STAR WARS: INTO THE DARK by Claudia Gray

This is the second High Republic novel that I’ve read and it’s the official young adult book in the first wave in Phase 1 of the publishing initiative. It takes place concurrently with the previous adult novel Light of the Jedi but follows a much more focused story about a young Jedi padawan and his companions who get stuck at an abandoned space station following the Great Hyperspace disaster. 

While I enjoyed Light of the Jedi, I was frustrated with the fairly bland characters aside from the villains and how diluted everything was due to the plot casting such a wide net. Those problems are not here, with the plot being much more concentrated and intimate, and characters that jumped off the page. Each character had more nuance than the previous book, especially the Jedi, who seem more like real people with true struggles to go along with their stalwart, noble attributes. 

But I’m still giving it three stars because the action here is nowhere near as cool as I was hoping, the villains were pretty half-baked, and there’s a recurring flashback that seems to be promising major character development and reveals but turns out to be fully unnecessary. 

GRADE: B-

STAR WARS: LIGHT OF THE JEDI by Charles Soul

I’ve always been a big Star Wars fan but it has been a while since I have read any books in the universe. I was an avid Star Wars book reader as a kid but fell off on that hobby. I’ve been impressed and fascinated with Disney’s new in-canon publishing initiative called the High Republic that tackles interconnecting stories from a previously unexplored era in Star Wars history along a wide variety of mediums including adult novels, young adult novels, audio dramas, comic books, and upcoming live action television. So I though what better way to jump back into Star Wars reading than this!

Light of the Jedi is the first novel that introduces the High Republic, set over 200 years before the events of the first film, A New Hope, when the Republic and the Jedi Order were at their grandest, and starting to fully expand into the Outer Rim of the Galaxy. It opens on the cusp of the unveiling of the new Outer Rim outreach space station Starlight Beacon when a massive hyperspace disaster threatens to destroy multiple solar systems. 

As expected, the book is crazy readable and sucks you in to this new world, introducing you to the new Jedi characters as well as the Nihil, the new big bads of the High Republic initiative. The book suffers a little from tackling a bit too much, which is of course due to having the responsibility of introducing so many ideas and characters. I wish that the book had a bit more focus and I hope that the later books don’t suffer the same introductory burden. The other issue is that the characters (particularly the Jedi) aren’t very interesting so far, with everyone feeling pretty stoic and untouched in regards to relatable nuance and emotional complexity. Every Jedi seems to be a stalwart knight without problems beyond the cliché (like Padawans not being sure of themselves) and they’re just not that interesting. Except for maybe Elzar Mann, who shows a little more potential for being actually singular and complex.

But the creative ideas here are really compelling and build onto the already vast Star Wars mythos in fascinating ways, especially with the exploration of the way hyperspace works. Also the audiobook version is one of the coolest books I’ve listened to, with sound effects and score that really suck you in! But the character of Marchion Ro is what really saves the book, presenting a mysterious antagonist that is riveting, becomes a real threat, and seems to have layers that I can’t wait to see peeled away. 

So this is a decent start to this initiative and at the very least, I’m excited to explore more!

GRADE: B

BLACK SCIENCE PREMIERE VOL. 1: THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ENTROPY by Rick Remender

Bold. Imaginative. Visionary.

I was not sure what to expect with this series but it hit me like a runaway train as it pulled me away on it's adventure. I don't want to go into too much detail about the plot as it might be best to go in almost completely fresh the way I did, and jump headfirst into this trip down the rabbit hole and into the onion as this flawed crew of travelers try to survive their dangerous trip through countless dimensions.

The biggest thing that struck me was how fast the story moves. It drops the reader right into the middle of the action from the beginning and NEVER stops. There is no exposition to get you acquainted with the world at the start, and there is no time to take a breather during the entirety of its 400+ pages.

I've seen reviews talk about the speed of its storytelling was a problem with it being too confusing but I totally disagree. I really appreciated that the creators didn't treat the reader with kid gloves and trusted the readers to keep pace with the story. And learning more about the rules, the background of the expedition, and info about the characters while the story was moving forward really added to the experience. So buckle your seatbelt before jumping into this one, and keep up!

The artwork here, especially the inking and the color work, was a real standout here, providing a singular atmosphere that's really memorable. Whenever I think about this story in the future, I'll visualize those sharp lines and bold neon-ish colors.

There are a few reasons why my grade for this was dropped a couple points though. The constantly shifting POV narration became a little obnoxious and sometimes distracted from the flow of the story, I wish that there was a bit more variety in the nature of the different dimensions, and I wish some of the action was easier to follow. This story also seems like it might benefit from it being read in big chunks like this premiere volume, which collects the first three trade paperback. I seemed to have responded to this better than other friends who started reading it in the shorter paperback volumes.

For me, this was a wild ride and I can't wait to continue.

GRADE: A-

PRETTY MARYS ALL IN A ROW by Gwendolyn Kiste

Mary Mack. Mistress Mary. Mari Lwyd. Resurrection Mary. Bloody Mary. They’ve been the subjects of terrifying legends or strange nursery rhymes for ages. Have you ever wondered what’s beyond their creepy songs and sightings? In her haunting new novella, talented, on-the-rise author Gwendolyn Kiste aims to explore their stories more, not necessarily their origins mind you, because that’s boring, but explore where they go and what they do when they’re not disturbing us.

Once upon a time, the darkness stole my life from me. Now it's stealing my hereafter too.

Kiste uses the same twisted fairytale style that I loved in her fantastic debut collection, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, to tell a story of the Mary’s as a reluctant family of spirits who must feed on the fear of the living for sustenance and what they attempt to do to break their curse. She twists these urban legends in a new way and once again gives us a memorable story wrapped in lovely prose and potent imagery. The action and resolution in the book might be a bit vague, but its emphasis is more on mood and atmosphere and it has that stuff in spades!

The voice will be there again in the ballroom, my unlikely partner as I dance to music no one else can hear. And I won't run from it. I'll stand here, firm and stubborn against the night. If the darkness wants me, I'll make it wait.

GRADE: B+

CRY YOUR WAY HOME: STORIES by Damien Angelica Walters

Damien Angelica Walters is an author that's been on my radar for a while. She's a Bram Stoker Award nominee, a constant presence in the dark fiction community with her consistent short stories popping up in almost every dark literary magazine, and I really wanted too jump into her work. This collection, her latest release, is my introduction to her. Similar to Gwendolyn Kiste's fantastic And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe from last year, Walters collects a bunch of great dark fantasy stories and twisted fairytales. Aside from a few of the stories (including one narrated by a circus elephant), most of these are tales focusing on young girls and/or their parents dealing with some sort of transformation or transition. What I enjoyed about this book, and what makes this more than just a bunch of cool scary stories is Walters's focus on tackling a variety of real-life emotional issues but through the lens of the weird and the supernatural.

Through tears, she glares at the boxes piled in the corner—a sandcastle built by sorrow's hands.

She touches on topics like dealing with the death of a child ("Falling Under, Through the Dark"), sibling jealousy ("Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile"), postpartum depression ("Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home"), as well as bullying ("On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes"and my favorite, "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"), and skillfully uses fantasy and horror to parallel the emotional turmoil of her characters. And to the reader's who avoid short stories because of the constant story reset? Fear not, because Walters's prose grabs you quickly and holds you and she knows just when to end each tale, making for a smooth read from story to story. If you want your horror to be about more than just ghosts and goblins, if you enjoy it when dark fiction provides us with a way of confronting real-life horrors, then make sure to pick this collection up!

Is this magic or madness or something undefinable? Perhaps a bit of all three.

GRADE: A- 

ASTONISHING X-MEN OMNIBUS by Joss Whedon

I've never been a big Joss Whedon fan-boy. I've never really understood the hype. But after reading this...man, he can write a mean X-men story! It can be tricky writing for the X-Men, especially these days, with tracking so many characters and trying to keep it fresh and interesting, but Whedon does an skillful job here in this 25-issue run that he had with the heroes.

Whedon shows a real love for the characters here, and the book features some of the most creative sequences I've seen in an X-Men tale. Whedon takes these well-known characters, consolidates all of their best attributes, and lets it all fly in this epic story. He not only has a great sensitivity to each X-Man's personality, but he takes their specific powers and explores all of the possible ways to showcase them, leading to massively entertaining sequences. One great example is the way the book shows how powerful skilled psychics can be, especially in the amazing sequence in the third volume, Torn, when the mansion is attacked by the Hellfire Club and telepathically manipulated by Cassandra Nova and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

You can also tell the love that Whedon (as with many other writers) has for Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat). She has many fans but Whedon really showcases all of the aspects of her powers here and it's all very fascinating. What happens when Kitty has an orgasm? One of the reasons why the X-Men are some of my favorite heroes to read is because of the specificity of their individual powers, so I had a blast with all these little moments. And the book also features one of the coolest character entrances ever with the appearance of Colossus.

And of course the witty dialogue and entertaining  set-pieces that Whedon is known for is on full-display here, showing that he might be one of the best candidates to tell superhero stories, which he's proven here, and with his popularity with the big superhero movie franchises. And with this book run, he set a good standard for X-Men storytelling!

GRADE: B+

PAPER GIRLS: BOOK ONE by Brian K. Vaughan

After falling in love with his Saga series, I wanted to branch out to other projects written by Brian K. Vaughan, and that led me here! The Paper Girls are Erin, Tiffany, Mackenzie, and KJ, pre-teen kids living in 1988 Cleveland, who meet on their respective newspaper routes early in the morning after Halloween, and find themselves dropped into an epic fantasy adventure.

This adventure of the Stranger Things/Goonies variety happens to be a bit of a mind-wreck filled with parallel timelines, multi-verses, dinosaurs, giant maggots, and futuristic soldiers.

Oh who am I kidding, it might not be about that stuff at all; I would be lying if I said I understood everything that was happening here! The comic lets it's secrets out on its own terms and it can get a little frenetic and confusing but the interesting thing is that I didn't really care. I enjoyed the characters and their budding relationships so much that I could watch them do anything. Plus, I'm a sucker for time travel so I'm down to being patient and seeing where it all goes! The second volume in particular is a rollercoaster of crazy-ass ideas that are sometimes hard to follow, but I'll be holding on for the ride.

The two volume included here in this deluxe edition are also available in cheaper single editions.

GRADE: B

SAGA: BOOK TWO

We pick up again with our heroes as they try their hand at living a normal life on the planet Gardenia, with Marco taking up stay-at-home-dad duties while Alana wins the bread as an actor in shitty tv shows on the Open Circuit. Oh and Hazel is a toddler!

The first part here is really great as we really focus on the relationship between Alana and Marco and I thought it was a wonderful look at how doubts, trust and insecurity can strain a marriage even outside of the fact that the two are star-crossed lovers from enemy alien races. But just when the relationship is at it's lowest, the past catches up and the story is off again on an intergalactic adventure that's even more action-packed than before, involving new alliances, space heists, and a dangerous quest for dragon jizz. 

It's once again addictive, imaginative, and exciting, with characters you care about, proving once again why it's considered one of the top comic series being published right now. 

GRADE: A-

SAGA: VOL. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan

Everything comes to a head now in this installment of Saga as all of our characters converge around Oswald Heist's lighthouse home on the sleepy planet Quietus. You can tell that the creators are more confident and comfortable with the characters and the story as things quiet down a bit and they focus on exploring them. But then it all blows up in grand action-packed form in the end. My favorite characters are still Prince Robot IV and The Will, the three-dimensional antagonists hunting our heroes. The series continues to be heartfelt and endearing and I can't wait to see where they take the story next! Tons of possibilities!

GRADE: A-

WONDER WOMAN: THE TRUE AMAZON by Jill Thompson

Wonder Woman has always had the reputation of being one of the most stable and well-adjusted of the comic book heroes as well as having on of the kindest hearts. What I liked about this most recent telling of her origin tale is the new take that Thompson takes on how she became that way. She portrays Diana as growing up as a spoiled brat and ultimately learning through her mistakes how to be the person we know her to be today. I've seen more than a few reviews that seem to be angry at this new approach, saying that it goes against everything that we know of Wonder Woman. That she's supposed to represent the best of us, that her role is to be an example for all of us. But I think that introducing this story's ideas makes her even more of an inspiration, showing that all of us can make mistakes and learn from them to be a better person. Plus, who wants to read a story where someone is always perfect.

The graphic novel is told in a storybook style that is a perfect fit for a mythical fable with magical lands and Greek gods, complete with a pretty watercolor-painted style and lots of "once upon a time" narration. Normally this might annoy me, but it really fits this story.

My only gripe here would be the circumstances around Diana leaving Themyscira. I believe that by taking away her choice to leave, it takes away some her choice to be selfless. But this new take seems pretty valid. Many seem to think that Wonder Woman wouldn't be a spoiled brat but I would expect any little girl with the knowledge that she was born from the tears of gods as a princess and pampered by everyone would grow to feel a bit entitled! And the fact that she makes tragic mistakes due to her arrogance and from those mistakes learned to selflessly fight for the weak is what makes her a true heroine. A true Wonder Woman.

GRADE: B+

SAGA VOL. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan

Jumped back into Saga with this second volume! We pick up again with our heroes as they are still on the run in their rocket ship (which happens to be a living tree they picked out of a rocket ship forest). And The Will, Lying Cat, and their two unlikely new partners are still in hot pursuit. This volume is just as enjoyable and hilarious as the first one. But we also explore the characters a bit deeper.

We get flashbacks that show us the time when Alana and Marko first meet as enemies and fall in love, which not only pushes the story forward by setting up their desire to seek out Oswald Heist, but it also makes the reader love them even more as a couple which is what makes the series work so well. Every character is great and I want to learn more about them! I especially enjoyed the further development of Prince Robot IV and his PTSD.

Vaughan and Staples seem to have found something really special here with this series.

GRADE: A-

SAGA VOL. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

Yes, I know I'm a bit of a "Richie-Come-Lately" to this Saga party and you've probably heard this before, but I'm here now, better late than never. This one is the real deal, this is what great comic book work is supposed to be: creative, original writing, iconic art, and most importantly (and I suppose the most difficult), a fine balance between the sequential art and written word. I always think it's important to understand what is going on, to provide just enough text to be able to understand things that you can't portray with pictures, but it's also important to avoid getting so wordy to the point that the writer probably should've just written a novel (Dark Tower books, anyone?).

Saga is an epic space opera that takes place in a far away galaxy where two warring races have been battling for generations. In the middle of the fight are two enemy soldiers, Alana and Marko, who fall in love, and along with their newborn baby, must evade both sides of the fight to find a safe place to start their family.

The makers of this series are really singular in their vision. It's so refreshing to see a piece of work so wholly original. And I think that Brian Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples achieve this by completely ripping away the limitations of their imagination. It's as if they reverted parts of their brains back to those of their six-year-old selves and just let all the crazy shit fly out and onto paper! Not only is our hero a magical warrior with horns on his head and our heroine a soldier with wings that shoots a pistol that stuns you by breaking your heart, but there's also a prince that has a television for a head, a seahorse that's also a talent agent, a bounty hunter client that walks around with a big hairless grumpy cat that is also a lie detector, and he's sad about getting friend-zoned by the love of his life, which happens to be this thing:

But the real genius is being able to wrangle all of these wacky ideas into something relatable, charming, and enthralling. It's got well-drawn action, witty, smart comedy, all mixed in with moments of tenderness. I can see what all the fuss is about with Saga. Based on the covers, I didn't think that this comic series would interest me, but boy was I wrong. And if you haven't read it for that reason, you're probably wrong too, so definitely give it a try. If you're a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you'll probably love Saga.

GRADE: A

THE DARK TOWER VOL. 1: THE GUNSLINGER BORN

Here we go. Years ago, I had a great time going on the epic adventure of Roland and his ka-tet as they travel in search of the Dark Tower in order to save the world(s) in Stephen King's massive genre-bending epic. With the Dark Tower movie being released this year, I thought I'd delve into the huge multi-series comic book adaptation of the story, and it starts here.

In this first 5-volume series, with guidance from King, Peter David and Robin Furth decided to begin the story by compiling material from the prequel/flashback events referenced in the main series to detail Roland's early days as a gunslinger, the fall of Gilead and the moment when the world begins to break apart at the seams. This first volume, The Gunslinger Born, is essentially a retelling of the flashbacks in King's fourth DT novel, Wizard and Glass, where Roland and his buddies find love and violence while on their first mission to Mejis to investigate the movements of insane rebel John Farson, and take the first steps toward their ka.

Wizard and Glass was a controversial departure from the main story, but if you were like me and really enjoyed that tale of young Roland then you'll also enjoy this picture adaptation! Although at times I wish it was a bit more detailed in the settings, the inky artwork by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove is eye-catching, with memorable, iconic imagery. I also like the idea of the folksy narration being told in Mid-World dialect, but it did get a little obnoxious and distracting. Still, I'm pumped to jump back into the world of The Dark Tower and join Roland on his quest again.

GRADE: B

I HATE FAIRYLAND VOL. 1: MADLY EVER AFTER by Scottie Young

Imagine Alice in Wonderland if Alice was stuck there for 30 years and in that time turned into a crazed, homicidal maniac.

You see, once upon a time there was a cute little girl named Gertrude who, like any little girl, dreamed of going to a colorful land of teddy bears, rainbows, and powder puffs. She's able to get her wish but in order to leave Fairyland, she must find the magical key to unlock the door back to the real world. How hard can that be right? Well, fast-forward 27 years later and not only is Gertrude still looking for that fluffing key, but she's also a 40 year old woman still stuck in a toddler's body. AND she's kind of gone a bit insane. Wouldn't you go a bit mad too if you spent nearly 30 years seeing pastel colors and eating sugar puffs every fluffing day?

This first volume in this most-definitely-not-for-kids series is downright hilarious. I laughed with every turn of the page, as Gert, along with her battle ax and her guide Larry (a chain-smoking fly who's seen some shish), cut a bloody swath all across the magical kingdoms of Fairyland in search of the magic key. Scottie Young's baby-art style is the perfect foil for this subversive adult material. You'll find yourself rooting for the bad guy in this one, and eager to see what happens next with Gert and her adventures.

GRADE: B+

WAR ON CHRISTMAS by Edward Lorn

You think you may know what Santa Claus does on Christmas Eve while you're sleeping, but you have no idea! Here, in just 50-something pages, author Edward Lorn takes old fables, established Christmas lore, and his own mischievous imagination, mixes it all in a pot and comes up with an entirely new Christmas mythology that's ripe for a whole slew of stories beyond this one!

On Christmas Eve night, Santa and his team of reindeer are going about their usual Yuletide business, when they fall for a no-good trap and are bushwhacked by the Naughties (the little demons that possess children and make them act like little shits sometimes). And when Santa discovers that his beloved Mrs. Claus has been kidnapped, he and the team spring into action, ready to kick ass and take names!

Lorn is a talented storyteller that I discovered when I got thoroughly creeped out by his novella Crawl. He's an equally effective tale-spinner in this novella collection of three serial short stories he's released every Christmas for the last few years. He really knows how to maintain pace, does an impressive amount of world and myth building in a very short amount of time, and it seems like he had a damn fun time writing it as well! There are a handful of surprises here that made me grin while reading!

Like I said, there's so much potential material here in Lorn's mythology and I would gladly read anything else. I'll also be waiting for the War on Christmas movie as well. Obviously starring Chuck Norris because Chuck Norris is such a badass.

 Or maybe this guy:

GRADE: B+

THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM by Victor LaValle

"The veil of ignorance has been set over your face since birth. Shall I pull it free?"

While I'm generally familiar with HP Lovecraft and his work, including his Cthulhu mythos, I haven't  read that much from him. From what I gather though, he was a hardcore racist, and one must look past some of the uncomfortable material in his work to get to the good stuff and appreciate him. It seems like this has been the case with author Victor LaValle, who begrudgingly considers himself a fan. But he decided to use this conflicted appreciation of the horror master as inspiration for his latest project. In this novella, he has taken what many consider to be one of Lovecraft's most xenophobic work, "The Horror at Red Hook," and remixed it, cleverly transforming it into a cosmic horror tale that is also a commentary on racial and immigrant prejudice, and a big clapback at Lovecraft's bigotry in his own work.

The smell of age, meaning undifferentiated time, had settled throughout the home, a musty odor, as if the winds of the present never blew through here. 

I don't want to say much about the plot other than it's about a young black hustler in Harlem that does whatever it takes to survive as a black man in 1920's New York, the strange world he encounters in the underbelly of the city, and how these things affect and provide an outlet for his frustration and anger at the oppression that he must endure everyday. There's some great creepy imagery in this that LaValle handles masterfully and with a steady pace that sucks you in, making this short book hard to put down.

A cataclysm was happening on Parker Place, and belowground the air here smelled of sewage and smoke and the threat of divination.

GRADE: B+ 

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline

This sci-fi/fantasy novel takes place in the near future on an Earth which is in the middle of a massive energy crisis and much of the natural resources have been depleted. Most people escape this dismal

reality by spending most of their lives in the OASIS, a vast, fully-immersive, virtual reality online world/game that has taken over the Internet and our way of life. The simulation's billionaire designer has recently died and to pass on his fortune, he has created an epic contest where the player's must use knowledge of 80's pop culture to track down a hidden Easter Egg buried within the OASIS. The book follow's young Wade Watts, one of the gunters (egg hunters) who is on a quest to find Halliday's Egg. But once he becomes the first player to find the first clue, he realizes that the contest is much more dangerous than he could have imagined.

Once I started reading Ready Player One I got totally sucked in. I mean, who could resist such an awesome premise? Time and pages just flew by and my mood rose every time I picked the book up. Now that's a conundrum because multiple times throughout the book I cringed at some of the writing. Cline's desire to impress the reader with his vast knowledge of 80's pop culture got in the way at times, constantly stopping the story to drone on and on for three pages about some random video game or movie. And although, I am familiar with a lot of this stuff, it still seemed to go on for a while, with some of it not having any impact on the story whatsoever. For example, why have an entire chapter of characters arguing about the quality of Ladyhawke and not have it affect the story? It would have been really cool for Wade to eventually have to use his unpopular knowledge (that no one else would have) of Ladyhawke to gain the advantage in the game and make this chapter important, but instead it just sits there as a missed opportunity. And there was a lot of really pedestrian writing throughout the novel, like repeating pieces of dialogue or ideas throughout the book, as if Cline forgot that he wrote about the same exact thing a few chapters before.
And there are also awkward, repetitive exchanges like this:

"It looks just like Rivendell," Aech said, taking the words right out of my mouth.
I nodded. "It looks exactly like Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings movies," I said.

Why have I spent most of the beginning of this review harping on the negative stuff you ask? Well, because I wanted to stress how impressive it is that Cline, despite all of these issues, managed to make my wide-eyed, whimsical self grab my critical self, shake him and say, "Stop being a hater and a boring party-pooper, Richard, this book is awesome!" It's so imaginative and filled with great ideas, like the stacked trailer parks (how great of a visual is that?), and the creative rules within the OASIS itself. There's such a joyous sense of adventure, a celebration of geekiness and friendship, and a true love for the material that is laced into this book that it's pretty difficult not to look at any shortcomings and say, "Screw it, let me jump on this ride, strap in and have a total blast!"

I would recommend this to anyone, so buckle up, forgive the shortcomings, and get ready for a lively and captivating summer read!

GRADE: B+

THE BORDER by Robert McCammon

With The Border, Robert McCammon goes back to his roots! His new novel harkens back to his 80's sci-fi/horror classics like Swan Song and Stinger, and mixes in some War of the Worlds with a story

about our Earth becoming a battleground between two hostile alien civilizations and humanity trying to survive in the wake. Although it was enjoyable to an extent, I was disappointed with discovering that I wasn't as into it as I would've expected, given that McCammon is one of my favorite authors. 

McCammon can be long-winded and wordy at times, but sometimes I have found it endearing, showing just how excited he is to be telling his story. Plus, he's the type of writer where you just enjoy reading his wordsmith-ing. But here, I felt that it made for an uneven pace and the book felt a little long and repetitive. And there are so many things, all the way until the ending, that just feel too convenient. Also, the main character of Ethan was a problem for me. He's already introduced as the overused trope we've seen tons of times: the mysterious, gifted kid that is the key to saving the world. But there are many developments that happen with him that just never felt right to me. There's also a missed opportunity where McCammon could've really delved into the idea of this little boy who is trying to deal with the fact of not remembering who he is and being gifted with these powers and responsibility he doesn't understand, and how terrifying that must be for him, and how he must eventually learn to grow past that and become the hero he's destined to be. That would've been cool to witness. But instead, from the start Ethan never really feels like a kid, and seems to just take everything in stride, which, yes, it makes him unbelievably strong, but also pretty boring.

But aside from these issues, the book is still a superficially entertaining summer blockbuster, with plenty of sci-fi action scenes, aliens, guns, and Transformers...a cool book to read on vacation.

She began to sob, to weep for the dead and for the living, for those who had long ago given up hope and for those who still hung on to what tomorrow might bring...

 GRADE: C

20TH CENTURY GHOSTS: STORIES by Joe Hill

GRADE: A-

*Re-Read (audio) in 2015 (originally read in 2010)*
This is a great story collection, which is interesting, because I was pretty disappointed by author Joe Hill's first two novels, Heart-Shaped Box and Horns. I thought they both started strong and then fizzled about half-way through. Maybe Hill is better in the short form?

The theme running most of these stories, are kids coming of age through unexplained events and phenomenon that will stay with them forever, even as they get older. There's a romantic, nostalgic quality to the writing that really resonates throughout, and Hill is really gifted at capturing the voice of a young boy. The title story, "20th Century Ghost," is one of the best short stories I've read. It really touched me and sets the standard for the whole collection. Other standout tales from the collection are "Pop Art," "The Cape," "Last Breath," "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead," and the great novella that closes the collection, "Voluntary Committal." And "My Father's Mask" is so uncomfortably disturbing!

I decided to try my hand at audiobooks for the first time to help me through long commutes, and I thought re-reading this collection would be a great way to start. The reader was engaging and was great at voicing the kids. This is a wonderful story collection and deserves to be right up there with the collections from Matheson and Stephen King.

BLACKOUT by Tim Curran

GRADE: B-

These DarkFuse novellas are like tasty little gummi bears that I munch on in between the bigger meals. So far, they've all been fun, quick and easy reads that I can get through in a day or two. This latest one is by horror writer Tim Curran and in it, a science teacher wakes up to an immense blackout and his wife missing. He groups up with his fellow neighbors on what is usually a quiet neighborhood street and try to figure out what's happening. Then the shiny, black tentacles start dropping from the sky...

The story is fast-paced and told from the point of view of an everyday guy that could be any one of us, trying to make sense of the chaos. Even though I got the sense that the author was making up the story as he went along (with a bungled third act and the rules of the creatures not being entirely consistent), it's still an enjoyable book and reads like an homage to H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds laced with Stephen King's incredible The Mist.