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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 23, 2018 16:21:51 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley , I can see where Buscema would not have liked Sinnott's inks. He did give everything a tidy, "Marvel-style" look, even Kirby's. But I preferred those to >ahem< Ernie Chua/an's. And a little Alfredo (I want to be Gustave Dore) Alcala went a long way on Savage Sword. I don't think that Sal addressed Alcala (I'm a huge fan). But he did talk about the Filipino artists in general being pretty overpowering with their inking. Rudy Nebres did at least one job over Sal Buscema that was just lovely. I think the one I enjoyed least was DeZuniga. Too scratchy and slapdash looking. Nebres was nice: graceful, lush. Buscema Alfredo was a dish served too often. Every once in a while, lovely.
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2018 21:38:11 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley , I can see where Buscema would not have liked Sinnott's inks. He did give everything a tidy, "Marvel-style" look, even Kirby's. But I preferred those to >ahem< Ernie Chua/an's. And a little Alfredo (I want to be Gustave Dore) Alcala went a long way on Savage Sword.
Heretic! They could have had Alcala inking and/or drawing every issue and it still wouldn't have been enough for me.
Agree with Buscema about Sinnott, though: I only really like his style in combination with Kirby's pencils. Everyone else's he seemed to water them down and make them a little too bland, for my taste.
Klein would be my favourite Buscema inker for the superhero stuff.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 24, 2018 20:11:11 GMT -5
Shadow Raiders by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes
This book (and perhaps the series) seems to have not decided what it wants to be when it grows up. Is it steampunk? Pseudo-historical fiction with a bit of magic (ala Game of Thrones)? Straight Epic fantasy? It tries to be all three in this first installment, with surprisingly coherent results.
First, a warning, which the scene depicted on the awesome cover does take place, Dragons are a pretty minor part of the tale, in fact, a big plot point is how they're not fond of humans at this point in the books history.
There's quite a bit of France (Rosia) vs. England (Freya), oh, maybe in the 17th century. The interesting thing about that, well, conflict, is that neither side is particularly portrayed as the good guys. Sure, the Rosian contingent gets more page time, but never did I get the feeling that they were the 'good guys'. Then, of course, as the cover shows, there's some demons in the mix, that seem sure to unite the longtime enemies in the long run (sorta like a famous Wall in that other series). Then, of course, there are dragons, who are very cool and powerful, but are just a minor part... so far (like that other famous series).
It's not THAT similar to Game of Thrones though (besides no one dying).... it's definitely an analogue of a much later time, and there are air ships that run on 'the Breath of God'.. which seems very similar to steam, only a bit magical. And of course the church is in charge of the tech. And England (Freya) doesn't like that.
So, while I'm not sure where the series is going, or how much I actually liked it, it was an engaging read and I'll probably get the next one
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Post by brutalis on Aug 28, 2018 7:50:50 GMT -5
Finished Empires of the Sea: the siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto and the Contest for the Center of the World by Richard Crowley. This highlights the battles of East vs West between the Muslims (Ottoman Empire) and the Christian (French, Spanish, Venetians) for what was then called the Center of the World at the time. This book covers a large Historical period of war and slaughter yet it reads like an adventure or pirate novel. It would easily be the basis of a movie screenplay with some tweaking.
Lots of fine details and rich colorful stories help this fast paced page turner draw you in. Much more than a text book of dry historical facts this book shows you history up close where you feel as though you are in the thick of battle smelling the smoke and gunpowder while hearing the cannons booming. Delve back over 500 years ago to a time when guns were just coming into use, when you lived and died by the sword with luck as your battle companion. There are sea faring battles aplenty, sieges upon Constantinople as Islam strikes back against the forces of Christiandom. Sharpen up your swords and knives, prime your flints and see the personalities and politics of a formative time when conquest and expansion depended upon the strength of your armies numbers and supplies.
A very fun and terrific read that will keep your attention and enthrall you til the end.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 31, 2018 14:33:26 GMT -5
Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King This would be the spiritual successor semi-sequel to King's Pulitzer Prize winner Devil in the Grove. King again takes us to Lake County, Florida for a look at another miscarriage of justice perpetrated by Lake County Sheriff Willis. It is December 1957 and Central Florida is in the midst of a freeze that devastates the citrus crop. In the wee hours of the morning socialite Blanche Knowles contacts her attorney who then calls the police to report that her home has been invaded and she has been raped by a black man. The round up of the usual suspects takes place in the black areas of the county as the bloodhounds follow a trail into that part of town. But a few weeks later the focus of the investigation inexplicably changes focus onto Jesse Dayton a mentally disabled local white boy with no history of violence and a pronounced stammer. After being held without counsel or access to his family for an extended period of time Jesse signs a confession and is then railroaded into the Florida State Hospital for the Insane with a decided lack of due process. King traces the history of the case and the long excruciating work of freeing Jesse undertaken by his mother, an intrepid newspaper reporter and a number of attorneys, all of whom took their lives in their hand to expose the widespread corruption that crawled into every nook and cranny of Lake County. King writes another fine book. It's not quite as compelling as Devil in the Grove. And if you've read that book Beneath a Ruthless Sun treads a bit of the same ground. But again King shows us the pervasive and systemic corruption that permeated every level of Florida government during the better part of the 20th Century. Recommended...but it's not as good as Devil in the Grove.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 1, 2018 9:14:29 GMT -5
The Killing Machine by Jack Vance
I actually struggled to get through this one.. while there were some imaginative ideas as far as concepts go (I did like Interchange)... it's really just a string of adventures where the lead character goes through each type of archtype that is popular in turn.... he's a detective, and engineer, a con man, a warrior, etc.
The main character was far too good at everything, and, of course, he gets the girl in the end. Very disappointing with all the positive vibes Jack Vance gets.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 4, 2018 0:09:07 GMT -5
Storm Riders By Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes
All to often when writers set upon writing a trilogy.. they really only have one book worth of story... maybe 2. Everyone loves a trilogy though, right? So thus things get stretched, or side characters get unnecessarily developed, or random happenings that have nothing to do with the main plot get explored.
Storm Riders does none of that.. it's very easily better than the 1st book.. this is a driven, concise plot that moves along and juggles different characters in different places very well... bringing them together without random co-incidence, but rather when the story allows.
The book does settle into what I always assumed Game of Thrones would be eventually.. the nations of the world uniting against a common foe, yet still mindful of who should come out on top at the end of the conflict.
We also get some excellent character development from the main group, more details on the world (even a bit about the near non-existent Dragons), and more foundation on how the world works.
If there is anything to complain about.. the bad guys are pretty shallow, and not nearly as well developed as they started out being in the first book.. they've pretty much devolved into standard boogeymen.
Overall, an excellent book I'm excited to read the conclusion to. I do have to wonder though, why is the marketing (the cover and the description anyway) so focused on the Dragons? They have a bit part, and certainly no one who's a fan of them would call this series a 'dragon' series. I can't help but think they marketed to the wrong crows.. this is a book for fans of Steampunk and George RR Martin, not Naomi Novik and Anne McCaffrey.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 4, 2018 9:36:54 GMT -5
Ended the month Friday night by finished off book 11 of Bernard Cornwell's hero. Sharpe's Fury takes us to the Battle of Barrosa in March 1811 along the Spanish coast in the town of Cadiz. Sharpe is sent to help the Duke of Wellington's younger brother Henry Wellsely who is being blackmailed with letters of woo he had once written. Sharpe will of course find the lady and entertain her while finding the greedy villains and destroying their plans. Along the way he is wounded by a ricocheting lead ball and survives it and hoping to find the brigand who shot him (which of course he does) and having his revenge. All the usual grime, sweat and grit of our Napoleonic era sharp shooter extraordinaire as would be expected. Another riveting and thrilling adventure in history from Mr. Cornwell providing excitement and bravura.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 4, 2018 17:41:06 GMT -5
Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur
by Jim Amash We're back with another Twomorrows artist bio/interview. While there is occasionally some differences for the most part you know what you're getting with these books. However, this one was a bit different...and a bit better than most of them. Why? Because Carmine Infantino...that's why. And in a way that's a bit surprising. Not because Infantino wasn't a great interview. Because he really was. But because I've read sooooo many interviews with him over the years that you'd think there couldn't possibly be anything new. But there were two things that set this one a step beyond the normal Twomorrows artist book. First, Carmine does not hold back. He tells exactly how he felt about everyone who he worked with and how he felt about the work he was doing. That's a bit rare as these things tend to be love-fests. Carmine is even willing to admit that he was largely phoning it in on most of his later work. He just didn't care any more and was drawing a check. The second is that I actually learned something about art from this book. I'm not an art guy. I've never taken an art (theory) class in my life. I know what I like, but only vaguely why I like it. Infantino actually taught me a bit about art in this book. And a bit about inking. And in reading what he was saying and thinking about it, he really was doing far more innovative stuff on both his first run of The Flash and on Elongated Man than I'd ever really realized. So while I usually recommend Twomorrows books...I highly recommend this one. It's a gem.
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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 4, 2018 18:49:23 GMT -5
Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur Carmine was the one who started hiring artists as editors in the late 60s - Orlando, Kubert, Sekowsky, Kirby. One thing I've always wondered - who was next on the list? Did he consider offering Ross Andru or Gil Kane an editorial job?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 4, 2018 20:50:36 GMT -5
Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur Carmine was the one who started hiring artists as editors in the late 60s - Orlando, Kubert, Sekowsky, Kirby. One thing I've always wondered - who was next on the list? Did he consider offering Ross Andru or Gil Kane an editorial job? Yep. He was the one who hired artists as editors. You missed Giordano. He did not care for Gil Kane so I'm going to guess that that was not an option. I don't think he mentioned Andru in the book at all. I'm not sure. He did say that he regretted not giving C. C. Beck control of the Shazam book as it was clear that Schwartz had no idea what to do with it.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 4, 2018 22:24:47 GMT -5
Just finished C.J. Chivers' The Fighters.
Excellent reporting about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, focusing on six men: a navy flier, a corpsman, a Kiowa helicopter pilot, a Marine officer, a Special Forces sergeant, and an infantryman.
War described from the participants' view is always a sobering counterbalance to the God's-eye view of campaigns, grand strategies, and geo-political goals. Chivers' account, due in no small part to the scope of his book (It begins in the immediate wake of the September 11 attacks and concludes in the very recent present), cannot help but have a resigned, melancholy tone. Like the best reporters, he intimates rather than proclaims his attitude toward the nearly 20 years of war that has ravaged several countries and the lives of the relatively few Americans who have served in them.
As you might expect, the courage these men display both during and after their overseas duty is daunting. Chivers, a combat veteran himself, now a writer for the NY Times, neither overdramatizes nor minimizes the sacrifices, the agonies, and the frustration each of these fighters faces. Harrowing descriptions of combat that for me evoked the most gripping passages in William Manchester's Pacific War memoir, Goodbye, Darkness.
Above all, it's heartbreaking, because like every great book about war, The Fighters reaffirms that while there is often honor displayed by its participants, war itself is an inglorious undertaking, the traitorous Robert E. Lee's self-serving assessment notwithstanding.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 6, 2018 22:09:25 GMT -5
Old Scores by Will Thomas
It was nice to see the series get back to its roots... after the less successful variations on the theme, we get back to exploring the different cultures of the time a murder at a time. This time, Japan sends a delegation to England for trade and arms, and Barker gets hip deep in things as usual.
I'm not sure if it's just because it's the 9th book in the series, or if Thomas is losing steam, but this one just wasn't as enjoyable as the previous ones. We do get a lot more of Barker's back story, but its getting to the point where he's starting to turn into Victorian Forrest Gump, where he was everywhere for every event... we just need a scene where he rode with Stonewall Jackson or General Sherman or something.
It was a bit odd that it sort of ended on a cliff hanger, yet didn't mention the huge cliffhanger in the last book, but according to the reviews for the forthcoming book #10, it seems that might be getting taken care of.
On the plus side, the interaction between Llewelyn's fiancé and Barker's 'daughter' was fantastic, and while Thomas was a little overly snarky in this book, there were some entertaining one liners. I hope the next book gets to a good conclusion, rather than the series just sort of meandering forever.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 10, 2018 8:28:20 GMT -5
Finished book 2 in the series A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. This one finds agents Books and Braun (he of the studious sort and she the vibrant adventure into trouble sort) amidst the disappearances of women of the new Suffrage movement in London. There is plenty of steam punk inventiveness, humor, action, adventure, romance and characterization throughout the entire book. Mr Books character is delved into deeply showing his new interest and attraction to his partner while showing he is not the atypical bookworm afraid of adventure. He is actually an intelligent and capable person who holds back his skills and abilities for fear of becoming too much the pre-programmed ultimate military warrior his father attempted to program him into. Agent Braun is given more depth as well with the introduction of family friends and a former lover from her youth in New Zealand. Ultimately the team uncovers the villain and other villainous sundry types without stopping the larger plan being prepared by the ultimate lead villain (still unknown) of the series.
A grand, thrilling ride of escapism. Very well written with tight plotting and characterization. Everything in the book flows smoothly and you are effortlessly drawn into this interesting world. Looking forward the next book!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 10, 2018 16:50:07 GMT -5
The Empty Badge by Wayne D. Dundee Wayne Dundee returns to Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles in another nice little novella. Cash has been following Driscoll Gang and has the drop on them. But a quirk of nature and a twist of fate turn the tables. Now Gideon Miles is looking for Cash who has been reported to have joined up with the Driscoll's. All this and a medicine show that picks up a stranger as they travel through the old west. All three of Dundee's Laramie and Miles novella's are well worth a read. Quick hard-boiled westerns.
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