Todd Klein's Blog, page 120

And Then I Read: BRONZE AGE BOOGIE #4

Main story written by Stuart Moore, art by Alberto Ponticelli, colors by Giulia Brusco. Backup written by Tyrone Finch, art by Mauricet, colors by Lee Loughridge. Lettering on both by Rob Steen. Cover by Ponticelli.

In this issue, writer Stuart Moore manages to work in some character development amid the craziness. We learn of Jackson Li’s conception in a remote Tibetan monastery, and see the developing relationship between Lynda Darrk from the 1970s and King Domnall from the 1970s B.C. Meanwhile, Domnall’s daughter Brita follows a poetic voice in her mind into the Taboo Zone, and Jackson Li has a revealing conversation with a Martian. New surprising partnerships are made by both.

In the Major Ursa backup, the highly intelligent bear manages to escape in the NASA spacecraft he helped develop, only to be shot down in flight by his boss…or was he?

Fun stuff, recommended.

Rereading: THE TOMBS OF ATUAN by Ursula K. Le Guin

Profusely illustrated by Charles Vess.

In the second Earthsea novel, Le Guin took a step further away from traditional fantasy themes and a step forward on her own unique path by making the viewpoint character a young woman. In a genre that was then thought to appeal mainly to men and boys, young adult fantasy in 1970, this was almost unheard of.

Tenar is the young woman, taken from her parents in infancy to become the priestess of the Old Gods of the Kargish Lands at the eastern edge of Earthsea, where the magic and wizards of the Inner Sea are forbidden and ineffective. The Old Gods had great power once, but that power has faded, replaced by newer gods and god-kings in the Kargish islands, but their worship is still led by a group of women priests and eunichs in the remote desert temples of the compound where Tenar now lives. Despite her role as chief priestess of the Old Gods, Tenar’s life is highly controlled and restricted by those around her. The one place where she has true power is in the vast maze-tunneled underground complex beneath the tombs of Atuan. This area is largely unknown to even the other women of the place. Tenar has been carefully taught to memorize the routes through it to the various rooms and treasures it contains.

One day Tenar detects a strange man inside the maze, something that has not happened in perhaps hundreds of years. At first she is furious at the desecration of her province, and leads the man into a trap deep inside the maze, but in time, she begins to speak to the man, and decides to spare his life to learn more about him and his world. That man is Ged, hero of the first book, now a full wizard of Earthsea, though his powers are greatly reduced in this stronghold of the Old Gods. Can his conversations with Tenar change her perception of the world enough to allow them both to escape the prison of the maze and the Tombs of Atuan? What will the response of the Old Gods be to that? Such is the meat of this excellent story.

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: JIMMY OLSEN #1

Image © DC Comics. Written by Matt Fraction, art by Steve Lieber,
colors by Nathan Fairbairn, letters by Clayton Cowles.

As soon as I saw the cover of this comic I had a feeling I’d enjoy it, and I was right. Here, as in the distant past when he had his own title previously, Superman’s Pal is played for humor while getting into lots of trouble. Writer Matt Fraction also takes some time to explore Jimmy’s roots in Metropolis, as in the opening sequence, but the main story is Jimmy attempting to survive jumping out of a spaceship above the Earth without a parachute. As usual, everything goes wrong to an amusing degree, and even Superman’s rescue isn’t entirely successful.

Jimmy’s boss Perry White has every right to fire him, but settles for another solution to his Olsen problem: sending Jimmy on assignment…apparently a 12-issue series of assignments…beginning with Gotham City.

The art by Steve Lieber hits all the right notes, the script by Fraction is clever and entertaining. The colors by Fairbairn and letters by Cowles add to the fun, making this the most appealing new DC comic I’ve read in a while. Recommended.

And Then I Read: HASHTAG: DANGER #4

Main story by Tom Peyer & Chris Giarrusso. Backup by Paul Constant & Fred Harper with colors by Lee Loughridge and letters by Rob Steen. Cover by Richard Williams.

Once again the cover of this comic has nothing to do with the contents, but ain’t it a beauty!

As a parody of super-hero teams, the three members of Hashtag: Danger are amusing. Even their bickering is entertaining. When they run into a trio of impostors who look just like them, things get complicated, particularly when the impostors turn out to be better at the team thing than they are. Also better at the time-travel thing. Fun story.

The Snelson backup is a strange one, more an anecdote than a story, though it advances the title character in his inability to do the stand-up comedy he thinks he’s great at. I wouldn’t pay him either!

Recommended.

Thirty years ago today…

…I married my true love, Ellen Smiga. We’re still enjoying life together, long may it be so. Happy anniversary, Ellen!

Rereading: A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA

I bought the Charles Vess illustrated “Books of Earthsea” at the San Diego Con, even though I already own most of the contents. Charles’ wonderful illustrations made it a must-have anyway. Above is the dust jacket of this thick tome, and the title page illustration for the first book in the series. Each book has a full-page painting similar to the dust jacket and many black and gray tone illustrations, all terrific.

I don’t think I’d reread this book since it came out in the 1960s. Despite that, I remembered some of the characters, settings and plot, a tribute to Le Guin’s writing skill.

Earthsea is a large collection of islands, and young Sparrowhawk is a young man on one of them, Gont. While his public name is thus, his true name is Ged, as he finds out in this story, and Ged also discovers he has a powerful talent for magic. The magic of Earthsea revolves around the true names of things, and as Ged begins to learn a few of them from a local witch and wizard, he gains power, or rather his innate power comes forth. Even in his youth and inexperience, Ged is able to confuse some raiding soldiers with fog and mist, saving most of his village. Ged’s teacher suggests he should go to the school for wizards on the island of Roke to gain more knowledge, a place where all the best wizards of Earthsea live and teach. Once he arrives, Ged’s pride and jealousy aroused by the taunting of a fellow student lead him to cast a dangerous spell beyond his control. This unleashes a great evil in the world, one that nearly kills Ged, and one that will always continue to try to destroy him. The only solution is for Ged to fight back, to pursue the evil shadow and conquer it, even to the ends of Earthsea.

This is a great read, and where it really came to life for me is when Ged meets, speaks with and battles his first dragon. There’s something about the way Le Guin handles the dragons that stands out from the fantasy crowd, and puts her at the level of Tolkien. While this book follows fantasy traditions in some ways, in others it breaks new ground. I can’t recommend it enough. If you haven’t read it, you should!

And Then I Read: THE OVERNEATH by Peter S. Beagle

I’ve been enjoying the writing of Peter S. Beagle a very long time, since discovering his fantasy novels “A Fine and Private Place” and “The Last Unicorn” in the late 1960s. He continues to entertain me. This collection gathers stories from various anthologies dated 2010 through 2016.

“The Green-Eyed Boy” is a tale of Beagle’s character Schmendrick the Magician just starting out in his ill-fated career, an important incident for fans of “The Last Unicorn.”

“The Story of Kao Yu” tells of a Chinese unicorn (of sorts) who helps a famous judge decide some of his most troubling cases…until the judge finds himself in moral jeopardy.

“My Son Heydari and the Karkadann” tells of yet another kind of unicorn, this one a fierce beast of Iran akin to a rhinoceros, and the young man and his girlfriend who help nurse an injured one back to health.

“The Queen Who Could Not Walk” asks, if you are raised with every privilege to offset your disability, what will happen when you are turned out into the streets with nothing?

“Trinity County, CA” wonders what might happen if lawmen trying to control illegal drugs had to deal with guardian dragons owned by the drug lords?

In “The Way It Works Out And All,” Beagle uses real-life fantasy writer and his mentor, Avram Davidson in a fun fictional adventure in which Avram has discovered The Overneath, a way to travel great distances quickly, but a dangerous one.

“Kaskia” features a laptop computer so inexplicable to its user that it might well be magic. The messages he’s receiving certainly seem to be from some other world than ours.

“Schmendrick Alone” is another tale of bungled magic that the wizard allows to get out of control.

“Great-Grandmother in the Cellar” is a chilling tale of a family secret that is not only their horror, but at times their savior.

“Underbridge” is a modern day troll story set in Seattle, and using an actual troll sculpture found there as the focal point.

“The Very Nasty Aquarium” asks, can an ancient evil reside in a simple aquarium decoration, and what happens when the water starts turning black?

“Music, When Soft Voices Die” describes four rooming-house inhabitants in a sort of Victorian steampunk London. One of them is experimenting with early radio devices, and unleashes voices from the dead that will not be silenced.

“Olfert Dapper’s Day” takes place in 17th-century Maine, where the title character once reported to have seen a real unicorn. Beagle’s development of this spare idea is fascinating.

All good stories, and recommended.

Sand Sculptures 2019

My friend Tim and his son Gabe were here the last three days for our annual beach visits and sand sculpting adventures. (You can find previous ones under the “Sand Sculpture” topic in the right menu of this blog.)

Tim was emulating the work of sand sculpture wizard Calvin Siebert on Saturday with this block structure. My tower, behind it, is nothing much, and was damaged by a wayward flying umbrella, so is hardly worth focusing on.

On one side of Tim’s sculpture he found a way to make this lattice pattern that we both liked.

Gabe made this large cutaway sphere, like the diagrams of what’s inside the earth, sort of.

Later in the day we enjoyed watching our work washed away by the incoming tide. By that time, Tim’s had become much smaller and simpler, with a hole in it.

On Sunday I made this rocket. Not terrible straight, but I thought it worked well enough. I wanted to get a point on the shaft, but couldn’t do it, so I put a triangle made separately on the top.

Tim did another Siebert-inspired structure that reminded us of the game Jenga.

Tim has found or developed all kinds of sculpting tools over the years, some are on the left in this picture, including tool boxes and trays of small ones.

A more finished version of Tim’s sculpture.

On Monday Tim suggested we try to make block letters out of sand. He came up with these.

Mine were smaller, horizontal and surrounded by a graphic which I thought came out rather well.

Tim is headed home today, so that’s it for this year!

And Then I Read: THE COLOR OF MAGIC by Terry Pratchett

I came to the Discworld series late, when most of it was already written. There are lots of titles, over 40. I read up on where to start. The advice was, don’t try to read them in order, pick a series within the series and follow that. I did so with the Tiffany Aching books — loved them — and the Going Postal books — loved them as well. Tried a few others at random. Finally, I decided to read this one, the very first.

While I’d been able to pick up the general geography and plan of Discworld from some of the other books, the first one makes it more understandable thanks to the wide range of action and Terry’s explanations as he went along. Why did I listen to all that advice, I should have started here! Giant flat disc with central land mass surrounded by oceans, which pour continuously over the edge. Disc on the back of four immense elephants themselves on the back of an even more immense sea turtle swimming through space. Got it. Established: this is a world not possible without magic. There’s plenty of that in the book.

The story focuses on Rincewind, who calls himself a wizard, but in fact he has almost no wizardly abilities due to flunking out of wizard school. He agrees to become the personal guide to Twoflower, a rich but clueless tourist from a faraway empire. Rincewind plans to pocket his large fee and skedaddle, but he’s forced to actually honor the agreement by the ruler of his home city, Ankh-Morpork to keep Twoflower’s empire from taking revenge for the trick. Twoflower has a list of events and places he wants to visit, all of them very dangerous or nearly impossible to achieve. His one important asset is a magical trunk that not only holds his fortune, but almost anything else Twoflower might need. The trunk has many small legs, and doggedly and unerringly follows Twoflower everywhere, even when left far behind. The trunk has teeth and a dangerous appetite when threatened.

Through these characters, we get to see many areas and their inhabitants on Discworld, even in the surrounding ocean. The flavor is humorous, at times satiric, but the characters are believable and entertaining, perhaps not least because they all have agendas that include getting some of Twoflower’s money for themselves. Is there an honest man or woman on Discworld? They’re mighty scarce.

A fun read, and recommended.

And Then I Read: BRONZE AGE BOOGIE #3

Lead story written by Stuart Moore, art by Alberto Ponticelli, colors by Giulia Brusco. Backup written by Tyrone Finch, art by Mauricet, colors by Lee Loughridge. Letters on both by Rob Steen.

This book continues to combine disparate genres and characters in an entertaining way. It opens in a 1975 where Martians have conquered the Earth (or at least New York City), and they are staging a battle between two captives: street fighter Lynda Darrk and martial arts master Jackson Li. Their other prisoner, Brita, has recently arrived from 2,000 years ago, and is a warrior herself. Before long, Brita and Lynda are back in Brita’s time where a super-intelligent monkey is making trouble. The Martians are there, too, but what happened to Jackson Li?

The backup, Major Ursa, is about a bear who has gained high intelligence through being sent into space as an experiment. Now he holds the key to further space travel, even though he’s being treated as slave labor. Ursa has an ally in Selma, another cog in the space program machine. Can the two of them sneak into the waiting space ship and get it airborne?

I’m not sure why these ideas work, but they do. Recommended.