The Graveyard Book

I started Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book yesterday. I had just finished my last midterm, and I was waiting for a friend. So I started reading. I was immediately drawn into the story, as only books by Neil Gaiman can do.

The Graveyard Book starts out on an incredibly sad note. The man Jack has murdered a man, woman, and their child. He has only to murder their baby and his job is done. But when he ascends to the baby's room, the crib is empty; the baby has escaped and wandered off into the night to the graveyard. While there, some of the ghosts take pity on the baby when his newly dead mother screams for someone to save the child. And so a dead couple by the name of Owens take in the baby, naming him Nobody.

The Graveyard Book follows Bod Owens' life growing up in the graveyard. Given the Freedom of the Graveyard, Bod is free to explore. But he must be careful to stay within the graveyard, for the man Jack still hunts him.

The Graveyard Book was a joy to read. Some of the chapters are stand alone short stories (Chapter 4: The Witch's Headstone" was first published separately), making for fun adventures along the plot. And the entire story was well put together, with everything coming nicely together at the end. A wonderful book from a wonderful storyteller!

Library Book: 52

I found Greg Cox's 52 at work one day. It sounded rather interesting, so I brought it home. Now that I have finished it, I have to say that I am extremely surprised that I managed to actually get through it. 52 was just a really slow read. I kept reading, but at the same time I kept asking myself "why am I reading this again?" I felt that I never really cared about what was happening.

52 is a book written about a comic book series of the same name. I discovered this only after I started reading it. But anyway, it takes place after some crisis that I don't know anything about, and just assumes that the reader knows what is going on. There are 52 chapters in the book, one for every week of the year following the crisis. 52 follows a few new superheros: Booster Gold, ex-football player from the future turned 21st Century superhero, his robot sidekick, Skeets, The Question, a guy with no face, Batwoman, Black Adam, the evil Captain Marvel, and Renee Montoya, an ex-cop who doesn't have any special powers to speak of other than getting drunk and having one night stands. In the aftermath of this crisis, the big three superheros, Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman, are missing in action. So we have these other people we're following in lieu of our favourite heroes. Can you tell I'm a bit bitter? I was thinking Batman might make a bit more of an appearance in this book. But instead I spent a good chunk of the story following Black Adam and being confused that Captain Marvel is a DC superhero.

Anyway, Booster Gold's career goes quickly down the tubes as things go extremely wrong for him; Skeets seems to have inaccurate records of the 21st Century. To make matters worst, Booster gets upstaged by a new hero, Supernova. Black Adam finds love again after 3 thousand years alone. His new love, Isis, brings out the gentler side of him, getting Black Adam to help the people of his country rather than killing and planning war against the Western Superheroes. Batwoman barely makes any appearances. And the Question and Renee are looking into some weird crime syndicate, breaking into warehouses, and just generally globetrotting. The crime syndicate, Intergang, had thugs who could mutate into were-beasts of every variety. I take it that this was just because it was cool; this is never really explained in the book.

So things carry on like this for a couple hundred pages. A whole lot of nothing seems to happen through most of the book. And then suddenly, these scientists unveil the Four Horsemen of Apokolips, these weird robot/cyborg/I don't know what monstrosities, to go after Black Adam and his family. They were really cool, providing one of the most exciting scenes in the novel to that point. Here's a picture I found of them from the DC Wiki. They are Yurrd the Unknown (the werewolf in the picture, personifying Famine), Roggra of the Seven Atrocities (the man-tank, War), Zorrm the Desolate (the thing in the front right. Pestilence), and Azraeuz the Silent King (the awesome thing in the back, Death).

A lot more action happens in the latter part of the book, but even here it seems ponderous. 52 always seemed hard to keep reading. It was only pure stubbornness that kept me reading it. I'm not sure how the comic series would be, but whether it is better or worse, having read this novel does not make me want to find out.

Library Book: Superman: Emperor Joker

Normally I prefer Batman stories, but while I was at work this last Saturday, Superman: Emperor Joker caught my eye. It looked fun, and it screamed a Batman/Superman crossover, so I decided to give it a shot. And I wasn't disappointed.

Superman: Emperor Joker opens in a strange alternate reality. Superman is a criminal, accused of murdering Lex Luthor. Villians like Bizaarro are considered the heroes. And for some reason, it keeps raining pies . . .

Yes, the Joker has managed to get God-like powers. He has remade the world into his dream, whatever that dream happens to be at the moment. Everything is opposite, and only the Man of Steel seems to realize that everything is wrong. And every night there is the unearthly scream . . .

Yes, Superman: Emperor Joker was a great story. It was a bit of a crossover, but I enjoyed every minute of reading it. From Bizarro's opposite talk to the Joker's cruel insanity, this was a good story for everyone who likes the DC Universe.

Club Zero-G

I picked this graphic novel up for $1 from Chapters the other day. The back of the book sounded intriguing; it spoke of dreams being portals to other worlds, worlds with all of your friends, but you were the only one who could remember. So after Reaper Man, I decided to give this a shot. It wasn't very long, and I figured it would be an entertaining $1.

Well, it was....something. Club Zero-G started out delivering what it promised on its cover. But then things took a radical step to the weird. There was some sort of military from the future that wanted to squash individuality (I guess in the way of Equilibrium) but it is very undefined. They were fighting some future kids, who then created Club Zero-G for some reason involving this kid from the past, Zeke. There's only really one dream world portal, and that is to Club Zero-G. Otherwise, there's a confusing point near the end with multiple realities, but that's it.

The whole graphic novel was very hard to follow. The story wasn't really that great, and I wasn't a fan of the artwork. But for $1, I can't really complain. If you can't find it for a dollar, but really want to check it out, then I recommend borrowing it from the library.

Reaper Man

I have to admit that I was rather hesitant to read another Discworld novel. I have read both The Colour of Magic (twice!)and The Light Fantastic and I really didn't care for either of them. But a friend of mine assurred me that these two were the worst of the lot. Recently, another friend of mine really wanted me to give Discworld another try, so I settled on reading Reaper Man (which a third friend of mine swears by).

Reaper Man is a book about Death's retirement. The keepers of the cosmos (I'm not entirely sure what they were, so I just gave them this name) decided that Death had gained a personality, so it was time for him to be replaced. He was informed of his upcoming death, and so he decided to take the Time he suddenly found himself with and live a little.

At the same time, a wizard by the name of Windle Poons has been waiting to die. And being a wizard, he is informed of his appointment with Death, and awaits the time when Death comes in person to bring him to the afterlife. But at the appointed time, Death does not show (as he's in retirement). Windle dies, but after waiting around for a bit, he decides to return back to his body, and thus becomes a member of the undead.

The book goes back and forth between Death and Windle at this point. Death is helping out on a farm, awaiting the harvest. And Windle is trying to properly die.

I started Reaper Man yesterday. And I really didn't want to put it down! I found the character of Death to be hilarious, especially as he was trying to understand the humans he was now hanging out with. I think my favourite part was when he was trying to get a job with Miss Flitworth; that really made me laugh. And so my recommendations are the following: do NOT start reading the Discworld series by reading The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. These two definitely turned me off from the series. A friend of mine recommends that you start around Wyrd Sisters or later. And secondly, give Reaper Man a shot. It was a light read, rather rediculous, but highly entertaining. This was a nice break from school books!

List Update

I thought that now was a good time to write another List update. Lately I haven't read a whole lot off of the List, focussing mainly on school books. But I have been buying more books lately. Over the last few weeks, I have been to Chapters three times. As a result, the List now has 105 books on it!

Luckily, I now have about a week where I am free to read whatever I want. So I am definitely going to tackle a List book or two (as well as a library book most likely). Also, my Chapters gift certificate from Christmas has been used up, so hopefully that will help to keep me out of the bookstore as well. I'm not entirely sure what I am planning on reading next, but I do have a lot to choose from!

Oh, I wanted to mention with this update the addition of Interludes. Interludes are books that other people lend me to read. This would include things like Twilight, which my cousin lent to me. I wanted a way to distinguish non-List books that were not from the library or a school book, and I felt that the term Interlude was fitting. So far, there has only been one entry marked as an Interlude (Heart of Hush), but I'm sure there will be more to follow!

School Book: The Edible Woman

Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman is the last school book I have to read before Study Week (which is two weeks away!) The Edible Woman is the first book by Atwood that I have ever read (and only the second story, the first being Bluebeard's Egg which I read for Contemporary Children's Literature last term).

The Edible Woman started out as a typical story. The main character, Marion, goes about her life; she works for a survey company and lives with a roommate. She goes out for dinner with her boyfriend and an old friend from college. And that's when it happened: she had a couple of panic attacks and ran away.

Yes, the main character literally runs away. Her boyfriend and friends have to chase after her. It was so random! I really couldn't believe it! But it happened! To top off the randomness, her boyfriend eventually catches her, and although he is rather annoyed with her, he proposes to her!

The book takes another weird turn at this point. Part 1 was written in the first person perspective. Part 2 is all written in the third person perspective. I didn't really understand it at the time, but once you get to the end of the story, it all makes sense. Anyway, part 2 is where it starts to happen: Marion slowly loses the ability to eat. It starts with meat; her stomach and mouth rebel whenever she tries to eat meat. She starts thinking about whatever she is eating in terms of what it once was. But steadily, she stops being able to eat eggs, vegetables, and then everything!

I was really impressed by Atwood's work. The Edible Woman has incredible descriptions throughout its pages. The characters were distinct and believable. I enjoyed every word of it! This book is definitely a great introduction to Atwood's work!