One of the more famous collections of “psychedelic” science fiction. From a man, of course, who never touched psychedelics.
The titular story is fantastic, a few others are interesting. And others still are completely forgettable. Harlan Ellison is terse, sometimes, to his own detriment. These are short short stories – oftentimes just enough to get some kooky idea across and then move on.
I see a book like this in a store it is a virtual impossibility that I’m not going to buy it.
It is a position paper, basically, arguing that a) most Jews are liberal and that b) they shouldn’t be.
The a) part is interesting reading – dating back to the Biblical era on through the Inquisition and Reformation and Pogroms and Herzl and Roosevelt and Alger Hiss and Kissinger up through the Bushes. Interesting reading.
What fails – ultimately fails – is Podhoretz’s rallying cry. He goes absolutely “all in” that anyone who doesn’t defend Israel 100% of the time is an anti-Semite. Seriously. It is amazing that publishing house of record ever let such insanity see the light of day.
Podhoretz’s maniacal litmus test renders all of his arguing moot, until he becomes a laughing stock.
He says Nixon is the greatest friend Jews ever had ever, and doesn’t even bother to refute the Billy Graham tapes. He just ignores them as if they don’t exist. Reagan was forced to go to Bitburg against his will and W. is a Truman-esque genius.
Whatever.
I liked reading this book for its first 2/3rds but the remainder is the ramblings of a madman.
I’m all for investigating other points of view, but this did nothing to turn me into the GOP voter its author hoped it would.
Two-issue arc concerning the Viking invasion of a monastery in Northern England – told from the point of view of a young, treasonous boy who “summons up” the Northlanders to vanquish his family. Bloody and alarmingly free-of-ethics (like most of the previous Northlanders stories) this comic makes some of the best toilet reading around.
This is the second 700 page novel by Reynolds I’ve read this year. I’ve got a third ready to go.
Set somewhat as a “sidequel” to the happenings in the “Revelation Space” arc, this is a slightly more conventional tale, but not without Reynolds’ style of truly mind-expanding ideas.
A detective story, of sorts, set in a post-human society where The Melding Plague has thrown all nanotech into such chaos that the buildings themselves begin growing out of control. Also: a religion that is truly infectious.
The best sections deal with a flotilla of generation ships that slowly begin to form into their own warring nations. It is a fascinating piece of anthropology and a solid example of what hard SF can do that no other genre can.
Vikings. Adventuring in Constantinople, conquering the Orkneys, battling the Saxons. Three times awesome.
Brian Wood’s writing is good-not-great, but the setting and art are a solid A+. This is a great collection of an 8-issue arc featuring more beheadings than you can shake a blood-soaked blade at. Highly recommended.
Ignore the good reviews, Steve Niles’ City of Dust (soon to be a motion picture) is a pretty lame-ass comic.
The premise – that a Utopian society that has outlawed religion has also done away with “all storytelling,” so a savior has reconstructed robot versions of classic monsters to rekindle our imagination – is asinine.
The art is cool, though.
From his humble origins as a math nerd on the farm, to his college years, to his years in politics until, finally, his seduction in “The Plan,” you can gain a little more insight into Dr. Gaius Baltar with this book.Well – not too much insight. It is pretty surface stuff, frankly. But, still, anything about these awesome characters is welcome. Fun, quick read (1 subway ride!)
Here’s some crazy-ass one shots set during the Sinestro Corps War that, actually, might be more fun that the actual text itself.
Some real nerd-ass shit including pages and pages (and pages) of roll-call material. Did you know that there were members of the Green Lantern Corps that were whole planets? Bacteria? Sentient mathematical equations? Ooh, yeah, this is the shit.
If you want to read sentences like: “There is a dark Underverse to the Multiverse known as the Anti-Matter Universe,” then you truly must pick up this book.
There’s nothing like a Multiverse in danger.
The four Earth-based Green Lanterns (in conjunction with a pair of emoting rogue Guardians) take an amended Book of Oa and defend us all against a fascist band of fearmongerers. Sinestro, along with a giant yellow space war-city, Cyborg-Superman, Superman Prime and others face down the Green Lantern Corps (who have a giant sentient planet ready to do battle against a yellow sentient city.) But can they face down the personification of Fear in the sharp-toothed, quasi-lizardlike Parallax?
The comics of the Green Lantern Corps are some NERD ASS SHIT.
You need to run fast and loose with multiverses, anti-matter Universes, sectors, quadrants, sentient bacteria, crazy-ass looking aliens. . . .and some of the pages are so chock full of space-ray SF that the art is one blur of green & yellow headache.
The storytelling is amateurish, but fundamentally, this is all pretty freakin’ awesome.
Oh Swamp Thing, you are so misunderstood!
This collection, featuring the original Swamp Thing 8-page story and the first 10 issues, offers a nice origin story, some good whacked-out pseudo-science action, a run-in with Batman and lots of moss-covered mucking about. Plus the Un-Men.
If I were a betting man, I’d guess that Hoffman is about to do a deep dive on Swamp Thing.
I’ve read many Batman collections and this – a collection of David Lapham’s Detective Comics run from the late 1990s – is the best non-Frank Miller one I’ve put my mitts on.
It’s a pretty thick tome, and while it manages to include some greats of the rogue’s gallery, it sticks pretty close to its unique vision. Gotham itself is the enemy – and its description of corruption in the very makeup of the geography is just plain awesome.
Highly recommended.
This is one of the more beloved Batman books – but let me tell you something: it is lame.
The premise – a Gilded Age Gotham – is awesome, but just because the Mayor is drawn to look like Teddy Roosevelt it doesn’t mean the story is good. The story is boring. I read this three days ago and have already forgotten it.
For those of you who like crazy sci-fi & action comics, but also like a little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, this is the comic for you. The complete run is 3 issues and, alas, the 1st one is the best, but it is still worth reading. The title kinda says it all. If this were a Saturday Morning cartoon show I’d set my alarm early each weekend.
Myriad Universes abound, but the quick witted Millar manages to keep everything moving and breezy. As one of the few people on the planet who like the FF films, this seems pretty sympatico tonally. The second half of this collection gets a tad mired in Marvel Universe crossovers, but not too bad considering the need to sell more product. Fun stuff.
Okay, here’s the way I really feel.
I know I often recommend some Star Trek Expanded Universe comics and novels – but I know I am just recommending them to other die hard Trek fanatics. I recommend David Mack’s inaugural entry into the Vanguard novels not only to Trek fans but to lovers of all SF, indeed, to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced yarn.
Vanguard seems to be created for guys just like me. People who love DS9 for its characters and lengthy arcs, but also love the world of the TOS era.
Harbinger introduces you to Starbase 47 – aka Vanguard – when the NCC-1701 docks there. Then we meet a wonderful cast of characters.
Plenty of other sites have summaries and character breakdowns – I’ll only add that David Mack introduces the new characters & setting as if it were the first film in a series. I hope the other novels in the series keep up this level of fun.
I like a nice Myriad Universe tale.
Our story begins as Scarlet Witch proclaims an end to the Mutant Gene. Most mutants lose their powers – no new mutants are born.
Beast – ever the believer is science – searches everywhere in this or other Universes to find the cause. Of course, the “dark Beast” from the Age of Apocalypse joins him.
Best is when they enter the Santcum Santorum. Or make believe mountain ranges. Or make believe Eastern European countries.
Either way, this is pretty great stuff. Beast is one of the coolest X-Men and this is all him
Look – a Tron comic could be awful and it would still be great, you know?
Ghost in the Machine isn’t awful. It isn’t good either. But it has Recognizers and I/O Towers and Alan One. How can you pass this up?
The six issues are actually sequel to the video game Tron 2.0 (which is summarized in the first issue) and has a big, fat dollop of The Matrix-esque heavy philosophy in it. The entire run closes with a quote from Descartes, if you can believe such a thing.
The art is awesome – well, scratch that. The art is unique (lots of digital-looking stuff) but since it is of the Tron world it instantly takes on awesome properties.
I can not tell a lie and say I was too engrossed in the story or characters – but it is TRON!
These comics are hard to find in the Real World. You’ll need the help of your computer to track them down. I am aware of the irony.
The TPB is here, or you could use that same site to get the 6 single issues (as I did.)
And now, thousands of panels and word bubbles later, the Age of Apocalypse is over.
The timeline is brought back into normal (kinda) and everything is status quo.
We had some good battles along the way and this book wisely closes with a lengthy denouement – enough to try and get you hooked on the next story arcs.
Thanks, but we’ll pass.
