META: New URL!!!

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Hi all,

There will be some behind the scenes changes to What Mark Read going on over the next few months. As a first step, we have a new domain: www.whatmarkread.com. This should point you back to the exact same review site that you know and love. There are no other changes at this time. If you have my site in your RSS feed, then don’t worry. All the new posts will appear without you having to change anything. If you have any problems or things look weird (or at least weirder than normal) than feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll take a look at it.

Thanks for your support

Twelve Monkeys review

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The movie Twelve Monkeys is an interesting movie are my favorite science-fiction, time travel story. Loosely (very loosely) based on Chris Marker’s experimental short film La jetée, the time-travel romance is a movie that shows you exactly what’s going to happen, convinces you that it can be changed and then shows you that it can’t, while still giving you hope at the end. The performances, along with Gilliam’s notoriously skewed vision of technology, captures the ideas perfectly and makes Twelve Monkey’s a can’t miss movie. So, let’s see what happened. NOTE: Spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie. But it’s been 17 years, so you should have seen it.

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Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia

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Larry Correia is one of my favorite writers currently. He has two distinct and interesting series going on at the same time and manages to not only tell new and interesting stories within each series, but also fleshes out the characters and mythology of each series at the same time. With his latest book in the Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Legion, Correia expands the Monster Hunter universe by showing us several additional hunters from across the world as well as expand the role of the government overseers with another agency. What’s amazing is that Correia does this without confusing the reader or losing track of the plot and the characters. Let’s see what happened.

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The Escapists by Brian K Vaughn and a host of artists

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One of my favorite books of all time is Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The book is not has suburb writing, it is also set around some of my favorite times (the early years of the US comic book industry). After the book came out (and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize), Chabon sensibly decided to extend the reach of the book by having various authors and writiers contribute short comic stories to an anthology Michael Chabon Presents. . .The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. This anthology showed various stories featuring the fictional comic book characters from within the book. In addition, there was a comic mini-series (written by Brian K Vaughn with art by Steve Rolston and Philip Bond (live action scenes) and son Shawn Alexander and Eduardo Barreto (comic book scenes)) that is set in the Kavalier and Clay universe. The story is set in a universe where there where Escapist comic books and introduces a new trio who find reason to bring back the Escapist comic book to interesting ends. Let’s see what happened.

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Misc Reviews

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I’ve read a few things that don’t really call out for their own full reviews. So I’ll just touch on them here. Not that I didn’t like them (although I wasn’t fond of 2 of the books), but it’s just easier than creating a new blog post to say 2-3 sentences about it. Here we go.

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The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

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Jasper Fforde has 3 series ongoing (Thursday Next, Nursery Crime and Shades of Grey) and yet he’s still found time to start a YA fantasy series, The Chronicles of Kazaam. The first book, The Last Dragonslayer,  sets up the world and introduces us to the main character, Jennifer Strange, a 15 year old foundling (sort of a cross between an indentured servant and an orphan) who runs a hotel/magic business since the disappearance of her boss, the Great Zambini. But a prophecy foretells great change and there are rumors of a much bigger change coming down the road, Big Magic. Let’s see what happens.

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The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

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One of the great things about having kids is having the excuse to go back and read some books that I read when I was a kid. With the first installment of the movie looming, we attacked The Hobbit, a book I hadn’t read in way too long. The book was a challenge to get through due to not only the language, large swathes of detailed description and long songs/poems that probably are better sung (by someone who sings much better than I do). But in the end, the wonderful characters and quest carried the book through. So, let’s see what happens.

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Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

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Cory Doctorow is one of the better YA science fiction writers being published today. His books are intelligent, thoughtful and do a great job capturing youthful thoughts and actions. The characters come across as actual teens, instead of miniature adults. And this is the root of why his books consistently piss me off. The writing and characters are so good and the plots so interesting, that the book just grinds to a halt when characters climb up on Doctorow’s soap box and rant. This problem happened, again, in Doctorow’s latest novel Pirate Cinema. The story gets completely derailed by Doctorow’s rant (which he inserts into the various character’s mouths) and makes the story a lot less interesting. It’s almost as if Doctorow doesn’t trust his writing to get the point across without ham-handedly inserting rants that distract from the narrative and do a worse job getting the point across. Let’s see what happens.

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The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde

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Jasper Fforde’s Bookworld novels have expanded from puns and riffs on literary devices and expanded the role of lead Bookworld agent Thursday Next to such an extent that he’s able to have a Bookworld novel that doesn’t get anywhere near Bookworld. The Woman Who Died A Lot is purely a story of Thursday Next, the titular woman who dies a lot in this book (and in the series in general, an her family. I’m excited by this, because it’s obvious that Bookworld is pretty much played out and we need to move into other storylines to keep the series going. Fforde, as always, does a masterful job filling out the story with jokes, puns and witticisms that keep you laughing as the story flies along. So let’s find out how the woman dies a lot.

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Clean by Alex Hughes

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As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite sub-genres is the science fiction mystery. I love the interplay between the gritty detective story and the fabulous future. But it’s not always a fabulous future. In Alex Hughes new book, Clean, the world has gone through some wars and is slowly getting better. The technology is not trusted and now there is a serial killer who might be protected by the powerful Telepath’s Guild. It’s an interesting premise and one that mostly delivers. Let’s see what happens.

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