A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle

The wrinkle in time of the title referes to a tesseract, when you fold space so you can travel through great distances in a short time. If you like 90s movies, the Event Horizon traveled to Hell by way of tesseract. If you like Harry Potter tesseract is an earlier version of "dissaparate".

In a nutshell, some of the kids in the Murray family have been selected by a trio of angels disguised as old ladies to save their abducted Father in a distant planet. Charles Wallace (A five year old super genius), Meg (his rebellious sister) and Calvin (some popular dude) travel with the old ladies across the universe. First to Uriel, where winged half horse people are really happy about being winged half horse people. Here they see the big bad of the story, the Black Thing, an evil entity philophers have been fighting since forever. Eventually, they arrive in Camazotz. Here they find their father, and after many setbacks including losing Charles Wallace and Meg being seriously injured, Meg defeats the first Boss of the story. A huge brain working for the Black Thing.

This is the first of a series of books and it ends in a cliffhanger. I must admit I am not very curious about the story, and although I can't say that I didn't like the book I didn't love it either. I was put off by the overt christian themes, and Charles Wallace's dialogue. I like Meg but as a main character she was so unsure of herself. It was frustrating how everyone seemed to underestimate her. They accepted that she had loads of potential but didn't help her realize it. Given the stakes of the story (ultimate evil swallowing the Earth) I thought the romantic subplot of Meg and Calvin was forced. I still don't get why Calvin was in there at all.

I'm looking forward to Hope Larson's graphic novel adaptation. I'm sure it will help me get a different perspective on this story.

Pygmy

Chuck Palahniuk

Forget about Trainspotting, Pygmy is the most difficult to read book, at first. Urban legend says that Chuck Palahniuk wrote it in English, then had it translated into Chinese and then back to English. If it's true, the result is a mishmash of language that makes your brain hurt, but underneath this heavy style is an almost heartwarming tale of a 13 year old terrorist sent to the US to kill millions of people.

The most interesting part of the story is how Palahniuk humanizes Pygmy. We learn how deadly Pygmy is at the beginning when he rapes the bully harrasing his host family's younger male sibling. It's a brutal scene and serves dehumanize Pygmy in the eyes of the reader. Since the book is written in first person POV, the fact that Pygmy is describing the rape in detail to his superiors makes it even ickier.

As the story progresses, Pygmy finds himself remembering things from his trainning that shed some light on his upbringing. Little by little these memories move towards a more nostalgic space, especially when remembering his parents. He also finds love (albeit unrequited) in the host family's female sibling who is smart and athletic.

The story serves to critique American culture, especially religion and sex. Despite it's heavy and difficult style, it's a tame story (for Palahniuk) and pretty funny/disgusting. It even has a happy ending...kind of.

Legends

John Ostrander

Len Wein

John Byrne

Karl Kesel

I think that Legends is a mini series that introduces the Bronze Age in DC Comics, and it shapes what the heroes will be in this new age. They are meant to be Legends, larger than themselves. True heroes acting in a heroic fashion, until things change and all them turn into anti-heroes. Sigh.

Here Darkseid (remember him?) wants to mess with some heroes and change the way people perceive them. He hopes to corrupt their superhero persona and make us regular folk hate and fear them. As Darkseid plans, the Phantom Stranger and Desaad watch and comment.

Darkseid sends Glorious Godfrey to persuade the masses and for the most part he does an excellent job. They make people think that Captain Marvel is a murderer, in the process traumatizing poor Billy Batson. After that, more heroes encounter bigotism and we are introduced to the new Suicide Squad and the Justice League America. It all comes to a head in a huge battle where Wonder Woman is introduced (for the first time after Crisis on Infinite Earths) and Godfrey is destroyed by hubris and Doctor Fate's helmet. It all leads to different comics like the "Bwahahaha" Justice League, etc.

Legends is a nice little piece of history and even though it's heavy handed and cheesy at times, it was a fun read and a reminder of what some heroes should strive to be.

The Gunslinger

Stephen King

I fished this book out of the trunk of a friend's car. She was going to throw the books away or give them to charity and since I had read a bit of the Dark Horse comic I jumped at it and read it that week. (I am terribly behind with this blog).

The Gunslinger, Roland, is following the Man in Black across his world, a mixture of cowboy culture and sci fi-fantasy. Roland means to kill the Man in Black and get to the Dark Tower. The story has some flashbacks, to be honest they are the most interesting part of the novel, but the story feels very linear. You can see how Roland and the Man in Black are stuck in a "point A to point B" story, a path their creator makes them walk without any deviation.

The story is divided into vignettes as Roland encounters enemies or supernatural elements that hinder or aid him in his journey. The most dangerous to Roland is Jake Chambers, a small boy from another world stranded in this one after his death. Jake is the worst sort of trap for Roland, as he grows more affectionate and protective of him. Their relantionship leads to the two climaxes in the story.

In the flashback (I feel like I'm writing a Lost recap. The Lost writers worshipped Stephen King) Roland's mother is having an affair with Marten, a wizard. Roland feels betrayed by his mother and trying to avenge his father's honor takes the Gunslinger test earlier than expected. Roland chooses his hawk and sacrifices him so that Roland can win at all costs. We later find out that Marten is the Man in Black.

In the present the Man in Black forces Roland to choose between saving Jake or following him to the land beyond the mountains. Roland, of course, sacrifices another innocent in the hopes of destroying the evil Man in Black.

The book is richly layered and most of the characters get enough motivation and development. The female characters get the short end of the stick, as they are easily corruptible by the Man in Black and very subservient. It's a boy-man story through and through but I enjoyed it enough that I want to read the rest of the Dark Tower series.

Superman Earth One

J. Michael Straczynski

Shane Davies

In Superman Earth One, Clark Kent weighs his life options. Does he want to be the hero his parents rather obnoxiously want him to be, or does he want to "pass" as a normal but very gifted person all his life?

It makes for a very grim Clark Kent. He broods as he walks around Metropolis. He worries about having a job that will allow him to help his mother financially. He stares into the cityscape, a lot. He ponders how he can put his gifts into good use. He has an existential moment as he floats in space. He is very intense. And then suff happens.

The pacing is way off. The story starts really slow, and without build up throws a huge battle in the middle of Metropolis. Even if you consider that it has a filmic story structure, it's still too slow in the first act. At the same time everything feels too compressed. The character motivations get really muddled.

For example, in Superman's original origin (ja!) Martha and Jonathan couldn't have children and were too old to keep trying. Clark was a miracle to them, they found him by accident and he was exactly what they wanted. In Superman Earth One, Martha and Jonathan are very young when they find Clark and they decide to keep him because he displays super strength. But they'll tell everyone in Smallville that Clark is a bastard and that Martha's no good "laybout" sister made them take care of the baby! WHAT! For the rest of the story, they come off as salivating stage parents, sewing his costume, naming him and talking about branding. Ugh.

Lois and Jimmy get simplified. Lois even more so than Jimmy. Jimmy gets to be fearless searching for the perfect shot because the "truth" is there. Lois gets to debate why a reporter should be able to inject their opinions into the story. She gets shut down by Perry and since she didn't get to name Superman (Jonathan Kent did) and since she didn't write the first interview with Superman (Clark shows up last minute with one) all she did was report on the alien invasion, and save Superman's life AFTER Jimmy tried to do it by himself and failed. Uff.

So yeah there's this alien invasion because (sigh) a planet that was constantly in war with Krypton made a deal with a mysterious character (Braniac? Braniac! Braniac!) and they blew up the whole planet and NO ONE was supposed to survive. So this alien comes and tries to kill Clark but he really forces him to grow up and become Superman. For the sequel, you have the possibility of more aliens attacking Earth plus the mysterious (Braniac) character (Braniac).

As you read Superman Earth One, you feel like you're watching a movie you've seen a couple of times. Familiar and different at the same time but frustrating all the way around.

Books of Magic

Neil Gaiman

John Bolton

Scott Hampton

Charles Vess

Paul Johnson

I keep returning to this book every so often because the fantasy is so primal. Who didn't think as a kid that magic was awesome. You just had to meet that certain stranger, find a book or a token, open the right door and bam! Magic!

It's too bad that Tim Hunter is untouchable thanks to Harry Potter. They are very similar, both are British boys with brown hair and glasses and they are both destined to be the greatest mages of their time.

In books of Magic, Tim is guided by the Phantom Stranger though Magic's past, by John Constantine and Zatanna through Magic's present, by Doctor Occult through Faerie and the Far Lands, and by Magic's future by Mister E. Neil Gaiman weaves DCs history around these voyages and gives you a sense of the history of magic in comics.

Books of Magic is full of wonderful tidbits. My favorite are: Zatara handling dead rabbits and explaining that he hides in plain sight. Zatanna and Tim partying with black and white magicians at Halloween, seeing Hamnet by Titania's throne in Faerie, and the weird green transparent humanoids living at the end of time.

So put down your Harry Potter and the whatever, if you want to read about true magic get the Books of Magic and the accompanying series.

Chicken With Plums

Marjane Satrapi

What I like most about this comic is the structure of the story. It simmers like a nice stew and as you stir the pot secret desires and connections reveal themselves in the most appetizing ways.

The story follows a man, Nasser Ali, a famous Tar (traditional Iranian percussion instrument) player. His wife in a fit breaks his Tar and since he cannot find solace in another instrument decides to lay down and die. He doesn't eat for seven days.

As he dies slowly, certain events in his life float to the surface of his memories and we come to find that no one in the story is blameless, or innocent, or truly guilty. They are all petty, foolish, grubby, selfish, heartbroken people.

The story has as many layers as the title dish, chicken with plums, has flavors and Marjane's unique illustrations provide the depth we need to empathize with Nasser, a selfish and tragic character.