Chew Omnivore Edition Volume 3 Hc by John Layman
Illustrated By: Rob Guillory
Format: Hardcover Comic
Collects: Chew #21-30 and the Chew: Secret Agent Poyo one-shot
Published: 2013
Publisher: Image Comics
I love Chew, so I was really excited when I saw the third Omnivore collected edition had been released. These oversized hardcover editions really let the art shine, and they look great on the shelf. They have bound bookmark ribbons. That’s classy.
Tony Chu was the only Cibopath in the FDA, but after a replacement was found he was given the boot. He’s now the only Cibopath in parking enforcement. A Cibopath is someone who can get a sense of the history of an object by eating it. This means he can eat a carrot and see where it was grown, but he can also eat a steak and see where it was butchered. This comes in handy for crime investigation in a rather unfortunate way, as you can probably imagine.
The Chew universe has expanded to include many different types of these ‘food superpowers’ – taking a bite of something to catch a glimpse of its future or being able to write about food in a way that lets readers actually taste what’s described, for example. Another aspect of a Cibopaths, we discover, is that they can retain information from the items eaten. This includes people and the powers or skills they may have. Another Cibopath who refers to himself as The Vampire is trying to collect powers this way, and Chu needs to stop him.
At the end of the second collection, I was starting to lose interest in the plot a bit. I still really enjoyed the humour and the art, but the story itself was beginning to become wacky in a slightly uninteresting and aimless way. This one jumped right back on track and made me interesting in the story again.
The one downside of these beautiful Omnivore editions is that I have to wait a year for another one to be published.
The Liar by Stephen Fry
Published: 1991
You can tell this was Stephen Fry’s first novel. He is one of my favourite humans, and he can do no wrong in my eyes, but even I have to admit that this was a little scattered. It was structured that way on purpose, but I don’t think it worked as well as was intended.
We follow Adrian Healey as he advances through school and into adulthood. The story jumps around a little throughout his life, and interlaced are short chapters featuring characters identified only by their clothing. They use code names and speak ambiguously, their identities and the identities of those they refer to only hinted at. It’s a mystery story, but in an odd way the mystery is to find out exactly what’s supposed to be mysterious, if that makes any sense. At the end, the two lines of narrative converge and all is unveiled.
The events in Healey’s life are influenced heavily by Stephen Fry’s own life, as he mentions in Moab Is My Washpot, but it almost feels like he was trying to write a hyperbolic take on his autobiography and decided he had to wrap some sort of plot around it. The mystery didn’t pique my interest until the final reveal. I enjoyed reading it the entire time, but I didn’t feel at all invested.
If you take any single scene from this book, it’s a hilarious and interesting and well written. In this case, that was actually enough to keep me enjoying the book the whole way through, but with a lesser writer I don’t think that would have been the case. Those great scenes unfortunately just didn’t come together in a coherent way.
It’s like if the Power Rangers were kicking ass individually, but then they joined together and the giant robot had an arm for a head and was missing a leg. Everyone would be like, you guys should have stayed apart. You were doing great. This is really not as effective.
I don’t mean to be a downer. This is his first novel, and I did really enjoy it, but I probably had unrealistic expectations for him. I plan to read everything he’s ever written, and I’m sure it’ll only get better.
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Published: 1864
Narrated by: Tim Curry
I’ve been meaning to read Jules Verne for quite a while now, so when I saw that Audible had Journey to the Center of the Earth available, the movie adaptation of which I remember liking as a child, and it was narrated by the legendary Tim Curry, I knew I had to have it.
At first the story was very reminiscent of The Lost World (or the other way around I supposed, but I read The Lost World first). They both begin with a slightly mad older scientist setting off on a journey and bringing along the younger narrator of the story, in this case it was Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel. In both novels, the younger man justifies his dangerous involvement with the knowledge that it will impress the girl he wants to marry on his return. They even both name a newly discovered landmark after their girl back home. The travelers also come across prehistoric creatures in both novels. I imagine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was influenced by Jules Verne when he turned his attention to his adventure novels.
The story begins in Hamburg. Professor Lidenbrock is excited to receive an old manuscript that has just been delivered to him. Upon opening it, he finds a note written in cryptic script. Eventually they discover that it’s a letter from an ancient Icelandic alchemist instructing anyone who wishes to travel to the centre of the earth to follow a passage into Snæfell, an inactive volcano on the west coast of Iceland. The kicker is that they have to be there at the end of June, and the weather needs to be clear, as the volcano will cast a shadow down on the opening – a trope that many stories, from The Hobbit to Raiders of the Lost Ark, have used since. And many before, I assume.
They then begin their descent, and for a while it reads more like a modern adventure travelogue than a science fiction novel. It’s somewhat slowly paced but still interesting, focusing more on the hardships of travel than anything supernatural, although things do get a bit wacky near the very end.
Tim Curry’s narration was fantastic. He’s at his best when he’s reading the dialogue of an exasperated character. It had me laughing out while listening on a number of occasions. I listened to his narration of A Christmas Carol last winter as well, which was also great. I’d listen to him narrate anything.
My first Jules Verne novel, and I can see myself reading a lot more of these. I love old adventure novels and that whole Lost World genre, so this was right up my alley.
My favourite annual used book sale was yesterday, and I think I did quite well. I usually feel guilty acquiring new books these days, considering I have dozens kicking around here that I haven’t yet read, but this is for charity you guys. Jeez, have a little heart.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is on my Back to the Classics Challenge list, so I figured I’d grab that. Allan Quatermain was apparently a strong influence for the character of Indiana Jones, so King Solomon’s Mines is something I need to read. I really have no choice in that matter. I’ve never read Ian McEwan, so I figure I may as well start with his most famous work. And the rest are new books by authors I’ve previously enjoyed.
I wasn’t sure about Holidays on Ice, but it’ll be a nice quick holiday read when the time comes. About a Boy has Hugh Grant on the cover, which I find profoundly bothersome, but I’ll learn to deal with that. I know nothing about The Accidental Tourist, but it was thrust upon me by my co-shopper. I bought two entirely different Doctorows. In the case of E.L., I’ve never read anything by him, and this was short. That is the worst reason ever to buy a book but there you go.
Graham Greene is the only author I’ve read from this group, but they’ve all been on my mind. The Kite Runner and The Time Traveler’s Wife are two that I probably wouldn’t have picked up in passing, but they’ve both been highly recommended. John Irving has always scared me a bit with the length of his novels, they seem like quite a commitment for my short attention span, but having this on my shelf should force me to eventually get around to it. That’s the plan, anyway.
Overall, that’s a pretty good haul I think. Combined with my already imposing to-read pile, I shouldn’t have to buy another book for a couple years. I will, of course, but I don’t need to.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Published: 1883
Narrated by: Neil Hunt
Pirates! Treasure maps! Long John Silver! Pieces of eight! Shiver me timbers! It’s the classic adventure story that lives on, not just through this original novel and the writers it influenced, but also through the continuous stream of direct adaptations that are still happening 130 years after it was first published.
The story begins in the family inn of young Jim Hawkins. An old drunken sailor, Billy Bones, takes up residence with them, and it soon comes out that he’s in hiding. The pirates in chase eventually arrive, and in the midst of the chaos of this encounter, Jim finds an oilskin in Bones’ belongings. It contains the details to the hidden treasure of the infamous pirate Captain Flint, and he’s soon off on the adventure of a lifetime, full of action and treachery and redemption and fun accents.
It’s not just the story that makes this a lot of fun; it’s the characters. They jump off the page (through the headphones?), full of life, but they’re also somewhat deep and morally ambiguous, which keeps you guessing and following along. My first introduction to Stevenson was with The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and in that the characters were all a bit stiff. That wasn’t the case at all in Treasure Island. This was helped along no doubt by Neil Hunt’s excellent narration. All of his voices were distinct and natural, and his Long John Silver was just fantastic.
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
I’ve warmed up to Stevenson a little more now. I was just at a huge book sale today, and I unfortunately couldn’t find a nice copy of Kidnapped, but I will read that eventually.
Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle
Published: 1992
I read Mayle’s A Year in Provence almost two years ago now and really enjoyed it. I’m not sure why it took me so long to read this follow-up book, as it’s really more of the same (in a good way). Toujours Provence begins just after A Year in Provence has been published. Peter and his wife are more situated in their home now and are continuing on with their lives in the south of France.
The first book gave a month by month account of their first year as expats, and I found some topics would occasionally drag on a bit because of this. Those small, everyday stories he writes about don’t always perfectly wrap up within the span of a month, so some are revisited throughout multiple chapters. This is great for letting the reader feel the passing of time, but it can also get a bit tedious. I was sick in hospital when I read it, though, so my opinion of that should probably be taken with an even larger grain of salt than usual.
He changed the format up in this one, and now each chapter is its own fully contained anecdote. One chapter covers an afternoon in a private tasting to learn about pastis and its history, another chapter is an account of his trip to see Pavarotti play in an ancient outdoor theatre, and another tells of how a stray dog came to join the family. It all sounds a bit dull when I list it out like that, but he does a very good job of bringing you in to his world with his wit and vibrant characters and descriptions. And it’s not all praise – occasionally he can paint the people and villages he encounters in quite an unfavorable light. At times I found myself wondering what his friends and neighbours must think of his books, after seeing how they’re portrayed.
If you’re at all interested in reading about life in France or French food, you won’t go wrong with this.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Published: 1985
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison
I’ve been meaning to get to this one for years. A (now fading) lack of interest for science fiction combined with all the talk of Orson Scott Card being a bit of a dickhead contributed to my negligence, but the upcoming movie finally pushed me to read it.
Ender Wiggin, the third of three genius children in his family, is recruited at the age of five to join an elite military training school after showing an aptitude for command in the first few years of his life. Civilization on earth narrowly avoided annihilation in two long wars against an insect-like alien race, nicknamed Buggers, many years before this, and the hope is that one of these genius children will rise up to command the army against the inevitable third invasion.
I ended up loving this. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that it was published in 1985. I was listening to this without that in mind, which means I was basically treating it as having been written this year, and nothing took me out of the story. Nothing felt like the future as seen from someone in the 80s. Card knows what to describe and what to leave to the reader’s imagination, without it feeling like gaps in the imagery, so the book is left feeling somewhat timeless. I bet it’s a much different experience reading it now for the first time than it was for someone reading it in the 80s, even more so than with other books.
In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them…. I destroy them.
It will be interesting to see how the movie comes out. My favourite parts of Ender’s Game weren’t necessarily the action scenes. It was being in Ender’s head as he worked out the tactics needed to overcome his opponents, which seems like an aspect that will be hard to capture as well on film. It felt like a science fiction Art of War at times, and I loved that.
I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories, and I’ve been getting more and more into science fiction these last couple years, so this was right up my alley. Any hesitations I had with Orson Scott Card didn’t factor into this novel at all, as none of his homophobia seemed present in this. If anything, I thought a couple of the interactions between the students seemed to have some homoerotic undertones. After reading Stephen Fry’s first autobiography, though, I think I have it in my mind that gay sex and private schools go hand in hand.
I suppose at times you have to decide whether or not to separate the art from the artist. It’s tricky, because on one hand the views I disagree with aren’t expressed in his novel at all. There are conspiracy theories about the underlying metaphor of he story, the fact that it’s about a war on ‘buggers’, but that seems like a stretch to me. On the other hand, even if those views aren’t present here, I’m still supporting someone who will go on to express those views in other ways.
Purely from a literary standpoint, I really enjoyed the novel, though I’m still not sure I’m going to continue on with the series. I hear they begin going downhill right away, and I feel like Ender’s Game was a fairly complete and satisfying story in itself.
He was always doing that these days. Everything he saw became a symbol of his own existence, from a rabbit caught in headlights to raindrops racing down a window-pane. Perhaps it was a sign that he was going to become a poet or a philosopher: the kind of person who, when he stood on the sea-shore, didn’t see waves breaking on a beach, but saw the surge of human will or the rhythms of copulation, who didn’t hear the sound of the tide but heard the eroding roar of time and the last moaning sigh of humanity fizzing into nothingness. But perhaps it was a sign, he also thought, that he was turning into a pretentious wanker.
- Stephen Fry, The Liar
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke
Format: Original Graphic Novel
Published: 2012
Publisher: IDW Publishing
This is the third of the four Parker novels that Darwyn Cooke is adapting to graphic format, and I’m going to be sorry to see it finish with the next book. I just love these.
An amateur crook is planning a heist, and he wants to bring Parker on. It’s a big heist, requiring a big team, and the organizer is a newbie, so Parker’s first instinct is to walk away. When he finds out the plan, and the target – an entire town – his temptation and restlessness prove too much. He joins, the team is formed, and a date is set.
In The Score, the focus is taken off Parker somewhat and we now have an ensemble cast. Each character has a quick introduction panel or two, which is a perfect length to distinguish them without bogging down the pace. A favourite part of heist stories for me is when each character, and the skill that earned them a place on the team, is quickly showcased before the planning begins, and he nailed that. It was also done in a different way than the other two books, from what I remember, which is part of the excitement that comes with each new release – there’s always something you haven’t seen before.
I love his art style. He’s able to convey so much with such simple panels, which really allows the writing to set the pace, and it’s obvious he puts a lot of care and thought into viewing angles and how to show movement. Each book is black and white with an additional highlighting colour, in this case orange, and each page is beautiful. It gives that shadowy film-noir look with a bit of extra style. I’d love to find a large print of a page or panel to frame on the wall.
If you’re at all interested film noir, or detective fiction from the 50s maybe, give these graphic novels a shot.
