Books! And Comics, Lots of Comics

57.  Feed, Mira Grant
A zombie book with new stuff to offer!  Much like World War Z, the world Feed takes place in is one that has already dealt with the zombie uprising - it opens with Georgia and Shaun, our intrepid blogger heroes, filming footage for their news site in a world where people have learned to cope with the reality of the undead.  Grant goes into all sorts of interesting details, like the function of news blogs in the media and the medial science behind the zombie virus.  She also presents an interesting plot bait-and-switch: this book isn't really about zombies.  They've already happened, they're here, get over it, and deal with the presidential campaign Georgia and Shaun (and the rest of their bloggers) get invited to cover.  A really, really interesting story about the nature of fear, our relationship to the truth, news, spin, and the media, and the courage of the desperate   I'm in the middle of the sequel, Deadline, right now, and let me tell you: these books kick you RIGHT in the feels.

58.  Fear to Tread, James Swallow
The Blood Angels chapter in the Horus Heresy novels.  It was ok; it had the weird Chaos shit I love, but the Blood Angels on the whole are kind of douchey.  I'd rather read about Ultramarines (or Sallies, WHERE IS MY SALLIES BOOK, GAMES WORKSHOP?), but it had New Information and some cool scenes showing the relationship between the primarchs.  Although, at the end you're really left wondering why the Emperor didn't just erase the whole damn lot of blood-drinking mutants...

Ok, so I just read what I wrote about Fear to Tread and realized it makes zero sense if you aren't familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe (much like every Horus Heresy blurb I've written in this blog, probably).  If you're a fan of military sci-fi or epic science fiction, do yourself a favor: grab a copy of Horus Rising by Dan Abnett.  It's a deep rabbit hole, but this series has some excellent shit in it.

59.  My Name is Not Easy, Debby Dahl Edwardson
A really heartbreaking book about Eskimo and Native American kids who attend Catholic boarding school in the 1960's.  I read it for my advocacy class, and it's obvious why my professor wanted us to: no one advocates for these kids.  They think they are, but My Name Is Not Easy really shows the damage that white privilege and thinking you know better about someone's life than they do can do.  There's a nifty little afterward in the back about how one of the characters' stories is the author's husband, and essentially true to life, which gives the whole thing a strong tang of authenticity.

60.  Batgirl vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection, Gail Simone and Ardian Syaf
I'm going through a serious Batgirl crush right now, you guys.  This one is the first trade paperback from Batgirl's New 52 reboot, and Barbara Gordon is seriously the best character ever.  She's smart and resourceful and confident, and has realistic fears and fucks up sometimes and kicks SO MUCH ASS that I can't even handle it.  The metaphors in this book are a little heavy, but the art is great and, like I said, Barbara is seriously an awesome character.

61.  Suicide Squad vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth, Adam Glass and Federico Dallocchio
I bought a bunch of New 52 trades last weekend, can you tell?  While I don't like Harley Quinn's new character design, I continue to find her completely fascinating, and the other supporting cast is pretty compelling.  I was not familiar with the Suicide Squad before picking up the reboot - for others not familiar with the concept, it's basically a collection of villains that have been apprehended and now get a chance to shave time off their life sentences by serving on a task force for impossible government tasks that have a low chance of survival.  Harley carries a giant hammer and there's a guy with tattoos that sets shit on fire.  It's pretty rad.

62.  Batman vol. 1: The Court of Owls, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
This book is fucked, y'all, but only in the best way.  I know that DC has been putting out some shaky work in the fast few years, but so far I've been really impressed with the reboot, and if you're into Batman AT ALL I think you should check out the new stuff.  It's dark and kind of weird, but hella exciting and super interesting.

Almost done and it's only July

40.  Lockdown, Alexander Gordon-Smith
A friend of mine is reading the Monstrumologist books by Rick Yancey, which I've already read (and adored), and hearing him talk about them made me crave something dark, gritty, scary and weird.  So I looked up some title read-alikes on Novellist and pulled this title out of a pile.  It was ok - definitely not lacking in the dark and weird arena.  The story is about Alex, a teen who has the misfortune to be a small-time criminal growing up in the aftermath of the so-called Summer of Slaughter (an event in the book's history where teen gangs killed huge numbers of people).  When he gets framed for the murder of his friend, the judge locks him away for life in the juvenile detention center Furnace.  Furnace is basically hell with more nutritious food, complete with Nazi-esque body horror, some super creepy dogs that habitually tear inmates to pieces, and a geographic location a mile or so under the earth.  It turns into a pretty standard escape-from-prison story, but I appreciated the horror dressings Gordon-Smith applied in abundance.



41.  Fablehaven, Brandon Mull

I've been supervising junior volunteers at the library this summer, and they've been plying me with reading recommendations.  Fablehaven was one of these, and it turned out to be super fun.  It's young-young-adult fantasy, about a sister and brother who get sent to stay with their grandparents over summer break and find out that they're basically gamekeepers for a forest preserve full of fantastical creatures.  The fairies in Fablehaven are definitely the new breed, more inclined to harm and mischief than just being pretty, and the excitement ramps up after a pretty spooky midsummer night scene when the grandfather gets kidnapped.  I just got the second book in the series and I'm looking forward to reading more.

42.  Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King
King's short stories are kind of hit-or-miss for me - for every Langoliers there's a Trucks, often in the same collection.  I thought that the first and the last stories in Full Dark, No Stars were pretty excellent; the middle two, not so much.  I had some trouble with one - it deals with the graphic rape and abuse of a young woman, and reeks a bit of appropriation; the other one I didn't care for was just too...boring.

43.  Age of Darkness, ed. Christian Dunn
Moar Horus Heresy.  This was fun, even the piece by Gav Thorpe (which was at least short fiction rather than a whole novel).  The big surprise for me was that the stand-out piece wasn't by Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, or Aaron Dembski-Bowden (easily the strongest writers in Games Workshop's bull pen), but by some guy I'd never heard of named Rob Sanders.  His piece, "The Iron Within," wrecked me in a way I'm only used to from McNeill.  Good stuff.