Scooter Chronicles

This past weekend I finished reading “Watchmen” by Alan Moore (story) and Dave Gibbons (artwork). It is the collection of twelve comic books, making up an entire graphic novel. The collection won a Hugo Award in a category named “Best Other Form”, which was created for it specifically and hasn’t been used since. (The Hugo Awards now have a Graphic Story category.)

The story is set in an alternate history. In the late 1930′s, superheroes started popping up on the scene, though none of them had any actual superpowers...

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Over this past weekend I finished reading “Half World” by Hiromi Goto, with some illustrations (including the cover artwork below) by Jillian Tamaki.

Turning Amazon.Com and School Library Journal, here’s a rundown:

A prophecy tells that only a child born of the lifeless Half World can reunite the three worlds of Flesh, Spirit, and the Half World that have been split asunder. Enter Melanie Tamaki, fleeing from some school bullies. She arrives home to find that her mother, bedridden when she left...

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This past weekend I read all three books in the “Soul Stealer” trilogy by Michael Easton and Christopher Shy. These are graphic novels.

I...

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I recently finished reading “The Ninth Circle”, the debut novel by Alex Bell.

From Amazon.Com, here is their product description:

A man comes to on the floor of a shabby apartment in the middle of Budapest. His head is glued to the floorboards with his own blood. There’s a fortune in cash on the kitchen table. And he has no idea where, or who, he is. He can do extraordinary things—speak any number of languages fluently, go three days without food or sleep, and fight with extraordinary prowess. But without...

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A while back I read “The Girl That Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” by Stieg Larsson. This is the last book in what is being called “The Millenium Trilogy”.

I don’t want to mention much of anything with the plot because it could give things away for those that haven’t read the first two books. This book continues the story from the second book (“The Girl Who Played With Fire”)...

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Over the weekend I complete reading “Lord of Emperors” by Guy Gavriel Kay. It is the second half of his “Sarantine Mosaic” series, the first book being “Sailing to Sarantium”.

I didn’t find a good description for this book. It really takes up where the first story left off, and isn’t too plot driven. There is no one goal that is being achieved...

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It’s been a long time since I have read one of Kay’s books. Too long, as a matter of fact. I count him as one of my favorite authors. Continues to be. This is the first book of a two books series called “The Sarantine Mosaic”.

From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown:

Heavy of character and light of plot, (this) series opens with the heady scents of sex, horseflesh and power. In the Holy City of Sarantium, the wily,...

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I was given a copy of “Rhone” by John A. Karr through the early reviewers program at LibraryThing.Com. I signed up for it, as is the way the program works, but sadly didn’t finish reading it.

From the back of the book, also found at Amazon.Com and the description I found interesting enough to try and request a copy:

Mars has a hero that will defy both god and man …

Rhone is an ex-soldier of mixed blood, more man than demon but with...

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Recently I read “The Last Kingdom” by Bernard Cornwell. This is the first book in his “Saxon” series.

From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown with some modifications and spoilers taken out by myself:

(The book tells the story) of the consolidation of England in the late ninth century and the role played by a young (fictional) warrior-in-training who’s at the center of the war...

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Some time back my brother-in-law David and I read the same book at the same time. We chose “The Drowned Life”, a short story collection by Jeffrey Ford. And for the first time when doing this, we were both reading the same things at about the same time.

Many of the stories had been published elsewhere, but here is a rundown on what makes up this collection:

“The Drowned Life”
“Ariadne’s Mother”
“The...

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