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davramlocke's reviews
777 reviews
The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes
3.0
This is a strange book. I feel like one reading isn't really enough to grasp exactly what Clowes is going for, but at the same time I'm not particularly compelled to read it again. It's interesting is all I can really say.
The Fire of St. George by Jeff Smith
3.0
I liked this volume more than the first, but the credit for that goes largely to the inclusion of a fair amount of Nikola Tesla history (which may or may not be true, I'm never quite sure when I read anything about Tesla). Though he is never mentioned in the first volume, at all, he has an important presence in Vol. 2, and it makes the story more interesting. I still don't care for Smith's style. I think his male characters all look ridiculous and his female characters over-sexualized. I appreciate the cleanliness of the lines and even the black and white is appreciable.
Still, I plan on reading the next one. I like the series, even if I don't love it.
Still, I plan on reading the next one. I like the series, even if I don't love it.
Kissing the Beehive by Jonathan Carroll
1.0
When I first heard of Jonathan Carroll, it was from a blog post a few days ago by Neil Gaiman. He said Carroll was not to be missed, that he was great, etc. etc. I did a little research and saw Carroll's name mentioned alongside names like Murakami. What other proof did I need that I should read the works of this man?
Unfortunately, I was misled. Carroll is no Gaiman, and he is certainly no Murakami. His writing is perhaps a notch about a Harlan Coben or a James Patterson. Kissing the Beehive is a third-rate mystery novel with a completely unsatisfying ending and a cast of characters that border on caricatures. It's only saving grace is that the writing is simple enough that one can make it easily to the end of the book in a kind of mindless stupor. I literally can't remember the last time I was so disappointed in a novel. I kept waiting, after every page, for something interesting to happen, or for some transformation to occur. It never happened, and I am left somewhat haunted by the hours I spent wasting my time with this. I suppose not every recommendation will fly. I'm just sad that this one sunk so heavily.
Unfortunately, I was misled. Carroll is no Gaiman, and he is certainly no Murakami. His writing is perhaps a notch about a Harlan Coben or a James Patterson. Kissing the Beehive is a third-rate mystery novel with a completely unsatisfying ending and a cast of characters that border on caricatures. It's only saving grace is that the writing is simple enough that one can make it easily to the end of the book in a kind of mindless stupor. I literally can't remember the last time I was so disappointed in a novel. I kept waiting, after every page, for something interesting to happen, or for some transformation to occur. It never happened, and I am left somewhat haunted by the hours I spent wasting my time with this. I suppose not every recommendation will fly. I'm just sad that this one sunk so heavily.
Gandhi: A Manga Biography by Kazuki Ebine
1.0
This was awful. It shocks me that something like this could get through the editing process and whatever quality control that Penguin has in place. The translation is broken, it's riddled with typos, and the dialogue bubbles are broken up mid-sentence, which might not seem so bad given how awful the writing is, but it breaks that horror up even more.
Gandhi's story is told in pretty typical manga form, though perhaps muted somewhat from the usual flamboyance found in those style of novel. Strangely, while calling it a manga, the publishers failed to give it the traditional manga right to left reading style, thus furthering their ineptitude at releasing this book.
The only saving grace of the entire thing is that it does relate some information about Gandhi and what he did. For younger readers, it might be something to read. For anyone with any knowledge of literature or self-respect, please pass on by and read a real biography and do the man some justice. This book does not.
Gandhi's story is told in pretty typical manga form, though perhaps muted somewhat from the usual flamboyance found in those style of novel. Strangely, while calling it a manga, the publishers failed to give it the traditional manga right to left reading style, thus furthering their ineptitude at releasing this book.
The only saving grace of the entire thing is that it does relate some information about Gandhi and what he did. For younger readers, it might be something to read. For anyone with any knowledge of literature or self-respect, please pass on by and read a real biography and do the man some justice. This book does not.
Life With Mr. Dangerous by Paul Hornschemeier
2.0
I could appreciate a few things in Life With Mr. Dangerous. I like the quirky, titular tv show. I thought Amy's interactions with people were interesting, despite the odd choices she continually makes. I think the book is well written, in a simple style, but simple in a good way.
Unfortunately the character of Amy is in no way someone that I could be sympathetic to. She struck me as pathetic and small and her unwillingness to take even the smallest risk annoyed me the entire time. There's some heart to this graphic novel, to be sure, I'm just not sure I cared by the time it actually came about.
Unfortunately the character of Amy is in no way someone that I could be sympathetic to. She struck me as pathetic and small and her unwillingness to take even the smallest risk annoyed me the entire time. There's some heart to this graphic novel, to be sure, I'm just not sure I cared by the time it actually came about.
Mid-Life by Joe Ollmann
3.0
This is a strange graphic novel. It is, as the title would suggest, about a man in the middle of his life. He's forty years old, once divorced and remarried, and has recently birthed a third child with his new wife, their first child. The mid-life crisis story is one that's been told a thousand or more times, but there is a genuine quality to the tale in Ollman's view of things, and it's clear that if this isn't largely biographical, that it at least draws many parallels to his own life.
The story itself follows a man named John and his struggles with the more mundane aspects of his life and the temptations he finds outside of it. I'm not sure it really goes beyond that, and any drama that exists is largely in his own head. The story also follows Sherri, a children's performer derivative of Raffi, who once had a promising star as an actual musician. The stories are related and eventually come together, but, much like in reality, very little actually comes of any of it. In the end, the feeling a reader is left with is one of stagnation almost. The problem posed here was that of middle age, but nothing was done about it. The value of a mid-life crisis in my eyes is that it gives a man or woman a chance to evaluate their options and to make changes, but neither character in this book does that, and to me a large part of telling a good story is showing how characters change. I suppose some will argue that they did change, and even if they didn't, the book ends too abruptly for them to change and so we don't really see if they could or did. Maybe that's true. I just didn't feel particularly satisfied with how everything stopped.
Regardless, worth a read, even if the art style is a little visually disgusting at times.
The story itself follows a man named John and his struggles with the more mundane aspects of his life and the temptations he finds outside of it. I'm not sure it really goes beyond that, and any drama that exists is largely in his own head. The story also follows Sherri, a children's performer derivative of Raffi, who once had a promising star as an actual musician. The stories are related and eventually come together, but, much like in reality, very little actually comes of any of it. In the end, the feeling a reader is left with is one of stagnation almost. The problem posed here was that of middle age, but nothing was done about it. The value of a mid-life crisis in my eyes is that it gives a man or woman a chance to evaluate their options and to make changes, but neither character in this book does that, and to me a large part of telling a good story is showing how characters change. I suppose some will argue that they did change, and even if they didn't, the book ends too abruptly for them to change and so we don't really see if they could or did. Maybe that's true. I just didn't feel particularly satisfied with how everything stopped.
Regardless, worth a read, even if the art style is a little visually disgusting at times.