Back to the Reading Wednesday
Oct. 21st, 2015 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaIt's Back to the Future day, which means that starting tomorrow the entire frnachise talkes place in the past. I rewatched Back to the Future 2 yesterday despite it not being what I should have been doing.
(Speaking of which: I probably shouldn't be posting this entry either, so I'll try to keep it short.)
What did you finish reading
Still working on telling you about these:
Angela 1602 #1-4
Carnets de thèse
Chronicles of Legion 1, 2 & 3
Darkness Over Cannae
Dr Fate 1, 2, 3 & 4
Eagles of Rome 2 & 3
L'arabe du futur 1
Le Jardin des silences
Loki:Agent of Asgard #1-17
Prince of Cats
The Infinite Loop
The Red Pyramid
Toil and trouble 1
Tumulte à Rome
And I found a txt file with some more stuff I read and should have put on the list, so here goes:
Bloodfellas
Saints 1
Secret Wars 1-6 (still ongoing)
Spider-Gwen v1 1-5
Spider-Gwen v2 001
And some of them had mini-reviews, so I'll post them as is. (YES IT'S ALL COMICS SO SUE ME I LIKE PICTURES WITH WORDS IN THEM)
A-Force 1-5: Heh. I enjoyed this enough to keep reading, but I can't say I'd reccomend it.
Captain America - Sam Wilson 001: idk if I like this yet. I find the art hard to get into and so far the story hasn't griped me, except at the end there, when Steve tries to arrest Sam. Also, Sam was at a pride parade!
Civil War v2 1-5: Well, that was certainly a published comic book. It's basically using Battleworld as a setting for What If: Civil War and then Skrulls. Tony and Steve do reconcile and go out in a blaze of glory together at the end, which is interesting. Plus, Cassie in it! (A very little.)
Day Men 1-8: I really like this! (Those eight issues form a complete arc, although there is definitely the potential for sequels.) The art is really good! It's clear, dynamic and hits exactly the right note between realistic and cartoony. The story is also very interesting! I don't want to spoil too much but it's about vampires and the people who do their dirty work during the day. It's got complicated relationships up the wazoo and enemies working together and so much worldbuilding to explore. I really wish there was more. (Fyi, you can find a longer review/rec for this in this entry.)
Guardians of the Galaxy v4 001: Emerging from secret wars an all new guardians of the galaxy team! Or at least I think it's emerging from Secret Wars? Whatever, it's issue 1, Ben Grimm finally (FINALLY!) gets to be an astronaut, Kitty Pryde and Rocket Raccoon are BFFs and they do the thing. But they don't do The Thing. (As far as I know.)
New Avengers v4 001: I have no idea what's going on here, except that Paris now crystal head zombies and the art is... not the best. It's clearly set post Secret Wars.
Plants vs Zombies - Timepocalypse 1: Don't have much to say, really. Comic adaptaion of the phone game of the same name.
Rowan's Ruin 1: House swapping goes terribly wrong! And that's about as far as the plot has gotten so far.
Switch 001: I enjoyed reading this a lot! The art is really pretty and I appreciated all the female characters in it (Mary, Rudy, Sandra, Una, Zala, etc). I liked that Mary said she wasn't brave, using the time she let someone get bullied as an example, but then she saves her brother anyway. I'll read the rest of it gladly!
The Uncanny Avengers 001: Rogue's in it!
The Wicked + The Divine 14 & 15 : Ananke says "if London looked like Carthage circa 146BC" and if we assume the comic takes place in 2014, that's 24 ninety-years cycles ago, so that's... interesting (ask me about my thoughts on "it was in fact the supernatural that caused man-made tragedy" one day). And Stephanie Hans' art (on issue 15) is gorgeous, as always. Tbh, I don't know if I like this series; ever since the end of Journey into Mystery, whenever I read Gillen's writing it's in good part because of morbid fascination. This is particularly morbid and I'm not even that fascinated. Also, I don't like that even though one of the characters is the incarnation of Baal, so far Carthage has been reduced to "child sacrifice" (inaccurately, I might add) and "lol rome burned it". Then again, all the characterisation is really thin on the ground.
What are you reading now
Books on hiatus: The Art of War, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Les Fleurs du Mal, Métronome, Rome's Revolution and The Grass-King's Concubine.
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Asgard, by Rick Riordan: Technically, I've finished this, but I want to write it a proper review, not the short blurbs I've done in this entry so far.
Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O’Connell: Don't think I've made any progress on this this week. The author did manage to sum up this entire tirade of mine with
And I refuse, I simply refuse, to take the word of the people who committed genocide about the people they committed genocide against.
Make no mistake. Genocide is exactly what the Third Punic War was. It was a genocide on both an ethnic and cultural level -- Aemilianus wanted nothing more than Carthage's utter destruction. That would be enough to hate him, but he succeeded. Carthage burned for seventeen days; in the Louvre, the Carthaginian exhibits room (yes, singular) is barely 15m2 and two-thirds of that is post-Roman "conquest".
I appreciate that the author of the book calls it what it is. It doesn't come up all that much, because it's decades in the future of the period covered by the book, but those two instances stand out sharply in my mind, because when's the last time you saw Rome and genocide in the same sentence. Yeah. I thought so.
Trickster Makes This World, by Lewis Hyde: Also no progress. So still stuck in last week's "YOUR METHODOLOGY IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD" as far as my main feelings towards it are. But I'll keep reading, because it does have some very interesting insights and I am a giant suckers for Tricksters.
Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman: Still reading this. I hope to do a break down by short story when I'm done.
Romanitas, by Sophia McDougall: I completely forgot last week, but I've actually read the first chapter of this a while back. Unfortunately, I read it while I was very angry at everything, which translated into every minor quibble I had with the text (of course ~our hero~ is a blue-eyed blond, wow that ultimately pointless tangent into a fake stoy about his ancestors completely destroys the pacing, do you really expect me to believe the uncle is crazy because I'm not buying in for a single second that's very clumsy foreshadowing) turned into giant >:(s to the point were I was in fact frowning at the book in real life. So, in the interest of not judging the book unfairly, I decided to put it aside. That said, I think I'll pick it up again. Next chapter is from someone else's PoV and I am greatly amused by "longvision". I see what you did there.
What are you reading next
I really want to read something in French, I have to admit. Man, why can't I have ebooks of the Fantômette books? On the other hand, I do have ebooks of the Ewilan books...
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett, February by Lisa Moore, The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho and The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
Things I'm adding: The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw viasilverflight8 (because Punic Wars and maths, oh yes, I am there for this), Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman and The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar both via ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lunik_the_bard .
And now to bed with me, because this entry has no right to be as long as it is and I have shit to do tomorrow.
(Speaking of which: I probably shouldn't be posting this entry either, so I'll try to keep it short.)
What did you finish reading
Still working on telling you about these:
Angela 1602 #1-4
Carnets de thèse
Chronicles of Legion 1, 2 & 3
Darkness Over Cannae
Dr Fate 1, 2, 3 & 4
Eagles of Rome 2 & 3
L'arabe du futur 1
Le Jardin des silences
Loki:Agent of Asgard #1-17
Prince of Cats
The Infinite Loop
The Red Pyramid
Toil and trouble 1
Tumulte à Rome
And I found a txt file with some more stuff I read and should have put on the list, so here goes:
Bloodfellas
Saints 1
Secret Wars 1-6 (still ongoing)
Spider-Gwen v1 1-5
Spider-Gwen v2 001
And some of them had mini-reviews, so I'll post them as is. (YES IT'S ALL COMICS SO SUE ME I LIKE PICTURES WITH WORDS IN THEM)
A-Force 1-5: Heh. I enjoyed this enough to keep reading, but I can't say I'd reccomend it.
Captain America - Sam Wilson 001: idk if I like this yet. I find the art hard to get into and so far the story hasn't griped me, except at the end there, when Steve tries to arrest Sam. Also, Sam was at a pride parade!
Civil War v2 1-5: Well, that was certainly a published comic book. It's basically using Battleworld as a setting for What If: Civil War and then Skrulls. Tony and Steve do reconcile and go out in a blaze of glory together at the end, which is interesting. Plus, Cassie in it! (A very little.)
Day Men 1-8: I really like this! (Those eight issues form a complete arc, although there is definitely the potential for sequels.) The art is really good! It's clear, dynamic and hits exactly the right note between realistic and cartoony. The story is also very interesting! I don't want to spoil too much but it's about vampires and the people who do their dirty work during the day. It's got complicated relationships up the wazoo and enemies working together and so much worldbuilding to explore. I really wish there was more. (Fyi, you can find a longer review/rec for this in this entry.)
Guardians of the Galaxy v4 001: Emerging from secret wars an all new guardians of the galaxy team! Or at least I think it's emerging from Secret Wars? Whatever, it's issue 1, Ben Grimm finally (FINALLY!) gets to be an astronaut, Kitty Pryde and Rocket Raccoon are BFFs and they do the thing. But they don't do The Thing. (As far as I know.)
New Avengers v4 001: I have no idea what's going on here, except that Paris now crystal head zombies and the art is... not the best. It's clearly set post Secret Wars.
Plants vs Zombies - Timepocalypse 1: Don't have much to say, really. Comic adaptaion of the phone game of the same name.
Rowan's Ruin 1: House swapping goes terribly wrong! And that's about as far as the plot has gotten so far.
Switch 001: I enjoyed reading this a lot! The art is really pretty and I appreciated all the female characters in it (Mary, Rudy, Sandra, Una, Zala, etc). I liked that Mary said she wasn't brave, using the time she let someone get bullied as an example, but then she saves her brother anyway. I'll read the rest of it gladly!
The Uncanny Avengers 001: Rogue's in it!
The Wicked + The Divine 14 & 15 : Ananke says "if London looked like Carthage circa 146BC" and if we assume the comic takes place in 2014, that's 24 ninety-years cycles ago, so that's... interesting (ask me about my thoughts on "it was in fact the supernatural that caused man-made tragedy" one day). And Stephanie Hans' art (on issue 15) is gorgeous, as always. Tbh, I don't know if I like this series; ever since the end of Journey into Mystery, whenever I read Gillen's writing it's in good part because of morbid fascination. This is particularly morbid and I'm not even that fascinated. Also, I don't like that even though one of the characters is the incarnation of Baal, so far Carthage has been reduced to "child sacrifice" (inaccurately, I might add) and "lol rome burned it". Then again, all the characterisation is really thin on the ground.
What are you reading now
Books on hiatus: The Art of War, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Les Fleurs du Mal, Métronome, Rome's Revolution and The Grass-King's Concubine.
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Asgard, by Rick Riordan: Technically, I've finished this, but I want to write it a proper review, not the short blurbs I've done in this entry so far.
Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O’Connell: Don't think I've made any progress on this this week. The author did manage to sum up this entire tirade of mine with
If Rome made war, Carthage made money.I do appreciate that the author doesn't fallinto the kind of almost-worshipful "Rome is the best and the greatest" mindset you can find in people writing about that area of History. Look, I understand being impressed by Rome. I'm impressed by Rome. Hell, I'm impressed by the Roman Empire and I hate the very idea of the thing. But people far too often ignore (willfully, in cases) that Rome was ruled in no large part by "Might makes Right", both in internal and external policy.
And I refuse, I simply refuse, to take the word of the people who committed genocide about the people they committed genocide against.
Make no mistake. Genocide is exactly what the Third Punic War was. It was a genocide on both an ethnic and cultural level -- Aemilianus wanted nothing more than Carthage's utter destruction. That would be enough to hate him, but he succeeded. Carthage burned for seventeen days; in the Louvre, the Carthaginian exhibits room (yes, singular) is barely 15m2 and two-thirds of that is post-Roman "conquest".
I appreciate that the author of the book calls it what it is. It doesn't come up all that much, because it's decades in the future of the period covered by the book, but those two instances stand out sharply in my mind, because when's the last time you saw Rome and genocide in the same sentence. Yeah. I thought so.
Trickster Makes This World, by Lewis Hyde: Also no progress. So still stuck in last week's "YOUR METHODOLOGY IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD" as far as my main feelings towards it are. But I'll keep reading, because it does have some very interesting insights and I am a giant suckers for Tricksters.
Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman: Still reading this. I hope to do a break down by short story when I'm done.
Romanitas, by Sophia McDougall: I completely forgot last week, but I've actually read the first chapter of this a while back. Unfortunately, I read it while I was very angry at everything, which translated into every minor quibble I had with the text (of course ~our hero~ is a blue-eyed blond, wow that ultimately pointless tangent into a fake stoy about his ancestors completely destroys the pacing, do you really expect me to believe the uncle is crazy because I'm not buying in for a single second that's very clumsy foreshadowing) turned into giant >:(s to the point were I was in fact frowning at the book in real life. So, in the interest of not judging the book unfairly, I decided to put it aside. That said, I think I'll pick it up again. Next chapter is from someone else's PoV and I am greatly amused by "longvision". I see what you did there.
What are you reading next
I really want to read something in French, I have to admit. Man, why can't I have ebooks of the Fantômette books? On the other hand, I do have ebooks of the Ewilan books...
Books that I have already: Pyramids of London, by Andrea K Höst, Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett, February by Lisa Moore, The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico.
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho and The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them: City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: Still IDK.
Things I'm adding: The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw via
silverflight8 (because Punic Wars and maths, oh yes, I am there for this), Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman and The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar both via lunik_the_bard .And now to bed with me, because this entry has no right to be as long as it is and I have shit to do tomorrow.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-21 02:33 pm (UTC)I'm trying not to be one of those overly defensive people who leaps to defend her favourite books from the slightest hint of criticism, so I won't say anything beyond the fact that (as you've discovered), Marcus' is not the only POV in the series.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-23 03:20 pm (UTC)I'll give it another shot one day.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-21 04:13 pm (UTC)Yes! Good! Bon, j'imagine qu'il n'y était pas en tant que bisexuel, ni en compagnie de Steve, mais c'est pas grave. XD
Pour info, j'ai vérifié la date de sortie de The Infinite Loop 2 et, évidemment..., ça a été décalé. Je ne vois pas bien l'intérêt d'annoncer des dates de sortie pour ensuite ne pas s'y tenir. Ca arrive souvent avec les mangas aussi, c'est agaçant.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-23 05:35 pm (UTC)Quelle surprise! J'aime pas quand ça arrive; au final je finit plus par acheter mes BDs que quand je les voit en magasins.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-23 05:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-25 02:05 pm (UTC)