DB Books and Reviews

Normally I buy books 1 or 2 at a time and only do so right before I want to read them. I do own a couple that I have yet to get to, but I'm not typically one for "hauls." Recently I had two smaller ones, but these have added up a pretty decent amount of books (for me at least).  BATMAN DAY eCOMIC HAUL The 26th of September was National Batman Day (maybe international, who knows). I know this because I got an email saying so. In said email was mention of some contests one could enter for free, but also that a whole bunch of comics and graphic novels were heavily discounted, so I trucked it over to Amazon and these are the results. Batman The Long Halloween  (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale) I'd heard a lot about this one, but really had no idea what I was getting into other than the fact that it is an older and highly beloved work. I've actually already read this one and the review for it will be going up shortly. Batman Arkham Asylum (Grant...

INTRODUCTION Sequels can be risky business no matter the medium. Sequels are inspired by various motivations. The FAST AND FURIOUS franchise continues to live on because people consistently pay to see the ludicrous stunts and zany criminal story lines that the movies provide. The Marvel comic and movie universes are going strong because there are so many wild adventures to be had and so many characters to get to know (not to mention all the money they make from them). Then there are some concepts that are simply planned to go on for a finite amount of time like THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy which is most definitely meant to be a three-book series. Any more than that and the story might be stretched a bit thin and any less would rob readers of some crucial details and moments. In all of these cases, one thing that remains constant is that there is an unspoken expectation that the next installment in a series will be better than it's last. The fact of the matter is though, that seque...

INTRODUCTION Science Fiction is a genre full of possibilities. It can be as wild or as grounded as an author wants their work to be. You can even see traces of it in sub-genres like Dystopic YA books and Super Hero fiction. There's just a lot of variety to enjoy as a SciFi fan and it's books like Andy Weir's THE MARTIAN that really drive that point home. HOW I CAME UPON IT I'd heard about THE MARTIAN from a number of sources on Goodreads and BookTube (YouTube). Ultimately, I picked it up for the BookTubeSFF readalong which ran during August. I wound up finishing it a little later than I wanted to so I am just now getting around to the review. The book itself has a really interesting story in that it was first indie published online, chapter by chapter, then was put up as a cheap Kindle book and recently got picked up by a publisher AND there is now a movie soon to be released based on it starring Matt Damon. Needless to say I was very excited to dive into this on...

INTRODUCTION  Every now and then, I come across something that resonates with me in an unexpected way. Sometimes this is due to a plot unlike any other, a particular narration technique that  would only work for that specific story, or perhaps just a nice twist at the end. In any case, I really enjoy being surprised by works of fiction and Matthew Kressel's short story, "THE MEEKER AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE" is certainly a story that gave me that sort of satisfying bewilderment which I look for in science fiction and fantasy. HOW I CAME UPON IT  This is one of the stories up for the Best Short Fiction award in the BookTubeSFF Awards. I've been putting it off since I knew that it would be a short read, but since September is nearly at its end, I figured it would be best to finally experience the phenomenon that is "THE MEEKER AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE." HOW I RATED IT  4/5  I would not go so far as to say this is the best short story ever, nor is entirely...

INTRODUCTION I like trying new things. New foods, different videogames, new TV shows, new ways of doing things. You get the idea. This is also true of my approach to reading and writing. I've always been one to want to delve into something that's unique or different in some way. One of the ways I've been doing that is by participating in the BookTube SFF Awards where I've been reading some of the nominees in different categories. One such book was Haruki Murukami's THE STRANGE LIBRARY . I didn't really know what to expect other than that this would be a weird one and I was excited to see just what this book had in store. HOW I CAME UPON IT Like I mentioned before, this is one of the BookTube SFF nominees. Prior to seeing this book on the shortlist, I'd never really heard about either this book or even the author in general. The only other thing worth noting is that I bought this as an eBook since I kind of waited till the last minute to make my purcha...

Fairy Tales are basically synonymous with childhood. I grew up with them being told to me, seeing them re-imagined in Disney movies, and read re-written versions of these classic tales. But much later in life, I realized that I didn't actually know the original versions of the tales that filled the early years of my life. I think what was most interesting about reading these is that I am of the opinion that retold or otherwise modernized versions are just so much better than the Grimm Brothers' original iterations. Am I aware that this is an entirely unfair and liberally subjective statement? Yes, yes I am, that's why this is a Book Talk and not a Book Review. I think some works of fiction fall into such a classic status that they truly are beyond reproach. This work is one of them, but I am still allowed to have certain feelings towards it. I think that fiction like this should be read by everyone, especially if you have fond memories of the more recent works that it...

With a few months left to go in 2015, I am very happy that I have already completed my 2015 Reading Challenge on Goodreads. Most people probably won't be impressed that I only had a goal of twenty books (especially those who can read that many in 1-2 months), but for me that seemed like a rather daunting challenge. See, I've had sort of a sour taste for reading for a long time. This is largely because of large quantities of required, academic reading. While I won't go into a deeper criticism of the education system, I will say that school, both at High School and University levels really killed my passion for reading. I'd come to think of reading as a sort of chore or burden and that's something I wanted to try and overcome. Having recently struggled with a bit of a reading slump, I think I may have had a bit of a relapse in this mentality, but I pulled through and can now happily state that my goal has been met and I can look forward to pushing myself to see...