Troy's Book Reviews Redux

I just finished a few more books, so it's time for another book review session! Before I start though, I need to tell you that I despise spoilers - that's why I don't really get into the details of the plots in any of my reviews.

This time I'm going to go from worst to best, here goes:


Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons

Yes, this is a graphic novel (no, it's not a comic book, there's definitely nothing comic about this book). I picked this book because it had been a long time since I'd read a graphic novel, and this is the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. It's also on Time Magazine's list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present" and is apparently the only graphic novel on that list too. So it's got to be good, right? WRONG!

For me, the most important part of a graphic novel is the artwork, followed closely by the story. This failed on both counts. The individual chapters were published in the mid-80s and it shows. It's very "4-color" (realistically inked, but with poor color depth and pronounced halftones) and that style doesn't appeal to me at all. Also, there's some nudity - not a lot, but it was never necessary to really tell the story, it seemed like a cheap trick to make the book seem avant-garde. Also, there was gore (I'm not a fan) - not a lot, though, and it was mainly story driven.

But what about the story?! Wow, Alan Moore really had something to get off his chest about the fundamentally flawed nature of society and human character, and he's really heavy-handed with it in the plot. The story is set in an alternate history 1980s where there are masked heroes, but very little in the way of super powers. It covers the stories of two generations of heroes - along with all their character flaws, relationships, etc. To give the author some credit, the characters are very well developed. Also, this was written during the cold war when planetary destruction by nuclear war was on everyone's minds, so I guess it makes sense to have that play a big role in the plot and the tone.

The book uses 2 big gimmicks to really lay the metaphors on thick. The first is the large section of text at the end of each chapter. These are usually in the form of book excerpts or news articles (set in the story's world), uncovering a little more about each character. These are generally WAY too long and don't reward you with enough insight to make slogging through the text feel worthwhile. The second gimmick is the use of excerpts from a comic book that one of the characters is reading - a comic within a comic. It's an interesting idea and kind of neat at first, but again, the metaphor was laid on way too thickly and it got old right away.

So would I recommend this book? No, not really. If you're really down on society and want a gory, and darkly preachy graphic novel, you may want to try it. No, even then, I'd recommend a nice compilation of The Darkness over this. That said, critics have really gone head-over-heels for this book and there's apparently going to be a Watchmen movie in 2009, so what do I know?


The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

This book is a sequel to Old Man's War, which I recommended in my last book review post. I really liked the tone and narrator perspective of Old Man's War and I was hoping for more of the same. The Ghost Brigades didn't have the same perspective, nor was it even the same kind of book - but in the end, it didn't let me down.

The story is told in the third person and is a much more detailed story with more dialog driving the plot than in Old Man's War. Because of that, I had a hard time getting through the first couple of chapters, but eventually it did launch into a similar sort of "life story" tale that made Old Man's War so good, and I had trouble putting it down. I liked the character development and the theme of what it means to be a traitor. Again, this is a military book so it's violent and cussy; be warned. I definitely recommend it if you liked Old Man's War. I've started on the third book in the series, The Last Colony, and it still hasn't grabbed me. Hopefully that one will be on my next review post.


Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

This is what I call a "big science" science fiction book - where there's some really-large scale advanced technology (think Larry Niven or Ben Bova), but it's not about the big science. It's pretty much a contemporary novel set a few years in the future. It's mainly a series of first person flashbacks that tell the story of Tyler Dupree - his childhood years, and his relationship with two friends (brother and sister) who live in the Big House. Again, the book isn't about the science fiction, it's about the relationships and about growing up. It’s also an interesting tale about how people react to the end of the world.

When I first started reading the book, I was really annoyed with the author's style. It seemed like he wrote things awkwardly (like pausing a sentence in the middle, referring to something else, and then continuing). I don't know if the writing got better as the book went on, or if I just got used to it, but as I fell into the story the writing seemed much better. There are several really good one-liners and sound bites that I've thought about several times since I finished - which I can't tell you because of my obsession with not spoiling a story!

There are a lot of great metaphors (they're subtle, thank you!!) and thought-provoking situations and plot developments. This is one of those books that I'll be thinking back on for a long while.

This is a great stand-alone novel, but I just found out that there's a sort-of-sequel called "Axis" (I guess it’s set in the same world) which I'll definitely try. Needless to say, I definitely recommend this for a good scifi read and for a thought provoking story about growing up as well as an interesting end of the world drama. I told Amanda that she has to read this one so we can "book club" it (yes, book club is a verb).


So those are my three reviews. I'm planning on keeping up the book review posts, at least for a while. Here's what I'm currently reading:

• The Last Colony by John Scalzi
• Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
• Farthing by Jo Walton
• PIC Robotics by John Iovine - but that doesn't really count!