Billion die screaming. Presumably. The multiverse is collapsing thanks to a cascading flaw and Earths keep crashing into each other and the only way to save an Earth is to blow up the other Earth. Such is the dilemma posed by circumstances to the secret superhero rulers of the world, the Illuminati, who are also Avengers, ad it's only a question of time before they have to blow up a planet full of people for the greater good. leave it to Hickman to work the big idea mechanics with the same ruthless skill as the moral mechanics. Mircaleman on a Stepledonian scale.

After learning what it is that makes Coach Boss tick, volume three touches on the lives of those around him, loyal footsoldiers and sworn enemies, and one on the way. Boss's authority is slipping away, cracks are beginning to appear and things aren't looking good for the Homecoming game with hated rivals Wetumpka. Wild dogs are circling in Southern Bastards, and Roberta Tubb is heading to Craw County to find out what happened to her daddy.

Well here we are in 2017 and I'm, reading a Twin Peaks tie-in novel while news series is weirding up the networks more than a quarter century after the last one ended in an orgy of enigmas. Go figure. Secret History is a novel in the form of a file containing documents about the, yes, secret history of the town in Twin Peaks, going right back to the original Native Americans who lived nearby and the Lewis and Clarke expedition. Myth and conspiracy and strangeness swirl around every story here, going on to incorporate UFO phenomena and Twin Peak's very own Man In Black.

If the whole thing appears coherent and grounded and carefully constructed despite the subject matter, that appears to be because this is the work of Mark Frost, one of the co-writers of the series. This seems to be the stuff that provides the frame which David Lynch dances in and out of, over and above and through with such abandon, elevating the now-mundane and worn conspiracies and mysteries to something surreal and illogical and nightmarish, which is what makes Twin Peaks such a work of genius.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. It reminded me of a similar sort of book that went with The Blair Witch Project, which transcended the source film in its layering of spooky history and chilling legend. I'm glad I read it just as the new series is coming out, and that I've noticed a follow-up volume said to bridge the gap between the end of the old series and the start of the new - this book ends more or less at the same time as the old series concludes, in a bit of a cliffhanger of its own.

The unwritten continues to brazenly defy its own title, being written and drawn. Tommy Taylor goes to the Underworld to rescue Lizzie Hexham and finds it ruled by an unexpected King who is in a very bad mood. Meanwhile, zombies keep popping up in Australia - can a dyslexic detective and a vampire journalist save the day? The metafictional fantasy epic continues! Thank God book reviews don't come to life. I don't know if they'd eat me alive or tickle me to death.

Mike Mignola's Lord Baltimore is not part of the BPRD universe, but it's a fitting companion to that epic series. Set in the aftermath of a Great War brought to an end by a devastating plague which presages an onslought of supernatural horrors across Europe, Lord Baltimore is a haunted and driven hunter who seeks the vampire that destroyed his life and his family. Bleak, brutal and tragic, the Baltimore books are dark and brilliant alt-world horror with a touch of steampunk and Lovecraft.

With the world coming to an end nowhere is safe, but Essun in her orogene-friendly underground commune and Nessun, fleeing south with the father that just murdered her brother and straight into the arms of a Guardian, have found temporary refuge of a fragile, illusory sort at least. Nessun learns how to use her powers and Essun does the same, particularly in relation to the obelisks and the mysterious, missing moon Alabaster wants her to bring back.

Jemsin teases out the powers and the set-up and the BIG IDEAS in this volume, after the world-building of catastrophe in in volume one, so there's less of a headlong rush and chase and escape, but a slow build of doom and danger. We learn who the narrator is and glimpse what's on the other side of the world, and the same style, the slightly detached but compassionate voice depicting Essun's cynicism and rage and Nessun's hardening into a version of her mother for the sake of survival, keep the pages turning quickly. I may have to start that thing of waiting to read multi-volume epics until they're finished purely because the gap in time leaves me unmoored from the narrative for a few chapters until i catch hold again, probably because I am OLD.

Brubaker and Phillips deliver a fabulous and sleazy slice of Hollywood noir, a dark intensely psychological tale of a blocked screenwriter who fronts for a volatile friend blacklisted by the studios. When he wales up in the same motel room as a murdered actress and witnesses the ensuing cover-up he's drawn into a web of corruption and betrayal as studio bosses and film stars and enforcers and actresses on the make and swirl around in moody dark colours and intermittent flashbacks to to the lost night of the murder, trying to make sense of it all in spite of himself.

This is a very annoying book because it is very good and very moving and it employs a story resolution idea I've used in an unpublished book of my own which is very inconsiderate of the author he really should have checked with me first before using it.

Sigurd, the mopey unstoppable tough guy from the first two books takes centre stage when whatsername, the hero from the first book, is assassinated, I'm sorry I don't have the book next to me and my memory for names is shot I'm not even sure the guy's name is Sigurd. He sets out to find out who and why and kill everyone while angsting about what a killing machine he is and his life is all killing and stuff. But he finds purpose in the form of whatsername's daughter, whosherface, no wait, Taty, who along with a number of other mysterious children is being hunted by a deadly foe with divine powers - except all the gods are dead, so how could this be?

It's really good, a fantastic culmination to the trilogy and the names aren't that hard to remember I don't know why I'm making such a meal of them, sorry. Oh and thanks for using my idea Robert Jackson Bennett, just... thanks.

A death demon drops his notebook and it's picked up by a brilliant young student who discovers he can kill people by writing their name in the book. This he now does, in the cause of killing of criminals the world over and creating a utopia of well-behaved citizens who are too scared to step out of line. Playing around with the rules associated with the notebook in ingenious ways, hos activities cause panic and admiration, but soon a private detective in association with international police, is on his trail, quickly and brilliantly narrowing down the search uncomfortably close to home. There commences a battle of wills between the brilliantly rational detective and the brilliantly murderous student with the supernatural murder book. There's no question who's the burgeoning psychopath and who's the good guy but the game is sharp and fast and twisted and fun.

It all kicks off! Lauara is alive and also the goddess Persephone! Ananke is revealed as the killer but half the pantheon still believes her lies! The good guys must storm Valhalla and fight Voltron Valkyrie with Cthulu-tentacles! or something! It's gorgeous, fast, furious, with sharp, acerbic dialogue and pull-no-punches melodrama! Only one thing can save us now: finding someone in the pantheo who can act like a grown-up. Good luck with that! Glorious stuff.