Brian Blessed v Olympus: Piles Of Reading

[Steven]

#91 - The Voice of the Poet: Adrienne Rich

Rich reads selections of her own works (recorded in various times and locations so recording quality is a tad variable.) Bears with repeated listening, I must say. Accompanied by a booklet with the poems, comments from Rich about poetry and an informative introduction. Reading the booklet along with hearing Rich speak is interesting, too, as a number of poems incorporate structure that causes the reader to pause or hesitate, which Rich rarely observes in her reading.

This is a series I wish had continued for much longer than it did.

[Steven]

#92 - The Voice of the Poet: Five American Women : Gertrude Stein, Edna St. Vincent Millay, H.D., Louise Bogan & Muriel Rukeyser

A fascinating cross-section of American women poets, from Stein’s aggressive yet playful use of repetition and modulated stream of consciousness to Muriel Ruykeyser’s wit and darkness. H.D. is -articulately interesting as a female mirror to the mythological leanings of T.S. Eliot; she certainly has the edge in clarity. The readings, meanwhile, are both familiar and different — Stein, as McClatchey (the editor) notes, is distinctly patrician, a blare of almost British proportions. Millay is a bit mousey in her formality, while H.D., recorded late in her life, is quavery. Bogan is dry, but the work carries her. Ruykeyser is a bit more playful, even getting a laugh from her audience; she’s also the boldest with language.

As always, there is a booklet, with notes, and the poems — well worth a read-through as some poems are rather different here.

[Steven]

#93 - Voice of the Poet: American Wits: Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Phyllis McGinley read by the poets

A bit of a motley collection of material, some of it very familiar indeed (the Ogden Nash poems, particularly, but also some of the Dorothy Parker.) The revelation for me was the poetry of Phyllis McGinley, whose works tends both towards the longer, and to the more melancholy.

A booklet is included with the text of the poems, as well as biographical commentaries about the poets.

[Steven]

Quirkyreader wrote: "You are getting ready to hit the 100 mark🥾"

Technically I already did, but that’s only with the Virtual Mount TBR entries.

I’m hoping to be past Everest by next week. I’m running behind this year.

[Steven]

#94 - Incident in Mona Passage by Douglas Savage

Oof. Turgid in the extreme. A submarine is turned into a platform for developing bioweapons…what could go wrong? Well, everything. Fatally.

[Steven]

#95 - A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters

How soldier and seaman Cadfael came to be Brother Cadfael, investigative monk, at least in the first of three tales. The second and third stories are in the more familiar settings of Shrewsbury Abbey. They’re inessential in the canon, really (Cadfael’s transition to the cloisters is given across several books, for one) but enjoyable all the same.

[Steven]

#96 - Foundation by Isaac Asimov

I hadn’t planned to get back into this series, but wanting to map the changes from books to TV led me back into this very talky bag of ideas. Basically a science fiction take on the fall of the Roman Empire, with the idea of an intellectual Foundation designed to shorten the coming dark age and build a benign Second Empire on scientific principles.

[Steven]

#97 - Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Boxset by Robert Banks Stewart, John Dorney, others
#98 - Doctor Who: Destination: Nerva by Nicholas Briggs

Related stories — an original Four & Leela tale set on a familiar space station early in its existence, and two adaptations of unproduced Fourth Doctor stories (in this case they were both dropped because of visual effects and set costs.) The “lost” stories are fast-paced and entertaining enough, but have their issues — “The Valley Of Death” gets very goofy at times, before switching into sheer horror, while “The Foe From The Future” keeps turning into a shouty brawl, and ends with some confusion.

“Destination: Nerva” suffers from stopping rather than resolving, while its central threat barely has time to *be* a threat. There’s some decent body horror, though.

[Steven]

#99 - Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday by Terrance Dicks

As always with the Target novelizations of Doctor Who stories, this is a fast paced, slightly underwritten, no-frills adaptation, a fun way to use up a little time. I had this as an audiobook, read by Matthew Waterhouse, and it’s an enjoyable performance despite his rendering of Texan being even more obnoxious than the original.

[Steven]

#100 - Doctor Who: The Hesitation Deviation by James Goss
#101 - Doctor Who: The British Invasion by Ian Potter

Short audiobooks, one read by Lisa Bowerman (as her character Benny Summerfield), the other by Wendy Padbury, reading a second Doctor story featuring her 1960s character Zoe.

[Steven]

#102 - Doctor Who: Technophobia by Matt Fitton

Ten and Donna are faced with the sudden panicked aversion to technology of the majority of humans in London. Worse yet, that aversion is leading to an epidemic of intelligence loss. It’s a race against time for the few seemingly unaffected to find out what’s going on and how to reverse it. Actually a cracking good story with Ten in fine madman-in-a-box form.

[Steven]

#103 - Doctor Who: Time Reaver by Jenny T. Colgan

Not quite as good as Doctor Who: Technophobia but still interesting. The Doctor and Donna visit Calibris, a huge space station that’s half garage/junkyard and half pirate operation. A rare, horrifying, weapon is on the loose, and it’s a race between the Doctor, the authorities, and octopod pirate Gully to find it.

[Steven]

#104 - Doctor Who: The Grey Man of the Mountain by Lizbeth Myles

Bigfoot in the Scottish mountains? Seems like it. The Doctor and Ace show up, as does Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a cryptozoologist, a hunter, and a sparky vlogger. The Doctor suspects Yeti, the Brig isn’t so sure, especially as the creatures seem able to instill extreme paranoia when humans look them in the face.

As it turns out, the truth isn’t so simple. In the process, though, mistakes are made, and too many chances taken. On the other side, one person fulfills a dream, and two others find love (if fleeting, as Ace will be drawn onwards.) There’s a lot of good here, but at the same time there’s problems — characters too often carry the idiot ball and the Doctor yet again gets his mind put through a blender.

[Steven]

#105 - Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

The second book of the original Foundation trilogy, comprised of two novellas, the first about General Bel Riose, the last great military man of a failing Empire, and his campaign against the Foundation…and his eventual fate that prefigures the final fall. The second story, set three hundred years after the first part of the first book, finds a conqueror known only as The Mule on the rise, his march across the Galaxy inexplicable and unstoppable. The Foundation falls, but refugees escape, rescuing the oppressed, fearful Magnifico, clown to the Mule, as they seek the mysterious Second Foundation — a back-up reputedly established by Hari Seldon “at the other end of the galaxy.”

Enjoyable enough, despite the outmoded language and talky flatness. There’s more action here, but often at a distance, observed by the cast. The final revelation is, of course, expected, but has interesting twists.

[Steven]

#106 - Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The final book of the original Foundation trilogy. The Mule’s story ends, the Foundation recovers, and the specter of the Second Foundation looms as a threat to the First. Though the Second Foundation acts in support of the First, the government of the First decides to hunt down and destroy the Second. Convolutions ensue….

Notable for having more active female characters than the earlier books, this is also notable for Asimov essentially just stopping his story midway — the Second Empire is not yet in sight, and only five hundred years have passed since Seldon announced the fall of the Galactic Empire. Asimov had, by this point, be one disenchanted with the utility of galactic empires, and hadn’t figured out where else to go with what had become a story of mathematical prodigies competing with psychic prodigies.

[Steven]

#107 - Lightweight Interurban Cars by ERHS members

Adapted from a 1925 GE traction catalogue, this adds material about the fates of various Interurban lines and the cars that rode on them. It’s an interesting read, though one must be a traction wonk to enjoy it for what it is.

[Steven]

#108 - Three Skeleton Key by George D. Toudouze

Three lighthouse keepers on an isolated key witness a ship coming towards them, seemingly ignoring the light…and then they see why: the ship is missing it’s crew, and is populated by enormous rats…rats that swarm the key, leading to a life-or-death battle.

[Steven]

#109 - Tales of the Batman: Alan Brennert by Alan Brennert, Norm Breyfogle, Jim Aparo, Joe Staton, etc

Not exactly a thick volume, this book collects nearly all of the work Alan Brennert did for DC Comics — the majority featuring Batman, with a Deadman story and a Black Canary revised origin to round things out. Mostly it’s parallel world stories, which I love, so we get Batman saving an alternate Wayne family, Earth 1 Batman teaming with Earth 2 Robin, and Bruce Wayne as a literal Caped Crusader in Batman: Holy Terror, an Elseworlds that sees a fully theocratic America and a young reverend who discovers the rot at its heart.

The key thing, though, is that these are surprisingly human stories, not merely bombastic action set pieces, and tend to be moving (the Deadman story, set post-Crisis after the death and erasure of the original Supergirl, has Kara showing up to be a friend to Boston Brand. Or is she another Kara? We’ll never know. But she can see and talk to Deadman in his ghost form.)

Anyway, summing up: not a large body of work, but it’s all good.

[Steven]

#110 - The Black Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius
#111 - The Incal Vol. 2: The Luminous Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius
#112 - The Incal Vol. 3: What Lies Beneath by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius
#113 - The Incal Vol. 4: What is Above by Jodorowsky and Moebius
#114 - The Incal Vol. 5: The Fifth Essence - The Dreaming Galaxy by Jodorowsky and Moebius
#115 - The Incal #6: The Fifth Essence Part Two: Planet Difool: Coffee Table Book by Jodorowsky and Moebius

While Jodorowsky is known mainly for his surreal and fantastic films (and his failed attempt to mount a film of Dune), he’s long had a career in European SF comics, including his Incal/Metabarons universe. There’s a lot about this that’s familiar, in part because of the art of Jean “Moebius” Giraud — there’s an extensive Metal Hurlant influence on SF and fantasy film in Europe and the US.

The story here…John DiFool, low class private eye, is contracted as a bodyguard to an aristocratic woman who wants to let loose in the more depraved corners of the underground city that makes up the world here. Before long things go wrong, DiFool is on the run, and he’s accidentally acquired a weird object — apparently alive — that’s being pursued by a variety of bad actors, from the cloned President to a bunch of giant mutants. As it turns out, the Incal has plans for John DiFool (and his bird), which DiFool isn’t sure he wants to see through. He will, though, between the Incals and various people — pushed to save the Galaxy (or more) despite his constant state of panic.

Getting through this is made rather harder by wanting to stop and examine each page repeatedly. Quite amazing work from Giraud.

[Steven]

#116 - The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

The sixth entry in the Laundry Files centers on Dr. Dominique O’Brien, wife of former Computational Demonologist Bob Howard (now host to the Eater Of Souls), and currently the bearer of one of Erich Zahn’s demonic bone violins. Mo, as she’s known, has spent more than a decade with the Laundry, Great Britain’s counter-occult service, eight years of that involving the violin, which she’s used for offense and defense…and here, as a tool to stop a Penny-ante supervillain from tormenting people, including the Mayor of London (an as always hapless Boris Johnson.)

Supervillains. As if the impending occult destruction of the world wasn’t enough. There’s superhero’s too. Somebody is going to have to manage these people…and that’s going to be Mo…who’s losing her husband, control of her lethal instrument, and her mind as the meetings pile up and institutions act against each other with a lack of information.

This can’t possibly end well….

Many readers struggle with the talky side of this book — Stross has the bureaucratic nightmares down pat, with frequently hilarious results, but he also nails the divisional infighting, Less well delineated is Mo’s actual state — though she narrates the book, it’s not clear that she’s suffering PTSD, even when things start derailing with the violin.

Still worth a read.

[Steven]

#117 - The Black Ice Score by Richard Parker

The 19th entry in the Parker series finds the thief dragged into the troubles of a young African country where the soon to be deposed leader has converted half of the treasury into diamonds and smuggled them into the US. Parker normally avoids amateurs, but his hand is forced, and the mistakes that follow leave him no choice but to get involved to rescue his girlfriend.

It’s fast and compact, brutal as Parker novels usually are, but it’s interesting to see Parker wrong-footed this much.

[Steven]

#118 - Blood and Smoke by Stephen King

Three stories read by the author, all linked by cigarettes and blood — well, tentatively at least. The narrator of the first story is trying to break a nicotine addiction while dealing with an impending divorce, when a legal meeting in a restaurant turns into bloody mayhem. The second story has a protagonist who keeps a cigarette behind his ear though he doesn’t smoke. The situation he encounters isn’t exactly bloody, either…but it’s horrifying anyway, as *something* living in the walls of a hotel room tries to cause his death. The third story has the cigarette as the reason blood is spilled, but isn’t a horror story as much as a grim thriller. King’s reading is decent, better than many of his readings.

[Steven]

#119 - The Challenge from Beyond by Frank Belknap Long, C.L. Moore, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt

A round-Robin project commissioned by Fantasy magazine, this story finds five disparate authors on a tale of godlike aliens who can project themselves around the universe via the brains of others — a trick that results in the evicted minds going into the bodies of the aliens. This leads to hilarity when Lovecraft, doing his usual at-length cod-philosophical blathering, gets followed by Robert E. Howard, who comes out swinging with the protagonist rampaging.

[Bev]

Finally getting round to do a check in. Hope a burst of speed will see you plant a flag atop Olympus!

[Steven]

Bev wrote: "Finally getting round to do a check in. Hope a burst of speed will see you plant a flag atop Olympus!"

I’m hoping so too. It’ll have to be quite the burst, though, as I’m still further behind where I wanted to be. Plus I have a few to catch up on the Virtual side.

I’ve somehow managed to exceed my stated annual goal, however!

[Steven]

#120 - Forgotten Weird Tales narrated by Ian Gordon

Contains: “ The Shattered Timbrel" by Wallace J. Knapp (WT, January '35)
"The Red God Laughed" by Thorp McClusky (WT, April '39)
"In the Dark" by Ronal Kayser (WT, August '36)
"Guarded" by Mearle Prout (WT, March '38)
"The Ocean Ogre" by Dana Carroll (WT, July '37)
"Doom of the House of Duryea" by Earl Peirce, Jr. (WT, October '36)
"The Piper from Bhutan" by David Bernard (WT, February '38)

The stories themselves range rather wildly (just as Weird Tales did), so the tales go from science fictional tragedies to backwoods ghosts to vampires and, finally, a tale of psychology and spiritualism around a confession of murder. Often both florid and literate, these are rather enjoyable tales, though likely to evaporate like a vampire at dawn (though “The Red God Laughs,” which sees humanity destroying itself in war and inadvertently dooming an alien species years later, does tend to stick.)

Ian Gordon, the narrator, delivers the stories in a clear but workmanlike way. I was surprised to discover that he’s a fairly young man, given that he often sounds like he’s in his sixties.

[Steven]

#121 - Batman: The Golden Age Vol. 6 by Bill Finger and sundry

Compiles Batman stories from the 1940s, ostensibly produced by Bob Kane but mostly the work of others from the National Comics bullpen.

By this point, into the war years, the stories are generally lightweight, silly things, though corpses do pile up still. A lot of space is given to Alfred Pennyworth, butler to Bruce Wayne and amateur sleuth on his off hours. Artwork is very variable.

[Steven]

#122 - Horrorbabble’s When Horror Meets Science Fiction edited and read by Ian Gordon

A collection of moderately obscure Sf/horror stories that includes Kurt Vonnegut, Jr’s 2 B R 0 2 B, a story that fell into the public domain. Nothing outstanding, I’m afraid, but a passable way to pass a few hours.

[Steven]

#123 - Low by Hugo Wilcken

Part of the 33-1/3rd series of looks at significant music releases. This one delves into David Bowie’s LOW, the first of his Berlin trilogy (a misnomer as much of it was recorded in France, and “Subterraneans” began during the cocaine days in L.A.) and has a fair bit of good background material and some decent analyses of the music (and connected records like Iggy Pop’s THE IDIOT and Philip Glass’ LOW SYMPHONY.) Unfortunately Wilcken starts throwing around psychology terms with abandon, making for a highly irritating read.

[Steven]

#124 - After the Incal Vol. 1: The New Dream by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius
#125 - Final Incal Vol. 1: The Four John Difools (Final Incal: by Alejandro Jodorowsky, José Ladrönn

Two different tales on the same story — the aborted sequel to The Incal, which Moebius left after completing the guest part, and the heavily rewritten version with Jose Ladronn as collaborator.

Both versions are manic, colorful, packed with detail, and confusing — with the added fillip that the revised version adds three additional versions of the protagonist, in various degrees of jerkiness. The four DiFools are on a desperate quest to save the universe from a technological virus that destroys all organic matter. Can they do it? Or will they kill each other first? In the original we’ll never know, of course, but there’s more to the parallel universe story.

[Steven]

#126 - Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 4: Girl-Moon by Brandon Montclare & various

Lunella Lafayette and her thirty foot crimson dinosaur pal get into otherworldly trouble this time out, trying to solve the problems of Ego The Living Planet’s moon-sized daughter, resulting in dimensional shenanigans and a sad trip back in time. For the close, Moon-Girl struggles through the search for a new partner (or three), as well as dealing with unexpected problems.

Not the best of the series, but still fun, with lots of bits for smart adults scattered throughout.

[Steven]

#127 - Final Incal Vol. 2: Luz De Garra (Final Incal: by Alejandro Jodorowsky, José Ladrönn
#128 - Final Incal, Vol. 3: Gorgo the Foul by Alejandro Jodorowsky, José Ladrönn

The story of the Incal and John DiFool crashes to a finish in a welter of brilliant imagery and confusing story.

[Steven]

#129 - Feeding the Dragon by Sharon Washington

Autobiographical work from writer and actress Washington, who talks about a life growing up in the apartments of the New York Public Library and her gradual understanding of the two aspects of her ancestry. The dragon of the title is explicitly the furnace in the basement that her father stokes, but the implicit meaning is the feeding of her mind.

[Steven]

#130 - A Murder of Manatees by Larry Correia

Just…no.

Narrator Adam Baldwin does a good job, mind you.

[Steven]

#131 - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Wolfe’s 1968 near stream-of-consciousness book about Ken Kesey, the Pranksters, the Acid Tests, the Magic Bus, and the transformation of San Francisco in 1965-66 is a speed-freak overview of a Revolution going sideways, a counterculture hammered by the static culture, and the transition of war war on drugs and African-Americans to the war on drugs, African-Americans, and long-haired freaky people.

Cultures always advance by lurching in new directions, but this time the advancement was practically fractal, easily damaged, and arguably thwarted — the telling detail amidst the careering welter of incidents, activities, and calamities is when cops show up to the Acid Test Graduation, wander around for a bit, then quietly leave. After that, it all quietly fades away, Hell’s Angels and all, and the Grateful Dead become the acceptable face of West Coast corporate psychedelia…until psychedelia itself fades into the corporate grey of the 1970s.

Where I can fault the book, unfortunately, is the whirligig of the text — Wolfe writes maniacally here, with lots of repetition, great Joycean (and Keroucan, given the sledgehammer-wielding Neal Cassady’s presence) swathes of run-on that dissolves into blues and portmanteaus, and it quickly becomes a bit wearing. It does succeed in making this LSD-driven chaos unappealing, though.

Passing note: I made my second pass through this (the first was decades ago) via the audiobook read by Luke Daniels. I’m used to Daniels sound rather laid back. Here he dives into the text with manic enthusiasm, and listening to long stretches left me feeling rather enhanced, as it were. It makes for a wild ride. I did go back and flip through the print version here and there, just to cement things a bit.

[Steven]

#132 - Howard the Duck, Volume 0: What the Duck? by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones

Another update to Howard, taking him further away from the rage-filled alienated fowl out of water created by Steve Gerber. The saving Grace here is that Zdarsky, like Gerber, uses the story to lampoon the Marvel Universe; alas, the sociopolitical rage Gerber brought is absent. Anyway, regardless, this was a lot of silly fun.

[Steven]

#133 - Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe

Two long essays by Wolfe, the first neutrally reporting on a party hosted by Leonard Bernstein as a fundraiser for the Panther Party — an event that attracting support and condemnation in about equal measure. Wolfe’s reporting is excellent, but certainly is adept at causing cringing over the behaviour of most who were there.

The second essay is less successful, as Wolfe writes about minority groups gaming the mostly white social support system operated by the Bay Area and California governments. It does serve to highlight the increasing issues with civil service bureaucracy, though.

[Steven]

#134 - Bloodstone the Legion of Monsters by Christopher Yost, John David Warner, Dennis Hopeless, Steve Gerber, Juan Doe, others

A very scattershot collection over all. It includes the title miniseries, starring Elsa Bloodstone, Morbius, and others in a story that takes the same cynically satirical tack as Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.: The Complete Collection (that is, not much sense, outlandish story, and running sarcasm) but the bulk of the book is taken up with the original Ulysses Bloodstone story from Rampaging Hulk — a serial tale that almost managed to maintain a coherent direction despite multiple writers, until it just crashes to a nihilistic halt at the end at the typewriter of Steve Gerber.

It’s got some good qualities, but it’s not vital unless you adore Elsa Bloodstone.

[Steven]

#135 - The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published by Otto Penzler

Less most complete than most overstuffed. Penzler leaves out some obvious tales (sorry, Polidori) and includes some interesting if obscure entries such as Lisa Turtle’s extremely creepy “The Replacements.” It’s a rather variable mixture, but there’s plenty of it and so has something for everyone.

The story list, nicked from elsewhere:
Pre-Dracula:
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert
A Mystery of the Campagna by Anne Crawford
The Fate of Madame Cabanel by Eliza Lynn Linton
Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley
The Vampire by Vasile Alecsandri
The Death of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce
Ken's Mystery by Julian Hawthorne
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu
The Tomb of Sarah by F. G. Loring
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
The Old Portrait and the Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet

True stories:
The Sad Story of a Vampire by Eric Stanislaus Count Stenbock
A Case of Alleged Vampirism by Luigi Capuana
An Authenticated Vampire Story by Franz Hartman

Graveyards, castles, churches, ruins:
Revelations in Black by Karl Jacoby
The Master of Rampling Gate by Anne Rice
The Vampire of Kaldenstein by Frederick Cowles
An episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
Schloss Wabenberg by Scott Moncrieff
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft
Bite-me-not or Fleur de Feu by Tanith Lee
The Horror at Chilham Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan
The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Henry Blackwood
The Death of Illa Lotha by Clark Ashton Smith

That's poetic:
The Bride of Corinth by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
Giaur by Lord Byron
La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats

Hard time for vampires:
Place for Meeting by Charles Beaumont
Duty by Ed Gorman
A week in the unlife by David James Shaw

Classic tales:
Four Wooden Stakes by Victor Roman
The room in a tower by E. F. Benson
Mrs Amworth by E. F. Benson
Dr. Porthos by Basil Copper
For the blood is the life by F. Marian Crawford
Count Magnus by M. R. James
When it was moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman
The drifting snow by August Derleth
Aylmer Vance and the Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stocker
The Transfer by Algernon Blackwood
The Stone Chamber by H. B. Marian Watson
The Vampire by Ian Neruda
The end of the story by Clark Ashton Smith

Psychic vampires:
The lovely lady
The parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lonely women are the vessels of time

Something feels funny:
Blood by Frederik Brown
Popsie by Stephen King
The werewolf and the vampire
Drink my red blood
Day blood

Love, forever:
Replacements
Princess of Darkness
The silver collar
The old man's story
Will
Bloodlust
The Canal
When Gretchen was human
The story of Chugaro

They gather:
The men and women of Rivendell
Winter flowers
The man who loved a vampire lady
Midnight mass

Is that a vampire?:
The adventure of the Sussex vampire
A dead finger
Wailing well
Human remains
The vampire
Strigella
Marcius in Flanders
The Horla
The girl with the hungry eyes

This is war:
The living dead
Down among the dead men

Modern masters:
Necros
The man upstairs
Chastelle
Dracula's Chair
Special
Carrion Comfort
The sea was wet as wet could be

[Steven]

#136 - Electric Trolleys of Washtenaw County by H. Mark Hildebrandt

Man, this is one of the sadder electric traction books out there — one line kept running out of money while being set up, and when it finally did get track down it only ran a few steam trains before selling off to another company. The majority of the images here are depressing. The real story of the area is more in the Detroit United Railways, which surrounded the lines noted here.

[Steven]

#137 - Howard the Duck, Volume 1: Duck Hunt by Chip Zdarsky, Joe Quinones, Ryan North, Erica Henderson
#138 - Howard the Duck, Volume 2: Good Night, and Good Duck by Chip Zdarsky, Joe Quinones

The short-lived 2015b series, which seems to have been planned with an end in mind. First Howard is turned into a roving Nexus Of All Realities and hunted far and wide, with both he and Tara ending up in space. There’s also a crossover with Squirrel Girl that leads to Kraven changing his ways and Howard getting a cyborg cat.

Then Howard meets up with his old companion, Beverly Switzer, after which he’s led to the revelations about what’s *really* been going on with his life, which is where this whole story seems to jump a timeline or three. By the find everyone, including the reader and the creators is going “What just happened?” Well, with the exception of Biggs the Cat, who’s asking “Where’s the petting?”

It’s a wild ride, often very funny, not entirely sensible, and worth a read.

[Steven]

#139 - Test Piece by E. C. Tubb

A scout ship pilot. A mysterious medical facility. An interplanetary war. Early work from Ted Tubb, very average stuff really, with several twists at the end.

[Steven]

#140 - Call Him Nemesis by Donald E. Westlake

One of the less known aspects of Westlake’s career is his tine as a science fiction writer. It wasn’t that long, and it was nothing great, but his few entries in the genre are solid work. This is one of them, a mash-up of criminal activity and superheroics. It’s a breezy read.

[Steven]

#141 - Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 25: Strange Days by Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan, others

The last of the original Fantastic Four run, in a collection that leaves out key issues because they’re not in the main line. This has Reed Richards thought dead…but, no, he’s a prisoner of Hyperstorm, which is where things get confusing. However, Onslaught is coming, so things have to be wrapped up fast! This can’t stop the ever soapier soap opera, though. In the end the FF and others stop Onslaught, but the world thinks they’re dead (again) and that it’s all the fault of the X-Men (well, er, actually…)

Overall it doesn’t end quite as horribly as other lines that got punted into the Heroes Reborn universe. It won’t encourage re-reading, though.

[Steven]

#142 - Manners and Customs of the Thrid by Murray Leinster

The Thrid are the most intelligent and correct species in the universe…and they’re very observant about telling everyone so. That leads to rather unfortunate results for trader Jourgensen, who gets thoroughly ticked about the way Thrid society operates. That, of course, is where the trouble starts.

It’s a canny story with a slightly mad premise, but Leinster effectively impales the white savior trope here.

[Steven]

#143 - I Don’t Fool Around by Lawrence Block

A mob guy has been murdered. The homicide detective on the case knows who did it, and knows that the killer will get away with it. It pretty much makes it clear quickly how this is going to go, but Block’s writing makes for a tight, fast read regardless.

[Steven]

#144 - Spadework: A Collection of "Nameless Detective" Stories by Bill Pronzini

A collection of fifteen stories, two original to this collection, covering the length of Nameless’ career to 1996 or so. Some of the stories are barely more than conceits, detective puzzles he solves quickly, but others are more in depth, and occasionally pretty intense.

[Steven]

#145 - The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook: Amazingly Easy Recipes to Fry, Bake, Grill, and Roast with Your Air Fryer by Linda Larsen

I’ve owned an air fryer for quite a while, but haven’t made the best use of it, so have meant to read through this book (one of many completely incomplete guidebooks to air frying) for quite some time. Now I have, admittedly reading through the text blocks and speed-reading the (uncomplicated) recipes. Larsen has a tendency to eschew the simple meat-and-potatoes stuff and throw her readers into mildly exotic concoctions (though, to be fair, she starts out with how to bake eggs in their shells, which is kind of a cool trick.)

I’ll be revisiting this periodically, I’m sure.

[Steven]

#146 - Incident Off Land’s End by Jacob Hay

An ocean liner is taken over by a band of pirates armed with bombs, their target two tons of gold being shipped to England. With the odds against them, the Chief Purser has to find a way of countering the bad guys before they sink the ship and kill 3000 people. It’s a basic thriller, but the conclusion is nicely done, if terrifying in its descriptiveness.

[Steven]

#147 - US Submarines 1900-35 by Jim Christley

An Osprey text giving an overview of United States submarine development and use between 1900 and 1935, though it does start well prior (with the Civil War submarines Alligator and Intelligent Whale) and reference later developments such as nuclear submarines. The big takeaway here is that early US submarines were dangerous, noxious, and difficult to use, though surprisingly the number of fatal disasters is rather low.