Mount TBR 2019 discussion

Into the fray for 2019, there's books to read!

Quirkyreader wrote: "I have my crampons ready to go. Let’s see who reaches the top first.🐸"

*snort* Like there's any doubt about this? Unless I stick to my game plan, of course. Which I won't.

Welcome back! Good luck with another Mars voyage!

Thanks, Bev. Going to clear another stack. Maybe this is the year I buy no new books? Naaaah.

Wishing you a fast climb!

Have fun this year!

Jadetyger wrote: "Have fun this year!"

Jessika wrote: "Wishing you a fast climb!"

Thanks much! I'm hoping it goes relatively quickly, though I expect I'll start off with the usual sprint and slow down by the middle of the year.

Here's to swift ascents for us all!

Steven wrote: "Thanks, Bev. Going to clear another stack. Maybe this is the year I buy no new books? Naaaah."


LOL. I know that if I said "no new books" then I would immediately break that promise.

Good luck lowering your TBR!

Darci wrote: "Good luck lowering your TBR!"

Thanks...going to be a trick, though, given that I'm a Black Cat Mystery subscriber!

Anyway, may the reading pace be ever in your favour!

#1 - Justice League of America, Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga by Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer, Alex Ross, and others

I added this to the permanent collection mainly because of its connection to the Legion of Super-Heroes (I'm a lifelong fan), although, frankly, it's a very shiny conglomeration of nothing much in terms of story. In the main story, the Justice Society and the Justice League end up working together to solve a mystery that the Legion is involved in (and behind.) Superman is certain that they're trying to bring someone back to life as they did with Lightning Lad, an effort sure to cost someone their life.

It's not that at all, as it turns out, and the story sees no-one killed (comics reasons) and Wally West and his family rescued from the Speed Force, where they were trapped at the end of one of Wally's series. Honestly, when it comes to being yanked out of the world and returned, or killed and resurrected, Wally's pretty much a yo-yo (I don't think the recent brutal murder will stick, either.)

The rest of the book is made up of a Roy Harper/Vixen story involving being trapped under the wreckage of the Watergate Hotel, and two longish reflections on the history and future of the Justice League.

Not completely terrible, but absolutely inessential stuff.

#2 - Gallifrey: Weapon of Choice by Alan Barnes

President Romanadvortrelundar of Gallifrey is under pressure as she tries to negotiate a temporal treaty, and as if her day wasn't complicated enough...there's a dire threat from the direction of Gryben, the planet that Gallifrey uses as a dumping ground for refugees, scoundrtels, and assorted would-be time travelers. The solution: bring in Leela of the Sevateem, former companion to the Doctor, the robot dog K9 (one of them , anyway), and Time Lord Commander Torvald to track down and eliminate the threat.

Of course, when the initial source of information is a drunk scoundrel....

A fairly basic story that presages further stories, but serviceable. It really depends whether or not the petty politics of Gallifrey interest you at all.

#3 - Star Trek: New Visions (Eaglemoss edition), Volume 2 by John Byrne

This is slightly annoying as, unlike the main line of Eaglemoss collections of Star Trek comics, this is only listed on Goodreads in its component parts (specifically, in this case, Star Trek: New Visions, Volume 3 and Star Trek: New Visions, Volume 4 -- though this compilation covers only #7-#11 of the original (which tends to be stories of various lengths.)

The New Visions series is a bit of an odd duck, in that it's using the Fumetti approach (graphic narrative using modified photos) via the Fotonovel approach (i.e., like The Trouble With Tribbles) where the story was compiled from stills and film frames from the episodes. Byrne has taken the original frames from various episodes of the series and used photomanipulation and CGI (sometimes rather poor, sometimes very good) to create entirely new stories.

It's a fun approach, if a little odd to read at times. The stories themselves range from pretty good to rather bad, and sometimes rely on recapping rather a lot of an original episode. It does make for an intriguing approach to new Original Series episodes, however, one far from the usual approach of the tie-in novel.

#4 - Punisher Noir by Frank Tieri, et al

This needed to be a bit longer, unfortunately. The premise: in 1935 New York City, someone is killing Dutch Schultz's people, going through the Jewish mob like a scythe. The shadowy vigilante is dubbed "The Punisher," after the protagonist of a radio show, and many people don't believe he actually exists -- the cops, for their part, don't really care.

It's good solid pulp vengeance stuff, with some notable twists, although it does go off into Garth Ennis-style silliness whenever the Russian shows up.

#5 - Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke's Drift by Mike Snook

As it turns out, this is the second book of a duology of sorts -- the epilogue to this one is a summing up of what went wrong at Isandlwana (the battle where the British lost badly to the Zulu impi), the story of which is told in How Can Man Die Better : The Secrets of Isandlwana Revealed, while reports written about both battles are included in the appendices.

I've lonbg been a fan of the film Zulu, and was curious about the Zulu War and Rorke's Drift in particular, so this particular book was a worthy purchase (and I've bought the first boo as well.) Mike Snook is a former Lieutenant-Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot, and thus had excellent access to a trove of research materials. A literate writer and sincere military historian, he applies his military experience to both recounting the Defence of Rorke's Drift, and analyzing the event. He also follows many of those involved through to the end of their lives, which gives them a little more depth as people. As well as that, he dispels a number of myths, and rather indicates that following the actual action might have made the film even better -- it's an astonishing story.

Anyone reading this might, though, be wise to skip the travel guide section at the very end, unless planning to actually visit the various sites and museums in South Africa itself.

#6 - Stack the Cats by Susie Ghahremani

Picked up last year from a Humble Bundle that was generating good felines when I saw it.

This is a super-cute and rather silly numbers primer, covering from one to ten (a good sized clowder there) with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Always remember, if you have three cats -- stack them.

#7 - US Submarines 1941–45 by Jim Christley

An Osprey historical reference, part of their New Vanguard series covering the modern machineries of war. Generally, I like their books, but this one was a bear to get through, with some parts needing a second and third reading, partly because there's little flow to any of it, and some rather large technical dumps that blur into a mush of identification numbers. There's also surprisingly little by way of mission data.

On the positive side, the stultifying text is accompanied by the usual gorgeous illustrations. The open view of a Balao-class vessel did more to give me an idea of what went where than the labored text *or* photos did (the photos vary between pretty rough and more or less okay.)

I'm just about to backtrack to US Submarines 1900-35, and I'm hoping this one is a better read.

#8 - The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone

The history of Barbie, from her novelty doll for men beginnings to her near present-day status (the book was written in 2010, so not quite up to date.)

It's a breezy account in some respects, though definitely not pretending to objectivity -- Stone gives the reader a good look at the responses of girls and women (and the occasional male) to Barbie over the years, which is interesting to me.

#9 - Justice League: Breakdowns by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, convicted scumbag Gerard Jones, and various artists.

Read in single issues, given that the trade was canceled due to Gerard Jones' arrest and conviction.

Incredibly variable in terms of art, while the writing describes a downward arc. This is the burned out end of the bwah-ha-haaa era, and the title(s) would wander in the wilderness until Mark Waid and Grant Morrison rebooted things.

#10 - Postal, Vol. 1 by Bryan Hill, Matt Hawkins, Isaac Goodheart, etc.

The town of Eden, Wyoming is a quiet, unassuming little place, well out of the way, off the map. The Mayor's son, Mark, who's on the Autism Spectrum, is the town's postmaster and mailman...and, inadvertently, their best detective, which is a little alarming to the people of Eden, Wyoming, as they're all criminals trying to live a quiet life out of sight.

There's trouble on the horizon for Eden, though, and the Mayor will have her hands full dealing with it -- her estranged husband is back, having survived her attempt to kill him years ago, and he's out to turn Mark into another version of him. There's also the issue of the FBI agent who's staking the place out....

As long as you accept the premise, it's an interesting story, and Mark makes an interesting viewpoint character. The art is serviceable, which is okay for a rather bleak story like this one.

#11 - Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, Volume 01 by Saiko Takaki

Nearly twelve millennia in the future, the Earth has become a magnificent, twisted planet, littered with the descendants of the humans who survived wars, plagues, and mutations. Ruling over everything in as lackadaisical way as possible are the Nobility -- louche vampires whose existence is one of indolence salted by occasional terror.

Causing *them* occasional terror is the job handled by a small cadre of wandering vampire hunters. D, as he styles himself, seems to be one of the youngest, seeming to be a late teenager, tall and rather pretty. His looks belie the truth, though -- D is a Dhampir, a vampire-human hybrid. Not only that, some kind of demonic entity has taken residence in his left hand.

This manga adapts Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuchi Kikuchi; I have a number of the novels in my collection, but have yet to actually begin reading them (I should probably start.) It's a fast-paced manga, with decent art and writing from a (at the time) fairly inexperienced mangaka, though a number of annoying manga tropes are in evidence.

I'm surprised. I'm not pulling out ahead the way I did the last couple of years; a bit too scattered right now.

#12 - The Flash by Mark Waid: Book Three by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, and various

Leapfrogging story arcs take us through an overarching mystery as to who's behind Wally West's woes *this* time, but the majority of the book is actually about relationships, and Wally's continued growth into an adult with responsibilities -- and he gets saddled with a major one when Iris West returns from the 30th Century, bringing her grandson Bart with her -- the extremely ADHD speedster who'll come to be called Impulse.

It's mostly readable stuff, though not great, occasionally interrupted by the worst of the 1990s (Razer, Argus, the hairstyles) and unfortunately not really blessed with Mike Wieringo's then rather blocky artwork.

#13 - Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2 by Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, George Pérez, Bob Layton, Simon Furman, Jim Shooter, Jim Mooney, Mike Vosburg, Dave Cockrum, Michael Golden, Carmine Infantino, Mike Gustovich

The second and final Masterworks volume for the first Ms. Marvel series, and it's a case of a lot of work being spent on the undeserving -- Chris Claremont's writing fails repeatedly to salvage any aspect of the book, leading to its cancelation with #23, the final two issues being completed and burned off in Marvel Super-Heroes years later (complete with a "whatever happened to" page.)

The real low point, though, is Avengers #200, which is the infamous "son of Immortus magically rapes Ms. Marvel, getting her pregnant with himself." Claremont (who didn't write the Avengers issue) tried to reset things in Avengers Annual #10, but did so on the heels of Rogue attacking Carol and permanently stealing her powers and memories. The last story in the volume sees Carol, memories restored and with a different powerset as Binary, finding out about Captain Marvel's death from cancer, and revealing she has no emotional connection to anything, despite the memories.

The multiple art teams involved don't help, either -- the main series had such variable artwork that it's quite jarring to read the stories.

Great presentation, though!

#14 - The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth

I'm docking this book a bit entirely because of the narrator -- Don Hagen isn't a very good choice for Forsyth's books, I'm afraid, aside from his mispronunciation of "Norwich." The text is delightfully English, and I shall be seeking out the English audiobook for that reason.

A casual book for lovers of language, I'm sure, but well worth the time.

#15 - Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 7 by Stan Lee, John Romita, Jim Mooney, Larry Leiber, etc

Slowly coming towards the end of Stan Lee's time writing the webslinger, so this collection is a bit of a walking in place thing...still kind of a fun read, plus it includes two of the Spectacular Spider-Man magazine issues (rather awkwardly placed in terms of the continuity) and introduces Peter's late parents and a mystery around his father (and reveals that Ben and May were always approximately 900 years old.)

#16 - Star Trek: TNG: The Space Between by David Tischman and Casey Maloney

IDW's first foray into the world of Star Trek comics isn't great, but it's passable. The conceit is that the stories take place between episodes through the various seasons, and are ostensibly standalones. The final story, however, ties it all together and hooks back to the "Conspiracy" episode of the first season, with an awkward bit of Section 31 and X-Files tossed in. On the whole, it really doesn't work, especially if you start thinking about it. The artwork is so-so.

#17 - Doctor Who: I Am The Master by Geoffrey Beevers

Written and read by Geoffrey Beevers, who has played the Master onscreen and in audio. Very much in the Anthony Ainley vein of sardonic snark. This prose story is darkly comic as the Master narrates how he took over and destroyed an entirely too happy planet. Beevers actually manages to make the Master both funny and deeply scary.

#18 - The Voice of the Poet: Richard Wilbur

Excellent poetry from Wilbur, who leans to shorter pieces with definitive structures and rhyme schemes. Includes a booklet with the poems and and introduction, which makes it easy to avoid drifting off into deep thought until the readings are done.

Curiously, this once again revives my observation that many poets seem maladroit when reading their own work -- Wilbur reads with a flat affect throughout, and doesn't use any rhythm inherent in the poems.

#19 - These Are The Voyages: TOS Season Two by Marc Cushman, et al

Marc Cushman's exhaustive reference to season two of the original Star Trek television series not only covers the ins and outs of production (including numerous issues with Gene Roddenberry) and the failed backdoor pilot that closed the season, but the ratings and reactions, and, most important of all at this point, the rapidly growing fandom.

Great fun to read while rewaching the series.

#20 - Blade of the Immortal, Volume 1: Blood of a Thousand by Hiroaki Samura

An unusual Samurai epic. Mnji is an immortal assassin born into a Samurai family, but he's come to see the error of his ways -- being utilized by evil men to destroy good men. When his traumatized sister (whose husband he killed) is murdered by a Ronin gang, he decides he needs to repent -- by killing a thousand evil men. Enter Rin, a sixteen year old whose family was a victim of that same gang, leaving her a vengeful orphan.

It's an oddball series, unfortunately lacking the complexity of its Japanese version -- the dialogue is all translated as a rather slangy contemporary dialect, and the rearranging of the pages leads to a cluttered feeling. Still, there's some magnificent setpieces, as well as extremely wonky humour.

#21 - The Defence of Duffer's Drift: and The Battle of Booby's Bluffs by Major Single List by Ernest Dunlop Swinton

This edition also includes Battle of Booby's Bluffs by "Major Single List", doing much the same as Swinton, although at greater length in a post-World War One context.

In a nutshell, both volumes are written from the point of view of a middling and not too bright Army officer -- British in the first, American in the second -- who's assigned a small defense operation. This occurs as a dream, by the way. There are dreams within the dream, and in each sub-dream the officer muffs the mission badly, In the next dream he learns from his errors, but makes other mistakes. Eventually, he gets it right.

Both books have been used as part of the military tutoring regimen over the years, and are still highly regarded. The writing is fairly breezy and lightweight, but the information as to tactics and planning is still valid today.

If you've ever seen the film Live. Die. Repeat.: Edge Of Tomorrow, this is basically where that story came from (via All You Need Is Kill.)

#22 - Cops and Robbers: The Story of the British Police Car by Ant Anstead

Former copper turned celebrity (of Ant and Dec fame) brings his passion for the British police car to the world at large, and waxes, if not elegant, at length on the subject, though it does start to get a bit boring after a bit as he keeps circling back to points he's already been over. Wraps up with a look at film and television examples. I listened to the audiobook version.

#23 - Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 8 by Stan Lee, John Romita, Ross Andru, et al

I can pretty much toss this off with "more of the same," given that at this point Stan Lee seemed to be pretty much just coasting, and John Romita was delivering stories with four huge panels per page. There's some attempts at eloquence in race relations and student relations, but it's not enthralling. Ross Andru provides a fill-in story with terrible art, and Lee delivers a glaring error in the same story (one might say many things about Mary-Jane Watson; "raven-tressed" is not one of them.)

#24 - Record of Grancrest War, Vol. 1 by Yotsuba Makoto, Riyuu, from light novels by Mizuno Ryo

The first tankobon of a manga series based on a light novel series. It's pretty bog-standard Eurocentric fantasy, set in an alternate universe, and it follows the shenanigans of a young and slightly renegade mage who is saved by circumstance from having to contract with a particularly sleazy noble -- she instead signs on with a young and naive Squire who wants nothing more than to protect his birth village. Her plan: beef him up until he can take out the Viscount that rules over the land where that village sits.

Oh, and she also wants to unite everybody via the Grancrest of the title, an anti-Chaos, anti-Demon magickal sigil that was created during a demonic incursion, and has been inaccessible since.

Comes equipped with a Cait Sith Prince (fulfilling the cat requirements), huge swords, panty shots, and boob-groping, because, well, Japan.

Utterly lightweight, but a pleasant read.

#25 - Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Vol. 1 by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, et al

Currently the subjects of a DC Universe TV series that mostly uses the original characters, albeit with storylines adapted from later iterations.

Essentially DC's weird outcast superhero characters of the 1960s -- mind you, they had a lot of those -- with crude cyborg Cliff Steele, actress Rita Farr (who can manipulate her body shape, though she usually just grows big or gets really small), pilot Larry Trainor, who shares a body with the Negative Man, and the mysterious Chief, Niles Caulder.

This volume compiles the first ten or so issues of their adventures. It's entertaining stuff, often quite good (and sometimes quite silly.)

#26 - Justice League of America: The Silver Age Vol. 4 by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, et al

More adventures featuring the often goofy silver age Justice League. Fox is up to his usual with the absurd stories and even more absurd villains, but Mike Sekowsky's artwork was getting shabbier by the issue.

#27 - Superman: The Golden Age, Vol. 3 by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring, et al

The art restoration in this volumes is extremely variable, as not much additional works seems to have been done since the material was original restored for the various Archives volumes.

Still, it's entertaining and a little educational to read these stories, all of which came out long before I was born (I'm a product of the Silver Age, I am.) Superman was still inconsistent in terms of his actual powers, still liked to listen at windows and hide under cars, and he didn't mind having an indirect bodycount -- he repeatedly watches villains come to a messy end, and his usual comment is something affably goofy. In one instance he abandons a crook atop an airplane several thousand feet up. Happily, Lois starts to get some character definition here, so you get to see the slow development of the powerful reporter she'd eventually be.

The artwork is a bit variable, with Joe Shuster having mostly left the various comics by this point, with Wayne Boring and others stepping in, though not quite yet starting to redefine the look of the characters and the comics.

#28 - Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey

The second book in the Expanse space opera series. This one continues the protomolecule story, as Venus is transformed, and various factions attempt to develop and control the protomolecule for use as a weapon...an effort that goes horribly wrong, all but destroying Ganymede and triggering a system-wide war.

This book introduces the hilariously profane Krisjen Avasarala, UN Undersecretary, and follows her from Earth to deep in the solar system as things unravel. It's an intense, but compelling read.

Quirkyreader wrote: "So far you are in the lead🐸."

You know, I don't understand that. Even with the Mount Virtual additions, I'm still running well behind my pace last year -- and it won't get better for a while as I'm moving apartments soon.

I guess we're a little slower right now!

#29 - Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey

Book 3 of the Expanse space opera series. This entry in the series is spread out through a few more characters than the first two, much of the time spent following Clarissa Mao, out for revenge on James Holden, and Bull, chief of security on the Behemoth, the former generation ship commissioned by the Mormons and repurposed by the Belters. The protomolecule that ended up on Venus has spat out a gigantic ring and shot it across the solar system, where a rather stupid young racer in a racing pinnace tries to shoot through it, only to be suddenly and fatally stopped.

Then Holden, running from the results of Mao's revenge plot, goes through the ring in the Rocinante, followed by other ships trying to catch him, and, then, the Behemoth. Plus the ghostly form of the deceased Detective Miller, who has warnings and directions for Holden.

And gradually things get worse...and worse...and worse....

#30 - Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Four-Three-Two-One? by Paul Tobin

The Fantastic Four in a version aimed at a younger set than the main line series, and rather hearking back to their older years (albeit with a stronger version of Sue Storm.) It's actually quite a lot of fun, with an alternate world romp and a rather touching Galactus tale.

#31 - Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward

A semi-sequel to From History's Shadow, this jumps from time period to time period in a decidedly entertaining pattern -- one thread of the story starts in the 1800s and gradually moves forward, another starts in 2283 and jumps back to 1985, and yet another starts in 1970 and moves forward, eventually, to 1996. It's Star Trek! And Time Travel!

It's lightweight stuff, but fun to read if you're in the mood, and it's full of connections and Easter Eggs (Ward literally manages to tie in all but the Animated Series, though only two of the movies -- TMP, and, cleverly enough, IV; the 2283 part of the story is just before TWOK.)

#32 - Cibola Burn by James S. A. Corey

After a rip-roaring start with the first trilogy, The Expanse seems to be headed into the thickets with the start of the second trilogy. There's some clunky writing, ludicrous behaviour, Murtry as a moustache-twirling black hatted gunslinging Western Frontier villain getting his kicks killing people for the company he works for. By the time I was approaching the home stretch I was wondering if they'd tried to come up with the Chinese knock-off of Avatar and this was the result.

#33 - Corsets and Codpieces: A Social History of Outrageous Fashion by Karen Bowman

A surprisingly succinct history of western fashion, with an accent on fashion disasters, often in the literal sense. It's entertaining enough, though hardly an in-depth look at the subject (and there's a great deal of wrathful focus on crinolines, I note.)

#34 - The Lone Ranger, Vol. 4: Resolveby Brett Matthews, et al

The conclusion to the Dynamite retelling of the origin of The Lone Ranger and Tonto as the killer of his father and brother forces a confrontation. It’s a very spaghetti western version of the story, and hides over the top in the final showdown, but aside from some clunkiness and a bit too much decompression, it’s solid.

#35 - Music as a Mirror of History by Robert Greenberg

Covers approximately 270 years of Western classical music and the history surrounding individual pieces. Interesting material indeed.

#36 - Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 18: Fall From Grace by D. G. Chichester, et al

Daredevil in the 1990s...which here means overblown writing, muddled art, armour, and yet another death of Matt Murdock. Chichester's writing here suggests he read one too many Mirrorshades-style books.

#37 - J Dilla's Donuts by Jordan Ferguson

About the genesis and recording of J Dilla's final album, and Dilla's horrendous illness that led to his death three days after the album was released. Tends to get hyperbolic at times, but it's a fascinating little book that opened my eyes to a side of Hip Hop culture that I hadn't really considered. Dilla's work seems to be a solid link between black music and the samplephonics genre, with the suggestion that Dilla did it better than anyone.

#38 - Guys Can Be Cat Ladies Too by Michael Showalter

If you’re a true cat person, this book will make you laugh. If you’re not...well, it might make you laugh anyway.

Utterly silly, yet with some nuggets of advice tha ring true, peppered with illustrations by Son Of Alan and photos by the author, it’s a fairly quick read.