Mount TBR 2021 discussion
Mount Olympus (150+ books)
>
Brian Blessed v Olympus: Piles Of Reading
#42 - Thanos, Vol. 3: Thanos Wins by Donny Cates et alPretty much just wall to wall punching, kicking, and gouging, and reminders that Thanos is evil and monstrous and wants to kill everything.
Boring, alas.
#43 - Pile of Bones by Michael J. SullivanPrequel to Sullivan’s Legends Of The First Empire series, following the mystic Suri when she was young. A storm reveals a cave hidden behind a waterfall, filled with bones. Suri makes the mistake of taking one, and is pursued by…something. It’s a compact story that’s extremely self-contained.
#44 - Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 by Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Robert Kanigher, and others Second of three companion collections to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the year-long event series that remade the DC Universe in 1985 (it’s since been remade several times and finally reset as an Omniverse.) The bulk of this collection is once again provided by Roy and Dann Thomas, this time with Infinity, Inc, a group that gets very awkwardly merged into the final remaining universe. There’s also one last JLA/JSA crossover, weddings, funerals, and changings of the guard, and more than a little incoherence. Occasionally the tie-in material barely even ties in (there’s a Batman story here that’s only present because of weather and a single panel about the Joker.)
It’s enjoyable enough, though.
#45 - Transit-Times: Illustrated History Of Rail Transit In The East Bay 1865-1960 by unknownA concise history of transportation in the East Bay region of the San Francisco-Oakland region. Concludes with blithering about the then-new fleet of stinky buses, and trying to give the impression that other forms of public transport were history — as it turned out, that didn’t quite take.
#46 - Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition Vol. 3 by Marv Wolfman, Alan Moore, Bob Greenberg, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, and variousThe third and final collection of Crisis on Infinite Earths crossovers, this time with no long runs, just 1-3 issues, mostly Superman-related. There’s a lot of pointless stuff here, sadly, with a few standouts like Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing issue.
#47 - Crisis On Infinite Earths Deluxe Edition by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, othersGiven my sudden dive into the Crisis books, I figured it was time I broke out the deluxe edition of the miniseries that I’ve had shelved for several years (the last time I read it, it was the paperback edition with some restoration work done.)
While it was a monumental production in its time, it hasn’t held up all that well — the writing is overwrought and often a spew of words trying to communicate a concept. The Anti-Monitor makes more returns than a slasher film villain, and the thing just keeps restarting. There’s a thoroughly superfluous subplot where a villain group is trying to conquer the surviving worlds, only to just not be doing that anymore. The conclusion and the two-issue series that follows just leave bits and pieces scattered around, making this a less orderly reboot than anyone wanted (plus, Wonder Woman is apparently ten years old when she leaves Themiscyra.) It’s big and bold and trips over its feet a lot.
No matter. It wouldn’t be very long before Zero Hour: Crisis in Time arrived to reboot the reboot to straighten stuff out, which settled things forever…well, until Infinite Crisis came along and undid everything in grimdark fashion. Since then it’s been one sort of Crisis after another.
Quirkyreader wrote: "Looks like we’re tided right now on our climbs🥾"I’ve been dragging this year. I’m halfway through on my annual count overall, but I’m *way* behind on this.
#48 - Fantastic Four: Resurrection of Galactus by Jeph Loeb and Carlos Pacheco and others Gains points for being a multiverse story with some cute references, loses points for being gibberish with no ending beyond wishing it away, and there’s a whole confused thing about Valeria, plus Franklin loses his powers for like the ninth time. Plus a *really* terrible “humor” story and some cloth-eared vignettes.
#49 - Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll by Christopher HillAs a fan of psychedelia, progressive rock, and brain-expanding music, I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately it’s a rather leaden, off-the-mark affair that manages to miss rather a lot of the actual transcendent and mystical stuff going on in 1960s music. How Hill can get through to the end of this without bringing in black music at all is beyond me - some of the most mysticism-infused and influential artists were black, and they continued through the 1970s and beyond.
Overall, turgid, and pointless.
#50 - Mail-Order Mysteries: Real Stuff from Old Comic Book Ads by Kirk DemairisA fun, if light, look back at the novelties sold in comic book ads through the 1980s. A lot of it is junk, of course, but it’s all at least briefly fascinating.
#51 - The Hawk and the Dove: The Silver Age by Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates, Gil Kane, Neal Adams Created by Steve Ditko, who quit after three stories. Teenage brothers Hank and Don Hall, sons of a hard-line judge, are granted vague powers by a mysterious voice, and take up crime fighting while arguing with each other. It’s tedious, it’s ugly, and finally it’s over after seven issues and a Teen Titans guest shot. Perennially no-one’s favourites, the two would be back repeatedly, but still unloved and unsuccessful.
#52 - Drastic Measures by Dayton WardOstensibly a Star Trek Discovery book, actually (mostly) a prequel detailing the events on Tarsus IV, with Prime timeline Gabriel Lorca and then-Commander Georgiou. Readable, but a bit padded, and with multiple endings.
#53 - The Avengers: The Lost Episodes - Volume 7 by Terrence Feeley, Ian Potter, John Dorney, etcThe final entry in the reconstruction of scrapped episodes of the first series of The Avengers when it was a gritty crime series focused primarily on Ian Hendry’s Dr. David Keel, with the mysterious, sardonic John Steed showing up at intervals. These stories have a Steed solo outing, a Keel solo, and a team episode.
Very enjoyable work.
#54 - The Avengers: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 03: Steed & Tara King by John Dorney and othersHaving finished the Diana comics, it’s off to the TV Comics stories. Four adaptations are presented here, and it has to be said that they’re *freely* adapted — “Spycraft” barely resembles the rather racist original. It’s not all great, sadly — “It’s A Wild Wild Wild Wild West” is pretty bad.
#55 - The Avengers: The Diana Comic Strips by Emilio Frejo and Anon.#56 - The Avengers: Steed & Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 1 by Paul Magrs, John Dorney, etc
The starting point and where they went. The beautifully presented Diana series is unfortunately do compressed that the stories are nearly nonsensical. Those, however, provided the starting point for some splendid adaptations that go all in on the mad as a bag of badgers nature of the final Emma Peel season of the show.
#57 - The Avengers: Steed & Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 2 by John Dorney, Paul Fitton, etc.Further adaptations and expansions of the Diana comic strips. If anything, this concluding quartet is even dafter than the first set, starting with homicidal circus dwarfs and concluding with Steed driving a tank down the M1 motorway.
#58 - The Time Machine by H.G. WellsRevisiting this novella via the Apple Books edition read by Kelsey Grammer, who delivers a muscular performance that does a good job of getting the Time Traveler’s experiences across.
The story is as much musing on the future of mankind and of the Earth itself (ultimately doomed as the sun dies) as it is an adventure. Wells sees a great peril in the idea of mankind becoming fully peaceful and complacent in an ultimate socialist utopia. Sadly, the true peril is human nature — handed a peaceful utopia we’d burn it to the ground.
#59 - Doctor Who: The Devil's Footprints by Penelope FaithThe Doctor and Mel visit a 19th Century reverend…but something is amiss. Strange things have been happening, the Reverend seems sinister, and the prints of cloven hooves abound…. Lightweight, but we st least get to see 7’s less lethal side for a change.
#60 - Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties by Ian MacDonaldThough I gave this as a dead tree, I listened to the current audio book…interesting approach, switching readers regularly, but by the end I wished they’d just had Robyn Hitchcock do it all — he’s a fabulous reader.
Great book, most interesting. I’ve always held a rather unworshipful view of the Beatles (without George Martin they would have been pretty rough, as they demonstrated down the line) and this book takes a clinical look, praising where due, critically assessing where due. It succeeded in giving me a more even-handed view of what was achieved from 1962-1970.
#61 - What If? Classic, Vol. 5 by Mark Gruenwald and othersMore tales of alternate realities designed to give Mobius M. Mobius ulcers, as the Watcher recaps events in the 616 timeline and then shows us how things could have played out otherwise (the failure to launch of the Fantastic Four leaves Ben Grimm as the only enhanced human! Johnny Blaze saves the Pope! Korvac…well, that would be telling!)
Art and writing is entirely variable, of course , and the reproduction is equally variable. Mostly clunky fun, until Gruenwald launches into an epic tale branching off from the Korvac Saga that ran in the Avengers. Gruenwald going cosmic is fun!
#62 - What If? Classic, Vol. 6 by Steven Grant, Alan Kupperberg, etcMore stories of possible alternate Marvel universes, including one issue that peers thirty and forty years ahead to see how the Marvel Universe might grow old. Curiously enough, the story with the biggest cast — featuring the future Avengers — has the most intimate theme. Other stories look at alternate heralds for Galactus (again) and what might happen if the Thing and the Beast mutated more.
A bit better than average, and, as always, fun (for me, anyway.)
#63 - What If? Classic, Vol. 7 by Peter B. Gillis and othersFinal collection from volume 1, though missing issues/parts of issues due to licensing. Most of this collection is by Peter Gillis, who sometimes hits it out of the park and sometimes strikes out. On occasion the story is strong but the art is lacking (Ron Frenz’s Ditko imitation on “What If…Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben Had Lived?” is pretty rough stuff.)
Again, it’s multiverse stuff, and I enjoy that.
#64 - What If? With Great Power by Carl Potts, etcMore twists in the Marvel Universe. Interestingly one story reruns an earlier entry, having Flash Thompson rather than Peter Parker bitten by the spider…it doesn’t go well. Peter himself gets bitten by a different spider in another entry, ending up wearing black with a skull logo on the costume…leading to him becoming the Spider-Punisher. After a ruthless career he gives it up…just in time for Frank Castle to find the discarded gear after his family is murdered.
And so on. The X-Men are recast into virtual reality, Magik becomes the student of the exhausted Dr. Strange, Robbie Reyes has a rather unfortunate run in with Latverian black metal, and so forth.
#65 - What If? Classic: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 by Roy Thomas, Donald F. Glut, Jack Kirby, and othersThe first dozen issues of the original Marvel alternate timelines series. Sometimes epic, sometimes not, sometimes weird (“What If…The Marvel Bullpen Became The Fantastic Four”), it’s mostly fun stuff. Two of the stories here eventually ended up inspiring mainstream Marvel books (Jane Foster as Thor, the 50s Avengers inspiring Agents Of Atlas.)
#66 - What If? Dark Avengers by Stan Lee and moreFor my limited money the best things here are “Iron Man: Demon In An Armor”, which upends Tony Stark and Victor von Doom, and the closing “What If The Watcher Killed Galactus?”, a story by Stan Lee that’s one of the better things he’s done. Otherwise it’s barely alright takes on Dark Reign and a tedious Deadpool story where he’s hired by Galactus to kill the Beyonder, only to wind up bonded to Venom.
#67 - What If? Secret Invasion by Kevin Grievioux and othersAnother collection that roars through modern Marvel events, with twists applied. I’m not sure what the point of the Daredevil story was with Matt being killed and resurrected to take over the Hand. There’s a couple of stories that posit Gwen Stacy coming across from House of M, World War Hulk entries, various Secret Invasion twists, and an X-Men book that’s basically an excuse to be depressed.
#68 - The Real Sherlock by Lucinda HawksleyA compressed biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, done directly for audio release.
I enjoyed this, but it’s very much hit-the-highlights — the spiritualism that sucked him in the latter part of his life just sort of whizzes by, and there’s no attempt at all to discuss the numerous early adaptations of Doyle’s works, with The Lost World only being mentioned in the context of its supposed influence on Jurassic Park, with no reference to the epic silent adaptation — which Doyle would have at least known about, if not seen. It’s short enough to get through in a short evening, but it does that by compressing Arthur Conan Doyle terribly.
#69 - Sea Wall / A Life by Simon Stephens, Nick PayneI’d probably do five stars but for Tom Sturridge starting out rather over-tentatively, his performance full of stops and starts, tics, stutters, and more. While it dies add a certain realism, it makes for an awkward listening experience (in a visual medium, this works better as you have expression and body languages.)
The second story is sometimes confusing because the narrator is sorting through parts of his life that are clashing, going back and forth over what happened — at the same time that he discovers he and his wife have a child coming, his father becomes ill. Birth and death intermix, and he can’t parse it’s— it’s too confusing, and he makes some emotionally poor choices before he learns better.
#70 - The Flying Flamingo Sisters by Carrie SeimA delightfully silly pastiche of 1930s pulp adventures as three young aviatrix sisters set out to find their missing parents, pursued by their mustache-twirling uncle.
#71 - Out Of My Mind by Alan ArkinAn autobiographical ramble through Arkin’s spiritual and psychological experience. It’s interesting, but rather dubious at times — he maintains a belief in a Brazilian “psychic healer” who’s nowadays considered an expert charlatan, and otherwise seems unfocused. Still, an interesting curiosity, and short enough to avoid causing irritation (the print edition is 120 pages long.)
#72 - Lullaby by Ed McBainDetectives Carella and Meyer catch a horrific double murder that ends up incorporating an armed robbery in the same building, while Bert Kling interrupts a beating by a Jamaican gang and ends up in the middle of a drug war, with a psychotic killer looking to murder him as the cherry on top. Meanwhile, Detective Eileen Burke is trying to get a psychiatrist to help her quit, an effort that keeps going wrong because Eileen won’t address the core traumas.
This is a halfway intense book — the initial murders turn into an increasingly rancid case with a horrible resolution. Kling’s case, meanwhile, is muddled and messy and particularly opaque to him because all the parties involved are double-crossing each other.
The book’s made a bit laborious by the presence of two characters McBain loved to death — Fats Donner, and Fat Ollie Weeks, both bigots, both sleazy and gross. This does lead to McBain lampooning himself, though, as authors of Italian background adopting Anglo names are mocked thoroughly.
#73 - Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 8 by Gerry Conway, Gary Friedrich, George Tuska, etcBetween the often hideous art and the generally terrible scripting, this ended up as an attempt to make a silk purse of a rotting sow’s ear. Highlights include abandoning a story arc mid-issue, and Tony Stark being mean to his fiancée because she’s trying to keep him alive. Also, tech genius Stark can’t seem to keep more than ten minutes of charge in his batteries.
On to vol. 9, unfortunately more of the same….
#74 - The Prague Coup by Jean-Luc Fromental & Miles HymanA rather interesting and compelling story — author Fromental based this tale on Graham Greene’s 1948 trip to Vienna, where, in the company of Elizabeth Montague, a British aristocrat whose life had ranged from acting to working in British intelligence, he did research for The Third Man. Fromental weaves in Greene’s intelligence background, and spins a tale that has multiple layers, culminating in Greene’s mysterious side trip to Prague. There’s long been speculation that Greene knew that Kim Philby was a traitor, and that this was why Greene left MI6, where Philby was his section chief.
There’s a great deal of fictionalizing, of course — Montague here is younger than the real life woman. Much of the story, though, stays close to fact, albeit with a completely fabricated conclusion.
#75 - Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward & Kevin DilmoreThe conclusion to the Legacies trilogy. Kirk and company figure out where Una, Sarek, and the cross-universe castaways are, and set to trying to rescue them. Meanwhile, the Klingon Empire, disputing control of the Isildur planet and looking for the Transfer Key, harries the Enterprise, flirting with breaking the Organian Treaty.
#76 - The Caedmon Poetry Collection: A Century of Poets Reading Their Work by variousAs it says on the tin, this is three and a half hours of major poets reading their work, for better or worse. A few recordings show their vintage, a few are less vintage but poor recordings, and the performances range from the flat and affectless to the moderately dynamic. It can be difficult to reconcile the brilliance of the work with a flat, droning reading, but regardless this is of interest just to hear the sources themselves, rather than interpretations by others or the performance in one’s own head.
#77 - Sentinels by Bill PronziniThe Nameless Detective (who has a name, but the series conceit is that it’s never mentioned) takes a missing persons case that sends him into the darker corners of rural California and it’s insular small towns.
It’s a fairly quick read, but one with both familiar beats and over baked characters that sometimes verge on caricature.
#78 - Christmas Was Better In The 80s by Ben BakerAn affectionate and amusing look back at Christmas television in England. Baker sticks to the lighter end of things, skipping operas and most serious drama, though he does chart the rise of the Christmas episodes of soap operas such as “Eastenders.”
#79 - Quarry's War by Max Allan CollinsAn entry in Collins’ Quarry series about a cautious hit man who’s a former Marine sniper. Quarry (his code name) isn’t a nice guy, but he is curiously interesting. The story itself is split between a couple of his early assignments for The Broker, and his career in Viet Nam. The two start to come together midway.
It’s not great, but it’s interesting…though there’s a couple of contrivances.
#80 - The Blacklist Vol 1: The Gambler by Nicole Dawn Philips & etcA tie-in to the TV series, written by one of the show’s writers. It’s a bit murky at times but Philips uses the format to go bigger than the show can afford, providing a degree of insight into the character of Raymond Reddington, criminal mastermind turned FBI informant.
This was solid enough to make me want to check out the TV show.
#81 - Marvel Horror: The Magazine Collection by Doug Moench, Steve Gerber, others A bit of a curate’s egg of an anthology — some parts are very good — but it does serve up some solid horror pulp, a proper introduction to Blade (who’s English, not that you can tell from the way he’s written), and a truly weird and creepy origin story for Dracula that merges Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood in a most peculiar manner (turning the character into Varnae, a sort of Elder God cum vampire king) into the historical story of Vlad Tepes.
The book *could* have been longer, I’m sure, though much of the contents of the magazines have been reprinted in other volumes.
#82 - Babylon Berlin by Arne Jysch, adapting the work of Volker KutschServes mainly to make me want to read the original novel (as well as watch the TV series.) In short: Inspector Gereon Rath, after an incident in his hometown town, is transferred to Berlin and the vice squad…in 1929 Germany. The Nazis are still a fringe far right party, but plans are afoot to make them more — Russian gold is involved. Murder and violence ensue, and Rath finds himself exposing police corruption as his investigation proceeds.
It’s a slow, deliberate adaptation, but the art adds a great deal in terms of the feel of the time.
#83 - Vespers by Ed McBainThe endless quest of Ed McBain to stretch his formula for the 87th Precinct books sometimes had less than optimal results, as here. The side by side plots are a procedural dealing with the murder of a catholic priest, and Hal Willis’ girlfriend Marilyn trying to deal with bad guys from her South American past. The murder plot sidesteps into excessive detail about a Satanic church that has bugger all to do with it (a connection comes at the end, but reads like the author feeling a need to tie up…something.) The other plot just comes across as stupid.
On to the next.
#84 - Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park by Michael SmithA compact but detailed look at the creation and operations of Bletchley Park during World War II.
#86 - Shotgun by Elmer KeltonAn ailing rancher and his son are targeted by the bad guy he helped send to prison a decade earlier. A complicated plan to run the rancher devolves into violent antics and bloodshed. A tough little western, but pretty standard stuff.
#87 - Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.As quirky as ever he was. Vonnegut had been wrestling with a book about an event that forces people to repeat a decade exactly at hey went through it, unable to deviate until it was over and free will was regained. Eventually he abandoned it, until he had the idea to write this book, which weaves in pieces of the narrative amongst observations, asides, philosophical musing, and autobiography. It’s a fast paced thing, a not-too-deep poke at the ultimate point of it all — I.e., we’re here “to fart around.”
#88 - Red Mass for Mars by Jonathan Hickman and Ryan BodensteinAn attempt to do a giant space opera that falls flat because it’s just old story beats recycled yet again, and doesn’t take the time to really build out the characters or the world. Consequently one element after another is shoved in with no support until it just…ends.
#89 - The Big Hoax by Carlos Trillo & Roberto MandrafinaA bit of an oddity — it’s set up as a banana republic noir, but suddenly swerves into satire as a character stops the story to explain a few things to the reader. It then barrels along merrily as more characters comment on things and provide history, all while the central characters are unaware. It also dives headlong into the fantastic as night goes on and on and on, and an ugly, evil half-man half-lizard character shows up. Sometimes brutal, sometimes deliriously silly, it both subverts noir tropes and plays into them.
#90 - Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 9 by Mike Friedrich, George Tuska, and othersWell, this is where Jim Starlin gave us Thanos, as well as Drax The Destroyer, setting off a confusing string of cosmic tomfoolery in the process. Other than that milestone it’s a shabby mess of incoherent plotting and action with some rather chaotic soap opera shoved in (including medical drama.)
Mount TBR 2021
Books mentioned in this topic
Star Trek: New Visions (other topics)Where No Man Has Gone Before (other topics)
All That Earthly Remains (other topics)
At the Mountains of Madness (other topics)
Adventures of Superman José Luis García-López (other topics)
More...
When the New York City subway system was constructed initially, it was created with an excess of art and elegance amidst the industrial operation and noisesome trains. Initially little expense was spared, with stations having individual style, but eventually a more uniform approach was applied. Over the years, as the system expanded changes were made, from station closures to renovations, most of which destroyed the original decorative work.
Philip Ashford Coppolla feared that all of this work would eventually be obscured or destroyed, and so began a massive project to record, in drawings, whatever survived. His work was gathered into four volumes of Silver Connections, self-published in small runs, but his work made him notable.
This book excerpts that work, providing numerous finished drawings, some commentary, and a handful of sketchbook pages. It reveals quite a hidden world of design.