12/31/14
I told you all I’d been reading pretty steady lately. This has been some of the reason I have
stalled out a bit in book 4 of Harry Potter.
I received a great deal of books for both my birthday and Christmas so
I’m going to be kneed deep in reading for a while now, in fact next up is the
Brick Bible! It is a retelling of the
Old Testament with LEGO illustrations.
Just glancing through it has made me really excited to actually go back
and read the Bible. And that is a
statement I never thought I’d ever actually make. So without further ado…
WHAT THE CRAP I’VE BEEN READIN’!
- T. Campbell. Erica Henderson, Phil Kahn, & John Waltrip’s Guilded
Age Season 2 (***** out of 5).
I was a
contributor to the Guilded Age Kickstarter seeing as going and reading the
Webcomic is one of my rituals Monday through Friday. I had purchased the first ‘trade paperback’
of Season 1 and have poured through it about a thousand times. The thing is I’d read 90% of the stories in
the ‘Trade’ online, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed and re-read those
tales about ten times in the last two months.
I know the big twist, and LORDS almighty is it a fantastically AMAZING
twist that hits in this Season of the ongoing story, but it hasn’t changed the
fact that even with subsequent reading I’m amazed at how wonderful the twist
is. It is a perfect addition to a story
that seems on the surface to just be a crazy sword and sorcery tale. It elevates it into a social commentary, an adventure
story, a conspiracy tale, a redemption saga, and its own ‘multiverse’ that
continues to spin out peripheral characters that I both like and care
about. Suffice to say Guilded Age is
wonderful, and you all should be reading it EVERY F’Ning DAY!
- Chris A. Jackson’s Pirate’s Promise (**** out of 5).
I thoroughly enjoyed the first of Jackson’s
Pathfinder pirate Tales, Pirate’s Honor.
It is something with a bit of novelty, but also something so different
and fun that it held my attention with its likable enough characters so I was
excited when I saw that the next book in my subscription was a sequel. Captain Torious Vin and his crew of the good
ship Stargazer are enough of an oddball lot that I was intrigued to see what
happens next. The tale was one of
intrigue, betrayal, and loss. Really the
book is going in two directions at once with Vin’s navigator and Lunar Naga
lover, Celeste, going to the Observatory in the desert to give her an
opportunity to gaze at the stars in a new light. Everything at the Observatory is not what it
seems though. There are mad cultists,
Gnolls, and a ‘Keeper’ with a very creepy agenda. While this is unfolding Captain Vin is
enlisted by the duplicitous ‘ally’ Vreva to take on a new, extremely dangerous
mission. It turns out Vreva isn’t just a
concubine for Slavers of Okeno, but actually an abolitionist spy. When her handler is captured, tortured, and
killed she is in need of someone she can trust, and she turns to Captain
Vin. Of course this goes completely
sideways. In the first book Vreva wasn’t
necessarily the antagonist, but she was a driving force in the conflict, and in
many ways a character you loved to hate.
Here she is given a backstory, motivation, and becomes a very layered
and interesting character. This is so
well done that unfortunately it takes away from Celeste as a character, because
she just comes off sort of paper thin and is completely obscured by Vreva’s
arc. In the process though seeing her lose
everything she holds dear and be broken becomes a pretty nasty experience for
the reader. She goes, in my opinion,
from secondary character to the main character and the driving factor in the
book. Therein lies my biggest complaints
with the book overall. If there is such
an undying love between Vreva and the Inquisitor that developed then how things
play out from the reveal to the climax don’t work for me. I just found it inconsistent. It is the same thing with Grogul’s, Captain
Vin’s bosun, ‘death’. If you couple that
with how Captain Vin avoids any of the horrific torture and potential death
during his incarceration it makes the dread Slavers seem beyond
incompetent. These are really the only
issues I had with the book, as you can tell with the stars I gave it. I will say one of the things that Mr. Jackson
has done in both novels that makes me really enjoy the crew of the Stargazer is
that folks come and go as well as crew die, well with the exception of Grogul
apparently. There is a palpable air of
danger in these tales and that is really cool.
Overall, it is a fun fantasy read, with a decidedly pirate bend. If you enjoy that sort of thing, and let’s be
honest if you read my blog you most likely do, give it a read!
- Chris Gethard’s A Bad Idea I’m About To Do (INFINITE *’s out
of 5).
I am a Chris Gethard guy. From the ideal of ‘Lose Well’, to the
brilliant TCGS on YOUTube, to reading his tweets, to ‘friending’ him on ‘Teh
Fazebookz’ I am all about ‘Big Poppa Geth’.
I had been reticent to buy and read his book as I was afraid it would
lessen my enjoyment of the man’s comedy and brilliance. I received the book for my birthday and
literally absorbed it three readings. It
is beyond amazing. It has vaulted into
my Top Ten Books of ALL TIME(s). It is
simply Gethard telling tales of his life, which is crazy enough, coupled with
his bouts with both his anxiety and bi-polar disorder. If you are unfamiliar with Chris Gethard and
his brand of comedy then stop reading, go to YOUTube, and watch at least one
episode of TCGS (The Chris Gethard Show).
I’ll wait. Ok, what did you
think? I KNOW RIGHT! It is just this insane mix of sketch comedy,
interviews, call-in-show, therapy, music acts, and brilliance. It isn’t for everyone, and you know what I’m
ok with that, because it speaks to me.
Gethard doesn’t hide his struggles, his inner geek, his intelligence,
his ignorance, or his desire to just entertain.
His book is no different. It is
laugh out loud hilarious at times; it is brutally honest at times, and
unrelentingly sad in others. It is the
open wound of someone who just wants you to like them, but isn’t afraid for you
to hate them. I admire Chris Gethard
because he does what he loves without apology and he wants you to come along
for the ride, and that is amazing. So if
you are looking for a book that will make you think, make you feel, and make
you laugh then go find this book and read it immediately, because it is simply
fantastic.
- Beau Phillips’ I Killed Pink Floyd’s Pig (*** ½ out of
5).
This one is interesting just because
it is a collection of tales from Mr. Phillips’ time in radio in Seattle and at
VH1. It certainly explores the
debauchery and insanity of the late 70’s through the early 90’s Rock
scene. There aren’t a lot of punches
pulled when it comes to making sure you as the reader understand that these
folks lived like there was no tomorrow.
It is an entertaining read because of that, but it is also a bit
monotonous at the same time due to the same reasons. I also felt that the author made a concerted
effort to attempt and paint himself in the best light as often as he
could. In a lot of ways I thought this
really detracted from the stories he was relaying. That being said there are four or five tales
that really change the dynamic of the book.
One is about the generosity of Paul McCartney to a dying girl. To know what the former Beatle would do for
this young woman and her family in her final months simply because he could and
it was the right thing to do is really quite touching. If you add into that the idea that his one
condition was that it was kept out of the public eye makes you wonder just how
often he was doing this sort of philanthropist moonlighting. In a world where celebrities spend a lot of
time telling you about all the ‘good’ things they do it is really refreshing to
read a tale where that was the very last thing on the person’s mind. The other stand out tale has to do with Pete
Townshend and Roger Daltrey. It is no
secret that the dynamic duo of The Who, who have a history of fighting like
cats and dogs. This particular tale
dealt with the author managing to secure interview time with the both of them
during a tour right after drummer Keith Moon had died and tensions were
high. Daltrey is late and the author and
Townshend end up having a brutally honest and very heartfelt discussion about
Moon, Townshend’s own drinking problems, and about how hard it is to lose
someone you think of as a brother. This
makes Daltrey’s petulant behavior all the more disgusting when he does arrive,
and the eventual ‘revenge’ by Townshend during the concert that night all the
more funny and fantastic. If you take
these two tales and add them to the really crappy tale about Heart being in
studio and of course the Pink Floyd story that the title of the book comes from
and you have a book of stories with some great gems in it for any Rock
fan.
I also plowed through the 2nd & 3rd
IDW D&D Trade Paperbacks that I got Cassandra for Christmas.
Yes, they are still wonderful, and yes you
should seek out every comic that John Rogers has penned and bask in his
brilliance. I’m also reading a book on
Superhero Law, and staring Simon Pegg’s book as well. It is a good time to be a voracious reader.
Remember kids that whenever you are making your way from your cold ass car to the place that pays you every two weeks and someone screams at the top of their lungs from the SuperAmerica across the way, "DO YOU THINK THIS IS MUTHERF*&KING GAME?!" that it is going to be a good day...
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