Worth the Wait?

George RR Martin & Gardner Dozois  “Dangerous Women” (Tor Books, 2013)

Despite the title, there’s a very loose theme to Dangerous Women.  In fact, after reading these collected stories, I’m not exactly sure what their criteria for selection actually was.  Please don’t take my point wrong.  I’m not complaining.  If anything, the rather nebulous concept makes for varied reading.  There are many types of female characters in these stories.  Perhaps even better, there are many types of stories.  Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, SF, Historical Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Mystery… Martin and Dozois cast a wide net and got a wonderful rich array of material.

The most attention has been given to the George RR Martin novella “The Princess and the Queen”, which details the history of an intra-Targaryan civil war. As excited as I was to read this, I was not blown away.  Martin’s approach is to tell the story of the first Dance of Dragons as a history text.  While it is certainly informational, without the character work that is so build into the framework of ASOFAI, it lacks the connection –at least with this reader—that makes the series so addictive.

Fortunately all is not lost.  There are plenty of other wonderful pieces to delight almost any genre reader.  Joe Abercrombie’s “Some Desperado” is a tense tale featuring Shy from Red Country. Megan Abbott’s “My Heart is Either Broken” is a disturbing bit of noir.  Joe R Lansdale’s “Wrestling Jesus” is both touching and exceptionally creepy as you try to determine if the magic is actually real.  Brandon Sanderson’s “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell” is a long piece that features wonderful world building (as you might expect from Sanderson).  Lev Grossman’s “The Girl in the Mirror” is set in an American Hogwarts that is more disturbing that any nose less antagonist.  Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb)’s “Neighbors” is set in the suburbs, and again blurs the line between fantasy and reality.

So yeah, there are plenty of great stories in this collection.  It really does the anthology a disservice to think of it as solely a vehicle for a Westeros Novella.  Dangerous Women is so much more than that.

 

It's Cold and I'm not having fun any more!

Darwyn Cooke, “Parker: Slayground”  (IDW, 2013)

Parker is a bad bad man.  After a robbery with a botched getaway, he’s holed up in an abandoned amusement park.  When the mob comes for him and his loot, he has to rely on his wits to survive.

This is the first of Cooke’s Parker adaptations that I’ve read.  I’ve long been familiar with Westlake/Stark and so knew what to expect.  The question then was how enjoyable would this be in comics format?

It didn’t take me more than a page to realize that Cooke and Parker were a perfect match.  The narrative minimalism of Stark’s style meshes perfectly with the minimalism of Cooke’s art.  After reading this, it’s almost inconceivable that any other art could adapt Stark’s writing.

Highly recommended for fans of noir.

MOAR MONSTERS PLEEZE!

Paul Pope, “Battling Boy” (First Second, 2013)

Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat – Battling Boy owes a huge debt to Jack Kirby.  Strange cities, monsters, aliens who are the equivalent of gods – all frequent elements of a vintage Kirby story.  The Boy himself reminds me of Kamandi.

Battling Boy is sent to the vast city of Arcolopis (The name is itself reminiscent of Kirby.  I think he would’ve used a “k”.) His battles against the monsters that attack the city will serve as his coming of age adventure.  He’s on his own, with only a suitcase that his parents have packed for him.  Fortunately he has a dozen magic (?) shirts that give him the power of their animal totems.

Pope’s artwork is also visually a callback to Kirby’s.  Bold lines and vibrant colors.  Action filled panels and pages.  Is Pope the modern artist who follows the king most directly?

My only regret with this book is that it is just the setup for what seems to be a much longer story.  Give me more.  I’m looking forward to reading about the Boy’s adventures.