Mount TBR 2020 discussion

And here we go again, up and over!

My ambition this year is to read some of the beautiful books produced by the Central Electric Railfans Association (CERA), particularly the one on San Francisco's F-Line: The Story of How America's Most Exciting and Successful New Transportation Experience Was Built!, along with more of the film books, and, I hope, the rest of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels.

Up, Up, and Away!

Also on this year’s reading list (as always more a hope than a certainty) are the Pendergast novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, as much of a catch-up on One Piece as I can manage, and a heapin’ helpin’ of audiobooks as I’d like to pare down my Audible backlog *and* get physical audiobooks reduced.

#1 - You Need More Sleep: Advice from Cats by Francesco Marciuliano

A book of advice from cats...though it seems suspiciously directed at other felines. Though it might be amusing to see humans try to adopt this behaviour.

To leaven the weightiness of the text, there are pleasant cat pictures to admire.

A seeming slow start this year...seeming. I’m actually back to my practice of cycling through a selection of books, some in print, some digitally. Expect a sudden flurry.

#2 - Like Love by Ed McBain

Spring is in the air in the City, and the detectives of the 87th have yet another suicide on their hands (several, in fact, as the book opens with Carella having a heartbreaking failure with a girl on a ledge), this time an apparent suicide pact that resulted in a huge gas explosion.

Still, something doesn't sit right with Carella and Hawes, and they find enough to convince them that it was a staged homicide...but not enough to defintively prove it. The book follows their attempts to find more evidence and collect more information before the case goes flat and ends up in the Open File, forever unsolved, an effort complicated by the never-ending pace of crime in the city (including a homicide towards the end that remains unsolved at the end of the book.)

Definitely one of the better early entries in the 87th Precinct series (this one dates from 1962), though it’s also one of the more straightforward (despite the mystery assailant who keeps beating up Carella.)

#3 - Ten Plus One by Ed McBain

Still spring in the city, with stormy weather looming, and a sniper very publicly killing people. The squad is on the case immediately, but even before they’ve gotten started the sniper strikes twice more.

At first it seems to be a random serial killer, until an interesting piece of evidence comes into their hands. Then it’s a race to find the rest of those on the sniper’s list....

Another entry that’s very strong on the procedural elements, though there’s also a lot of character work here, and quite a few twists, turns, and blind avenues.

Oh, I need to get back to the 87th Precinct books! Thanks for the reminder :) Unfortunately for me, they won't count for this climb as I borrow them from the library...

Leslie wrote: "Oh, I need to get back to the 87th Precinct books! Thanks for the reminder :) Unfortunately for me, they won't count for this climb as I borrow them from the library..."

They can count for the virtual Mount TBR, though!

#4 - Ax by Ed McBain

Another cold winter, another bloody murder scene in a basement as the body of an elderly janitor is discovered hacked up with an axe. The case quickly becomes perplexing...who *was* the victim, and what was he doing that caused this?

Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes have their work cut out for them as they dig into one corner after another, trying to unravel this.

I tend to like this one more than most readers do. It’s short and relentless, and it has a smattering of social commentary in with the procedural elements, plus more basic tragedy than usual.

Steven wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Oh, I need to get back to the 87th Precinct books! Thanks for the reminder :) Unfortunately for me, they won't count for this climb as I borrow them from the library..."

They can co..."

I'm not doing the virtual climb as the list of books that I want to read is gigantic!

I admit that got an involuntary laugh from me...I literally have thousands of books awaiting reading. I also gave Kindle Unlimited, though that right now is saving me from excavating the McBain books from where they’re buried (I’ll need to do this soon anyway, as there’s several that aren’t available via KU, and two not even available as ebooks.)

#5 - Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy by Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy

The original DE, along with the Thrawn trilogy, dragged Star Wars out of the sinkhole it was in at the end of the 1980s. As it turns out, it’s really not very good — overwritten, out of character at times, and with designs that seemed well off-model. The second story is a cluttered rush with yet another superweapon. The final story, much shorter, gets tired of reviving the Emperor and kills him off for good.

At the time it was exciting. Sadly, it didn’t wear well.

#6 - X-Men: Grand Design - Second Genesis by Ed Piskor

I loved the first volume of this, and love this equally as much. Basically, alternative comics artist Ed Piskor delivers a compressed retelling of an era of the X-Men in a style that mixes underground comics and traditional mainstream comics. The result is a dense book with a wonderful style and captivating colour work. In some respects it acts as a precursor to the current (2019/2020) era of the series.

There’s a third and final volume out now, X-Men: Grand Design - X-Tinction.

#7 - Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

My first descent into the Pendergast series, and, well...not so impressed. First of all, it’s a bloody Scooby Doo mystery without the dog and, yes, that means the denouement is precisely what that implies. Also, I don’t know what sort of research these guys did, but Voodoo/Voudon don’t operate quite that way, lads, and Obeah REALLY doesn’t operate the way they have it here (they nearly get it right with the backstreet Obeahman and his store full of mysterious ingredients.) Entire subplots are paid off pathetically, the secret cult is allowed to carry on, and I don’t think the nurse driving the Lincoln Town Car at high speed *ever* gets explained.

It’s really a prime example of an idiot plot — for the plot to work, the characters have to be idiots.

I hope the other books in the series are better, as I have a lot of them sitting here (vagaries of a book sale on bag day.)

#8 - He Who Hesitates by Ed McBain

87th Precinct #19. It’s another experimental tale — it’s set in the 87th squad’s territory, but the cops of the 87th barely show up in it. Instead it’s about Roger Broome, a polite young man in town to sell the handmade wood items produced in the shop he runs with his mother and brother. Roger has something he needs to tell the police...but he hesitates repeatedly. The story unfolds with nested flashbacks, and the result is an intriguing story, especially given the ending.

#9 - Eighty Million Eyes by Ed McBain

Another 87th Precinct book with A and B stories, one of which is a mystery and the other of which is procedural as Bert Kling has to deal with a man stalking a woman Kling dealt with badly in an earlier case. The A story deals with the mystery around the on-air murder of a famous TV comedian, and provides Carella and Meyer time to do a somewhat grumpy buddy cop thing. McBain, who often wrote fir television, gives the industry a shin-kicking.

#10 - Shotgun by Ed McBain

A couple are found brutally murdered by shotgun in a poorly staged fake murder-suicide. Elsewhere a woman is knifed, killed with a single thrust — something that stands out as highly unusual. Detectives are assigned to what becomes a highly confusing pair of cases.

In addition an older case comes back to the 87th Precinct — one that none of the detectives even knew was a murder case. It’s an odd swerve in the middle of the story, as is Bert Kling having problems with a woman he questions, leading to a protracted fight with his girlfriend.

#11 - Jigsaw by Ed McBain

Detective Arthur Brown gets to be the focus of this one, though it’s unfortunately a fairly flat story. Brown is in charge of investigating a murder where the major clue is the pieces of a photograph that supposedly showing the hiding place of the loot from a robbery years before.

#12 - Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! by Ed McBain

24 hours in the life of the 87th Precinct, following the day and night shifts as they tackle various cases and deal with a variety of incidents. It’s essentially a mosaic novel, with no overarching big case, just a lot of lower-echelon stuff.

Quirkyreader wrote: "Yea on reaching Pike’s Peak. 🐸"

Going a lot slower than I wanted to, mind you. I’d hoped my surprise hospital stay would result in knocking out half a dozen books. Instead I started catching up on TV shows. Oh well.

#13 - Doll by Ed McBain

Backtracking slightly to #20 in the series. A fashion model is murdered in her apartment while her daughter sits in the next room, clutching a doll. Steve Carella catches the case, choosing to partner with Bert Kling, who’s becoming ever more volatile and likely to be kicked off the force. When an argument separates the two of them, Carella finds a clue and pursues it alone...which of course goes bad. A very taut procedural thriller and a solid entry in the series.

#14 - Walter Hill's Triggerman by Walter Hill, Matt, Jef

Convicted killer “Machine Gun” Roy Nash is smuggled out of prison to be the point man in a mob hunt for the three men who were bankrolled for a major heist and welshed on the payoff, fleeing westward. The incentive for Roy: the woman he loves is with them.

The opening, set in Arizona, immediately pulls up memories of Walter Hill’s gangster-era remake of Yojimbo, Last Man Standing, but it doesn’t stop in Arizona...instead it moves on to a twilight version of L.A. where Nash gets himself into a variety of ugly scrapes, more out of his attempts to find his lost love than the two men he’s supposed to kill.

It’s a tight, yet messy, thriller, based on an unproduced screenplay by Hill. The art, by French artist Jef, is extremely detailed, though character faces can be rather ugly here and there. The Los Angeles pages also fall down a bit in another way — there’s a distinct lack of streetcars, something extremely present in 1932.

#15 - Superman: Exile and Other Stories Omnibus by Jerry Ordway & various

An omnibus picking up the Superman books from the end of John Byrne’s run and covering half the distance to The Death and Return of Superman: Omnibus in its 900+ pages. The main part of it focuses on Superman’s deepening guilt over executing the three pocket universe Kryptonians who’d wiped out all life on that alternate Earth. One breakdown later and Kal-El was off to roam the cosmos, taking a teleporter and breathing gear with
him. This leads to him being given the Eradicator, a highly dangerous piece of technology (the collection ends on a cliffhanger just as the main part of that story is starting.)

Overall, it’s okay, with solid art and okay writing. Some subplots get put on a bus, though — Matrix’s story gets unceremoniously interrupted, and by the time Matrix returns she’ll have swapped genders again (when last seen he was in male form, having mimicked Clark Kent, and then Superman.)

#16 - Tyler Cross: Black Rock by Fabien Nury, Brüno

The thing that *immediately* springs to mind reading this is that Nury is homaging the Parker novels by Richard Stark (a pseudonym of Donald Westlake.) There are differences, of course — Cross's for hire, Parker isn’t, Cross works with a small crew, Parker with a larger group. Plans usually go awry, though, often due to unforeseen circumstances, which is how Cross ends up in the small a Texas oil town of Black Rock, the home of the generally terrible Pragg family, with seventeen kilos of heroin and no car.

This is a terse read, overall, and the art, which goes for a parodistic Euro take on Darwyn Cooke, is unfortunately a bit of a mismatch for the story.

#17 - Star Trek: Countdown by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Mike Johnson, Tim Jones, David Messina, et al

A prequel to the 2009 Star Trek movie, starting in the Prime timeline as the Hobus star starts an odd pre-supernova cycle that will eventually destroy Romulus. It’s a formerly in-canon story that explains why Nero has such a hatred for Spock and Vulcan.

Some of the story *does* remain in canon even with Star Trek: Picard altering the post-Nemesis timeline somewhat. The dropped parts are mostly to do with Starfleet and Picard himself. It also seems that the Hobus supernova occurs earlier in the Picard timeline than it does here.

#18 - Immortal Hulk, Volume 1: Or is he Both? by Al Ewing, Joe Bennet, & others

The Hulk returns again, despite Bruce Banner being killed (at Banner’s behest) a few months earlier. There’s something that refuses to let the Hulk die, and if Hulk can’t die, neither can Banner. So Banner wanders from place to place by day, and Hulk comes out at night. This is a mean, sadistic Hulk, too, preying on criminals and lowlives. Journalist Jackie McGee is following him, trying to get answers.

It’s an interesting take on the Hulk, with body horror coming to the fore.

#19 - Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1: Witches' Road by James Robinson, Chris Visiobs, Steve Dillon, Javier Pulido et al

After the various heavily meaningless things done to Wanda Maximoff over the years, it’s nice to have a series like this where the character is treated with respect. The stories themselves aren’t the mist ground-breaking, but they have wit and emotion, presenting Wanda as someone who feels the need to atone for the worst of her past by walking the world and righting wrongs.

Adding to this, the artwork is generally quite gorgeous (when Steve Dillon is the let-down, it’s saying something.) Wanda is presented as statuesque and graceful, which is certainly a nice change.

#20 - Star Trek: The Q Conflict by Scott & David Tipton & David Messina

Something is causing unanticipated supernovae in the alpha and beta quadrants, and a very strange event helps Picard figure out who or what may be behind it: Q. More properly, the Q Continuum, which has decided to put Metron, Trelane (and his parents), and the Organians in their place. This is not going well.

Picard promptly convinces Q to find another way...Q does. He proposes a game. Better still, he’ll bring in other teams — Kirk’s crew, Sisko’s crew from Deep Space 9, and the crew of Voyager.

As far as it goes, it’s okay. The Q are generally ridiculous, Trelane certainly is, and Metron and the Organian are above it all. The writing is okay, the art is often questionable, and the story is...there.

#21 - Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man by Ed McBain

The Deaf Man returns to plague the 87th Precinct, and there’s a cat burglar at work as well — well, more of a *kitten* burglar, as he breaks in, steals stuff, and leaves behind a kitten. That case lands with Kling, while Carella and Meyer cope with the riddle posed by the Deaf Man. It’s going to be a busy few days at the 87th Precinct....

#22 - The President's Brain is Missing by John Scalzi

But how can you tell? This is a shaggy dog story, really — one inspired by Star Trek (“Spock’s Brain”) and Area 51 silliness alike. Someone has stolen the President’s brain, yet the President continues to function just fine. An investigation is launched and, of, course, therein lies the tale...

I liked it. I needed something that was deadpan goofy right now.

#23 - Star Trek: Starfleet Academy by Mike Johnson, Ryan Parrott, Derek Charm

A fun YA entry in the Star Trek 2009 line. Set in two time periods (just before ST2009, and just before Star Trek Into Darkness), it sees Cadet Uhura coming across a mysterious signal. Finding herself barred from learning more, she involves James Kirk. What she finds ends up with her called onto the carpet in front of Admiral Marcus, and told to drop it. The truth is, the signal is from a hundred years ago, and it reveals that the son of an Admiral led a mutiny on the USS Slayton, a ship that got stuck in a temporal anomaly — 66 days in and everything was failing, unless he forced one last chance.

Three years later, a motley group of cadets is drafted into a Centennial contest....

I honestly liked the characters a lot, and I know they’ve been seen since, albeit briefly.

I envy your readership! I wish I could read that many books in a year.

Ashley wrote: "I envy your readership! I wish I could read that many books in a year."

Thank you. My usual ambition is one a day, but I’m not great at keeping it up. It also depends on book length, of course.

#24 - Scarlet Witch, Vol. 2: World of Witchcraft by James Robinson & divers hands

The story of Wanda’s redemption continues, and continues to be engaging and charming (though the story where she finally comes to terms with her brother’s awful behaviour is harsh) with surprisingly gentle moments. Robinson even imbues the ludicrous Ringmaster with a raffish personality as he poses as a psychologist — he actually helps Wanda, and is genuinely pleased that he did.

Steven wrote: "Ashley wrote: "I envy your readership! I wish I could read that many books in a year."

Thank you. My usual ambition is one a day, but I’m not great at keeping it up. It also depends on book length..."

I used to devour books like that when I was younger. Now, it seems I'm lucky to read one every few days.

#25 - Twilight by Howard Chaykin and José Luis García-López

So, DC had all of these crusty old space and science fiction characters, such as Star Hawkins, Manhunter 2070, Tommy Tomorrow and the Planeteers, Knights of the Galaxy, Space Cabbie, and so on. At the end of the 80s, fresh off of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen and such successes, DC decided to give those old characters a makeover.

There’s not much resemblance between old and new, honestly. The artwork is excellent Moebius-inflected goodness, and the story follows the life of tinpot tyrant Tomorrow and his accidental creation of the goddess Karel and through her providing immortality to humanity...who, between holy wars, get pretty fed-up with it.

It’s all narrated by the elderly Homer Glint, former journalist and confidant to Karel (his ex-wife.) It’s an interesting story, though one I’d love to have seen told in more depth (at greater length.)

Quirkyreader wrote: "Wow you prowled through this section of the climb. 🐸🦋🐝"

In a bit of a stop-and-start manner, though. If I’d kept my pace I’d be considerably further than I am. Oddly, my few days in the hospital saw me doing rather a lot less reading than I’d expected.

#26 - Auberon by James S. A. Corey

An interstitial novella that fits between the 7th and 8th books in the Expanse series, this skips all but the lightest connection with the ongoing cast of characters.

The planet Auberon has been assigned a new governor by the sprawling Laconian Empire, something that the local kingpin isn’t too happy about. As it turns out, though, there are narrative twists to come, and the new guy gets an unexpected lesson in governance and the nature of Empire....

#27 - Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain

A lawyer returns home from a trip to find his wife dead in their apartment. To Carella’s shock, he seems to be rather happy she’s dead, though there’s no immediate evidence that he murdered her. Shortly after that a junkie turned burglar confesses to the crime...but why is the lawyer behaving so oddly, seemingly trying to sow doubt in Carella’s mind?

Meanwhile, Bert Kling is trying to get over Cindy Forrest but things really go off the rails with the next girl.

A slightly lesser 87th Precinct story, between Bert again having dangerously bad woman trouble and Carella solving the crime via bugging.

#28 - Wings of Anansi by Michael Avon Oeming and Greg Titus

Nihilistic, violent story of a black gangster who gets in way over his head and pays the price. The place of Anansi in African-American life sort of comes up, as a vague explanation as to why Dawg is so attached to his spider ring, but it’s mostly horrible people and bloody violence.

#29 - Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey

Book 5 in the Expanse series steps back from the greater space opera story as the Rocinante crew returns from Ilus and nearly immediately gets involved in a system-wide war between the piratical Free Navy and everyone else. Earth is bombed with stealth-coated asteroids, Mars is under attack, and the Outer Planets Alliance finds itself in a very bad position. By the end the new power structures are in place, but there’s a new threat in the form of Martian Admiral Winston Duarte...and whatever murderous horror destroyed the ring builders and is killing human ships.

#30 - Professional Integrity by Michael J. Sullivan

Riryia are professional thieves for hire, but the latest job they’re being offered is odd to say the least — they’re to steal a person...and the person trying to hire them is the person they need to steal, a young noblewoman. It’s even odder when they get more details. By the time they’re done, they’ll have solved an old mystery and a more recent menace.... Pretty good fun overall.

#31 - Assignment: Earth by John Byrne

Using the Star Trek backdoor pilot as a starting point, Byrne delivers five “lost episodes” of the never-developed series, each one set in a successive year (though two have epilogues set later.) They’re light and breezy for the most part.

I’d love to see CBS All Access revisit the series, perhaps with Robert Taylor and Kate Micucci taking over the leads.

#32 - Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers, Vol. 10 by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, Neal Adams, etc

Closing on the end of Roy Thomas’ run on the series, where he delivered the wrap-up to the canceled Captain Marvel series, doing it as a prologue to the Kree-Skrull War storyline. Following that, as Neal Adams quit the book, there was a three issue skirmish involving Earth, Olympus, and Asgard for a storyline that swelled the Avengers ranks again.

The point in the series is notable for vastly improved artwork as well as Thomas suddenly developing restraint in his writing (he literally improves between issues, and it’s faintly funny.)

The book benefits from the Masterworks restoration treatment, too.

#33 - Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 9 by Stan Lee, John Romita, John Buscema, etc

Big panels, purple prose, and massive amounts of soap opera as Peter Parker struggles on through life. Not the best part of the run, sadly, as Lee and Romita desperately try to keep momentum up by hook or by crook. The most notable thing here is the story arc that breaks the Kingpin.

#34 - JSA by Geoff Johns Book Two by Geoff Johns, David Goyer, etc

Geoff Johns’ work on the JSA books is considered a highlight of his career, though he shared the honors originally with co-writer David Goyer — this collection jumps ahead to include JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice, which was released during Johns’ solo tenure. The Justice Society was redefined and updated, and had a good run for a number of years.

This is an entertaining book, if not great.

#35 - JSA by Geoff Johns Book Three by Geoff Johns, David Goyer, Darwyn Cooke, and others

There’s a surprising amount of non-Geoff Johns in the writing this time around, including half of the rather dull JSA All-Stars miniseries that occupies a good half of the page count. In fact, the JSA issues themselves only account for a quarter (if that) of the pages here, and the arrangement is thoroughly confusing.

#36 - Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla: History in the Making
#37 - Herald: Lovecraft and Tesla: Fingers to the Bone
#38 - Herald: Lovecraft and Tesla: Tying the Knot
#39 - Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla - Bundles of Joy #1 all by John Reilly, Tom Rogers & Dexter Weeks

A goofy alternate world SF/fantasy/horror story that mixes up the Current Wars, H. P. Lovecraft, Lovecraft’s mother, Harry Houdini (who may be connected to the Dunwich Horror), Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Aleister Crowley, Amelia Earhart, Adolf Hitler, and a whole host of eldritch horrors. It’s a bit of a slog early on, and their Lovecraft looks little like the real one (and while a bigot is not as vile a racist as he really was), but there’s some fun moments.

Quirkyreader wrote: "Wow,

You zoomed up to Mt. Vancouver."

I did, didn’t I? I wasn’t intending to go from utter somnolence to Ludicrous Speed, but here we are. That’s TBR completed to April, though, and not so far to go before I’m into the May pile.

Not the fastest I’ve ever gone, admittedly, but the pace seems relatively even right now.