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Month: October 2014

Titus Alone: Volume 3 of the Gormenghast Trilogy

I am ready to be done with Titus and Gormenghast, the ride was fun but it went on for just a bit to long. I will have fond memories of the Gormenghast Trilogy but will probably never listen to or read them again.

Titus Alone had a lot to like but I never got into it, I was ready for it to be over almost as soon as it began.

Publisher’s Summary

In Volume 3 of the classic Gormenghast Trilogy, a doomed lord, an emergent hero, and an array of bizarre creatures haunt the world of Gormenghast Castle. This trilogy, along with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, reigns as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of everything is the 77th Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom.

In this third volume, Titus turns against the iron discipline of Gormenghast’s ritual and sets forth on an uncertain quest – to find himself. His pilgrimage leads to encounters with mysteriously omnipotent, ruthless police, and a battle to the death with Veil, a gaunt ogre with a body like whips and a face that moves "e;like the shiftings of the gray slime of the pit"e;. Titus, in his quest for independence from his legacy, despite the fantastical trappings of his odyssey, captures successfully the humanistic conception of contemporary man.

©1967, 1968 Mervyn Peake; (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks

I rate Titus Alone a 6 out of 10, if you have read the first 2 books you have to read this one.

AudioBooksFiction

Spell or High Water: Magic 2.0

Spell or High Water is the second book in Scott Meyer’s Magic 2.0 series. I absolutely loved Off to Be the Wizard and was delighted to discover that there was a second book available.

Scott’s humor mixed with Luke Daniels’ delivery on the audiobook is a winner.

I hope there are many more of these books to come.

From the publisher:

The adventures of an American hacker in Medieval England continue as Martin Banks takes his next step on the journey toward mastering his reality-altering powers and fulfilling his destiny.

A month has passed since Martin helped to defeat the evil programmer Jimmy, and things couldn’t be going better. Except for his love life, that is. Feeling distant and lost, Gwen has journeyed to Atlantis, a tolerant and benevolent kingdom governed by the Sorceresses, and a place known to be a safe haven to all female time-travelers.

Thankfully, Martin and Philip are invited to a summit in Atlantis for all of the leaders of the time-traveler colonies, and now Martin thinks this will be a chance to try again with Gwen. Of course, this is Martin Banks we’re talking about, so murder, mystery, and high intrigue all get in the way of a guy who just wants one more shot to get the girl.

The follow-up to the hilarious Off to Be the Wizard, Scott Meyer’s Spell or High Water proves that no matter what powers you have over time and space, you can’t control rotten luck.

©2014 Scott Meyer (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

I rate Spell or High Water a 9 out of 10 and recommend you get to reading Off to Be the Wizard right now.

AudioBooksFiction

Y: The Last Man by Vertigo Comics

Y: The Last Man is the story of Yorick, the last living man on earth. Something has wiped out all of the males on earth, except Yorick and his pet monkey. The following years are a roller coaster ride that forces Yorick to grow up, face reality, be a man, and stay a kid at heart.

Note: this comic is intended for a mature audience, it contains nudity, sex, violence, and profanity.

The story is available as a series of 60 comic books that are also available in collected editions and books.

I have been reading more comic books lately, just taking my time and reading a bit here and there. At DragonCon this year during the panel Marvel NOW! with Chris Brennaman, Peter David, Mark Bagley, and Kelly Sue DeConnick, they were asked about what comics they were reading now and what they would recommend. The 2 comics I heard were "Atlantis" and "Y: The Last Man". As soon as I got home I started collecting them.

I really enjoyed the story, the humor, the pacing, and the art. It was a very solid read full of a lot of things to think about. And like the protagonist, Yorick, there are no answers here, not a lot of deep thought, that is left up to the reader.

If you are looking to read a good apocalyptic comic with a sense of humor and a lot of monkey feces then this is the book for you.

From Vertigo Comics:

THE LAST MAN, winner of three Eisner Awards and one of the most critically acclaimed, best-selling comic books series of the last decade, is that rare example of a page-turner that is at once humorous, socially relevant and endlessly surprising. Written by Brian K. Vaughan (Lost, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, EX MACHINA) and with art by Pia Guerra, this is the saga of Yorick Brown—the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. Accompanied by a mysterious government agent, a brilliant young geneticist and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick travels the world in search of his lost love and the answer to why he’s the last man on earth.

I rate Y: The Last Man a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who loves comic books.

BooksFiction

Joe Ledger: The Missing Files by Jonathan Maberry

The Missing Files is considered the third-and-a-half book in Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series of novels. It is a collection of short stories that take place in the spaces between the previous books.

There are only 5 stories here so it is a very short listen, only 4 hours and 5 minutes long, and for me it felt even shorter than that. I listened to the whole thing in one day of working around the house and running errands.

But they are 5 good stories that fill in some gaps like the origin of Ghost the dog and the hunting down of the bad guy that got away at the end of The Dragon Factory.

From the publisher:

In this collection of five short stories, Jonathan Maberry fills in the blanks in his action-thriller Joe Ledger novels.

Countdown
In this prequel to Patient Zero, meet Joe Ledger, Baltimore PD, attached to a Homeland Security task force … who’s about to get a serious promotion.

Zero Tolerance
“Zero Tolerance” picks up a few weeks after the close of Patient Zero. Dropping back into the world of former Baltimore cop Joe Ledger, the Department of Military Sciences, and flesh-eating zombies, fans of the series will finally get closure on a few loose ends.

Deep, Dark
Before former Baltimore cop Joe Ledger goes up against competing geneticists looking to continue the master-race program in The Dragon Factory, he must battle another foe using human test subjects for his sinister plans.

Material Witness
This short thriller takes Joe Ledger into the mysterious, troubled town of Pine Deep, Pennsylvania, the setting for Maberry’s chilling Pine Deep Trilogy. In Pine Deep, nothing is what it seems.

Dog Days
Joe Ledger returns in this tale that follows the tragic conclusion of The Dragon Factory. In the wake of a devastating personal loss, Joe Ledger and his new canine partner, Ghost, go hunting for the world’s deadliest assassin.

© Countdown 2008 by Jonathan Maberry. Zero Tolerance 2010 by Jonathan Maberry. Deep, Dark 2009 by Jonathan Maberry. Material Witness 2011 by Jonathan Maberry. Dog Days 2011 by Jonathan Maberry. (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I rate The Missing Files a 7 out of 10, a must for Joe Ledger fans but not really necessary.

AudioBooksFiction