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bobcatmoranY'know that thing where I said I'd be posting reviews of everything I've read? I've been writing them, but since I don't have internet access on anything resembling a regular basis, they've just been sitting on my computer, piling up. So here's everything from, like, mid-February to yesterday.
Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 5: Public Scrutiny (comics) ***
Peter Parker can't catch a break. Like it's not bad enough that his girlfriend is acting all weird and distant (for completely understandable reasons, btw) ever since the Green Goblin dropped her off the Brooklyn Bridge, and Gwen Stacy, the other girl in his life, is having serious family issues of her own which are just adding to the mix. No, there also has to be some clown who's decided that dressing up in a Spiderman costume and robbing banks is a good idea. This is a really good issue, but at the same time, a real downer, as the story just sort of piles shit on Peter. It's also a bit frustrating, because at least some of his problems would just go away if he'd only tell someone that he's Spiderman. Seriously, dude, Aunt May is gonna be in danger from your secret identity whether or not it's a secret to her.
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The Dragon Book, ed. Jack Dann and Gadner Dozois (fantasy short stories, 433 p.) ***
The impressive selection of authors (Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Jane Yolen, Garth Nix, and many others) turned out an equally impressive collection of short stories about dragons. Some meld dragons with our own world, like Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple's "The Tsar's Dragons," bringing dragons to the Russian Revolution or Peter S. Beagle's "Oakland Dragon Blues" where an Oakland policeman has to deal with a dragon blocking an intersection. Some are strictly fantasy, like Sean Williams' "Ungentle Fire" or Cecelia Holland's "Dragon's Deep." A few of the authors set their stories in worlds they've already created for other stories and novels, but fortunately all the stories stand alone just fine (wow, could I have used the word "stories" any more times in that sentence?). You'll probably find some stories that don't click with you, with the wide variety of settings and tones ranging from humorous to deadly serious. But it's overall a very worthwhile read.
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Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 6: Venom (comics) **
Three guesses as to which character is introduced in this volume, and the first two guesses don't count. ^_^ I remember this string of comics getting a lot of criticism when it first came out for zooming though the "black Spiderman" and the intro of Venom way too fast, compared to how it was in the main Marvelverse (616? Is that it? Or is it DC who uses numbers for their universes? I dunno if that's even the right number). It seemed to work fine for me here, although I've never read the original intro of Venom. In comic time, this entire volume largely takes place in just one night, from Peter first trying the black…um…goop that his and Eddie Brock's scientist fathers left as a dubious inheritance, to Eddie trying it himself and transforming into a supervillain. Now that I think about it, from a pacing standpoint it works well, but dang, that is one long night. Also, I take back what I said about how Peter should tell more people about his secret superhero identity, since it's becoming obvious that everyone he tells it to becomes a supervillain. >_<
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Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos (373 p., linguistics) ****
A note about the rating: I love learning about linguistics, and Ibadly translate stuff for shits and giggles in my free time. So a book about translation is right up my alley. If you're not a linguistics geek, you'll might find this dead boring.
I, however, loved this book. A lot of the examples are English -> French or French -> English, since that's the author's L1 and L2 (first and second languages, respectively), but thankfully most of them were accessible even to me, who only has scraps of knowledge from a quarter of sixth-grade French. Within the subject of translation, Bellos covers a wide range of topics. He goes into the history of translation, going back to the days when all translation was oral, since there was no writing. He covers dictionaries and how they've affected our views of language. He looks at the differences in how we translate news, law, novels, and speech. There's sections on the difficulties of translating jokes or in formats like comics or movies where there's space or time restrictions. There's a fascinating chapter focusing on the EU, where all documents are released in the twenty-four different official languages — and all twenty-four versions are officially originals, not translations. For anyone who has an interest in translation and its place in our multicultural, multilingual global society, this is a book to read.
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Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik (historical fantasy, 399 p.) ****
The fourth book in the Temeraire series takes Laurence and Temeraire to southern Africa in search of a cure for a deadly plague that has attacked every dragon in England. Slavery is a pervading theme throughout this book, both directly and indirectly — England was still involved in the slave trade at this point in history (1807, to be precise — two years after the series' beginning), and there are obvious paralells between the treatment of both dragons and native Africans by the English. I won't spoil the plot, but I will say that the Tswana Kingdom provides another fascinating example of human-dragon coexistence with yet another completely different set of cultural mores, and that as far as I can tell, Novik did her homework on pre-colonial Africa.
She also seems to be creating a world here where colonialism fails to take hold on the scale that it did in our history, which is pretty amazing. This is not a world which will end up entirely carved up among the European powers, mostly because it is really hard to subjugate someone who has a thirty-ton dragon on their side.
The book ends on a cliffhanger that resulted in me making a series of strangled noises of severe worry for the main characters.
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Ultimate Spider-man 9: Ultimate Six, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Trevor Hairsine with Mark Bagley and Joe Quesada (comics) **
This was mostly published as the stand-alone series "Ultimate Six," and the art switch from Mark Bagley (the usual Ultimate Spider-Man artist) to Trevor Hairsine (the usual "Ultimates" artist) chk this is pretty noticeable. Not that either of them are bad artists, far from it, but Hairsine draws Peter so differently that, were it not for people calling him "Peter Parker," I wouldn't have been able to recognize him in civvies. I think a large part of the problem is that Ultimate Six!Peter has what looks to be black hair with brown highlights, while Ultimate Spider-Man!Peter has hair that's clearly brown. Also, he has a different hairstyle. Seriously threw me off there for a few pages.
As far as the plot goes, the big hook seems to be "Oh no! Spider-Man has teamed up with villains Doc Ock, The Sandman, The Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, and Electro!" In reality, said "team-up" lasts for less than twenty pages, and Spider-Man isn't even around for seven of them while for the other thirteen he just sort of stands around watching in horror as the bad guys kick the Ultimates' butts. I fully realize that it would be horrendously out of character for Spider-Man to actually work with the bad guys, but I remember reading this series when it originally came out and feeling seriously gypped by the false advertising. I still feel a bit gypped. I also wanted to slap S.H.I.E.L.D. at the end for continuing to make decisions which any idiot could see are going to come back and bite them, probably in the very near future.
OTOH, I didn't come away from this actively hating any of the members of The Ultimates (the Ultimate-verse version of the Avengers), which is quite different from how I felt about their own series.
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Nisei Daughter, by Monica Sone (US history, autobiography, 238 p.) ** 1/2
Ms. Sone's autobiography of growing up as a Nisei, the American-born daughter of two Japanese immigrants, traces her childhood growing up in 1930s Seattle's Skid Row and continues through her adolescence and then, as a young woman, being shipped off to the Internment Camps along with all the other Japanese-Americans in the western US (truly one of the most reprehensible acts in the history of this nation), and resettling in the Midwest as a way to get out of the camps.
In some ways, this is the story of my maternal grandparents, who were also Nisei that resettled in the Midwest since they could not return to what was left of their West Coast homes while we were still at war with Japan. Although I've read other books and biographies about the Nisei experience, the fact that this one was written so soon after the events described within give it a freshness that seems lacking in some other accounts. Its copyright of 1953 also means that this was probably one of the first published accounts of the Japanese-American internment, a subject that most Japanese-Americans were reluctant to talk about until at least the 1970s. Unfortunately, the fact that the book was originally published nearly sixty years ago shows pretty heavily, from some of the awkward Romanizations of Japanese phrases to the fact that the now politically incorrect "Oriental" is used as a descriptive throughout. Also, as someone who grew up in the Twin Cities' Japanese-American community while there were still a few Issei (first-generation Japanese-Americans) around, her (thankfully rare) attempts at phonetically writing a Japanese accent made me cringe. Still, it's a good choice for anyone interested in Japanese-American history, and it's a very quick and easy read.
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Ultimate Spider-Man 10: Hollywood, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley ***
This storyline had the potential to be ridiculously meta. The comics collected here originally came out around the time of the first Spiderman movie, and the story opens with Peter finding out about the filming of said movie. Yeah, that's right. He goes down to the set, gives Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi a piece of his mind, and then finds out that Doctor Octopus's ex-wife is a consultant on the film. Uh-oh. Before you can say "Peter Parker's life sucks," there's another film-crasher on the scene, and he's got eight mechanical arms and a grudge to settle — not with Spider-Man right now, but hey, he'll take what he can get.
It's not an amazing story, but it's pretty good, and thankfully doesn't milk the film storyline to death. There's a hilarious scene where Spider-Man has to stow away on a plane to get back from Brazil (long story), and also a side plot where Gwen Stacy joins the "I know who Spider-Man is" clubwhich, given the track record so far, means that she will become a super-villain.
Also, I would like to point out that in addition to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s craptastic way of handling the fact that Doc Ock can operate his arms from several miles away, they apparently have no idea how to manage a stake-out with any sort of subtlety. Seriously, guys, having three unmarked black vans on one block (in Queens! Where the heck did they find enough parking to do so?!) is the complete opposite of inconspicuous.
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Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik (historical fantasy, 399 p.) ****
Oh my god, I totally spent the first 269 pages of this desperately wanting to give Laurence a hug, poor guy. This was an extraordinarily good read, but kind of a difficult one for personal reasons, since at the time I was off my meds, fully realizing that I was falling in towards the pit of depression, and not really up to doing anything about it. So watching Laurence gradually give up hope and fall into that same pit was hard, to say the least, since I really do love his character.
This book gives the first major opportunity for Termeraire POV, which is sort of hilarious and brilliant. A whole host of new dragon characters are introduced, my personal favorite being Perscitia, a mathematical genius consigned to the breeding grounds because she refuses to fight. One of the best scenes in the book is where she tries to show off to Temeraire how she has figured out a whole host of proofs, including the Pythagorean theorem, natural logarithms, and binomials, and he is terribly grumpy at her and snippily tells her that they've already been discovered. Also brilliant is the dragon corps that Temeraire raises — when left to his own devices, sans captain, he is fairly terrifying in an awesome way.
Overall, one of my favorites in the series so far, and my only, tiny quibble is that there isn't a little fake excerpt from some scholarly work of the universe. I do so love those.
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Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 11: Carnage, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley **
(spoilers!)
Oooh, hey, guess who the villain is in ths one! According to the back of the book, it's "fan favorite Carnage." I never read the original run with Carnage, and in fact didn't read comics at all during that time, so I couldn't tell you how much of a "fan favorite" he/it is, but as far as the Ultimate treatment of the character goes, my general reaction is a combination of, "that was really rushed" and "wow, science fail."
Normally, I'm willing to give comics a huge pass when it comes to science. Hand-waving, sure. But for whatever reason, although I was willing to give Venom as pass, I couldn't help but spend a good portion of this storyline going, "DNA doesn't work that way." I just can't come up with any sort of good explanation for why Carnage seems to have Peter's memories, however jumbled they may be. (also…was that Daredevil in the memory-jumble spread? When the heck did Spider-Man meet Daredevil in this verse?)
Also, the entire storyline felt like it could've used a few more issues, maybe some more time drawing out the menace of this horrific thing being on the loose. And Gwen's death felt really sudden and…I dunno…contrived. I mean, kudos for not doing it how it was handled in the original series (dropped off a bridge, IIRC), but it also seemed really senseless.
I did like the detention scene at the end, however, and I think this is the first volume where we really see Peter get angry about how being a superhero has introduced a whole new level of suckiness into his life.
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Crucible of Gold, by Naomi Novik (323 p., historical fantasy, ****)
it's the seventh book in the Temeraire series, just released within the last year, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before Temeraire and Laurence made their way to South America — they've been nearly everywhere else by this point, and I think the only continents left are North America and Antarctica. There is an element of glee in reading about just how badly Pizarro's would-be conquest of the Incas went in a world where the Incas had dragons who took very badly indeed to their emperor being killed, and as always, Novik has created yet a different take on human-dragon society. The Incas have been just as strongly affected by the Europeans as the African Tswana Empire, although this time it is disease rather than slavery that has decimated the local population, and its effects on the dragons' attitude towards the remaining people has been…interesting, to say the least. Think of the posessiveness that the English dragons have towards their crews and extend that to an entire society.
Speaking of the Tswana Empire, they're back, this time on a mission to reclaim every last one of their citizens who was kidnapped and sold into Brazilian slavery. Brazil being a Portuguese posession and Portugal being a necessary ally of the British against the French, Temeraire and Laurence have been called up to deal with this problem. However, with Laurence (and Temeraire) being an abolitionist through and through, it's no stretch to see that he's not about to handle the situation the way his superiors in England might want him to…
Also (spoilers), I have been lurking about the Temeraire fandom, reading vast quantities of fanfic (because, really, what else was I to do while waiting for the books that my library didn't have to come in on interlibrary loan from halfway across the island), and apparently Laurence/Granby is quite the thing. So when Granby actually comes out and tells Laurence, "I am an invert" about two-thirds of the way through the book, I could just hear the shriek of a thousand fangirls going, "I knew it!" Seeing as how Naomi Novik is actually a fanfic writer herself, crediting "beta readers" for all her books and going so far as to be one of the founders of OTW (her back-of-the-book author bio says as much), I am pretty much certain that she knew exactly what she was doing there. (Of course, the dragons apparently all knew about this and don't see anything wrong with it aside from possible problems if Granby would like to have an egg. As far as Laurence goes, his main reaction is one of sympathy for how really awkward that must make life for his former first lieutenant followed by, "So, how is this going to work with your dragon's crazy plan to marry you off to the Incan ruler?" and the whole thing winds up being semi-connected to Granby's Crowning Moment of Awesome later on. God, I love the characters in these books).
Oh, crap, now I've read all the books that are out so far. Great, now what?
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A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield (history, 338 p.) ***
This is the story of a little bug and how it became a commodity that for three centuries was one of the most valued, most sought-after treasures to come out of the New World. Cochineal, a tiny insect that lives on prickly pear cacti, was domesticated by the native Mexicans and was (and still is) the source of the most brilliant, most versatile red dye to come from nature. This book is, basically, the biography of that insect and the dye it produces, from the first domestication through the Spanish monopoly through its eventual decline in importance with the development of synthetic dyes. It's a great story, full of spies and pirates, trade secrets and technological breakthroughs.
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Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 12: Superstars, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley **1/2
This is actually a collection of three story arcs, all crossovers, all two issues long, and all based on huge cliches (Body swaps! Transfer students! Seeing your worst fears come to life!)
The first one is quite possibly one of my favorite things to ever come out of this series, even though Bendis basically comes out and admits it's complete crack. The plot? Wolverine and Spiderman are body-swapped. Yup. It's absolutely hilarious, and everything I could ever want from a Wolverine-Spiderman body swap story. I know this storyline has gotten a lot of flack, but if you don't take it too seriously (i.e. read it as published fanfic rather than canon), it's great fun.
The second story has Johnny Storm (of the Fantastic Four) come to Peter's high school as a transfer student. Liz, the blond who hangs out with MJ a lot, develops a huge crush on him. Of course, since Johnny has his own comic series to get back to, he can't stick around, so there's some powers-related oopsies, followed by Spider-Man giving the Human Torch a lesson in why being a superhero is kinda awesome even when people hate you. Also, I'd just like to say that, although it seems to be a requirement that any female character in these books has to have her bellybutton showing at least 90% of the time, Sue Storm looks like pretty ridiculous walking around without buttoning the bottom of her uniform shirt.
The final story brings in Ultimate Doctor Strange who, in a magical accident (because what other sort is there with Doctor Strange?) sucks Peter down into a never-ending nightmare. Now, Doctor Strange is like my least favorite Marvel hero ever. I think the whole magic angle is kind of silly and doesn't fit in well with a universe where superheroes are generally created via (pseudo)science whether it be radioactive spiders or gamma rays or genetic anomalies. That said, I sort of like this version of him, mostly because he's relatively young, doesn't quite know what he's doing, and at one point says, "By the hoary hosts of whatchacallit." As for the nightmare, I'd just add it to the ever-growing pile of "Why Peter Parker's Life Sucks."
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Ultimate Spider-man 14: Warriors, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Mark Bagley (comics) *
You know, when you've managed to introduce so many characters in so short a time that you need to include a two-page spread where you have to label them, that miiiight be a sign that you've crammed in too many characters. This storyline is basically an excuse to introduce somewhere around a dozen new characters, most whom I think are second or third-tier Marvel heroes. Since I've never even heard of any of them except for Elektra, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this was all very exciting for those who were fans of these characters from the regular Marvel-verse, but for those like me who aren't, it's just sort of a mess, culminating in a seriously confusing melee battle where I couldn't suss out whose side anyone was on except for Spider-Man and maybe the Black Cat. Since the original point of the Ultimate-verse was to give comic newbies a chance to get into Marvel's characters without having to know several decades worth of backstory, I feel like the whole storyline missed the point.
Also, there's a one-panel "all Asians are alike" epic racefail where a supposedly Chinese woman is given the decidedly Japanese name of "Taki Soma."
Bleagh. Can't believe I wasted a half hour of my life reading that.
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Ultimate Spider-Man 15: Silver Sable, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Mark Brooks and Mark Bagley (comics) ** 1/2
This is actually a combo of two stories. The first (Anuual #1) is the very rare from this series that actually leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat of the X-Men, decides to act on her Spider-man crush, calls up Peter, and they hang out (and make out. A little.) It's a really nice change to see Peter actually get something nice in his life that isn't ripped away by the end of the story (or even by the end of the issue — we'll see how this goes). Even the art reflects the different tone. The palette is noticably brighter and warmer than usual.
I had low expectations for the second story, as its sole reason for existence is apparently to cross-promote the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. However, Silver Sable and co turn out to be pretty interesting, and I am seriously impressed by her outfit re: practicality while still looking cool (you hear that, DC and Marvel? Female comic characters can still look sexy and kick-ass while not wearing something that requires super-glue to stay on!). I also liked the pseudo-picture book interludes.
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (historical fantasy with a side of fairy tales, 782 p.) ****
I think this is the longest novel I've read in a couple of years. It's a real doorstop of a book, the hardcover edition I checked out from the library measuring over 2 inches thick. But trust me, it's worth every one of those 782 pages. Overall, it reads like a combination of the best parts of Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman, set in early 1800s England. The eponymous characters are magicians, the first practical ones seen in England in hundreds of years, following in the footsteps of the twelfth-century Raven King who brought magic to England in the first place.
One of the greatest joys of this book are the extensive footnotes, which relate fairy tales from the book's universe. Fairies here are not of the Disney variety, but rather the sort who appear in old stories, stealing away human babies and leaving changelings in their places. Each of the side stories serves not only to flesh out the world this is taking place in, giving historical context, but also as just plain good stnad-alone stories. As for the main storyline, it's full of mystery and magic, with a wonderful cast of characters and a generous touch of Austen-esque humor.
As a side note, this was on my "to-read" list as just a title and author, and I honestly had no idea that I'd be reading yet another fantasy novel set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. I swear I'll find another genre for my next fictional book.
Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 5: Public Scrutiny (comics) ***
Peter Parker can't catch a break. Like it's not bad enough that his girlfriend is acting all weird and distant (for completely understandable reasons, btw) ever since the Green Goblin dropped her off the Brooklyn Bridge, and Gwen Stacy, the other girl in his life, is having serious family issues of her own which are just adding to the mix. No, there also has to be some clown who's decided that dressing up in a Spiderman costume and robbing banks is a good idea. This is a really good issue, but at the same time, a real downer, as the story just sort of piles shit on Peter. It's also a bit frustrating, because at least some of his problems would just go away if he'd only tell someone that he's Spiderman. Seriously, dude, Aunt May is gonna be in danger from your secret identity whether or not it's a secret to her.
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The Dragon Book, ed. Jack Dann and Gadner Dozois (fantasy short stories, 433 p.) ***
The impressive selection of authors (Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Jane Yolen, Garth Nix, and many others) turned out an equally impressive collection of short stories about dragons. Some meld dragons with our own world, like Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple's "The Tsar's Dragons," bringing dragons to the Russian Revolution or Peter S. Beagle's "Oakland Dragon Blues" where an Oakland policeman has to deal with a dragon blocking an intersection. Some are strictly fantasy, like Sean Williams' "Ungentle Fire" or Cecelia Holland's "Dragon's Deep." A few of the authors set their stories in worlds they've already created for other stories and novels, but fortunately all the stories stand alone just fine (wow, could I have used the word "stories" any more times in that sentence?). You'll probably find some stories that don't click with you, with the wide variety of settings and tones ranging from humorous to deadly serious. But it's overall a very worthwhile read.
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Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 6: Venom (comics) **
Three guesses as to which character is introduced in this volume, and the first two guesses don't count. ^_^ I remember this string of comics getting a lot of criticism when it first came out for zooming though the "black Spiderman" and the intro of Venom way too fast, compared to how it was in the main Marvelverse (616? Is that it? Or is it DC who uses numbers for their universes? I dunno if that's even the right number). It seemed to work fine for me here, although I've never read the original intro of Venom. In comic time, this entire volume largely takes place in just one night, from Peter first trying the black…um…goop that his and Eddie Brock's scientist fathers left as a dubious inheritance, to Eddie trying it himself and transforming into a supervillain. Now that I think about it, from a pacing standpoint it works well, but dang, that is one long night. Also, I take back what I said about how Peter should tell more people about his secret superhero identity, since it's becoming obvious that everyone he tells it to becomes a supervillain. >_<
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Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos (373 p., linguistics) ****
A note about the rating: I love learning about linguistics, and I
I, however, loved this book. A lot of the examples are English -> French or French -> English, since that's the author's L1 and L2 (first and second languages, respectively), but thankfully most of them were accessible even to me, who only has scraps of knowledge from a quarter of sixth-grade French. Within the subject of translation, Bellos covers a wide range of topics. He goes into the history of translation, going back to the days when all translation was oral, since there was no writing. He covers dictionaries and how they've affected our views of language. He looks at the differences in how we translate news, law, novels, and speech. There's sections on the difficulties of translating jokes or in formats like comics or movies where there's space or time restrictions. There's a fascinating chapter focusing on the EU, where all documents are released in the twenty-four different official languages — and all twenty-four versions are officially originals, not translations. For anyone who has an interest in translation and its place in our multicultural, multilingual global society, this is a book to read.
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Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik (historical fantasy, 399 p.) ****
The fourth book in the Temeraire series takes Laurence and Temeraire to southern Africa in search of a cure for a deadly plague that has attacked every dragon in England. Slavery is a pervading theme throughout this book, both directly and indirectly — England was still involved in the slave trade at this point in history (1807, to be precise — two years after the series' beginning), and there are obvious paralells between the treatment of both dragons and native Africans by the English. I won't spoil the plot, but I will say that the Tswana Kingdom provides another fascinating example of human-dragon coexistence with yet another completely different set of cultural mores, and that as far as I can tell, Novik did her homework on pre-colonial Africa.
She also seems to be creating a world here where colonialism fails to take hold on the scale that it did in our history, which is pretty amazing. This is not a world which will end up entirely carved up among the European powers, mostly because it is really hard to subjugate someone who has a thirty-ton dragon on their side.
The book ends on a cliffhanger that resulted in me making a series of strangled noises of severe worry for the main characters.
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Ultimate Spider-man 9: Ultimate Six, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Trevor Hairsine with Mark Bagley and Joe Quesada (comics) **
This was mostly published as the stand-alone series "Ultimate Six," and the art switch from Mark Bagley (the usual Ultimate Spider-Man artist) to Trevor Hairsine (the usual "Ultimates" artist) chk this is pretty noticeable. Not that either of them are bad artists, far from it, but Hairsine draws Peter so differently that, were it not for people calling him "Peter Parker," I wouldn't have been able to recognize him in civvies. I think a large part of the problem is that Ultimate Six!Peter has what looks to be black hair with brown highlights, while Ultimate Spider-Man!Peter has hair that's clearly brown. Also, he has a different hairstyle. Seriously threw me off there for a few pages.
As far as the plot goes, the big hook seems to be "Oh no! Spider-Man has teamed up with villains Doc Ock, The Sandman, The Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, and Electro!" In reality, said "team-up" lasts for less than twenty pages, and Spider-Man isn't even around for seven of them while for the other thirteen he just sort of stands around watching in horror as the bad guys kick the Ultimates' butts. I fully realize that it would be horrendously out of character for Spider-Man to actually work with the bad guys, but I remember reading this series when it originally came out and feeling seriously gypped by the false advertising. I still feel a bit gypped. I also wanted to slap S.H.I.E.L.D. at the end for continuing to make decisions which any idiot could see are going to come back and bite them, probably in the very near future.
OTOH, I didn't come away from this actively hating any of the members of The Ultimates (the Ultimate-verse version of the Avengers), which is quite different from how I felt about their own series.
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Nisei Daughter, by Monica Sone (US history, autobiography, 238 p.) ** 1/2
Ms. Sone's autobiography of growing up as a Nisei, the American-born daughter of two Japanese immigrants, traces her childhood growing up in 1930s Seattle's Skid Row and continues through her adolescence and then, as a young woman, being shipped off to the Internment Camps along with all the other Japanese-Americans in the western US (truly one of the most reprehensible acts in the history of this nation), and resettling in the Midwest as a way to get out of the camps.
In some ways, this is the story of my maternal grandparents, who were also Nisei that resettled in the Midwest since they could not return to what was left of their West Coast homes while we were still at war with Japan. Although I've read other books and biographies about the Nisei experience, the fact that this one was written so soon after the events described within give it a freshness that seems lacking in some other accounts. Its copyright of 1953 also means that this was probably one of the first published accounts of the Japanese-American internment, a subject that most Japanese-Americans were reluctant to talk about until at least the 1970s. Unfortunately, the fact that the book was originally published nearly sixty years ago shows pretty heavily, from some of the awkward Romanizations of Japanese phrases to the fact that the now politically incorrect "Oriental" is used as a descriptive throughout. Also, as someone who grew up in the Twin Cities' Japanese-American community while there were still a few Issei (first-generation Japanese-Americans) around, her (thankfully rare) attempts at phonetically writing a Japanese accent made me cringe. Still, it's a good choice for anyone interested in Japanese-American history, and it's a very quick and easy read.
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Ultimate Spider-Man 10: Hollywood, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley ***
This storyline had the potential to be ridiculously meta. The comics collected here originally came out around the time of the first Spiderman movie, and the story opens with Peter finding out about the filming of said movie. Yeah, that's right. He goes down to the set, gives Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi a piece of his mind, and then finds out that Doctor Octopus's ex-wife is a consultant on the film. Uh-oh. Before you can say "Peter Parker's life sucks," there's another film-crasher on the scene, and he's got eight mechanical arms and a grudge to settle — not with Spider-Man right now, but hey, he'll take what he can get.
It's not an amazing story, but it's pretty good, and thankfully doesn't milk the film storyline to death. There's a hilarious scene where Spider-Man has to stow away on a plane to get back from Brazil (long story), and also a side plot where Gwen Stacy joins the "I know who Spider-Man is" club
Also, I would like to point out that in addition to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s craptastic way of handling the fact that Doc Ock can operate his arms from several miles away, they apparently have no idea how to manage a stake-out with any sort of subtlety. Seriously, guys, having three unmarked black vans on one block (in Queens! Where the heck did they find enough parking to do so?!) is the complete opposite of inconspicuous.
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Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik (historical fantasy, 399 p.) ****
Oh my god, I totally spent the first 269 pages of this desperately wanting to give Laurence a hug, poor guy. This was an extraordinarily good read, but kind of a difficult one for personal reasons, since at the time I was off my meds, fully realizing that I was falling in towards the pit of depression, and not really up to doing anything about it. So watching Laurence gradually give up hope and fall into that same pit was hard, to say the least, since I really do love his character.
This book gives the first major opportunity for Termeraire POV, which is sort of hilarious and brilliant. A whole host of new dragon characters are introduced, my personal favorite being Perscitia, a mathematical genius consigned to the breeding grounds because she refuses to fight. One of the best scenes in the book is where she tries to show off to Temeraire how she has figured out a whole host of proofs, including the Pythagorean theorem, natural logarithms, and binomials, and he is terribly grumpy at her and snippily tells her that they've already been discovered. Also brilliant is the dragon corps that Temeraire raises — when left to his own devices, sans captain, he is fairly terrifying in an awesome way.
Overall, one of my favorites in the series so far, and my only, tiny quibble is that there isn't a little fake excerpt from some scholarly work of the universe. I do so love those.
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Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 11: Carnage, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley **
(spoilers!)
Oooh, hey, guess who the villain is in ths one! According to the back of the book, it's "fan favorite Carnage." I never read the original run with Carnage, and in fact didn't read comics at all during that time, so I couldn't tell you how much of a "fan favorite" he/it is, but as far as the Ultimate treatment of the character goes, my general reaction is a combination of, "that was really rushed" and "wow, science fail."
Normally, I'm willing to give comics a huge pass when it comes to science. Hand-waving, sure. But for whatever reason, although I was willing to give Venom as pass, I couldn't help but spend a good portion of this storyline going, "DNA doesn't work that way." I just can't come up with any sort of good explanation for why Carnage seems to have Peter's memories, however jumbled they may be. (also…was that Daredevil in the memory-jumble spread? When the heck did Spider-Man meet Daredevil in this verse?)
Also, the entire storyline felt like it could've used a few more issues, maybe some more time drawing out the menace of this horrific thing being on the loose. And Gwen's death felt really sudden and…I dunno…contrived. I mean, kudos for not doing it how it was handled in the original series (dropped off a bridge, IIRC), but it also seemed really senseless.
I did like the detention scene at the end, however, and I think this is the first volume where we really see Peter get angry about how being a superhero has introduced a whole new level of suckiness into his life.
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Crucible of Gold, by Naomi Novik (323 p., historical fantasy, ****)
it's the seventh book in the Temeraire series, just released within the last year, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before Temeraire and Laurence made their way to South America — they've been nearly everywhere else by this point, and I think the only continents left are North America and Antarctica. There is an element of glee in reading about just how badly Pizarro's would-be conquest of the Incas went in a world where the Incas had dragons who took very badly indeed to their emperor being killed, and as always, Novik has created yet a different take on human-dragon society. The Incas have been just as strongly affected by the Europeans as the African Tswana Empire, although this time it is disease rather than slavery that has decimated the local population, and its effects on the dragons' attitude towards the remaining people has been…interesting, to say the least. Think of the posessiveness that the English dragons have towards their crews and extend that to an entire society.
Speaking of the Tswana Empire, they're back, this time on a mission to reclaim every last one of their citizens who was kidnapped and sold into Brazilian slavery. Brazil being a Portuguese posession and Portugal being a necessary ally of the British against the French, Temeraire and Laurence have been called up to deal with this problem. However, with Laurence (and Temeraire) being an abolitionist through and through, it's no stretch to see that he's not about to handle the situation the way his superiors in England might want him to…
Also (spoilers), I have been lurking about the Temeraire fandom, reading vast quantities of fanfic (because, really, what else was I to do while waiting for the books that my library didn't have to come in on interlibrary loan from halfway across the island), and apparently Laurence/Granby is quite the thing. So when Granby actually comes out and tells Laurence, "I am an invert" about two-thirds of the way through the book, I could just hear the shriek of a thousand fangirls going, "I knew it!" Seeing as how Naomi Novik is actually a fanfic writer herself, crediting "beta readers" for all her books and going so far as to be one of the founders of OTW (her back-of-the-book author bio says as much), I am pretty much certain that she knew exactly what she was doing there. (Of course, the dragons apparently all knew about this and don't see anything wrong with it aside from possible problems if Granby would like to have an egg. As far as Laurence goes, his main reaction is one of sympathy for how really awkward that must make life for his former first lieutenant followed by, "So, how is this going to work with your dragon's crazy plan to marry you off to the Incan ruler?" and the whole thing winds up being semi-connected to Granby's Crowning Moment of Awesome later on. God, I love the characters in these books).
Oh, crap, now I've read all the books that are out so far. Great, now what?
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A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield (history, 338 p.) ***
This is the story of a little bug and how it became a commodity that for three centuries was one of the most valued, most sought-after treasures to come out of the New World. Cochineal, a tiny insect that lives on prickly pear cacti, was domesticated by the native Mexicans and was (and still is) the source of the most brilliant, most versatile red dye to come from nature. This book is, basically, the biography of that insect and the dye it produces, from the first domestication through the Spanish monopoly through its eventual decline in importance with the development of synthetic dyes. It's a great story, full of spies and pirates, trade secrets and technological breakthroughs.
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Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 12: Superstars, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art by Mark Bagley **1/2
This is actually a collection of three story arcs, all crossovers, all two issues long, and all based on huge cliches (Body swaps! Transfer students! Seeing your worst fears come to life!)
The first one is quite possibly one of my favorite things to ever come out of this series, even though Bendis basically comes out and admits it's complete crack. The plot? Wolverine and Spiderman are body-swapped. Yup. It's absolutely hilarious, and everything I could ever want from a Wolverine-Spiderman body swap story. I know this storyline has gotten a lot of flack, but if you don't take it too seriously (i.e. read it as published fanfic rather than canon), it's great fun.
The second story has Johnny Storm (of the Fantastic Four) come to Peter's high school as a transfer student. Liz, the blond who hangs out with MJ a lot, develops a huge crush on him. Of course, since Johnny has his own comic series to get back to, he can't stick around, so there's some powers-related oopsies, followed by Spider-Man giving the Human Torch a lesson in why being a superhero is kinda awesome even when people hate you. Also, I'd just like to say that, although it seems to be a requirement that any female character in these books has to have her bellybutton showing at least 90% of the time, Sue Storm looks like pretty ridiculous walking around without buttoning the bottom of her uniform shirt.
The final story brings in Ultimate Doctor Strange who, in a magical accident (because what other sort is there with Doctor Strange?) sucks Peter down into a never-ending nightmare. Now, Doctor Strange is like my least favorite Marvel hero ever. I think the whole magic angle is kind of silly and doesn't fit in well with a universe where superheroes are generally created via (pseudo)science whether it be radioactive spiders or gamma rays or genetic anomalies. That said, I sort of like this version of him, mostly because he's relatively young, doesn't quite know what he's doing, and at one point says, "By the hoary hosts of whatchacallit." As for the nightmare, I'd just add it to the ever-growing pile of "Why Peter Parker's Life Sucks."
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Ultimate Spider-man 14: Warriors, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Mark Bagley (comics) *
You know, when you've managed to introduce so many characters in so short a time that you need to include a two-page spread where you have to label them, that miiiight be a sign that you've crammed in too many characters. This storyline is basically an excuse to introduce somewhere around a dozen new characters, most whom I think are second or third-tier Marvel heroes. Since I've never even heard of any of them except for Elektra, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this was all very exciting for those who were fans of these characters from the regular Marvel-verse, but for those like me who aren't, it's just sort of a mess, culminating in a seriously confusing melee battle where I couldn't suss out whose side anyone was on except for Spider-Man and maybe the Black Cat. Since the original point of the Ultimate-verse was to give comic newbies a chance to get into Marvel's characters without having to know several decades worth of backstory, I feel like the whole storyline missed the point.
Also, there's a one-panel "all Asians are alike" epic racefail where a supposedly Chinese woman is given the decidedly Japanese name of "Taki Soma."
Bleagh. Can't believe I wasted a half hour of my life reading that.
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Ultimate Spider-Man 15: Silver Sable, writer Brian Michael Bendis, art Mark Brooks and Mark Bagley (comics) ** 1/2
This is actually a combo of two stories. The first (Anuual #1) is the very rare from this series that actually leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat of the X-Men, decides to act on her Spider-man crush, calls up Peter, and they hang out (and make out. A little.) It's a really nice change to see Peter actually get something nice in his life that isn't ripped away by the end of the story (or even by the end of the issue — we'll see how this goes). Even the art reflects the different tone. The palette is noticably brighter and warmer than usual.
I had low expectations for the second story, as its sole reason for existence is apparently to cross-promote the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. However, Silver Sable and co turn out to be pretty interesting, and I am seriously impressed by her outfit re: practicality while still looking cool (you hear that, DC and Marvel? Female comic characters can still look sexy and kick-ass while not wearing something that requires super-glue to stay on!). I also liked the pseudo-picture book interludes.
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (historical fantasy with a side of fairy tales, 782 p.) ****
I think this is the longest novel I've read in a couple of years. It's a real doorstop of a book, the hardcover edition I checked out from the library measuring over 2 inches thick. But trust me, it's worth every one of those 782 pages. Overall, it reads like a combination of the best parts of Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman, set in early 1800s England. The eponymous characters are magicians, the first practical ones seen in England in hundreds of years, following in the footsteps of the twelfth-century Raven King who brought magic to England in the first place.
One of the greatest joys of this book are the extensive footnotes, which relate fairy tales from the book's universe. Fairies here are not of the Disney variety, but rather the sort who appear in old stories, stealing away human babies and leaving changelings in their places. Each of the side stories serves not only to flesh out the world this is taking place in, giving historical context, but also as just plain good stnad-alone stories. As for the main storyline, it's full of mystery and magic, with a wonderful cast of characters and a generous touch of Austen-esque humor.
As a side note, this was on my "to-read" list as just a title and author, and I honestly had no idea that I'd be reading yet another fantasy novel set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. I swear I'll find another genre for my next fictional book.
