Mount TBR 2018 discussion

Alright, staking my position for yet another year. Honestly, I will keep adding books. Must read more of them!

Alright, FRESH THARKS! Let's be on with it!

Glad I am not the only one going for the big peak because more books were added in 2017!

I bought enough new books this year to make a Mount Olympus (we won't mention the fact that I already had enough books to make several Mounts Olympus). Still hoping to join you atop Olympus at the end of one of these years...

Good luck! I always enjoy your reviews here. :)

Hilary S wrote: "Glad I am not the only one going for the big peak because more books were added in 2017!"

It's bibliophilia! "I can stop at any time, I say!" "No, you can't." "Quite true, quite true. Ah well."

Bev wrote: "I bought enough new books this year to make a Mount Olympus (we won't mention the fact that I already had enough books to make several Mounts Olympus). Still hoping to join you atop Olympus at the ..."

Well, there's room at the top. Mind you, I'm wondering if I'll make it this time around, as I had a great big lull after that blazing start to the year....

Quirkyreader wrote: "Good luck Steven.

And yes like everyone else I bought more books this year to equal another mountain."

I was under the impression I'd slowed down the purchasing. Indeed I have...of physical books. Not so the digital. In this arena, a virtual mountain is just as much a mountain as the physical mountain.

Jadetyger wrote: "Good luck! I always enjoy your reviews here. :)"

Thank you!

Good luck. I bought also a mount Olympus thus year. And so it will be every Year.

Kerstin wrote: "Good luck. I bought also a mount Olympus thus year. And so it will be every Year."

One of us!

Steven wrote: "Bev wrote: "I bought enough new books this year to make a Mount Olympus (we won't mention the fact that I already had enough books to make several Mounts Olympus). Still hoping to join you atop Oly..."

I have also slowed way down...and with the holidays approaching, I've been doing more craft-oriented holiday preparations and that's cutting into the reading time as well. I don't think I'll see you up there after all (unless I'm close enough to just shout and wave up at you.).

Bev wrote: "I don't think I'll see you up there after all (unless I'm close enough to just shout and wave up at you.). "

Well, the gravity on Mars *is* considerably lower than Earth.

Best of luck!

Hailee wrote: "Best of luck!"

Thanks, and in turn, all the best of luck to you...may you attain your goal and journmey far beyond it!

It's a sad indicator of my biblioholic life that I have the first heap of next year's books stacked neatly on the ottoman before my recliner.

Given the timing of their arrival, it seemed pointless to shelve them. I might as well start there...it's only a foot high stack, after all.

Well, here we are in 2018! Happy New Year Steven. I've started small this year, but I'm pretty sure I'll be jumping to other mountains throughout the year. I, too, bought more books to add to the pile in 2017. Mount Olympus seems daunting, though I certainly have enough books to fill it. I'm planning on front loading with a lot of audio books/Big Finish/smaller books as I feel I will slow down as the year progresses.

Jadetyger wrote: "I'm planning on front loading with a lot of audio books/Big Finish/smaller books as I feel I will slow down as the year progresses."

First of all, good luck with the climb! As for starting off with smaller bites, this is what I'm doing too, and, indeed, taking a run at some of the last purchases made in 2017 -- I can pick and choose amongst the digital acquisitions, of course, but for physical books I have that stack on my ottoman that really needs to come *off* of the ottoman so that the cats can sleep on it (or use it as a stepping stone to go and sleep on my surround receiver.)

That same stack also includes several physical audiobooks. I have no excuse whatsoever for slacking at the launch! I expect that somewhere around June I will be falling off, though (and last year I think the manic pace had slackened by April.)

Good luck, though -- I'll see you at the summit, I hope!

#001 - The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1 by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and various
#002 - Titans Vol. 2: Made In Manhattan by Dan Abnett, Brett Booth, Lee Weeks and various

Old school and new school Titans to kick off the year. The Wolfman/Perez volume collects the introductory story, released as a giveaway, as well as the first eight issues of the NTT title, along with some pinups.

The NTT were, for DC, a team with the same sort of impact that the X-Men had had at Marvel -- they were a refurbished version of a team that hadn't gotten much positive attention in the 1960s and early 1970s. Marv Wolfman, and his editor, the late Len Wein, dropped some members and added others, including the near-elemental Starfire, and the mysterious and dangerous Raven. Deathstroke was brought in to become a main antagonist, and the book pretty much hit the ground running. Unlike the X-Men, however, the revised Teen Titans wouldn't maintain their prime place in the DC universe, and after Wolfman and Perez left, the book faltered and failed, and was canceled. The next phase of their history really only began when Geoff Johns revived the series, with yet another overhauled cast.

This volume really gets off to a shaky start, though -- it's turgid, the stories a bit of a slog, and everyone whines and complains just a bit too much.

The Abnett/Booth Titans book covers the modern day version, post-Rebirth, and sees Wallace West reintegrating into the group, and into life in general, even though most people seem to have forgotten him. The mystery behind Wally's return, though, takes a back burner in this issue as they first go up against a powered-up Fearsome Five, and then have to solve a mystery that finds four Titans and four Justice League members teleported to a hidden site where they realize they might not be able to trust each other (the two Flashes have no such issue, but the rest do.)

It's mostly lightweight, with variable artwork. There are some amusing moments, but the majority of the story doesn't slow down for long enough to do more than a modicum of character development.

#003 - Titans: The Lazarus Contract by Christopher J. Priest, Benjamin Percey, Dan Abnett, and so on and forth

Essentially a crossover between Titans, Teen Titans and Deathstroke, drawing together threads set up in Titans. The crossover itself is more or less self-contained, though there are a few elements that may be lost on anyone not reading one or two of the included series.

In a nutshell, the story calls back to the first issue of The New Teen Titans when the newly formed team went up against the Ravager, Grant Wilson, son of Deathstroke. Enhancements to the boy's body caused him to burn out and die during the battle, and Deathstroke swore vengeance against the Titans (that was a very big nutshell. You should see the squirrels around here.)

Now Deathstroke wants to find a way to fix things with his family. To that end, he uses the tech he has access to to kidnap both Wally Wests (Flash and Kid Flash, hey kids comics) and give himself speed force powers so he can go back in time and save his son (wait, that doesn't look like GODDAMNIT BARRY!)

So, there's much back and forthing, much arguing among the various Titans, and Damien-Robin kills Kid Flash. No, the other Kid Flash. Errrr. You know, Wally West. WHITE Wally West. Whose timeline changes again thanks to being surprise heart-punched by that little creep Damien.

Deathstroke, defeated and humbled, looks at the assembled Titans wanting to kick his exhausted ass...and quits. Well, sort of. He chooses to walk in the light, as it were, which is why we find him quoting scripture at the highly reluctant Power Girl (the other one) and setting up to do...something, What, I don't know; I don't read Deathstroke even with Priest writing it.

So there we are. Good lord, I'm exhausted.

#004 - Teen Titans: Earth One, Volume 2 by Jeff Lemire and Andy MacDonald

I appreciate the idea behind the Earth One books, but so far I'm finding them a difficult sell. This is the second volume of Lemire's overhaul of the Teen Titans, mashing together Titans and Doom Patrol both, and while it's less awful than the first volume, it's damning the thing with faint praise. Too many ideas get thrown in an dropped, there's too much reliance on action beats in which huge amounts of things get wrecked, and the quieter moments don't really let us get to know the characters.

The Raven revamp does come off better here, mind you, and I like the subtle hint of a blooming relationship between Starfire and Raven.

#005 - Valerian - Volume 20 - The Order of the Stones by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Menzies

Valerian and Laureline have left their ship behind and arranged to enter the Void in search of the lost planet Earth. Shenanigans, as always, ensue, and the visuals range from barren to bizarre to lush. During this plunge into the unknown they encounter both old enemies and the mysterious, destructive Wolochs, giant stone monoliths that don't hesitate to demolish anything they want demolished.

The story lapses somewhat into gibberish in places, but this seems to be in keeping with the setting.

#006 - Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1 by Russ Manning, Russ Helm, Alfredo Alcala, Archie Goodwin, Al Williamson, etc

The first of the big(ger) ones for this year, and a complex history it has too. This compilation includes the entirety of the Russ Manning run on the Star Wars newspaper strip, rearranged and coloured (or re-coloured in the case of the Sunday strips), an additional story written by Russ Helm that was never reformatted and is only making its second appearance here since the original publication (it made its third, courtesy of IDW's Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics Vol. 1, which presents the first newspaper stories as they originally ran.)

Also included is the newspaper strip adaptation of Han Solo at Stars' End, one of Brian Daley's three Han Solo novels, with Archie Goodwin scripting and Alfredo Alcala on art duties. That's followed by strips written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Al Williamson, a run that seems to be better remembered than Russ Manning's run.

Exhaustive background out of the way, what do I think? Well, it's like so much of the early tie-in work...off model, out of character, hard to match to the films (Leia and C3PO tend to get the most accurate treatment. Luke keeps turning in to Flash Gordon.) There's also hilarious elements, some of which show the lack of worldbuilding at the time -- weird aliens keep cropping up in the Empire's ranks, for instance. Then there's the whole thing of Luke lusting after Leia, something that's become *seriously* icky in retrospect, and is painfully funny here. Luke does get his occasional female distractions, though; I do like Tanith Shire, who takes a shine to Luke, ends up saving his life, and turns out to be stealing garbage scows for a warlord (this reveal isn't in this volume, but will be in the next if there is a next one.)

Overall, I enjoyed it. Certainly a more innocent time, in some ways, and less complicated.

#007 - Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost

Not exactly what most would call a novel -- it's an epistolary confection, really, a set of entries in a dossier created by Special Agent Tamara Preston. It purports to fill in the blanks about a lot of characters in a way that the The Secret History of Twin Peaks didn't, but while it sketches in the fates of some characters who either were barely seen (Audrey Horne, James Hurley) or completely unseen (Donna Hayward, Sheriff Harry Truman) and it backgrounds characters such as Jerry Horne and Doc Jacoby, it also ends up providing bare details for other characters -- and maintains a certain elusiveness about all that's been going on, as Preston's professional skepticism battles with her experiences as the newest addition to the Blue Rose Task Force. Adding to her confusion, of course, is the weirdness of time in all of this, and the discovery that the timeline has somehow altered.

The deeper mysteries, though, remain mysteries. What was BOB doing, while he was masquerading as Cooper? What *is* BOB, really? Where did all of this come from? What is it that lies beyond the entrances to the Black and White Lodges? And so on.

In short, this is an entertaining companion to the Twin Peaks event series, but you're still on your own when it comes to figuring out what the hell was going on. Fine by me; I know exactly what Cooper did....

#008 - Frontlines: Requiem: The Graphic Novel by Marko Kloos, Ivan Brandon, etc

Set in Marko Kloos' Frontlines universe (Terms of Enlistment and other novels), this semi-standalone story focuses on North American Commonwealth Colonel Soraya Yamin and her family during and after an invasion by the enigmatic alien Lankeys, as first Colonel Yamin is tasked with trying to stop the incoming Lankey fleet, and then, having barely survived that, given the job of getting the top brass of the NAC to safety while Earth (by now a crapsack world) fends for itself.

It's fairly standard issue military SF, though the format doesn't help the story much -- there are pieces missing, and the timeline is really wonky (Yamin's ship, the Phalanx, is shot to pieces, but comes across as having been fixed overnight.) In many respects, the story also seems highly derivative. I also got the feeling here that it was being set up as part of a pitch to get people interested in doing a TV adaptation of the series, a la The Expanse.

#009 - U-boats of the Kaiser's Navy by Gordon Williamson

Part of Osprey's Vanguard series, this book takes a look at the beginnings (despite Admiral Tirpitz's proclamations that Germany had no need of submarines) and development of Germany's U-boat fleet. From inauspicious beginnings and flawed designs to a terrifyingly powerful adversary, basically (the only thing that slowed their success rate towards the end of the First World War was military morality, applied as a way of appeasing the United States, who were furious about civilian casualties and torpedoed liners.)

Williamson's book includes specifications, roster lists, flotilla lists, and a number of illustrations and photos, along with concise, clear text covering approximately eighteen years of design and development. Well worth reading is the subject is of interest.

#010 - The Dudes Abide: The Coen Brothers and the Making of The Big Lebowski by Alex Belth

A combination production diary and personal memoir by a production assistant/assistant editor on the film, mostly reminiscing about the Coens themselves, who come off as generally rather taciturn enigmas.

At this point I'm not going to bother generating a list of titles I intend to get, as I usually get to three of them and a random assortment.

This time it's a simpler approach -- I have books in several different apps, and formats. I have my coffee table stacks. I have other stacks in front and behind. Random choices, here we come! Well, semi-random...there will be times when I run through several books in a series.

Tally-ho!

#011 - The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi

An interstitial entry in the Old Man's War series, visiting incidents in the life of cyborg Jane Sagan as she readies herself to transfer her consciousness into a new fully human body. As the introduction establishes, these are, in the main, emotional memories, of little to no use from a military viewpoint.

It's interesting, as a diversion from what might be expected, but reader Stephanie Wolfe does it no favours, reading flatly and with a bit of a drone.

#012 - Secrets Of Synthesis by Wendy Carlos

A treatise on sound synthesis and adaptation of synthesis to performance in spoken word format with examples worked in, and, my goodness it's both concise and complex.

The text conforms to Carlos' disdain for what she sees as the limitations of analog synthesis, her own preference being for digital synthesis -- it's as much a matter of clarity in denseness, it seems, as anything. It seems to me that it's a matter of personal taste -- many people like the imprecision and occasional murkiness of analog. I'm with Carlos, I think; I like the clarity...it makes it more fun when I turn around and make soup of my soundscapes.

#013 - Doctor Strange/Punisher: Magic Bullets by John Barber, et al

The Punisher is doing what he does at a gangster-owned restaurant, when he encounters something that brings him to the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange. They team up to fight crime and gibbering effluvium spewed from fetic netherhells. Mostly the latter, in fact. Magic may be mostly gone from the world, and much of Stephen Strange's power with it, but there's always room for a crazed white supremacist warlock and a magic book whipping up something horrible to wipe out most life on Earth.

It's so-so stuff, a bit overlength, but it gets a bonus point for bringing in the Phantom Eagle's ghostly plane and all of the spirits of the planes the Eagle shot down. Sadly, though, the Punisher is still boring, and little of the attempted humour actually lands.

More interesting is that the digital trade of this collection maintains the "infinite comic" format that it was originally published in. Lots more swiping, but the payoff looks nifty.

#014 - The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

A rather intriguing little urban fantasy/murder mystery with a slight SF tinge to it as a result of the fantasy element. The fantasy element: it's now nearly impossible to murder anybody. If someone is killed intentionally, no matter how, 99 times out of 100 (and sometimes more) the body will vanish and the victim reappear at home, alive and restored to the physical condition they were in hours before, but with memory up to the point they were killed (so there's a bit of horror in this, too.)

The SF element is that this phenomenon has led to the creation of a job known as Dispatching. In a nutshell, a Dispatcher is trained and licensed to kill people in specific circumstances -- when an operation goes bad, for instance, or in the event of an accident where the patient is terminal. Dispatchers also do off-record jobs, too, sometimes, which has led to things like the re-emergence of stupid duels.

The story, in a nutshell: Dispatcher Tony Valdez is contacted by the Chicago PD because a fellow Dispatcher has been abducted, and Valdez might be able to help them find the missing man. The subsequent mystery story is a clever, elegant way to make use of the central conceit, as well as a little bit noir (some of the characters are terribly compromised ethically.) While it's a done-in-one piece, I'd like to see more of this...although I fear that extending it would require Scalzi to get into the ugly underbelly of American theology.

Steven wrote: "#0014 - The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

A rather intriguing little urban fantasy/murder mystery with a slight SF tinge to it as a result of the fantasy element. The fantasy element: ..."

A recent read for me, the last audiobook I completed in 2017, as well as my first by Scalzi. I enjoyed it and agree, that more of this universe would be interesting. It did feel like a set-up for a series or at least a full-length book.

Pamela wrote: "It did feel like a set-up for a series or at least a full-length book."

I definitely would like to know more about this world, and its intricacies and issues. Also, it absolutely sets up a team-up situation that's rife with possibility.

#015 - Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 1 by Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, and many others

Looking to cash in on the sudden comics boom following the debut of Superman, pulp publisher Martin Goodman launched his own comics title, Marvel Comics (riffing on his pulp Marvel Science Stories/Marvel Tales) with Goodman opting to steer clear of a direct copy of Superman, instead giving the world both Carl Burgos' Human Torch (an android that burst into flame when exposed to air; he improves quickly) and Bill Everett's Sub-Mariner, a half human half merman character who declares war on the white men of the surface world (he has reasons, and he gets redeemed by redirecting himself to combat evil, which by now is mainly Nazis.)

Goodman, mind you, was really more interested in pushing The Angel, a two-fisted pulp type in fancy longjohns -- unfortunately, they're really awful stories. Stuff happens, the Angel shows up and punches things, the story ends. There's the cheerful hokum of The Masked Raider, essentially a Lone Ranger rip-off, Ferret (writer and private eye), and several others. In issue #4, Electro-The Marvel Of The Age! shows up.

For the most part, though, the pulp roots show very clearly -- the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner are the most clearly designed with comics in mind. Some, like Ka-Zar, come from the pulps. The training wheels are also clearly evident -- clear layout and design isn't the strong suit of most, and even Burgos and Everett default to boring layouts; fortunately, the stories tend to be comprehensible and clear. The Angel and others...not so much.

A lot of the work is crude and unformed, but this was a medium in which a lot of people were learning their way around, and doing so at an extraordinary pace. Many writers and artists were carrying a daily workload that would make most comics creators blanch today...and it shows, unfortunately, and worse yet, the modern remastering and production tends to expose the flaws. Ah well.

I enjoyed working through this volume. Art history of the resplendently skewed kind.

#016 - Doctor Strange, Vol. 2: The Last Days of Magic by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, et al

The Empirikul have been shattering magic-using worlds across multiple dimensions, and now they're hear to cleanse Earth of the scourge of magic, burning it out with the power of science. It's up to Stephen Strange to fight back, with the help of a ragged group of sorcerers and regular people, using the last remaining bits of magic, hiding in artifacts, to fight the battle. And even if they win, what then?

It's an intriguing arc, and sets up some interesting stakes -- Strange will have to work harder than ever in the future, I'm sure -- but the Empirikul and its leader are pretty much standard-issue megalomaniac bad guy types (and given the chief bad guy's origin story, he's pretty much Evil Batman.)

The best thing about this series, though, is the look it gives at the magic users of the Marvel universe (there's also a sad snark at Harry Potter.)

#017 - Doctor Strange, Vol. 3: Blood in the Aether by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Kevin Nowlan, et al
#018 - Doctor Strange, Vol. 4: Mr. Misery by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Kevin Nowlan, et al

The back half of Jason Aaron's run on Doctor Strange covers the aftermath of the Empirikul's war against magic as old enemies take advantage of Strange's weakened state. As if that wasn't enough, Strange's attempt to avoid paying the full price of being a sorcerer fully blows back on him...and then his life in general blows back on him as the statuses of those closest to him change drastically. Doctor Strange, Vol. 4: Mr. Misery wraps up with a story from the Annual where Clea comes back with the intention of dissolving their marriage, only to wind up helping to fight a demonic flooring contractor.

#019 - Daredevil Epic Collection: Brother, Take My Hand by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Syd Shores, et al

500 pages of the madcap Man Without Fear, who quits at least three times, only to get drawn back into the fight. He also veers from extremely quippy to extremely whiny, there's a hilariously awkward romance plot involving the ill-fated Karen Page, and Roy Thomas' Vermont obsession crops up again. We also find out that Matt Murdock, blind man, can drive a car, fly a small aircraft, and know exactly when to leap off of the top of a moving train that's carrying him to Karen's Vermont hometown (which has apparently turned into Collinsport from Dark Shadows in the meantime.)

In short, 500 pages of cheese and whine!

Wow!!! Good start Steven. Good Luck with your climb and I will see you at the top of Olympus :)

Like you, I am not making a list. This journey will be random reads from all my various stacks.

#020 - Posters of the Great War by Frederick Hadley, Martin Pegler, Historial le Grande Guerre, Peronne, France

Pretty much what it says on the tin here -- in association with the Museum of the Great War, this book compiles numerous posters pre-war and post-war, as well as during the war, with extensive text material relating to the development and use of propaganda (and related) posters. Though it really only scratches the surface (as thousands of posters were produced in the countries involved, and a few that weren't) it's a fascinating look at the First World War and how it changed things dramatically during its course.

♥Robin ♥ wrote: "Wow!!! Good start Steven. Good Luck with your climb and I will see you at the top of Olympus :)

Like you, I am not making a list. This journey will be random reads from all my various stacks."

I'll see you up there, certainly. :) At this point last year I was around 60 books, if I recall correctly. And ended up slowing down and being diverted, and almost didn't make the summit.

#021 - The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross

The second book in a row where original Laundry Files protagonist Bob Howard is mostly absent. This time, the character front and center is the young, nerdy PHANG Dr. Alex Schwartz, who was introduced in The Rhesus Chart as a victim of day trading gone completely mad, as he and his team were taken over by the other-dimensional V-symbionts.

Alex now works for the Laundry, and he's being transferred from London to Leeds, something he hates the idea of (he's from Leeds, and his parents are, t say the least, a confusing, lumpy pair.) So he's taking a break in Whitby, where he's swept up in a public performance of Count Dracula: A Play in Three Acts and meets Cassie, literally, as it turns out, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

It's bad enough that the Laundry has been gearing up for CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, when the Elder Gods From Out There Somewhere suck the Earth through a straw, but now they have an active CASE NIGHTMARE RED, that being an Incursion From Someplace Other -- in this case, an invasion by the surviving Host Of Air And Darkness. The fairies are coming back, you see, and it isn't going to be pretty.

The novel itself is a bit scattered and schizophrenic, uncertain whether it wants to be an occult romcom or a rip-snorting adventure tale of Men Against The Odds. The worst dinner gathering ever acts as a demarcation line between the two points, after which things move at a sprint to the end. Along the way it does a good job of being very funny indeed, as well as very serious -- although, again, this being of scattered attitude, one of the snarkiest and most satirical bits happens right in the thick of things.

On to The Delirium Brief next, then.

Quirkyreader wrote: "You are cooking with gas. You might beat me to the top this year."

It all depends on whether or not I can keep a steady pace. Last year i came out blazing, and and then fell off the track. If I can average a book a day, I'll be in good shape.

#022 - Doctor Who: Caerdroia by Lloyd Rose

The extended adventure in the Interzone is coming to a close as the Doctor learns who's behind their entrapment there...and splits in to three versions of himself.

#023 - The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross

It took a while for me to get to The Atrocity Archives, the first of Charles Stross' Laundry Files books about the harried operatives and staff of a super-covert agency that's variously been part of Doctor John Dee's occult mob, an arm of the Special Operations Executive, and is a shadow -- deep shadow -- division of the Security Services, answerable only to the Crown, ultimately, though they do try to stay on the right side of the law.

The Laundry's remit is simple enough: deal with the accidental emergence of computational demonologists (main protagonist Bob Howard is one of these), navigate Civil Service buraucracy, bump back at the things that go bump in the night, and, incidentally, prepare for CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, the end of the universe scenario that involves one of the Really Old Ones waking up and dropping back into our dimension.

In a very short span of time, though, the Laundry has been through a lot -- the emergence of vampires, a cataclysmic battle that killed many senior personnel (and saw Bob lumbered with the Eater Of Souls), increasing evidence of a type of magic leaching into the world as a result of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, and then that little incident in Leeds where the Host Of Air And Darkness came storming out of their version of faerie and proceeded to kill thousands of people and cause billions in property damage, only to end up with their All-Highest dead and his daughter, now in the identity of a human girl (and an honest-to-god manic pixie dream girl) surrendering to the British authorities.

As they say...And Now, This... wherein Bob has been drafted to be the spokesman for the newly made public Laundry, which is absolutely on the back foot by now. Just in time for the re-emergence of Dr. Raymoind Schiller, the American evangelist Bob abd others faced in The Fuller Memorandum. Schiller, thought to have died trapped in the pyramid of a dead god on another planer of existence, is once again determined to have the United Kingdom as *his* kingdom, for the horror he thinks of as God. It's not long before government edicts are being issued to immediately shut down the Laundry and hand it assets and duties over the a nice private corporation...this is, you might imagine, a very bad idea.

I'm not going to say much more, but this is the book where everything gets worse, and more complicated, with some crackerjack storytelling. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, but if it stopped there, well...it would be entirely appropriate. It doesn't stop there, though. The Labyrinth Index is out in a few months....

This series has been a lot of fun, and occasionally incredibly funny. This entry...not so much with the funny.

#024 - Illinois Traction Systems (CERA Bulletin 98) by divers hands

The 1954 book release from the Central Electric Railfans Association, focusing on the Illinois Traction System, which still existed at the time. The book was created under dire circumstances, and it does show — CERA is known for impressive volumes, beautifully designed; this is a mess, haphazardly assembled. Still, the editors cover their main point of interest, its forebears, and the ancillary lines the company ended up operating in Iowa and Kansas. I just regret that there’s not more detail and history, but at least there’s maps, timetables, a reproduction of a car roster, and photographs.

I’d love to see CERA revisiting this.

#025 - Light Falls: Space, Time, and an Obsession of Einstein by Brian Greene

An interesting mix of biographical meditation and drama, as Greene starts with Einstein's choice to refuse surgery to save his life, and then goes back to follow his path from his early life, through his struggle to define General Relativity, and his subsequent attempts to follow that with further universe-defining theorems. Quantum Mechanics, which Einstein infamously is missed as "spooky action at a distance" and arrant nonsense, depressed him, and the advent of the atomic bomb led him to choose an isolated life.

Quite the fascinating work, this, and the audio release concludes with a spirited discussion between Greene and chief narrator Paul Rudd, who reveals himself to be quite the smart fellow.

#026 - Quatermass and the Pit by Kim Newman

Kim Newman takes a look at the history of both the Quatermass TV serials and the films, with a particular focus on Quatermass And The Pit, the third and last film adaptation of the serials. It's a highly engaging book with a stunning amount of pop culture references stuffed into a relatively compact space. Part of a series of books produced by the British Film Institute.

#027 Doctor Who: Mistfall by Andrew Smith

Sequel of sorts to Doctor Who: Full Circle, the Fourth Doctor story that introduced the much-derided Adric. This story takes the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan back to Alazurius, Adric's home world, for loud shenanigans at a critical time. Unfortunately, it never seems to get traction, coming off as muddy and shouty more than anything else.

#028 - Avengers Assemble, Vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek and George Perez

Following the abortive Heroes Reborn stunt that attempted to reboot a portion of Marvel's characters by moving them to a pocket dimension and having the books written and drawn by Extreme Studios personnel, the characters were returned in the Heroes Return event, where they were relaunched all over again. This volume collects the Avengers series following the RFeturn event, with Kurt Busiek and George Perez providing a fast-moving and very complicated storyline featuring ridiculous numbers of characters in double=page spreads. Excellent artwork, terrible new Scarlet Witch outfit, and plenty of moping from the Vision.