Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on November 7, 2013

Never having read the first three Anno Dracula novels by Kim Newman may seem to be disadvantage or sad fate to those who have enjoyed those preceding novels.  In this, I thoroughly enjoyed Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard with just my knowledge and interest in vampires, science fiction, media, and the eighties and nineties eras.

In a world where vampires have been outed ever since the time of the Dark Prince Dracula, Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard depicts this world established in Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula Cha Cha Cha, with history expanded to the new world, entering the modern era with the majority of the story spanning from 1976 to 1991.  History is rewritten as if vampires have not only been real but  imbedded in and influential in every aspect of events even into politics, entertainment, and the underbelly of the recreational drug industry.  The story is broken into shorter stories all creating the tale of Johhny Alucard as he rises in the drug world, the movie business, as well as political and military power, with a cast of recurring and beloved characters from the previous books as well as famous figures and Hollywood well to dos from throughout history.

Johnny Alucard is an exciting and satisfying read with Kim Newman’s wit and relentless smarts highlighted against a treasure trove of pop culture, entertainment, and historical references.  While I enjoyed the multiple tie-ins and references, my favorite was definitely the very obvious commentary on how ridiculous it would seem for a young girl to be called to fight vampires with stakes and witty comments followed by her somewhat creepy old “Overlooker” training her.  While some Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, which I am very open about being, may find the sarcasm about Barbie the Slayer to be poor mocking of the fandom’s wit, I adore this aspect.  I believe Johnny Alucard does this out of love for all the entertainment references and that passionate knowledge shows through the detail the author puts into those tongue in cheek and smart trivia-like descriptions.

This book was addicting, fun, intelligent, and exciting.  I worried about the recurring female vampires Kate Reed, Geneviève Dieudonné and Penelope Churchward as recurring characters who always seemed to know too much for their own good.  I struggled with rooting for and against Johnny Alucard for all his growth, strategy and diabolical charm.  Not only is the vampire inclusive world detailed and well established by Kim Newman, but the characters beautifully illustrate humanity and its obsession with vampires and what they mean and say about the humans who love and fear them.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Anno Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dracula, Johnny Alucard, Kate Reed, Kim Newman, Transylvania, Vampire

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on October 20, 2013

The Tales of the Slayer series are my favorite fiction books based on Joss Whedon’s magnificent Buffy the Vampire Slayer world.  Each book is comprised of multiple short stories written by talented authors, many well known in the television, film and media tie-in genres.  Inside, several slayers’ lives are chronicled, offering rare glimpses into the legacy that Buffy made cult classic.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer Volume 4 is a great place to start with these short stand-alone stories.  This volume focuses on stories of Slayers and their experiences with their Tento di Cruciamentum, the frightening challenge each Slayer is traditionally forced through by her Watcher and the Council. She is drugged, rendering her helpless as us mere mortals, and left to face a strong vampire on her own, testing her natural cunning, skills and strategy.  A ritual described once in the television series is now fleshed out through the ages of Slayers in this volume.

These stories hold their own as unique tales, though they definitely follow in the dark, desperate and heart wrenching theme established through Buffy’s own Cruciamentum trials in the season three episode Helpless.  Included in the ranks of Volume 4 authors are Nancy Holder, known for her own novels and her media tie-in fiction books; Greg Cox, known for his movie novelizations and media tie-in fiction pieces, and the ever inspiring Jane Espenson, writer and co-producer of Buffy, as well as many other fan favorites like Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood and Once Upon A Time.  These and the other talented authors  penned the eight Slayer tales in this volume, deepening the epic history of the Slayer.

From the tales of Nikki Wood in her leather coat in New York before ever meeting Spike, to the Slayer pretending she is married to her watcher for decorum’s sake in 1876 to a carnival in 1911 and the stage performing Slayer Millie, each story is captivating and often heartrending.  The characters and stories are placed within the Buffy world at various times in history, with nods to characters, mythos and timelines already established.  Follow the eight Slayers followed as the each reach their Cruciamentum and learn what it truly means to be the Slayer, the one girl Chosen to fight the evil in the night.

I highly recommend any of the Tales of the Slayer books, but Volume 4 holds a special and terrible charm with the dramatic Cruciamentum as a common thread that brings out the best and worst of the Slayer world and the Slayer herself, all to the tune of beloved Slayer wit, action and innate strength.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chosen, Council, Cruciamentum, cult classic, Greg Cox, Helpless, Jane Espenson, Joss Whedon, Media Tie-In, Nancy Holder, Nikki Wood, Once Upon A Time, Spike, Torchwood, Vampire, vampire slayer, Volume 4, Watcher

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on September 18, 2013

A zombie book without zombies could be the tagline for the young adult novel Zom-B by Darren Shan.  I had been so excited for this book, with the idea of seeing the onset of a zombie apocalypse from the perspective of a teenager and their friends.  I was sorely disappointed up until the last twenty pages of the book.

There are mentions of rumors of zombies attacking in seemingly far off countries and towns but for about 75 pages or so of the 120 page book, there are not really any actual zombies.  I will own that there is a short story about a zombie from one of those far off countries at the very beginning that sets a frantic and violent standard for the book that is lost in the rest of the story up until the very end.

So if this book about zombies has hardly any zombies or interactions with zombies, what is it about?  The story revolves around B who struggles with being a bully at school, an abusive father at home whom is teaching her how to be racist when she knows underneath being racist is wrong.  B has a few disputes at school and at home that test her moral compass as well as her ability to and conviction to stand up for herself, which she often fails in favor of looking good to whoever she is with at the time.

This story could have been a great demonstration of racism in modern or a slightly futuristic society but instead the tale fall flat and I had to put the book down several times and come back to it a week or more later to be able to finish it.  Darren Shan could have utilized the zombies and that setting, reminiscent of how The Walking Dead manages this commentary, to more artistically and smoothly illustrate the motives and tendencies towards or against racism but the opportunity is missed time and again through immature descriptions that talk down to the characters and the reader.

I am glad however that I did eventually get through the book because the last fifteen to twenty pages really popped and I looked back wondering why the rest of the book couldn’t have held that excitement, character development and bloody gory messes, because let’s be real here, that was why I picked up the book to begin with.  Interestingly, I think that the author was trying to build a suspenseful new zombie mythos with zombies controlling other zombies.  The problem is that the mythology was never fleshed out and the brief encounter the reader has with the information and descriptions is only enough to leave them confused and questioning the rest of the preceding story but not enough to be intriguing or motivating.

I do not recommend this book and wish I had not spent my brain power and time trying to like the story or any of the characters.   Even though a small part of me wants to know the story behind Darren Shan’s Zom-B mythology, I will not be reading any of the rest of the series to learn more.  I was sorely disappointed and had to watch some Zombieland movie action to make up for the lack of excitement, but hey I seem to be the minority if you look at the reviews elsewhere online, so take my zombie loving opinion as you will.  I say find another zombie book to feed your brain’s bloody cravings as this one will leave you with a bad taste and still hungry.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: apocalypse, Darren Shan, horror, mythology, NerdSpan, racism, review, sci-fi, science fiction, Young Adult, young adult novel, young adult series, Zom-B, zombie, zombie apocalypse

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on September 11, 2013

The rooftop is desolate, scarier than in the movies, worse than it would have been on a normal day, had they for some reason made it to this rooftop on a normal day.  But it isn’t a normal day and the kids staring out at the horizon couldn’t pretend that it was.  The devastating hail littering the ground they stood on would have been enough to send them back inside on a normal day.

But today, in author Emmy Laybourne’s world, they stood transfixed by the horizon trapped, staring out at the great chemical storm cloud quickly heading their direction.  On a normal day, they would cry and scream, but today, for just a second, they are all frozen in the moment as the realization hits that this is only the beginning and there won’t ever be a normal day for them again.

It started on a normal day in the vaguely futuristic year of 2024, kids trampling off to barely catch the bus.  They never guessed the apocalypse would have started on the way to school with a freak hail storm, fiery bus crash and fleeing to the relative shelter of a superstore.  Fourteen kids, ranging from kindergarteners to high school teenagers, hideout and learn how to survive as the world outside falls apart.

It has been a long time since I read a book, especially a young adult book, that intelligently covered all the bases of concept, characters, and story and writing prowess successfully.  This could mean I’m reading the wrong books, but I read what catches my eye, and Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne drew me in and even though this tale continues that trend, crafting an entertaining and captivating story while partially succeeding in these more specific qualities, I will be reading the sequels, Sky On Fire and Savage Drift.

The concept of this story holds great potential, with the dramatic background of disasters, survival and the unknown from a young adult perspective.  The action starts quickly, which I greatly appreciate, and we learn about the characters as they adjust to their situation, miss how things used to be and struggle with the realization that life will never be the same again.

Unfortunately, with that internal drama comes a great deal of lag time while everyone argues and converses.  What brought me down in this is that some really tough issues are brought up and while the characters pull through in surprisingly mature ways, these issues of prescription drug abuse, self harm through neglecting one’s health, the pain of shock and real physical injury, adult victimization of kids, and violence are glossed over.  I wouldn’t expect a young adult book populated almost entirely by kids to go too much into depth on these issues, but pushing them to the side in favor of weird peeping tom moments, obsessive attraction between some of the older kids and the younger kids caring more about toys and candy than their missing parents was distracting.

Since Monument 14 does such an excellent job of breaking down the survival of the kids, with realistic situations and mature calculating strategies on food, supplies and safety it’s a little surprising to see the lack of realistic mental and emotional struggle and perseverance.  However, with the superficial relationships and ideas now established, since they weren’t given a chance to be before the disaster, I have higher hopes for the next installation in the series as the characters will hopefully be able to move forward as they encounter new dangers and the reality that the world truly has changed forever.

Monument 14 is a great book and despite some of my more critical points on how I wish aspects had been fleshed out more, I highly recommend checking out this story.  The idea of surviving in a superstore and of how these kids work together to survive is fascinating and reminiscent of the classic Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  I think that the Monument 14 movie that is in the works to be directed by Brad Peyton, best known for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, will really give the story a chance to shine, hopefully highlighting the survival, struggles, disasters and action over the melodrama of superficial attraction in an apocalyptic setting.  I have high hopes for both the movie and the sequel, Monument 14: Sky On Fire which I have to catch up on soon.  So go check out the first installment so you are ready for the movie in 2015.

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: apocalypse, Brad Peyton, disaster, dystopia, dystopian literature, dystopian novels, Emmy Laybourne, futuristic, Lord of the Flies, Monument 14, Savage Drift, Sky on Fire, survival, William Golding, Young Adult

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on August 14, 2013

If you’ve ever thought about getting lost in a jungle, chasing animals and traveling rough terrain on your own rugged and heroic journey, Pink Boots and a Machete is the book for you.  Dr. Mireya Mayor shares her story as a unique field researcher who has traveled to remote areas of countries in Africa and South America.  Pink Boots and a Machete brings to life setting and missions similar to those of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, truly scientifically geektastic, inspiring and adventurous.

I have never been a great reader of biographies but when my husband, who knows my passion for adventures, showed me Dr. Mireya Mayor’s book, I fell in love with it from the cover to the photos and conversational storytelling inside.  Pink Boots covers her whole lifein one book, so inevitably details are missed and some stories are not as long as I would have liked.  However, I learned from reading this that this science nerd author, who loves her glam and fashion, has had many adventures chronicled by National Geographic, so someone like me who gets caught up in things can always find videos of her tales for further illustration.

From a child who was encouraged to be girly, but never repressed in her adventurous spirit or knack for cataloging bugs and creatures, Mayor explains how she became an NFL cheerleader in Miami and worked her way to becoming a field researcher with a doctorate. While she may mention along the way, how cheerleading influenced her later choices or how her girly side influenced her not always practical packing choices, these points to me made Dr. Mayor more realistic and relatable because whom among us would indeed be prepared to head out on a grant to complete field research for the first time.

Dr. Mireya Mayor’s story is inspiring not only for her struggle and triumph as a woman in a male dominated discipline, both in school and in the field, but also as someone who absolutely loves what they do, regardless of how geeky and unexpected it may be, and refuses to give up on reaching her goals both immediate and long term.  In a world of celebrities and too few strong female role models, Dr. Mayor proves that you can be who you are and still follow your dreams.

I loved learning about Dr. Mayor’s growth in experience and knowledge through her travels as well as the opportunity to witness a snapshot of the day-to-day of being a field researcher studying lemurs and many other animals.  From her boisterous and unique interactions with villagers to her reverant observations of the world’s smallest known primate, the mouse lemur, and other fascinating animals, Dr. Mireya Mayor proves that pink bootsmay not stay pink in the jungle, but it’s the spirit behind both the trail and the boots that make an adventure.

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: adventure, Dr. Mayor, Dr. Mireya Mayor, explorer, female Indiana Jones, field research, lemur, Madagascar, mouse lemur, National Geographic, NFL Cheerleader, Pink Boots, Pink Boots and a Machete, primate, primatology, women in science

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on July 31, 2013

You’re standing in front of a normal building, looking out onto the maze of a street, with cars crashed, strewn across the asphalt in an abandoned heap and mixed with dead bodies beginning to rot and you realize it’s not the smell or the vision of the street before that has your guts churning in suspense and danger.  No, it’s the complete and utter silence that hasyou watching for just the slightest twitch and has you holding your breath, just waiting for the inevitable jerking movements to send your already hammering heart into full on disaster zone.

The suspense of Autumn by David Moody is what makes the book so fulfilling and fascinating.  The tragedies strike quickly with 99% of the population worldwide dying in a matter of moments and pages of the book.  People keel over suddenly dead, leaving a silent world for the few survivors to work their way through with no explanations about what happened or what to do next.

While the story does move comparatively slowly following that initial shock, the suspense builds as the fear in the story, in the characters’ reactions and in the world they occupy keeps you glued to the pages, anticipating the moments of reanimation.  Autumn does a wonderful job of creating that air sucking feeling of wondering what is around the corner and waiting for something to jump out and grab you with its rotting zombie hands.

The movie of the book, Autumn, attempts to do this too, following almost exactly the storyline and dialogue from the book, but the suspense just does not translate from book to movie.  I highly recommend the book but not the Autumn movie unless you’re like me and have the tendency to at least try pretty much any zombie movie.  The movie is slow and by the time it’s over, you could have spent more time intrigued by the book’s sequels Autumn: The City, Autumn: Purification, Autumn: Disintegration, Autumn: Aftermath and Autumn: The Human Condition.

The wording at times could have been more creative but the overall development and intrigue makes up for some less than stellar word choices.  Unfortunately, the characters are sometimes not the most endearing and the band of survivors our main characters meet and eventually leave behind are probably the worst possible group to have on your zombie apocalypse survival team.  The story, I felt, was more about the possibilities of the zombies and the world the survivors found themselves in than it was about the characters specifically.

The zombies themselves, though they are never named as such, were the more interesting force in the book.  They wake up uncoordinated and uncertain, beginning to wander with no interest in the world.  They slowly begin to exhibit evolving behaviors, which leads to the question of just what these zombies are capable of.

Check out David Moody’s sequels to find out more but know that even slow, ambling zombies who have little interest in our brains can be dangerous sometimes just be sheer volume of a single herd.  Watch out for that silence, you never know what’s around the corner waiting to surprise and trample you.

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: apocalypse, autumn, Autumn series, Autumn: Aftermath, Autumn: Disintegration, Autumn: Purification, Autumn: The City, Autumn: The Human Condition, book, david moody, horror, plague, scary, survival, survivors, suspense, undead, zombie, zombie apocalypse, zombie bait

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on June 18, 2013

From the moment I started the first in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy, I absolutely had to keep reading.  I am fascinated by futuristic and dystopian tales, and delved into the classics like Farhenheit 451, 1984, A Clockwork Orange and Earth Abides throughout my younger years.  Uglies is a simpler story but still a fun and smooth read that captures attention and interest.

The Uglies story takes place in a futuristic but degenerating society, but in Westerfeld’s world, to be pretty is the goal and function of everyone’s lives and once citizens reach a certain age, plastic and brain surgery force superficial beauty, interests, thoughts and actions.  Unique technology, machines to make living easier and more enjoyable than ever, and even a whole slang language that has been adapted by society as a whole make this universe a strange, but fun setting for the tale.

Tally Youngblood is our heroine through the trilogy and Uglies, as the first installment in the series, follows her as she prepares to become pretty.  Tally is forced to face the truth that the world she is hoping to become a part of is not all that she had hoped and that there are real and dangerous consequences not only to becoming pretty but also in dissenting from that mindset.  Her friend has no desire to become pretty and leaves the city, following legends of a rebellion and a way to have a choice.  Tally gets caught up in a battle between the world of the pretties, and the “Special Circumstances” enforcement department who maintain order in Tally’s world with secret and absolute authority.

Tally’s challenges not only lie in facing the threat of the Special Circumstances team ruining her future, but also in facing her own inner demons.  Will Tally overcome her trained perception and will to become pretty to help her friend or will she stay comfortable in her expectations of the world and let go of her budding individuality as well as her friend and their potential adventures?

I struggled reading Uglies at several points and while I did enjoy the book, and went on to read the remainder of the series, I could not completely ignore the flaws I felt from the story.  The practice of plastic surgery on teenagers to “perfect” their outward appearance portrays a world ours could potentially devolve into.  And while Uglies admonishes this idea through the rebellion that Tally joins, her personal issues with this are not truly explored.

For something so personal and relatable in today’s world, the idea of scrapping one’s perception of reality and what must be true, as well as turning away from judgments based on beauty and what someone should be, is minimized into a story about Tally choosing to stay with the rebels because she fancies the most handsome boy of the rebellion.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a young adult novel without a love triangle and easily solved emotional problems right?  This is where I feel Westerfeld gets it wrong.  With this story, there was great potential for actually addressing the issues brought up so blatantly in the world he creates.  In his series, his characters cut themselves for the high of feeling and clarity they achieve with the action, yet the ideas of cutting and addiction, real issues for teenagers, are never addressed.  Again, instead of delving into the character’s inner dilemmas, we are subjected to jealousy, questionable loyalty and personalities as superficial as the pretties themselves.

While the plot issues and lost potential for a truly powerful story are enough to have the reader rolling their eyes, the slang language will solidify that response.  I remember that while reading Anthony Burgess’A Clockwork Orange in school, we had to define each odd slang word used.  This was not difficult but was more work added into what was a great story otherwise.  The Uglies series shares this eccentricity and leaves the reader with the choice to attempt to understand the slang and contexts or to gloss over the passages, just achieving a basic understanding out of laziness.  I have to admit, I did both of these at different times through the whole series, though it did come more naturally after the significant repetition of phrases through the books.

Oddly enough, I did still enjoy Uglies and I do still recommend reading and enjoying it.  The rest of the series I did not enjoy as much as this first installment, but knowing what I am getting into when starting a story often allows me to forgive certain points, even the glaring ones, and allows me to not be as distracted by them.  I hope that this helps new readers too because when you allow yourself to let go of what you want Uglies to be, say and mean, a fun easy read shines through.

Uglies is a complex, if at times superficial, story wrapped up in literal analogies of how society could one day be if allowed a certain path in the future.  Tally is a hero who wants desperately to go back to being normal, but whose choices have changed her life forever.  For an easy summer read, or a guilty pleasure, Uglies will paint an unique picture of a possible science fiction future that will at least bring up, while not answering, questions about where our society is headed, how teens and adults handle change, holding beliefs, loyalty and the need to fit in with and be the same as the communities we participate in.  As always, I love books that challenge my perceptions and Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies accomplishes this with flair, energy, drama and intrigue.  Go read Uglies, then share your own insights as the story will undoubtedly highlight your perceptions and intrigue your brain.

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, apoca, apocalyptic, dystopia, dystopian novels, end of the world, Exciting, fun, hover, plastic surgery, Pretties, Scott Westerfeld, Special Circumstances, Specials, summer book, summer read, superficial, Tally Youngblood, Uglies, Young Adult, young adult novel, young adult series

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on June 5, 2013

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell, also known in real life as Joshua Gaylord, is an illustrative and introspective tale of one girl’s zombie apocalypse survival.  Temple, or Sarah Mary, was born into this world and while she does not understand what the modern world around her was once for, she understands clearly at fifteen years old what her world is at her present and in each unique moment.

This is not your ordinary zombie story, emphasized by the fact zombies have been renamed slugs, and should absolutely be read by even those not yet in love with the bloody zombie realm.  While still an action packed tale, with guns wielded, punches thrown and weathered and even starring Temple’s own gurkha blade, the zombie world is a background setting for highlighting our main character’s reflections, simplicity and growth in a grey world streaked with red.

Bell’s zombie tale is not the scientific apocalypse story I usually indulge in.  What often appeals to me are descriptions and predictions of what the world would be like in a truly end of world scenario.  I definitely had to get over that search while reading The Reapers are the Angels as this takes place 25 years after the supposed end and yet electricity is often found still active and gas still available at the pumps.  Is this a likely situation based on scientific or probable facts?  No, but the story is not about the specifics of society crumbling.  Rather the story is Temple’s, more focused on her travels, her inner dialogue and particularly her simple survival based perspective and emotions.  Understanding and accepting this took me a little while, as I really had to let go of my analytical mindset I carried into reading this book.  However, once I let go and jumped into the current of Temple’s story and thought process, the specifics stopped distracting me and I got caught up in her story.

The format of the novel illustrates Temple’s story in a poetic manner, accomplishing a spiritual and metaphysical undercurrent and theme that would not have been possible had the story been written in a more straightforward way.  Not only are the words themselves lending to this process, but also the unique format of not utilizing dialogue punctuation.  The lack of rigid formatting helps create the sensation that the reader is actually privy to Temple’s thoughts, as the text comes across more as free thought process than an outlined story telling.

In that same sense, The Reapers are the Angels is not only Temple’s story told to the reader so that the reader may understand from their own perspective, but rather it is told so that the reader understands from Temple’s perspective.  The descriptions of the world fallen apart around her, of the small but majestic miraculous moments she encounters on her journeys as well as the reflective more spiritual thoughts, are all expressed through her own eyes.  Her descriptions are a little off to our own eyes because she sees the broken world through unpracticed and uneducated eyes, not truly understanding necessarily what the old world was for, what our buildings, actions and purposes were.  Her assumptions appear innocent with a lack of current knowledge but also jaded in how her own perspective differs so greatly towards a simple survivalist mindset.

Throughout the story I wondered who the angels were and who the reapers were and why they were considered the same.  I believe that has to be taken from Temple’s perspective there again to make any sense.  Perhaps Temple is a reaper for her surprising and confident skill in slaughtering the slugs but perhaps this also makes her an angel, putting the poor souls out of their misery.  Perhaps she sees death as a relief and therefore the reapers who take both the living and the undead are angels in her self-taught eyes.

This thought reminded me so much of Season 5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s vision that death was her gift and I wondered throughout the book if that wasn’t what Temple was doing, just fitting in as many adventures and miracles before she is relieved of her duty of being alive and can in the future be reaped by the angels.  Temple believes she has destructive and evil tendencies, also felt through her miraculous and self-feared aptitude in violence.  I think perhaps she may therefore see both angels and reapers outside of her realm of possibilities, since she has lived through so much she should not have and all due to her inclination towards violent solutions.

I highly recommend reading The Reapers are the Angels to anyone who like to read.  Zombie aficionados can appreciate a new take on a classic idea.  Young adults and adults alike will cheer our young main character’s rebellious spirit and the gratuitous violence.  Literary fiction lovers will enjoy both the prose and reflective qualities of the tale.  Alden Bell created an unique post apocalyptic world where hoards of putrefying slugs coexist with the awe inspiring miracles of nature and our Temple knows how to appreciate it all, whether she recognizes that fact or not.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: action, adventure, Alden Bell, apocalypse, apocalyptic, bloody, end of the world, gory, introspective, joshua gaylord, literary, post apocalyptic, reflective, survival, the reapers are the angels, zombie, zombie apocalypse

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on May 20, 2013

Mike Hammer has been the cutthroat detective to inspire cutthroat detectives in our culture for many years, providing a post World War II, mid Cold-War character whose gun wielding, crime solving, debonair traits can be seen in action, detective and pulp protagonists over the years in film, television and literature.   Complex 90, written by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, picks up with Mike Hammer out of the big game and working a smaller scale in the private investigating and security sector, a retired detective who had too many enemies to ever completely retire.  He navigates his way through a spiral of death, world travel, kidnapping, escape and betrayal cast in the landscape of old New York and Moscow, at elite events and the underbelly of societies alike.  The KGB is after Mike Hammer and he’s got a few things to say about that, more than a few really.

While I had never heard of him, or read the books chronicling his adventures written by famed crime-writer Mickey Spillane, I was captivated by this character’s misfortunes, death defying escapades and down to earth old-school detective skills.  Complex 90 is an interesting way to be introduced to the character, his world and his entourage, towards the end of the investigator’s career with him now dealing with the repercussions and relationships built in previous books and I enjoyed this out of context and time adventure with Mike Hammer.

Written mostly by the late Mickey Spillane and passed upon his death to his specifically chosen writer, Max Allan Collins, to complete the missing tales, the book is one of several unique collaborations between the two award-winning authors.  Mickey Spillane brought his detective noir style to the table in each of his crime mystery novels, including I, the Jury, Kiss Me Deadly, and My Gun is Quick among many others in his long career.  Max Allan Collins too has made his mark in the literary field with his individual projects such as the graphic novel turned movie Road to Perdition, his books based on the television shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Dark Angel, and his Nathan Heller detective series as a sampling of his continued works.  Max Allan Collins has collaborated with authors in the past, working with Mickey Spillane material before this for other Mike Hammer stories like Lady, Go Die! as well as succeeding Chester Gould on the Dick Tracy series. Each have had personal success writing in the crime fiction genre and Complex 90 is a great showcase of preserving the story for the story’s sake to make sure it is told.

Stylistically, my only real gripe with Complex 90 is how the female characters are described to appeal, it would seem, almost strictly to male readers.  Every female character has an ample bosom, a body the main character gets a hard on for and they are each nearly panting over our hero.  Underneath the superficial, stereotyped and exaggerated sexual appeal of the female characters understandably, I suppose, fit for the time period, I could glimpse the female characters’ hidden individual strengths and engaging personality.  While distracting, the sexualizing was fleeting and I definitely still enjoyed the more action-packed and investigative scenes of the bulk of the story.

With a great unfolding of plot twists and development, I appreciated how the pieces of the puzzle fit together in the end, with no one and nothing being a coincidence.  The story moves smoothly, and though I wish more details had been given about Hammer’s time in Russia, the sleuthing and evading enemies in New York carried the story’s mysterious nature through to the end as I kept wondering how Mr. Hammer would get away with his next bold acts or words when faced with the inevitable dangers and trouble that his fly by the seat of his pants attitude found him wrapped up in.  While an inspiration for the cultures James Bond, Mike Hammer is not the man himself, and he proves a superior detective does not have to be debonair to crack the codes, have all the answers and get all the ladies.

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer stories have been called guilty pleasures by many fans and I believe that Complex 90, as the latest in the post humus collection revisited with Max Allan Collins lives up to that priceless expectation.  This may have been my first jaunt into the vintage crime world of Mike Hammer, but I doubt it will be the last.  In his own crude but unfailingly clever way, Mr. Hammer won me over with his potential for trouble, mayhem and somehow always proving he was right.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Chester Gould, Cole War, collaboration, Complex 90, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Dark Angel, Dick Tracy, Go Die!, Hammer series, I, James Bond, KGB, Kiss Me Deadly, Lady, Max Allan Collins, Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, Moscow, My Gun is Quick, Mystery, Nathan Heller, New York, Road to Perdition, Russian, spy, the Jury

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on May 8, 2013

Edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery, Fighting the Force: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer explores the diversity and progressiveness of the fan favorite and cult classic television show through a series of academic essays.  The book collects twenty essays written by university professors, PhDs, novelists, horror writers, academic researchers and editors, and an advertising professional, making for an eclectic mix of topics and opinions surrounding this popular fandom.

This isn’t the first book I’ve read about a fandom I’ve fallen in love with, but it is the first I’ve read about Buffy and I was pleasantly surprised at the thoroughness, objectiveness and analyses included in this book.  Some of the topics, I had discussed with other fans before, others I had not.  Either way, the essays brought up unique points I had not thought of, or that simply made me dig deeper into my opinion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its characters and what it has stood for over the years.

From serious issues to artistic commentary, Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer reads like a well researched, if at times biased, analysis with the occasional witty or humorous comment to bring the reader back to the foundation of banter and communication exhibited in the show.

The chapter My Emotions Give Me Power”: The Containment of Girls’ Anger in Buffy, explores the unspoken rules associated with how the slayers express and repress their anger.  Later, Sex and the Single Vampire: The Evolution of the Vampire Lothario and Its Representation in Buffy investigates the correlation between sex and death in the Buffyverse as well as how those tensions relate back to historical fairy tales and monsters stories.  My Boyfriend’s in the Band! Buffy and the Rhetoric of Music goes deeper than the obvious comments on bands performing at the Bronze by touching on how individual songs and pieces are utilized to build characters and set the mood for poignant scenes and events in Buffy’s world.  There are 20 such chapters in this book, each touching on yet another endearing and thought provoking topic inspired and illustrated by Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Since this book dares to examine emotions and beliefs invoked by Buffy, this may not be for the casual fan or the casual reader.   If, after the finale of the show and its tangent Angel the series, you find yourself to this day re-watching episodes and still learning more about the lore and the characters, this book is likely for you.  While not a simple read, Fighting the Forces will do what Buffy does, challenge your original thoughts, require more emotional and mental power than you had originally anticipated but all with an indisputable level of respect and love for the show Joss Whedon made into a not only a cult classic but a cult following.

If you’re still unconvinced, check out the Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduction from David Lavery’s website.

 

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Amanda Zweerink, Angel, Angel the Series, Anita Rose, buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Camille Bacon-Smith, Catherine Siemann, David Lavery, Dawn, Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse, Dingoes Ate My Baby, Donald Keller, Eliza Dushku, Elyce Rae Helford, Faith, fanfiction, Farah Mendlesohn, Feminism, Fighting the Forces, Giles, Gregory Erickson, J. P. Williams, Jane Espenson, Joss Whedon, Justine Larbalesteir, Karen Eileen Overbey, Kendra, Kristina Busse, Lahney Preston-Matto, Lynne Edwards, Mary Alice Money, monsters, Nerf Herder, Patricia Pender, Rhonda V. Wilcox, S. Renee Dechert, Sarah E. Skwire, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sarah N. Gatson, Scooby Gang, Spike, Tanya Krywinska, Vampire, Willow, Xander

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on May 3, 2013

An inspiring tale of teamwork, struggle, growth and creating something for oneself, Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track by Melissa “Melicious” Joulwan tells the creation story of Texas Rollergirls, will all the drama, heartache, laughs, falling down and picking back up again you expect from tough girls in hot skirts and skates.

Follow Melicious’ casual but crafty wit and humor as she describes the delight, awe and anxiety at joining the Rollergirls in Austin Texas at their inception. The engaging tales that she describes show the true growth of the sport and her as a person and skater, from her first meeting of the other skaters, her New Girl practices and all the way to getting onto a team and becoming a star player as Melicious #11.

Roller derby today follows the pattern set up by these unique entrepreneurs who built the sport based simply on their love of the fight, camaraderie and will to make something bigger than themselves. Here is the struggle for organization for a common cause amongst competitive women in a time when the sport of roller derby was just starting to get its bearings again.

The recounts of player injuries, from bruises and scrapes to torn ACLs, and fierce battles on uninsured tracks are described with clever and reverent words, giving life to the real everyday people who spent their spare unpaid time not only in skates and costumes, but in fundraisers, marketing and press, legal battles, track and event construction, skate mechanics, development and strategy meetings, and in hospitals as patients and in support of one another.

These were women who had everyday jobs and normal lives, but whom devoted their spare time to this sport and each other. These are women who fought together for the sport where they could reach beyond who they thought they were and become something else, a character, a hero, a villain, a skater who would jab, hip check and jammingher way past those sisters in a show of individuality and love of antics and crazy fun.

Not all of the stories are pretty and not everyone comes out looking great. Melicious delivers the story in a truthful way, sharing the drinking culture of the sport as well as the drama between teammates, teams and league disagreements. It is this “Totally True Tales from the Track” honest feel that makes the book not just a history of the modern sport, but also an enjoyable and introspective read.

While she may now deem it her stumble with a big book company, I still thoroughly enjoyed both the stories and the pictures included in this tribute to a sport I’ve gained mad respect for. While I may have never made it to a team, so not competitive enough, and while many may never try out for their local roller derby league, there is an undeniable respect and awe commanded by women in fishnets, skates, and drinking beer after a brutal bout. Melissa Joulwan’s Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track delivers the tale you were hoping for.

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Austin, blocker, bout, derby, fishnets, flat track, hip check, hotrod honeys, jam, jammer, league, melicious, melicious11, melissa joulwan, new girl, pivot, riedell, roller derby, roller rink, roller skate, roller skates, roller skating, rollergirl, skate rink, skates, texas, wftda, women's flat track derby association

Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on April 17, 2013

A passive comic book fan for many years, only recently have I become more active in my passion and following.  The Supergirls by Mike Madrid is one I picked up out of great curiosity as to where my favorite superheroines hailed from and how they have become the women they are today.

The book is separated into sections, easily giving the reader a time era as well as an artistic and cultural reference for each chapter.  Spanning from the 1940s straight through to a more modern perspective, The Supergirls is a fantastic journey into the characters’ psyches, social commentary, their costuming, history and even the forces behind their creation, development and evolution.

I was introduced to heroines that I never knew existed and gained deeper insight into the ones I already held dear.  The strength of each character and the struggles they faced, both on and off the comic book pages, shines through in Mike Madrid’s tome.  He describes the characters’ appearances in comic books, both self titled and those they guested in, how those appearances both affected the characters and how the characters affected the stories in which they were placed.

I was amazed at how much some characters have changed over the years, in willpower, diversity in story content, relationships, goals and purpose, and even costume development.  The characters that we grew up with are different from the entities by the same names now and each come with a hidden crazy past that is not always explored in the more modern incarnations.

Like Supergirl for instance, I had no idea that in the 1970s Red Kryptonite brought out this heroine’s subconscious desires and by creating the bad self Satan Girl.  Of course, the great thing about The Supergirls is that not only does the author summarize these life events for our characters, to give us a decent background, he does so telling the bad with the good.  So not only do we find out that Supergirl let go of her super good girl personae, we learn that, as many things seem to have been in comic book history, her change is colored by a forced superficiality of purpose when her one hidden desire is unveiled as wanting to be the most popular girl in school.  Really?  Red Kryptonite and deepest desires revealed and all good girl alien Kara wants is to be popular?

These contrasts that are described throughout the book are what kept me reading when I had originally picked up the book in the hopes of inspiration from a variety of heroines.  When I was disappointed that my favorite characters were not always what I had envisioned, my fascination only grew because these women endure even through all the heartache, loss of purpose and adjustment of personality they have been forced to live through on the pages of comics throughout the decades.

While the ideas Mike touches on were disheartening, especially the points on Lois Lane (whose newest incarnation will be played by Amy Adams in Man of Steel) and Wonder Woman’s continuously forced obsessions with their male counterparts, lack of functional costume design for Storm and Psylocke and lack of independent goals of many heroines in the 1940s and 1950s, I found myself unable to put this book down and in the end was surprisingly inspired and hopeful.

The pasts for our heroines may not have been ideal and we may still have much growth to go through with them to truly be at peace with our superwomen, but it takes that hardship and enduring strength to give them character and the ability to push through.  Barbara Gordon as Oracle is an inspiration and a character whose coming into her own is also described by the author.  These are the tales of our superheroines and I thank Mike Madrid for taking such a real look at these women and only wish we had been treated to visuals of these characters’ growth throughout the book.  Read The Supergirls and tell me, who are your favorite comic book superheroines and how have they grown?

Categories: Bookworms
Tags: Barbara Gordon, crime fighting, cultural, equality, fantasy, fashion, Feminism, heroes, heroines, history, Kara, Kryptonite, Lois Lane, Man of Steel, Mike Madrid, Oracle, Psylocke, Satan Girl, Storm, Supergirl, superheroes, superheroines, Superman, The Supergirls, Wonder Woman