theirresponsiblereader's Reviews (607)

Iredale’s work struck me like a classic storybook, the kind of art that was in the books I read as a kid—especially the books that were old by the time I read them. It was fitting for the kind of story. It wasn’t knock-out gorgeous, and I think it would’ve hurt the book overall had it been. There’s some sharpness to the art—almost the kind of thing that would’ve been carved into wood.It’s vibrant and I can’t imagine a kid who won’t want to pour over the pictures as much as the story.

It’s almost as if I’m sending mixed messages, like valuing privacy whilst also being the author of a second book of personal essays.

He said this as if his memory of the matter was not at all disturbed by something as inconsequential as fact. For years, my father told the same story about how a momentous occasion felt to him; the facts had faded over time, maybe because they weren’t the most relevant part of the day. Sometimes we polish an experience to make facts line up more closely with feelings or exaggerate moments to make a better dinner party tale. And sometimes, mercifully, details become blurry over time, maybe because the sharp reality is too painful to carry.

FYI: You’ll be able to tell the difference between this book and the last book. This one’s gonna be a bit heavier. A touch more serious. The reason for that is with the first book, Lacey and | got to giggle through silly racism stories, and it felt great. So, if the family wants to share their stories too, however they want to share, we welcome that. We want them to feel great and heard and blah, blah, bloo. There’s plenty of silliness, it’s just that the rest of the family is less likely to remember the funnier racist stories. They have not been keeping journals. But those terrible, scary racist stories? Maaaan, they remember those like a mug. So, to emotionally prepare you, I’d call this book fifty-fifty silly-scary racist stories. Okay? So, don’t come to me talking about “It wasn’t like the first book” ‘cause you’ve been warned.

Stories where I’m suffering some racist nonsense and she’s getting away with everything but murder. It’s so shocking to me. I can’t believe this is happening to my little bud. Being white is hilarious. So, as you read these next five stories, try to think about how out of place they are in this book. Try to imagine a Black man getting away with any of this. It’s fun because you can’t!

I’m glad our family and people from the community got the chance to share these stories with you. No matter how you feel about them, they have happened and are happening out there to not just a small group of people in Omaha, Nebraska, but to absolutely anyone at anytime, anywhere. I personally feel that by sharing these stories we are shining a light on racism, ignorance, and just some all-around hilarious shit.

…maybe the others were right. With Reacher running around out there, maybe the full ceremony isn’t the smart way to go. Maybe It’s time we switched to Plan B.”

“We don’t have a Plan B, We’ve never needed one.”

“Maybe it’s time to think of one.”

…whatever we’re here for, Lamb’s not being punished. Or if he is, he’s enjoying it.”

“So what’s your point?”He said, “That he knows where some bodies are buried. Probably buried a few himself.”

“Is that a metaphor?”

“I failed English. Metaphor’s a closed book to me.”

“So you think he’s handy?”

“Well, he’s overweight and drinks and smokes and I doubt he takes much exercise that doesn’t involve picking up a phone and calling out for a curry. But yeah, now you mention it, I think he’s handy.”

“He might’ve been once,” Shirley said. “But there’s not much point in being handy if you’re too slow to be any good at it.”

But Marcus disagreed. Being handy was a state of mind. Lamb could wear you down just standing in front of you, and you wouldn’t know he was a threat until he was walking away, and you were wondering who’d turned the lights out. Just Marcus’s opinion, of course. He’d been wrong before.

“I suppose,” he said, “if we stick around long enough, we might find out.”

• The Title. Yeah, it's fitting. But it's not really an eye-catcher, is it? 
• The Prologue is one of those action-packed intros that stops just before something major happens before giving us "X Hours Earlier," "Y Days Before," etc. Twelve Days, in this particular case. I don't get the appeal of this kind of introduction, and while I can't say that I've never seen it done well, the percentage is pretty low. I don't understand why writers keep going back to that device, someone must like it. 

• However accurate, that’s probably not that helpful. So let me share some highlights.
•  In the tradition of William Munny, John Rambo, John Wick, Clay Cooper, and countless others, you have a man of war, a man of violence who has made a conscious decision to leave that to pursue a quiet life, a peaceful life—a life of no notoriety. Then circumstances compel them to return (hopefully temporarily) to that life they had forsaken. Who doesn’t like this kind of story?
•  Before he joined the il’Drach Fleet, Rohan was a super-hero on earth—or tried to be, he apparently didn’t get much attention due to being on the weaker side. Which is just a great idea for an origin. If nothing else, it makes Rohan instantly accessible to the reader—we get his humor, his references, and have heard stories like his before. Also, by “weaker” think Invincible/Mark Grayson compared to Omni-Man/Nolan Grayson. So technically weaker, but not a major downgrade. Also, hold on to that Invincible comparison—we’ll be coming back to it.
•  So his father was an alien, but his mother was from India and she relocated to Canada when he was very young. That’s a lot of cultures to draw from, it explains his tastes in food—and it keeps Rohan from being a Clark Kent/Mark Grayson/etc. clone.
•  Not only does Rohan have nifty superpowers (as do some of his opponents)—the way that Berne describes their use is just fantastic—really. If it’s not the best description of super-powers in prose that I’ve read in the decades I’ve been reading them, it’s so close as to be negligible (and I’m too lazy to dig up the couple of contenders that I’m thinking of to do the comparison).
•  Beyond that—his explanation for the source of the powers in the metaphysical sense? Think of the Force in episodes 4-6, and then do a better job of explaining it.
•  (there’s a later explanation of how those abilities manifest themselves in the Hybrids that’s pretty clever, too)
•  There are kaiju. Or kaiju-esque creatures.
•  Wistful, the space station Rohan lives on and works for, is the kind of multi-species hive of activity and commerce that’s catnip for Space Opera/SF junkies. And the alien races/cultures that are represented there are well-designed and interesting. Really, if Berne gave us an illustrated guide to his aliens, I’d snap it up.
•  Wistful is a sentient space station (I’m on a roll with these lately), who actually has legal jurisdiction over the solar system she occupies. Can be a party to treaties, etc. How cool is that?
•  It’s not just space stations, either. Ships of a certain size are sentient, too. They grow and develop. They have wills and desires of their own—for example, there’s a ship that got tired of being a troop transport and changed themselves (with the appropriate approvals, etc., I’m sure) into a science vessel because they wanted to learn and explore. I’d take a novel just about that ship.
•  The explanation behind the way the ships/stations act and have sentience, etc. in contradistinction to those of other cultures is interesting and fits in with the world that Berne created so well.
•  I don’t know how I’ve made it this long in this list (which is longer than I anticipated and makes me all the more certain I shouldn’t have tried a traditional post) without mentioning the humor. Think Jim Butcher. Think Invincible. Think Peter Parker at his best. Think MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Think Nicholas Eames. You get that humor throughout the novel and it’s shown through all the characters in some way (at least those not trying to kill someone at the moment), but it’s particularly expressed in Rohan’s point of view and the way he talks to himself.
•  But more particularly Rohan’s banter with just about everyone—it’s almost at the level of the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League
•  Most of the characters—from Wistful’s security chief to the staff at Rohan’s favorite place to get breakfast are so well-developed and distinctive, with such interesting points of view and characteristics that you almost want every scene to be twice as long just to spend time with them.
•  This is related to the depiction of super-abilities. But these fight scenes are dynamite. One of the problems a lot of writers have with Superman, for example, is when someone like him lets loose and say punches a guy—bad things happen. I remember an old DC role-playing game when I was a kid—no one wanted to be Supes because it was too easy to kill someone. Now, people like Robert Kirkman embraced that, and the pages of Invincible (I told you to hang on to that) are dripping with blood, gore, bits of bone, and the debris of buildings/mountains everywhere. We get the same kind of power on display here with the same kind of consequences (also, several displays of Rohan not letting that happen).
•  Related to those fights. Seriously. Don’t make Rohan angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry (he sure doesn’t—see the first bullet point in this list)
•  One more Invincible note—doesn’t that cover kind of look like Chris McGrath did a take on a Ryan Ottley cover? I don’t know who the cover artist was, but I loved it.
•  Lastly, aside from the Prologue issue (which is my personal taste, but it’s my blog so I get to call it an issue), the way Berne plotted this thing, constructed the story, doled out information, and everything else along those lines was so well done, so impressive that you have to believe that he’s been at this a long time. 

•  Talking bears in space. Well, an alien species that happens to look like sentient, talking bears, who have the strength of large bears, and enjoy catching/eating fish. So….close enough. I’ll say it again: talking bears in space.