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Year End Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2012

Posted in books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, comic books, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Year End Books on January 7, 2013 by Paxton

Here we are, my year end recap of the books I’ve read this year. You can check out my Google Spreadsheet for the full list of books I’ve managed to read in 2012 (and every year prior).

So, like last year, I’ll list out the top 5 books I read and the top 5 comics I read this year. I’m excluding re-reads in my evaluations. I’m only including books I read for the first time in 2012.

Here we go. In no particular order.

Books

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline – Okay, I’m immediately going to call myself a liar. I said these were in no order, but I’m telling you right now, this was the best book I read in 2012. Hands down. There was a lot of buzz going around about the book and I had several people recommend it to me. Which usually makes me not want to read things. However, my friend Trish over at Love, Laughter and Insanity believed that I would love it so much that she actually traveled to a bookstore in which Ernest Cline was signing, had him sign a copy of the paperback and then mailed it to me. And that’s why she’s awesome. Thanks, Trish. Your hard work paid off and it has been named as my favorite book of the year. Seriously, this book is the truth. Don’t read anything about it or the story. Just experience it. You’re welcome.

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis – Honestly, this was the best book I read for most of 2012. Then, in early July, I read the above book. But even if this isn’t my #1, it’s absolutely in my top 5. This is probably also in the top 5 of Star Wars books of all-time. This book had been planned, started, stopped and delayed several times. Finally, James Luceno grabbed the reins and drove this baby home. It’s a very ambitious novel. Focusing on the behind the scenes machinations of Darth Sidious and his master, Darth Plagueis. It’s fascinating to see the rise of Plagueis, his meeting with Palpatine on Naboo, and their cultivating the plan that will eventually be unleashed in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This book is so good it makes The Phantom Menace a better movie. Luceno was never one of my favorite Star Wars writers but this book and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader have changed that. I’m now on the lookout for what Luceno plans to do next.

11/22/63 – Stephen King – I’ve been a fan of King’s work for years. My favorite stuff are his short story collections but I’ve read most of his other seminal novels. Earlier in 2012 I had decided to finally read The Stand. I didn’t just love it. And after 1130+ pages of that, I was reluctant to read another King book that tops 800 pages. But I acquired this hardback in early 2012 at a used library book sale for around a dollar. I’ve always been fascinated with the Kennedy assassination and time travel, so this was a perfect topic for me. And the story delivers. King really outdoes himself with this book. King meanders a bit in the middle, but honestly I didn’t mind because the characters were so engaging. Really, the Kennedy assassination is almost an afterthought. But when it finally comes it’s awesome. This book blew me away. I highly recommend giving it a shot. Especially since the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death is Nov 22, 2013. But get the eBook version. An 800 page hardback is a little tough to read.

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Review of Oz Book 11: The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

Posted in books, Classic literature, pop culture, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, pop culture, Wizard of Oz on January 3, 2013 by Paxton

The Lost Princess of Oz was the 11th Oz story written by L Frank Baum. It was published in 1917.

This book starts off with a very interesting premise and dilemma. Dorothy and the other girls (Dot and Betsy) decide to tour the Oz country side and go to Ozma to ask permission. However, Ozma appears to be missing along with her magic picture frame. The Wizard discovers that his personal bag of magic instruments is also missing. Dorothy, the Wizard and several others (Dot, Betsy, Button-Bright, Cowardly Lion, etc) travel to Glinda the Good Witch’s palace to see if she can help. Unfortunately, Glinda has already discovered that her magical Book of Records and all of her potions have been stolen. Someone, obviously a very powerful, magical someone, has somehow managed to infiltrate both the Emerald City and Glinda’s magical palace and stolen all of the magical items found in Oz. So Dorothy and her friends set off to find out who would have kidnapped Ozma and stolen all these items from Oz.

At the same time, a walking, talking frog called The Frogman, who is the adviser to a group of people called the Yips, discovers that one of his people has lost a gold, jewel-encrusted magical dishpan. And she’s frantic to recover it. So they set off for Oz to see if they can find it. The story switches between both groups of travelers and their steady journey towards solving the mystery of the mysterious and powerful wizard that is making a bid to become the new ruler of Oz.

It must be clear by now that I don’t read the synopses of these books before I start reading them. I want to go in fresh. Usually it doesn’t throw me, but it did with Book 10 – Rinkitink in Oz. It threw me for this book as well. Since I knew nothing at all when I started, I wasn’t super thrilled to be reading this book based on the title alone. But the first few chapters had me hooked. The intertwining plot threads in the beginning reminded me of The Emerald City of Oz. The plot threads come together about 2/3 of the way through the story and the end plays out nicely. Yes, magic is involved to “fix” everything but it was earned in that a powerful magician was the antagonist causing all the trouble this time. It wasn’t as cheap as the ending of The Emerald City of Oz in which the invading Nome hordes were thrown into the “fountain of forgetfulness” caused them to forget they wanted to attack Oz. That was unsatisfying. But this book, in it’s own childlike way, delivers on the promise of Dorothy and friends fighting an evil magician for the sake of Oz.

So, yes, I would recommend this one. No one from the previous book, Rinkitink in Oz, shows up. I’m still wondering if any of those characters will ever be mentioned again. Which is odd because Baum just keeps adding characters to these stories. There are so many characters that inhabit these books that I’d like to see one of them use existing characters without adding new ones. And since there are so many, you have like 10 people being involved in the main plot. It’s getting a little ridiculous. And, FYI, this becomes a problem with the final book that Baum wrote. But that’s still 3 books away.

Regardless of all that, this is still a fun book that I enjoyed and I would recommend as one of the better installments of the series so far.

Below is my checklist of Oz books. I’ve crossed off the ones I’ve currently read. Next up, The Tin Woodman of Oz.

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Review of Oz Book 10: Rinkitink in Oz (1916)

Posted in books, Classic literature, pop culture, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, pop culture, review, Wizard of Oz on December 26, 2012 by Paxton

The tenth book of Oz was released in 1916. It was called Rinkitink in Oz.

This book is an interesting entry in the series which makes for interesting reading. The bulk of this book was written 11 years prior to publication in 1905. It was intended as a separate fantasy story not a part of the main Oz books. This is clearly evident as you begin reading the book. I wasn’t aware of this fact, so when I started reading I kept checking to make sure I was reading the correct book. I had downloaded the eBook from Project Gutenberg and thought that maybe I had downloaded a book other than the one I intended. Nope, it was clearly Rinkitink in Oz.

The story begins on the island of Pingaree. Many years prior to this story, the King of Pingaree repelled an invasion with the help of three magical pearls given to him by the Mermaids. Presently, the King passed down the secret of the pearls to his son, Inga. Just after, the island is again invaded by the two neighboring islands that had attacked before and this time they catch the King off guard and he can’t get to the pearls in time to save his people. The island is sacked and the people all become slaves. The only ones not taken into slavery are the prince, Inga, the visiting King Rinkitink of Gilgad and his surly goat, Bilbil. Inga retrieves the pearls from the wreckage of the castle, hides two of them in the toes of his shoes and places the third around his neck on a necklace. The motley group lead by Inga then heads off to the invading islands to free his parents and his people.

What follows is a very entertaining story involving Inga and Rinkitink using the pearls to outwit and defeat the notorious armies of Regos and Coregos. After the first page or so mentioning where these lands are in relation to Oz, there is literally no mention of Oz again until the very end of the book. Inga discovers his parents have been put under the care of the newest Nome King, Kaliko, so he travels to the Nome King’s lands in Oz to retrieve them. After this a few other familiar faces show up and, even though I really liked the story, I thought it wrapped up a little too “neatly”. It’s like Baum had no ending and just shoe horned in some of his Oz characters as a deus ex machina.

Overall, though, like I said this was a very entertaining story that went to several very fun places and incorporated some cool magic and fantasy elements. I’ll be interested to see if King Rinkitink, Inga or any of the Pingaree royal family show up again in the Baum Oz books, of which I now only have 4 left to read. Odds are, though, I’m guessing they won’t.

Below is my checklist of Oz books. I’ve crossed off the ones I’ve currently read. Next up, The Lost Princess of Oz.

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Review of Oz Book 9: The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)

Posted in books, Classic literature, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz on November 21, 2012 by Paxton

In 1915, one year after Tik-Tok of Oz Baum released the ninth Oz book, The Scarecrow of Oz.

This book features two new characters to Oz, Cap’n Bill and Trot. Both of these characters previously appeared in the Baum non-Oz works The Sea Fairies (1911) and Sky Island (1912). Bill and Trot set sail from California for a short ride in their row boat. A storm suddenly appears and the duo find themselves in a fairy land (but not Oz, just yet). Bill and Trot find their way to the land of Mo, which previously appeared in the non-Oz book; The Magical Monarch of Mo. As you can see, Baum started to fold his previous non-Oz characters and lands into his Oz books when it was clear no one wanted to read anything but the Oz books. It makes these later books interesting in that almost every character and land had appeared in a previous non-Oz book.

Anyway, Bill and Trot run into Button-Bright in the land of Mo. Button previously appeared in not only the Oz books but in Bill and Trot’s last book, Sky Island. So the group makes their way to Jinxland. Jinxland is sort of a “sister” land to Oz. It’s found on the same continent but divided by a nearly impassable mountain range. Anyway, our heroes get tangled up in the drama of the King of Jinxland, his daughter, the gardener she loves and a royal suitor she doesn’t. The scarecrow shows up to help and all is set right with the world.

I honestly am not sure why this book is named after the Scarecrow. He only shows up at the very end, but he does help save the day. Truthfully, I was a little disappointed in the story. The characters were good. I liked Bill and Trot, I even enjoyed Button-Bright more than I did in previous books. I just was a bit let down by the entire story. I’m hoping I’m not getting “Oz fatigue”. Since Bill and Trot appear here and in the two previous books, I may wind up reading, at the very least, Sky Island. Sky Island also features Button-Bright, like I said, and Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter. However, I may also read The Sea Fairies as I’ve read that Baum considers that his best work.

As you can see, it’s getting harder to define what I’m going to read because as of this point, Baum is incorporating so many of his non-Oz characters into the Oz books, that it’s hard not to just say f**k it and read them all. Or f**k it and stop reading. I’m going to continue reading these main Oz books as I only have a few left and I want to finish them by the end of the year. Next year, I may catch up and read some of the other non-Oz books like The Sea Fairies, Sky Island, The Magical Monarch of Mo, The Master Key, etc. But right now, I’m focusing on the core five Oz books I have left.

My final verdict on this Oz book is that, compared to the books before it, this one is disappointing overall. It’s still a good book, but in relation to the other Oz books, it’s only okay. I’m hoping this is a temporary dip in quality and that the next book is better.

Below is my checklist of Oz books. I’ve crossed off the ones I’ve currently read. Next up in the Oz series is Rinkitink in Oz.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Review of the final book in Guillermo Del Toro’s Strain Trilogy

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, reviews, vampires on October 29, 2012 by Paxton

This is the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. And it’s a half week, as Halloween is on Wednesday. I’m sad to see it all end. So, since we are on a short week this week, I’m going to stray from the movie maniac theme today and tomorrow and do a couple of updates to previous AWESOME-tober-fest entries.

Last year for AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, I reviewed the first two books in The Strain trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I said they were very good vampire novels which made the concept of the vampire scary again. As of that writing, the third book wasn’t released yet. I was going to wait until paperback, but earlier this year I was able to find the third book in hardback at a used library sale for less than $2, so I picked it up. And as of now, I have read the final book in the Strain trilogy, The Night Eternal.

So, the story picks up a few months after the second book. The Master has destroyed the other Ancients and the world has been overtaken by his vampire horde. It’s pretty dark stuff. Society is in shambles. Abraham is dead. The world is covered in a thick cloud cover that only allows about an hour or two of sunlight each day. There’s constant acid rain. Blood farms are setup to harvest blood for the ruling vampires. As long as you are obedient, you aren’t sent to these farms. Vampires are also breeding people on these farms in order to create more people. It’s pretty horrific post-apocalyptic stuff.

So our group of heroes must regroup after The Master’s destruction of the Ancients and the vampire usurping of society, with the help of a vampire that was created by the Master many centuries ago, and take down the ruling vampires and restore humans as the dominant life form.

I thought the second book was dark, but this book is darker. We learn more of the Master’s plans, and it’s very interesting to see how society has adapted to the new vampire rule. It’s also interesting to see our heroes coming back together after a few dismal months of vampire rule and, essentially, a losing battle. The action is good and Chuck Hogan’s writing style is dark and brutal. The finishing arc for our heroes is great and really feels like they aren’t going to make it at times. Plus, we learn some very interesting information about the formation of the Ancients as well as The Master himself. Honestly, I didn’t see it coming, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trilogy. It’s was dark and hard to read in spots mainly due to the situations presented. But the journey was worth it and I really felt like the authors earned their ending.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.