Evan's comments
(member since Feb 16, 2009)
Evan's comments from the 50 Books A Year group.
(showing 1-20 of 31)
Random, I have to check your 50 books a year posts more often. You've read a lot of books this year that are on my radar. What did you think of Feast of Souls and Left Hand of Darkness? The only Le Guin that I've read was The Dispossessed, which I enjoyed but felt it was a little too hokey at times. I've yet to read anything by Friedman. Got any good female sci-fi/fantasy author recommendations?
56. Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe
57. Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe
58. The Persian Night Iran Under the Khomeinist Revolution by Amir Taheri
59. World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Haven't posted in awhile.50. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
51. Swamp Thing Vol. 1 Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
52. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
53. Lamb The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
54. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
55. The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
It's actually only 33 if you discount the "graphic novels" (comics).
46. Good Omens The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett47. Dune by Frank Herbert
42. The Sandman Vol. 6 Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman43. The Sandman Vol. 7 Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
44. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
45. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
37. The Sandman Vol. 5 A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
38. Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe
39. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
40. The Dispossessed An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
41. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
36. Hellblazer Original Sins by Jamie DelanoMy comic book kick continues. Great stuff here. John Constantine is just a dirtbag who gets his friends killed while he keeps the powers of heaven, hell and everything in between in check. I can't wait to catch up on this series. China Mieville's storyline in issue 250 picques my curiosity to dig into the archives.
35. Shadow & Claw by Gene WolfeThe Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator are volumes 1 and 2 of the 4 volume Book of the New Sun. Wolfe sets his tale in the far distant future where the sun has lost much of its power and stars are visible during the day. The tale is narrated by Severian a journeyman in the torturers guild. He claims to possess a perfect memory yet this proves to be far from the case.
Wolfe's prose is very dense, and his language is difficult to get used to at the start of the first book. Once you are able to trudge through and make a breakthrough this work is very rewarding. The distant future presented by Wolfe is unlike any I've encountered. In fact, at first I could not tell if this was the future or some alternate medieval period. It was only until the passing mention of fliers and travel between the stars that I was able to figure out that this was the future.
I am really looking forward to reading the next installment of the Book of the New Sun. There is so much to pick through and discover in this text, I cannot wait to see where Wolfe takes me next.
33. Preacher Vol. 1 Gone To Texas by Garth Ennis34. Preacher Vol. 2 Until the End of the World by Garth Ennis
Great series. Super violent, bloody and over-the-top but it is definitely entertaining.
31. The Sandman Vol. 3 Dream Country by Neil Gaiman32. The Sandman Vol. 4 Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
I am really beginning to have an obsession with The Sandman. The first 2 that I read were certainly entertaining, but nothing to really rave about. However, I really enjoyed Dream Country and Seasons of Mist. Dream of a Thousand Cats is one of the best short stories I have read in a long time. I would highly recommend both of these books.
30. V for Vendetta by Alan MooreI didn't like V for Vendetta nearly as much as Watchmen or From Hell but it's still a pretty decent dystopian story. Some of Moore's screeds on the virtues of anarchy sounded like a college freshman after 1 too many bong hits, but on the whole I found the book enjoyable.
29. The Fall of the Roman Empire A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter HeatherA fascinating account about the how the western Roman Empire came to an end in the 5th Century. Heather argues that it was a combination of imperial policies towards the Germanic groups such as aggressive expansionism and taxation along with the Huns pushing those groups over the Danube and into the further conflict with the Romans which led to the eventual collapse. In other words, there was no peaceful transition from empire to the subsequent Germanic division of its western European holdings, but rather bloody wars fought against numerous enemies who perched themselves both within and about the empire.
28. Clive Barker's Books of Blood 1-3 by Clive BarkerIt pains me to say this, but this book sucked. I couldn't even finish the last batch of stories in volume 3 since I found almost everything prior so damn intolerable. How could the guy who wrote Imajica, Weaveworld, and The Great and Secret Show have come up with some of the absolute garbage found in the Books of Blood.
Keep in mind I am a huge Clive Barker fan, but most of these stories were just terrible. The first two, Book of Blood and Midnight Meat Train were not bad. In the Hill, the Cities was interesting as well. Everything else that I was able to slog my way through was just plain torture.
First of all, since this is a collection of horror short stories I figured some of this should scare me. Well, you flopped Clive. Second, at least gross me out. Barker has some amazing sick and twisted writing even in his fantasy works. His attepted gross outs in here generally read like sad depictions of special effects gone awry in a bad 80's horror film. Finally, even the sex scenes are tame by Barker's standards.
Let's me make it clear that Barker remains one of my favorite authors. However, if you're looking to delve into his sick mind start elsewhere. I'd recommend Imajica, Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show or The Damnation Game.
25. Hyperion by Dan Simmons26. The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
27. The Sandman Vol. 2 The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
I love Alan Moore's work but I've yet to read V for Vendetta. That's on my list along with Promethea.
From Hell is absolutely incredible. A must read IMHO.
23. The Sandman Vol. 1 Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
This was the comic to read among my friends back in high school. I went into this with very high expectations. The first and last issue of this volume were great. Gaiman's introduction to Morpheus and the occult rituals that led to his summoning and subsequent capture rocked. Death's romp around town in the last issue was very good as well. The middle of the book felt like a lot of filler.
One of the main complaints I've read about Sandman is the artwork. That is one thing I loved. It felt like a trip down memory lane. Man were those late 80's/early 90's hairdos terrible. Anyways, I'm definitely going to check out the next volume of this series to see where it goes.
24. Watchmen by Alan Moore
As you can see, I've been on a bit of a comic book bender later. I just read From Hell, which was absolutely incredible, so I figured might as well buy into the hype surrounding Watchmen.
This is definitely not your run of the mill Superman comic. Watchmen is very much like The Dark Knight Returns, in that the characters are anti-heroes. This is especially true of Roschach, whose Manichean vision of morality really leads us to question what is right and what is wrong. The artwork by Dave Gibbons is great too. I didn't like this as much as From Hell, but definitely worth checking out.
22. The Scar by China MiévilleChina Mieville's work is absolutely fantastic. He is the only guy capable of pulling off a tale about a pirate city made of requisitioned ships and crews that attempts to reach a source of almost unknowable power. Politics, intrigue, monsters, war, throw in a dash sex, theoology, anthropology and linguistics and you have The Scar. Great stuff. Perdido Street Station was pretty awesome too. I can't wait for Mr. Mieville's book that comes out later this year.
21. The Lurking Fear and Other Stories by H.P. LovecraftA small collection of H.P. Lovecraft tales. I didn't really like The Lurking Fear so much, but there were a couple of decent stories in there. My favorite was Beyond the Wall of Sleep.
