http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/934929 en-US Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:18:49 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 35533411 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:18:49 -0700 Review30509186 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30509186 to: Schrodinger's Ball: A Novel (Paperback) by Adam Felber
]]> 33743602 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:41:03 -0700 Review29135007 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29135007 to: Kamandi Archives, Vol. 2 (Hardcover) by Jack Kirby
The second volume of the Kamadi Archives starts off with a bang, literally, as the hovercraft we saw Kamandi and his mutant friends Ben, Steve, and Renzi use to escape the doomed Tracking Site explodes somewhere off the coast of what was once Florida. Not to worry, though: Kamandi is soon fished out of the water by some leopards in the employ of Sacker's Salvage, who discover that their rescued "animal" can talk...

Jack Kirby's stories become even more insane in this second ten-issue collection of Kamandi comics. Kamandi meets (and eventually rides!) The Devil, the serpentine businessman Sacker (one of the best-written characters in the first two volumes), Spirit, the topless lookalike sister of the similarly topless Flower who was briefly Kamandi's companion in Volume 1; he travels to Washington to uncover the mystery of the Watergate Tapes (a dated parody, but well worth the background reading!), is captured by gorillas after he attacks a squad of them single-handed, unarmed, and without provocation, falls in with the Gopher Creeps, and runs afoul of robot Gangsters in a curiously undamaged Chicago. Along the way we learn more about the Great Disaster, and we learn the mechanism behind the acquisition of language skills by animals everywhere.

A fun romp, and a delight to fans of Kirby. Well worth reading. ]]> 33743788 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:27:22 -0700 Review29135157 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29135157 to: Kamandi Archives, Volume 1 (DC Archive Editions) by Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby was the King of comics, and Kamandi was one of his babies. A wonderful mess, a parody of society in the spirit of Gulliver's Travels and an "homage" of sorts to the movie Planet of the Apes, as well as to Boulle's original novel. (Later movies on the Planet of the Apes series would return the honor by freely borrowing some of Kirby's story points.)

Set some decades after the mysterious and terrible Great Disaster, Kamandi is The Last Boy on Earth. Except that he isn't, not necessarily, since there are plenty of other humans on Earth, mostly reverted to a wild, dumb state. Nor is Kamandi the only talking boy on Earth: in the first few issues we meet plenty of other humans who can talk. Consistency was never a huge consideration in this series, and plot points are often discarded almost as soon as they are brought up.

But none of that is important. The art is pure Kirby, rough and beautiful at the same time. These stories are just a fun, ridiculous romp, as Kirby puts his vaguely homoerotic hero up against talking apes, pumas, leopards, rats, dogs, lions, tigers, and bears, giant bacteria and spandex-wearing bats, pumpkin-headed Misfits and atomic-hearted Mutants.

Kamandi is brash and impetuous, guaranteed to react to any situation in the most inadvisable way possible, usually with tremendous violence and disastrous consequences all around. His situations tend to go from bad to worse, but he's a born survivor who manages to make it through - and meets plenty of bizarre characters along the way.

Kamandi Archives Volume 1 collects issues 1 through 10 of the series, from 1972 through 1973. If you're a fan of Kirby or just have a taste for post-apocalyptic satire, this is a must-read! ]]> 27187835 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:08:51 -0700 Review24010136 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24010136 to: American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers (Hardcover) by Marc Hartzman
]]> 26495315 Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:42:02 -0700 Review23471069 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23471069 to: The Draco Tavern (Mass Market Paperback) by Larry Niven
]]> 26235839 Thu, 29 May 2008 19:13:56 -0700 Review23270184 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23270184 to: All My Sins Remembered (Gollancz SF S.) by Joe Haldeman
]]> 25190839 Sat, 17 May 2008 18:18:06 -0700 Review22456616 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22456616 Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Paperback) by Roméo Dallaire
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 21654028 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:18:16 -0700 Review19753773 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19753773 to: Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future (Hardcover) by Peter D. Ward
]]> 19331427 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:07:03 -0700 Review17900008 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17900008 to: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Paperback) by Douglas Adams
]]> 19331299 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:05:51 -0700 Review17899906 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17899906 to: Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures (Paperback) by Carl Zimmer
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