Review: Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

Trade paperback, 334 pages
Published 2019 (contents: 2012-19)
Acquired June 2019
Read July 2019

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

This is a collection of stories set in the world of Lee's Machineries of Empire series (Ninefox Gambit, et al.), some previously published, several original to this collection. They kind of fall into four broad categories.

First, there are general scene-setting stories, pieces that aren't stories, really, but fragments of worldbuilding: "How the Andan Court," "Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam," "Calendrical Rot." What you think of these will depend on what you think of the world of the series I suspect; I thought they were more curious than anything else, though I wish "Calendrical Rot" had served its original purpose as prologue to Ninefox, as maybe I would have understood that book more quickly.

Then there are prequel stories about the main characters of Ninefox Gambit, Shuos Jedao and Kel Cheris. These range from being just a couple pages to being full novelettes, and the Jedao ones go from the night he was conceived, through his childhood, up to key moments in his military career. Frustratingly, they are almost but not quite in chronological order. How interesting you find these will probably depend on how interested you are in Jedao. I'm not sure that learning he had a pet cat did a whole lot for me, but rereading "Extracurricular Activities" was fun, and "The Battle of Candle Arc" was the most straightforward explanation of calendrical warfare the series has ever provided. I would have liked more Cheris stories than the two we got, and honestly, I don't find Jedao terribly interesting. Give me some Kel Brezan prequels! I did really enjoy the Cheris story "Birthdays," which gives some insight into how the Hexarchate's calendar affects people's day-to-day lives.

Third, there are a few follow-ups to the original trilogy. A flash piece about Kel Brezan going to an aquarium; "Gamer's End," a second-person story about someone being trained by Jedao; and "Glass Cannon," a novella about Jedao's reunion with Cheris after the events of Revenant Gun. I wish the chronological placement of "Gamer's End" was clearer-- I couldn't figure out where it could possibly fit until I looked it up on-line after reading-- and the twist is kind of obvious. "Glass Cannon" is the longest story in the whole book, and it's an enjoyable high-stakes action piece with good character work and big implications for the future of this universe... should Lee ever choose to return to it.

Finally, there's a single story (the first in the book) that doesn't directly relate to the original trilogy, "The Chameleon's Gloves." I found this disappointing, and for a reason that relates to what makes some other of Lee's stories disappointing. "Chameleon's Gloves" sets up an interesting idea, that of a "haptic chameleon" who can perfectly imitate others' body language... but then tells a generic Star Wars-ish story where a wisecracking duo has to dispose of a gigantic superweapon, barely making use of its own concept. "Extracurricular Activities" is similar, mentioning its antagonists have a unique understanding of reality... but then telling a pretty straightforward (if enjoyable) caper story where the sfnal elements feel irrelevant. Most of the shorter pieces here are only nominally sf. Lee comes up with great worlds and great concepts, but I feel like the stories he tells make inadequate use of those worlds and concepts except as backdrop. I want the stories and concepts and plot twists to rise out of the sfnal stuff, but it doesn't consistently happen; one of the things that makes "Battle of Candle Arc" enjoyable is that it's the one Machineries of Empire space combat story where the fact that calendrical warfare is about the calendar actually feels relevant, instead of being flavor.

Anyway, this all makes it seem like I didn't like the book, but I actually did. In short form, Lee's writing is usually breezy fun, and the details of the worldbuilding are enjoyable to read about. The world of the Hexarchate is complicated and feels real, and has some interesting sfnal things to say about imperialism and oppression (it's not enough that we rule you, but you must think as we do). I would like to reread Ninefox Gambit now and see if it goes better for me than the first time.

Reading Roundup Year in Review, 2018/19

By tradition, I track my reading from September through August, so now that September 2019 is underway, I am doing my annual report on what reading I did last year.

It was a slightly below average year for me (my annual average is 153), but pretty close to average, and better than I was expecting, actually, given the challenges and events of the past year. Maybe it was all the middle-of-the-night reading during sleep training?

Here's how my reading this year broke down by category: (I typically only break out a series or author if I read more than one in the past year)

SERIES/GENRE/AUTHOR	# OF BOOKS	BOOKS/ MONTH	% OF ALL BOOKS
Star Trek1	19½	1.6	13.4%
Doctor Who	12	1.0	8.2%
Star Wars1	7	0.6	4.8%
Planet of the Apes	1	0.1	0.7%
Media Tie-In Subtotal	39½	3.3	27.1%
The Expanse	5	0.4	3.4%
Ursula K. Le Guin	3	0.3	2.1%
Discworld	2	0.2	1.4%
Other SF&F	37	3.1	25.3%
General SF&F Subtotal	47	3.9	32.2%
The Transformers	5½	0.5	3.8%
Superman	2	0.2	1.4%
Legion of Super-Heroes	2	0.2	1.4%
Other DCU Comics	3	0.3	2.1%
Marvel Comics	3	0.3	2.1%
Brian K. Vaughan	3	0.3	2.1%
Other Comics	5	0.4	3.4%
Comics Subtotal	23½	2.0	16.1%
Hornblower by C. S. Forester	11	0.9	7.5%
Charles Kinglsey	2	0.2	1.4%
Other Victorian Literature	11	0.9	7.5%
James Bond by Ian Fleming	3	0.3	2.1%
Other Literature	3	0.3	2.1%
General Literature Subtotal	30	2.5	20.5%
Other Nonfiction2	6	0.5	4.1%

1. Comic books in series that are predominantly not comics I don't count under my "Comics" category, but under the series's main designation.
2. Nonfiction connected to a particular series or author (e.g., Le Guin, Hornblower) is included in that series or author's count.

I always kind of fret about this distribution; somehow I never read as much "literature" as I intend. Last year, "General Literature" was 5.8% of my total, so that is a pretty nice increase. On the flipside of the high/lowbrow divide, I went from 20 Transformers comics last year to just 5½ this year! Thank God I finally got to the end of all those Humble Bundles. As always, my non-tie-in SF&F is buoyed by reading Hugo finalists, which was the whole idea of doing it.

Here's a graphical sense of how this year compares with previous ones:

You can compare this to previous years if you're interested: 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18. (I didn't do ones for 2010/11 and 2013/14.)

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #593: Our Worlds at War: Prelude to War!

Our Worlds at War: Prelude to War!: "Of Course, You Know This Means... Warworld!" / "Suicide Mission" / "Metropolitan Rapture" / "The End of the Beginning" / "Down And Out In Kansas"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #593 (Aug. 2001)
Superman: Our Worlds at War (2006), reprinting Action Comics vol. 1 #780, Supergirl vol. 4 #59, Superman vol. 2 #171, Superman: The Man of Steel #115 (Aug. 2001)

Writers: Jeph Loeb, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, Joe Kelly, and Peter David
Pencils: Ed McGuinness, Mike Wieringo, Doug Mahnke, Kano, and Leonard Kirk
Inks: Cam Smith, Jose Marzan, Jr., Marlo Alquiza, and Robin Riggs
Letters: Richard Starkings, Bill Oakley, and Ken Lopez
Colors: Tanya & Richard Horie, Rob Schwager, and Gene D'Angelo
Asst. Ed.: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Editors: Eddie Berganza and Mike McAvennie

And we're back in giant crossover mode, for what I am pretty sure was the most giant Super titles crossover of them all: Our Worlds at War. The crossover ran through 37 different issues across three months! Reading all that seemed excessive, so I decided I'd either buy just the Super titles (only 14 issues), or I'd pick up the trade (20 issues), whichever was cheaper. That turned out to be the trade. The trade is almost 500 pages long, so I'll be reviewing in three chunks; Our Worlds at War had a different subtitle each month, the first of which is "Prelude to War!"

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #593
(script by Joe Casey, art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

It's not an entirely satisfying read, mostly because it's a lot of foreshadowing. First Superman goes into space to see if Pluto is back and ends up fighting the Fatal Five (from the Legion of Super-Heroes) and is warned something is coming; then he goes to a deserted military base and fights Manchester Black and a new Suicide Squad and is warned something is coming; then the inhabitants of Metropolis are abducted into space and Superman fights Darkseid and is warned something is coming; then goes to Germany and fights General Zod and is warned something is coming. Okay, I get it! But the hints are all so vague that I found them hard to put together into anything coherent as a reader. Plus it seems like Superman keeps punching people instead of actually trying to get explanations, and thus undermining his own purpose.

Part of the issue is, I think, that I've only been reading Adventures of Superman for five issues. This story draws on a lot, and is clearly a climax for a number of long-running storylines. But that just gives me a lot of questions: what did happen to Pluto? Who is the woman Brainiac? Is there some kind of connection between Mongal and longtime Superman foe Mongul? Why is General Zod a guy from the Middle East? How do all the myriad different villains here relate to each other? Maybe I should look some of this up in my copy of the Essential Superman Encyclopedia, but I'm worried I'll read spoilers for the storyline.

from Superman: The Man of Steel #115
(script by Mark Schultz, art by Doug Mahnke & José Marzan Jr.)

There were two issues I wanted to comment on specifically. First, I thought the Man of Steel installment was the weakest component of Return to Krypton, so I was pleasantly surprised when its contribution here turned out to be the best part of Prelude to War! In "Metropolitan Rapture" (#115), all of the citizens of Metropolis wake up to find themselves in some kind of internment facility. Superman must try to investigate things without giving away who he is; Lois must try to organize everyone. It's a neat premise that stands on its own as a story. When Superman figures out what's going on-- a cabal of people including Adam Strange abducted everyone so that futuristic Metropolis's technology could be used in the coming war-- the answer actually makes sense, and thus the foreshadowing works. Plus, Adam Strange is 1) someone known to me, 2) not a villain, and 3) actually somewhat explains himself. A great example of how to do a single issue that still manages to inform a bigger story.

from Supergirl vol. 4 #59
(script by Peter David, art by Leonard Kirk & Robin Riggs)

The other is the one issue here that's not actually part of the core Super titles: "Down And Out In Kansas" (Supergirl #59). I should say that near the end of Prelude to War! things actually start to happen instead of just being foreshadowed. At the end of Action #780, while Superman is fighting General Zod, a beam of energy hits Kansas, causing massive devastation. "Down And Out" follows Supergirl, who happened to be travelling through Kansas at the time, in the aftereffects of the blast, along with a friend of hers whose name I don't think is ever even mentioned but is clearly meant to be a loveable amoral jerk. (Also, judging by his over-the-top dialogue, English.) It's weird because between Supergirl having a concussion and the jerk's hijinks, it seems like writer Peter David is going for... comedy? In a story showing the ground-level devastation of a cosmic war? Of course it has its dark elements, but the result is a bizarre tonal mishmash that undermines what I imagine was the intended effect of closing out Prelude to War! with it.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Review: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Quintessential Collection by Tom Scioli & John Barber

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2017 (contents: 2014-17)
Acquired January 2018
Read May 2019

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Quintessential Collection

Written by Tom Scioli & John Barber
Art, Colors, and Lettering by Tom Scioli

I picked up Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #0 solely because it was free at Free Comic Book Day 2014, which I guess is the point of it all. As a dedicated un-fan of G.I. Joe, I expected nothing out of it... and it blew my mind. Tom Scioli's comic told an entire story on almost every page, doing more with the medium in one issue than many writers accomplish in entire careers. People should be teaching that zero issue in universities. I knew from that moment that once a collection of the entire series was released, I would have to buy it, and I read it to cap off my run-through of all IDW's Transformers comics.

I love everything about this page, from the fact that it is technically a "silent interlude" because despite being covered in text, no one actually speaks, to the way the narration culminates in the triumph of the last line.
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #0

I'm pleased to say the entire thing is mostly as good as that #0 issue. Any single issue here could be a premise for an entire miniseries of its own. Scioli and co-writer John Barber rocket through ideas: Decepticons making a fake peace mission to Earth, G.I. Joe as insurgents on Cybertron, Cobra teaming up with the Decepticons on Earth, Metroplex as inhuman prison, Scarlett in an experiment to convince her both G.I. Joe and the Transformers are just toy lines... everything here is awesome, from the big ideas, to the small details. The whole thing has the exact right tone, alternating between the sublimely ridiculous and the ridiculously sublime. Scioli knows you can't take this seriously (someone goes "Yub Nub!" at a victory party) and that you can only take this seriously (G.I. Joe guns down the entire UN because they're not handling the conflict seriously enough).

I like the way Scioli and Barber often extrapolate worldbuilding from features of the shows: Decepticons can fly, while Autobots usually can't, so of course a Decepticon-ruled Cybertron would feature deadly highway traps.
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #2

It falters a little bit in the third quarter. Scioli and Barber's commitment to never staying still means the whole thing escalates too quickly for its fourteen-issue length, and it seems to me that some of the flashback stories in that part of the series are designed to stall things to keep the pacing in place for issue #13. But the last couple issues are delights all over again, as things keep getting bigger and better.

Has death in the gutter ever been more horrifying but matter-of-fact?
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #7

Honestly, there are times where it's like something you might come up with as a kid. I loved the occasional inclusion of maps and diagrams, the stuff I used to obsess over (or try to make!) as a ten-year-old fan of Oz or Narnia or what have you. But it's the pleasure of childhood combined with the seriousness of adulthood in a way that diminishes neither. Some Transformers comics and even more G.I. Joe comics often seem to want you to forget that this is all ridiculous by making everything Proper and Serious. But Scioli never loses the sense of play that drew you into these series to begin with. This is everything you could ever want a comic book about giant transforming robots to be, and more, and better.

On the one hand, this evokes kids playing with action figures by sticking them in their mouths. On the other hand, this is a guy being chewed to death inside Megatron's disgusting-looking mouth. Comics!
from Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #10

Next Week: Meanwhile, in the Federation... it's Star Trek vs. Transformers!

Review: The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars by Michael Dante DiMartino, Irene Koh, et al.

Comic hardcover, 239 pages
Published 2019 (contents: 2017-18)
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2019

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino
Layouts by Irene Koh and Paul Reinwald

Art by Irene Koh
Colors by Vivian Ng
Color Assistance by Cassie Anderson and Marissa Louise
Lettering by Nate Piekos

Legend of Korra never quite clicked for me the way its parent series did, and to be honest, that seems to have carried over here; I'm just much less invested in where these characters end up than the original Team Avatar. That said, this is a solid graphic novel adventure. I'm kind of over the melding of the physical and spirit worlds-- by the end of the show it was pretty clear no one involved had an interesting take on what this might mean-- but Irene Koh's artwork is great, evoking the show's without slavishly reproducing it, and the best part of the writing is the characters, whose voices come through strongly and humorously. There are some good jokes, and good explorations of the place of non-heterosexual orientations in the Avatar world (I hope these can be expanded on someday), and the Korra/Asami relationship gets some much-needed development. It's pretty cute!

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 at the SFRA Review

Last year, I was able to snag Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 for the "Media Reviews" section of the SFRA Review, the quarterly publication of the Science Fiction Research Association. I enjoyed the experience-- reviews for it are supposed to be less "good/bad" and more "why would this be interesting to scholars"-- so as soon as season 2 finished airing, I e-mailed the Media Reviews editor to stake my claim on it.

The issue is out as of a couple weeks ago. Here's how my review begins (with an embarrassing typo you can read in the published version silently corrected):

ALMOST every television program’s second season embodies a course correction: a discarding or alteration of what did not work the first time, a greater emphasis on what did. Star Trek: Discovery’s second season, broadcast in fourteen episodes from January to April 2019, is perhaps a sharper course correction than many. Discovery has had a tumultuous behind-the-scenes journey: the original showrunner quit partway through season 1, and his replacements were, in turn, fired partway through season 2, replaced by series co-creator Alex Kurtzman. Even without this behind-the-scenes knowledge, the transformation is visible on screen. A greater emphasis on traditional Star Trek optimism has replaced the first season’s grimness, even if a strong focus on action remains. Constant affirmations of camaraderie have replaced the antagonism within the main cast. Fans often criticized the first season for its lack of adherence to earlier continuity, especially visually; the second season is replete with references, especially to the original Star Trek (1966–69) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–99), and it massages or eliminates many of season 1’s discontinuities.
     Like season 1, season 2 is noteworthy for its attempts to balance the “new” and the “old” of a long-running franchise. Significantly, season 2 makes heavy use of continuity elements from the original Star Trek series. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), the USS Enterprise’s captain from the original unaired pilot (“The Cage”), assumes command of the Discovery. Spock (Ethan Peck) also joins the main cast; other characters from the original pilot also appear. The Enterprise characters wear the bright, primary-color uniforms associated with the original Star Trek, rather than the drab blue ones introduced in Discovery.

You can read the rest here (the link should take you right to it, but if not, it begins on page 70).

Issue #329 is a soft relaunch for the Review, featuring a new visual design, a new logo, color, and more. It also includes news of who won the SFRA's 2019 awards, and reviews of recent sf films and sf criticism, including critical studies of Madeleine L'Engle and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Check it out!

Review: The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Neil Clarke

Trade paperback, 599 pages
Published 2019 (contents: 2018)
Acquired July 2019
Read August 2019

The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4
edited by Neil Clarke

So for the science fiction creative writing class I'm teaching this fall, I wanted a source of short fiction. A lot of the thinking behind my class has been motivated by contemplating what would have helped me at my students' stage of development. I know that when I first started mailing short sf out to magazine, I piled up rejections very quickly. Looking back, it's pretty obvious why. At age 20, my understanding of sf was largely informed by two things: film and tv (especially Star Trek) and sf novels I read when I was a kid (so mostly ones published before I was born). I had no sense at all of what science fiction in the year 2005 was like, and was just churning out sub-Star Trek stories. No wonder I got rejected! So I want my students to see what is happening in print science fiction now. We're only a week in, and it's clear they all have a strong understanding of the genre from film and tv... but even the writing majors have clearly read little written sf. To provide such an overview, I decided to assign the most recent volume of Clarke's Best Science Fiction of the Year. I've never read any of his anthologies before, but based on the stories from Clarkesworld that I've read, he has a sense of good sf that accords with my own, and he always has sensical things to say on Reddit.

I read the whole anthology the month before classes began. I was impressed. Often, when I review "best of" anthologies, I go story by story and mark each story "thumbs up" (feels like it belongs), "thumbs sideways" (I'm neutral), or "thumbs down" (I don't see why this is here), but at twenty-nine stories, this would get to be a very long review very quickly! But what I can say is that I would stack many of these up against what made the short fiction ballots for the Hugo Awards this year. S. Qiouyi Lu's "Mother Tongues," for example, is better by far than anything that did make the ballot in Best Short Story, with its clever use of the second person and typography. (It did make the longlist, but was pretty far down in fourteenth.) And even though I did really like the Best Novelette ballot this year, Ken Liu's "Byzantine Empathy" would have been a worthy addition to it. There were only two stories both on the Hugo shortlist and in this book, both strong: "When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller and "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory. I was also pleased to see Vandana Singh's "Requiem" here, which I nominated, but did not even make the longlist. The advantage that Clarke has over the Hugos is that he clearly reads everything, whereas the Hugos are biased toward free-to-access e-magazines. "Mother Tongues" is from Asimov's, which used to dominate the Hugo ballot but now barely gets a look in; "Byzantine Empathy" is from an original print anthology series; "Requiem" is from a single-author collection (an impressively deep cut, I felt).

I speaks highly that I put all but eleven of them on the syllabus for my class. I put every story I liked on the syllabus, and a few more that I didn't like, but felt were doing something interesting. Just some quick notes on a few other stories here:

• Kelly Robson's "Intervention" (from the anthology Infinity's End) takes place in the same world as her Hugo-nominated Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, and like it, is good at unspooling an sf backstory.
• Alyssa Wong's dark "All the Time We've Left to Spend" (from the anthology Robots vs. Fairies) is a great example of exploring character through an sf lens.
• There are two different stories about people being trapped in smart houses, Madeleine Ashby's "Domestic Violence" (from Slate) and Elizabeth Bear's "Okay, Glory" (from the anthology Twelve Tomorrows), but they're very different, and both very good.
• Vanessa Fogg's "Traces of Us" (from GigaNotoSaurus, an e-mag that just does one story per month) is an interesting example of generic crossover, as it's both a romance and hard sf.
• I wasn't super into Nick Wolven's "Lab B-15" (from Analog), but it's a great example of how to slowly reveal a plot, where each answer just leads to more questions.
• Yoon Ha Lee's "Entropy War" (from the anthology 2001) isn't a proper story, but a set of rules for a dice game! I think I liked it, but I am curious to see what my students will think.

There's a wide diversity of storytelling styles and subgenres here, and it convinces me that short sf is a thriving field. I also really liked Neil Clarke's introduction on the state of sf in 2018. I'm glad my gamble paid off, and I will be picking up future (and past!) volumes in this series for sure.

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #590-92: "Don't Cry for Me, Bialya" / "Strange Behavior"

"Don't Cry for Me, Bialya" / "Strange Behavior"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #590 & 592 (May & July 2001)

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Derec Aucoin and Mike Wieringo
Inks: Jose Marzan, Jr.
Letters: Bill Oakley
Assistant Ed.: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

In the lull before the next big Super titles crossover event (Our Worlds at War, coming to you here next week!), we finally get Joe Casey doing his own thing, with two issues where he's not wrapping up someone else's ongoing story, or tying into a crossover. So maybe here we can get a glimpse of what makes Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman Joe Casey's. (I skipped issue #591 because it wasn't by Joe Casey; in June 2001, there was a crossover between all four Super titles called Infestation, but most of its issues were by Marv Wolfman instead of those titles' regular writers.)

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #590
(art by Derec Aucoin & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

The two issues are very different, so I'll tackle them separately. The first issue, "Don't Cry for Me, Bialya" (#590), deals with some of the fall-out from Lex Luthor's election to the presidency, which happened shortly before Joe Casey came along. Luthor asks Superman to go into Bialya (one of the DC universe's all-purpose fictional Mideastern countries) and liberate a captive American journalist. I'm not particularly into stories that try to insert Superman into realistic geopolitics, because I think they reveal some unavoidable problems with the conceit of Superman as a character. Here, Superman justifies his actions as not being political and not at Luthor's whim; he tells Luthor, "Finch is in Bialya as a journalist, correct? [...] His gifts are meant to benefit the world... as are mine," and he tells the dictator of Bialya, "I am not here representing any nation or political ideology. Regardless of your issues with the U.S., I am taking back an individual whose human rights are clearly being violated..."

But if Superman cares about the human rights of people in Bialya, why does he spend most of his time flying around Metropolis, beating up street thieves? Why isn't he liberating all the unjustly held prisoners of Bialya, not just the American one? If you follow this chain of reasoning to its logical endpoint, of course, you'd end up with a very different Superman comic, and one that wouldn't be tenable as an ongoing adventure series. (Miracleman, The Authority, and Red Son all explore these kind of issues.) But that's why I think Superman comics are better off avoiding these issues altogether, rather than raising ones they can't really ever resolve.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #590
(art by Derec Aucoin & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

But perhaps all that is beside the point, because "Don't Cry for Me, Bialya" is a really well done comic book. It opens with Superman going to talk to Luthor, and after three pages, transitions to Superman's mission to Bialya. But while this mission unfolds, the left margin of the comic continues to depict Superman's conversation with Luthor through color-coded image-less dialogue. It's one of those neat things that it's hard for me to imagine another medium doing as well (film/tv can overlay a conversation, but it would be confusing for there to also be a conversation beneath the overlay), and the two sides of the story give each other weight. We know how important Superman's actions in Bialya are because we read his deliberations over it, and we know that those deliberations matter because we see what actions he takes as a result. It also lets the comic pack more information/events in than it would be able to if it handled these events in chronological order.

The end of the story clearly has Superman rethinking his relationship with President Luthor, and the kind of violence he carried out on Luthor's behalf. I assume (I hope) that this will continue to be an issue Casey explore going forward, and that it plays into the transformation that I know the comic will eventually undergo.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #592
(art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

The second issue, "Strange Behavior" (#592), is kind of weird. There's a storm in Metropolis on a night where Jimmy Olsen is playing a new RPG with his buddies on a Brainiac 13-enhanced gaming console. Jimmy get sucked into the game, but then Superman shows up and resets the console and Jimmy is fine. I don't like people-trapped-in-computer-game stories because the tension always feels forced, but this one didn't even try to create tension; there was a lot of set-up, and the problem was resolved almost as quickly as it was created. Meanwhile, Superman briefly encounters "Strange Visitor," a superhero with electrical powers I guess he met sometime before, but then she vanishes. This is clearly set-up for something to come, but not interesting on its own.

I hope that going forward, this comic is more like #590 than 592. I prefer an interesting standalone drawing on the ongoing background story than a flimsy tale that only seems to exist to foreshadow the ongoing background story.

Incidentally, #592 is the first issue where the lettercol discusses an issue I have actually read. All four letters about #588 reprinted here focus on the use of the triangle numbering system; there are no letters about the issue's actual content!

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Review: Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots by Mike Johnson, Mairghread Scott, and Agustin Padilla

Comic PDF eBook, n. pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2012-13)
Acquired August 2014
Read April 2019

Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots

Written by Mike Johnson and Mairghread Scott
Art by Agustin Padilla
Colors by Thomas Deer
Coloring Assist by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee and Tom Long

This is it! Back in August 2014, I got eighteen Transformers comics out of a Humble Bundle. But thanks to two further Humble Bundles and comiXology and even buying some in hardcopy, the last one in that original Bundle was actually the fifty-ninth Transformers comic that I've read! But at last I finally made it to the end, five years later.

I do like the Aligned design for Shockwave-- it's unsettling un-human, unlike most Transformers-- but boy am I tired of reading all his schemes after IDW's main continuity.
from Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots #4

Rage of the Dinobots picks up from the last book I read, Fall of Cybertron in the so-called "Aligned" continuity. The newly minted Dinobots are providing cover as the Autobots evacuate Cybertron, but when Ultra Magnus is shot down by Decepticon forces, the Dinobots break into a prison to rescue them, and end up captured once again by their old nemesis Shockwave, this time aided by his new minion, Ser-Ket, and her army of Predacons.

Farwell to you too, Ultra Magnus!
from Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots #4

It's pretty generic Transformers action, to be honest, but Agustin Padilla is one of the better Transformers artists. I just think I'm Dinobotted out, and specifically John-Barber-Dinobotted out. He didn't write this, but Johnson and Scott follow his lead from Fall of Cybertron. Kind of a fizzle for the end of my big marathon, but thankfully there's bigger and better to come in still other continuities...

Next Week: Meanwhile, on Earth... it's Transformers vs. G.I. Joe!

Reading Roundup Wrapup: August 2019

Pick of the month: The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4, edited by Neil Clarke. I read a lot of books this month, and a lot of good ones: my top six would also include The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Three by Arthur Clarke and George Proctor, Double Star by Robert Heinlein, Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin, and Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. To be honest, it feels like cheating to pick of a "best of" book: Neil Clarke had hundreds of short sf stories to winnow down to this selection! But I've read enough best ofs to know there are bad ones, and this is a great one, really capturing the genre as it currently exists in a wide variety of quality manifestations.

All books read:
1. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Three: Nebula Winners, 1965-1969 edited by Arthur C. Clarke and George W. Proctor
2. Star Trek: Discovery: The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller
3. Superman: Our Worlds at War (part 1/part 2/part 3) by Jeph Loeb, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, and Joe Kelly, with Peter David, Phil Jimenez, and Todd Dezago
4. Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin
5. The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova
6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
7. Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
8. Guards! Guards!: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
9. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
10. The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Neil Clarke
11. Superman: Return to Krypton (part 1/part 2) by Joe Casey, Geoff Johns, Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, and Mark Schultz
12. Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume One by Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz, with Jack C. Harris, Paul Kupperberg, and Jim Starlin
13. Men at Arms: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
14. The Churn: An Expanse Novella by James S.A. Corey
15. The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal

All books acquired:
1. The Fantasy Hall of Fame: Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America edited by Robert Silverberg
2. Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
3. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
4. The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin

Books remaining on "to be read" list: 652 (up 1)
Books remaining on "to review" list: 9 (up 6)

Having actually got down to zero books needing reviews during August, the school year then started and the list shot right back up to 9. Ouch!