Summer Flame Donezo

Indeed I finished DoSF last week, admittedly I was disappointed by the ending. I get the impression Weis & Hickman kind of wrote themselves into a corner trying to make it bigger and better than Chronicles. Their strength lies in the build-up and the gradual exposition, creating tensions and atmosphere. That's why the trilogies work so well, because it takes them three books and 1200 pages to get the point out. DoSF packed three books worth of material into just one book.

That said, the parts of DoSF that I liked were the best parts in the whole series that I've read. When the book was written in 1995, the company that owned DragonLance was going through some major changes of their own, as I gather. My purely unscientific explanation of the situation involves Weis & Hickman being asked to write a novel that will "drastically" overhaul the world of Krynn to make way for all sorts of new books and products in an attempt to sell the concept to a wider audience.

In any case I still enjoyed it thoroughly and it marks the perfect break point for me. I've found two non-fantasy novels to start up, but I still want suggestions from anyone who has a book to recommend me.

I bought a horror novel at a used bookstore in Vermont called Exquisite Corpse, which looks pretty cool, it has an American Psycho sort-of theme to it. And also I'll be bringing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance with me way out west.

Keep the comments coming! AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA

Dragons of a Summer Flame

Summer Flame I think is my favorite DragonLance book so far; is that lame? Its kind of like saying Return of the King is your favorite LotR book. I mean, you obviously read all the previous books, if you hadn't, this book would make no sense at all. So is it really your favorite? Or is it just the culmination of all the things you loved about everything that you've read previously. I guess I would have to go with the latter. Considering that as I read them, each book became my new favorite. Then again, now that I've finished them I can choose which previous books in the series I liked more than others. So I guess I'll recant my judgement until I'm actually finished with Summer Flame... although I'm pretty damn close.

I love having a hardcover book. Those softcovers are like the size of your palm, with print the size of a beetle's toenail. You have to bend them into the 4th dimension just to get a decent vantage point, or allow light particles to reach the page. My hardcover (which I obtained for 75 cents thanks to half.com... though I would have gladly paid $1.50 for it) is nice and tall, with stark white pages and text size rivalling the 'large print' versions of Readers Digest my grandpa used to read. I've smoked through this book, I've got about 110 pages left. Happy to know I'll have it finished before I take my trip in the very near future.

Which brings me to my next subject. The last 9 books I've read were DragonLance, and I'm going to take a break. Conveniently DosF is a book that marks an ending and a new beginning for the DragonLance saga, so it will be the perfect time to put my campaign on hiatus. I think I'm going to take a break from the fantasy genre altogether. I emplore you to recommend me something. Don't be shy. Go on now, click the comments link right below. I like books by Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palanuik (sp.. don't feel like looking it up) Douglas Adams... Philosphy/Satire with a hint of boorish, lewd humor. Or something completely different, you choose...

Dragonlance: The Second Generation

God, I'm such a slow reader. I think it takes me longer to read a short story compilation, rather than a full novel. Anyway, I'm glad I finally finished The Second Generation because I've been dying to start The Summer Flame. I have the hardcover, and its been sitting on my shelf like "why did you buy me if you're not going to read me?" Well your time has come.

The Second Generation is a group of short stories which is supposed to acclimate the readers to the upcoming 'chronal advancement' that will be taking place in the DL universe. Most of the novels have been limited to the "War of the Lance" time frame, or earlier. So now we move on to see what's happening to the World of Krynn, apres the defeat of the Evil Queen. YES.

The truth is, the time shift I am speaking of in the present tense actually happend back in 1994 when the book was published. In other words, I am by no means up to date with the 2007 version of the Dragonlance universe.

We have now met the offspring of most of the original Companions, and we have been set up to their positions relative to the future of the world (i.e. series). Caramon's older sons are in line to become Knights of Solamnia. His younger son has passed the Mage's test. The son of Tanis Half-Elven, and Laurana has inadvertantly become Speaker of the Suns, the elf equivilent of Emperor of the Elves. And lastly Sturm's son has become one of the evil Knights of Takhisis, the latter seem to be staged as the prominent villians in the upcoming books.

All of the stories were entertaining and worthwhile. My problem is, I get too attatched to a given tale, and when it's over, it takes a while for my interest to rebuild for the new story. Dragons of Summer Flame, at 552 pages, should manage to keep me occupied.

Lots of Reading, No Writing

I have been moving along quite nicely with my goal of trying to read every comic I own before I take off and leave them all behind. I haven't had a lot of time to write because I have been working on the radio project, which is also coming along quite nicely. But here is a partial list of some things I have read recently which may or may not come up later in review:

Astonishing X-Men
Lone Wolf 2100
The Portent
NYC Mech
Fables
more Y
Ex Machina
Lone
Queen & Country
Fell
Fear Agent
Solo
Strange Girl
Strange Detective Tales (by Oddgod Press)
Elephantmen

And some more... stay tuned!

X-Statix

X-Statix was kind of like my last hurrah with Marvel. I mean, even though now I still ordering Astonishing X-Men, I feel like an outsider who happens to buy some Marvel comics now and then, rather than a guy who reads Marvel comics who also happens to buy comics outside of Marvel. The people who are cool that read comics and make comics today all got weened on the "Marvel on Top" school of thought; forget Superman and Batman, they're practically Marvel comics in terms of quality anyway. But then Marvel went wrong. It took a lot, but I had to orchestrate my secession from the Marvel colony. Its like your buddy who gets into stupid stuff all the time, and then he goes one time too far, and you have to just step back and let him mess up his own life. Meanwhile you're not going to be bothered with having to make excuses for him anymore and you continue doing what you wanted to do anyway, which was read good comics.

X-Statix is written by Peter Milligan, and drawn by Mike Allred. I had never heard of Milligan before I obtained the entire X-Statix series, but I had known, and loved, Allred from Madman. His art style is a throwback, if not a satire, of the so-called "Golden Age" of comics, as well as other art mediums of that time period.

Milligan, who had done plenty of work before X-Statix, grew on me rapidly, and remains one of my favorite writers today. After X-Statix, Milligan moved on to write X-Men.

Here we have a great satire of the pop/superhero genre of comics. Like any good satire, it is a self-aware and (in this case) willing contribution to the genre while simultaneously being resistent to it, and at times even rejecting it. The MO for the series is set by the creators in the first issue, where we are introduced to a brand new team of "celebrity superheroes" who choose their missions based on based on money and publicity. Almost the entire team is killed at the end of the first issue.

The X-Statix series progresses with a variety of hilarious situations, most parodying pop culture and the marvel universe. The final arc, and the final issue, come to terms with the fact that, despite such a winning concept, the schtick can only go so far. Milligan and Allred, give it a clean break in the aptly title "Downbeat yet Strangely Moving Final Issue."

This past spring the two joined forces once again for a "Dead Girl" miniseries, featuring Dr. Strange, which is a welcome and entertaining complement to X-Statix.

P.S. I should mention that the "first" issue of X-Statix was in fact, X-force 116. X-Force was turned into X-Statix after issue 129.

The Ballad of Halo Jones

About four years ago I bought the Complete Ballad of Halo Jones. Back then I was starving for some trippy, sci-fi action with a leading lady, and this book totally fit the bill. I started reading it, and I really liked it so much that I didn't want it to end; I didn't want to finish it because then it would be over, and I would have nothing left to satiate my desire for sexy-sci-fi. So, halfway through, I put the book on the shelf and intended to read it slowly and enjoy. Well, I never touched it since, until last week, I decided to give it a retry. Starting from the beginning I soon realized that the curious and compelling fascination with the genre had sort of been dispelled over the past four years, and I was no longer attracted to the book for that reason. Lesson learned.

Fortunately The Ballad of Halo Jones, has redeeming qualities far beyond my expectations from those years past, and after I reached the point where my previous bookmark lay, I was found myself enjoying it in a different way.

Halo is written by Alan Moore, who would go on to write V for Vendetta, and of course The Watchmen, a series that is widely regarded as one of the best works ever created in the sequential art medium. HAHA! I use that term in jest, what's wrong with just Comics? I guess maybe they're not all comical... Anyway, in the introduction to this comprehensive edition Moore states, "I didn't want to turn Halo into an action character and thereby deprive the strip of what I thought was its best feature... namely, the sheer ordinariness of its main character." It may seem like a genre convention now: 'ordinary person thrust under extraordinary circumstances' but I've never seen it work better than it does here (in 1984)

The series is connected via three 'books,' each serves to advance the character emotionally in a different way. Book one starts out with Halo leading a mundane life in 'the hoop' which is a floating city off the shores of North America where the lower classes are confined. Halo wishes for something more, but is never quite sure what she wants or how to achieve it. Salvation comes, eventually, in the form of the Clara Pandy, an enormous spaceship/cruise liner. Halo is employed as a hostess, and manages to leave her volatile home behind.

Book two shows Halo's life on the ship, and how she comes to terms with the reality of life as she envisioned it, and the reality of how it actually pans out. A series of traumatic events happen to Halo, and she becomes completely disillusioned with the possibility of hope and happiness.

In Book three, Halo has abandoned the Hostess job, and becomes a drifter of sorts, from planet to planet. We find her in a bar on planet Pwuc. "Under gunmetal skies the planet waited morosely for death. It was not a world that people went to. It was a world where people ended up. In 4960, Halo Jones ended up in Pwuc." Debunked, Halo seems to have fallen into a worse routine than when she lived in the Hoop, only now she has even less aspiration and naivety. She joins the galactic Women's Army, and fights for Earth in the far reaches of space. Book three becomes a war story, and Halo is promoted to a higher rank after a short period of time.

The Ballad of Halo Jones does not have a happy ending. The reader is left unsure how Halo will choose to approach the next stage in her life, and exactly what she has learned from the experience. We are convinced though, that she is capable and independent. I suppose that's the, sort-of, moral to the story; to show how a person can and will undergo many extreme changes in their life, and surely the strong can adapt.

Y The Last Man: Kimono Dragons

Y is one of those comics that I have to read in bulk, or else I get confused and lose interest.  I read the first 5 tpbs in one sitting about a year ago, and started subscribing to the monthly.  After which, one serving per month was not satisfying my Y urge, so I just quit reading them and let the issues pile up in my box..... until today!  I started with the begginning of the Komono Dragons storyline, which was issue 42... 44 something like that.  Yorick and company, which now includes Agent 355, Dr. Alison Mann, and Rose.  Yorick's monkey, Ampersand has been monkeynapped by the ninja, Toyota, and Yorick is on his trail (along with 355) thanks to the tracking device they have.  Ampersand has been brought to Japan by Toyota, but he escapes and jumps out a window. He ends up in the possession of a Canadian pop-star who had somehow been appointed as the head of the Yakuza, due to the fact that she was touring in Japan at the time, and happens to be extremely rich.  Anyway, Yorick and 355 figure this out, and head up to the top floor of some building to rescue Amp, which they do. And the pop star dies. Maybe she doesn't, I don't remember.  Meanwhile Alison and Rose head to Alison's mother's house/lab to find it has been burned to the ground.  Fast forward a couple of plot moving events that I don't feel like relaying, and we learn that Dr. Mann's father is alive, and is in fact the cause of the plague.  We learn that he was competing with his daughter to bring the first cloned human baby to term, and he sabatoged the efforts of his daughter to do the same thing.  Oh by the way, the entire Mann family are brilliant bio-geneticist-sergeons.  So: these events are shocking for 3 reasons, number one, Yorick was supposedly the only male who survived the plague, besides Ampersand.  Number two, Alison's father admits he is the cause of the plague which killed every male creature on earth.  Number three, it is revealed that males, and the Y chromosome in general, had only one evolutionary purpose, which is to perpetuate the species.  And the sex is, in his words, a necessary evil.  Actually, WAS, because now, since the first human was cloned, humans have gained the power of asexual reproduction. Ergo, the males of the species are no longer relevant to human survival, and mother nature has wiped them clean from the face of the earth.  Althought this raises the question, why did ALL the males have to die, and not just Human males?  But I'm not thinking very hard and I'm sure Brian K. Vaughn will have the answer, he is a dgenius after all.

Oh also, Mann's father has captured everyone and plans to kill Yorick and himself, because he truly believes males are obsolete.