I posted my favorite books/comics of 2021 a few weeks ago. As usual, I had a few entries that didn’t necessarily make my favorites list, but I still wanted to talk about them. Good and bad.
Starting with books…LET’S BEGIN!
Shadow & Bone / Seige & Storm – The first two books in the Grishaverse series. This is what the Netflix show is based on, well the first book here, and another book in the series are mashed together. I read the first two books in 2021. I like a lot of what’s in them. The world that’s set up is awesome. This version of magic is closer to super powers than actual sorcery. I like the main protagonist, Alina. She’s got a nice arc through 2/3 of the first book, until she doesn’t. The biggest issue I have with this series is Alina’s love interest, Mal. He is the f**king WORST. Completely worthless. Shadow & Bone starts off with Alina being best friends with Mal and pining for him while he goes off completely ignoring her. Typical storyline. But then Alina is found to be Grisha, which means she goes off to a special school to learn about her powers. At this school, she discovers that she can’t use her powers. They refuse to work on command. She has to work through her feelings about Mal, who isn’t Grisha, and realize that she was suppressing her powers and hiding them from Mal so he didn’t find out. because he was kind of anti-Grisha. Alina ultimately gains control of her powers again because she gives up this weird attachment to Mal. BUT THEN, Mal returns and completely destroys everything Alina had gained from the previous portion of the book. And he’s terrible to Alina. He says he loves her, but his actions say otherwise. He treats her like garbage. I hate him. And I don’t know why he came back. Alina didn’t need his love or his help in the climax of the book. And he’s still there being a complete wet blanket throughout the second book. So, these books are great. The characters are awesome. The world is interesting. The one character of MAL is *very* close to being a deal breaker. I hate him so much.
The President’s Vampire series by Christopher Farnsworth – This series is so high premise I get vertigo just thinking about it. One hundred and fifty years ago a vampire was discovered on a whaling vessel that had docked in Boston Harbor. Thinking quickly, President Andrew Johnson has a voodoo witch doctor bind the vampire to the office of the President of the United States. From then forward, the vampire, now known as Nathaniel Cade, is sworn to protect the office and the country from all unnatural enemies. I love the idea of this series; imagine the series 24 but swap out Jack Bauer for a vampire. That’s essentially what this is. And it’s totally played straight. They handle all the supernatural elements very well. And along with all the unnatural goings on, we do get a bit of political intrigue as well. So far it’s only these three books, but Farnsworth also wrote two novellas featuring Nathaniel Cade; The Burning Men and Deep State. This is a fun series that I really enjoyed reading this year.
Recursion by Blake Crouch – I love time travel. Especially when a book does something different with it. And this book sort of intertwines time travel, with memory, and alternate realities. I really don’t want to give anything away, because there’s a lot of surprises here, but, on a high level, there is a doctor that is working on a cure for Alzheimers. Her mother has it. She is hoping to create a system that allows people to relive their memories in a fully immersive VR environment. Needless to say, her work is picked up and sort of steered into a new direction and all hell breaks loose. Like seriously. This book gets BANANAS. I really enjoyed it. It literally just missed out on being in my “favorites” list.
Now, how about some comic book honorable mentions?
Maniac of New York by Elliott Kalan – This comic is a *lot* of fun. It takes the premise of…”What if Jason Voorhees were real, and nobody could stop him? So city officials and the people in the city decide to make the best and just live with him.” How would peoples’ lives change? This really puts forth some interesting thoughts. Radio morning shows have a Killer Watch during the traffic report. They let you know if he’s been seen on the subway. And there’s a task force set up to stop him, but no one seems to be able to as he appears and disappears like a ghost. I read the first 5-6 issues of this and really liked it.
The Flash (1987-) #36 – 61 – Being a big fan of The Flash, I read this title as it was coming out starting with issue #3 in 1987. Back then I probably read up to like issue 50 or so. I only stopped about the time I went to college and stopped reading comics for the most part. Back in 2020, I decided to start a reread of this title. I read issues #1-35 in 2020, and then I continued through issue 61 in 2021. Mark Waid started his storied run in issue #62, but my memories of this series are the first 61 issues before Mark even got there. And I thoroughly enjoyed my reread of this series. These Wally West issues are pretty great. He loses his powers. Gains them back. He wins the lottery and becomes rich. Then loses all his money and becomes poor only to get rich again. It’s a roller coaster. And there are more than a few issues that are weird and not great. Linda Park is completely wasted in her run, even becoming possessed by what seems like an ancient Irish wizard, but turns out to be the Kilg%re. Lots of weirdness and wackiness. But most of it is really good.
So there are a few extra book/comic recommendations. Look for some movie honorable mentions later this week!
Cavalcade of Awesome 