Contains lots of comics. It’s been a jolly long time since I did one of these. Read on to find out why (hint: it wasn’t because of comics).
Disclaimer: these aren’t formal reviews so much as musings on what I’ve read. Full reviews can be found here.
Previously: Books 1-2, Books 3-4.
5 – Marc Ellerby & Jamie Rich – Love the Way You Love Vol. 4, 5 & 6
I finished reading the series back in January, but I’ve been procrastinating over finishing one of the books I subsequently picked up for so long that I’ve not posted about them until now. Fortunately it’s a pleasure rather than a chore to revisit them to refresh my memory.
Volume 3 ended on a high note, with Tristan and Isobel mutual attraction seemingly leading towards a more solid relationship – although Isobel’s fiancee, Marcus, remained in the picture, and was stepping up his vendetta against Tristan’s band, Like A Dog (do you know, I’ve warmed to the name, even though it being terrible becomes a running joke in the comic). Without wanting to spoil the story, volume 4 sees Marcus’ campaign against Like A Dog bear fruit as well as Tristan and Isobel’s relationship becoming rockier. Various other characters continue to emerge from the background and their stories develop into entertaining and/or sweet subplots.
The story, the characters and the writing in general does become fleshier as the story goes on; the same is true of the artwork, which becomes more confident and bold in each volume. This is particular obvious in the action scenes, where the dynamic sequences and images compare favourably to the more static snapshots on the earlier volumes. (Coo, look at me talking about artwork like I know a damn thing.)
I really can’t comment extensively on the series as a whole without issuing spoilers, and even though this isn’t a review so much as my initial thoughts and reactions, I don’t want to do that. Suffice to say that while I like the final volume, think it ties up the various threads of the earlier volumes nicely, and ends on a suitably upbeat note, I’m not too sure about the way that resolution is delivered in the form of deus ex machinae. One is definitely more convincing than the other; the latter essentially dispenses needed wisdom like a tap, and drags the Tristan und Isolde subtext into plain light, where I’m as yet unconvinced it needs to be. But it’s thematically satisfying and the resolution to the central plot is, as I said, well-handled, and I’ve got only warm feelings toward the series as a whole.
P.S. As recompense for mentioning another Oni Press series in my last post, I hereby resolve to order some more books from Oni and resist lazy comparisons.
6 – Guy Adams – DCI Gene Hunt’s Rules of Modern Policing
I picked up this frivolous media tie-in book in a charity shop. Guess where it’s going back to?
Okay, in the interests of putting some effort into this, I’ll add that it’s far too knowingly ironic. Life On Mars managed to crowbar a lot of humour into its formula primarily because the clash between the inherent bigotry of 1970s Britain with “modern man” Sam Tyler wasn’t played ironically. These characters genuinely just didn’t understand each other at times. The humour is derived by the audience as voyeur, not because the bigotry is hammed up. This clearly rapidly-put together book leaps beyond that basic subtlety to repeatedly nudge you in the ribs and wink at the ribaldry.
I’d possibly forgive that were the book actually amusing, but sadly it’s not. In fact, the funniest thing about it is that one of the photographs in it that isn’t a still from the show was clearly taken at a second-hand bookshop. For no apparent reason the shelves are full of books on Irish history, and most of the volumes on display quite obviously postdate the ’70s. Smooth.
7 – Michael Crichton – State of Fear
You may be thinking that I’m not a likely Crichton reader, and you’d be right. Beyond reading the Jurassic Park books as a young teen I’ve mostly avoided his work. As a pretentious slightly older teenager I looked instead to “more serious” science fiction, an an older and still pretentious 20-something I sneered at his simplistic prose and antagonism towards the scientific community.
Still, over Christmas my dad gave me this book to read, and he said he was interested in what I thought of it, so I figured I’d give it a go. After all, I reasoned, it can’t possibly be worse than the Da Vinci Code, and I got through three chapters of that before the laughter overwhelmed me.
Having now actually /finished/ this 700-page airport thriller (if you’ve been wondering why it’s been so long since I posted a P52 update, it’s because I found this novel a struggle to get through)… I find myself in two minds. One of these minds occupies a position of relative ignorance. Allow me to elucidate.
This is a polemical novel, but not quite in the way I initially expected. Whilst Crichton’s (many) mouthpiece characters are presented as rational, intelligent human beings and his straw men… are not, there isn’t the simple climate change real / climate change faked dichotomy I’d expected. Crichton has at the very least put a lot of effort into fairly representing his argument and supporting it with data and footnotes. Unfortunately because the argument in the novel is so very one-sided it’s hard to feel like this is a debate or dialogue rather than an extremely persuasive misrepresentation. This has the further unfortunate result of somewhat undermining the central thrust of the point Crichton is trying to make in the last 100 pages of the novel: that idealistic zealotry, mis- and over-representation of research and data, and the intrusion of self-interested politics and self-reproducing bureaucracy into science, all do serious harm to our ability to understand the world in which we live, the ways in which we are exploited, and the unique ability humans have to consciously manage their home planet. It is a good point and one I can’t possibly argue with, even if I don’t share all of the author’s other opinions.
As to the arguments Crichton makes about climate change… well, climate change, resource scarcity and environmental concerns have occupied my thoughts and guided my life choices for many years now. But I’m no idealogue, and I have to admit that I have no means of countering a lot of the information he represents. I often found myself thinking that Crichton could have been quite selective with what information he put into his arguments, but that’s unfair as I have no basis for thinking it other than that he is violating my preconceptions. Hence the ignorance I mentioned just above. I have a few germinal arguments but I would have to go away and spend some time doing some research (which I may yet to do, but right now I’m easing out of a week of alcoholic and musical excess). Still, I’m impressed by the fact that insofar as Crichton’s position is concerned, it seems well-presented and it has made me question my preconceptions and opinions, which is always a good thing.
I mentioned the other mind in which I find myself. This is well positive. Put simply, this is a simply written novel and really quite shallow. Crichton’s prose is clearly consciously intended to be parsed quickly and easily; I’m sure it’s the reason for his success. Everything is presented very literally, very matter-of-factly, and this grates long before 700 pages have passed. His characters, too, are utterly flat. Only a few exhibit some occasional moment of humanity; even these spend most of their time as automatons marching to the twin beat of Plot and Argument. The book’s female characters are laughable, almost all either hyper-competent hotties with the smarts to match, eye-candy bimbos or just rather useless. All the stuff I talked about in the paragraphs above works okay as a polemic, but as a novel the book is disjointed and oddly constructed. And, of course, the central conceit is utterly ludicrous, although I did find the super-science villainy of the ELF zealots very amusing. They have machine guns and create flash floods to sensationally drown children, and do not fear death! Grrrr!
Still… it was hard work, but I’m glad I read this. I’m less looking forward to discussing the above with my dad, haha…
8 – J. G. Ballard – Kingdom Come
Believe it or not this is the first Ballard I’ve ever read. And to think I occasionally review books, eh? Talk about being underqualified.
This novel sets its sights on a cultural monolith that has attracted criticism for decades, ever since its inception: the shopping mall, and more broadly the effects of consumerism on human society and psychology. The protagonist, a sacked ad-man, comes to one of the orbital M25 towns that ring London. Here, in true suburbia, lie the heartlands of mall culture. In the latest and greatest of these creations, the Metro-Centre, his father met an untimely demise at the point of a gunman’s bullet. In searching for the truth behind his father’s killer the protagonist uncovers both the promise and the darkness that lie at the heart of the people and towns that align themselves with the life and culture of consumerism… and gives birth to a monster.
That’s a bit of a shallow summary, but it highlights all the key points. At first the novel focuses on unpacking a murder mystery set against a sinister backdrop of racism and football hooligan violence, but soon this is put to the sidelines as the protagonist turns his own skills to breathing life into the nascent beast of hyper-consumerism. Both threads slam together for an impressive climax.
This is a good novel, and Ballard’s prose is delightfully well-observed. His ability to highlight the sinister and the intimate in the everyday is superb. Any criticisms I have are either political or superficial: on the most shallow level, early on there are some geographical transitions that don’t work. I wondered if these were deliberate and supposed to make a point, but this isn’t the case. It’s not a major problem but it broke the flow for me as I flipped back and forth trying to see if I’d missed something. As for the political criticisms, these aren’t really relevant as they’re subjective. I’m also not entirely sure if the ideology of consumerism could work in the way this novel posits; it’s an overarching structure and a lifestyle, but not one to which people owe any loyalty beyond habit. As a conceit it’s convincing, and its easy to suspect disbelief while Ballard tells this story and explores the ideas related to it, but it lends the book a veneer of unreality. Which, all things considered, is actually quite appropriate.
9 & 10 – John Allison – Scary Go Round Books 4 & 5 (The Retribution Index, Great Aches)
Whew. After writing about ‘State of Fear’ at length I don’t really have the energy to go into these. In short, they’re collections of John Allison’s webcomic Scary Go Round, I’m a really big fan, and I wish I’d bought books 1 to 3 before they sold out as they will NEVER BE REPRINTED. Sobs!
Scary Go Round is a very English and extremely whimsical comic strip with wonderfully likeable characters, truly fine dialogue, and adorable artwork. I absolutely love the way the stories, concepts and characters range from slightly-askew surrealism to the cartoonishly silly (killer robots, minotaurs, midget vampires, Paninatu the volcano demon, etc.). I’m a little bit in love with several of his characters, which just goes to show how warm and human the comic strip is because falling for fictional characters is DISTURBING AND WRONG.
If you’ve never read Scary Go Round, go correct yourself. Personally I like Allison’s hand-drawn art a lot more than the computer stuff, so would recommend starting with one such story. You may want to just pick a random storyline and begin there since even if you go right back to the first strip you might still be puzzled; Scary Go Round features many characters and settings from its predecessor, Bobbins.
9.5 – Marc Ellerby – Ellerbisms Vol. 1
A short comic, so it gets a half-entry! I ordered this alongside Vols. 2 and 3 and Ellerby’s latest comic, Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter. I’ll do these in a later round-up.
It’s interesting reading Volume 1 of Ellerbisms as the strips are a couple of years old now and (I think) mark Marc’s first foray into diary comics. The tone, composition and art is less consistent than the strips you’ll now find on his website, but there are still plenty of gems in here. Particular favourites include Marc wondering if he’ll ever live up to the heritage of Moleskine notebooks and contemplating napkins instead, the one about the joys of making mixtapes, and all of the strips about ATP.
Whilst reading this I was repeatedly beset by the vague recollection that I may have been slightly rude to Marc at the Wired UK launch. Oh dear. If I was, and he’s reading this, I apologise. I’d just been tricked into drunkenly fanning at Warren Ellis and was overcome with a desire to flee.
9.647839320 – John Allison – Ghosts
A lovely short comic featuring Scary Go Round regulars Shelley, Amy and Ryan, along with a ghost who likes to play the trombone. <3
And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
Oh dear…
I spent some of my tragically short lunch break today reading up on the whole ‘State of Fear’ climate change argument and, as I predicted, Crichton has been widely criticised for distorting studies and selectively including results. These critics include authors of some of the papers he cites.
What I really want is to find a site where someone has pulled up all of his footnotes and references and examined the source papers. As in, has done all the hard work so I don’t have to.
Still, I do still think he has a point about the infectious effect ideology, politics and blind faith can have in supposedly rational, factual debates. Even if he dressed it up in a ridiculous suit. That was also inside-out.
Do you know, one of the ‘environmental foot soldier’ straw men, who spends the entire novel being corrected by ‘better-informed’ characters, gets eaten by barbaric rebel soldiers. Eaten alive! Mere pages after praising people who “live close to nature”. Hilarity!
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