‘In the Hand of Dante’ is complex and yet simple at the same time. Half of the book is written from the point of view of the author dealing with his own mortality, vanity and his criminal past as he becomes involved in a scam to steal the only copy of ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante and sell it to the highest bidder. Set in New York, Nick meets up with an old friend, the rather sinister and perverted Louie, a man with no remorse or pity, a man who lives by his own strict moral code.
At the same time the book charts the life of Dante as he puts together his masterwork, rallies against the gods, falls in love with the wrong woman and attempts to understand the meaning of life and how it all fits into his verse.
The book is absorbing, never easy and only annoying when Tosches slips into Latin but refuses to give a translation.
***
‘Global Frequency’ Volumes 1 and 2 are quick fire comics, the premise is a civilian run agency with 1001 operatives around the world all available on the global frequency run by the mysterious a Miranda Zero and kept in line by the human computer mind of Aleph. As always with Ellis it’s fast paced, but lacks content. Each episode in the volumes is one complete story with some much better than others. I’m surprised this hasn’t been turned into a TV show as the format and story board is already available.
***
‘The Originals’ is a take on the Mods and Rockers of the 1960s, their rivalry, their friendships, and their running battles. Gibbons sets the story in an alternative future but I don’t understand why. It’s so obviously of its time the science fiction element adds nothing. As it is the story is predictable and the presentation just a little flat to really have held my interest.
***
Will Eisner is the king of comics, having had a long and illustrious career starting back in the 1930’s, bringing us ‘The Spirit’ (about to be shown in the cinema) and then changing in the 1970s by bringing out thought provoking work which changed how comic books were viewed. ‘To the Heart of the Storm’ is one of those works. Beautifully told, it is a simple evocation of a world almost gone, a young man reflecting on his Jewish childhood in New York and the lead up to the Second World War. It’s charming, sophisticated, well written and illustrated, giving an insight into the poverty of the depression and the wanton racism that existed in the country from those immigrants who would have to return to the old country to take part in a vicious war.
***
Read the first two copies of Cages by Dave Mckean. This is a book I’ve wanted for a long time (Madame Vin if you’re reading this, please add it to my list). I saw a copy in New York once but didn’t buy as it was too bulky to get home (drat!). Now I’m having trouble finding a copy. It looks great and piqued my interest. I’m looking forward to reading the rest.
Plenty to read over Christmas so I’ll report back soon.
Read this week:
To the Heart of the Storm by Will Eisener
The Originals by Dave Gibbons
Global Frequency Volumes 1 and 2 by Warren Ellis and others
In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Seeing Everyone
Feels like I’ve been everywhere and seen everyone this weekend. After a boozy night in the pub last Thursday I, accompanied by Madame Vin, the Aussie and a Canadian, travelled early to Nottingham where I met up with Sammy (all the way from New Zealand) and Tash and my ‘woman of the year’ (back from LA – and doing very well. Hopefully, if she’ll let me, I’ll post some exciting news from her here soon). Then it was over to the hospital to visit my last surviving grandparent (who thankfully, looked better than I hoped) and finally to the old home of Radcliffe-on-Trent to the retirement party of the Silver Fox.
The next day it was more family, including a new arrival, before stepping out with friends, friends, friends and admittedly drinking too much.
Sunday was home, rest and Sunday dinner.
At least I got a lot of reading done.
****
The Graveyard Book
I'm not afraid to say it - I love Mr. Gaiman. He has the most beautiful style of writing, summing up an emotion, a feeling or a character in a simply yet eloquent fashion. The Graveyard book is one of his novels for children that can be read by adults (think Coraline). Based loosely on the Jungle Book in its construction, the story deals with Nobody Owens and his life growing up in a graveyard high on a hill in an English town (it reads like Lincoln but this might just be the reader putting his own experiences on top of the narrative).
Starting off as a baby and escaping from a dark shadowy figure who has just murdered his family Bod is taken in by dead people, who view their deaths as just an interesting event on life's highway and see it as no reason why it should interrupt their living.
Each chapter is spaced several years apart with Bod growing and learning about life and being a human via the ghosts, spirits, ghouls and more mythical creatures that inhabit his living space. The first few chapters could be read as short stories while the last four allow Bod to work out where he came from and where he's going. Magical!
Death: The High Cost of Living
Another Gaiman. Set in his Sandman mythos, every century Death must become mortal for 24 hours so that she can find out about life. This story is slight and amusing with the Goth personification of Death spending her day in New York with a young man who begins by contemplating the taking of his own life and ends by understanding its worth and magic. The comic has been under review for several years as a possible movie and within Sandman is probably the only possible filmable story arc.
Little (Grrl) Lost
It is such a shame that Charles De Lint is not better known in the UK. His stories are magical and human and deep and mythical all at the same time. He has created a world (Newford) where anything can happen (and usually does) but it always makes sense and seems perfectly logically. Rarely do I see his books on the shelves of Waterstones or the larger book stores and have to rely on independent shops and US imports.
T.J. is a teenager suffering from the anxiety of having moved from the country to a strange city, leaving her friends and her horse behind. She is suffering from the mental growing pains all teenagers go through and feels hard done by. She meets Elizabeth, an older girl who is spunky and cool and forthright but has her own problems being only eight inches high.
Elizabeth is a Small and she lives behind the skirting board. This is 'The Borrowers' for the modern age, mixing in texting, broken families, email, punk and motorbikes and coming up with something that is uniquely De Lint.
****
I read three other books but they are all reviews so you’ll have to read Dark Horizon’s for my low down.
I was out Friday night but a clip from the new Doctor Who was shown on the Beeb as part of Children in Need. You can see it again here.
Read this week:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman
Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint
The next day it was more family, including a new arrival, before stepping out with friends, friends, friends and admittedly drinking too much.
Sunday was home, rest and Sunday dinner.
At least I got a lot of reading done.
****
The Graveyard Book
I'm not afraid to say it - I love Mr. Gaiman. He has the most beautiful style of writing, summing up an emotion, a feeling or a character in a simply yet eloquent fashion. The Graveyard book is one of his novels for children that can be read by adults (think Coraline). Based loosely on the Jungle Book in its construction, the story deals with Nobody Owens and his life growing up in a graveyard high on a hill in an English town (it reads like Lincoln but this might just be the reader putting his own experiences on top of the narrative).
Starting off as a baby and escaping from a dark shadowy figure who has just murdered his family Bod is taken in by dead people, who view their deaths as just an interesting event on life's highway and see it as no reason why it should interrupt their living.
Each chapter is spaced several years apart with Bod growing and learning about life and being a human via the ghosts, spirits, ghouls and more mythical creatures that inhabit his living space. The first few chapters could be read as short stories while the last four allow Bod to work out where he came from and where he's going. Magical!
Death: The High Cost of Living
Another Gaiman. Set in his Sandman mythos, every century Death must become mortal for 24 hours so that she can find out about life. This story is slight and amusing with the Goth personification of Death spending her day in New York with a young man who begins by contemplating the taking of his own life and ends by understanding its worth and magic. The comic has been under review for several years as a possible movie and within Sandman is probably the only possible filmable story arc.
Little (Grrl) Lost
It is such a shame that Charles De Lint is not better known in the UK. His stories are magical and human and deep and mythical all at the same time. He has created a world (Newford) where anything can happen (and usually does) but it always makes sense and seems perfectly logically. Rarely do I see his books on the shelves of Waterstones or the larger book stores and have to rely on independent shops and US imports.
T.J. is a teenager suffering from the anxiety of having moved from the country to a strange city, leaving her friends and her horse behind. She is suffering from the mental growing pains all teenagers go through and feels hard done by. She meets Elizabeth, an older girl who is spunky and cool and forthright but has her own problems being only eight inches high.
Elizabeth is a Small and she lives behind the skirting board. This is 'The Borrowers' for the modern age, mixing in texting, broken families, email, punk and motorbikes and coming up with something that is uniquely De Lint.
****
I read three other books but they are all reviews so you’ll have to read Dark Horizon’s for my low down.
I was out Friday night but a clip from the new Doctor Who was shown on the Beeb as part of Children in Need. You can see it again here.
Read this week:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman
Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Reading Material
While I was away in NY I was able to do a bit of reading, these are the books and my comments on them:
Supping with Panthers - I've read one of Tom Holland's previous books (Deliver us from Evil). He has some interesting ideas with regards the lore of vampires, mixing the Dracula story into many other myths and history. Panthers includes the British Empire, Kali worshipers, 19th century London and Jack the Ripper. The book does seem to labour the ideas a little bit but its still good to see someone doing something different with the vampires.
Lint - Did not get this at all. I see what Aylett is trying to do, but a mock biography (mockgraphy?) has to have more basis in reality to work. There is an underlying Woody Allen style to the work but whereas Woody keeps his prose style to the short story, this 178 page style is exhausting.
Just One Look - I saw the film 'Tell No One' in the year so decided to give Coben a try. His style is fast and to the point. His thrillers seem perfect for the screen. Interesting element of this is that it is all set in New Jersey close to the out of town shopping complex we visited. I didn't know this when I started reading.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier: I was looking for to this, a third LOEG comic but was actually a bit disappointed. The visuals are great (especially the 3D comic) but it feels more like the deleted scene elements on a special DVD. The sort of thing you'll look at once and then never bother with again. It felt like a scrap book rather than a story.
Angel of Darkness: De Lint wrote this many years ago under the pen name Samuel M. Key. he claims it is the 'darkest books I've written, and probably the most gruesome as well', well is true. Very different from his Newford books but worth reading. Thoroughly enjoyed it and those short the story seems well formed.
Read this week:
Supping with Panthers by Tom Holland
Lint by Steve Aylett
Just One Look by Harlan Coben
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Angle of Darkness by Charles de Lint
Supping with Panthers - I've read one of Tom Holland's previous books (Deliver us from Evil). He has some interesting ideas with regards the lore of vampires, mixing the Dracula story into many other myths and history. Panthers includes the British Empire, Kali worshipers, 19th century London and Jack the Ripper. The book does seem to labour the ideas a little bit but its still good to see someone doing something different with the vampires.
Lint - Did not get this at all. I see what Aylett is trying to do, but a mock biography (mockgraphy?) has to have more basis in reality to work. There is an underlying Woody Allen style to the work but whereas Woody keeps his prose style to the short story, this 178 page style is exhausting.
Just One Look - I saw the film 'Tell No One' in the year so decided to give Coben a try. His style is fast and to the point. His thrillers seem perfect for the screen. Interesting element of this is that it is all set in New Jersey close to the out of town shopping complex we visited. I didn't know this when I started reading.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier: I was looking for to this, a third LOEG comic but was actually a bit disappointed. The visuals are great (especially the 3D comic) but it feels more like the deleted scene elements on a special DVD. The sort of thing you'll look at once and then never bother with again. It felt like a scrap book rather than a story.
Angel of Darkness: De Lint wrote this many years ago under the pen name Samuel M. Key. he claims it is the 'darkest books I've written, and probably the most gruesome as well', well is true. Very different from his Newford books but worth reading. Thoroughly enjoyed it and those short the story seems well formed.
Read this week:
Supping with Panthers by Tom Holland
Lint by Steve Aylett
Just One Look by Harlan Coben
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Angle of Darkness by Charles de Lint
Saturday, September 29, 2007
A Breather
Working away at the new novel right now so I haven't had much time to blog. The next few weeks should be nice and clear which means I can get plenty written before Christmas with only a weeks hiatus when I go to New York in November.
Stephen Fry has started blogging recently so if you want a long read pop over to his web site as he tends to have lots of insightful comments about a whole wealth of things that I have little experience of.
****
Read this week:
Scales by Anthony G. Williams
Hellblazer: Black Flowers by Mike Carey et al
Hellblazer: Reasons to be Cheerful by Mike Carey et al
The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
Stephen Fry has started blogging recently so if you want a long read pop over to his web site as he tends to have lots of insightful comments about a whole wealth of things that I have little experience of.
****
Read this week:
Scales by Anthony G. Williams
Hellblazer: Black Flowers by Mike Carey et al
Hellblazer: Reasons to be Cheerful by Mike Carey et al
The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
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