BookBin2012

BookBin2012: Ghost: A Novel

~ lobablanca

I actually have a few recently finished books waiting in the wings for their big blog review debut. I’m hoping that now that my schedule is slowly clearing itself, I’ll have a little more time to work on them.

Hopefully not too much time though. Ahem.

Now, on to the first review. I read Alan Lightman’s novel Einstein’s Dreams last year and loved it so much that I knew I wanted to read more by this author. I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised when I discovered two more of his books at my local library.

The first of these two books that I read was Lightman’s 2007 offering, Ghost: A Novel. The story follows protagonist David Kurtzweil, a former bank employee who, after being laid off, finds new employment at a funeral home. As one can easily deduce from the title, David has an inexplicable encounter of a possibly paranormal variety while at his new place of employment.

Actually, one of the things that I loved most about this book was that Lightman doesn’t at first reveal what David saw. He keeps David’s experience a mystery, alluding to it, circumnavigating it, flirting with it…but never quite meeting it face-to-face. It takes a delicate touch to be able to write a novel called Ghost without actually discussing…the ghost.

Unfortunately, Lightman does finally reveal what David witnessed, and I have to admit, it was a bit of a letdown to me. I think it’s because I was hoping that Lightman would simply not reveal what David saw. I think the further along the story progressed and the longer Lightman remained vague, the more I was convinced that the novel could only possibly work if the reveal never occurred. Perhaps that was my own failing as a reader. I don’t know.

I do know that Lightman once again enraptured me with his clean, elegant prose. His style is stark and simple, extremely reminiscent of Hemingway in many ways.

Unlike Einstein’s Dreams, this novel is a little less stream-of-consciousness, far more regimented, and a lot longer. Perhaps a bit too long. I found myself growing weary of some of the plot twists toward the end, but, again, this might be a reflection of my response to the reveal that I had hoped would never arrive.

Final Verdict: I don’t know whether or not I would ever want to re-read this book. While I very much enjoyed the experience on a holistic level, the devil is, indeed, in the details…and the few negatives that I have detailed in this review are enough to convince me not to purchase a copy, but to keep this in mind for a future library revisit.

I still think that Lightman is very much worth reading. I still treasure the experience of reading Einstein’s Dreams, and I promise that the next Lightman book that I review here will be a much more ebullient posting than this one.

BookBin2012: Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

~ lobablanca

Okay, I’m just going to wait a moment while all you Cthulhu geeks wear yourselves out from your fannish squee frenzy.

…

All better? Good.

Yes, the subtitle of this first volume of what is currently a five-volume series (the fifth volume has yet to be released, however) is a sly bit of homage to that great proprietor of purple prose himself, H.P. Lovecraft. And, where else would the fair city of Lovecraft be located than in Massachusetts? I’m sure it’s quite close to Arkham and the prestigious Miskatonic University.

For the purposes of this graphic novel, Lovecraft is also the location of Keyhouse, the ancestral home of Rendell Locke, the family patriarch whose brutal murder during a home invasion sends his widow and three children on a cross-country journey from San Francisco back to the East Coast town he once called home.

Of course, any place located in a town named Lovecraft isn’t going to be level in any sense of the word. Keyhouse is vast, twisted, and full of secrets. Believe me when I say that you’ll be dying to learn them all.

Locke & Keye is a collaboration between celebrated genre author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. I’ve raved about Rodriguez here at the lair already; he’s the artist behind the CSI graphic novels I’ve recently reviewed, the best being Secret Identity. I was so over-the-top happy to see more of Rodriguez’s exceptional art, which is even more impressive when he’s working with original characters rather than ones based on predetermined appearances. His visual translations of Hill’s bleak, unsettling tale spread through the pages of this novel in a rich, haunting diaspora.

I don’t want to go too far into the details of the story itself. Suffice it to say, the crux of the story is discovery…discovery of strength, of secrets, of keys to unlocking all the mysteries hidden within the confines of the Locke family’s new home and new life. Hill is a king among storytellers, and this is a shining example of his royally inherited prowess.

And if you think that last sentence was a little bit leading, you might have something to stand on there. I won’t say any more about it. I’ll just leave this photo of Joe Hill here, for you to ruminate on for yourselves…

Final Verdict: I completely enjoyed the first part of what I’m hoping to discover is a holistically creepy, captivating series. Bottom line is, if the subsequent volumes are even half as amazing as this first part, it’s going to be an awesome ride from here. I’ve already added this volume to my wish list (alas, this was yet another library loaner) and am contemplating whether or not to just dive in and collect them all. I do believe that my graphic novel collection is growing more rapidly than any other part of my library…and, with stories like this one lining up for consideration, I’m very much okay with that.

BookBin2012: Sin City: Hell and Back

~ LobaBlanca

This is an addendum of sorts to my last book review. Really, though, it’s not even going to be a review.

I have nothing to say about Frank Miller’s final Sin City entry, Hell and Back. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the story. Didn’t like the writing. Didn’t like the artwork.

Just didn’t like it.

I wish I had more to say about this book, but I really have nothing else I want to say. My response was decisive and persistent the entire time I read this book; to be honest, I actually dreaded this particular review because of my keen lack of interest or investment. I suppose it’s my fault for picking up the final volume in the series without having read any of the others. However, I also didn’t like the movie based on three other volumes from the series. I haven’t seen the film since it was at the theater, so I don’t remember specifics of why I didn’t like it. Of course, this speaks volumes, in my mind at least. If I can’t remember anything about it other than it left a lingering tang of disinterest on my palate, it’s obviously not going to be high on my list of re-watches.

Subsequently, this book isn’t going to be high on my list of re-reads. I’m also not in any particular hurry to track down any other volumes from the series. I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised by my reaction to this novel. I remember the hype surrounding Miller’s saga. In fact, this might be an early example of my hype deflector going into overload. The more I heard, the more marketing I witnessed, the more raging fanboy glee I watched, the less interested I became in this series. I’m sure there are earlier instances of simliar responses from me, but I can’t think of them right now.

Final Verdict: Meh.

BookBin2012: All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Volume 1

~ LobaBlanca

Well, there’s a mouthful of a title, right?

Seems that I went on a bit of a binge the last time I hit the local library, especially when it came to graphic novels. This time, I was surprised to find a couple of selections from Frank Miller’s catalog. I’ve been looking for Miller’s work to show up for a while now; mostly, I’ve been waiting for his Batman work as well as 300. I got part of my wish with this selection.

Even though it wasn’t The Dark Knight Returns, which is what I was hoping would show up, I was more than willing to give All-Star Batman & Robin a go. With this series, we get Miller’s take on how Dick Grayson found himself under the protection and training of Batman after events left them sharing a defining moment involving their respective parents (how’s that for vague?).

Mainly, I was drawn in (ha) by the fact that Jim Lee was the artist for this collection. Lee was an integral force behind the artwork of the X-Men back in the late 80s and 90s. He pretty much helped establish the appearance of that merry band of mutants to which I was first introduced through the Saturday morning cartoon that I still love. Not only that, he helped Chris Claremont create the character of Gambit, who was always one of my favorites on the cartoon. Also? Anyone who gets a vote of confidence from Chris Claremont definitely gets my vote, too.

Obviously, at some point Lee shifted his talents from Marvel to DC, which led to his teaming up with Miller on this retelling of the Boy Wonder’s arrival in the Bat Cave.

Taken in its entirety, this is an amazing collection. Miller’s dark sensibilities work well in conjunction with the world of the Dark Knight. This is not the glowing realm of Metropolis, protected by their alien immortal in bright patriotic splashes of blue and red. This is seedy, gray Gotham, full of characters composed of gritty complexity. There are rarely clear delineations between good and evil, as intent and integrity blur into the deep shadows that Lee so eloquently elicits through his artwork. Kudos should also be given to Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair, who were responsible for inking and coloring, respectively.

Where the weakness of this collection shows is where the weakness of most comics appear: the depiction of female characters. Miller’s women are vapid, vituperative, and vindictive, not to mention extremely objectified through language and artistic renderings. We meet Vicki Vale in her very skimpy lingerie. Later, we see her preening in anticipation of getting close to Bruce Wayne and his huge bank account. The Black Canary is a busty, bawdy barmaid with indecent curves and impossible heels. Wonder Woman…she was the greatest disappointment of all. Apparently, in Miller’s Gotham, a woman of strength and independence by default must be an angry, violent man hater secretly harboring crippling lustful urges toward the primary target of her man-hating ways.

Right.

Miller’s depiction of all the women in this collection was infuriating, but no take was more insulting or offensive than his on the Amazon goddess.

Plus, there’s the added insult of the comic-standard ass angle in which we see nothing but the…butt of whatever woman happens to be in frame at the present moment. What a dull, tedious angle, lacking in any artistic integrity or imagination.

That being said, I did find certain other choices by Miller to be intriguing. I liked that his Batman was just the least bit, shall we say, unhinged. Sure, he’s the Dark Knight. Yes, he’s a crime-fighter. But he’s not a “hero.” He’s surly, unpredictable, uncooperative and just a tad bit…cracked. He refers to himself as “the goddamn Batman,” which made me think of the awesome Twitter feed of the same name every time I read it. I’m assuming this comic is also from where the idea for Christian Bale’s gravelly, growly Batman voice came? Interesting. Works better in print form.

Final Verdict: I’m not really sure I want to add this to my library. As much as I love Lee’s artwork as well as many aspects of Miller’s re-imagining of Gotham and its Dark Knight, I didn’t feel any particular desire to revisit. This might change. If it does, I’ll let you know.

BookBin2012: Deogratias

~ LobaBlanca

After stating in my last review that I find fictional uses of September 11 to be disconcerting, it’s a strange twist for me to then turn to a graphic novel recounting of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Truth is, the deeper down the graphic novel rabbit hole that I dive, the more blown away I am by the creativity and introspection shown by the amazing artists I’m discovering. When I saw Jean-Philippe Stassen’s Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda, I didn’t think twice about grabbing it from the library shelf. David Beauchard and Craig Thompson have more than convinced me that this medium is not only capable of respectfully dealing with tough topics, but it is also in many ways more appropriate when dealing with things that escape the limits of language itself.

I should have been clued in by the expurgated length of this novel that it wasn’t going to be terribly provocative; however, the topic alone more than fulfills that expectation. Even nearly 20 years later, I still can’t wrap my brain around how the world sat by as so many lives were brutally snuffed from existence. Then again, most of the things that humanity does to itself elude my understanding. The one thing that humans will probably never truly understand is human nature.

Stassen tells a very carefully controlled story, centering on the titular character Deogratias (a Latin liturgy meaning “thanks be to God”). We experience the outbreak of violence through this teenaged boy’s view as he watches his Hutu kinsmen rise up against the local Tutsi. Interspersed are moments embedded 5 years after the fact, in which we see how the events have irrevocably altered him…alterations that Stassen conveys in a rather interesting visual choice.

In some ways, it feels almost disrespectful to have condensed the events of this genocide into such a short novel. Then again, I don’t necessarily think I would have been able to absorb a visual account any longer than this, considering how bleakly explicit Stassen’s artwork became at times. There are some things you simply don’t need to see to comprehend how awful they were.

An obvious comparison at this time would, of course, be Art Spiegelman’s Maus, not only for the graphic treatment of a graphic historical event, but also for shared allegorical elements. Spiegelman’s groundbreaking novels, however, are far more complicated than Stassen’s tale. Still, I believe that Stassen pays subtle but deserved obeisance to Spiegelman’s novels through certain choices in his storytelling.

Final Verdict: As an interlude to something more probing and holistic, this is worth the time to read; however, as a stand-alone, it falls short of the greatness to which it could have transpired.

BookBin2012: Fangland

~ lobablanca

Apparently, I’m on a bit of a vampire kick at the moment, eh? The truth of the matter is that I had planned the back-to-back vamp-a-thon I just completed, but I had no intention of reading anything else. Then, during a recent stroll through the local library, I stumbled across John Marks’ Fangland. I’d never heard of it before but the cover art was sparse and striking and…well, yeah, I’m in a bit of a bloodsucking mindset right now.

Do with that statement whatever you will, denizens.

I admittedly had trepidation when I first started reading this novel. I’m still feeling the rush of rage through my veins that yet another book has besmirched the darkness of the original Dracula. The fact that it was Stoker’s own kin makes the rage that much brighter. Was this going to be yet another book that devolved into ridiculous notions of vampire romanticism and eroticism? Or would we finally get this bloody bullet train back on track?

Oh, denizens. This story is dark…dark as tumbling untethered and unlit into the Mariana Trench. In some ways, I think this might actually be a darker story than even Bram Stoker imagined for our vicious immortals. Marks is deliciously diabolical as he spins a tale that is both respectful of the original novel and more than ready to push beyond the limits of the original’s boundaries. He also shows a level of deference to the original text that delighted me immensely. His story unfolds in a modern update to Stoker’s epistolary telling, through e-mails, diaries, newspaper clippings, and various other first-person accounts. Just as with Stoker’s story, this approach is almost purely subjective, leaving us with that same sense of uncertainty regarding whether what we are reading is to be believed or filed away as some form of communally shared mental breakdown.

Plus, he named his heroine Evangeline Harker, which I admit was what ultimately convinced me to check out this book after the cover first hooked me. Once I dove into the novel, I found other characters who obviously fed upon the legacy of predecessors such as Van Helsing, Lucy Westenra, and Renfield in different and familiar ways.

I’m not going to state here that this is a perfect tale. There are admittedly several aspects that I either found uninteresting or unpleasant. I’m still not all that comfortable with the events of September 11, 2001, being used as a means of propelling along fictional storylines. However, Marks uses the memory of that and other modern and historical atrocities to great effect and in such a way that works to strengthen the impact of his tale. It’s also part of the revelation of who and what Marks’ vampire is, and is ultimately the moment in which I felt that Marks surpassed Stoker in dark imaginings.

For full disclosure, Marks does use sex in this novel, but in its basest, darkest form. These characters wield sex with bleak precision for sinister purposes. There is no sparkly sexeh time here. There is, however, evisceration, immolation, desecration, mutilation, exsanguination, exploitation, and a whole lot of mental deterioration all across the board.

This story is a hot, crazy mess, denizens, and it drags you bleeding and sore over its twisted remains at discomfiting speeds. You might not like where it takes you, but it’s one hell of a ride.

An interesting side note that I discovered while looking for a cover image is that, apparently, John Carpenter was slated to direct the movie version of this novel back in 2007. There was even talk of Hilary Swank being cast as Evangeline Harker. I’m not sure what happened, although it looks like the writer strike that year derailed these plans. Neither Carpenter nor Swank is still attached to the project; rumor now has it that Wes Craven might be directing it. I’m on board for that. I’d rather see his take on this tale than watch him waste his time on another Scream.

Final Verdict: If you prefer sinister vampire mythology over sparkly treacle, then you might be in the market for just this novel. I’ve returned the library copy I had, but I do believe I will be adding this to my wish list for future acquisition.

BookBin2012: Dracula: The Un-Dead

~ lobablanca

No, denizens, this isn’t a reprint of my previous BookBin entry. See, there was a reason why I chose to re-read a book that I knew I had no intention of giving away. I wanted to refresh my memory and prepare myself for my first reading of the “official” sequel to Stoker’s classic.

First, a little bit of history. Bram Stoker’s orginal Dracula is considered to be part of the public domain here in the United States. It’s fallen under this classification since 1899. Why? Because apparently Stoker failed to comply with one requirement from the U.S. copyright office and…POOF. No more U.S. copyright. Open season was pretty much declared on the Dracula story by all interested American parties at that point, each knowing that they would never have to consult with any member of the Stoker family and each in turn slowly whittling away the dignity of the Dark Prince.

Swoop ahead 200 sparkling years later to the 2009 release of Dracula: The Un-Dead. Touted as “The Sequel to the Original Classic,” this is the Stoker family’s attempt to reclaim the rights to their ancestor’s legacy. The book is co-written by Dracula historian Ian Holt and Dacre Stoker, Bram’s great-grandnephew.

I’m not going to lie: Seeing a new Dracula book with the Stoker name on the cover? Gave me little chills and tingles, denizens. With all the insipid and uninspired nonsense that has come down the pipeline in recent years regarding the vampire mythology, I was elated to see that someone might actually want to put things right once more.

Yeah.

Where to begin. Were this in no way associated with the names Stoker or Dracula…if it were presented as its own original story…I might actually have nice things to say about it. It’s a decent enough story with characters that, if they were original to this tale, would be an intriguing (though decidedly miserable) melange of personalities, characteristics, and attributes. I would still have problems with certain aspects of the story, but not nearly as many as I have with it as the “official” sequel to Stoker’s novel.

As the official sequel, Dracula: The Un-Dead is a murky mash-up in which the real and the fictional mingle in oftentimes disturbingly meta ways (including interactions between Bram Stoker himself and his characters), and which ultimately devolves into a disappointing concession to the years of bastardization that our dear Dark Prince has suffered at the hands of far less talented writers than Stoker.

The real Stoker, that is.

At first, I thought that my only major issue with Dracula: The Un-Dead would be the “character” of Countess Elizabeth B

BookBin2012: Dracula

~ LobaBlanca

See? I told you that I would make the Dark Prince mine once and for all. Electronically, that is. One of the first truly squeelicious moments I had with my Kindle was when I discovered that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was part of Amazon’s free library. I already own a printed copy, but I decided that one can never own too many copies of a horror classic, especially when the cost is non-existent.

It seems a bit trite for me to review this novel, since I’m willing to bet that there are very few people who are not aware of the Dracula legend. In fact, that was one of the things that I found myself regretting as I re-read this novel: I regret that I was never able to experience this story from a fresh perspective, without the baggage of the myriad popular culture translations, references, revisions, and blatant butchery of the vampire mythology as introduced by Stoker.

Anyone who is a horror fan knows that Stoker’s tale is one of the cornerstones of the genre. You cannot be even a passing fan without knowing something about our favorite Transylvanian acupuncturist. But what must it have been like to have experienced this novel for the very first time? Truly the first time, rather than how most of us have experienced it: through the lens of predetermined knowledge forged by Bela, Buffy, Barnabus, Blacula, Blade, Louis and Lestat (couldn’t go on forever with Bs, could I?), Selene, Vampire Hunter D, and the sugary sickness imposed upon the mythology by She Who Does Not Deserve Naming Alongside Stoker?

Actually, now that I think about it, it’s for all these reasons that we should revisit the original. Or, better yet, visit it for the first time. After all, how many Dracula fans have never actually read the original novel? I daresay there are quite a few, which is admittedly their loss. There has yet to be a definitive cinematic interpretation of the original Stoker tale, and this most assuredly includes Francis Ford Coppola’s attempt back in 1992.

[Loba Tangent: I recently re-watched this movie (realizing as I did that I have not watched it in its entirety since its original VHS release). First, I was depressed to realize that this movie was released 20 years ago this year. Second, I was even more depressed to realize that time has severely blurred my memory of what I saw 20 years ago. In my re-watching, I came to the conclusion that this movie is actually quite terrible for many reasons, including an offensive reinterpretation of the relationship between Mina and Dracula, more of which I shall discuss…later.]

If you have never read Stoker’s novel, I implore you to do so. Try your best to forget all that you have seen and instead allow yourself to embrace the darkness of Dracula’s true literary form. It is not the quickly paced sensory overload that Hollywood has turned it into. It is also decidedly not a love story. Not the kind that TPTB would have you believe, anyway. Instead, it is a slow boil of terror and triumph, told from multiple perspectives, giving you a full and unsettling view of events that will transport you from Transylvania to England and back (with multiple disturbing stops along the way). I can only imagine the response of those reading this novel upon its original 1897 release. It must have been scandalous for its shocking depictions and descriptions. Even now, more than 100 years later, it’s still deliciously unsettling. Go ahead, take a taste…

Final Verdict: I’ve got my print copy stored with the rest of my horror classics, and now I’ve got my electronic copy saved on my Kindle. I will say this, though: While reading this electronic copy of the novel, I came across several typographical errors, which brought to mind another possible reason for my hang-up with the concept of e-Readers. I have a strong feeling (at least with the free copies of books) that a lot of these digital conversions do not go through the same level of editing that printed books go through. There isn’t the same level of quality control, and I find that highly distracting. Why? I’m a editr. That’z wye.

BookBin2012: Epileptic

~ LobaBlanca

Not wanting the “Public Library” portion of my BookBin2012 widget to go unloved, and because I simply cannot stay out of a library as gorgeous as our neighborhood library, I bring you my latest discovery from the graphic novel section: Epileptic by David B. (or David Beauchard).

Originally released as a six-volume series under its French title, L’Ascension du Haut Mal (which translates as “The Rise of the High Evil”; also, “haut mal” is the French equivalent of the English term “grand mal” in reference to epileptic seizures), Epileptic is Beauchard’s retelling of his family’s journey through the sudden onset of his older brother’s epilepsy when his brother was 11.

Beauchard’s choice to approach his family’s story from his younger version’s perspective brings the narrative to a less convoluted, more accessible level. A story dealing with such a serious medical condition runs the risk of becoming overburdened by medical jargon; telling the tale from the perspective of the little brother who must process all these changes and ordeals as they are happening gave Beauchard permission to simplify his narrative without watering it down.

He balances the various family dynamics and reactions to his brother’s worsening condition, demonstrating not only the extraordinary measures to which family is willing to go in order to save their own, but also the disconnectedness and solitary confinement each member experiences, even in the face of familial cohesion in pursuit of a cure. Though they are together in family experimental journeys into alternative medicinal treatments and alternative religions, Beauchard explores well the varied and separate emotional responses he and his family experience.

Beauchard is not an overly sentimental writer, which I believe serves his story well. He is, however, a phenomenal artist. Just as I praised Craig Thompson for the artistry of his novel, Blankets, I believe that Beauchard is another whose artistic prowess has raised my opinion of graphic novels to an even higher plateau of respect. The inky intricacy of his oftentimes nightmarish tableaux roll over you in swells of beauty, horror, desperation, promise, resentment, and resignation. His artwork is unsettling, reflecting at times the disturbing aesthetic of a Grand Guignol influence.

[Or perhaps I merely think this because they’re both French. This is sometimes how my brain works.]

Admittedly, the artwork is bold and distinct enough that it was a bit overwhelming at first. I pressed through my initial discomfort and soon found myself enraptured by the dark details of Beauchard’s beautiful black and white panels. His view of the world, both the real one and that of his exquisite imagination, is rich and complex and full of the fury and impotence with which so many families are familiar when faced with an intractable disease. At times I found myself lingering over a page long after finishing the text, simply trying to take in the layers hidden beneath the words…layers that provided a deeper narrative unhindered by the boundaries of letters.

Final Verdict: I hope that this novel has already found its way into another’s book basket at our library. Definitely another one for the Amazon wish list.

BookBin2012: The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1

~ lobablanca

I’m feeling a bit peckish for horror this year, denizens. I recently reorganized some of my library and discovered that I have amassed quite a few horror-related novels throughout the years, including a rather impressive list of Stephen King novels never once cracked open in all their years of taking up a lot of room on my shelves.

Horror has been my favorite branch of the speculative fiction triumvirate since I was just knee-high to a corpse (I’d rank them horror, sci-fi, and fantasy a solid and very distant last), so I’ve decided that I need to focus a bit more on this part of my library.

First on my list? The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1, a collection of short stories that I bought at a used book sale slightly more than a decade ago (at the same sale that I bought many of my King novels as well as this previous BookBin entry).

For those not familiar with horror-focused literature, Cemetery Dance is…well, allow them to explain themselves:

Cemetery Dance is the World Fantasy Award-winning magazine of horror, dark mystery, and suspense. Each issue is packed with 100 to 140 pages of short stories, articles, columns, interviews, news, and reviews! Plus stunning full-color covers and striking interior artwork! Covering the entire horror field