“Irskaal” was a gift. A psychdelic sci-fi indie comic book about an astronaut who works for a souless evil corporation/government. A nice debut from two young artists. Fun, but a little messy.
“After the Roundup”. A comic version of the book by Joseph Weissmann that tells the story of one of the few children to survive the Holocaust. The suffering he went through is no more shocking than the indifference of people at the time. The Jews, the French, no one seemed to believe that something horrible would happen, even the Nazis doing all kinds of evil in broad daylight.
“Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves.”
Today: About a quarter of the way through Jason Pargin’s I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom, a comedy/action/thriller about an Uber driver with social anxiety issues who quickly finds himself in way over his head after reluctantly taking an off-the-books fare that involves transporting what may or may not be a nuclear weapon across the country in the company of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Overused archetype aside it’s been a fun read so far.
Since you’re late to this book I don’t feel too weird answering two weeks late to this, but I disagree that the sequels aren’t worth reading. There is some amazing world building going on in them, and in some ways I enjoy the later books in the series more than the first one. There is one central icky premise you have to get past, though, because at one point a main character dates another that they have known since the other was a child and they an adult. It’s all not straightforward because of time stuff and chosen one narratives but still, unsavoury.
I’ll find out since i reluctantly picked up The Fall of Hyperion from the library but i don’t want it to retroactively spoil the experience i had with the first book.
I’m a little over halfway through The Bezzle and based on some of the descriptions in that book of what the characters are experiencing when under the influence of various substances I’m now a little curious about just how many different drugs Cory Doctorow has tried in his time. (No judgment though!)
I read Ursula K LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven a few weeks ago. Whatever a man dreams becomes reality unbeknownst to the people living in the world around him. His psychologist takes advantage of this with monkey’s paw-like results. It was a fun ride.
Despite knowing about her work for a good majority of my life, I’ve only started reading LeGuin in the past five years or so. Better late than never.
