Category Archives: Reading

September 2, 2026 · 5:18 am

When do the good times start?

When I watched The Exorcist a couple of years back, I was struck by how slowly the story opens, showing us the details of everyday life. It was a carefully calculated decision to ground the film in the “real” world before the spookery gets going.

I think the source novel, William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST, does the same thing, but less successfully. It’s a hundred pages of mundane detail about Chris and Regan’s lives (and some about the priests) before anything happens; sure, there’s some odd noises in the attic, but that’s as creepy as it gets. Even after the supernatural happens, the resistance to accepting it gets comical: sure, someone fell down the steps with his head completely twisted around on his neck but that could certainly happen naturally! No, not it couldn’t.

I presume this reflects that Blatty was writing in an era when mainstream horror novels weren’t a thing — this was three years before Stephen King broke in with Carrie. So perhaps grounding it in reality was necessary — and the book’s blockbuster success clearly shows it didn’t hurt. Nevertheless I couldn’t get into it; Blatty’s oddly jerky prose style didn’t help. I do think a little more tension in the everyday stuff would have been a good idea — if you’re going to spend more than a quarter of the book in the mundane world, find some way to make it interesting.

This is, of course, a challenge lots of speculative fiction writers face when they’re setting stories in our world. Some plunge right in: the opening page of Storm Front informs us that Harry Dresden is a wizard helping people out with supernatural problems. My short story “The Savage Year” (in 19-Infinity) opens with mage Artemis West getting ready to perform magic on a job for the Secret Service. “The Glory That Was” in the same book has a robot minotaur break in on a political luncheon.

Other stories take time to build. Southern Discomfort, as I’ve mentioned before, starts with little overt magic. We have Maria’s sense of something wrong, hints that Pharisee Georgia is, shall we see, eccentric (no stop signs allowed — traffic circles instead), freakish rainstorms. Until the ravens attack as Maria’s getting off the bus, there’s nothing that seems strongly supernatural. However Chapter Two spells out that this is a town run by elves, and the person who murdered Aubric McAlister is not of mortal clay. Not a long wait.

That puts me in mind of Orson Scott Card’s old rule that the opening and ending of your story should mirror each other. Mine starts out with Maria in a bad place: on the run from the cops, emotionally closed, desperate. The final scene is all about resolving that. Likewise Let No Man Put Asunder starts with Mandy and Paul waiting for their life to begin, and ends accordingly. Maybe that’s what bugged me about The Exorcist: it starts with Chris but it’s not really a character-centered story where her personal arc is resolved at the end. Instead it switches to horror midway through and stays there.

Then again we have the priest supporting character who does indeed get a character arc. Unlike the movie, he’s not quite interesting enough to be the spine of the story, at least for me — like I said, the success of Blatty’s book certainly speaks for itself. But like I said, I didn’t find it terribly compelling, and I think I’ve identified why.

All rights to images remain with current holders. Covers top to bottom by Lee Macleod, Kemp Ward and Sam Collins.

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August 30, 2026 · 5:30 am

A sorceress, a heroine, a feminist philosopher: books

T. Kingfisher’s A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL shows she definitely has a type in protagonists. Like Thornhedge and Nettle and Bone, the protagonist, Cordelia, is a socially awkward, emotionally numb woman who badly needs some found family to help her live again. Unlike them, Cordelia’s numbness is because she’s the daughter of the sorceress of the title; whenever Cordelia breaks the rules or doesn’t show her mother appropriate devotion, Mom reduces her to a puppet for a few days. What are rules? Cordelia has no idea.

Mom’s determined to see her daughter marry rich and if Cordelia objects, well, too bad. Not from any big scheme; she’s a mom in a vaguely Edwardian world and she knows what’s best for her daughter — some day, she probably, imagines, Cordelia will thank her. As innocent people get enmeshed in her mother’s schemes, Cordelia has to fight back, but even when she finds allies, what can they do against magic? This was very good, though the opening was so creepy in the way Cordelia was suffering, I almost put it down.

Following Heroine Complex and Heroine Worship, Sarah Kuhn deliver’s HEROINE’S JOURNEY focuses on Evie’s younger sister. Bea is an empath, constantly frustrated Evie and Annie won’t let her fight crime alongside her. And what’s with the way her long-time platonic friend Sam is getting her all hot and bothered? And is it possible Bea and Evie’s mom isn’t dead but kidnapped into the demonworld?

This has some good elements such as the sister’s relationship and Asian-American life (according to Bea, “Asian girl with multicolored hair” is now a trope) but it didn’t work as well as the first two books. Bea is more annoying than engaging and the ending felt like two chapters of epiphanies: everyone understands perfectly what their feelings are and everyone can explain them perfectly. That rarely works for me.

Kate Manne is a feminist philosopher who coined the term “Himpathy” for the way we’re supposed to sympathize with the tragic male figure accused of sexual harassment or rape. I figured her DOWN GIRL: The Logic of Misogyny would be interesting but I DNFed. Manne’s argument is that misogyny and sexism less about hate — thinking that’s the issue is “naive” she says in one chapter — than about resenting women for not providing the emotional/sexual/practical support some men think they deserve; sexism is the rationale for women’s subjugation, misogyny is the tools. Which is a fine definition (I used a different one in Undead Sexist Cliches but I don’t claim I have the definitive definition) but then she gets to the case of misogynist mass-shooter Elliot Rodger and a lengthy discussion about why his actions fit her definition better than a simple “hate’s women” and I couldn’t get into it.

All rights to cover images remain with current holders. Don’t know the artists.

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August 28, 2026 · 4:40 pm

Do I wither with time, or is this just a fluke?

Which is to say, this was another frustrating week. Looking at how often I type that, I wonder if I’m losing my ability to concentrate as I age? Or is it just that sometimes, shit happens.

This week was definitely partly “shit happens.” First off, Monday evening Plushie’s good eye had something wrong with it, making him squint so much it was barely open. TYG rushed him down to the nearby emergency vet who did not perform well. We may not go back which is a crying shame (it’s a lot further to the next closest E/R). However we were able to get a Tuesday morning appointment with his eye doctor (they’re also close): it’s an ulcer, which is manageable and it was back to normal by Thursday (though we’ll be doing added eyedrops for a week or so). Still that meant we got to bed sometime around midnight, which ain’t good.

Yesterday I went in to my own doctor, who confirmed I have sleep apnea. The most likely outcome is that I’ll end up wearing one of those freaky masks hooked up to a small air pump. I’ll be talking to a specialist about that. The other alternatives are a smaller mouthpiece that would widen my air intake or to take the GLP and see if my weight comes down. My doctor favors the CPAC pump and I’m inclined to agree. While I’m obese by BMI standards I’d need to lose 30 pounds to be non-obese; while I’m nobody’s idea of six-pack abs I do not believe I have 30 excess pounds to lose. In any case, that took a chunk out of my day.

Oh, and Trixie came down with a tummy this weekend and refused to eat. Since then she’s eating but she’s ultra-picky. Won’t take her meds on anything but the same canned chicken we give Plushie. Won’t eat kibble, only soft food. Refuses most hard treats — I’d think she had a tooth issue but there are some treats she does eat so … well, you’ve got me. If it keeps going I may ask the vet for insight.

All that said, part of the problem this week was me not being organized. I had three stories to work on for The Local Reporter and in-between sending out emails and waiting for replies my mind kind of wandered (the lack of sleep didn’t help). Plus I had some personal plane travel I might take before the end of the year and that always messes up my mind: do I want to spend the money? Do I want to get to the airport at 5 in the morning if it saves $100? I’ve spent much of my life living on a struggling writer salary so it’s impossible for me to be just “yeah, that’ll do for anything over a couple of hundred bucks. And if I plonk down the money now, who knows what’ll happen between now and then?However I did get most of the work done on the stories. Plus I got more work done on Savage Adventures, including adding footnotes. I’d been mostly attributing stuff in the text when appropriate but it’ll flow much smoother with footnotes.

And that was about it. Part of the problem is that I kept trying to do more than one project in a day and that’s usually a mess unless I plan it very carefully. I’m going to try to avoid that in September.

Oh, here are two pieces over at Atomic Junkshop: one about realizing what certain songs really mean, one on DC’s Homo magi and my head-canon version of their history.

Doc Savage cover by James Bama, comic book panel by Jack Sparling. All rights to images remain with current holder.

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Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as Atomic Junkshop, Local Reporter, Savage Adventures

August 26, 2026 · 5:07 am

A cool comics cover for Wednesday

The Shade became an A-lister thanks to his appearances in James Robinson’s Starman series. From there he springboarded into the CW’s excellent Stargirl as a supporting character for two seasons.

It’s surprising to look back and see what a minor player he once was. One appearance in the Golden Age. Then an appearance in the classic story “Flash of Two Worlds,” which introduced the idea the Justice Society and Justice League co-existed on different Earths. There he got to fight alongside the Thinker, Jay Garrick’s arch-foe (seven appearances) and the Fiddler (four). All he could do was blot out light — a useful skill, sure, but not much.

And then the Shade returned.

This was the story that established the Shade could access dimensions of darkness, elevating him beyond a C-lister. Without this story changing his trajectory, he’d be a bar-trivia answer.

What I’m really posting about, though, is the Carmine Infantino cover. I think it’s great. Then smirking, lean figure of the Shade. Jay, trapped. Barry unable to beat his foe. When I saw it as a kid, although I didn’t have the money to spare, I was hooked. Thrilled years later when I acquired it.

The Shade’s career shows even a C-lister has potential. The cover shows — well, while I generally disregard “things were better back in the day” I think the covers were.

All rights to image remain with current holders.

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August 23, 2026 · 5:10 am

So, Fraser, what graphic novels have you been reading lately?

Before Greg Rucka’s run on Wonder Woman, he and Jeff Jones turned out a 2002 graphic novel, WONDER WOMAN: The Hiketeia. A young woman invokes the Hiketeia, an ancient Greek ritual, to gain Wonder Woman’s protection. Trouble is, she’s just murdered the Gotham City crooks who sex-trafficked and killed her sister; now Batman shows up and demands Diana give up the killer, never mind about this oath stuff.

Astonishingly the cover is accurate: Wonder Woman kicks Batman’s butt. The “bat god” concept has become so dominant in this century, I absolutely loved seeing him in over his head.

Beyond that? The plot could have been comfortably fitted into a single regular issue. At 90 pages this is a showcase for the art and while Jones is good, he wasn’t 90-pages-with-little-plot good.

In the afterword to BOWLING WITH CORPSES AND OTHER TALES FROM LANDS UNKNOWN writer/artist Mike Mignola said he’d begun thinking of himself as in semi-retirement, then decided nothing he could take up in retirement would be as fun as writing and drawing comics. He adapted the title story from an old Italian folktale, then developed the Lands Unknown as a place to put them. These stories of witches, ghosts, creepy inns (“Don’t share your bed with a corpse, even if the landlord offers you a discount.”) and yes, bowling with a group of flesh-eating corpses, don’t break fresh ground but they’re good and the art is typically amazing.

The follow up volume, URI TUPKA AND THE GODS: A Tale From the Lands Unknown has the eponymous heretic fleeing the inquisition only to encounter bandits, hermits with horror stories, pirates, demon frogs, finally learning the truth about why the gods have withdrawn from the mortal world. The art is again amazing but this spends too much time on the history and geography of the setting. The lurking horror also feels too close to the Oghdru Jahad of Hellboy’s mythos

TRASHED by Derf Backderf is the story of a slacker who winds up taking a job as a garbage man, discovers it’s disgustingly dirty and gross — wow, you could almost make a metaphor for the human condition out of this! This is way too talky and not interesting talk: lectures on how we’re doing sanitation and waste management wrong, how absurdly much waste we create and constant grousing about how shitty the life of a garbage man is. I’d agree with a lot of the sentiments but that doesn’t make them interesting.

Covers by Jones and Mignola; all rights to images remain with current holders.

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Tagged as Wonder Woman Greg Rucka Years

August 18, 2026 · 5:15 am

Tuesday pulp covers

First one by the great Virgil Finlay

Two by Howard Brown

And one by Hans Waldemar Wessolowski, AKA “Wesso”

All rights to images remain with current holers.

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August 16, 2026 · 5:03 am

A master mage and evil monuments: books read

NO COMMON GROUND: Confederate Monuments and the Fight for Racial Justice by Karen L. Cox looks at how following the end of Reconstruction, Southern women began pushing and fund-raising for statues that would memorialize the Lost Cause and show black Southerners whose version of the war, and of racial relations, dominated. Putting a statue on the courthouse lawn, for instance, said which race dictated justice.

Cox does a good job showing the history of these monuments, the black protests against them, the ham-fisted attempts at compromise (We have a statute of MLK next to a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, isn’t that good enough?) and the renewed enthusiasm for toppling or removing them since Black Lives Matter became a thing (the NC State “Silent Sam” statue above got taken down). Unfortunately there’s very little new information to me so while it’s not a bad book, it’s not one I could get into (The Confederate Battle Flag worked better).

P. Djeli Clark’s RING SHOUT is an ethnogothic reminiscent of the Bitter Root graphic novels in that the three female leads are battling a literally demonic KKK in the 1920s — there’s the human but monstrous Klan and the “Ku Kluxes,” demons in human form, both drawing inspiration from the racism ramped up by the infamously racist classic film Birth of a Nation. Now the Klan is plotting to screen the film at the Stone Mountain monument as part of a ceremony to unleash something worse — can our heroes stop them when the narrator, Maryse, is haunted by trauma from past racism? This one was very good.

As my Genre Book Club’s theme for this month was “coming of age” I revisted Diana Wynn Jones’ first novel of the enchanter Chrestomanci, CHARMED LIFE. Our protagonist, Cat Chant, is an orphan with a sister, Gwendolen, who’s a powerful enchanter in a vaguely Edwardian English setting (with magic common). When Chrestomanci takes the Chants into his home to tutor Gwen — and Cat, though he has no magic — it’s a big deal. Except Gwen soon gets fed up Chrestomanci doesn’t appreciate her awesomeness and transports herself to another world in their multiverse, leaving Jane, her counterpart from our world, in her place.

Cat is terrified to tell Chrestomanci about this because Gwen’s bound to come back, right? And she’ll be punished sooo hard … But can they hide the truth about a girl who can’t work magic and thinks the continent of New Atlantis is named North America?

This was the first story by Jones I read and it blew me away. Having reread all her books about 15 years back, I’m not quite so blown away: she got better as she went along and parts of this are too much like the earlier The Ogre Downstairs. Still it’s a fun novel and the top-lofty, intimidating Chrestomanci (“He walked out of the room, a very long procession of one person.”) would return many times (he has a lot in common with Howl of Howl’s Moving Castle though Howl, as Jones once said, is more of a drama queen).

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August 12, 2026 · 5:15 am

Wonder Woman: Two year ones and one of them’s amazing

Following the Phil Jimenez run on Wonder Woman, Walt Simonson took over for a brief arc which I somehow never got around to reviewing (soon, though). This post is about the first year under Greg Rucka, who took over writing next, and also about the first year of Absolute Wonder Woman.

Rucka first worked on Diana in a standalone story, The Hiketeia, which I haven’t read yet. Wonder Woman #196 (cover by Adam Hughes)started a run on the book that ended when Infinite Crisis rebooted everything. For the first year the primary plot driver is Veronica Cale, a Texas businesswoman who bitterly resents that Wonder Woman gets so much applause and acclaim — Cale is the real wonder woman, dammit! Employing skilled PR, Dr. Psycho and the Silver Swan, she sets out to destroy Diana.

In addition we have Eros prompt Zeus to lust for Artemis, leading to Hera hurling Themyscira into U.S. coastal waters. America is wary; the Amazons are equally wary to see US warships patrolling around them. Can the two nations avoid coming to blows?

And as the year winds to a close, Circe helps the gorgons resurrect Medusa. Cale then sends her to kill Diana …

I glanced Rucka’s run a couple of times when it was on the stand. It certainly wasn’t bad but it didn’t give me any urge to buy it. Reading it on the DC app, that hasn’t changed. The heart of the story isn’t the superhero battles, it’s the politics. The challenges on WW as an ambassador for Amazons and a speaker for women’s equality. The mundane day-to-day running of the embassy, with a minotaur as her chef. Cale’s PR maneuvers to discredit Diana. The gods are dressed in modern fashions, reflecting their connections to various modern spheres — our quest for knowledge makes Athena strong, our interest in sex boosts Aphrodite (Zeus doesn’t realize his power is fading by comparison). It feels like this is where Rucka’s heart lies (that’s my impression, not something I know for a fact) but it doesn’t work the way Astro City does with a similar approach.

Take Cale. Her resentment for Diana is the same as the Golden Age Cheetah (cover here by H.G. Peters). Her desire to kill Diana feels way over the top; it’s easier to accept such unhinged hatred when it comes from a woman crazy enough to dress up in a cat costume.

I didn’t expect much better from Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman (who does the cover here). The Absolute Universe is one where the creators strip characters of their usual accoutrements: who is Batman without Bruce Wayne’s wealth? Who is Wonder Woman without the Amazons? Yeah, right — like “Wonder Woman without the Amazons” isn’t a go-to for a soft reboot ever since the Diana Prince Years. When I checked V1 and V2 out of the library however, it turns out they’re as good as everyone told me they were.

In the first issue we meet Circe, trapped on an island in the Greek underworld. Apollo drops an infant Diana off, informing Circe that the Amazons are gone — and the very word ‘Amazon’ is forbidden.Years later, Gateway City is under siege by demonic forces when Wonder Woman appears, riding her winged horse Pegasus, as on the cover. Which she explains to Steve Trevor at one point is the real Pegasus, killed and damned to hell by Zeus for some reason. We alternate scenes of Diana’s life in the underworld with her efforts to defend the city from increasingly nasty demonic forces. We also meet her mortal supporting cast: Steve, occultist Etta Candy and reporter Barbara Minerva (so far a “name only” character with no similarity to the original).

In the first arc she saves Gateway City (I’m not sure if that’s a callback to her operating there in John Byrne’s run or the symbolism of the name), then descends to Tartarus for a confrontation with Hades. She wins her freedom at the cost of never returning meaning she’ll never see her mother, Circe, again. Persephone, however, has arranged for Diana to eat a pomegranate seed, which compels her to return for one month of every year. This is a running theme, even if we don’t know where it’s leading: the male Olympians are vicious, the goddesses are backing Diana covertly.

In the second arc we meet the Absolute Veronica Cale, here a hot-shot national security official who sends a version of Dr. Poison against Wonder Woman. This leads to the reveal of a magical maze in which Diana might be able to find other Amazons. Entering she battles against monsters and the Golden Age foe Queen Clea. The current arc involves Cale sending Zatanna against Diana — bad news as Diana is a sorceress like her mom and Zatanna has managed to tap her magic and use it against her (I’m now reading on the app but I haven’t gotten any further yet).

For my money, this is the best WW since the New 52 reboot, possibly the best in this century. Part of the reason is, of course, that it’s a solidly entertaining story. It’s hard to go wrong when Wonder Woman shows up riding a skeletal undead Pegasus. Part of it is also that they get Diana in a way many authors don’t.

A recurring tendency since the New 52 has been to treat Diana as an Amazon warrior first and foremost; there’s a scene in one JLA story where monsters attack and her response is “Yay, something to fight and kill!” In the “Tower of Babel” arc in JLA, the trap for Diana is a mental fantasy in which she’s battling as a warrior, endlessly, something she doesn’t want to break free of.

Not here. There’s a flashback where Artemis wants to test Diana in combat. The young Amazon refuses, having seen too much senseless violence in the underworld. A disgruntled Artemis considers hunting a passing turtle for sport and suddenly Diana’s in her grill: No. You do not hurt it!

In another scene she visits Prometheus for help and convinces the eagle gnawing on his liver to stop.

When she has to send Steve home from the underworld she needs a sacrifice big enough to work such a potent marriage. She sacrifices her right arm, replacing it with a prosthetic of magic.

This is who she is. This is who Wonder Woman should be. I look forward to reviewing Year Two in about eight months.

All rights to images remain with current holders.

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Tagged as Absolute Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman Greg Rucka Years

August 9, 2026 · 4:49 pm

Young women, real and fictional

THE GIRLS: An All-American Town, a Predatory Doctor, and the Untold Story of the Gymnasts Who Brought Him Down by Abigail Pesta looks at the case of Larry Nassar, the respected doctor for the US gymnastics team and for gymnasts at Michigan State, who took advantage of his position to molest and sexually assault hundreds of girls. Pesta tells the story through the accounts of a dozen or so of Nassar’s victims, starting with the girl who may have been his first to one of the last before everything crashed down.

The book shows serious competitive gymnastics was often an abusive environment to start with, as coaches pushed their students beyond the limits of safety and verbally abused them for not getting it right, being too heavy, being too stressed, etc. Nassar, however, was a whole ‘nother level of horror, fingering girls in what he claimed was a therapeutic technique; that he was such a prolific predator proved an advantage as obviously if he felt up every girl it had to be a standard technique, nothing weird, right? Pesta shows how Nassar groomed and charmed the gymnasts, and their parents; while some girls did report him, it never led to anything. Infuriatinly, though unsurprisingly, it wasn’t even a coordinated cover-up (that came later, when Michigan State got seriously worried) — dozens of different people independently took no action, either because they didn’t believe the reports or they didn’t want to challenge someone with Nassar’s rep or who knows why. The book is well executed but grim.

Which may be why I’m going with something more uplifting for my illustration, Wisp asleep:

Leigh Bardugo’s THE FAMILIAR is a romantasy in a similar vein to Lies that Summon the Night and Arcana Academy, with the protagonist forced to wield her magical powers for a sinister, attractive man with everything she needs except her freedom (in the words of the old Flash Gordon serial). In this case, though, Luzia is a scullerymaid in late 1500s Spain and a converso, a Jew who practices the Catholic faith. The Inquisition, though, suspects all such Jews as fake Christians so if anyone ever spots anything suspicious about her, she’s in trouble.

That makes it a major problem when Luzia magically repairs a burned loaf of bread: her employer notices and before long Luzia is swept up by a more powerful noble and placed in a contest to select a holy champion to serve the Spanish king. It’s risky; if anyone suspects her powers don’t come from God, the Inquisition will take her. However it’s a path out of a life where she will never be anything but a kitchen drudge, sleeping on an earth floor. Then there’s Santangel, her new employer’s strange, supernatural agent. Cold, cruel, ruthless, he sees her as nothing but a tool for his master … doesn’t he?

This worked much better than the two earlier books using this set-up. The real-world setting adds punch and making it a done-in-one suited me more than having it launch yet another series. On the downside, the Luzia/Santangel romance feels very perfunctory and the magic needed more explanation. I don’t need an elaborate magic system but I wanted some explanation why Luzia has her powers (Christian god? Jewish god? Satan?). As is, she might as well be a mutant. Despite those flaws, I really enjoyed this.

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August 4, 2026 · 5:06 am