Tag: Batman

Catch-Up Quick Takes: A Few May/June Books

On July 1, 2022

In Audiobook, Comics, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Non-Fiction, Urban Fantasy

The point of these quick takes posts is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness. This time, I’m covering a few books from the end of May and June that I just don’t have that much to say about.

A Line to Kill

by Anthony Horowitz, Rory Kinnear (Narrator)

DETAILS:
Series: A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery, #3
Publisher: HarperAudio
Publication Date: October 18, 2021
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hr., 50 min.
Read Date: May 26-31, 2022

(the official blurb)
If you were to ask me: “HC, what do you think of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series?” I’d tell you that I love the concept, I think Hawthorne is an intriguing character and that I really enjoy Horowitz’s fictionalized version of himself. And that’s true in theory.

I’m just not so sure about the practice. I had a hard time finishing this, and more than once thought about quitting. I’m glad I didn’t–the solution was pretty clever and the resolution was satisfying.

Hawthorne regularly annoyed me–and I found his antics held no charm for me. It’s a good read, but I can see my time with this series coming to an end soon (I can also see being won over soon, too).

(none of this is a reflection on Rory Kinnear, who did his typically good reading).
3 Stars

Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections

by Annette Marie, Rob Jacobson, Iggy Toma (Narrator)

DETAILS:
Series: Guild Codex: Warped, #2
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication Date: September 13, 2021
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hr., 12 min.
Read Date: June 6-7, 2022

(the official blurb)
This does a great job of interweaving the events (and characters) of Demon Magic and a Martini and Taming Demons for Beginners into the events of this adventure–I love seeing the way Marie is creating a multi-faceted world here.

This time out, our petty criminal turned aspiring MagiPol Agent tries to help out his friend, Agent Shen, who had got him out of that life of crime. She needs a big win to stay in her current assignment and not be transferred to the last office on Earth she wants. Their snooping gets them on the trail of some of the shady demon contracts the aforementioned books were about and then we’re off to the races.

There’s some really good character development for Kit Morris here–especially when it comes to learning how to use his magic. This is a common tie between these series–all three protagonists are on a similar path. Given the varied amount of knowledge they all had going into it (totally unaware; not-that-experienced-but-fairly-aware; or a lot of academic knowledge, but little practical) keeps the series distinct, yet similar–which I really appreciate.

I do prefer the other magical threats these series covered before they all focused on demons. But I’m still enjoying the ride (rides?), so I’ll stick with these a little longer.
3 Stars

How to Take Over the World:
Practical Schemes and Scientific
Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain

by Ryan North

DETAILS:
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: March 14, 2022
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 10 hr., 3 min.
Read Date: June 7-9, 2022

(the official blurb)
I’m clearly a sucker for popular-level science books with a humorous presentation (which means I really need to give Mary Roach another try, I know). In this one, North focuses on the kinds of cutting-edge science that a comic book/James Bond supervillain would use to take over the world, destroy large parts of it, accumulate power to themselves, etc.

He covers such things as cloning a dinosaur (sorry, Jurassic Park, it’s just not possible…), creating a new island to use as a secret base, becoming immortal, pulling off the perfect heist, and more. The punchline to the book is essentially that a supervillain is going to have to work hard to out-do what humans are doing already when it comes to destroying the planet.

Depressing conclusion aside–this was a fun book, and exposed me to a lot of things I never would have considered before. I’m not sure I retained as much as I would have liked to–but that’s on me, not North (who, by the way, was a perfect narrator for the material). It also means that I’ve got a good reason to listen to it again or to pick up the hard copy to refer back to. Recommended.
3 Stars

Batman: Their Dark Designs

by James Tynion IV with too many artists to list for this kind of post

DETAILS:
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: November 8, 2021
Format: Trade Paperback
Length: 264 pgs.
Read Date: June 18-25, 2022

(the official blurb)
I don’t read a lot of graphic novels/collections of individual comics lately, and don’t know what might appeal to me. I basically read whatever Lashaan Balasingam mentions that seems interesting. He recently posted about the last volume in this series and it got me curious.

This was a lot of fun–check out the blurb for details. I really enjoyed Tynion’s take on these characters (including the new ones)–if this is how he always writes the Dark Knight, I could be satisfied reading him for years. Most of the art was dynamite (a couple of the pencilers left a little to be desired). Simply put, this is exactly what I want in a comic series.

My major mistake is that I didn’t see that my library doesn’t have the 4 volumes that tell the rest of this story. I don’t want to spend the money on these, but not knowing how the story is going to resolve is a little maddening.
3 Stars

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The Killing Joke by Christa Faust, Gary Phillips: The Legendary Graphic Novel Gets the Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Treatment

By HCNewton

On May 17, 2019

In Comics, Fiction

The Killing Joke

by Christa Faust, Gary Phillips
Series: BatmanHardcover, 293 pg.
Titan Books, 2018

Read: May 14, 2019

Leland liked to think that she had a finely tuned bullshit detector. It went with the job and–much to the dismay of the men she dated–tended to spill over into her private life, as well. Something about the Joker, however, messed with her ability on the deepest level. Like a magnet throwing off a compass needle.

She’d dealt with more than her share of compulsive liars, narcissists, and psychotics so alienated from reality that they were unable to distinguish truth from fiction. But the Joker was different.

Her testimony in court had led to the judgment that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, and he had been remanded to her care at Arkham. Yet, in her darkest, most sleepless hours she wondered if maybe he wasn’t insane after all. Not in the clinical sense, at last. Perhaps it was all just an elaborate act. A complex joke with an unfathomable punchline they might never see coming. If it ever came at all.

I don’t think I got my hands on the original The Killing Joke in 1988, I think my friend and I waited until ’89 for financial reasons (in your early teens and unemployable, funds were tight), but maybe we were some of the early readers. The when is murky, but our reactions were not. This was a fantastic story with unbelievable art — it blew our young minds. In the years since, I’ve read it countless times, and while I still enjoy the core of the book, there are bits that make me wonder why. Bolland’s art still blows me away.

The animated movie version wasn’t bad, as I recall. I’ve only watched it once and my memory’s not crisp about it. My point is, that I know this story pretty well. When I heard that Titan books was going to be doing a series of new novels about Batman and they’d start with an adaptation of this story, I was skeptical, but at the same time — an extended version of this story? This could be really good — but how were they going to get that much material?

It turns out that the key to that is the same strategy that allowed Peter Jackson to make a smallish children’s novel into a very long movie trilogy — just make up a bunch of stuff and shove it in here and there. Obviously, any novel treatment of the graphic novel (or movie) is going to do that to some extent — but I’d be willing to wager that up to 65% of this book is new, and not even hinted at in the original. Which bothers me on one level, but intrigues me on others — also, I liked the new stuff.

Batman and Batgirl are independently (usually) looking into the appearance and distribution of a new drug on Gotham’s scene — Giggle Sniff. It’s based on the Joker’s venom and is selling like crazy. There’s a lot of bouncing around as the Caped Crusaders tear through the underworld, looking for the sources of the drug — and interfering as much as possible with the sales and distribution. Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock are also nosing around, and turning up the heat on the dealers. There are some great action sequences, some interesting characters introduced.

While that’s going on, the Joker’s breaking out of Arkham and setting the stage for what he wants to do next. Then we get the adaptation of the Killing joke in the last quarter or so of the novel. Here, there’s minimal changes form the source material — some expanding of ideas, but nothing major or objectionable. If you know the graphic novel, then you know exactly what happens at this point, and if you don’t, I’m not going to spill the beans. I even liked their take on Batman’s reaction to the dumb joke told at the end — I think they made that problematic moment work.

The characters are well done, the action moves well — it’s just the execution of the idea overall that gives me any pause. There’s a little bit about the birth of the Internet as we now know it that’s really nicely pulled off.

The bits of this book that were an adaptation of the Moore/Bolland graphic novel were really well done — and the way these authors filled in some of the details and gave a very contemporary backstory to part of it worked in ways I didn’t expect. Also, the Giggle Sniff part of the book was pretty good. And if either one of them had been the core of a novel, I’d very likely be more positive about those books. But shoving the two of these together? It didn’t work that well. I liked the novel, but I can’t recommend it too highly because the two parts of the novel are just too distinct from one another to see why the authors made these choices.

—–

3 Stars