My Better List... September

If you haven’t read Thomm’s Sunday post "The List" in which he ranks all the books of the month, then you really should. It’s a great recap of books for the month. I like the idea because it isn’t an instant reaction. It evaluates the entire month against itself. In fact, I like the idea so much that I decided to try it myself.


The only problem is that I'm not decisive enough to rank the books. So I have three sections: Great Stuff, Good Stuff, and The Clunkers.



GREAT STUFF
One Piece Vols 1-6: The story of a boy who wants to be the King of the Pirates
This was pure cotton candy fun. It was light. It was funny. It was full of action. This was the comic book version of an action movie, high energy, high entertainment, little redeeming value. By the sixth volume I was ready for a break but after 1k pages who wouldn't be?

Moyasimon Vol 2:The story of a college student who can see, and talk to, virus’s and microbes.
A college student who can talk to microbes gets involved in the distilling process of sake. I wish I could make ideas that good up! Anyway, this was just excellent. I learned more about sake (rice wine) that I thought possible and laughed out loud several times. Highly entertaining.

The MetaBarons: Undefinable in one sentence. The greatest space epic ever.
An excellent story and one of the best I have ever read. Even after multiple readings, it’s still one of the best books of the month. It has just been rereleased but grab it quick because I don't know how long it will last.

28 Days Later, issues 1-9: Plague victims (zombies) chase people across England which has been quarantined to contain the plague.
The only zombie book better right now is The Walking Dead. But this isn’t far off. Criminally under the radar, this deserves more notice.

Honestly, the top four were all excellent. Each one describes my attitude the week I read it from happy to clinically depressed. Onto GOOD STUFF.

Dungeon: Twilight Vol 1: The end of all the characters in the Dungeon Universe
Dungeon: Early Years Vol 1 & 2: The origin of the Dungeon Master
Dungeon: Monstres Vol 2: Stories about the characters, filling in the gaps so to say, during the Twilight time period.
Highly entertaining but nigh inaccessible to the average reader. You can read Monstres without reading Twilight first. Twilight won’t hold the emotional impact without reading the Parade books first. And Early Years is the strongest but again, lacks something without knowing the characters first. This series is highly recommended, just don't start with these.

Rasl: A thief uses his own invention which allows him to travel between dimensions to steal priceless pieces of art until people start chasing him in order to use the invention for their own purposes.
Great story but no end in sight keeps this from being a must read. Issue #1 was released in Feb 08. The most recent trade collecting issues 1-7 just arrived at my house last month. Based upon that publishing schedule I should see the conclusion by 2014. A very good book and very entertaining but I can’t rate it higher if I know I’m never going to see an end. The only other problem is the main character (Rasl) is ugly. In case you weren't aware it's hard to root for ugly characters to succeed.

The Mighty Vol 1&2: Part of the “What if Superman were bad” wave from a couple of years ago.
A very entertaining What If story that has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. If you like capes then this will rate very high with you. I’m not a huge cape fan these days so it’s in the middle of the pack.

Okko Cycle of Earth: A samurai battles supernatural villains bent on destroying the empire.
This is a good story with stellar art. The story is fun and full of adventure but slightly generic in nature. The art though... oh la la the art.


Harry 20 on the High Rock: A classic action-adventure, escape from prison story that also happens to be Alan Davis’s earliest work.
I purchased this purely for Alan Davis’s art and it didn’t fail to disappoint. The story was good with only a couple of moments that didn't work. Fun and light in nature.

And finally, THE CLUNKERS….

Aqualeung: I think it’s the story of some kid who can breathe underwater and might have been a prince too… but I’m not sure.
I’m not sure this should be on list because I never finished it. The first time I tried to read it, I made it through 3 pages before I put it down. The second time I tried to read it, I made it through 10 pages before I put it down. I’m not sure if it’s the ridiculously garish colors, the seemingly pointless plot, or what appears to be poor man’s Scott Pilgrim art, but whatever it was, I could never finish this book. I’ll have to try again next month. But even a book I couldn’t finish was better than…

We will Bury You: Lesbians and zombies in 1920 New York.
I really had high hopes for this book and it failed to meet them. In fact, this book took me weeks to finish. I wanted to see if it ever got better so I left it next to the toilet and read it in three page increments.

The prose book of the month is The Canticles of Liebowitz. An excellent man destroys world and tries to rebuild as shown through the eyes of religion. Excellent.



That's all for now. More next month.