Virtual Mount TBR Challenge 2022 discussion

Well, let’s rock and roll some more!

#49 - Memories of Tomorrow by Dean Koontz

The end of “season one” has the story split into three acts — Nameless’ assigned mission to rescue a kidnapped boy, the situation his confused clairvoyant bursts lead him to, and, finally, his decision to redo the mindwipe. We get new information, meanwhile, and it’ll be interesting see how this plays out in the back half.

Interestingly enough, there’s enough hints now that this isn’t quite our world and time — there’s subtle differences, and every indication that this is a deepening dystopia.

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#50 - The Lost Soul of the City by Dean Koontz

Nameless, season two, part one finds the amnesiac operator in a battered waterfront city that’s being buried under winter. Nameless is here on an unusually complex mission that requires him to work with a young partner and travel around in the city’s storm drains where a wanna-be revolutionary works in a buried redoubt as a quartermaster for the head of the city council.

The plan is complicated by Nameless’ visions, as well as a pair of gang members on the surface. Also, Nameless’ new conditioning seems to be break down already.

This is a bit longer than Koontz’s usual in this series, and tries to develop characters a bit more, though the best part is the chapter where the bad guy’s sons gather and the conversation goes very much askew from what might be expected.

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#51 - Gentle Is the Angel of Death by Dean Koontz

This time Nameless is dealing with a serial killing doctor who murders those he considers imperfect. The plan here, though, is peculiarly complicated — this was Mission: Impossible on steroids, and the coda just kept on going and going.

On the right side, Nameless is definitely struggling, and his clairvoyant visions are revealing something incredibly ominous….

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#52 - Kaleidoscope by Dean Koontz

Nameless’ story has shifted directions now — his visions of a totalitarian hellscape have increased, and his latest mission, supposedly an easy one, has gone completely pear-shaped, and it seems that his controller, Ace, is breaking down.

Plus, it looks like Koontz got bored writing episodes. And here we are.

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#53 - Light Has Weight, but Darkness Does Not by Dean Koontz

The fourth book in the “second season” of Nameless reverts back, mostly, to the done in one stories as Nameless gets a clairvoyant vision of a woman and daughter running for their lives — not far from where he’s in a rest period. He gets involved, plunging into an abandoned mall.

Not a lot to say otherwise.

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#54 - Corkscrew by Dean Koontz
#55 - Zero In by Dean Koontz

Now Nameless us on track to finding the conspiracy of terror that’s been taking over his premonitions, and the organization behind him is making it clear that his amnesia needs to go before the final play. The truth about himself is heartbreaking, and he has a terrible decision to make before his final mission.

Again, I have the sense that Koontz got bored with this series, and chose to rush into a conclusion rather than giving the story more room. The final entry literally introduces his Chekhov’s Gun five pages before it’s fired, for instance. There’s some glancingly emotional writing about Nameless and his past, but for the most part it’s perfunctory stuff.

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#56 - Marvel-Verse: America Chavez by Kieron Gillen, Gabby Riviera, etc

Collects semi-random examples of America Chavez’s comics appearances (there’s not much to choose from, unfortunately.) While it’s meant to serve as a character introduction for viewers of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness it mostly serves to point out how much the film nerfed her.

ComiXology Unlimited.

#57 - Revolver: How the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock 'n' Roll by Robert Rodriguez

A detailed look at the making of the Revolver record and a case for it being the more influential and better release than the fabled Sergeant Pepper’s album. Unfortunately, the book is a bit stodgy and Rodriguez sometimes tries a bit too hard.

Via Scribd.

#58 - Batman: Year Two by Mike Barr, Alan Davis, Todd McFarlane

The follow-up to Frank Miller and David Mazuchelli’s Batman: Year One breaks away from the realistic approach and embraces the pre-Crisis crimefighter instead, presenting him with the return of murderous vigilante The Reaper. It’s a lot of noise and fury, and sees Batman using a gun and teaming up with the guy who killed his parents (no, really.) Both Joe Chill and the Reaper cone yo bad ends and the Reaper’s daughter decided not to marry Bruce and instead becomes a nun (no, really, I’m not making this up, you know.)

The volume is filled out by “Full Circle,” a done-in-one story that sees the Reaper return…except it’s Joe Chill, Jr, and Joe Chill III, *his* son. Robin also featured in the story, and, again, noise and fury, although at this point the arcane death traps are back too.

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#59 - Blade Runner 2029, Vol. 1: Reunion by Mike Johnson, etc

First act of a story that partially sets up what we saw in Blade Runner 2049 with the ruin of L.A. and the re-emergence of Replicants and the Underground. The main character, Ash, is rather bland.

Hoopla.

#60 - The Outfit by Richard Stark

As always, taut, efficient, and brutal. Professional thief Parker, having explained how The Outfit is either going to reimburse him for past shenanigans or suffer consequences, is targeted by the upper echelon. Parker, true to his word, brings it back to them…painfully.

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