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ladybusinessThe Book Indecision bug is still hanging around and I went back to therapy this week which was a guarantee I wasn't going to get much reading done. "Fine," I thought. "I'll focus on my last Jar Selection!" Except it turns out C.J. Cherryh was not messing around when she sat down to write her some science fiction and this book is dense. On the plus side, there's been no animals (not counting humans) harmed so far so it does have that going for it. Can't say the same for the other stuff I've been reading.
I also didn't read anything else for free choice because I couldn't make up my mind and the time I did read I worked on Downbelow Station. It only took me a month to get behind! I'll make it up later, though. :D
Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due — If I had more experience with short fiction I could say "this is a strong collection of short stories!" but I honestly have no clue what makes a strong collection. All the stories meshed well and the ones that related to each other were all placed together so A+ to the organization. There were three distinct sections of the book for me: the stories about Florida, family, and ghosts, stories about zombies, and stories about a violent, brutal flu that changes the shape of the world for one girl in particular.
I liked the zombie stories best (0% of readers are surprised). There is some unfortunate cat violence in "Trial Day" that was super upsetting, though. :( That's the only story I didn't finish. NO THANK YOU to cat violence even if the narrative condemns it. "Patient Zero" and "Danger Word" were probably my favorites, although "Carriers" tries to get you right in the heart. I would 100% read more of Due's science fiction.
There's some horror elements in one of the stories, which I generally am not here for. But the premise was so creepy and wrong and understandable that I was like, "Okay, yes, this is better than Stephen King writing about shit weasels."
Solid collection! (Shhh we're pretending) Would recommend if you like ghosts, family relationships complicated by emotions, zombies, apocalyptic science fiction, and creeping yourself out late at night.
The Wicked + The Divine Volume 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie — After the second volume, I wasn't sure whether I was going to continue this comic because it was very, very pretty but I felt no emotional connection. I speculated this was on purpose because of Laura (whose POV we're riding along for), and after reading Commercial Suicide which actually really digs into emotional stories of the gods, I'm convinced the emotional distance was on purpose. That doesn't change how little attachment I feel to the characters but this volume upped the emotional engagement and gave me some of the answers I've been craving since the end of volume one.
Commercial Suicide is the best volume of this comic I've read. The "why?" is still up in the air, but things are falling into place and make a little more sense now. I also appreciated that they acknowledged, at the end, the cliffhanger, which was very casual-wink-across-the-room cute. Each issue, though, is drawn by a different artist besides McKelvie. Could my connection problems we related to his art? Hmm. Other artists: Kate Brown, Tula Lotay, Matt Wilson, Stephanie Hans, Leila Del Duca, Mat Lopes, and Brandon Graham. I really liked all the guest art.
Even though I liked it all right, I still think it can be on-purpose confusing with the timeline and when characters are having discussions. But, like with the Laura thing, I suspect this is intentional. Guess we'll see when Volume 4 comes out.
Other things I read:
CHALLENGE: 100 Unique Women Writers
Week 5: slight hiccup. I'm going to have to spend some time with Downbelow Station, but will plug away at it until I finish! For Week 6, my next title selected from The Jar and presented by Doreen, is Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall:I also didn't read anything else for free choice because I couldn't make up my mind and the time I did read I worked on Downbelow Station. It only took me a month to get behind! I'll make it up later, though. :D
- Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due
- The Wicked + The Divine Volume 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
- Black Widow #19 - 20 by Nathan Edmondson & Phil Noto
Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due — If I had more experience with short fiction I could say "this is a strong collection of short stories!" but I honestly have no clue what makes a strong collection. All the stories meshed well and the ones that related to each other were all placed together so A+ to the organization. There were three distinct sections of the book for me: the stories about Florida, family, and ghosts, stories about zombies, and stories about a violent, brutal flu that changes the shape of the world for one girl in particular.
I liked the zombie stories best (0% of readers are surprised). There is some unfortunate cat violence in "Trial Day" that was super upsetting, though. :( That's the only story I didn't finish. NO THANK YOU to cat violence even if the narrative condemns it. "Patient Zero" and "Danger Word" were probably my favorites, although "Carriers" tries to get you right in the heart. I would 100% read more of Due's science fiction.
There's some horror elements in one of the stories, which I generally am not here for. But the premise was so creepy and wrong and understandable that I was like, "Okay, yes, this is better than Stephen King writing about shit weasels."
Solid collection! (Shhh we're pretending) Would recommend if you like ghosts, family relationships complicated by emotions, zombies, apocalyptic science fiction, and creeping yourself out late at night.
The Wicked + The Divine Volume 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie — After the second volume, I wasn't sure whether I was going to continue this comic because it was very, very pretty but I felt no emotional connection. I speculated this was on purpose because of Laura (whose POV we're riding along for), and after reading Commercial Suicide which actually really digs into emotional stories of the gods, I'm convinced the emotional distance was on purpose. That doesn't change how little attachment I feel to the characters but this volume upped the emotional engagement and gave me some of the answers I've been craving since the end of volume one.
Commercial Suicide is the best volume of this comic I've read. The "why?" is still up in the air, but things are falling into place and make a little more sense now. I also appreciated that they acknowledged, at the end, the cliffhanger, which was very casual-wink-across-the-room cute. Each issue, though, is drawn by a different artist besides McKelvie. Could my connection problems we related to his art? Hmm. Other artists: Kate Brown, Tula Lotay, Matt Wilson, Stephanie Hans, Leila Del Duca, Mat Lopes, and Brandon Graham. I really liked all the guest art.
Even though I liked it all right, I still think it can be on-purpose confusing with the timeline and when characters are having discussions. But, like with the Laura thing, I suspect this is intentional. Guess we'll see when Volume 4 comes out.
Other things I read:
- Black Widow #19 - 20 by Nathan Edmondson & Phil Noto — I love Phil Noto's art. I would probably fight a small child at a convention for a piece of Noto's art. But even with him, this run was very uneven, and this last two-part tie-in to Secret Wars was...gratuitous. It lets me see how dark and complicated Natasha's past is, but it never successfully lets me see her; just her work. It's very much like Edmondson has no clue how to truly characterize or humanize a woman with this type of past, or conceptualize how different it is for her to move through the worlds and identities she has to inhabit. I stuck with this, mostly for Noto's art, because where Edmondson fails to get inside Natasha's head, Noto does a good job at picking up his slack where he can manage it (sometimes he doesn't manage it). Sadly, I sort of wish they had left these two issues off and stopped at #18, which felt complete. These two issues were an unnecessary addition that basically told us nothing new, didn't really help humanize Natasha much more than the previous issues had, and gave us some useless animal violence for our trouble, which seems so mind-boggling out of character to me. And none of the questions I had from the opening were answered: why can't Natasha let people in? Ugh. :( I wish they would give Natasha to a women writing team; even her new run starting this year is all dudes. Fingers crossed for something better?
no subject
Date: 2016-02-09 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-10 10:50 am (UTC)I still haven't started Black Widow because I hear it's so all over the place but the covers are so pretty and I really want a good Natasha story. Maybe I'll just watch The Americans instead.