Voice of the Angry

2011 (I’m counting comics as one book per series this year)

So I fell behind this year but read a lot of comics. (255 versus 55+ last year) I also read a couple of non-fiction pieces, mostly related to beer and homebrewing. The Kindle is already loaded with new material and my Amazon wish list has about 5 pre-order releases. The new King/Dark Tower book should be a winner. An improvement in my iPad comics app will surely keep that reading rate up there. I’m also looking forward to Cronin’s sequel to The Passage though it’d be nice if it clocked in at under 1000 pages. Have a great year and happy reading!

• 40. The Ghost Brigades -
• 39. Strain Book 3 (Hogan/Del Toro) –
• 38. Thor – 337-382 (Walt Simonson) – Classic Thor told by the master. It doesn’t get any better than this and now that Marvel has a Simonson Omnibus out, you have no excuse for not reading them.
• 37. The Walking Dead Vol. 14-15 (Robert Kirkman) – NO ONE IS SAFE. That is all for now.
• 36. Star Trek: Enterprise – The Romulan War: To Brave The Storm (Michael A. Martin) – YAAWWN. What was a great idea and cool series has stalled with this entry. Aliases and convoluted Romulan names make for some confusion as well as the total lack of action here. Hopefully the next Enterprise book will get things back on track…in a year.
• 35. A Rising Thunder ARC (David Weber) – Hey David, there will be space combat in our space combat series, won’t there? A nice tight thriller with a touch of the aforementioned space combat but I long for the days Honor Harrington deftly reduced the opposition to scrap metal. Oh and once again, the end comes we’re left wondering if this hasn’t become one long book that Weber releases in episodes. I’m still reading them though.
• 34. Locke and Key – Welcome To Lovecraft – Keys to the Kindgom (Joe Hill) – To say that Fox made a mistake not picking up this pilot is an understatement. This series would translate so well to television I fail to see the logic in the execs passing on it. The comic itself is an ongoing battle between one family’s children and an unfeeling embodiment of evil involving an ancestral home and some keys. Leave it at that and pick them up.
• 33. The Death Cure (James Dashner) – The end. Nice application of “deus ex machina”at the end that feels fitting given the journey of these characters over three books. The last four pages are such a punch in the gut you may want to go back and reread the whole thing. Great series.
• 32. Ganymede (Cherie Priest) – From the air to…somewhere else. I don’t want to spoil this one, but it brings a lot of Priests storyline into a single plot involving characters from most of the previous novels. Harvey Korman and Andan Cly hold my interest much more than the primary protagonist, whose name I actually forget if that tell you anything. Cool story and a great end that I hope is setting up the next foray into the Clockwork Century.
• 31. Goliath (Scott Westerfeld) -
• 30. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) – So, I’m lying. I’m still working on this one. So far, it’s a ton of fun and every geeks wet dream.
• 27-29. Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies (Richard K. Morgan) – The three novels of the Takeshi Kovacs series. If cortical stacks, uplifts and needlecasts are already in your vocabulary, these books need no explanation. If not, the technology alone will have you reading like a madman. The first two books are great mystery/thrillers with some cool payoff. The third, not so much. Morgan gets so bogged down with Kovacs complicated, time-slipping existence that you almost need a map to keep things straight. Don’t let that stop you from reading the first two. They’re great and make me wish Morgan would go back to this world, if only to visit the Martians again.
• 26. Ghost Story (Jim Butcher) – Harry dead? Well yeah, only in Dresden’s world, that doesn’t mean you get that day off. It means you have to solve your own murder while solving sundry other problems. Then maybe we’ll shove another still in at the end and break it off. Write faster Jim!
• 25. Dreadnought (Cherie Priest) – Now this is Priest’s best work in my opinion. Take Murder on the Orient Express, throw in a little train race and you have a great cast of characters with some cool subplots and an ending that sets the book on its ear. You know what’s coming if you’ve read her other books. If not, this will thrill you at the end.
• 24. King of Plagues (Jonathan Mayberry) – (SPOILER) Of course he isn’t dead. Those of you who read the Ledger books will get that and those who don’t should. Quick techno thrillers with a taste of zombie that make for nice recreational reading. Don’t expect to walk away with the meaning of life and you’ll like this one.
• 23. Clementine & Tanglefoot (Cherie Priest) – A couple more Steampunk pieces from Priest’s Clockwork Century. This aren’t nearly as long as Boneshaker and I think Clementine suffers for it. Tanglefoot is great and draws from Priest’s previous experience with southern gothic.
• 22. Old Man’s War (John Scalzi) – There’s a reason this is mentioned in the same breath with Starship Troopers and The Forever War. This tale of old people getting new bodies to fight a war is fresh while touching on some classic SF themes. Scalzi is not on my author short list.
• 21. Boneshaker (Cherie Priest) – My first foray into adult Steampunk and it’s a winner. Shucks, zombies make everything better. Priest’s reimagined history makes for a much more exciting, yet at the same time, depressing aftermath (kind of) to the Civil War.
• 20. The Umbrella Academy – The Apocalypse Suite/Dallas (Gerard Way) – 2nd Best comic I’ve read this year. It’s a shame we don’t get more from this series.
• 19. The Maze Runner/The Scorch Trials (James Dashner) – For those looking for something more in the vein of The Hunger Games with a twist of Lost thrown in for good measure. Much more gore than Hunger Games but not as tight with the themes. Still good stuff.
• 18. Chew:Volumes 1-3 (John Layman) – The story of cibopath Tony Chu, a detective in the FDA. That’s all I’m saying.
• 17. The Living Dead Volume 2 (edited by John Joseph Adams) – As good as the first but not as good as Spector and Skipp’s two collections on the whole.
• 16. DMZ:Volume 1-10 (Brian Wood) – Strong concept, mostly a solid execution but it get’s very preachy towards the latter issues and loses some of the unpredictability that made it so enjoyable.
• 15. Secret Avengers: Vol 1 & 2(Ed Brubaker) – Alright, so I’m a sucker for Brubaker, but unlike Cap’s ultra-realistic storyline, Brubaker throws us back to the galaxy spanning stories of Chris Clairemont. Grab these if you get a chance
• 14. In Fire Forged (David Weber and various) – The latest collection of stories from the Honorverse leaves me with just one complaint. It’s too short. As always, Weber’s marquee piece paints a new picture of an early Honor but surprisingly, none of the peripheral pieces slip far from that high bar. For the hardcore Honor nerds out there, a 30+ page article on impeller missile design rounds out the book.
• 13. Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield (Ed Brubaker) – Another compilation (600-611, hey, I don’t number ‘em) covering the story of the aftermath of the death of Steve Rogers and Bucky’s tenure as Cap. The strong plots continue here with Brubaker pulling out the stops when it comes to the Cap Rogues Gallery. Sit back and enjoy this comic while you can.
• 11-12. Flood/Ark (Stephen Baxter) – An end of the world tale spun across two novels with distinctly different settings. to avoid spoilers, let me say that once you are beyond the cause of the disaster, the science is both intriguing and frightening. Baxter outdoes himself here with concepts pulled together from a myriad of classic sci-fi yet keeps it all relevant through some solid character development. The first novel covers the onset of the disaster and the second it’s aftermath, but both paint a bleak portrait of man’s inhumanity to man.
• 9-10. Leviathan/Behemoth (Scott Westerfeld) – These two novels form the alternate history, steampunk telling of WWI from the point of view of two children. One is a young girl trying to join the British Air Corps by posing as a boy while the other is the bastard son of Franz Ferdinand. Westerfeld takes certain liberties with history but those take a backseat to the rich world he has painted. It seems that technology has taken two routes. The Darwinists, relying on Darwin’s discovery of life strands(read DNA) and the ability to manipulate them, resulting in the creation of engineered beasts including the titular flying whale. The other faction, the Clankers, are the typical steampunk incarnation, utilizing steam driven mecha. Any more information about the plot would deprive you of a solid read and an enjoyable retelling of WWI. This one is a teen novel like Westerfeld’s other novels, but don’t let that keep you from reading these two delightfully rich novels.
• 8. Nerd Do Well (Simon Pegg) – I found this semi-autobiography to be mostly amusing but honestly find Pegg to be most effective when detailing the exploits of his superhero alter-ego and his robot companion Canterbury. A solid read if you’re a fan.
• 7. Captain America (Ed Brubaker) – This encompasses the relaunch of Cap stating with volume 5 issue 1 through issue 50, roughly 6 graphic collections. This is the Cap that kids should be raised on. The taut 24-like storylines combined with the “Death of Cap” plot make for great reading and a very relevant theme. Brubaker has since branched out into other Marvel titles so I’m curious to see how this affects Cap.
• 6. Contagious (Scott Sigler) – Sequel to Infected in what I thought was a trilogy. Clearly not based on the ending. I liked the concept of this alien invasion story and was looking forward to seeing it pan out. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new here and the characters become a bit cliche. Next.
• 5. Star Trek: Rough Beasts of Empire (Typhon Pact #3)(David R. George III) – Chronologically out of order so this one is a bit unsettling from the start. Beyond that it takes way too long to get to the point. Much of this could have have been better accomplished by a novella or short story.
• 4. Serenity: The Shepards Tale (The Whedons) – Solid explanation of Book’s background before Firefly. I found that it may have even teased a bit too much. Fans will be pleased.
• 1-3. The Paratwa Saga (Christopher Hinz) – This early 90′s trilogy is some of the best sci-fi you’ve never read. Recently re-released in digital format, these books are an unforgiving look at a possible future that is rich and well-developed. Even though the eventual end seems to be a bit contrived, I could read a dozen more novels set in this world. Starts with the novel Liege Killer.

2010

1. The Estuary (Derek Gunn) – Solid zombie/plague book set in rural England. His Vampire Apocalypse series is much better.

2. Patient Zero (Jonathan Mayberry) – First Joe Ledger book. Action/SciFi/Horror with the pacing of a Clancy novel.

3. Containment (Christian Cantrell) – Second best read of the year. Hard SciFi novella that was a .99 Kindle special. This guy is on my short list.

4. The Passage (Justin Cronin) – Best read of the year. Not for the faint of heart. This 800 page monster take the vampire concept, tosses it sideways and blends in a shade of genetic horror. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s the first in a trilogy?

5. Tongues of Serpents (Naomi Novik) – Latest Temeraire novel is a real snoozer. Hopefully this was the “Order of the Phoenix” of the series.

6. Star Trek:A Singular Destiny (Keith DeCandido) – Political thriller set in the wake of the Borg invasion. Setup for the Typhon Pact books.

7-8. Star Trek: Typhon Pact 1-2 – Take everyone who’s not in the Federation and form a coalition. Series spanning trilogy that’s not quite as good as the Destiny trilogy.

9. Clickers III: Dagon Rising (Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez) – Pulp monster fiction by two of horror’s finest. Guilty pleasure.

10. The Fall (Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan) – Second book in The Strain trilogy(sensing a trend?) that might as well be a Blade sequel, if it didn’t suck.

11. The High King of Montival (SM Stirling) – Latest in the “Dies The Fire” series that should continue to please the SCA nuts in spite of the mysticism. Heading towards what can only be called an explosive conclusion.

12. Titus Crow Book One (Brian Lumley) – Lumley’s contribution to the Lovecraft mythos introducing the character that does a 180 on most Lovecraft characters. Good start.

13. Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins) – Awesome end to the Hunger Games books. Must read.

14. Declare (Tim Powers) – Deighton blended with Lovecraft. Gave me a headache.

15-27. The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) – Blew through this series in three weeks. Love, love, love Harry Dresden. Can’t wait for Ghost Story.

28-31. The Laundry (Charles Stross) – Equal parts Lovecraft, James Bond and Office Space. A geek’s wet dream.

32. Mission of Honor (David Weber) – Latest Honor Harrington novel. More political intrigue than action but sets up the next book well without boring you to death.

33-38. Other Honorverse Books (David Weber) – Three anthologies and the two novels about Torch. More in the universe of above.

39. Ice, Iron and Gold (SM Stirling) – Short story collection encompassing Stirling’s other series and some unconnected stuff.

40. City of Saints and Madmen (Jeff Vandermeer) – Consume heavily before reading.

41. Dragon Factory (Jonathan Mayberry) – Second Joe Ledger novel. Crichton, Clancy and King blended.

42. Pronto (Elmore Leonard) – The first Raylen Givens(Justified) novel. Have decided I’m not a fan of Leonard’s crime stuff.

43-44. The Living Dead/Wasteland (ed. John Joseph Adams) – Two themed short story collections, one zombie, one post-apocalyptic. Both great.

45. Dark Life (Kat Falls) – Teen scifi with a great setting and a solid story. Would like to see more from Falls.

46. Under The Dome (Stephen King) – Return to form for King. TV version could be good.

47. Infected (Scott Sigler) – Alien plague novel. Andromeda Strain with legs. Gory in parts but a good plot even if the characters are a bit thin. Will read the next book in the series.

48. The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Vol. 1 (David Drake) – First of 2 or 3 reprinting the stories as originally published. Best military scifi not called Starship Troopers.

49-51. Repairman Jack (F. Paul Wilson) – Wilson’s action/horror series keeps on truckin. Jack gets beaten down for three books here which makes me wonder if we’re going to see any sunshine before this series winds up in three more books.

52. Crossed (Garth Ennis) – Comic collection that follows a group of plague survivors. Graphic and brutal.

53. The Walking Dead Vol. 9-13 (Robert Kirkman) – Before the TV show, there was an awesome comic. Just remember, no one is safe.

54. Wasteland Vol. 3-5 (Antony Johnston) – Post apocalyptic western. Johnston needs to get back to writing it.