Happy New Year!

Got some updates coming in the next week, and a new chapter release.

Until then, here are books I’ve read during the most recent trip around the sun. You know, if this were a Book It! challenge from the early 90’s, I’d have earned a few free pizzas at Pizza Hut by now!

Novels

• Prey – Michael Crichton
• The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
• The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
• Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith
• Lethal White – Robert Galbraith
• Troubled Blood – Robert Galbraith
• Dune – Frank Herbert
• Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
• The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – Stephen King
• IT – Stephen King

Short Stories

• Shadow Over Innsmouth – H.P. Lovecraft
• The Rats in the Wall – H.P. Lovecraft
• Herbert West: Re-animator – H.P. Lovecraft

Non-Fiction

• A History of Witchcraft & the Occult – DK & Suzannah Lipscomb
• Grey Aliens & Artificial Intelligence – Nigel Kerner

Graphic Novels & Comics

• From Hell – Alan Moore
• Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth – Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
• Batman: Last Knight on Earth – Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
• The Guard’s Parcel – Viz Comics (UK)

Impressions

I have to admit, I was totally hooked on Robert Galbraith’s detective fiction for a couple of months in Spring. If you’re not clued in (pun intended), Galbraith is a pen name for Harry Potter progenitor J.K. Rowling. Her pivot from the whimsical and wonderful world of wizarding to the abysmal depths of human depravity absolutely floored me, and her writing prowess in these “grown up” books was masterful. I’m not typically a murder mystery or detective fiction reader—aside from my collections of Sherlock Holmes yarns—but I totally binged on the Cormoran Strike novels. Fucking well done, Madame Rowling.

I read a few classics (Frankenstein, Lovecraft) and what stands out to me is how much slower the pacing is, and the liberty that was taken with exposition (a topic which I’m currently putting together an article about). My theory is that readers of centuries past saw a book as a real investment, and writers were held to the expectation that the story ought to have quite a lot of substance and content, as well as re-readability (is that even a word?) Anyway, such classics are always worth revisiting every two or three years, especially during the Spooky Season.

Lastly, I go in and out of these intense Batman phases. I have always loved the inherent gothic-ness of the character, one who has embraced his shadow side and cultured it into a potent weapon against Gotham City’s most malignant criminals. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, is far removed from the WHAM! POW! BAM! goofballery of the 1960’s Batman, dealing with a range of unspeakable horrors latent in the human animal—including the madness within the Dark Knight himself. Definitely not a book for your kids, but rather a fiercely psychoanalytical interpretation of what lurks beneath Batman’s persona, with some stunning and unique art that compliments these twisted themes perfectly.

Here’s to 2025!