Wed Reading Meme....
Oct. 7th, 2015 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAs an aside, I'm about 145 pages into my next novel - the one that I'm writing. It's about a space captain who hates space, and after her best friend takes a bullet for her, has returned to her home-world to get some much needed R&R, and to figure out who is trying to kill her. Only one small problem, she's been poisoned. And the only person she trusts is an artificial life form, whose custody she's been placed, because she killed the hitman who took out her best friend. The world is run by various mining, shipping, bio-tech, and pharmaceutical corporations that made it possible for humans to venture into space.
And no, it's not a sequel to my last book. (I'm writing a speculative noir sci-fi mystery romance as opposed to a comtemporary neo-noir mystery. I like to play with genre.) People keep asking me why I don't just write a sequel to my last book. Eh. A couple of reasons - 1)Really not a writer of series. Not my thing. Besides it's not like the book has taken off or anything. If it became a best-seller, I might consider a sequel. 2) I write because I want to get at the story inside my head. The characters begin to talk to me. If the characters stop talking to me, I stop writing about them. 3)It felt finished to me. I said what I wanted to say about those characters. I don't think there should be a sequel. I prefer stories that are somewhat open-ended.
Speaking of serial writers...who tend to be genre writers...
The Wed Reading Meme (I almost did a writing meme.)
1) What I just finished reading?
* The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas --- it was okay. Felt a bit rushed at the end.
And a lot more sex scenes than were absolutely necessary. Weird, most of her books tend to be light on the sex. This is a more recent one -- maybe she got pushed by editors and fans to add more sex scenes? I don't mind the sex scenes per se, and hers are better than most, but after a while it feels repetitive and doesn't really move the action forward all that much. Also, I wanted more character development and more scenes with the two characters talking. Like most romance novelists - more time is spent inside the character's heads, worrying over the relationship and what they think the other guy or gal is thinking than actual discussion. Her dialogue isn't bad though - good witty banter.
Again better than most.
The plot felt a bit ham-handed. The heroine doesn't appear to do much, or care about anyone outside of her own family - who we rarely see. Eloise James and Courtney Milan are better at the familial relationships than Thomas appears to be. The hero is a manipulative asshole to begin with, but he redeems himself. The heroine is a bit manipulative too to begin with. Thomas has pricky characters, who do selfish things and hold nasty grudges. But unlike a lot of romance novelists - she focuses more on the marital relationship than on the courtship, which I find more interesting.
Not as good as her other efforts though. I liked Not Quite a Husband better.
* The House of M by Brian Michael Bendes and Olivier Coipel - this is a graphic novel in the X-men and Avengers series.
Wanda Maximov, Scarlett Witch, loses control of her reality bending powers.
The X-men and the Avengers are brought together by Professor Xavier to determine how to best handle it, since she's in danger of destroying reality completely. So far, she's killed the Vision, Hawkeye and Ant Man with her reality bending powers. Magneto and Xavier had been having a fine old time rebuilding the mutant nation of Genosha, which was devastated several issues back, when Magnet was called to Scarlett Witch's side, in an ill-fated attempt to help his daughter. Desperate he calls for Professor Xavier to help - and Xavier fails miserably.
Now they are discussing whether they should kill her. Some of those present want to just kill her, but the majority agree that they should check things out first - see her in person, etc. So they go to Genosha to see Scarlet Witch. Meanwhile Pietro, Quicksilver, who is convinced they've decided to kill her - rushes to her side to confront his father. He demands Magneto do something.
The gang shows up with Xavier in tow. Only to find no one there. Then, one by one, each superhero disappears until the world goes white. They wake up to a new reality. No memories of the old one.
Where Mutants rule, and the House of Magneto is in control. Xavier is dead or presumed dead. He appears to be missing. And each superhero has their dearest wish or the existence they wanted. In short they are happy and comfortable. Until Wolverine and a little girl named Layla see through it.
Off they go to confront The House of M. And much chaos ensues. Ultimately resulting in Pietro's untimely demise and a grief-stricken Scarlet Witch bending reality yet again - this round, she does away with mutants. No more mutants, she screams. And voila, anyone except a scant few, are made human, the mutant gene erased. Turning the few mutants remaining into a disenfranchised minority or pariahs, and the ones who had powers - depressed and desolate at losing the part of themselves that made them unique and who they were.
It's an interesting story because of all of the moral ambiguities involved. Also a necessary one if you want to read any Avengers, Spiderman or X-men comic book that was published after 2010. The story takes place roughly a few years after Whedon's run of Astonishing X-men.
Cyclops isn't really that featured in it - except that he takes on the core leadership role at the end, with both Xavier and Steve Rodgers, Captain America, out of the picture.
The writer was apparently a New Avengers and Spidermen writer - so he focused on the characters that he was most comfortable with - Spiderman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and to a lesser degree Emma Frost.
Everyone else gets sidelined. I think having it from Wolverine and Spiderman's point of view was a bit of a mistake. But I also think both characters have been overdone.
2.) What I am reading now?
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - this is about nine working class men, their families, rowing, boat building, the 1936 Olympics, and what it was like in 1930s - specifically Washington State. Non-fiction but far more compelling, not to mention better written than the last five books that I read. Honestly, there's more character development and more attention to historical setting than either Life After Life or The Light Between the Oceans.
So far, I've learned that Hitler didn't want to have the Olympics but Goebbels talked him into it - as a great propaganda device. How to build a crew boat and how that effects the speed of the boat.
What it takes to row one. The effects of the depression in 1930s Seattle, Washington. And how resourceful a down-on-his luck ten year old kid can be. Very uplifting and inspiring story about Joe Rantz, one of the nine men who quested for gold.
In short, I'm loving this book. Hmmm, need to read more non-fiction.
X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine - this is a graphic novel that focuses on a period from the X-men's past. Or rather the premiere issue of the new x-men circa 1970s - featuring the first appearance of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus in the books. A powerful mutant crashes to earth and takes Cyclops and Rachel Grey captive. He clearly has an agenda, and is using Rachel's telepathy to find ways to haunt various X-men. That's the front story, the back story is of mutant kids, who have been bullied and neglected and thrown away by the system for being outcasts and freaks - that Moira McTaggert saves. Apparently when a living island captured and almost devoured the original five X-men, Professor Xavier asked Moira's kids to come to the rescue. They managed to save Cyclops, but perished themselves. Xavier wiped Cyclops mind of the events, and sent him back to the island with a new team - who saved the original X-men. Turns out that one of those kids survived, and was Cyclops younger brother, Gabriel. Xavier hid that from Cyclops as well.
The issue highlights the fact that Professor Xavier was training and using teenagers to fight his battles for him, including some rather nasty adult monsters. Cyclops keeps mentioning in these books that he was the field leader of the X-men since he was fourteen. It also highlights how the kids had no where else to go, and no home, just the Westchester mansion.
Again, the modern writers explore various moral ambiguities, including the moral complexity of Professor Charles Xavier...and whether he was in truth as Machiavellian as Magneto. Charles Xavier and Magneto at times remind me of metaphors of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, or various other minority leaders. Those who seek reform with violence and with peace. And the degree to which it is necessary to cross these moral lines - for social justice. Of course, it's a foggy parallel, in that we're talking about characters with dangerous super powers, not people being discriminated against because of religious, ethnic, or sexual/gender differences. Which is a rather huge distinction.
Although to be fair, the writers seem to like to address that as well - in their books. These aren't your parents comic books. In some ways they are far more adult and sophisticated than Stan Lee, Chris Claremount, and Jack Kirby's 1960s-1980s version.
3. What I'm reading next?
Divided We Stand - by Ed Brubaker and possibly Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker - continuations in the Cyclops arc. (I've become rather obsessed with the character. Can't find any fanfic on him though. But luckily there's plenty of you-tube, old cartoons, and comics to read that feature him.)
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
And whatever else strikes my fancy. I've been flirting with Into Thin Air - the book about the treacherous climb up Mount Everest. Also flirting with another romance novel by Meredith Duran.
********
As an aside, I gave up on the meetup group book club. Mainly because they changed the book we were reading for October. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson was moved to December. (Seriously it's not that long or hard a book to read. I read it in two weeks. I didn't enjoy it. Don't fancy myself re-reading the thing.) So decided this was the universe's way of telling me to restrict myself to one book club. Plus it met on Wed nights at 7:30pm - about a 30 minute walk from where I live. Eh. Will pass.
Oh, and I've gotten interested in the X-men movies again. They rebooted the series with X-men Days of Future Past - or fixed all the dumb things they did with X-men Last Stand and Wolverine: Origins.
So that they can do a Deadpool movie and keep various key characters, like Cyclops and Jean Grey who were killed off in X-men Last Stand. Dumb move. Actually Cyclops was poorly done in all three of those films. Too much focus on Wolverine. (Understandable, they had Hugh Jackman. So the focus was on Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellan.) Now that they've chosen to go back in time - and reboot it with a much younger Charles Xavier and Magneto, not to mention a younger Cyclops, Jean Grey, etc...things are more on target.
Rather like this fan made X-men, Cyclops Origin video:
And no, it's not a sequel to my last book. (I'm writing a speculative noir sci-fi mystery romance as opposed to a comtemporary neo-noir mystery. I like to play with genre.) People keep asking me why I don't just write a sequel to my last book. Eh. A couple of reasons - 1)Really not a writer of series. Not my thing. Besides it's not like the book has taken off or anything. If it became a best-seller, I might consider a sequel. 2) I write because I want to get at the story inside my head. The characters begin to talk to me. If the characters stop talking to me, I stop writing about them. 3)It felt finished to me. I said what I wanted to say about those characters. I don't think there should be a sequel. I prefer stories that are somewhat open-ended.
Speaking of serial writers...who tend to be genre writers...
The Wed Reading Meme (I almost did a writing meme.)
1) What I just finished reading?
* The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas --- it was okay. Felt a bit rushed at the end.
And a lot more sex scenes than were absolutely necessary. Weird, most of her books tend to be light on the sex. This is a more recent one -- maybe she got pushed by editors and fans to add more sex scenes? I don't mind the sex scenes per se, and hers are better than most, but after a while it feels repetitive and doesn't really move the action forward all that much. Also, I wanted more character development and more scenes with the two characters talking. Like most romance novelists - more time is spent inside the character's heads, worrying over the relationship and what they think the other guy or gal is thinking than actual discussion. Her dialogue isn't bad though - good witty banter.
Again better than most.
The plot felt a bit ham-handed. The heroine doesn't appear to do much, or care about anyone outside of her own family - who we rarely see. Eloise James and Courtney Milan are better at the familial relationships than Thomas appears to be. The hero is a manipulative asshole to begin with, but he redeems himself. The heroine is a bit manipulative too to begin with. Thomas has pricky characters, who do selfish things and hold nasty grudges. But unlike a lot of romance novelists - she focuses more on the marital relationship than on the courtship, which I find more interesting.
Not as good as her other efforts though. I liked Not Quite a Husband better.
* The House of M by Brian Michael Bendes and Olivier Coipel - this is a graphic novel in the X-men and Avengers series.
Wanda Maximov, Scarlett Witch, loses control of her reality bending powers.
The X-men and the Avengers are brought together by Professor Xavier to determine how to best handle it, since she's in danger of destroying reality completely. So far, she's killed the Vision, Hawkeye and Ant Man with her reality bending powers. Magneto and Xavier had been having a fine old time rebuilding the mutant nation of Genosha, which was devastated several issues back, when Magnet was called to Scarlett Witch's side, in an ill-fated attempt to help his daughter. Desperate he calls for Professor Xavier to help - and Xavier fails miserably.
Now they are discussing whether they should kill her. Some of those present want to just kill her, but the majority agree that they should check things out first - see her in person, etc. So they go to Genosha to see Scarlet Witch. Meanwhile Pietro, Quicksilver, who is convinced they've decided to kill her - rushes to her side to confront his father. He demands Magneto do something.
The gang shows up with Xavier in tow. Only to find no one there. Then, one by one, each superhero disappears until the world goes white. They wake up to a new reality. No memories of the old one.
Where Mutants rule, and the House of Magneto is in control. Xavier is dead or presumed dead. He appears to be missing. And each superhero has their dearest wish or the existence they wanted. In short they are happy and comfortable. Until Wolverine and a little girl named Layla see through it.
Off they go to confront The House of M. And much chaos ensues. Ultimately resulting in Pietro's untimely demise and a grief-stricken Scarlet Witch bending reality yet again - this round, she does away with mutants. No more mutants, she screams. And voila, anyone except a scant few, are made human, the mutant gene erased. Turning the few mutants remaining into a disenfranchised minority or pariahs, and the ones who had powers - depressed and desolate at losing the part of themselves that made them unique and who they were.
It's an interesting story because of all of the moral ambiguities involved. Also a necessary one if you want to read any Avengers, Spiderman or X-men comic book that was published after 2010. The story takes place roughly a few years after Whedon's run of Astonishing X-men.
Cyclops isn't really that featured in it - except that he takes on the core leadership role at the end, with both Xavier and Steve Rodgers, Captain America, out of the picture.
The writer was apparently a New Avengers and Spidermen writer - so he focused on the characters that he was most comfortable with - Spiderman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and to a lesser degree Emma Frost.
Everyone else gets sidelined. I think having it from Wolverine and Spiderman's point of view was a bit of a mistake. But I also think both characters have been overdone.
2.) What I am reading now?
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - this is about nine working class men, their families, rowing, boat building, the 1936 Olympics, and what it was like in 1930s - specifically Washington State. Non-fiction but far more compelling, not to mention better written than the last five books that I read. Honestly, there's more character development and more attention to historical setting than either Life After Life or The Light Between the Oceans.
So far, I've learned that Hitler didn't want to have the Olympics but Goebbels talked him into it - as a great propaganda device. How to build a crew boat and how that effects the speed of the boat.
What it takes to row one. The effects of the depression in 1930s Seattle, Washington. And how resourceful a down-on-his luck ten year old kid can be. Very uplifting and inspiring story about Joe Rantz, one of the nine men who quested for gold.
In short, I'm loving this book. Hmmm, need to read more non-fiction.
X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine - this is a graphic novel that focuses on a period from the X-men's past. Or rather the premiere issue of the new x-men circa 1970s - featuring the first appearance of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus in the books. A powerful mutant crashes to earth and takes Cyclops and Rachel Grey captive. He clearly has an agenda, and is using Rachel's telepathy to find ways to haunt various X-men. That's the front story, the back story is of mutant kids, who have been bullied and neglected and thrown away by the system for being outcasts and freaks - that Moira McTaggert saves. Apparently when a living island captured and almost devoured the original five X-men, Professor Xavier asked Moira's kids to come to the rescue. They managed to save Cyclops, but perished themselves. Xavier wiped Cyclops mind of the events, and sent him back to the island with a new team - who saved the original X-men. Turns out that one of those kids survived, and was Cyclops younger brother, Gabriel. Xavier hid that from Cyclops as well.
The issue highlights the fact that Professor Xavier was training and using teenagers to fight his battles for him, including some rather nasty adult monsters. Cyclops keeps mentioning in these books that he was the field leader of the X-men since he was fourteen. It also highlights how the kids had no where else to go, and no home, just the Westchester mansion.
Again, the modern writers explore various moral ambiguities, including the moral complexity of Professor Charles Xavier...and whether he was in truth as Machiavellian as Magneto. Charles Xavier and Magneto at times remind me of metaphors of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, or various other minority leaders. Those who seek reform with violence and with peace. And the degree to which it is necessary to cross these moral lines - for social justice. Of course, it's a foggy parallel, in that we're talking about characters with dangerous super powers, not people being discriminated against because of religious, ethnic, or sexual/gender differences. Which is a rather huge distinction.
Although to be fair, the writers seem to like to address that as well - in their books. These aren't your parents comic books. In some ways they are far more adult and sophisticated than Stan Lee, Chris Claremount, and Jack Kirby's 1960s-1980s version.
3. What I'm reading next?
Divided We Stand - by Ed Brubaker and possibly Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker - continuations in the Cyclops arc. (I've become rather obsessed with the character. Can't find any fanfic on him though. But luckily there's plenty of you-tube, old cartoons, and comics to read that feature him.)
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
And whatever else strikes my fancy. I've been flirting with Into Thin Air - the book about the treacherous climb up Mount Everest. Also flirting with another romance novel by Meredith Duran.
********
As an aside, I gave up on the meetup group book club. Mainly because they changed the book we were reading for October. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson was moved to December. (Seriously it's not that long or hard a book to read. I read it in two weeks. I didn't enjoy it. Don't fancy myself re-reading the thing.) So decided this was the universe's way of telling me to restrict myself to one book club. Plus it met on Wed nights at 7:30pm - about a 30 minute walk from where I live. Eh. Will pass.
Oh, and I've gotten interested in the X-men movies again. They rebooted the series with X-men Days of Future Past - or fixed all the dumb things they did with X-men Last Stand and Wolverine: Origins.
So that they can do a Deadpool movie and keep various key characters, like Cyclops and Jean Grey who were killed off in X-men Last Stand. Dumb move. Actually Cyclops was poorly done in all three of those films. Too much focus on Wolverine. (Understandable, they had Hugh Jackman. So the focus was on Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellan.) Now that they've chosen to go back in time - and reboot it with a much younger Charles Xavier and Magneto, not to mention a younger Cyclops, Jean Grey, etc...things are more on target.
Rather like this fan made X-men, Cyclops Origin video: