The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Yeah, there was only one book that came out this week that I thought was worth buying. But it is completely worth buying. American Vampire #16 (Ghost War Part 4) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafael Albuquerque, Colors: Dave MaCaig Not much new to say really. Another awesome issue from the American Vampire team. I just always want more! I'm surprised and glad that Henry is on the ball in this issue. The art is gorgeous and the story both fast-paced and subtle, again, as usual. I want to know what happens next, dammit! Also I recently went back and re-read the entire series. It's so good. So dark and violent and sweet and touching and twisty. I particularly love the cover art, both the design of each one and the way it marks the different arcs. And I didn't realize until I had them all out, but check out "Ghost War" so far (click for big!): Awesome!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at  The Broke and The Bookish This week's prompt is:  Ten Bookish Websites, Organizations, Apps. Etc. Other than blogs, there aren't a great many book-related websites that I visit regularly. 1: Goodreads  I use to keep my recently-read lists semi-organized, manage widgets, and to post reviews. 2. NetGalley  is fairly useful, although I only read a scattering of my books from it. What else....Oh, I know! 3. Queens Library and 4: New York Public Library These are essential to my reading habit, for managing my request lists, renewals, etc. 5: Diamond Comics Distributors Has the lists of which comics are coming out which week. 6: Wikipedia  is my go-to site for 'what else is this author known for/quick list of the books in this series/etc.' 7: Amazon , I'm on a lot to read reviews and shop for cheap used books or Kindle books. 8: The Strand is a giant bookstore in Manhattan, with an enormous...

Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search  for life, love, and fulfillment  beyond the Starship Enterprise Wil Wheaton, 2004 Premise: From the back cover: " Just a Geek is the story of how Wil Wheaton faced down his constant companion, the ghost he calls 'Prove To Everyone That Quitting Star Trek Wasn't A Mistake.'" I read this at a really good time. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that reading a memoir about career transition and self-doubt is really satisfying if one is full of doubt and in the midst of a potential career transition. It doesn't hurt that this book is also clever, touching and really funny. I rediscovered Wil Wheaton recently through the delightful Penny Arcade D&D podcasts . I don't get to do any gaming in my day-to-day life lately, so it's fun to eavesdrop on these games through the podcast. And Wil is obviously a really great gamer. Reading the book was wonderfully comfortable. It...

This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: Q. In light of the Summer Solstice. Also known as Midsummer...let's talk about fairies. What is your favorite fairy tale or story that revolves around the fae? Growing up, I loved my mother's beautiful illustrated cloth-bound fairy tale books, but I can't remember now whether I had a favorite then. I read a bunch of interesting ones in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book . I'm rather fond of East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I am also very fond of Jim Henson's Storyteller, for interpretations of fairy tales on film. If you missed this delightful (but short) series, go now! It's on Netflix Instant Streaming!  For a book based on Fairies: I will continue to push The King of Elfland's Daughter . Read This Book. Let the prose take you, and you will adore this classic of fantasy.

Favorite Issue This Week: Gates of Gotham #2 Issues were new in stores on 6/22/11 Batman: Gates of Gotham #2 Writer: Scott Snyder & Kyle Higgins, Artist: Trevor McCarthy, Colors: Guy Major I liked this issue quite a lot. There's a really nice pacing to the multiple story threads, using each bit as counterpoint to another. Also I am really enjoying the fantastic interplay watching the younger bats (Tim, Cass, & Damian) interact. Plus, I have to add, I love Cass's Black Bat costume. X-Men Legacy #251 Writer: Mike Carey, Pencils: Khoi Pham, Inks: Tom Palmer & Craig Yeung with Nelson DeCastro, Colors: Marte Gracia This continues the Lost Legions storyline from the last issue. Several of Legion's murderous superpowered sub-personalities are on the loose. I love comic books. Most of the writing and art is pretty strong here. There is one notable plot hole regarding the timing of Magneto attacking Legion: it's not clear, at least to me, whether taki...

Victory Conditions (Vatta's War, Book 5) Elizabeth Moon, 2008 This is the final book in the Vatta's War Series. ( Books 1-4 reviewed here. ) Overall this is solid sci-fi action. Nothing exceptional, just fine. It would probably be hard to follow if I hadn't read the previous books, but all the characters are growing nicely into their roles, and the plot rolls along to a satisfying conclusion. It's a quick read, and I enjoyed it. Except for one thing. The very end is just terrible. The end of the plot about a pirate fleet taking over systems and disrupting communication is fine, obvious, but fine. But after that ends, the book goes on to give a tag about the end of the romantic tension between two of the lead characters. It's a terrible scene. I mean, it's short, but just ridiculous. Not funny, not romantic: I was embarrassed on the characters' behalf. The romance isn't built up in a way that should lead to a scene that is so juvenile. For ...

Side Note: I made a beautiful geeky doll which I am very proud of. See her at The Blue Fairy's Workshop. This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: Q. Genre Wars! What's your favorite genre and which book in that genre made it your favorite? I'd say my all-time favorite genre is Fantasy , in most of its flavors. Of course, I love Science Fiction, I really like Classic Noir and some Mystery, occasional Horror, very occasional Romance. But I always come back to Fantasy, especially Epic Adventure Fantasy, ever since I fell in love with the Prydain Chronicles as a child. Being obsessed with Dragonlance as a teen just cemented it. The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at  Crazy-For-Books.com Today's Question is: “How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?” Well, there's less than ten books in a literal pile, but those aren't necessarily the books I'm reading next. I te...

Favorite Issue This Week: It's a tossup. Avengers Academy for pathos, Batgirl for fun. All Books new in stores on 6/15/11 Side Note: What is with all the ads for shoes this month? Avengers Academy #15 (Fear Itself) Writer: Christos Gage, Penciler: Tom Raney, Inkers: Scott Hanna & Andrew Hennessy, Colorist: Jeromy Cox This is a tie-in issue with the Fear Itself crossover and a good issue of Avengers Academy building on what has come before. Good job walking that tightrope, Gage and company! On the edge of melodramatic, on the edge of rushed, but I think this issue did a great job handling the students faced with war. I have never liked Tigra as much as I did here. This was a strong issue. Batgirl #22 Writer: Bryan Q. Miller, Artist: Pere Perez, Colorist: Guy Major First, I need to say: that is one fantastic panel on the first page with Steph and the Bat-shadow! Nice. Steph looks cute in her grown-up traveling outfit too. The interplay between Batgirl...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at  The Broke and The Bookish This Week's Prompt:  Top Ten "Awww" Moments In Books (those cute lines, charming actions, kisses, or any other sentimental moment that made you say "AWWW!" 1: I often have a soft spot for the scene, often near the end, in 75% of Mercedes Lackey's novels in which Person A realizes that Person B, with whom he/she is secretly in love, is secretly in love with him/her too! Yes, it gets a smidge repetative, but still sweet. 2: On the subject of micommunication: Cordelia "translates" for stubborn would-be lovers Droushnakovi and Koudelka in the book Barrayar (Lois McMaster Bujold). Excerpt: "Drou, Kou has a few things to say to you. Since you apparently speak different languages, he's asked me to be his interpreter."  Kou made an embarrased negative motion over Cordelia's head.  "That hand signal means, I'd rather blow up the rest of my life tha...

Champion of the Rose Andrea K. Host, 2010 Premise: The land of Darest was taken by treaty from the Fae, and order is maintained by the magic of the Rose, established by the first Queen. Unfortunately, when the line of Rathen kings failed, the magic didn't notice, and it continued to choose Champions to protect a nonexistent royal line. Soren doesn't have any idea why the magic chose her, forced her, into the role of Champion, but now a bloom has appeared on the Rathen Rose. And that means a rightful heir is alive. The part of this book I liked most was the character of Soren. Uneasy in her role, conflicted in her purpose, she always has to balance what she wants to do with what is right, what is her duty, and what the controlling magic of the Rose will actually allow her to do. Her struggles to fight and/or use the instincts of that blind force are deeply compelling. The plot becomes complicated fairly quickly, and I don't want to give much away. I can say that...

So I hadn't chimed in yet on the ridiculousness going on at DC Comics. I thought I'd give it a little time for the dust to settle, but most of the fallout is looking unhappy from my perspective. In case you haven't heard, DC is canceling all of their books and 're-launching' (not rebooting) their line with 52 #1 issues in September. They've said they realize that their titles weren't modern and diverse enough... or something. Which is fine, and maybe a few of the titles that were obviously green-lit to court a non-white audience will do well. From the part of “diversity” known as the female comic reader, I'm less thrilled. Most of the characters I care about look to be either changed or missing/dropped from prominence/made 'edgy'. Damn, I hate doing things in the name of 'edgy'. I haven't seen one pitch yet that looks fun: it's all spiky art and oh-look-how-dark-and-tormented-we-are. It sucked in the 90's, DC, and it sucks...

Favorite Issue this week: So Close.... But I think American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest takes it. Birds of Prey is just a hair behind. All issues were new in stores on 6/8/11 Side Note: I am sick of the Super 8 ads that seem to be in all the DC/Vertigo books this month. They are so long and annoying, I've started pulling them out of my books. American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1 Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Sean Murphy, Color: Dave Stewart This is the start of a mini-series that runs somewhat concurrently with the normal American Vampire series, since the main storyline is currently set in WWII in the Pacific, while this book is headed to Europe in the same time frame. This issue is a fantastic reintroduction to Felicia Book and Cash McCogan, both characters we last saw in the Devil in the Sand story arc, both currently agents of the anti-vampire organization. Felicia has grown up a little more, gotten a little rougher around the edges, and Cash has be...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at  The Broke and The Bookish This Week's Prompt is: Top Ten Settings in Books I'm sorely tempted to list broad setting categories like "High Magic Fantasy World", but instead I think I'll try to be super specific with fictional places that work really well for their stories. 1: The World (Not Actually Mercury), The Worm Ourobouous For a genre lover like me, the first known alternate fantasy world (i. e. not ancient Earth, but an alternate world) holds a special place in my heart. See my review here . Even a year after reading the book, I can picture the castle of the Witches, the forest stronghold, the mountain pass to the magic caves, and more. I found it an extremely evocative world. 2: Middle Earth , The Lord of the Rings It may not be an absolutely complete, plausible world, but it comes really close. Again, the individual cities and places stay with you, and the experience of traveling through th...

Leviathan Wakes James S.A. Corey (pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), 2011 New release! Copy for review provided by Netgalley. Premise: Holden works on a deep space water-hauler, Miller is a cop on the Ceres asteroid. Each man will have his life upended by the discovery bearing down on the system. The human race will never be the same, whether they live on Earth, Mars, or out in the Belt. I had mixed feelings about this book. I loved the prologue, I enjoyed a lot of the middle, I loved most of the end. It was somewhere in the middle, though, when I got tired of the testosterone. It's a very male book, for a lot of the time. This isn't bad, just a little wearing after enough pages. Also it dips a little too far into gory horror description to become a favorite of mine. FYI: The marketing copy will tell you different, but I wouldn't call this space opera. It's a bit too dark and gritty for that label. Sci-fi noir? Just sci-fi? I'm not sure. ...

Well, that's all for Star Trek Week. In case you missed any of the posts, here's the list again: Monday May 30:  Provenance of Shadows   (Novel) Tuesday May 31:   Beyond Uhura  (Memoir) Wednesday June 1:  Reading Star Trek Comics: The Past Thursday June 2:   I Am Spock  (Memoir) Friday June 3:  Harbinger:Vanguard  (Novel) Saturday June 4:  Up Till Now  (Memoir) Sunday June 5:  Reading Star Trek Comics: The Present I think the take away from this is that I really enjoy Trek comics, and the occasional memoir, but I'm not in the mood for licensed novels this year. Ah, well. 

Star Trek: Burden of Knowledge Written by Scott and David Tipton Art by Federica Menfredi Colors by Andrea Priorini and Arianna Florean Since my jump back into collecting comic issues last year, some of the books I've been interested in are IDW's Star Trek titles. Scott Tipton (better known by me for Comics 101 ) on the cover was an additional enticement to check it out. Burden of Knowledge is a four-issue miniseries that came out in 2010. The writing in this is generally very strong, it echoes the tone and characters of the original series beautifully, without quoting directly. The art is a little shakier. The half-cartoony style is sometimes elevated by the computer coloring, and sometimes severely undermined by it. There are some beautiful panels, which look like the actors without feeling the need to be photo-realistic, and there are some badly misshapen faces. The plot of Burden of Knowledge is quite enjoyable: a series of linked encounters with aliens with ...

Up Till Now William Shatner and David Fisher, 2008 Note: I was not originally going to read this book as part of this project. I was originally going to read a completely different memoir, by a different actor. My husband objected to my doing a Star Trek unit without something by Shatner. I decided he was probably right, and that the other memoir was out of tone for this week, since it had little to do with The Original Series. Still, stay tuned for my other review soon. (Here's a spoiler: the other book is better.) Hmph. This book was, on some level, precisely what I expected. Self-deprecating on the surface, while swinging wildly between charming, funny, annoying, boring, and revolting. It often felt like it was trying too hard to be funny, which has its own tinge of pretension. And I was put off by the style. It's full of constant tangents, like 'commercials' and a weird sense of the middle ground between fact and fiction. Sometimes openly the narration...

Current Events here at the Bookshelf: You're visiting at the tail end of my week of Star Trek related book reviews! Links to all the articles HERE ! This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: Q. What are you doing to prepare for an upcoming zombie apocalypse and/or the return of Mel Gibson to the silver screen? (Both of which could be terrifying.) I feel like I'm as prepared as I'm going to be for Zombies. I read enough sci-fi, etc. that not much fazes me, and until we know what type of zombies are encroaching, there's not much more to be done. If you see a suspicious creature, consult the Monster Manual! The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at  Crazy-For-Books.com Today's Question is: “Share your favorite post from the last month and tell us why it’s close to your heart!” Hmmm, I'm pleased with my review of Finishing the Hat , the book of collected Sondheim lyrics, because I en...

Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger David Mack, 2005 Premise: Plots, espionage and secrets ride just beneath the surface at Starbase 47, aka Vanguard. The plot contains mysterious artifacts, smugglers, gangsters, lovers and the opportune arrival of the Starship Enterprise. Set near the start of The Original Series. I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually liked it. The plot is very convoluted, without much of a solid through-line, and there were so many characters that it got a good way into the book before I could start to keep them straight. I could see this working well as a series of episodes on a television show, actually; there was a succession of small climaxes and interweaving plot-lines that built on each other. I'm just not sure it's the best structure for a book. There was a lot of solid character work, spread between intriguing new characters and reliable canon characters. It was just... so many characters got POV time that it held back any mom...

I Am Spock Leonard Nimoy, 1995 Reading this book has caused me to think a bit about my own perspective. I wonder what it's like to read a book like this, an actor's memoir, and not have a background in the performing arts. Does it help people understand what it's like to work in the industry, or do they come away from the book thinking they understand, but with the wrong messages? I do come at this book with a background in performing arts, and am familiar with actors of many types, so what I get from this book, especially when combined with Beyond Uhura (reviewed here), is a plausible portrait of actors who seem an awful lot like actors I've known. A great deal of the book is concerned in assuring the reader that Nimoy really does love Spock, and that the title of his earlier memoir ( I Am Not Spock ) was never intended to convey animosity. From skimming excerpts of that book online, I would say that he is not exaggerating. The earlier book has the same ...

All Books new in stores on 6/1/11 Avengers Academy #14.1 Writer: Christos Gage, Penciler: Sean Chen, Inker: Scott Hanna, Colorist: Jeromy Cox Decent one-shot story. Did a good job of being both an intro to the characters (that's the .1 gimmick) and a piece of the ongoing story. Well done villain, but not an exceptional issue. And frankly, I'm getting a little burnt out on Avengers Academy coming out every two weeks. Also Considered: Various Flashpoint books, Wonder Woman #611 The World of Flashpoint #1 was kind of cool, the rest of it looks like crap so far. Wonder Woman has gone back to being pretty awful. I am not optimistic about the news out of DC ths week, (universe reboot? again?) so I'm a bit sour on them just now.

So last year we went to an awesome sale at my favorite comic book shop: Jim Hanley's Universe. And we bought a huge box of cheap back issues. 6 of these issues were of Star Trek Comics published by Marvel/Paramount, spanning three titles, originally printed between 1996 and 1998 Here's a survey of these scattered issues: Star Trek Unlimited #1 (Nov '96) Writers: Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton; Pencilers: Ron Randall, Carlos Garzon, Jerome Moore, Mark Buckingham; Inkers: Al Williamson, Derek Fisher, Kev F. Sutherland Two stories in this double size issue, both nicely written, true to their source material and with pretty decent art. The first story is based on Next Gen, and concerns a conflict about first contact between the crew of the Enterprise-D and representatives of a race with a much more hands on version of the Prime Directive. The second story is Original Series: the Enterprise follows a distress call and ends up in a shooting match with Gorn warships. Both ...