Vacation Reading

Over the February break, I had a chance to do a good bit of reading & thought I'd mention a few of the titles here. My favorite was the "Demonata" series by Darren Shan, starting with Lord Loss.

There are presently 5 books in the series, with the next due in April and several more expected to follow, one every six months. These books are a BLAST. They're gruesome, fast-paced and clever, and feature intertwined stories in a variety of times and places, all dealing with demons (the Demonata) and the people who protect us all from them. If you're looking for great literature, this ain't it, but for beach & plane reading, it was perfect!

So perfect, in fact, I finished them all by mid-week of my vacation. The next thing I tackled was Red Spikes, by Margo Lanagan. It's a collection of short stories, and all I can say is, I hated it. Sorry, I rarely feel so strongly negative about a book, but these stories just annoyed me. The book is well-reviewed, so maybe I just don't get it, but I found them too bizarre (and come on, I LOVE bizarre!!) and the style of writing made me crazy. I petered out after 3 of the ten stories and had to move on to...

Visibility by Boris Starling (the best thing I could find in the limited selection at Publix on Longboat Key). This is a classic-style spy/murder mystery set during the horrendous London fog of 1952 (more people died of respiratory ailments during the fog than died in the whole German Blitz! Who knew?). It's a slow burner, but full of fascinating historical facts and speculation. There are murders, double agents (British, American, Soviet), connections to Nazi medical experiments and more. All the makings of a good spy thriller. It wasn't the best one I've read, but it kept me entertained and I learned a few things.

Right now, I'm about halfway through the latest Neil Gaiman (with Michael Reaves), Interworld. So far, so good. It's more firmly in the YA range than some Gaiman, but the writing is typical for him. Joey goes for a walk and next thing he knows, he's bouncing between dimensions and a bunch of nasties are after him. Turns out he's a "walker". The good news is he can move between parallel universes, and there are others out there who want to help him. The bad news is, the nasties want to kill him, boil him down to his essence and use it to fuel their own movement between dimensions. Finished it - not the best from Gaiman, but pretty good. I'd recommend it to fans of Ender's Game.

I've also been plowing through some graphic novels. Just read the first volume of Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn, and I LOVE it. Gotta get the rest. Yorick suddenly finds himself the last man standing when a mysterious plague wipes out every male on the planet, except him and his monkey (yep, he's got a monkey). Various factions of women are trying to put the world back together (Amazons, Uber-feminists, former Senator's wives, Yorick's mom - a Senator herself) and they all have plans for poor Yorick. Great stuff. I discovered it through Whitney Matheson's Comics Crash Course feature on the USA Today Pop Candy blog (a guilty pleasure of mine).

Last night I started the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus 3 and so far, it's just not great. Omnibus 1 & 2 were pretty good, jumped around a bit in time (season to season), but had some great stories and art. Omni 3 is all fit into Season 3, and features fewer different artists, but I'm just not loving it. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. TTFN - Finished it, and it actually DOES get better - I quite enjoyed the last few "episodes" in it. Started Pursuit of Happyness on the recommendation of a student - pretty compelling so far. BR