Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy (A Nursery Crime)

Fforde, Jasper. The Big Over Easy (A Nursery Crime). R. 20061112. a crime noir mystery, with characters from children's nursery rhymes, as real. Humpty is murdered, Jack Spratt (the giant killer) investigates, with Sergeant Mary Mary. A wild cast of characters you instantly recognize, or eventually recognize with surprize, including Prometheus, Old Mother Hubbard, all the famous detectives of fiction from Sherlock Holmes, to Mrs Marple, Solomon Grundy, Georgie Porgie, the woodcutters, 3 Little Pigs, Big Bad Wolf, and many many more, all for some reason living in Reading. A true crime mystery with all the trimmings, and all the extra's you'd expect from Fforde. an 8.

Mail Order Ninja ; volume 1

Elder, Joshua & Erich Owen. Mail Order Ninja v1. R. 20061110. Graphic Novel. Amusing idea, adequate art, a few in jokes (like the article by Charles 'Eastman-Laird', or the Asimovian aliens). Overall quite pointedly aimed at 5th graders. similar to ninja high-school, only it's grade school, and while it has it parts, there's a bit too much kiddie to it. a 4.

Tony Millionaire - Premillennial Maakies

Millionaire, Tony. Premillennial Maakies. R. 20061109. HB. 5 years collection of the weekly independent Maakies comix featuring Uncle Gabby the monkey, and Drinky Crow in all their blasphemous, darkly suicidal, murderous, hilarious, glory. part Winsor McCay part George Herriman part Partrick O'Brian, dash of don martin, with plenty of blood and gore. tremendously well illustrated in a turn of the century style, with darkly humorous, surreal, and/or just violent stories. quite fun. an 8.

Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey Uncle Gabby

Millionaire, Tony. Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey Uncle Gabby. R. 20061107. GN HB. in nice muted color that gives it an extra wow. Edward Gorey meets Winsor McCay. Sock monkey poetry, toys adventure, marvelous monsters, flying ships, and Uncle Gabby discovers the sad truth about his owner-creator Ann-Louise. an 8.

The Adventures of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey

Millionaire, Tony. The Adventures of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey. R. 20061107. TPB. excellent. reminds me of Edward Gorey - the style looks old and turn of the century, you might think. the humor is bright, with dark twists. Uncle Gabby the sock money, and drinky Crow the drunken toy crow have adventures, involving toy ships constantly on the attack. death, insanity. an 7.

Wen Spencer - Alien Taste

Spencer, Wen. Alien Taste. R. 20061102. other than the title giving away too much it's excellent! an 8. very good near future sf. boy raised by wolves with near supernatural abilities. gangs of feuding aliens trying to take over the earth. excellent PI search, good gunfights, satisfying ending, although it doesn't close up all the loose ends, and there could easily be a sequel. cover looks more high-tech than it is. good characters, good low-level romance, excellent adventure, and finding self story.

Nina Kirki Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky

Hoffman, Nina Kirki. A Fistful of Sky. R.20061102. a good modern fantasy. romantic. family of powers. simple living life. a family story with magic. kind of similar to Alice Hoffman. ends oddly tho. a 5.

Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore)

Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) - 20061101. the greatest zombie sex comedy. the most surreal zombie movie of all time - I'm sure. In great the company of comedy horror, like Army of Darkness and Shaun of the Dead, it's doesn't have the jokes per minute, but it also has sexy surrealism. Falchi is hot, delamorte is intriguing and very Italian. The production is amazing for such a low budget seeming film. The camera work is great, there are some shots that are so amazing it almost takes away from the story, the moon in the pool, the broken wings bracketing delamorte, the ending! is one of my favorites, def a surprize. the beginning is great nonchalant zombie killing, sets the tone perfectly. a 9.

Wen Spencer - Tinker

Spencer, Wen. Tinker. R. 20061027. a good elves and sf story. near future and someone built a machine that opened the way back up to elfhame of old. good characters. the sex scenes were cribbed from a typical romance novel, a bit stereotypical feeling. the ideas magic as a waveform, spells as a type of technology, the 2 able to work together science and magic print out magic spells, cast them - was interesting. But the best of it was the main character, able to overcome her enemies without being a 'fighter' using her considerable brains instead. a 6.

David Weber & John Ringo - March Series

Weber, David & John Ringo. March 1 March Upcountry. R.k+file good an 8 better than Ringo alone. maybe not quite as good as Weber alone. the kid is bratty but gets over it quick enough that you don't end up disliking him. wagons west on another planet ) having to 'go native' to get weapons. guns & dinos. an interesting setting. hardcore military
SF. Reread 20040120.alice.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 2 March to the Sea. R.k-file 20040122. lots of vs. barbarians, developing primitive artillery & guns. much the same, only larger scale. a 7 or 8.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 3 March to the Stars. 20040208. R.x. take the port, easy enough, lose more and more people tho, sad end, but the series isn't over at least one more, prob only one more. a 7.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 4: We Few. R. 20061026. finish the story of sorts, but sets up for new stuff. a 6. loses the effect of the 'march' but still good fun. Becomes more intrigue, less battle, 'tho there is still much. Add many more characters - tho lost many in book #3 so prob didn't add overall to the number. The series is Written by Ringo from an outline by Weber. Ties up most of the previous loose ends, and only makes few more. Ringo's website says something about 3 more books to finish the series, but there is a good ending to the plot in this one, not particularly happy, but successful.

David Weber - In Fury Born

Weber, David. In Fury Born. HB. R. 20061023. not really a sequel, more of a prequel plus. a combo of a prequel and the original into one volume, about 50% new, tacked onto the front of Path. Very well done hard military marine sf, but not a better book. Sure there's ton's more backstory on Ally, but with out the 3 fury's the 'hook' of path is missing, and while good military sf, it lacks the great that Path had on it's own. Sure the original is still all there, but with such a long buildup it come off a bit odd. a 9.

Identity Crisis (Meltzer, Morales, Bair)

Identity Crisis (Meltzer, Morales, Bair). GN. R.X. 20061018. excellent story, JLA/JSA classic DC comics characters, and a few of the old unused ones. very gripping, emotional story, 'real' deaths, and some excellent character developments. if it wasn't for so much needed backstory to get some of the characters, or history to understand the emotions, it would be even better, but you just can't get that with an ensemble cast of characters with such long back stories. still excellent writing, and good art. exposition of the why behind the secret identities. a 7.

Neal Schusterman - The Dark Side of Nowhere

Schusterman, Neal. The Dark Side of Nowhere. YA. SF, excellent story, coming of age. the glove thing that they always use for the cover is an odd aspect to focus on. boring town has secrets that, once discovered, will change the world. Jason is in the middle of it, there's a girl he likes, a friend who's just died, maybe... a mysterious janitor, and secrets in old town. Nature or nurture? go with the crowd, or do what you think is right. a 7 or 8.

Gary Paulsen - Brian's Series

Paulsen, Gary. Brain's Winter. R. 20061016. Young Adult. sequel of sorts to Hatchet. What if Brian had not be rescued and stayed the winter? an excellent outdoors survival novel. excellent descriptions, and narration. You're in Brian's head the whole time and deep in his thought and musings. a 6.
Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Return. R. 20060921.
Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Hunt. R. 20060921. Good, very short, reminds of My Side of the Mountain, but more spiritual-bonding to nature. one with nature, young teen on his way to being a mountain man' of the north Canadian woods. a 7. Continuation of Hatchet I think books 3 & 4.

Kolchak The Night Stalker and Night Strangler

The Night Stalker very 70's TV movies. but there is something about the story and plot that are interesting. It's not that scary, but there are some interesting spooky bits. the Las Vegas setting is interesting, the Vampire is sort of flat. a 5
Night Strangler - is a bit better, McGavin really gets into it, the Seattle underground setting is quite interesting, and the back story on the mysterious murderer is quite interesting. plus denouement as they drive off is quite fun. John Carradine has a great bit part. the effects are a bit better, or perhaps budget was a bit higher.  a 6.

Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon - Pride of Baghdad

Vaughan, Brian K. & Niko Henrichon. Pride of Baghdad. R. 20061012. Graphic Novel. an excellent talking animals story, very 'real' feeling the lions freed, and confused, wandering in the ruins. loosely based on true events, which make for a sad ending. a 7.

Neil Gaiman - 1602

Gaiman, Neil.   1602. rx. 20061012. Graphic Novel. the beginning of the marvel universe as it would have happened in 1602. All the greats, Fury, Strange, X-men, Doom, daredevil, Magneto, Thor. and he even made it work without being an elseworlds story, (although I think that would have worked just as well) excellent cover art by Mckowen very much in the style of woodcuts. An interesting story but more a gimmick than anything great. a 5.

Tony Millionaire - Billy Hazelnuts

Millionaire, Tony.      Billy Hazelnuts. 20061011. Graphic Novel. astounding turn of the century style art & story. very reminiscent of Winsor McCay. Girl scientist, boy poet, billy the thing the rats made! A grave yard for worn out & broken planets, flying ships, magic-science. marvelous. a 9.

Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill - Bedlam's Bard Series

Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Beyond World's End. R. 20061005. Continuing Bedlam's Bard + Knight of Ghosts & Shadows (and apparently mostly Rosemary's work). bard goes to NYC to finish Juliard. meets Guardian House, magic guardians of NYC, & a gargoyle. The Wild Hunt which is rather taken aback to find they're not much of a threat to modern armed paramilitary drug runners. Good story, but takes along time to get going, and you really do need the backstory of the previous books to know the characters, in fact you ought to have read all the serrated edge books too (not as necessary but there are references). a 6.
Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Spirits White as Lightning. R. 20061008. Direct sequel to world's end, with all the same characters, but a new plot. govt agency after elves and search for 1/2elf breeding info. lord of the hunt - scary guy, but some interesting background on him. a 5. Really overall sort of Lackey-lite.
Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Mad Maudlin. R. 20061010. more gripping that the previous 2. some tail ends unfinished, and a sequel at least is listed. some good interweaving of story lines, the mad protector/Bloody Mary was interesting. a 7.

Jordan Sonnenblick - Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie. R. 20061004. Young Adult tear-jerker. Quite well written. Brothers. cancer. Girls. and Drumming. an 8. Astounding depth to his passion for drumming - something which comes through well. Love of brothers and annoyances of little brothers, family crisis and growing up, taking control of what can be controlled. Girls, finding what was there all along, not what it looked like. Much sadness, quite a tear-jerker esp near the end, but a nice upbeat heartwarming ending. A little pat, but I was beginning to worry he was going to die, and I'd of thrown the book across the room if he'd had. Strong emotional story similiar to much of Cynthia Voight.