June 2019 Journal (Patreon)

Doctor Who and the Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Malcolm Hulke) - short and easy read. Got through this one in under a day. Losing the dinosaur puppets does this story a favor. Its plot is still convoluted and its politics are peak Rational Centrism, but it's a fun read nonetheless. "KKLAK" isn't the only reason people remember this one, although it's unquestionably the most important.

The Stone Sky (N. K. Jemisin) - This and The Obelisk Gate didn't quite live up to the triumph of The Fifth Season, but there are few books that could. Still need to finish it, but this is a strong book and as good a finale to the Broken Earth as you could ask for. Jemisin has established herself alongside Carroll, Le Guin, and Banks as among the SFF giants. A literary icon for the 21st century.

Ms Marvel Vols. 1 & 2 (G. Willow Wilson et al) - Post-Endgame I decided to do a binge on Marvel comics, since the MCU was clearly over and done wipffffft hahaha can't keep doing that bit. But I decided to see where these mediocre blockbusters came from and read some of the comics (we will have a lot of these for the rest of the post, so feel free to turn tail and stop reading at any moment). Ms Marvel is fun - Kamala Khan is a strong protagonist and the only superhero that should be around at the moment. I've suggested implementing a rule that mandates comics companies can only have two superheroes at a time. In Marvel's case, it should be Kamala and either Miles Morales or that Spider-Pig dude (for DC, it must be Wonder Woman and Krypto). Still not a Marvel fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm glad this series exists.

Star Wars: Darth Vader Vols. 1-4 (Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca) - Gillen is one of the best writers in comics history, and proof of this can be found in him writing one of the most idiosyncratic visions alongside The Last Jedi. This is a strong book, both providing Vader with some desperately needed interiority and explaining how the hell he goes from overseeing the Death Star explosion to commanding an even larger fleet. I'll often call Star Wars one of the dumbest things I love unconditionally, but "dumb" is becoming less of an accurate descriptor for it. But wait for me to eat crow in December.

Die Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker (Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans) - Yep, I'm on a Gillen kick. This one is a masterpiece. Following up WicDiv with another series on the destructive pleasures of immersion in pop culture is an intuitive move, but Gillen takes it further with some lovely metafiction on the nature of games and an intelligent meditation on the experience of older adults in fandom. Just phenomenal.

The Infinity Gauntlet (Jim Starlin, Ron Lim, & George Perez) - Thanos as a nihilistic incel who wants to fuck Death is better than what they did in the movie. That aside, this is a tedious six issues of superheroes beating the crap out of each other. It's not about anything other than its own spectacle, and the fact it's acclaimed as a classic of comics says unhealthy things about comics fandom. Also there are too many superheroes. Who the fuck are these people? Why do you want me to sit through a conversation between Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer? Have at least twenty less superheroes and then we can talk.

Infinity (Jonathan Hickman et al) - Shit, I really did only read two prose books this month. Will read more after I get this stack of comics back to the library. *Ahem*. This one is better than Infinity Gauntlet, but I'm still chafing under the weight of a 600-pp superhero crossover comic. I suspect Hickman is better than Marvel deserves, and will be reading up on his non-superhero work soon. But... yeah, this was about things and had character arcs and it did them well. I'll certainly never read it again, but I don't regret the evening I spent reading it. Kudos to Hickman.

EDIT: realized I forgot an audiobook.

Redwall (Brian Jacques) (audiobook) - I plan on writing a longer essay about this one (and probably a series to accompany it), so I'll try to keep this short. This series and its audiobooks were the defining literature of my childhood, so I have a strong attachment to it. That said, this is a deeply mediocre book, full of nonsensical plotting (why doesn't Cluny have Shadow unbolt the gates when he's inside Redwall?), stodgy archetypes in place of real characterization, and a painfully episodic structure. I love listening to it again, with Jacques' powerful Liverputian voice, his excellent cast of performers, and the nice folk music, but I can't mistake my nostalgia for calling this a good book.