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akujunkanPlease find enclosed the
1) Wormwood Gentleman Corpse - Ben Templesmith
What a steaming turdpile of rank craptitude this graphic novel is. Ben Templesmith may be a brilliant artist (see below), but he couldn't write his way out of a 1st Grade storytelling contest. He tries for edgy and ends up with flatter-than-day-old-Budweiser. He tries for humorous and ends up falling rather short of the genius of Pauly Shore. It's so bad, in fact, that I'm going to spoil it for you right now, just so you're never tempted to read it: Wormwood is a maggot detective who lives inside the eye socket of a corpse (so edgy!). While hanging out at a strip club run by skull-faced liliths (so humorous!) he learns that a demon has invaded the world by inserting his sperm into ED medication (so edgy and humorous! ::stabbity::); the spermlets gestate in the female partner before being born inhumorous scenes where they rip the woman apart in front of her astonished partner (this is some fucking humorous, edgy stuff, right?) Unless, that is, the ED-droppin' dude is so lame he's into being dominated, at which point they gestate in him and burst forth before tentacle-deathing the spunky dominatrix! (Holy crap--can you get much more edgily humorous than this!?) A brief interlude in which stock!Asian gangsters (we're informed they're Japanese, but really, they all look the same in edgy stock!Asian villian-land) are devoured by the evil overlord. But do not fear, gentle reader! Wormwood's here to save the day by dropping the ED pills himself and allowing the spermlets to tear his corpse-host apart. (So. Freakin'. Edgy. I don't know how I can stand this stuff!) Demon Evil Overlord shows up and is too powerful for Wormwood to defeat...but get this--Wormwood totally went to school with Demon Evil Overlord's younger brother! So Demon Evil Overlord leaves without hurting a fly!! Bwahahaha!!! It's so edgy and humorous that I can't decide which it's more of!!! And if you're eyes aren't bleeding yet, allow me to mention here that I haven't even included Wormwood's handmade robot sidekick...who spends the entire book lamenting the fact that woez! Wormwood didn't give him a robotic penis. For serious. Go read Dan Brown instead.
2) Fell - Warren Ellis
Thank god we have Warren Ellis, who knows how to write, which means Ben Templesmith has no choice but to shut up and do what he's actually good at--illustrate. Fell is an excellent book with a lot of potiential, about a go-getter cop who's sent over to the bad side of a city and still cares enough to try and make things better for its lost souls. It's half X-files, half NYPD Blue, and it works. The stories are stand-alone one-offs by design, but Ellis still does an excellent job of creating a sense of continuity and depth to these characters. I was disappointed to find that the TPB didn't include any of the commentary or behind-the-scenes goodies of the individual issues, but otherwise I have nothing but good things to say about this series.
3) Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
I first picked up this book at about the age of 12, far before I was able to understand what was going on. I was happy to discover it holds up well over a decade and several rereads later. As with each rereading, I'm always a little disappointed that we don't get more Aziraphale and Crowley action in the text itself, but hey, that's what Internet fandom is for, right? That said, this is perhaps my favorite book about the End Times.
4) Breathe, You are Alive - Thich Nhat Hanh
This tiny book contains a translation of The Sutra On The Full Awareness Of Breathing, along with commentaries by Hanh. I found it much more focused and less lovey-dovey crystal power and healing vibes New Age tone of some of his other books. It's primarily of interest for its translation of the sutra, which isn't widely known in either Mahayana Buddhist canon or Western Buddhism on the whole; the rest is pretty standard beginner's Buddhism. Still, it is an interesting book for the amount of time readers have to put into it.
5) A Great And Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
This book was built around an incredibly cool concept: a Regency-era gothic novel, but with the addition of modern feminism and maybe even some veiled Goddess religion. Unfortunately, it just doesn't sit entirely right with me, perhaps because Bray, although a talented author, imbues her characters with distinctly 21st century voices. That isn't to say that their motivations and dissatisfactions are unlikely; only that they aren't expressed in a manner in keeping with the time period. That said, Bray does spin a good yarn with many suspenceful moments and the book is worth reading for anyone with an interest in gothic novels, Goddess faith, or Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart novels.
SBS: At an all-time high of 151. These numbers will surely go down once I am a poor graduate school student.
That will be all.
1) Wormwood Gentleman Corpse - Ben Templesmith
What a steaming turdpile of rank craptitude this graphic novel is. Ben Templesmith may be a brilliant artist (see below), but he couldn't write his way out of a 1st Grade storytelling contest. He tries for edgy and ends up with flatter-than-day-old-Budweiser. He tries for humorous and ends up falling rather short of the genius of Pauly Shore. It's so bad, in fact, that I'm going to spoil it for you right now, just so you're never tempted to read it: Wormwood is a maggot detective who lives inside the eye socket of a corpse (so edgy!). While hanging out at a strip club run by skull-faced liliths (so humorous!) he learns that a demon has invaded the world by inserting his sperm into ED medication (so edgy and humorous! ::stabbity::); the spermlets gestate in the female partner before being born in
2) Fell - Warren Ellis
Thank god we have Warren Ellis, who knows how to write, which means Ben Templesmith has no choice but to shut up and do what he's actually good at--illustrate. Fell is an excellent book with a lot of potiential, about a go-getter cop who's sent over to the bad side of a city and still cares enough to try and make things better for its lost souls. It's half X-files, half NYPD Blue, and it works. The stories are stand-alone one-offs by design, but Ellis still does an excellent job of creating a sense of continuity and depth to these characters. I was disappointed to find that the TPB didn't include any of the commentary or behind-the-scenes goodies of the individual issues, but otherwise I have nothing but good things to say about this series.
3) Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
I first picked up this book at about the age of 12, far before I was able to understand what was going on. I was happy to discover it holds up well over a decade and several rereads later. As with each rereading, I'm always a little disappointed that we don't get more Aziraphale and Crowley action in the text itself, but hey, that's what Internet fandom is for, right? That said, this is perhaps my favorite book about the End Times.
4) Breathe, You are Alive - Thich Nhat Hanh
This tiny book contains a translation of The Sutra On The Full Awareness Of Breathing, along with commentaries by Hanh. I found it much more focused and less lovey-dovey crystal power and healing vibes New Age tone of some of his other books. It's primarily of interest for its translation of the sutra, which isn't widely known in either Mahayana Buddhist canon or Western Buddhism on the whole; the rest is pretty standard beginner's Buddhism. Still, it is an interesting book for the amount of time readers have to put into it.
5) A Great And Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
This book was built around an incredibly cool concept: a Regency-era gothic novel, but with the addition of modern feminism and maybe even some veiled Goddess religion. Unfortunately, it just doesn't sit entirely right with me, perhaps because Bray, although a talented author, imbues her characters with distinctly 21st century voices. That isn't to say that their motivations and dissatisfactions are unlikely; only that they aren't expressed in a manner in keeping with the time period. That said, Bray does spin a good yarn with many suspenceful moments and the book is worth reading for anyone with an interest in gothic novels, Goddess faith, or Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart novels.
SBS: At an all-time high of 151. These numbers will surely go down once I am a poor graduate school student.
That will be all.
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on 2007-08-16 07:43 am (UTC)BTW though, it's Warren Ellis that writes FELL, not Garth ENNIS.
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on 2007-08-18 03:15 am (UTC)And thanks for bringing the WE/GE screw-up to my attention. My brain must have been somewhere else when I typed that.