davramlocke's Reviews (777)

Fifteen years, and it's finally, mournfully over. The best ending to a long running series that I've ever read. Kudos Sanderson, for picking up the thread and weaving it into something that Jordan would have been proud of.

I find myself reading less and less of the fantasy genre these days, in large part because I am spoiled by the good fantasy authors and saddened but the glut of bad writers prevalent within it. There are some standbys that I continue to go back to every time, big names like Jordan and Goodkind and Martin, but rarely will I stumble on a new fantasy author that I feel belongs in their august company. Patrick Rothfuss was one, but I think every fantasy fan was hit by lightning when The Name of the Wind came out. It would have been hard to miss it.

Now that I've read Best Served Cold, a book that is by no means a quick read, I am ready to add another name to the short list of must read authors adorning my brain canals. Joe Abercrombie is that good, and Best Served Cold, while not perfect (and I'm guessing not even his best work), is the best fantasy book I've read since Wise Man's Fear.

The story features a battle hardened mercenary named Monza who is betrayed by her employer, a would-be king, and left for dead at the bottom of a mountain (she was thrown from the top). She survives, through a miracle and through a tenacious and near supernatural need to stay alive, and vows revenge on the seven men in that room who stood by and watched her tumble down and down to the bottom of those heights. The book follows Monza and her growing list of companions as they travel from country to country tracking these men down and attempting to kill them in evermore ridiculous fashions. The book reads almost like a continual heist film, but instead of robbing a bank (which they actually kind of do), they're killing men. Every character is well developed, every plot twist believable, and the entire story comes together in a way that most novels are unable to do. It's the kind of story that I think will stick with me, even if it's stand-alone, and the name Monzcarro Murcatto is probably one I won't soon forget. Her wrath is terrible, and I'd surely not test that.

So far this is the best Lehane book I've read, and I didn't figure on that considering I'd already seen the movie which does spoil the shocker of an ending for you. The source material, I suppose, is just much deeper and more meaningful than in any of his other novels (at least the ones I've read so far, I only have 2 left in the Kenzie/Gennaro series). Child abduction, child endangerment, child abuse, molestation, these are all themes of Gone, Baby, Gone, and they're tough to read about, but at the same time when justice is meted out and the bad guys, and there's no doubt that they're bad, meet their end, it's a good feeling beyond what most vengeances will grant you. I've always said there were two crimes that I could never forgive. One is rape, and the other is harming a child in some type of irreversible way. This could mean killing the child or abusing it or yes, molestation. To me, these are unforgiveable crimes, and no amount of rehabilitation or therapy can change these people from what they are. Even if it could, how could someone "rehabilitated" live with what they'd done?

The other beautiful thing about Gone, Baby, Gone is that while its bad guys are clear cut and obvious, its good guys never are. Even to the end, its unclear exactly what the right decision for Amanda McCready was. The issue of child abuse is black and white, but the main plot points of this book are not, and it makes the story as compelling as anything you'll read. This is not just some mystery novel, nor are any of Lehane's books in my opinion. Instead, it's a moral study or a look at our country's strange system of law and how it can hurt the people it should be protecting most. It's also a tale of good and bad parenting and how irreversably those central people in a child's life can alter their development.

Coming to this as someone willfully ignorant of Palestine/Israel hostilities of the early 90s and beyond, I found myself pretty engaged by Sacco's observations of that tumultuous time. He has a definite journalistic slant on what he sees, constantly wanting to see more for the sake of the story and almost cold in his attitudes towards these stories. I can appreciate that, particularly in something as emotionally charged as this subject matter is. He doesn't lack emotion, there is plenty to be seen in the artwork itself and simply in the stories that he is told by the Palestinian refugees. He also manages to inject humor into an otherwise humorless setting (there are an abundance of tea jokes that you have to see to understand), and his own view of himself in these situations is almost as humorous as any of the jokes. His self-depiction is exaggerated and more a caricature of himself than a portrait.

I think my only issue with Palestine is that it has spoiled me for the intake of factual or mostly factual knowledge. I now want to read all my news in comic/graphic form. So thanks for that, Joe.

This is a difficult compendium to review simply because it is so massive. It compiles 45 shorter works into one massive tome, and where most graphic novels can be pick up and read in a day or two, this one is definitely not a one-night affair. But that's not really the reason that it's difficult to review. The reality is, there are many stories here, despite the over-arching main story, and some work better than others. Some are ridiculous, some are horrifyingly sad, and some are uplifting.

That said, overall, the compendium is amazing, and probably one of the best singular pieces of graphic fiction I've ever read. I actually was not a fan of Kirkman's work a few years ago when I tried reading The Walking Dead for the first time. I was relatively new to the graphic novel format, aside from comic books growing up, and I didn't understand why he wouldn't use color, nor did the story make much sense. Well, it turns out I hadn't started at the beginning, which is, I think, essential. And the lack of color only enhances the one of a desolate and sad world. There is no color in Kirkman's apocalypse because life is only barely hanging on, and it simply doesn't have the energy for things like color.

Most people, and rightly so, would see this as just another zombie story. That's mostly true, but it's deeper than such a description could ever dictate. For one, it's one of the first real zombie stories outside of the movies, and as such tells the story in a way that had never really been told before. Zombies, while important to the series, are more of a catalyst so that Kirkman can explore how people would live and attempt to thrive in a world where everything normal is tossed in the trash and survival is the only true law left. Studied in this context, The Walking Dead is a fascinating and extremely well-written device. The presentation is gory and violent and oftentimes horrifying, but it's also realistic. The characters behave as you might expect humans to behave. They're often petty or cruel or kind or generous. They're human, and therefore believable.

I'm glad I gave this series another shot because it has become one of my favorite novels practically overnight.