Virtual Mount TBR Challenge 2024 discussion
White Plume (48 books)
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The Virtually Certain Man Is Not AI!
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Steven
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Dec 29, 2023 09:43PM
Here we go again….
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#1 - Cold Brew Catastrophe by Christine Zane ThomasLightweight mystery fare with an ending that’s out of the blue but does a great job of red herrings. I enjoyed the Tuckerizing of various comics names and the suggestion that protagonist Kirby has a touch of Spider-Man’s “Parker luck” given how things go for him.
Third of four in the “Comics And Coffee Case Files” series.
Kindle Unlimited
#2 - Dead Brigade by James LovegroveAfter a mission goes wrong in Kurdistan, British Army sergeant Jonah Hammond spends years in the quartermaster’s office, trying to deal with PTSD…until his old unit leader shows up looking to recruit him to join a secret unit. As it turns out, it’s a program to turn corpses into cyborg soldiers using nanobots, and Hammond's to train and lead them.
Essentially science fiction using horror tropes, the story suffers from being incomplete — there’s an ending, but it’s wide open. Also, the setting often comes across like a BBC TV serial from 1960 — the science unit seems to be operated by a single person. The missions are depicted in a perfunctory manner, too, with the antagonists rarely named.
There’s the bones of a bigger, better, deeper story here, though I doubt we’ll ever see it.
Audible Plus.
#3 - Pig: Poems by Sam SaxFrom pigs is pigs to that'll do, Pig...Sax uses the pig as both metaphor and reality in a journey through his world. As much prose as lyric, Sax examines how we relate to pigs, with elliptical journeys into an existence as a gay male. At times quite vivid and fascinating.
Everand
#4 - Enough Rope by Dorothy ParkerParker's first collection of her amusing, acerbic verse -- something that stands the test of time, managing to be of its time in many ways, and timeless in others.
Everand
#5 - Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'HaraO'Hara, early on, already deep in his passion for New York and for people, words spilling everywhere and forming pictures. Fantastic stuff, though this collection is much too brief!
Everand
#6 - soft magic. by Upile ChisalaVery personal poetry from Malawian poet Chisala in her first collection. It's a gentle but determined set of poems, but I was taken by the plain directness of this:
If no one has called you brave lately, I will.
You are fighting sadness with everything you've
got and for that you are mighty.
I'll enjoy listening to this again, I'm sure.
Everand
#7 - Hawkwind On Track: Every album, every song by Duncan HarrisA track by track look at the studio recordings of Hawkwind, with a cursory look at the evolution of the group over their (then) fifty year career. It's more than a little clunky, but Harris does make some telling points about the band's output over the years, though he does miss some nuances in the work, including completely missing the big reference of All Aboard The Skylark -- The Skylark of Space by E. E. "Doc" Smith.
Of more import is the production of the book -- well, the ebook, at least. The layout is very messy with random hyphenation and bad kerning, and the edition I borrowed repeats most of the book between the bibliography and the publisher's backmatter.
Everand
#8 - Yes: Every Album, Every Song by Stephen LambePart of Sonicbonde’s On Track series. Fairly coherent, if lightweight, and stuck with a few typos and layout issues, but it’s a moderately interesting read, covering the tumultuous life of Yes and their highly variable work. Lambe is perhaps kinder to some releases than most might be, and at no point is the writing particularly deep (there’s little attempt to tackle Jon Anderson’s lyrical output, for instance, and no attempt to look at the lyrics from others.)
Everand
#9 - Van Der Graaf Generator: Every Album, Every Song by Dan CoffeyA trawl through the mostly-studio output of Van Der Graaf Generator. I found this to be more lightweight than needed, but Coffey did at least cover the impo4tant side aspects of the group -- certain Peter Hammill solo releases, and latter-day live sets, though there's far too many missed points of interest. Also, the usual Sonicbond proofing and layout issues rear their head again, though not too badly this time.
Everand
#10 - Kwik Krimes edited by Otto PenzlerA bit of an experiment, it seems. Penzler here assembles the usual mass of stories, but all are under a thousand words. Being flash fiction, these are mostly scenes rather than narratives -- in, out, done as a short, sharp, shock.
I enjoyed the collection quite a bit. There's some downright poetic writing here, magnetic turns of phrase that elevate simple tales. There's some clunkers, too, of course, mostly just bog standard stuff rather than stylistic howlers. Plus, the terseness really boosts the grue in certain stories.
Kindle Unlimited
#11 - Superman Vs. the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate by Rick BowersA concise history of the genesis and effect of the famous radio serial where Superman deals with an expie of the KKK. It could have used more in the aftermath section, though, given that we have yet to be fully rid of the Klan, and that the methods used in the revival have been repeatedly used by hate groups since.
Audible Plus
#12 - Yiddish Radio Project: Stories from the Golden Age of Yiddish Radio by Henry SapoznickA concise history of Yiddish radio in the US, with discussion of his it started and how it was influenced by the arrival of Jewish refugees from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Sapoznick includes a frenetic mixture of examples from the collection of transcription discs he rescued and helped to restore, and spends a little time explaining the Klezmer revival of the 1990s.
It’s fast and lively, but might be a bit overstuffed for some. Best appreciated, I think, a piece at a time.
Audible Plus
#13 - The Radio Operator: Robert Ford’s Last Stand in the Fight to Save Tibet by James McGrath MorrisThe story of Robert Ford’s time in Tibet as a radio operator helping to link Tibet to the world and provide communications across the country. Unfortunately things came crashing down as Chinese imperial ambitions infected their supposed communist ideals, and they once again invaded and occupied Tibet. Ford spent four years in a Chinese prison, being abused until he signed a forced confession, whereupon he was released. This short book compresses his diplomatic career after his release, unfortunately, but it’s enough to give a picture of an intelligent, strong man.
Audible Plus
#15 - Slow Time Between the Stars by John ScalziAn Amazon Original story in the Far Reaches series. The journey of an unmanned spaceship designed to find a suitable new home for humanity...but it's a journey in time, distance...and philosophy and ethics. A gentle, thoughtful, story.
Prime Reading
#16 - How It Unfolds by James S. A. CoreyA story in Amazon's Far Reaches series. This tells the story of a human effort to spread outward across the nearby galactic region, using an information-heavy transmission medium (think Star Trek's transporters writ large and doing copies.) It's also a story about the emotional growth of the protagonist, and while it's a bit stiff in places, the central conceit is clever, and comes with a rather neat twist. My main complaint is that this could very easily support full novel length, and probably should.
Prime Reading
#17 - The Immediate Discography: The First 20 Years by Mark JonesA history of Andrew Loog Oldham's short-lived Immediate label, along with a highly detailed and annotated discography of releases and reissues up to 1985. Very useful for those interested in collecting classic vinyl.
Everand
#18 - Peter Hammill on track by Richard Rees JonesA solid overview of Peter’s solo work — and there’s a lot of it! — that has me revisiting my Hammill collection.
Everand
#19 - Sankarea 3: Undying Love by Mitsuru HattoriThe awkward zombie romance manga stumbles onward, as secrets come out and a mysterious young woman shows up at Furuya's temple. Things are looking a little dark for Rea, though, as her zombification inches along.
Comixology Unlimited
#20 - Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. SmithPoems that cover ground from science to human rights abuses via David Bowie. Won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Audible Plus
#21 - Bull Run by Paul FleischmanAudio version, with multiple readers. A junior grade book about the lead up to and part of the US Civil War Battle Of Bull Run. Interesting, but not much there for an adult, I think.
Audible Plus
#22 - The Mourner by Richard StarkCarrying on from the previous book, where Parker delivered a thorough kicking to The Outfit, we find Parker in coital celebration with amoral rich girl Bett Harrow...when a would-be assassin strikes. Worse yet, Bett splits...with Parker's gun, his prints, and knowledge of his best cover identity.
Attempting to retrieve the gun, Parker is dragged into stealing a small sculpture, The Mourner, for Bett's father. This seems to be pretty open and shut -- Parker takes his fee and the gun, delivers the statue, and splits. At which point The Outfit gets involved again, along with communist bureaucrat/enforcer Augustus Menlo, assigned to kill the owner of the statue, but with plans of his own....
Despite the dark stuff, this is a rather lighter Parker story, verging on a Westlake seriocomic outing.
Audible Plus
#23 - Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon by James LovegroveA straightfoward pastiche, as it turns out, Lovegrove producing his The Hound of the Baskervilles style of pastiche, something that seems potentially supernatural but has a real-world explanation. In itself a bit too long, with a pile of interscting stories, but Lovegrove does a fair job of capturing the voices and managing to present a reasonable facsimile of Doyle.
Audible Plus
#24 - An American Sunrise by Joy HarjoMixed prose, poetry, and song from Native American poet Joy Harjo, meditating on her own life and family, and exploring her relationship to the storied history of Native Americans under the United States. Harjo is excellent, soft and graceful in tone, but sharp within that.
Audible Plus
#25 - Batman: White Knight Presents: Generation Joker #1 by Katana Collins, Clay McCormack, Sean Murphy, etcAnother sidestep from the Murphyverse story helps to set up the coming expansion, but is otherwise easy enough to ignore. An AI version of Jack Napier takes his kids on a road trip (the AI is decaying, so it's a goodbye trip), things go wildly wrong, and chaos ensues as Harley, Bruce Wayne, Riot (formerly Harley II and Neo-Joker) and FBI agents Diana Prince and John Stewart set off to find the kids and the AI...though some of those have agendas other than saving the children.
Hoopla
#26 - Rivers of London Volume 7: Action at a Distance#27 - Rivers of London Vol. 8: The Fey & The Furious
#28 - Rivers of London Volume 9: Monday, Monday
#29 - Rivers of London Vol. 10: Deadly Ever After
All by Ben Aaronovich, Andrew Cartmel, and various
The ROL interstitial stories continue, not always centered on Peter Grant -- his partner Beverley Brook (and her river goddess family) gets a good share of the spotlight, as does his boss, 120+ year old police magician Nightingale.
These continue to be good fun, but they do tend to be a bit lightweight as well.
Hoopla
#30 - Rivers of London Vol. 11: Here Be Dragons by James Swallow and othersA wyvern shows up in London, knocking down police helicopters. Detective Constable Peter Grant is on the case, bringing his skills as an apprentice magician with him, although, given the presence of some wannabe gangsta fae, he's got his work cut out for him.
Hoopla
Also re-read: A Rare Book of Cunning Device, a Rivers Of London short that has Peter visiting the British Library to solve their poltergeist problem. Except...it's something else entirely. A fun audiobook.
Audible Plus
Under Kite Hill by Ben Aaronovitch
A short short piece from the author's newsletter, celebrating Valentine's Day by pastiching Under Milk Wood.
#31 - The Furthest Station by Ben AaronovitchPeter Grant is teamed with London Transport Police officer Jagat to investigate a rash of ghost sightings on the London Underground -- unusually, rather than the usual sad sack commuter ghosts, these are pretty intense manifestations, and, oddly, those who witness the apparitions forget the sightings shortly afterwards.
This being Peter Grant, the Special Assessment Unit, and the Folly, the scope of the inquiry broadens pretty quickly and takes Peter, Jagat, Nightingale, and Peter's cousin Abigail, a precocious teenager on her way to being a full part of the Folly, out to the last stop on the Metropolitan line in search of an abducted "fairy princess."
As a novella it's a bit more compressed than the novels, so there's less outright dry British humour. There's some interesting background information on the Folly though.
Hoopla
#32 - The Pain Hunter by Jeffrey DeaverFirst part of the "The Broken Doll" series, which jumps around in time, characters, and location. In this opening installment Deaver tells the story of a doctor abducted by a crime boss and his crew after a shootout, a straightforward seeming tale with the wounded boss being treated by the doctor...and then aspects begin to shift and the story changes.
Interesting work, though Deaver isn't generally my cup of tea.
Amazon Prime/Kindle Unlimited
#33 - Dodge by Jeffrey DeaverSecond entry in Deaver's "The Broken Doll" series of interlocking stories. This one steps backwards a week or so, mostly following Agent Constant Marlow, who's looking for Paul Offenbach, the sociopathic crime boss from The Pain Hunter. It' not just about her plan, however, as Offenbach has his own plans in motion, knowing she's after him.
This does serve to set up a number of elements in the first part, but if you're reading in order it also serves to remove a degree of suspense. Also, as it involves a great deal of fighting it's a bit tedious and occasionally unbelievable.
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#34 - Execution Day by Jeffrey DeaverThe third installment of "The Broken Doll." This one goes back further, to a court case involving a seeming upstanding citizen accused of participating in the horrific murder of a deputy by sociopathic crime boss. The prosecutor, Quill, thinks he has a solid case, but as things go on it seems that the accused, Steven Ross, might be innocent.
It's an interesting, taut, read, though, again, I find myself disbelieving that the prosecutor and law enforcement could miss things that end up being dug up by an amateur inspired by a movie.
Anyway, more pieces are put in place in this interesting jigsaw 0f a story.
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#35 - Sixty-One Seconds by Jeffrey DeaverWell, that was a disappointment. Deaver recaps some of the previous entries in "The Broken Doll" and returns to the breakout that preceded The Pain Hunter, and seemingly sets out to wrap up the story.
Except...he doesn't. It all ends with Constant Marlow, having caught up with the kidnapped Dr. Stephen Collier, driving off into the darkness...the end. It's frustrating after the convoluted lead-up, and feels like sequel bait.
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#36 - The Pit and the Box by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck HoganSecond part of a serial story...Russian mercenaries have crash-landed in Chinese mountains and taken refuge in an old redoubt. Wolves prowl outside...and something on the inside has been let loose. I still feel like this is an adaptation of Del Toro's abandoned version of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness
Part one, Falling Down, wasn't borrowed but was an Amazon freebie.
Amazon Prime/Kindle Unlimited
#37 - The Hunted by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck HoganThe actions ramps up as the mysterious Boy starts killing the Russian mercenaries.
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#38 - Broken Homes by Ben AaronovitchPC Peter Grant is pulled into a confusing case that involves lost German books, tree nymphs, and a German architect who might well have discovered a way to construct magickal generators in the form of buildings. Worse yet, the Faceless Man is involved, and he has a powerful ally...and an even worse surprise for Grant.
Libby
#39 - Risen#40 - Siege
#41 - Encounter all by Guillemo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The mayhem gradually concludes with a showdown with a very old predator, as well as more nonsense about alpha wolves. The bleak ending turns nihilistic, rocks fall, everyone dies, curtain down.
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#42 - Scheme by Jeffrey DeaverA convoluted story that manages to end up just where I thought it would. Somebody is planting bombs in the town of Middleton, and announcing them with poetry...so a literature professor is called in to decode the poems. But what's this *really* about?
Amazon Prime/Audible Plus
#43 - Foxglove Summer by Ben AaronovitchBack to the rivers Of London...well, singular, as in Beverley Brook accompanying PC Peter Grant on an investigation that takes him well afield of the Folly as he's assigned to talk to a retired Practitioner who lives in a region of Herefordshire close to where two eleven year old girls have vanished. When Peter joins the search the mysteries begin to pile up, and he stands to not only discover new things about his job, but whole new realms linked to the Forms And Wisdoms...not to mention having his toolkit expanded. Plus, Beverley has her own plans and intentions when it comes to Peter -- and the River Lugg.
It's a quite dense book, with a bit of an abrupt ending, but it's very pastoral in tone, and surprisingly free of death (aside from the occasional sheep) if not mayhem of one kind or another. It does a great job of opening out the world.
By this point, by the way, I'm wondering about the genius loci -- if they're in various bodies of water (generally as transformed humans), what are the ones attached to canals like?
Libby
#44 - The Hanging Tree by Ben AaronovitchPeter Grant is back in London and it isn't long before he's up to his neck in trouble when he's called by Lady Tyburn, the goddess of the River Tyburn, to help bail her daughter out of a jam. Peter almost manages this...until Olivia confesses to dealing the drugs that might have killed a girl at an illegal party she was at. Peter doesn't believe the confession, and neither do the regular police officers, and the chase is on.
Then things get *really* complicated and extremely messy. Plus there's all that property damage....
Libby
#45 - Lies Sleeping by Ben AaronovitchThe conclusion to the Faceless Man arc through the books, though not the end of Lesley May's story. Peter, Nightingale, and an increasingly large group of Metropolitan Police are assigned to Operation Jennifer, intended to track down and capture the Faceless Man (now exposed) and the wayward Lesley May, whose agenda becomes much clearer here. It's a thundering chaos of story, honestly, but satisfying to a big degree. What comes next? False Value comes next!
Libby
#46 - False Value by Ben AaronvitchNo longer enduring a pro forma suspension, Detective Constable Peter Grant joins a high tech firm, Serious Cybernetics Corporation, as part of the security team. In reality, though, he's undercover, and things are about to get very strange indeed as the Australian tech billionaire who owns the company is harbouring secrets...and there are powerful groups who want those secrets.
Less engaging overall than most of the books, and very plot heavy - and even more reference-heavy than most of the books.
Libby
#47 - Pigeon Tony's Last Stand by Lisa ScottolineScottoline revisits her Rosario series characters, including the Tonys, to tell a story of neighbourhood redemption. Enjoyable, if a tiny bit naïve, and the Tonys are a charmind bunch of alte kockers.
Kindle Unlimited/audible Plus
#48 - Amongst Our Weapons by Ben AaronovitchWhile the story has continued on beyond this in the graphic novels, it almost feels as though Aaronovitch wanted this to be an ending, or at least the penultimate novel in the series. Credit, though, to Aaronovitch pretty much starting from a Monty Python sketch to build his story (though I'm sad he didn't get a Mel Brooks reference in there as well.) The book also ends with a lack of explanation for one key element after much effort expended on the history behind the case. didn't stop me from reading for much longer than might be good for me, though.
Libby
#49 - Double Cross by Jeffrey DeaverAn accountant who owes mobsters, a daring robbery, a screw-up, an unfortunate witness, and a twist in the tale. Solid little noir tale.
Kindle Unlimited
#50 - Surprise Ending by Jeffrey DeaverAs it says on the tin. A very unlikely storyline, honestly, but it does play fair with its story of Baltimore mobsters, an ambitious cop, and a thriller writer with a story to set up and direct.
Kindle Unlimited
#51 - The Vanishing Man by Alma Katsu#52 - On Enemy Ground by Alma Katsu
A contemporary spy trilogy following Yuri Koslov, defector from the FSB. He's actually under orders directly from Vladimir Putin, and is going to have to navigate CIA and State Department handlers. But does he really want to carry out the mission?
Kindle Unlimited
#53 - The Other Car by Paul LevinsonA college professor leaves his gym on a seemingly ordinary afternoon...and discovers an identical twin to his car parked in the next spot. He's intrigued and curious, but it seems an unlikely coincidence, no more.
Until he finds a duplicate copy of a book he's sure he has the last copy of...one with identical markings and dings. The twinning keeps coming...is he going crazy or is the world somehow splitting in two?
It's a fascinating take on the multiversal idea, though it skips explanation and ends with abruptness, though that works for this tale.
Kindle Unlimited
#54 - Shaken, Not Stirred by Alma KatsuThe story of Yuri Koslov comes to an end, with Yuri making his decision just in time for a Russian attack on the Montego Bay enclave where the CIA team has moved things. This one fell down with a bit of a thud, as Katsu not only has a lot of gunplay happening, but has the Jamaican police reacting swiftly and decisively -- and then she elides the diplomatic chaos that would have followed. Ah well.
Kindle Unlimited/Audible Plus
#55 - Sankarea 4: Undying Love by Mitsuru Hattori#56 - Sankarea 5: Undying Love by Mitsuru Hattori
#57 - Sankarea 6: Undying Love by Mitsuru Hattori
Furuya's life with accidental zombie Rea gets more and more complicated, with family secrets emerging and a teenage visitor revealing more and more about zombie research, as well as Furuya's doddering grandfather -- who was a top researcher who fell victim to his own work. Worse yet, Rea's zombie state seems to be progressing -- both the decay, and the ghoulish hunger for human flesh. Topping that off, Furuya's zombiefied cat Bub has become monstrous, topping that his cousin Ranko reveals her feelings for him and fear that his trying to help Rea will get him killed. Then there's Rea's awful family....
It's nice to see the story developing more and more depth, with Furuya beginning to realize the consequences of what he' been doing, and Rea struggling with what she's become. The secondary science fiction storyline is more in the background, though might be coming to the fore soon.
Tragedy seems inevitable, though.
The series midpoint descended into rather a lot of awkward fanservice, though the mangaka here does have a rather nice art style. That seems to have settled down now, thankfully.
ComiXology
#58 - Trolleys in the 1970's: In the 1970's by Harv Kahn, Ray Tutaj, Jr.Ray Tutaj, Jr. has assembled a number of books of Harv Kahn's traction and railroad photography, much of it from the 1970s, some from the 1980s. Kahn himself passed away years before the books were produced, dying from the effects of Agent Orange.
The result, as here, is a collection of unique photographs. They're not the most brilliant works, and the captioning is far from the best, but it's good to have them out in the world. This volume covers three transit agencies, including Boston, and avoids anything that might be a glamour shot -- indeed, more than a few cars are shown in the yard, out of service and in sad shape. There's also a series of shots of Boston's LRV cars, built by Boeing -- proof positive that Boeing's design and manufacturing woes are nothing new (the LRV were deeply hated in Boston.)
Kindle Unlimited
Virtual Mount TBR Challenge 2024
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