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tobin_elliott's reviews
327 reviews
Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I have to admit, this concept of mashing Arthur Conan Doyle's greatest creation with some of Lovecraft's is intriguing. It truly should not work, as the Holmes the world knows would have no patience for the shambling Old Ones.
Still, I had to give it a shot. Overall, the tone holds fairly well to Doyle's narrative style and, unlike Nicholas Meyer's Holmes pastiches, Lovegrove doesn't seem to feel the need to pull Holmes away from home turf and throw a lot of cameos in, which I appreciated. Though Holmes comes across someone schizophrenic at times, referring to Watson first as a "dullard" then, pages later, "insightful." So, while there are missteps, overall the tone is good.
The Lovecraftian stuff is also handled fairly well. The usual suspects are tromped across the stage, the Necronomicon is given its due, and overall, it's handled with the appropriate care as well.
What doesn't work quite as well is when Lovegrove has to bolt the two together. For one thing, he erases much of the Holmes/Watson canon—as Watson reminds us on occasion throughout the narrative—and Holmes seems to almost immediately turn his back on his much-quoted belief that "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Case in point: Holmes spends a long night getting information from a dead shaman in a drug-induced state, yet accepts it as fact, instead of questioning the effects of the pharmaceuticals he'd been flying on for hours. Yes, he sees some weird stuff, but he doesn't even seem to attempt a rational explanation before fully buying in. I know he has to, for the story's sake, but come on! He should struggle with this, as his entire worldview has been upended.
Finally, there is a point, maybe halfway through the book—Holmes's drug experience and then Watson's recollection of his military event—that is a seriously long info dump.
So, all in all, it is a fun story, with a few downsides, but overall, it does get the job done better than I expected. I'll absolutely keep going with the series.
Still, I had to give it a shot. Overall, the tone holds fairly well to Doyle's narrative style and, unlike Nicholas Meyer's Holmes pastiches, Lovegrove doesn't seem to feel the need to pull Holmes away from home turf and throw a lot of cameos in, which I appreciated. Though Holmes comes across someone schizophrenic at times, referring to Watson first as a "dullard" then, pages later, "insightful." So, while there are missteps, overall the tone is good.
The Lovecraftian stuff is also handled fairly well. The usual suspects are tromped across the stage, the Necronomicon is given its due, and overall, it's handled with the appropriate care as well.
What doesn't work quite as well is when Lovegrove has to bolt the two together. For one thing, he erases much of the Holmes/Watson canon—as Watson reminds us on occasion throughout the narrative—and Holmes seems to almost immediately turn his back on his much-quoted belief that "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Case in point: Holmes spends a long night getting information from a dead shaman in a drug-induced state, yet accepts it as fact, instead of questioning the effects of the pharmaceuticals he'd been flying on for hours. Yes, he sees some weird stuff, but he doesn't even seem to attempt a rational explanation before fully buying in. I know he has to, for the story's sake, but come on! He should struggle with this, as his entire worldview has been upended.
Finally, there is a point, maybe halfway through the book—Holmes's drug experience and then Watson's recollection of his military event—that is a seriously long info dump.
So, all in all, it is a fun story, with a few downsides, but overall, it does get the job done better than I expected. I'll absolutely keep going with the series.
Familiaris by David Wroblewski
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book.
Damn.
It has a lot to live up to. Of all the books in the world that I've read up to now, its predecessor, THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE is a book that, for something like 16 years, I have labeled as my favourite novel of all time. The weird thing? I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the characters. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's the dogs. Maybe it's the gorgeous writing.
But it's my favourite book. So, FAMILIARIS has a lot of work to do.
And honestly, while there's no real plot beyond it being, in the first half, THE STORY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, it's truly enjoyable. It meanders here. It meanders there. It brings you to a certain point, then stops, jumps locations and characters, and starts all over again. The villains that show up are dispatched quickly and mostly off-stage. There's no slow build of tension as any reasonable book has, but there's tension throughout. Characters come and go. Some come back, some don't.
Then, in the second half, it kind of does all that again, but with Gar and Claude, John's sons. So, for a while, it becomes THE STORY OF GAR AND CLAUDE SAWTELLE. I will say I had a harder time with this section, primarily because of the business one of the sons was engaged in. I found it hard to believe he'd do this, raised in the Sawtelle home.
So, there's a good two to three hundred pages that I would rate more a 3.5 stars, rather than five.
And then, toward the end, it becomes THE DIARY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, which was both frustrating and illuminating.
But through it all, there was fear, and laughter, and anger, and frustration, and hope, and inspiration, and despair, and hate, and heartbreak.
Ultimately, this is a book about lives. About setting out to do something magical and, sometimes pulling it off, sometimes not.
This shouldn't work as a novel. But it does.
It does not supplant my ranking of EDGAR SAWTELLE as the best book I've ever read, but I'd say its a worthy successor to it, and an interesting prequel to that novel.
I can only hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for the next Wroblewski work.
Damn.
It has a lot to live up to. Of all the books in the world that I've read up to now, its predecessor, THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE is a book that, for something like 16 years, I have labeled as my favourite novel of all time. The weird thing? I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the characters. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's the dogs. Maybe it's the gorgeous writing.
But it's my favourite book. So, FAMILIARIS has a lot of work to do.
And honestly, while there's no real plot beyond it being, in the first half, THE STORY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, it's truly enjoyable. It meanders here. It meanders there. It brings you to a certain point, then stops, jumps locations and characters, and starts all over again. The villains that show up are dispatched quickly and mostly off-stage. There's no slow build of tension as any reasonable book has, but there's tension throughout. Characters come and go. Some come back, some don't.
Then, in the second half, it kind of does all that again, but with Gar and Claude, John's sons. So, for a while, it becomes THE STORY OF GAR AND CLAUDE SAWTELLE. I will say I had a harder time with this section, primarily because of the business one of the sons was engaged in. I found it hard to believe he'd do this, raised in the Sawtelle home.
So, there's a good two to three hundred pages that I would rate more a 3.5 stars, rather than five.
And then, toward the end, it becomes THE DIARY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, which was both frustrating and illuminating.
But through it all, there was fear, and laughter, and anger, and frustration, and hope, and inspiration, and despair, and hate, and heartbreak.
Ultimately, this is a book about lives. About setting out to do something magical and, sometimes pulling it off, sometimes not.
This shouldn't work as a novel. But it does.
It does not supplant my ranking of EDGAR SAWTELLE as the best book I've ever read, but I'd say its a worthy successor to it, and an interesting prequel to that novel.
I can only hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for the next Wroblewski work.
Ungodly by Braedon Riddick
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Not a horrible novel, by any means, but not a favourite.
There's a lot to like here, and it's all quite well written. I just wish...it joined up a bit more.
So, at the beginning, we meet the homeless guy, who has his scene. His scene is the trigger that sets things in motion, though I don't exactly know why his scene happened. What was the reason?
What it sets in motion is twofold. Amanda sees it, and the cops come to investigate. Then there's another big scene with a cop and his wife and...eventually other cops. But again, why did those happen? What was the purpose?
Then we meet Brian and Will, and Will meets Amanda, and then the story starts to move forward. I feel like we could have started here.
Then we meet yet another strange character who played a part right up front, but we didn't know until now. Then he has his event.
With the exception of Brian, Will, and Amanda, none of these other characters really show up again. There's also a seemingly important subplot involving abortion, as the topic is brought up several times with several characters however, it never seems to attach itself to the main storyline.
From here, it kind of turns into a bit of The Dark Tower and a bit of The Walking Dead, only they're not dead and it's not the Dark Tower.
Again, everything that happens is well done, and whoever edited this thing did an absolutely superb job, as it may be the first indie release I've read with zero mistakes. But the story just didn't quite click for me.
There's a lot to like here, and it's all quite well written. I just wish...it joined up a bit more.
So, at the beginning, we meet the homeless guy, who has his scene. His scene is the trigger that sets things in motion, though I don't exactly know why his scene happened. What was the reason?
What it sets in motion is twofold. Amanda sees it, and the cops come to investigate. Then there's another big scene with a cop and his wife and...eventually other cops. But again, why did those happen? What was the purpose?
Then we meet Brian and Will, and Will meets Amanda, and then the story starts to move forward. I feel like we could have started here.
Then we meet yet another strange character who played a part right up front, but we didn't know until now. Then he has his event.
With the exception of Brian, Will, and Amanda, none of these other characters really show up again. There's also a seemingly important subplot involving abortion, as the topic is brought up several times with several characters however, it never seems to attach itself to the main storyline.
From here, it kind of turns into a bit of The Dark Tower and a bit of The Walking Dead, only they're not dead and it's not the Dark Tower.
Again, everything that happens is well done, and whoever edited this thing did an absolutely superb job, as it may be the first indie release I've read with zero mistakes. But the story just didn't quite click for me.
House of Slaughter, Vol. 4: Alabaster by Sam Johns
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
Like many of the other reviewers, this was a good story hampered by substandard, vague writing that felt like the writer knew what was going on, but failed to let the readers in on the plot. Various House members are haranguing Bait and, god's honest truth, I still have no idea why. They don't like him, or, they need him, or...something. Reasons.
And the art shifts back and forth between series originator Dell'edera and series artist now, Cadonici, and it seems the artist is handcuffed to Dell'edera's style, leaving it a bit of a schizophrenic mess.
I'll read the final act of Bait's storyline, then I'm bailing. This series has been mostly diminishing returns since it started, and I'm still not sure what it's saying that couldn't be said in the main SIKTC series.
And the art shifts back and forth between series originator Dell'edera and series artist now, Cadonici, and it seems the artist is handcuffed to Dell'edera's style, leaving it a bit of a schizophrenic mess.
I'll read the final act of Bait's storyline, then I'm bailing. This series has been mostly diminishing returns since it started, and I'm still not sure what it's saying that couldn't be said in the main SIKTC series.
The Thing Classic, Volume 2 by Mike Carlin, Bob Harras, John Byrne, Ron Wilson
slow-paced
0.5
Well, this was an utterly dreadful waste of time.
While I appreciate that Byrne tried to do something different than expected, when he failed, he failed hard.
Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger is terrible. Ron Wilson's art was the basic B-level stuff that the second tier titles had to deal with.
Not good.
While I appreciate that Byrne tried to do something different than expected, when he failed, he failed hard.
Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger is terrible. Ron Wilson's art was the basic B-level stuff that the second tier titles had to deal with.
Not good.
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Having read Ligotti's bigger works before this, this one strikes as, in true Ligottian fashion, both too much Ligotti, while also not quite Ligotti enough.
He's still plumbing those very weird depths that no one else is using, and he's still doing so to good effect. The stories are weird, hypnotic, dreamlike, claustrophobic, dark, and confusing in a frustratingly entertaining way. The first half of this collection is filled with stories of workers in bizarre industries, all seemingly interrelated in some horrid way. The second half tends to focus more on artistic types and the nefarious art they do (or don't) produce. So, we're still treading the strange pathways of the mind of Thomas Ligotti, all right.
At the same time, however, these stories don't seem quite as fantastical as his previous collections, at times relying on the same plot devices more than one (that man! it was me! and intestinal issues galore).
Too me, I feel like Ligotti is definitely branching into different areas, but they seem to be somewhat more dull and repetitive, more drab than usual. Perhaps that was his goal all along.
He's still plumbing those very weird depths that no one else is using, and he's still doing so to good effect. The stories are weird, hypnotic, dreamlike, claustrophobic, dark, and confusing in a frustratingly entertaining way. The first half of this collection is filled with stories of workers in bizarre industries, all seemingly interrelated in some horrid way. The second half tends to focus more on artistic types and the nefarious art they do (or don't) produce. So, we're still treading the strange pathways of the mind of Thomas Ligotti, all right.
At the same time, however, these stories don't seem quite as fantastical as his previous collections, at times relying on the same plot devices more than one (that man! it was me! and intestinal issues galore).
Too me, I feel like Ligotti is definitely branching into different areas, but they seem to be somewhat more dull and repetitive, more drab than usual. Perhaps that was his goal all along.
The Penguin Book of Hell by Scott G. Bruce
dark
medium-paced
3.5
This is not a book to enjoy as much as it is to learn from.
I don't believe in any of the 4000 or so gods that man has invented, nor do I believe in any of their places of afterlife. But I'm always interested in learning more about them.
I was actually hoping this would be more of a guided tour through the various Hells instead of a lot of direct quotes, but still they served the purpose.
What I learned from this is that Christians really want to scare the bejeezus out of anyone of their faith so they'll all be good...but damned if you're not sentenced to Hell for the lightest of infractions. There was a point when, hearing of the millions and millions of souls in Hell, I wondered, damn, is Heaven just three or four people hanging around bored out of their skulls?
I learned that a document created for Christian children to read and understand the intense, unending pain they would go through was utterly horrifying.
But it was the final passages, especially the Nazi deathcamp at Treblinka that taught me that, no matter what infernal demon or Satanic figure we can imagine, we can always come up with a more horrifying way of torturing each other.
I learned more than I actually wanted to.
I don't believe in any of the 4000 or so gods that man has invented, nor do I believe in any of their places of afterlife. But I'm always interested in learning more about them.
I was actually hoping this would be more of a guided tour through the various Hells instead of a lot of direct quotes, but still they served the purpose.
What I learned from this is that Christians really want to scare the bejeezus out of anyone of their faith so they'll all be good...but damned if you're not sentenced to Hell for the lightest of infractions. There was a point when, hearing of the millions and millions of souls in Hell, I wondered, damn, is Heaven just three or four people hanging around bored out of their skulls?
I learned that a document created for Christian children to read and understand the intense, unending pain they would go through was utterly horrifying.
But it was the final passages, especially the Nazi deathcamp at Treblinka that taught me that, no matter what infernal demon or Satanic figure we can imagine, we can always come up with a more horrifying way of torturing each other.
I learned more than I actually wanted to.
Shang-Chi: Master of Kung-Fu Omnibus, Vol. 3 by Mike Zeck, Gene Day, Doug Moench, Rick Hoberg
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is where this series caught its second wind. After Paul Gulacy left as artist, the series seemed to flail around for a bit, but once Mike Zeck and Gene Day came on, it found its footing again.
And while the art is spectacular and absolutely compliments the words, it is absolutely the writing of Doug Moench that is the highlight here. It's interesting, because the martial arts action is virtually all Zeck and Day, but the lead ups are all Moench who is careful to set up the philosophical framing at the beginning of each issue, then carry it through as the theme.
It's rare to find any popular comic book series from one of the Big Two companies that went this introspective. It's fascinating to explore the inner world of Shang-Chi's thoughtful mind as much as it is fun to watch him kick ass. And it's something that I feel every writer since Moench has either ignored, or has been incapable of carrying on. It's a shame, because it truly elevated the quality of this series head and shoulders above much of the other product Marvel was producing at the time.
And while the art is spectacular and absolutely compliments the words, it is absolutely the writing of Doug Moench that is the highlight here. It's interesting, because the martial arts action is virtually all Zeck and Day, but the lead ups are all Moench who is careful to set up the philosophical framing at the beginning of each issue, then carry it through as the theme.
It's rare to find any popular comic book series from one of the Big Two companies that went this introspective. It's fascinating to explore the inner world of Shang-Chi's thoughtful mind as much as it is fun to watch him kick ass. And it's something that I feel every writer since Moench has either ignored, or has been incapable of carrying on. It's a shame, because it truly elevated the quality of this series head and shoulders above much of the other product Marvel was producing at the time.
Necrotek by Jonathan Maberry
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
It's no secret that I really love Maberry's writing. I've read most of it, avoiding only the zombie stuff because zombies do nothing for me.
When I saw he was starting up a new series, especially with Ray Porter to narrate, I was absolutely on board.
Now, I have to say, I love Maberry's stuff, but nothing, in my estimation, beats his Joe Ledger stuff. It just seems like the perfect fit for Maberry's writing style. This is a really close second, to be honest.
I will say, after the "event" occurs, there is a good chunk of info-dumping as the various characters are used to explain what happened and why. And there are times when it seems a touch too convenient that literally everything they need—from the manufacturing of new weapons, to ships and weapons capable of taking on the enemy, to having the precisely right characters handy for battle, for exposition, and for reaching the dead. It's like rolling winners every single time in Vegas.
Basically, after the event, this is a bit of a remix of the first Avengers movie—a small, scrappy team needs to learn to overcome their doubts, work together to fight an immensely overlarge threat—but imagine that Avengers movie having both Transformers and Lovecraftian monsters.
It's fun as hell and, once past the info-dumps, Maberry finds his footing and delivers the goods.
When I saw he was starting up a new series, especially with Ray Porter to narrate, I was absolutely on board.
Now, I have to say, I love Maberry's stuff, but nothing, in my estimation, beats his Joe Ledger stuff. It just seems like the perfect fit for Maberry's writing style. This is a really close second, to be honest.
I will say, after the "event" occurs, there is a good chunk of info-dumping as the various characters are used to explain what happened and why. And there are times when it seems a touch too convenient that literally everything they need—from the manufacturing of new weapons, to ships and weapons capable of taking on the enemy, to having the precisely right characters handy for battle, for exposition, and for reaching the dead. It's like rolling winners every single time in Vegas.
Basically, after the event, this is a bit of a remix of the first Avengers movie—a small, scrappy team needs to learn to overcome their doubts, work together to fight an immensely overlarge threat—but imagine that Avengers movie having both Transformers and Lovecraftian monsters.
It's fun as hell and, once past the info-dumps, Maberry finds his footing and delivers the goods.