Jack: Secret Circles -- F. Paul Wilson Young Repairman Jack, #2

Little Cody Bockman disappeared on a rainy morning.

So begins the second installment in F. Paul Wilson's series about the teen years of his most famous creation, Repairman Jack.

While it certainly isn't necessary to be familiar with the adult version of Jack to enjoy these books, I have to admit that that's their main appeal for me.  Yes, there's secret societies and worldwide conspiracies and monsters and unsolved murders and hidden tunnels, but, for me, the real puzzle will probably always be Jack.  Any glimpse, however brief, at What Makes Him Tick... well, that'll always be something I want to see.

I should back up.  To the future.  Jack, as an adult, is known as Repairman Jack.  He's got no last name and no social security number.  To most people -- and the government -- he's untraceable.  Unknowable.  Unfindable.  And for a fee, if he chooses to take the job, he'll solve your problem, whatever it is.  Cool, right?  Yeah.  While I've never found Wilson's writing to be particularly stellar, Jack keeps me coming back.

What would it be like if you were a witness?

From Holly Cupala, an interview with Swati Avasthi, author of Split. Here's a bit on the book:

16-year-old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist) and a secret. He tries to move on -- new friends, new school, new job -- but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind: his mother, who is still trapped with his dad. Split is about what happens after. After you have gotten out, how do you begin to live again?

The Less Dead by April Lurie

The Less Dead by April Lurie
"Noah Nordstrom has been dissing the religious beliefs of his father, who hosts a popular Christian radio show and whom Noah accuses of spreading hate. When two local gay teens are murdered, Noah’s anti-evangelism intensifies—he’s convinced that the killer is a caller on his dad’s program.

Then Noah meets Will Reed, a cool guy. But when he learns that Will is gay, Noah gets a little weirded out. Especially since Will seems really into him. Noah gives Will the brush-off. Meanwhile, the killer is still at large . . . and soon Noah finds the next victim. It’s Will.

Racked with guilt, Noah decides to investigate. He knows the serial killer is targeting gay teens, but only those who live in foster homes, whose deaths are not that important to society; they are the less-dead. Noah, however, is determined to prove that someone cares. With the help of Will’s journal, which he pocketed at the scene of the crime and in which the killer has written clues, Noah closes in on an opponent more dangerous than he can guess."- summary from Amazon

This was a really interesting book; it combines mystery, suspense, and religious debate. The book does get quite a bit preachy, but I agreed with the pro-gay stance that many of the characters in the book had, so it didn't bother me as much. I was surprised I was able to read it as quickly as I did because I figured I might get so upset and PO'd at the anti-gay stance a couple characters had that I'd have to put the book away and calm down. I enjoyed Lurie's writing though at some times it felt a bit odd and stilted, and not at all realistic, mainly with the dialogue.

The mystery aspect of it was intriguing, and kept me guessing the whole time. I was shocked at the outcome because even though I had narrowed down the suspects to two, both of them were still odd choices and I wondered about the "why" of it all, which, by the way, is a whole other story. Right before the climax, I was seriously thinking like I was watching a horror movie- "No! Don't go in there, moron! Why are you going there by yourself?!?!" It was frustrating, but a bit funny, and also obviously necessary.

So overall, I really loved this book. It had some flaws, but the good parts outweigh the bad by a lot. Definitely a book to read if you're into mystery and religious stuff. There's an Author's Note in the back which talks about the Bible passages that supposedly mention homosexuality and Lurie debunks them all as well as talks about her own experiences growing up in a strict religious household just like my main character.

Why the Justice League Never Works

Take a good, close look at the first image above. It tells you all you need to know about why current incarnations of the Justice League of America just haven't worked out. This is the kind of JLA issue I regularly saw when I was a kid - circa 1979 or so. Notice the heroes who made up the league back then? Sure, there are some B-Listers and C-Listers up there, but the big five are fully represented - Flash, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman (Aquaman didn't even get any love in the 70s. Can the man EVER catch a break?). Without all of these five - ALL OF THEM - there really isn't a reason for the League.


Every time some writer tries to experiment with the tried-and-true formula of the classic JLA, it ends in dismal failure. Case in point - the grotesque aberration that was the Detroit-based JLA.

Justice League Detroit? A terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE idea! Note that NONE of the big five were present. No wonder this was a doomed effort from the get-go.

I have fond memories of the Giffen-Dematteis-Maguire JLA years, but their efforts were also in vain as they did not follow the cardinal rule of five. Even Batman, who was a league stalwart at the beginning of this run, was later ditched in favor of - I can't believe I'm saying this - the likes of G'nort. And let's not even begin discussing Justice League Europe. What hope does a team have when its anchors are Captain Atom and Metamorpho?

The only hope for the JLA in recent years was Grant Morrison's run on the series. Again, like many others before him, Morrison started off strong by focusing on the core power players. But even Morrison gave into temptation and began adding and deleting characters from the roster ad nauseum. Credit where credit is due - Morrison's stories were still damned good, mostly because he viewed and presented the League as a pantheon of god-like characters, so even his additions of characters like Azrael, Orion and Big Barda made sense within the confines of that conceit.
I highly recommend the recently-collected deluxe editions of Morrison's tenure on the JLA. They are not as narratively complex or challenging as, say, his more recent work on Batman or Final Crisis, but they capture the essence of the team far better than anything in recent memory.

The recent return of the Justice League of America, courtesy of writer/novelist Brad Meltzer, has just been a damned mess. It started off with an interesting premise - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman discussing who should be added to the team - but the recruitment ended once again with a League featuring a select few of the Big 5 and mostly lesser-known characters. While I dig Speedy (now known as Red Arrow), he's just not JLA material, you know?
Once Meltzer departed, the League was once again on editorially shaky ground, with writers and artists hamstrung by what DC said could and could not be done with the characters. Perhaps the current creative team of James Robinson and Mark Bagley can do something to bring back the magic of the JLA, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Is there any hope for the League? Can anyone write for the Big 5, or is it simply too creatively (and/or editorially) challenging? Is there any way to revive the current incarnation of the League? If so, how?
Cross-posted at PastePotPete

R.I.P. a Southern Rex: Barry Hannah Died

Barry Hannah, one of the great literary talents of the South, died yesterday. His death, while not necessarily a surprise (he was 67, but he'd lived a hard 67 years), still hits me like a freight train.

Darkness on the Edge of Fabletown: Peter and Max

I just finished Peter and Max by Bill Willingham, an extremely well-written tale set in Vertigo Comics' "Fables" universe where fairy-tale characters exist in a sort of vast commune called "Fabletown." Moving, intense and gripping, filled with action and suspense, teen boys will probably love it. But I'm going to go a bit afield and explain why I didn't like it.

You see, it's symptomatic of something that, as a reader, a writer and a parent, both annoys and worries me. It's dark: the kind of trendy Dark Knight-dark that everyone wants now. And truthfully, as a reader, a writer and a parent, I'm worried about, and wearied by, this trend. I mean, if everything is dark, then what is there to see?

Because you're never too old for a pop-up book . . .

Today, I'm recommending Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods & Heroes by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, the talented creators of beloved pop-up books including versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy.

Sometimes Even Sherlock Holmes Has to Look Something Up

Let's talk handbooks.

I loved them as a boy, handbooks of all kinds covering everything from model railroading to rocketry; they were books that you could make happen in the real world. It was only later that I realized that almost any book can be a handbook. What's The Great Gatsby, after all, but a handbook on how to woo a woman by being a cool and mysterious millionaire?

The one I carried most was the Boy Scout Handbook. Need to hitch up a horse or a boat? It has you covered. Want to bake a potato in aluminum foil beneath a bed of coals? It'll tell you how. Trying to follow a deer? Bingo, it's here. Hiking, camping, lifesaving, even the rudiments of morality: this book has plenty to offer the enterprising and adventuresome lad.

But can it tell you how to make a dramatic entrance? How to analyze footprints, fingerprints, typography, or bullets? What if you need to fake your own death by surviving a plunge into a waterfall? I don't remember that from my Scout handbook, and I could have used it more than once, let me tell you.

These are all necessary skills for the really enterprising and adventuresome lad. Even cavemen knew how to hike and camp, but only The Sherlock Holmes Handbook by Ransom Riggs can teach you to find a secret chamber or examine a crime scene with flair and panache.

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

Readers like to put books into mental categories. The best books for this and the best books for that. While these sets of books are often in flux, some stay with us forever. There are books that will always be in one category or another. They made us howl with laughter, they kept us up into the wee hours of the morning with fear and anticipation, they ripped out a piece from our heart, or took us to an exceptional place in our own lives. There is also that special category; a handful of books that we know as we turn page-after-page, will be among the best we have ever read. But more than being the best, we know they are important. We know they will change us. It does not happen too often, but there are times when I’m reading a book and my brain tells me that I will be a better person having read these pages. That’s how I feel about David Finkel’s The Good Soldiers.

Finkel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with the Washington Post. As the “surge” in Iraq was beginning, he spent (off and on) fifteen months with Battalion 2-16, the Rangers. All of the soldiers knew that everything he witnessed and heard was on the record. They opened their lives and their deaths to Finkel. They allowed us to see war. Not “TV news war” or eighth grade “textbook war,” but the war that usually goes unseen because it’s too horrific or politically uncomfortable to show, or because it will lower Nielsen ratings, or because a nation does not want to take time away from watching “American Idol” or “Lost” to know what is happening on the other side of the world. Out of sight, out of mind.

This book is not for the faint at heart. It is violent. There were times when I was reading it that I set the book down to take a breath.

The writing is gorgeous. As I look back now, in some ways the book reminds me of Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel, The Road. They are both bleak and brutal with stunning prose that leaps off the page. The difference, of course, is that McCarthy’s book is fiction. But they are both about dystopian madness. One just happens to be taking place today.

If there is a main actor the story revolves around in The Good Soldiers it would be the leader of the Rangers, Colonel Kauzlarich, a man fiercely dedicated to his soldiers. The book follows him from the battlefield to his office, from his meetings with Iraqis to visits with his wounded soldiers, from his time off with his family in Orlando and into the blood-soaked medical aid stations.

Reading this book should have nothing to do with if you were for the war or against the war. Yes, it is about Iraq, and Finkel opens each chapter with a bitingly ironic quote from George W. Bush. But this book is about war. This war, past wars, and every war we will all have to make choices about in the future.

Inventory

Inventory is a book of "obsessively specific" lists collected from the The Onion's A.V. Club Website.

The idea is sublime, the execution is excellent and the lists are sometimes great, sometimes good and sometimes skippable.
But that's the nature of a book with lists such as:
"18 Songs about Specific Films"
"16 Film and TV Characters Who Knew Exactly What They'd Like to Eat"
"5 Crazy-Ass Members of the Legion of Superheroes"
"10 Hilarious On-screen Drug Freakouts"
"10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone"