Taste this, bitch

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

Alright, not that I didn’t trust those fellow Cannonballers who said this series really hits it’s stride with this book, but Hell’s bells! I guess I wasn’t truly prepared for the balls-out thrill ride that this installment turned out to be. And that’s with all the machinations of the White Council and it’s battle with the Red Court, as well as the Faerie with it’s Winter Queen and Summer Queen and attendant allies and enemies. I seriously needed a scorecard at times.

But it wasn’t all politics and exposition on the Dresdenverse. I was happy to see the return of our Alphas (from Fool Moon) as allies to Harry and champions for the people of Chicago against supernatural skulduggery. Another blast from the past: Toot Toot!!

Still, Harry is a bit of a mess, mooning over Susan (get over it already, man!) and generally just giving up on things. Billy tries to give him a kick in the ass, and in turn, Harry tries to do the same for Murphy, who is not doing well in the aftermath of the whole Kavros thing. This sort of puts them on even ground and they really open up to each other. That was one my favorite parts of this book, seeing how they are seriously coming to trust each other. And who else would you want to help you take down chlorofiends, an ogre and The Tigress in a Walmart?

Let’s see, what else, oh yeah…. ELAINE IS STILL ALIVE! And she never wanted to go against Harry but Justin was overcoming her mind with magic, but she was able to somehow escape the fire. Hmmm. I’m still not sure about that whole drama, but I’m sure it will come up again in subsequent books. If anything, Harry actually seemed to listen to her when she told him to get his shit together. I was happy to see that, even if it’s just baby steps. Like eating pizza with friends and playing Thorg the Barbarian in D&D.

Because really, some people just deserve to be eaten by zombies

Agnes Quill-An Anthology of Mystery byDave Roman art by Jason Ho, Jeff Zornow, Raina Telgemeier et al

This delightful little book from Slave Labor Graphics, under the aegis of the mysterious Data Analysis Keep, features 17-year-old Agnes Quill, a detective for the supernatural world. When she was 7, both of her parents succumbed to an outbreak of influenza. At their funeral, the spirit of her grandfather appeared to her and told her of her legacy: she has the ability to see and communicate with spirits. Oh, and that she inherited a castle in the heart of the Victorian city known as Legerdemain.

The stories told in this book are illustrated by several different artists, with disparate styles. It was fun to follow

Agnes through the adventures and see how each artist would interpret the city, characters and her work.

In the first story she helps the spirit of Beatrice Osteri recover an heirloom strand of pearls from her mummified head before her treacherous nephew absconds with it. Beatrice actually has a pretty good time on their adventure and sticks around to help Agnes from time to time. Other stories have Agnes investigating unexplained power outtages and discovering and coming to the aid of a race of people who must live underground, helping a man battle his zombiefied ex-girlfriends and freeing the spirit of a 7 year old boy who was trapped by a lonely, but malevolent ghost. Agnes is no nonsense and resourceful, but still managing things with the help of Mr. Lorick.

At the back of the book, there are more drawings by different artists, excerpts from her diaries and short bios of the main characters. The book is more suited to a rainy or foggy day, but was still loads of fun on a glorious spring afternoon.

Now I’m gonna learn you boys a thing or two about broken bones and internal bleeding

My Murderous Childhood and Other Grievous Yarns  by Eric Powell

If it hadn’t been for that unexpected herd of migrating orangutans that mysteriously burst into flames, he would’ve got us last Wednesday!

C’mon, how can you not love a comic that has dialogue like that? In this installment of The Goon, there is the story of when the Goon and Franky met, an adventure featuring a cannibal Hobo King who looks and mumbles like Bob Dylan, a crazed pie-eating ape and a mad scientist with a killer robot. Interspersed throughout are gag ads and at the end there’s some additional artwork and nots about how he creates some of his characters.

As always, the artwork is stunning and stunningly original.

The diabolical Dr. Hieronymus Alloy is up for parole after being jailed for trying to turn the all the townsfolk into fish. He tries to rehabilitate his tarnished image by going after the Goon and sets his killer robot, Bruno, on him. In another story, the Goon has an underwater encounter with Fishy Pete’s mother, the Sea Hag. The story of how Franky and the Goon met and became friends is almost heartwarming, if you think that a zombie-mangled corpse being hung outside of Paolo’s Barbershop as a warning to pay and pay on time is heartwarming. Throughout, there’s the usual cast of characters. The action is fast and bloody, the humor dark and twisted. Yep, the Goon is my kind of guy.

I guess being dead gives you a different perspective on life

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

And the Harry Dresden binge continues. Other readers on this site have made it known that the series gets better starting with book four and I don’t doubt that. Despite my impatience with Susan (when did she become the overdone girlfriend-slash-horror-movie-twit?) this book got me deeper into the whole mythos and seems to be setting things up for books and books to come. There is a a lot more going on with the Nevernever, not the least of which is Harry’s Godmother, Leanansidhe. There is some rich territory to be mined there for sure. I also really enjoyed the addition of Michael, a Knight of the Cross, and his sword Amoracchius. He is a powerful ally to Harry and an interesting counterpoint to Dresdens smartassery. Murphy and Chicago’s SI are still in the picture, so there is some nice continuity there.

We pick up about a year from the end of the last book. The story gets off to a gallop with Michael and Harry battling a ghost-that-is-more-than-a-ghost, one of a recent flurry of supernatural mayhem that has beset the Windy City. It soon becomes clear that something bigger and more frightening is at work here and it shakes Harry to his very core. Again, I love it when we get to go inside Harry’s mind and heart as he works his magic or has dark magic worked upon him. It adds a dimension to the action that I appreciate.

Getting introduced more intimately into the complex vampire world, the Red, Black and White Courts, we are taken into realms far beyond any vampire lore I am familiar with. Besides that the characters of Thomas and Justine are quite promising. There is so much going on this book that I am having trouble trying to recount the salient points. The Nightmare-Lydia-Kavros, Susan’s abduction and grave peril. Harry seriously pissing off his Godmother. Again. Our heroes may be alive at the end of this story but it’s no happy ending, that’s for sure.

Oh, also a note on format. Part of the time I read the print version and part of the time I listened to the audiobook narrated by the excellent James Marsters

Pain is to be endured. It ends or it does not.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Book 2 of the Dresden Files series and I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to try to get all of the existing books in the series read as part of my Double Cannonball. Here we go!

It’s now October and Harry is still feeling the effects of the events in the last book. His relationship with Murphy is strained at best, his finances are even worse off than before and now Marcone is spreading the rumor that Harry vanquished that dark wizard at his behest. What’s a wizard to do? Then, Murphy does call with a case. In an unfinished club, one of Marcones henchmen has been killed. And not just your straight up gangland style thing. We are talking literally eviscerated. And it’s not the first.

This story takes us on a journey that includes the werewolf in all it’s forms: your garden variety werewolf, hexenwulven and most frightening of all, the loup-garou. Yikes. This was a solid adventure, plenty of action and hair-raising events but what is really intriguing me about this series is Harry’s internal world, his descriptions of what it’s like to wield his power or perform a soulgaze. Also, the characters of Harry, Murphy and Susan are becoming deeper and more fleshed out. I get annoyed with Murphy at times and want to yell at her to just finally get fully on board with magic stuff already, but whatevs. Ya gotta have conflict, right? More and more of Harry’s world is coming into focus, too, setting up what I hope will be long-term allies, like the Alphas, as well as a villain I love to hate, Gentleman Johnny Marcone. I think this will be a terrific ride.

Look at me, dancing my little dance for a few moments against the background of eternity

Ongoingness: The End of  Diary by Sarah Manguso

To write a diary is to make a series of choices about what to omit, what to forget.

A memorable sandwich, an unmemorable flught of stairs. A memorable bit of conversation surrounded by chatter no one records.

Sarah Manguso’s new book is a distillation of what she has felt, learned, forgotten and so on from 25 years of keeping a diary. In the afterword she explains her choice not to enclose any of the actual diary, not the least of which is because each memory and episode is preceeded by another and leads into the next, so what can be simply pulled out and examined with any reliability? So she refers to the documents, asking us to take on faith that it exists and in doing so creates an elegant rumination on her life as lived, as is being lived, as will be lived. Ongoingness.

Remember the lessons of the past. imagine possibilities of the future. And attend to the present, the only part of time that doesn’t require the use of memory.

Her thoughts on her life as a young woman, as a writer and now as a mother, flow and ebb, turning back in on themselves. Such navel gazing could be tiresome in lesser hands but she approaches things with a frankness that is rather refreshing. A rather clear-eyed look down the barrel of time that each of us can appreciate. The memory of this book may mutate or vanish altogether but it’s beuaty and courage is here now and that’s enough.

And destroyed him in the end.

Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indridason

Reykjavik Nights is a prequel of sorts, telling a story of  Erlandur’s early days as a traffic cop, planting the seeds as to how he became an Inspector with the CID.

Working the overnight shift was rough, throwing off his sleep schedule, and he didn’t really like to work. Still, it gave him the time and freedom to pursue his interest (bordering on obsession) in tales of missing people out in the wilds of the Icelandic landscape. Iceland has a long history of folks just vanishing and an entire literary genre devoted to it. Anyone who has read any of the Inspector Erlendur books knows that his own preoccupation with the subject links back to when he was a young boy. He and his younger brother were caught in a sudden snowstorm. His brother was never found. Over the years he would tramp through the hills, sometimes camping at the ruins of the old family homestead, searching for any kind of a sign of his brothers fate.

In this book, though he’s only a traffic cop, his curiosity about disappearances leads him to contemplate the case of a young woman who vanished after a night out with co-workers. Shortly thereafter a vagrant that was known to him was found drowned in a pond and he can’t shake the feeling that they are somehow connected. The investigation he does on his own gets him in some trouble with his superiors but attracts the attention of his future mentor, Marion Bream.

This is a solid effort in the Erlandur oeuvre by Indridason, who is morose as ever, even as a young man. I still find him to be quite good company, though.

There’s a strange future in your past

The Nevermen by Phil Amara and Guy Davis

I have been a fan of Guy Davis’ art and work since I got into The Marquis a million years ago. He also teamed up with another favorite of mine, Mike Mignola to produce some great work on B.P.R.D. I love his crazy scary and creepy beasties (c’mon, an octopus-headed villain in a fez!! A disembodied head that calls himself Cadaver!! The Murderist!! The League of Crows!) and characters. The book is  hard-boiled detective fiction or film noir mashed up with steampunk sensibilites and a rather bleak look at the future of humanity.

The Nevermen have their hands full. There’s gangsters, killers, thieves and a mad scientist who has built the Chronos Reflux, with which he hopes to manipulate time, even reverse it. There’s all manner of wild gadgets and doohickeys, I spent a fair amount of time getting lost in some of the panels, there was so much detail. Like some kind of fever dream, with guys talking like Jimmy Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.

“Holy maloney! You look like hell in a pair o’ pants!” or “Aw yer father’s mustache!!”

Naturally there’s some sad backstory that makes the mad scientist go mad and near wholeseale destruction at the end. Even when I had trouble following the story, the artwork was just spectacular.  A cracking good read.

s success make you happy, or is being happy success?

Picnic in Provence: A Memoir with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

This is Elizabeth Bard’s second book, detailing her continued adventures as an Americaine married to a Frenchman. The book begins with Elizabeth and Gwendal still living in Paris and starting a family. Gwendal’s business, ushering in the digital age in European cinema, is successful and stressful. He works long hours and feels more removed from the love of film that led him to the work in the first place. Elizabeth is dealing with residual success of her first book, Lunch in Paris, and is up against the deadline for her second. They take a vacation in Provence, in the tiny village called Cereste. One of Gwendals favorite poets, the French Resistance fighter Rene Char spent some time in the village and by chance they learn that the house where he stayed is for sale. Throwing caution to the wind, the decide to buy the place and relocate.

She tells charming stories of village life and raising a young son. A native New Yorker, she still has some things to learn about politesse and slowing down to the pace of small town life, but it comes easier than she ever expected. Gwendal works from home but is unsatified and soon they come up with a new plan, another “crazy idea” as her mother would say. They are going to open an artisanal ice cream shop, Scaramouche.
I really enjoy her writing style and way the book is laid out. Each chapter has a few recipes at the end that tie into the stories she’s telling, whether it’s baking with her son to strengthen their bond or going truffle hunting or picking crocus to harvest saffron. I tried a couple of recipes from her last book and plan to give a couple form this one a go this weekend. Bon apetit!

We’re just bugs on God’s windshield

The Getaway God by Richard Kadrey

Stark has saved the world a few times (and will again, no doubt) but still can’t work the coffee machine. Book 6 in the Sandman Slim series ratchets the stakes even higher, when the Angra have a real gambit for getting back at our puny God for stealing their creation and banishing them. Not only that, Stark has to work with Marshal Wells and the Golden Vigil again. I don’t know if there are enough cartons of Maledictions and bottles of Aqua Regia to make it worth it.

It’s raining, like Noah’s Ark raining, in LA and raining blood Downtown. Humans and otherwise are streaming out of the city, leaving the sodden landscape bereft. Whatever, there’s still plenty to do, when the serial killer Saint Nick makes himself known to the authorities.  The dead people and random body parts aren’t anywhere near as disturbing as what his end game is. He needs to gather an army for the Angra and he means to do it with the recently dead and dismembered.

“Saint Nick is creating empty vessels. Inhabiting an intact human being is difficult for a God. But by using specific parts of different bodies, someone could make something more suitable.”

Ew. And holy schneikies!! It just keeps getting worse. Mason Faim is back and boy is he ever pissed. Then there’s the other god brothers meeting up in Hell. Oh and did I mention the 400-year-old mummy Buddhist monk?

Through all of this action and turmoil, which is stellar as always, I must say I am impressed at how much depth these characters are getting. The relationship between Kasabian and Stark is becoming more nuanced and grounded. Naturally things between Candy and Stark are heading into all new realms. Even between Samael and Stark new dimensions are being added. Not only that, Stark is having some real heart to hearts with himself about the universe and his place in it. Meaty stuff. It bodes well for the series, because not only does it give Kadrey a lot of places to go, but it gives us readers a much deeper connection with these characters.

My only beef is that now I have to wait until July 28th for the next book.