Steven’s Comments (group member since Nov 30, 2019)

Steven’s comments from the Mount TBR 2020 group.

#138 - The Shambler from the Stars by Robert Bloch

A bleak entry into the Mythos — a writer of dark fiction seeks deeper, darker inspiration. It doesn’t go well. Meddle thou not in the affairs of Old Ones for you are crunchy a delicious to Shoggoths.

#137 - Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 2: Cosmic Cooties by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos
#138 - Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 3: The Smartest There Is by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos

Continues to be good, goofy fun, though the stakes are going up...as is the damage level. Lunella has gone through the Inhuman change only to discover that all it’s done is give her the ability to seemingly randomly mind-swap with the dinosaur. On top of that both Amadeus Cho and The Thing appoint themselves as mentors, with ridiculous results, and an army of Doombots take umbrage.

#136 -Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1: BFF by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos

Goofy, cute, and fun, perfect for younger readers. Lunella Lafayette, aka Moon-Girl, is a highly precocious 9 year with a genius IQ and a knack for inventing gadgets. She’s one of those who have the Inhuman gene and with a Terrigen cloud floating around New York she’s scared to death — if the Terrigen comes into contact with her she’ll change, and many of those changes are monstrous.

Of course, that’s when Devil Dinosaur gets pulled from the deep past along with a group of surprisingly intelligent proto-cavemen. Before long the Amadeus Cho Hulk shows up and all hell is breaking loose.

It’s going to be a squeaker, I fear.

#135 - The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman

Pullman examines the beginning of the Christian church and its preponderance of evils by retelling the story of Jesus in prosaic terms, involving a twin brother who sees the low-level unorganized Rabbinical capacities of Jesus and formulates a scheme for creating a grand, shining church, a shining Kingdom of God. In this Christ is aided by “the Stranger” — who might be a man, an avatar of Paul of Tarsus, or something more primeval. It’s all allegorical, of course, but does make its points quite suitably.

The audio version is worth visiting — Pullman is an excellent reader.

Yay! Coming right behind me!

#134 - What If? Classic, Vol. 4 by various and sundry

The fourth collection of Marvel’s “alternate timeline” series, and finally references to the Multiverse are creeping in. The stories range from good to thuddingly mediocre with the occasional dive into the ridiculous — as with Aunt May being bitten by the radioactive spider, rather than Peter Parker. The last half of the book also includes digressions into deep Marvel History.

#133 - You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett

An exhaustive look at the breakdown and breakup of the Beatles and the aftermath, which kept entire legal firms employed for decades. It’s sometimes exhausting to read given the bad behaviour from numerous parties

#132 - Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 20: Into the Time Stream by Walt Simonson, Louise Simonson, Chris Claremont and others

Most of Walt Simonson’s short stint on the series, through which we meet, in passing, the Time Variance Authority. After closing out the Acts of Vengeance event, the FF are first sent forward in time, then backwards, and sideways. That done, Reed and Sue have to come to grips with their overpowered son, Franklin, both young and old, which drags things into a crossover with the X-Men side of things via that year’s annuals. The Days Of Future Present event is, frankly, pretty terrible. Simonson’s main storyline is speedy and busy, but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, though I was amused at the alternate timeline where Josef Stalin rules Russia as a Disney-created animatronic mecha.

#131 - Batman & Superman in World's Finest: The Silver Age  Vol. 2 (World's Finest by Edmund Hamilton, Bill Finger, Dick Sprang and others

Includes the stories from issues #95-#116, pretty much running the gamut from goofy creature stories to goofy creature stories on alien worlds, all featuring outlandish plots for the Superman/Batman/Robin team. One highlight has magical imp Mxyzptlk fighting with Bat-Mite and several feature Batman getting powers. Goofy stuff, but great silly fun to read.

#130 - San Francisco Municipal Railway by Robert P. Townley and John E. Perry, Jr

A Western Railroader title that combines two earlier publications between card stock covers. Provides an overview of the merger between the Market Street Railway and the Muni and the subsequent changes and developments between 1944 and 1964.

#129 - Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 7 by Archie Goodwin, Allyn Brodsky, Gerry Conway, George Tuska and others

Tony Stark bounces between dimensions, saves an old friend, investigates industrial skullduggery, has his new heart rejected, and fights off a bunch of terraformers before getting involved in handling a gang land situation. All this and girl trouble. Overall it’s a pretty messy volume.

#128 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

I ended up listening to two audio versions (one read by Tom Mison) and reading the text. It’s a trifle, methinks, but amusing. The Tom Mison reading brings considerable gravitas to Irving’s story.

#127 - Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini by Cynthia Von Buehler

Hard Case Crime occasionally pops out an oddity, and this is certainly that — a mystery that mixes up a neophyte private eye whose investigator father has forbidden her to get into the business (instead dragging in his gay son), Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a gaggle of sham spiritualists and their hangers-on. It’s a slapdash story, with Minky getting *way* too involved with Houdini. It’s based on the murky circumstances around Houdini’s death — was he murdered? Or did he died from a ruptured appendix and sepsis? Von Buehler isn’t entirely definitive, but she has a good time with the story.

#126 - Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H. P. Lovecraft

An encounter with a monster in human form who can find his way to the monsters outside, and take others with him. In audio form, read by narrator Ian Gordon.

#125 - Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers, Vol. 18 by David Michelinie, John Byrne, George Perez, et al

The Avengers get shaved down to seven members and immediately encounter massive problems both inside and outside the team. Wanda and Pietro discover they’re not who they thought they were, and Tony Stark discovers part of his father’s legacy lurking in the basement of Avengers Mansion. It’s a middle of the road collection, but it does look quite good.

Quirkyreader wrote: "Wow, 26 more to go🐸"

25 after the next post! But I still have ~12 In the virtual TBR.

#124 - Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

I have to admit that I’m sometimes dubious about the choices I make...choosing to gallumph through the Pendergast series is one of those moments. I’ve already read Cemetery Dance, which rather annoyed me with its take on Obeah. This one annoyed me by being ludicrously padded for a story involving a rampaging beast trapped in a museum. Even when it’s over and wrapped...it keeps going. Multiple endings, and two setups for the sequel, which is equally as padded from the looks of it.

#123 - Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC by Reed Tucker

Well, we’ve had books about the history of DC and Marvel, so I guess it was time for a history of the inter-company rivalry. It’s fairly solid, despite the bias towards Marvel, and the lament at the end about the corporate subsuming of both companies is even more true now.

Irritating note: I went with the audiobook version of this and writer Gerry Conway is referred to throughout as Gary Conway. Awfully sloppy. The narrator also can’t fo accents — his attempts to render Alan Moore were cringeworthy.

#122 - Irons - Volume 1 - The Engineer by Tristan Roulot & Luc Brahy

Of all things, an engineering-based mystery set in a small Canadian port town at the tail end of winter. Engineer Jack Irons, survivor of a bridge collapse as a boy, is in town to visit the grave of a military comrade, when the center of the controversial Confederation Bridge collapses. While Irons is briefly a suspect, he has no interest in investigating the collapse unless he gets paid, but when he gets stuck and needs Mountie help getting across the bay, he figures out a way to take a look and trade his expertise.

It’s a clever mystery with some nice twists. Irons is an interesting, if unlikeable, character, and it’s nice to see science being the big deal here, along with some social commentary.