more, and felt rewarded for sticking with it.  It might take a while the whole picture to become clear, but I was glad I hung in there.

I didn't enjoy The Dispossessed as much as my previous Le Guin read, The Lathe of Heaven, but I still enjoyed what this book has to offer.  Despite being published before I was born, it still is a book that can have relevance today.  That should say a lot.  It's not too bad of a read either.

Grade: 7.5 Fanny Packs

The Sweet Tooth Finale

My trip to the comic shop will be bitter sweet today, as it is the last time that I'll walk in and have an issue of Sweet Tooth waiting for me.

For the past couple of years, Sweet Tooth has held that special spot in my heart as my favorite monthly comic.  Not only has this post apocalyptic comic entertained me month in and month out with a story that is packed with emotion, action, a bit of romance, and a bit of bromance, but it has introduced me to Jeff Lemire, a man who has quickly become one of my most favorite comic creators.

His creator owned comics such as The Underwater Welder, Essex County, The Nobody, and Lost Dogs all hold a special place on my shelves, and in my heart.  So when the 40th issue of Sweet Tooth is purchased, read, reread and filed away with it thirty-nine brothers there'll be an empty space in my pull box, and at the top of my most-loved-monthly-comics list.

The ending is just a beginning though right?  Though I'll be sad when I turn that final page, we haven't seen the last of Jeff Lemire.  He's slated to release Trillium later this year, a ten issue mini-series from Vertigo.  I'll be looking forward to that.

If you'd like to read more about the end of Sweet Tooth, check out this USA Today interview.

If you haven't read Sweet Tooth yet, I strongly urge you to check it out. It is one of the very best comics of the last 5 years.

Comic Review: Queen and Country Vols. 3 & 4

Queen & Country Vol. 3: Hot on the heels of my earlier experience with Greg Rucka's Queen & Country books, I decided I'd dive in again for the rest of the story.

Again, I was treated to much of the same highs and lows that were associated with the earlier volumes of this material.  This third volume, which wraps up Tara Chace's story has all the hallmarks of the Queen & Country series. First and foremost among those hallmarks: Greg Rucka's writing is quality. His spy stories are not only incredibly engrossing, but they also pack a very realistic feel, and strike a fine balance between political agendas and personal loyalties.  Also, just like my earlier experiences, the art was hit or miss for me.

In the third volume, things were more hit than miss for me on the art front, as Steve Rolston, probably my favorite artist from the series, was back dealing out some high quality art, and Chris Samnee, who I enjoyed on the Rocketeer Cargo of Doom story, handled some of the art as well.  Both those guys delivered some fantastic art, and helped raise the quality of this volume.

However, I was surprised to find myself frustrated with Rucka's writing.  At the start of the second story arc, Operation: Red Panda the narrative drops the reader down into the middle of events, and it soon becomes very clear that there's been a very major plot development that has gone down.  However, that major plot development is never explored, nor fully explained. Not only did I find this extremely confusing and frustrating, but I was pretty upset with this development, as I felt like I'd been cheated out of a huge piece of the story.

This whole ordeal seemed very out of character for Rucka's writing; He's typically a writer that is very good at tying everything together and buttoning up loose ends.  So much out of character that I blamed myself for missing something.

Well it turns out I did miss something.  An entire prose novel.

Between Operation: Saddlebag and Operation: Red Panda, there was apparently an entire prose novel titled A Gentleman's Game.  I can only assume that the major plot events I missed out on occurred in the pages of that book.  As a comics reader, I'm not so sure how I feel about that.  It's frustrating that the whole story isn't told within the medium in which it was started, and it's also frustrating that even if I wanted to read A Gentleman's Game, by reading this comic, much of that book is already spoiled, thus taking away form that experience, so there's no really good way to get closure.

This also brings up a discussion; that of comics being the destination, not a vehicle to other more well respected mediums, that I don't want to get into.  Suffice it to say that the switching of mediums, and subsequent major plot gap did a lot to take away from my Queen & Country experience.

Queen & Country Vol. 4: This fourth and final volume of the Queen & Country series collects the Declassified story arcs.  Each story reveals the past of one of the characters from the Queen & Country series.

Hardcore fans of the series will likely find this material quite interesting, as it gives backgrounds for Paul Crocker and Tom Wallace, two of the key characters from the series. For me, after the empty feeling I was left with from the previous volume, found that I didn't care about this material as much as I could have.

The stories here are pretty good, the first two in particular were pretty solid, and it was nice to have Brian Hurtt, one of my favorite comic artists, back at work on some Queen & Country material.  That being said, I wasn't a fan of the final story, which also happened to the first Queen & Country story written by someone other than Greg Rucka.  For this one Anthony Johnston did the writing and Christopher Mitten was on art, and the shift in quality was noticeable.

Overall, I found that I didn't enjoy this final volume as much as I did the previous Queen & Country material.  That being said, I'd say this is a strong comic series, but would recommend that any perspective reader gets the novel, A Gentleman's Game, and reads it at the appropriate time so as to get the full story effect.  Regardless, Queen & Country is a very good spy story, and if that's your thing, then you can't go too far wrong here.  Be prepared for strong writing, great characters, and inconsistent art.

Overall Series Grade: B

Book Review: The Silent Land

At the onset of this haunting tale, Jake and Zoe, a married couple on a skiing vacation in the French Pyrenees, are buried in an avalanche.  Somehow, they both survive, and are able to dig themselves out of the snow. In the aftermath of the avalanche, Jake and Zoe notice that an eerie silence and pervasive sense of loneliness has taken over.  Upon returning to their hotel, they discover that the bustling ski village has been evacuated.

They soon discover that the phone lines are down, and their varied attempts to head further down the mountain to the next town are stymied and bring them back in a circle.  Jake suspects that they have died, but Zoe begins to experience strange, unsettling events that seem to suggest a more complex explanation than death.

The quality that instantly stands out about The Silent Land is how gripping of a novel this is.  From the opening pages, up to the very last words, I was fully taken in by this book.  Not only is it one of those book that is hard to put down, but The Silent Land is a read that is extremely well plotted and paced.  There's absolutely no fluff, or plumping to this novel, instead it is slim, trim and tightly focused.  That tight focus is a big reason behind why this is such a gripping novel, but for my personal tastes, I need a book with some interesting characters to really set a book apart from the crowd.

The strange thing about The Silent Land is that there isn't too much interesting about Jake and Zoe.  They struck me as incredibly regular folks.  However, it is that regularity of the characters that makes this book better.  I found that it was very easy for me to relate to both Jake and Zoe, their life, and their experiences.  This ease of relate-ability not only helped make the events of the book seem more real, but also made it easier for me to get caught up in the supernatural events going on around Jake and Zoe. Their reactions to events, and the ways they dealt with everything made it easy for me to feel like I was in their shoes, and experiencing events alongside them.

Another aspect that I really enjoyed about this book, is that it's a contemplative read.  As easy as it was for me to understand and relate to both Jake and Zoe, I also wondered how I would feel were I to find myself in their predicament.  Would being completely alone with an abundance of everything at your fingertips, yet with no way out feel freeing, or would it feel like a trap?  Despite this being a slim read, this is a book that lends itself to some thought provoking moments.

If I had one complaint about The Silent Land, it would be that I had the end game figured out pretty easily.  I typically prefer an author to play things closer to the chest, but I'm not totally sure Joyce was going for the big reveal here as much as he was going for that slow drawn out yanking of the heartstrings.  Either way, it didn't take too much away from the overall experience, as I still greatly enjoyed this book.

Though categorically a fantasy, The Silent Land is definitely a book that can be read by both genre and non-genre fans alike.  I think every reader will find something to enjoy in this book and maybe find a piece of themselves in these characters too.  No matter what, any reader who turns the pages of this book will find some food for thought, and an incredibly engrossing read.  The Silent Land is a very well done book and one that I'll be recommending to a number of the readers in my life.

Grade: B+

Happy Blogiversary + Vacation Pics!

Well, another year has gone by and that means that Battle Hymns is three years old. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've been blogging for three years. Battle Hymns has been a fun part of my life, and has opened a lot of really fun, exciting and interesting doors that I never expected. When I got the blog rolling three years ago, I don't think I ever imagined all the awesomeness that I've experienced through the blog. For those reasons, plus all the awesome unread books on my shelves, I'm incredibly excited to get rolling on my fourth year of blogging.

I know I covered a bunch of the readings I'm excited for in 2013 a couple days ago so I won't go over that stuff again, however, I do want to say THANK YOU again.

To everyone who makes Battle Hymns part of their lives: Thank You.  It means a lot that the reviews I write turn out to be something that people actually want to read, and it never ceases to amaze me that people actually value my opinion.  I hope I can keep on giving everyone plenty of reason to come back to Battle Hymns in 2013.

That's enough tooting of my own horn...for now.  Instead I want the lion's share of this post to focus on the coolest thing I've done in my personal life recently: travel.

Vacations have too few and far between for me lately, so, in order to say farewell to 2012, and to just get away from the regular everyday life of Seattle, my lady and I took a trip to Vancouver, B.C. this past week.  It was a short 4 hour bus ride, but it was my first time outside of the country since May of 2002, and my first trip abroad with my girlfriend, so it was sorta a big deal for us.

Aside from sight seeing and feasting on delicious foods I took a bit of time to turn my vacation into a nerd-cation.  This past fall at work I've been listening to the Inkstuds podcasts with great frequency, and Robin McConnell, the host has mentioned a particular Vancouver comic shop as a great destination for comics lovers multiple times, so I made sure a journey to Lucky's Comics was on the to-do list while in town.  The shop was as great as advertised, and the selection was quite impressive. There were dozens of indie comics in the shop that I'd heard of, but never laid eyes on.  It took a lot of willpower to not drop a ton of money, but I still made out with a pretty great stash of comics.

Aside from scoring a couple copies of the shop's own zine, I scooped up every bit of  Malachi Ward comics goodness that the shop had on hand. Not only did they have all four issues of his and Matt Sheean's Expansion series, but I scored Utu as well, which looks pretty cool. In addition to that stuff I also picked up Michael DeForge's Lose #3, of which there are zero copies available in Seattle, as well as the hilarious (I read this one straight away and it was super fun) Comics Class by Matt Forsythe.  There was a ton of other great books in the shop, including an entire section dedicated to Koyama Press titles, a comics publisher that is publishing really great stuff lately.  All told, it was an awesome visit, and I hope to get back someday to buy more great comics.

Now, onto the food, and lovely scenery...

Coal Harbor.

We had a some really great, but chilly, weather while we were there, so the views were fantastic.  I wish I could take credit for most of these pictures, but as usual, I forgot to pack my camera, so my lady did most of the photography.  Probably why they look so nice.

Our biggest splurge of the trip was tickets to Cirque du Soleil Amaluna.  The show was absolutely amazing. Each act was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen...until the next act occurred, then that was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. This situation repeated itself for the entirety of the show.  

They don't let you take pictures once you are inside, so here's Amaluna from afar. 

The best part of any vacation is getting to eat new food, so here's some food pictures:

Mmm...Waffles.

That was our dessert.

I finally got to try poutine. That stuff is delish!

Come to think of it, the poutine was actually a "dessert" as well.  Here's a picture of me impatiently waiting for one of our meals to arrive:

And here's how happy I am when there's finally food close at hand!

I have a weakness for Jelly Doughnuts.

We were also in Vancouver for New Years, so I've got a couple pictures of that too.  The New Years  festivities are fairly mellow in Vancouver, but there were still plenty of folks out and about getting their drink and their party on.  Myself included.

And last but not least. The first picture taken of this guy in the year 2013. Simultaneously the best and worst photo of the year.  

That's all for now.  By the way, Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2013 is your best year ever!

Regular blogging business shall resume shortly....

Looking Back and Looking Ahead to 2013

LOOKING BACK:

Holy cow, it is kinda scary how fast 2012 went by.  2012 was a pretty big year for me both in my personal life and here at the blog.  I graduated college, got a big boy job and moved into a new place with my lady.  With all that personal stuff going on, it shouldn't surprise that the blog suffered a bit in terms of output.  I didn't manage to crank out as many blog posts as I have in years past, but I'd like to think that the quality of the posts I did produce make up for the slight drop in quantity.

Regardless of how many posts I cranked out, this was by far a banner year for Battle Hymns.  I had the pleasure of contributing my "wisdom" to a couple of other blogs, which was an honor.  I contributed a piece to Sarah's Special Needs in Strange Worlds event at Bookworm Blues and took over the Speculative Scotsman, if only for a day, while Niall was on vacay.

In addition to the guest posts, and single handedly averting the Mayan-pocalypse, (yeah, that was me), I also conducted four author interviews, which has got to be the highlight of this blogging experience for me so far! Check 'em out:

Tim Marquitz

Michael J. Sullivan

Jeff Salyards (and part 2)

Paul S. Kemp

Yep, a pretty awesome year!  Before I start looking ahead, I just want to thank everyone who has made Battle Hymns a piece of their lives.  It's you people who visit, leave comments and all that good stuff that keep me driven and keep me cranking out the blog material.  I hope I give you guys plenty of good reason to keep coming around in 2013!

LOOKING AHEAD: 

My shelves are already stuffed to near capacity, but I'm sure I'll plump 'em out even further in 2013.  There's already a few choice items sitting pretty, ready for review, and even more sitting there waiting for my attention.  Here's a little glimpse at what I hope to have in store for the blog in 2013...

BOOKS:

I don't often pony up for the brand new stuff, I simply don't have the spendin' money for it.  On occasion however, I'll shell out for a book that I just can't wait to get my hands on. Last year, the big release I shelled out for was Stephen King's The Wind Through the Keyhole, which, given my history with the Dark Tower series, was a fun book to be reading and reviewing around the time of release.  I expect Joe Hill's latest, Nos4a2 will have the honor of being the release I pony up the cash for this coming year.

I've been increasingly impressed with Mr. Hill with each work of his I read. Both his prose works and his works in comics have been great, and I'm hungry for more of both. Lucky for me, 2013 should bring not only his latest prose work, but also the conclusion of his fantastic Locke & Key series.  For that reason alone, signs point towards the fact that 2013 should be a good year, however there's some other good lookin' stuff on the horizon, both new and not so new, that I have my eye on. Here's a glimpse:

The Red Knight: I'm definitely intrigued by this early 2013 release, and I have a copy of it on my Kindle, so expect to see this one get covered here early in the year.

Red Country: 2012 was a Joe Abercrombie-less year for me, and that is sad.  I'll be looking to get my hands on his latest before too long, as I have a hankering for some Bloody Nine.

The Coldest War: I belatedly began Ian Tregillis' The Milkweed Triptych this year, and enjoyed it immensely.  With the second book out and third one due, I'm looking to get a move on in this series.

Railsea: It wouldn't be much of a year if I didn't read something by China Mieville. I'm looking to keep pace with his publications by reading his latest, albeit a year later.

Rise of Empire: Another series whose grip I got caught in this year.  Another series I'm looking to dig deeper into.

Some authors I've never read but hope to in 2013:

Nick Harkaway
Adam Roberts
Courtney Schafer
Felix Gilman
Robert Jackson Bennett
Teresa Frohock

COMICS: 

I'm always on the lookout for great new comic reads, but I've had to govern my comics spending more closely lately and limit the number of active titles in my pull box.  However, in 2013, for the first time since I became a comics reader, there's going to be a gaping hole in my monthly comics reading when Sweet Tooth finishes up.  Lucky for me, and every other comics reader out there, we'll see a new Jeff Lemire comic sometime in 2013 in the form of Trillium, a science fiction love story that spans centuries.

While Trillium is sure to make me happy, here's some other titles I'm looking forward to:

Walrus: It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Brandon Graham.  In Spring of 2013, PictureBox Inc. will release a printed edition of his sketchbook.  I'm hoping it will be like a tangible version of his blog, which is a cool mix of comics, and weirdness.

Sullivan's Sluggers: I purchased this months ago on Kickstarter, and still haven't got my copy. I gave them my mailing address though, so I'm hoping I'll see my copy soon.  I've been waiting for this one for months, so I'm pretty excited to finally get my hands on it.

East of West: I've had mixed feelings about the Jonathan Hickman material that I've read in the past, but East of West which promises to be a "sci-fi western set in a dystopian America where all hope for the future rests in the four horsemen of the apocalypse" (quoted straight from the Image website). I dare say from that description that East of West sounds like it is right up my alley.  I'll for sure be checking out a few issues of this title to get a taste for it.


MUSIC:

2012 was a bit of a music fail for me, so I hope to make more of an effort to experience more of it in 2013.  That means going to more live shows and listening to more music on a daily basis.  Right now, my work situation is pretty conducive to listen to whatever I want for a good chunk of the day, so that should help.  As  for stuff I'm looking forward to, my fingers are crossed that there'll be a new Red Fang album for me to listen to before the end of the year.

So there you go, a good look at some of the stuff I'm looking forward to in 2013.  And now I turn things over to you faithful Battle Hymns readers: What Books, comics, and musics are you pumped about for 2013? Head to the comments section to let the world know!