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#51 - Rivers Of London Vol. 1: Body Work by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, et alAn ancillary graphic novel series woven into Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series that mostly (but not always) follows the exploits of London detective Peter Grant, policeman and apprentice wizard. Grant works for the Falcon division of the Met (aka "The Folly") which deals with magical issues with the aid of a collection of river spirits, under the watchful eye of his supervisor, Nightingale.
In this outing Peter is called by Beverly Brook, a river spirit fond of him, when a BMW crashes into her river, drowning the driver...and she realizes it's no simple accident. From there it's off to homicidal cars, vengeful forces, a 1920s Bentley, and a historical connection...also, the hubris of wizards. One wonders, too...how old is Nightingale? And what's the deal with Molly, the silent domestic at The Folly?
All around a lot of fun with some delightfully quirky characters and a lot of humour. The collection closes out with a series of "Tales From The Folly", mostly one page gag stories. I've been enjoying entries in the book series, and it seems I'll enjoy these as well.
#52 - The Black Stone by Robert E, HowardTaking a break from mighty thewed manly men and the like, Howard pastiches H. P. Lovecraft in a tale of an anthropologist discovering what lies under the reality we all agreed to. Quite lumbering, sadly, and regrettably racist in spots.
Audiobook, read by Ian Gordon.
#53 - Rivers of London Vol. 2: Night Witch#54 - Rivers of London: Black Mould
#55 - Rivers of London: Detective Stories
#56 - Rivers of London: Cry Fox
#57 - Rivers of London: Water Weed
All by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, and various.
Further interstitial entries in the Rivers Of London series, with Peter Grant and Thomas Nightingale getting embroiled in a variety of strange cases, including some that have little magical involvement. Detective Stories uses Peter's examinations and review for promotion to Detective Constable to look at some smaller cases, including at least one that's extremely minor. Cry Fox, on the other hand, is a lot of wheel spinning with a little delving into the fae and rather too much lifting from The Most Dangerous Game, although including a character who seems to be a Billy Bunter expie is an interesting oddity. The story also revisits characters from Night Witch.
As ever humour abounds, including some laugh out loud moments.
It does help to have a familiarity with the main run of novels, but casual readers ought to be able to muddle through.
#58 - Rivers of London by Ben AaronovitchTitled Midnight Riot in its US release, though the title only has to do with a small part of the book while the UK (and series) title refers to a much larger portion of the book.
This is our introduction to PC Peter Grant, a fairly newly minted mixed race copper. He has a scientist's outlook, an unrequited lust for fellow PC Lesley May, and he approaches policing with a positive attitude and an awareness of the problems on the force (initially I didn't think this was going to be the case, but both race and police behaviour play into the story.)
Then PC Grant is assigned to a murder scene to keep the peace...and he encounters a witness. The witness, unfortunately, is a ghost. That gets him introduced to a whole new version of London, as he's seconded to "The Folly", the home base of The Metropolitan Police Special Assessments Unit, handlers of "Falcon" cases. The SAU has been much reduced over time -- these days it's just Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, Britain's last registered wizard, supported by the strange, silent maid Molly. Peter's soon made into his apprentice, and plunged into events that spin wildly out of control. Well out of his depth, Peter has one thing that might save him: his scientific mind.
The plotting gets a bit chaotic, but it's in service of both characters and the overall background -- Peter's entire existence is getting shredded here, not the least because he runs into the avatars of London rivers repeatedly and it often doesn't go very well. The book's also pretty funny -- Aaronovitch has a talent for extremely dry British humour (the audiobook is brilliant at playing this up) -- and has characters who are far from perfect.
Also (re-)read: The Domestic, in which Peter deals with what appears at first to be a domestic squabble but turns out to be something else entirely, and A Rare Book of Cunning Device, which has Peter looking into a purported poltergeist problem at the British Library, only to find out that it's something weirder and more magical.
#59 - Bullets and Fire by Joe R. LansdaleOff my TBR after a decade! A mercilessly stripped down account of one Tray and his ruthless pursuit of joining a vicious gang. Why he wants in is the crux of things. Violent and gory, but curiously not repulsive. Not glamourous, either. This isn't a John Wick film.
#60 - Betjeman's Britain: Poems from BBC Archi by John BetjemanRecordings of Betjeman reading his work made by the BBC at various times, complete with Betjeman providing some introductory material and the occasional disclaimer. Audio quality is unfortunately quite variable, even with some attempts at restoration, but it's quite listenable. It's also rather less exhaustive and exhausting than the audio version of the complete poems.
#59 - Moon Over Soho by Ben AaronovitchSomething is killing brilliant jazz performers. Not many, really, maybe three a year, and doing so with enough subtlety that it could be missed as natural causes...even when it's a healthy 19 year old trombonist. Fortunately Detective Constable Peter Grant, apprentice wizard, is on the case...as is a highly skeptical Metropolitan Murder Team, who also have their hands full with a horrific clubland murder involving a severed penis (a recurring plot element from the first book.)
Meanwhile, DCI Nightingale, Peter's guv'nor and mentor, is recovering from being shot, and not in the best condition to handle the other things coming down the line...namely, the reveal of the Faceless One and the horrors he's behind....
Series is still finding its feet here, but characters are being added that will be important down the line. Plus, Lesley May returns...which will also be important.
#60 - Whispers Underground by Ben AaronovitchAn American art student is found dead in a London Underground tunnel, apparently killed with a shard of pottery. There's enough weirdness involved with the death that the Folly investigates -- meaning PC Peter Grant, apprentice wizard, and the British Transport Police officer Jaget. Things get complicatedly weird very quickly, and Peter's accidental destructive streak continues.
Fun stuff, not super great but superb worldbuilding and some glorious British fantasy and dry humour.
#61 - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. EliotA revisit after far too long, and this time in audio book form. It's always a pleasure, although the racist bits stick out more than ever.
Steven wrote: "#61 - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. EliotA revisit after far too long, and this time in audio book form. It's always a pleasure, although the racist bits stick out mo..."
I just read this also, though for the first time. I agree with both sentiments.
#61 - Black Mask 1: Doors in the Dark: And Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine edited by Otto PenzlerSelections from The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, a gigantic anthology of stories from the Black Mask magazine read by a couple of narrators. This volume includes the introductions, as well as early work by Earl Stanley Gardner and Dashiell Hammett. With the caveat that the stories very much reflect their time, it's good stuff, if tending to be a bit overly grunting manly. Black Mask moved the needle on crime thriller fiction away from the pulp excesses and towards what might be loosely defined as literary fiction, and it's interesting to see the growth.
I had this as a 6CD set, but a digital version can be had from Audible, along with the other ten volumes (or you can pick up the complete volume as a trade paperback or ebook.)
#63 - Black Mask 11: Middleman for Murder: and Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine edited by Otto PenzlerThe 11th and final volume of the divvied-up contents of The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, slightly shorter in running time but concluding with a corker of a story from Cornell Woolrich. Unfortunately this volume starts with Richard Cornell's "The Color Of Honor," which seems to be attempting to be anti-racist and anti-Klan, but instead ends up being rather horribly racist from end to end, full of the n-word and painful racist stereotypes. I'm not sure why Penzler include this one, honestly. Yes, these stories are very much of their time, but this one is a bit much even then,and certainly seem out of keeping with the Black Mask norm.
#64-67 - EDENS ZERO 1, EDENS ZERO 2, EDENS ZERO 3, EDENS ZERO 4 by Hiro MashimaHiro Mashima is the prolific mangaka behind the Fairy Tail, Vol. 01 universe, and as that scope of that expanded and was built on by others like BOKU, he branched out into what feels a bit like Fairy Tail in space, with added social media and online gaming aspects.
Mashima makes it clear in the first tankōbon that he *isn't* attempting science fiction here -- it's fantasy, and alternate world fantasy at that, and mashed up with Japanese martial superheroics. He's also made it clear that he's creating this series on the fly, rather than plotting it out in detail, resulting in some peculiar swerves when certain things catch his interest (he literally inserts the Mosco character between panels on a whim, after pretty much killing them off.) There's a degree of darkness, too -- both main characters, Shiki and Rebecca, have abandonment and tragedy in their past, supporting character Weisz has had a paradoxical event strike him that not only excised fifty years of his future, but left his twenty-something self out in the cosmos alongside his seventy-something self -- the planet he was on was struck by a chronophage, which somehow eats time, and set the planet back fifty years.
Of interest to those enjoying the art side of manga, Mashima here not only utilizes the usual manga design tropes (with far less incoherence in most of the fight scenes, and a rather annoying approach to the fan-servicy elements) but regularly switches the non-character designs up into a pretty good homage to Moebius and similar artists.
I've had this series sitting around for a good while -- it was part of a Humble Bundle along with a heaping helping 0f Fairy Tale so it's gratifying to get to grips with it finally.
#68 - Black Mask 9: The Corpse Didn't Kick: And Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine edited by Otto PenzlerAnother selection from The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, this time with some humour and several twist endings amongst the stories of mean streets down which a man must go who himself is not mean. Again, the caveat is that these are of their time, and display some outdated attitudes alongside the often archaic prose.
#69-70 - EDENS ZERO 6, EDENS ZERO 7 by Hiro MashimaThe quest to gather the shining Stars and find Homura's mother continues and concludes in a mad flurry of violence, with each member of the crew growing in strength and ability. Ultimately, though, there's more than a little heartbreak. the series remains firmly middling, I think, and at this point the art in the action sequences is starting to be a bit incoherent.
#71 - The Shunned House by H. P. LovecraftRead by the ever gloomy sounding Ian Gordon, who's perfectly suited to this early Lovecraft tale of a mysterious and seemingly evil-infested house that the narrator and his uncle finally venture into.
#72 - In the Vault by H. P. LovecraftA fairly standard horror story about a man trapped in an underground crypt. Comes with an actual twist ending, too, unusual for Lovecraft.
Read by the ever gloomy Ian Gordon of Horrorbabble.
#73 - The Labyrinth Index by Charles trossNinth entry in the series, once again switching protagonists (Mhari Murphy from Human Resources, now a vampire and a Baroness, takes the lead here) and detailing the perils of the New Management, now that CASE NIGHTMARE RED has come into effect and the dread N'yar-Lat-Hotep has become Prime Minister of England and de facto ruler.
Mhari's mission here is to go to the United States, where the entire population has forgotten that the Executive Branch exists, the result of an epic geas launched by the Black Chamber, the US version of the Laundry. The Black Chamber intends to bring back Cthulhu as *their* hope of stopping CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN -- the problem being that the war against the Cold Ones will likely annihilate the local reality, not to mention forcing the Black Pharoah to do the boring kind of work.
Chaos, catastrophe, conspiracy theories, blood and monstrosity ensue. It's not a perfect novel, sadly, but it is mostly a fun read, even with a reduction in the humour quotient.
#74 - The Alchemist by H. P. LovecraftA fitting follow-up to Charles Stross' continuing modernization of Lovecraft's Mythos, I suppose, also this is simply the tale of a man delving into matters best left undelved and discovering the horrific truth about the supposedly late Charles le Sorcier.
Horrorbabble audiobook read by Ian Gordon.
#75 - The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd OsbourneI'd long wanted to read this comedy of terrors as the 1966 Bryan Forbes film is a favourite of mine, for all that it's flawed -- the cast is a murderer's row of talent, including a scene featuring Peter Sellers and an army of cats, and it has one of the funniest prologues I've ever seen.
The novel, alas, has a somewhat less airy tone than the adaptation, and is terribly prolix at times, often droning on through the shenanigans of various members of the Finsbury family when it seems that a long-standing tontine (a bizarre investment scheme that begins with a group of children and pays off to the last survivor, who may be too old to enjoy it) has finally come to fruition due to either a train accident or old age -- has Masterson breathed his last? Or was Joseph done in beforehand? Cue the stashing of a corpse (unbeknownst to the plotters, it's a wanted murderer) in a barrel, a mislabeled piano shipment, and much else, and there's the comedic tale, unfortunately slathered in reams of inelegant language. Those were different times, though, and the Scottish wit of Stevenson and stepson Lloyd Osbourne was much enjoyed.
#76 - What If?: AvX by Jimmy PalmiottiMarvel's "What If" stories do have a tendency to wind up with a bleak revisionist ending...but they also used to do it in a single issue. Here, a shorter alternate version of an event spreads out more before getting to the bleak ending (but everything will be alright, Earth is healing!) Basically, the Phoenix Force is on the way to claim Hope Summers and sort things out, Magneto nags Hope into a heel turn, rocks fall, everyone dies...then the ghost of Jean Grey (who was dead at the time, again) shows up and opens up the afterlife.
It's pretty relentless and mindless, with a version of Magneto who is, once again, completely mad. I'd like my multiverse a bit less brain dead (and with less awful art) thanks.
#77 - Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael BensonAn *exhaustive* look at the genesis and production of the landmark film, though the text reads very quickly for all that. There's a great deal of fascinating material that I wasn't aware of, and even a few rather unpleasant incidents (like the kokerboom destruction, where Kubrick prompted production assistant Andrew Birkin to steal endangered trees, resulting in considerable destruction...all for a shot in which they can't be seen.)
Also includes a huge notes section, and index, and numerous photos. Best read in book form -- the audiobook is absent pictures, notes, and index.
#78 - The House Of Crime by Theodore A. Tinsley The final Amusement Inc. story finds Major Lacy getting ever closer to the Scarlet Ace, wreaking havoc on his organization. Gloriously overwrought early 1930s pulp full of bullets, blood, and the occasional broad, and cringeworthily of its time. Tinsley was one of the more prolific ghostwriters for the Shadow pulps as well.
#79 - Maigret and the Saturday Caller by Georges SimenonOne of simenon's more thoughtful Maigrets, in which the Commissaire spends much of his time pondering, brooding, and worrying about catching a cold. An odd man has been showing up at Maigret's office, only to leave before talking to the Detective. Then he shows up at Maigret's home to announce his intention to kill his wife and her lover...maybe. A strange story follows, and then the man leaves, promising to stay in touch with Maigret.
Then he vanishes, leaving Maigret to wonder what happened. A mystery ensues, but it's hardly of great note -- basically, Maigret and his staff do some legwork while Maigret ponders his way to *a* solution...at which point the Examining Magistrate takes over and Maigret moves on. The truth of things is somewhat ambiguous, but justice is seen to be done. Perhaps.
#80 - Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas by Mick HerronThere's actually a theme to this collection, though Slough House itself is mostly tangential here. Old spies, aging espionage assets, those at the end of their careers...or usefulness. And sometimes their lives. This even applies to Jackson Lamb, former joe and still the best of the MI5 spooks (Herron blurs the lines between MI5 and MI6) even as he runs roughshod over his Slow Horses, the MI5 rejects sent to the boredom chamber of Slough House. The title story here reflects on Lamb's younger life, albeit obliquely.
Not essential to the overall series, but enjoyable reads.
#81 - Murder by Gaslight by Troy TaylorExhaustive and somewhat exhausting as Taylor starts off by introducing us to the 19th Century Chicago, then takes us to the Murder Castle of Dr. H. H. Holmes, serial killer and fraudster, after which we follow the horrific, bloody exploits of this awful sociopath, whose trail of death made Jack The Ripper look like a slacker. It's fascinating, yet tedious in its fine detail.
#82 - Avengers: West Coast Avengers: Lost in Space-Time by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, etcThis one gave me a touch of whiplash as it whipsaws from often goofy humour to lightweight adventure to religion, destiny, sexual assault (in typically ham-fisted Englehart fashion) and suicide. All this and Wonder Man being an utter diva. This story sends the West Coast Avengers rattling through time, and provides another perspective on earlier tales, allowing Englehart to gleefully throw in the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange (the original stories are included as extras.) The story also introduces Dr. Pym, Scientitific Adventurer -- no longer able to change size, Pym has developed a method of shrinking tools, machines, and weapons for instant use.
#83 - PTSD Radio, Vol. 1 by Masaaki NakayamaAbout as opaque as Japanese horror manga gets, with the first volume flitting from character to character, location to location, obliquely telling the story of a malevolent spirit that's either made of hair or obsessed with hair...or both. Victims are haunted, attacked, traumatized...but what's going on isn't clear.
I have the series stacked up to read, but I'm not sure if it'll gain clarity.
#84 - Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Lost in Space-Time by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, othersNot entirely time traveling shenanigans (and minus the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange issues included in other collections), this collection includes the ongoing battle for Tigra's sanity and the battle with Master Pandemonium, Hank Pym's gradual slide into despair, both East and West Coast Avengers versus the government, Freedom Force and the Zodiac thanks to Quicksilver losing his marbles (again), and Hawkeye's leadership struggle. Plus all of Steve Engleharts usual fetishes as a writer, of course.
#85 - West Coast Avengers: Zodiac Attack by Steven Englehart, Al Milgrom, etcStarts off with an East Coast vs West Coast baseball game that turns into a battle with the Grandmaster in the realm of Death with the existence of the universe as the stakes. Oh, and everybody's dead, because. From there it's on to a battle with the android version of the Zodiac, which ends with the bad guys behind the bad guys calling an audible, and by this point I think Englehart just couldn't wrap up stories, especially if they involved older points of continuity.
#86 - Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Tales to Astonish by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, etcWell, that was a rough ride. The West Coast Avengers get killed (several times for some), battle various versions of the Zodiac, wrestle with the notion of killing, and revisit Hank Pym's early career thanks to Quicksilver going mad again. Then the group breaks up due to Mockingbird and Hawkeye's stupid fight over her letting Phantom Rider fall to his death after he drugged and raped her. Also, Iron Man quits/gets booted between issues, which is jarring. Art is generally terrible.
This collection also includes the Emperor Doom graphic novel by David Michelinie. It's better than the majority of the contents, but suffers from being a Doom story.
#86 - Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita by Scott Tipton, etcBarclay from the Mirror Universe gets to the main universe Enterprise and infiltrates the crew...but seems remarkably benign, until the Data and Picard of his own universe come to take him back...when his plan is revealed. In the meantime, rather than being a straight serial, the stories here are episodic. As far as it goes, it's okay.
#87 - Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 4: Vision Quest by Steve Englehart, John Byrne, etcWraps up Englehart's run, and not in the best way, then surges into John Byrne's run, which is its own kind of messy as he wrecks the Vision and starts Scarlet Witch down the path of insanity, erasing her children. The end of this collection is all over the place, throwing in orphan chapters of long events.
Byrne was supposed to bring the book back onto an even keel, but instead he manages to throw it off even more.
#88 - Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 5: Darker than Scarlet by John Byrne, Roy & Dann Thomas, and variousJohn Byrne was just getting into the swing of an epic story involving Immortus when editorial mandates caused him to abruptly quit, leaving a whole lot of threads hanging. Fill-ins ensued, then Roy and Dann Thomas came in to try and get things on track. The results were far from good, with poor stories and some awful artwork. This volume also includes parts of the "Acts Of Vengeance" crossover, the final two parts of another crossover, and a John Byrne story from humour comic "What The --?" that's terribly unfunny.
#89 - Avengers West Coast: Along Came A Spider-Woman by Roy & Dann Thomas, Paul Ryan, assorted othersJohn Byrne's exit from the Avengers West Coast book left it floundering for a rather long time, before Roy Thomas and his second wife Dann came back and leveled it soundly, if a bit dully. Thomas' obsessions are here, too, from the original human torch to another go-round with Ultron and the Grim Reaper.
#90 - A Story for Which the World Is Now Prepared by Jacob HayAn amusing frippery linked by a slender thread to the Holmes canon.
#91 - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1 by Koyoharu GotougeTh start of the tale (and travail) of one Tanjiro, young charcoal seller in Taisho-era Japan. One day his family is slaughtered by demons, with his sister surviving...but as a demon. Tanjiro wants to exorcise the demon, so sets out to find help...only to be drafted as a demon slayer himself. First, though, he's going to have to survive the multi-armed demon in the forest...and possibly his fellow student demon slayer too.
Found this rather boring, unfortunately. Good art, though.
#92 - The Returned, Part 2 by Peter DavidThe continuing saga of Mackenzie Calhoun's roaring rampage of revenge against those who exterminated his people.
Last of the year for me, distracted by my musical life and other things. First time I've fallen short!
Mount TBR Challenge 2024
Books mentioned in this topic
The Returned, Part 2 (other topics)Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1 (other topics)
A Story for Which the World Is Now Prepared (other topics)
Avengers West Coast: Along Came A Spider-Woman (other topics)
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 5: Darker than Scarlet (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Theodore A. Tinsley (other topics)BOKU (other topics)
Ian Gordon (other topics)
Horrorbabble audio version. Curiously, the slightly stilted reading by Ian Gordon helps to accent the idea that this isn't a horror story...rather, it's an opaque fantasy with a quite obfuscated dénouement. We never do find out what Zann is in thrall to, or what his music is about, or, indeed, anything beyond the final chaos that drives the narrator out into the night and apparently causes an entire section of Paris to vanish.