The Darwin Elevator (Dire Earth Cycle, #1)

author: Jason M. Hough

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.92

book published: 2013

rating: 4

read at: 2014/01/30

date added: 2014/01/30

shelves:

review:

Years ago, strange alien beings, known as Builders, settled in space over Darwin, Australia and built a space elevator that connected into the ground. Then they left, but along with the elevator, they left a plague that infected anyone not in range of the elevator, leaving them in a zombie-like state. Times have moved on and ambitious men have moved into space and ambitious men have created fortress states on the ground. Food is grown in space and sent to the people of Earth in exchange for water. This all goes well until, one day, the elevator stops working. If it stopped once, can it stop again? Perhaps forever?



Into this interesting backdrop, we meet Skuyler Luiken, one of the few people who are immune to the plague. He runs a scavenging business with a crew. Heading out into the wild with a list of items he can make money from. When a man named Neil Platz asks for a particular item, it pushes Skuyler into all kinds of trouble.



It’s engaging world building, and the characters are mostly interesting, but Jason Hough subscribes to the Joss Whedon school of character development. No character is seemingly safe from some sort of demise, so don’t get too attached. The book ends on an open note because it’s book 1 of 3. I look forward to reading more in this universe.



I was given a review copy of this book by Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey Spectra and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this book.





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Automatic Woman

author: Nathan Yocum

name: Wayne

average rating: 4.13

book published: 2011

rating: 4

read at: 2012/11/01

date added: 2014/01/30

shelves:

review:

A rip-roaring "steampunk noir" novel. Jacob "Jolly" Fellows is a big bruiser of a man. When he gets involved in a case that sees him framed unjustly for murder, he decides to investigate. Along the way he runs across A certain Dr. Doyle who offers him a "seven percent solution" to keep him going, and one of the antagonists is a certain Charles Darwin.



What is at stake is the Automatic Woman of the title. A robotic woman programmed to dance in Swan Lake, but who, it seems, has gained a life of her own. He is double-crossed and beat up at every turn along the way, but he also finds an unlikely ally.



I enjoyed this novel. The main character has a dark sense of humor and manages to take quite a beating during the book. He is not without resources, but they are reasonable and not preposterously out of line. The name dropping tends to get a little old to me, but this is not out of sorts for this genre of novel. Charles Darwin made an unusual choice for an antagonist, but I thought it was interesting.



A fun quick read and I recommend it.





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The Last of Us: American Dreams

author: Neil Druckmann

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.59

book published: 2013

rating: 4

read at: 2014/01/29

date added: 2014/01/29

shelves: graphic-novels

review:

The Last of Us: American Dreams collects 4 issues and is a prequel to the critically acclaimed video game. It follows young Ellie who is sent to a protected military school. She meets another rebellious friend named Riley. They live in a post-apocalypse America overrun by zombie-like creatures and everyone exists in a sort of police state.



When Riley convinces Ellie to break out of school, they find themselves in an adventure that could get to be over their heads. It turns out that Riley has ulterior motives which involve joining up with a rebel group known as the fireflies, but that’s a dangerous idea. This is a story that is mentioned in the video game by Ellie as a flashback and is fleshed out here.



The look of the comic matches that of the game. Graffiti adorns buildings and it’s clearly a world that’s moved on. There is a touching scene in an abandoned arcade as Ellie and Riley see abandoned video games that they’ve only heard about. Ellie imagines the arcade full of kids in a happier time. I’m not sure it’s a great prequel to such an amazing game, but for those immersed in the world who want to know more, I think it holds it’s own and keeps the same look and tone as the game.



I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this graphic novel.







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Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Zombies and Demons

author: Troy Brownfield

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.10

book published: 2013

rating: 3

read at: 2014/01/28

date added: 2014/01/28

shelves: graphic-novels

review:

This is not a cohesive story, but rather 2 mini-series tied together from 2 separate books in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe. Both are interesting, and I liked them better than most stories in this universe, but my preference was for the first story.



In the first story, we meet Elijah who is a modern day zombie hunter, but we find out he is much more. We learn in flashbacks that he was a former slave who fell in love with his master’s daughter and ran away. A zombie curse is sent to hunt him down and kill him and his lover. He proves very handy with the whip that was used to beat him. Many zombies die in gruesome ways. Back in the modern era, we find him still using the whip to fight zombies and he discovers a relative.



In the second story, Masumi is a sword-wielding demon hunter. We learn about her past. We learn how she met her boyfriend and how he feels watching her leave to fight demons every night. When demons based on the seven deadly sins attack, Masumi has to make some tough choices to fight back and make sacrifices she may not be willing to make.



Art in the Elijah story is pretty good, but less so in the Masumi story, but I enjoyed both stories more than past stories I’ve read in this series. It did help that they were about zombies and demons. Not bad.



I was given a review copy of the graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this graphic novel.







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Buzz!

author: Ananth Panagariya

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.68

book published: 2013

rating: 3

read at: 2014/01/27

date added: 2014/01/27

shelves: graphic-novels

review:

Buzz! imagines a world where spelling bees are big sport and sometimes held in back alleys as clandestine combat. Words are spelled as weapons. Webster finds himself drawn into this world, and goes from being a neophyte to a master speller and a contender on a larger scale.



Webster lives with his sister raising him. His sister knows the world of the spelling bees, but she wants Webster to have nothing to do with them. One day on the way to school, Webster finds himself pulled into an alley spelling bee with strange characters. He wins a match and is then pursued to compete in a larger competition. There are costumed characters, a shadowy group called the Spelluminati. The spelling bees feel like fighting matches.



It’s kind of a fun spin on making scholastics fun. The words are presented in their pronunciation form, then the letters are blasted out to knock out opponents. The art is minimal color, but striking in tone. The characters are fun and there is an interesting twist on the end. I enjoyed it.



I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this graphic novel.





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Transformers: Monstrosity

author: Chris Metzen

name: Wayne

average rating: 4.09

book published: 2013

rating: 3

read at: 2014/01/26

date added: 2014/01/26

shelves: graphic-novels

review:

Optimus has found himself the new Prime of a dying planet. With energy shortages, and factions out to stop progress, he's got a fight on his hand. Add to this the Dynobots, the Decepticons, the Terrorbots and a threat named Scorponok and it all adds up to a very epic story. It does have a few flaws though.



There are a lot of characters and a lot of locations. While it's easy enough to keep track of the characters, the story shifts locations every page or so. This kind of shuffling felt a little jarring to me after a few dozen pages. The art is done in a widescreen format (and it's gorgeous), but it makes the action feel a bit cut off at times, kind of like when movie directors choose to shoot action scenes too close. The art is so good, I wanted fuller panels instead of the chopped versions that run throughout the book.



But the art by Livio Ramondelli is spectacular. Each chapter starts with a full page illustration that is suitable for framing. All in all, I liked the story, and it's an interesting world, so it kept me engaged throughout.



I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this graphic novel.





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Dr. 2 (Issue 1)

author: Peter Tieryas

name: Wayne

average rating: 4.14

book published: 2013

rating: 2

read at: 2014/01/24

date added: 2014/01/24

shelves: graphic-novels

review:

In the first issue of a series, we're not given a lot to go on. There is a lot of set up. An internment camp in 1945 is shown, then we zoom ahead 100 years. There is a mysterious figure with what appears to be a mask on, but he kind of looks like one of the characters from Mad Magazine's Spy Vs. Spy comics.



Within the pages of this first issue, there's not enough to explain what is going on. The art looks digital, which is not a problem, but it seemed a bit on the crude side for my tastes. The story seems to have potential, but I'll need to read more issues before I can tell that. At this point, I didn't find anything overly compelling to keep me reading.



I was given a review copy of this first issue by Doc Two Publishing and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me read this first issue.





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