I am Writing

Lately I’ve been bitten by the writing bug thanks in no small part to the excellent Predication run by Lily Childs, which after its untimely demise has been picked up by Phil Ambler over on his blog. The Prediction is devastatingly simple in its idea but fiendish in its addictiveness. Quite simply each Friday you get given three random words chosen by the host and a maximum of one hundred words to tell a story, be it in the genre of horror, sci fi, fantasy or day to day tales of everyday life which need to be posted on the site by the following Thursday. You get lovely feed back from the other entrants and you can also leave your own comments on the other stories. Then on Friday the winner is announced. There’s no prize on offer for the winner just a hell of a lot of satisfaction from taking part.

I’ve been joining in with the Prediction for about three months and I have found it a brilliant way of firing up my enthusiasm and it’s also an excellent motivator for actually sitting down and writing. As the months have slipped by I have found that the actual process of writing has become incredibly important to me. I relish each Friday when the new words appear so I can unleash my imagination and see where the words take me.

For me there’s always an ‘in’ word which gives me with the hook into the story and tells me where to go. Then it’s just down to me and the laptop left to wrestle out the story. This is the fun part for me, the one hundred word limit means you have to be concise with your story telling but you also need to be able to get over what the story is trying to say, which is not always easy.

I wont post any of my entries here as I think that’s knd of a bit self-serving, I’m happy with what I’ve written and I get some truly kind words as feedback.

If you want to check out any of the stories that have been written for the Prediction you can check out Lily’s site here

http://lilychildsfeardom.blogspot.co.uk/

Or alternatively why not join in with the Prediction at its new home here

http://phlambler.blogspot.co.uk/?zx=338955caa95466b3

 I can assure you of a warm welcome and some great fun along the way.   

52.143 A Year in Books Part 1

Last July I turned the big 4-0 and was lucky enough to be bought a Kindle. As a result of this my book reading exploded to the detriment of everything else if I’m quite honest, this is probably the main reason for not having updated this blog. I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on download and was amazed (and continue to be amazed) just how easy and quick it is to read on a Kindle. So in light of my new found enthusiasm for reading and thinking of something to do to challenge myself in 2012 I came up with the idea of 52.143 A Year in Books, which is basically reading a book a week throughout the coming year.

Simple?

Hopefully – yes, we are now in mid May and five months in to the challenge and I remain pretty much on track. Obviously I need to be mindful of what I’m reading one thick book (500 plus pages) means that the follow on book needs to be a little thinner to give me a fighting chance but so far I’ve been able to read what I want. I’m also reading my weekly dose of 2000ad and graphic novels along the way which also needs to be taken in consideration.

I’m not planning on doing in depth reviews of any of the books but I thought I’d share with you what I’ve read and some of my thoughts on each of the books (Yes I keep a spread sheet to keep track of what I read – it’s the accountant in me).

There may be slight spoilers ahead so reader beware.

Here are numbers 1-5


1 Philip Reeve – Infernal Devices (Book 3 Mortal Engines Quartet)

Another great instalment in the Mortal Engines Quartet that introduces Wren, Tom and Hester’s daughter. The book moves the story along nicely and I'm looking forward to the last part.


2 Philip Reeve – A Darkling Plain (Book 4 Mortal Engines Quartet)

Picks up a year after the last book and Hester has turned all Terminator, with Shrike striking the moral balance between the two of them, in all honesty this book takes a while to get going. Reeve takes up half the book trying to get his characters into position to gear up for the finale. Tom and Hester’s reunion is very bitter sweet and very sad at the end.


3 Suzzane Collins – The Hunger Games Book 1

A nice little amoral adventure tale, I'd imagine that if you are a sulky, the worlds against me teenager this book would be the best thing you've ever read, not sure if it lives up to the hype but then I am way outside the target market for this. Twin 2 read it (she’s 12) and still raves about it.

4 Jim Butcher – Blood Rites (Dresden Files Book 6)

Yet another excellent instalment of The Dresden Files, some big family secrets come to light and Harry’s face off with the big bad at the end it genuinely thrilling. 


5 Jim Butcher – Dead Beat (Dresden Files Book 7)

More Dresden awesomeness with a giant T-rex rampaging through downtown Chicago. On a serious note though Butchers world building is flipping brilliant.

Hopefully this will be the kick I need to update the blog more often, thanks for taking the time to read and part 2 should be posted within the next week.

Shut Up and Eat Your Awesome

Ok so we all know that fan boys can be notoriously difficult to please, just look at the mauling the Green Lantern film has received, but as an antidote to all the nay saying and criticism comes this brilliant fan trailer for Transformers Dark Side of the Moon Master Class which pretty much sums up everything that is right and wrong in the world of fandom. So shut up and eat your awesome (can I have that on a T-shirt please).

Mezolith Trailer

I reviewed Mezolith a while ago and found this trailer through a Twitter post earlier this week and it’s brilliant, it perfectly captures the look and feel of the book. If you haven’t checked out Mezolith yet I can heartily recommend it, here’s the trailer

Review – Daredevil The Man Without Fear! The Devil Inside and Out Volume 1

Written by Ed Brubaker

Art by Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano

Colour by Frank D’Armata

Published by Marvel

For the past few years, Matt Murdock’s life has been teetering on the edge of destruction. Now, pushed beyond the limit, Matt finds himself behind the eight ball with no clear way out, the people he calls friends slowly deserting him, and Hell’s Kitchen gradually slipping out of control. The question is just how far will Daredevil go to get back what is his?

My Daredevil knowledge to date is limited and consists of the following

I have watched the movie (both the theatrical release and the Directors cut)

I have read Frank Miller’s The Man without Fear.

I own a copy of Daredevil #184 purely for the cover – it’s bloody awesome and is present here in all its gloriousness

And that’s it.

So I approached Brubaker and Lark’s The Devil Inside and Out with slight amount of trepidation, to be honest it’s been in my reading pile for a while, filed under ‘impenetrable’ But what a fool I’ve been, forget any of my worries about continuity or not being able to follow the story – it honesty doesn’t matter, when a comic is written and executed this well, it should be able to and it does, stand up on it’s own merits.

For me I think of Daredevil as one of Marvels prestige titles only entrusted to the best of the best and so in 2006 the writing baton was handed over  to a certain Mr Ed Brubaker, Bendis’s run had finished with Matt Murdock incarcerated on Ryker’s Island held on suspicion of being The Man Without Fear, Daredevil.

So how the hell do you get out of that?

Easy (says me), you craft a story that will push Matt Murdock to the very edge of his sanity, you lock him away in the same jail as his most hated enemies then kill the one person in his life who has stuck with him through thick and thin, and then finally when he can’t get any lower you make him evaluate and question his very existence as Daredevil.

So in other words you take him and kick him in the balls repeatedly till he begs for mercy and then you kick him some more just for the hell of it.

Brubaker writes like a man possessed and his story is a lesson on how to write about the brutality and the depravity of the human soul. You know the situation is bad when the Punisher gets involved to add a little sanity and level headedness to proceedings – yes things really do get that bad.

There are a few lines at the beginning that perfectly sum up the book and have stuck with me after I finished reading

‘They think they know who I am….

But they don’t.

Daredevil has always been me held in check.

They’ve never met the real Matt Murdock’

This all said whilst talking to his dead father and using his cell wall as punch bag – grim doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The artwork by Michael Lark is also pretty spectacular, at first I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it or not. But as you progress further into the book the art dovetails with the writing perfectly and it captures the feel and claustrophobic ness of Ryker’s Island perfectly and all but drips off the page, stunning.

Also while I’m gushing I thought I’d mention Lark and D’Armata’s Hell’s Kitchen which they somehow manage to turn into a living and breathing character. There is a sequence of panels in the fist issue of the collection when Foggy is out looking for the fake Daredevil (nice reveal at the end of the book by the way). His search takes him to the roof tops of Hell’s Kitchen, it’s dark, it’s grimy, it’s raining and it’s absolutely beautiful to look at. Time and time again my eyes were drawn to backgrounds to the details of the buildings, architecture and the lighting. Who knew that a water tower could look so good! 

Final thoughts

So if you hadn’t guessed I loved this book all I want to do now is skip over to Amazon and order the rest of Brubaker’s run and devour it all and I’ve still not read any of the Bendis Daredevil run, oh life is good.

Review – Batman: Under the Hood Volumes 1 and 2

Written by Judd Winick

Pencilled by Doug Mahnke (Vol 1 & 2), Paul Lee (Vol 1), Shane Davies (Vol 2), Eric Battle (Vol 2)

Inked by Tom Nguyen (Vol 1 & 2), Cam Smith (Vol 1), Rodney Ramos (Vol 2), Wayne Faucher (Vol 2), Lary Stucker (Vol 2),  Marl Morales (Vol 2)

Coloured by Alex Sinclair

Published by Titan Books

Who is the Red Hood?

While battling new criminal chieftains raiding his city, Batman in confronted with a face from the past – or rather, a hidden face from the past. Welcome the return of the Red Hood!

The Black Mask is now in control of the Gotham City underworld. But as he tightens his grip on the city there is a new player in town, The Red Hood who systematically embarks on a tour on intervention and disruption much to the chargrin of the Black Mask.  Also thrown into the mix you get Gotham’s own Dark Knight Batman, an array of familiar old foes, a host of shocking revelations and finally the gut wrenching truth, the identity of Gotham’s newest vigilante.  

Ok so my catch up with Batman continuity (not in any order mind) continues and I’m onto  Under the Hood by Judd Winick and Tom Nguyen (as well as everybody else in the DC company going by the credits) the controversial story line published by DC in 2005. Of course being back on the Geek train meant that I all ready knew who was under the eponymous hood but I can honestly say that it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of these two volumes.

After reading bits on the internet it seems that the story garnered a fair bit of controversy when it was first published as it notably brought back to life a supporting character who had been killed off in 1988 and re-imagined him as the blood thirsty vigilante Red Hood, who was not afraid to cross the line and actually take out the criminals of Gotham City, making him the ying to Batman’s yang. Of course if you don’t know already SPOILERS the Red Hood is in fact the second Robin Jason Todd.

But how can that be? wasn’t Jason Todd was violently beaten to death with a crowbar by the Joker back in 1988’s A Death in the Family – I hear you cry. Well Winick takes the idea from Jeph Loeb’s Hush that Jason is fact alive and totally runs with the ball. Which, except for the actual explanation of his resurrection is no bad thing.

There a lot going on in this story and in some parts is extremely continuity heavy but with a little help from Wikipidea I was able to get by, however there are still some parts that are just beyond my understanding for example the whole Super Boy Prime thing just makes my head hurt.

On a side note perhaps this story is a good example of the problems with the big two’s years of continuity, yes there is a massive history with all of the DC and Marvel characters but with the current trend of slavish devotion to continuity, comics have become more than a little off putting to the ordinary Joe on the street. With a little research and determination you can do some research and get a fair handle on the history/story of these characters but are the comics companies expecting too much of non comic book fans? Which surely must be one of the reasons why the comics market is in it’s current state of decline. If only one of the companies would take the bold decision of rebooting all their current titles with new #1’s in the hope of reigniting interest in comics – oh hang on.

Any way back on topic, I really enjoyed these two volumes the final three way confrontation between Batman, Jason Todd and the Joker is a classic and is extremely powerful. In particular Jason Todd’s incomprehension that Batman has never avenged his death at the hands of the Joker is brilliantly written by Winick and Todd surprisingly becomes a sympathetic character as he becomes just another casualty of the eternal war between good and evil and the Batman and Joker, classy stuff.

The art work by Doug Mahnke and the rest of the DC gang is great through out and the colouring by Alex Sinclair is fantastic. Also included in these two collections are the covers, the first volume are all by Matt Wagner which have a very pulpy noir feel to them and then as a seemingly complete opposite to Wagner the covers in the second volume are by Jock which seem ultra modern in comparison. However the standout cover for me is the one from the second printing for the Batman Annual #25 by Shane Davis which is extraordinary.

Final thoughts

Despite the issues I had with the continuity this is a great Batman story and I suspect it must have been pretty special back in the day when the identity of the Red Hood was revealed. My only problem with these collections is the shoddy binding for volume two, the back is all warped and the spine hadn’t been glued properly resulting in all the pages falling out during it’s first read through – very annoying.

Review - Vicious Circle - A Felix Castor Novel

Written by Mike Carey

Published by Orbit Books

Felix Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It’s the living who piss him off…..

I read the first book in this series, The Devil You Know last year and thoroughly enjoyed it but as things tend to go it kind of slipped off my radar and that was that, until a couple of weeks ago when I was searching about for something to read at the library (preferably a proper book with no pictures – I know go figure!!!! but I do go through phases) and Vicious Circle practically jumped off the shelf at me.

The dead have been rising since the turn of the millennium and reluctant exorcist Felix Castor has finally realised that he can do some good with his special abilities. However as with all things in Felix’s life it isn’t going to be that straight forward while consulting for the Met on a gangland killing Felix also picks up his first case in months when a distraught mother and father hire him to find their kidnapped daughter. Unfortunately their daughter is already dead and this is the first of many suprises that Felix must face in his race to find the ghost of Abbie Torrington. Throw into the mix a best friend who has been possessed by a demon, a trainee exorcist who just happens to be succubus, a couple of loup garous, a rouge branch of the Catholic Church, a myriad of physical and spiritual beatings and Felix Castor is up to his neck in trouble.

You have to hand it to Mike Carey he writes good plot, the book kicks off in high gear and doesn’t let up for 500 pages. Nothing is wasted in this book every detail drives the plot forward and there are loads of genuine twists and turns throughout the book and it did manage to wrong foot me a couple of times.

Felix Castor is a great character full of dark humour and witty one liners and damn can our boy take a beating – and he frequently does. Told in the first person perspective you get to spend to lot of time with Felix through out Vicious Circle and by the end of the book you are rooting for him to pull all of the threads of the mystery together and to get the hell out of Dodge with his life and soul intact.

Final thoughts

If you’re a fan of the fantasy or horror genre I think the Felix Castor novels may be of interest to you and if you’re a fan of Carey’s comic work and you haven’t checked out these books why the hell not? However as with all good things it’s best to start at the beginning with the aforementioned book 1 The Devil You Know, which as luck would have it just happens to be brilliant as well.