Hugos 2020: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Trade paperback, 153 pages
Published 2019
Acquired April 2020
Read June 2020

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

I found this novella very slow going at first. It's about an exploratory mission to exoplanets, following the crew of a spaceship as they move from one to one in the 22nd century. Chambers, I think, overloads us on procedural and scientific detail, and underloads us on reasons to care: I never found that any of the characters who weren't the narrator really popped. It did pick up as it went, though, and the central hook/conceit of the whole thing because clear. There's a couple great sequences near the end, especially when they're on the storm planet. But I feel like a lot of the early material could be trimmed down to get you to the meat of the book faster without losing any of the effect. On the other hand, there's a key moment at the end that would have benefited from more set-up: a scientific question is only introduced when it's resolved, instead of being seeded earlier on.

Review: Doctor Who: Vampire Science by Jonathan Blum & Kate Orman

Mass market paperback, 283 pages
Published 1997
Acquired March 2011
Read March 2020

Doctor Who: Vampire Science
by Jonathan Blum & Kate Orman

Having finished working my way through all the New Doctor Who Adventures I happen to own, I'm now going from the seventh Doctor to the eighth and tackling some of BBC Books's Eighth Doctor Adventures from the late 1990s and early 2000s. That begins with Vampire Science, the second EDA but (so people say) the first one worth reading. The Doctor and his new companion, Sam, fight vampires in 1990s San Francisco. I enjoyed it: it's a good mash-up of the sensibilities of the NAs with those of the 1996 television movie. It gets a little violent at times in ways I don't see as very eighth-Doctory, but outside of that it captures his character very well: there's a big emphasis on the sleights of hand he did in the TVM, and how his whole way of operating might itself be a sleight of hand. What's trickier: having a complicated plan like the seventh Doctor, or not having a complicated plan like the seventh Doctor... but everything still working out in the end? This isn't quite the eighth Doctor that Paul McGann would end up playing in the audio dramas (which didn't start for another four years), but this is a legitimate extrapolation of how he played it in the movie. It gets a little bogged down in vampire stuff at times, but it usually has a good sense of humor about it. (I was surprised to realize it was published four months after Buffy began, because it feels like Buffy must have been an influence, and yet it could not have been.) I remember liking Sam in the later Orman/Blum EDAs I've already read (Unnatural History and Seeing I), and that was true here as well; they give her that Rose-esque sense of someone who wants to do something in the world that the Doctor enables, but often feels overwhelmed by the realities of the universe.

I read an Eighth Doctor Adventure every three months. Next up in sequence: The Infinity Doctors

Review: Doctor Who: Conversion by Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, and Warren Pleece

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Acquired September 2018
Read June 2020

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 3: Conversion

Writers: Al Ewing & Rob Williams

Artists: Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, Warren Pleece
Colorist: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This book wraps up the SERVEYOUinc storyline that's been running through these Eleventh Doctor comics, though first there's a cute story about an alien overlord who tries to take over the Earth by writing free comic books. The remainder of the book is pretty dramatic, grim stuff, though, with the Doctor working hard to make good for his guilt over what he did during volume two when he took over SERVEYOUinc. Stories include the TARDIS crew being split into three different dimensions, Cybermen intervening during a civil war in ancient Rome, and the Doctor facing down his mother. They're weird, off-kilter stories, and all the better for it. There's no point where this ever feels like it's trying to be the telly version! The Doctor's guilt is a strong thread here, and one I enjoyed: I don't think Matt Smith every played it quite this way in tv, but I think he could have, and quite well. This is a baggage-ridden Doctor, full of self-loathing, a characterization that occasionally lurked in the background; Ewing & Williams yank it into the foreground to good effect. Jones and ARC are written out in the this volume (I like how Jones went), and the ending promises that Alice will stick around for the next volume, which is good because I like her.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Tenth Doctor: The Fountains of Forever

Review: Doctor Who: Fractures by Robbie Morrison, Brian Williamson, Mariano Laclaustra, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Acquired September 2018
Read May 2020

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 2: Fractures

Writers: Robbie Morrison [with George Mann]

Artist: Brian Williamson & Mariano Laclaustra
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This volume contains three stories, thankfully largely ignoring the tedious "Hyperion" storyline introduced in volume 1 of The Twelfth Doctor, except for small references. The first story is a tie-in to the "new UNIT" era, with Kate Stewart; I found it dull. I think it's supposed to be scary, but neither writing nor art really carries an element of fear, and I found the motivations of the villains confusing and unconvincing.

The second story was, even if not as strong as some of Titan's tenth and eleventh Doctor stuff, the best twelfth Doctor comic yet. It's the first of these comics to really capture was worked about Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman on screen, as the Doctor and Clara swan through 1960s Las Vegas, battling gangsters being aided by aliens. Lots of colorful art and colorful characters, and great ideas, I really enjoyed it.

The whole book ends with a brief short focusing on Clara, which didn't make much of an impression.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Eleventh Doctor: Conversion

Hugos 2020: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Trade paperback, 356 pages
Published 2019
Acquired April 2020
Read June 2020

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

At first, this felt like a very generic military sf novel along the lines of Starship Troopers, which I'm sure was by design. I wasn't super into it. But then all of a sudden something happens and the novel becomes very intense and very interesting. I don't want to say what exactly, but perhaps I can tell you it becomes Starship Troopers crossed with Slaughterhouse-Five. From there on, I really enjoyed it, as Hurley unravels some of the tropes of military sf in service of perhaps didactic but strongly convincing message: it's the kind of story where you don't mind a message because the author constructs the characters and the world so that the message feels real and natural. I did struggle a little bit with the large cast of secondary characters, and unfortunately it's often important to know who they all are to follow some of the twists and turns of the plot. But across the course of the book I went from reading into small chunks to reading one hundred pages in one go. This is my first fiction by Hurley; I must seek out more.

Review: Star Trek: Discovery: Dead Endless by Dave Galanter

Trade paperback, 342 pages
Published 2019
Acquired December 2019
Read February 2020

Star Trek: Discovery: Dead Endless
by Dave Galanter

This is the first Discovery book to substantively take place on Discovery, though not all is as it seems at first. I enjoyed the puzzle of trying to figure out where this book takes place, but the real delight of the book is Galanter's keen grasp of the characters, particularly Stamets and Culber, for whom this is an important turning point in their relationship. We get real insight into what brings them together. It's also a neat adventure of the Star Trekkian ship's-crew-prevents-a-crisis-through-diplomacy-and-openness type, with a convincing streak of optimism. I really enjoyed it-- probably my favorite Discovery novel thus far aside from The Way to the Stars and maybe The Enterprise War.

Review: Showcase Presents... Power Girl by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, Dick Giordano, et al.

After her debut in All Star Comics, Power Girl got a three-month feature in Showcase, DC's title with rotating stars (for example, the Doom Patrol starred before her, and Hawkman after). I had originally skipped this in my Earth-Two reading project because the back issues are pretty expensive, and the trade they're in is half Geoff Johns shit with an awful Adam Hughes cover, but after early issues of Infinity, Inc. made a couple references to them, I looked into picking them up, and saw they were just $0.99 on Comixology. I don't normally like buying DC stuff on Comixology (unlike IDW publications, you can't download a PDF, so you have to read it in the terrible Comixology viewer), but $3 seemed hard to turn down.

It's a bit off. Since Power Girl was just one of an ensemble in All Star Comics, she didn't have much of a backstory there-- she's just like, "oh I'm Superman's cousin, hi"-- and these stories fill it in to an extent, and also give her a status quo outside of her JSA activities. But it's kind of awkward and weird. Power Girl was rocketed to Earth as an infant to escape the destruction of Krypton, of course, but unlike Kal-L, who landed on Earth still a small child, Kara Zor-L was raised to a young adult level in an artificial simulation of Kryptonian childhood before she reached Earth. I think there's real potential in such a situation, but the story doesn't make a whole lot of it: Kara's "symbioship" is trying to reabsorb her, she reveals her backstory, she defeats it with the help of Andrew Vinson (a Gotham reporter), the end, all in the space of two issues.

from Showcase #98 (art by Joe Staton & Dick Giordano)

It's over improbably quickly, and I'm not sure why the symbioshop had to attack Power Girl and try to absorb Vinson, but it is a set-up with some good dramatic potential. I like the idea that she fits so poorly into human society because she was raised in Kryptonian society... but that was an illusion, so the only thing she knows is fake. It's a much more tragic take on the Krypton backstory than Superman's. (Though All Star indicated she was raised by the Kents, who are never mentioned here.)

from Showcase #98 (art by Joe Staton & Dick Giordano)

But it's all over just like that. Between the second and third issues, she concocts a human identity as Karen Starr, Wonder Woman uses an Amazonian teaching machine to give her knowledge of human culture as well as software development, and Vinson gets her a job at a software company. Like, that's it? It seems pretty meh that she didn't even know what software was until the machine taught it to her, so her job doesn't even build on any preexisting interests or skills. I mean, she was raised in a computer world, the connection is right there, but the story never makes it! Why give her a dilemma she actually never confronts in a story? (I'll be curious to see if future Power Girl stories, in Infinity, Inc. or elsewhere, make more of this. Probably not, because the Crisis on Infinite Earths will wipe this whole backstory away.)

from Showcase #99 (art by Joe Staton & Dick Giordano)

There's a subplot in the first two issues about someone stealing technical equipment; it turns out to be the Brain Wave at the end of the second, and the third focuses on Kara's battle with him. For some reason he hates Power Girl more than the rest of the Justice Society because she's defeated him more (really?) than them. I thought his power was brain stuff, but here he's building tripod war machines and sending cities into dimensional limbo, which doesn't really flow from that as far as I can tell. I do really like how Joe Staton draws his enlarged cranium, though.

from Showcase #97 (art by Joe Staton & Joe Orlando)

As always, I like Staton's art. Lightly stylized but full of energy, too, and his Kara looks like a powerhouse. Power Girl wears a choker; so did Black Canary at this time if I recall correctly, so I guess it was a thing then.

Showcase Presents... Power Girl originally appeared in issues #97-99 of Showcase (Feb.-Apr. 1978). The story was written by Paul Levitz; illustrated by Joe Staton (#97-99), Joe Orlando (#97), and Dick Giordano (#98-99); lettered by Ben Oda (#97-98) and Shelly Leferman (#99); colored by Jerry Serpe (#97) and Adrienne Roy (#98-99); and edited by Joe Orlando.

This post is the sixth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers America vs. the Justice Society. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
   

Review: Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, et al.

Okay, there actually wasn't a volume two of The Generations Saga. But if DC had bothered, it would have collected (one assumes) issues #5-10 of Infinity, Inc., so I'm going to review those as a unit before progressing to the series in its entirety at a later date.

I was kind of down on the first half of The Generations Saga (typically called The "Generations" Saga or The "Generations Saga" in the actual issues, fact fans!), but I feel that's fair. The first four parts were never designed to be read as one unit. Either you read them one by one as they came out, or you read them as part of all ten. DC's weird collecting strategy leaves you with an unsatisfying read. But the last six installments pull everything together pretty nicely. In this half, what's going on becomes clear: the Ultra-Humanite (in revenge for his defeat in 1942 at the hand of the All-Stars/JSA and Infinity, Inc.) infected Superman with water that turned him ruthless; Superman in turn infected several other JSA members with it; now, Infinity, Inc. has to stop them. So the Ultra-Humanite will get to make parents battle children and watch them all destroy each other.

This being Roy Thomas, the ruthlessness water is from an old issue of All Star Comics; of course he does a ten-part saga as a follow-up to an obscure 1940s one-off. But to be honest, the source of the water doesn't really matter, because it leads to some good storytelling, especially in parts VII–IX, where Infinity, Inc. splits up to take down the individual members of the Justice Society. This means the Infinitors have to think about what their parents most desire, and how to thwart it, which allows for some good character work for both the Infinitors and the JSAers. A lot of good-guy-goes-evil-because-of-reasons stories have the evil good guys go snarling and power-mad because reasons, and there's a little bit of that here, but mostly this works well. Wonder Woman wants to obtain immortality for her husband, Steve Trevor, and their daughter Fury has to stop her; the Atom (always anxious about being underpowered) seeks out a new source of atomic energy, and his godson Nuklon must stop him; the Green Lantern (who once lost control of a communications company because he neglected it) seizes control of all communications on Earth, and his children-of-uncertain-provenance Jade and Obsidian must stop him. It's well thought out, and interesting.

from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #9 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas,
script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan & T. Dezuniga)

Plus the fight scenes themselves are a cut above. I am often not a fan of the split-the-team-up-into-subgroups trope of team books, because I don't read team books for a set of six abbreviated solo stories, you know? But Thomas, Ordway, and Machlan give each of the fights enough space to really work-- one of the benefits to devoting ten issues to this whole saga, I suppose. Jade and Obsidian vs. the Green Lantern was my favorite one. A lot of ups and downs, clever strategy, good use of powers, interesting interior monologues from the two young heroes, and of course great art.

Jerry Ordway is always good, of course, but man, I'd forgotten how good these "Baxter" books looked. Infinity, Inc. is printed on high-quality paper, and back in the day you paid good money for it. Infinity, Inc. #5, for example, was $1.25, while the same month's issue of All-Star Squadron was just over half that at $0.75. But the difference in quality is clear even thirty-five years later: the colors pop in Infinity, Inc. (a definite perk in a book where one character is bright green), and nthe blacks are black (also a perk when one of your characters is made of shadow). Ordway's breakdowns give a clear sense of motion, and his facial expressions really take you into the characters. Maybe I'm projecting, but I detect a real sympathy for Jade on his part.

The one thing The Generations Saga doesn't give you is a actual sense of what Infinity, Inc. will be like as an ongoing book. The whole ten issues (plus the three of All-Star) is the Infinitors reacting to one crisis. I'm curious to see how Thomas sets up a status quo that will fuel an ongoing, but I also think this is a really good foundation for one.

Parts V–X of The "Generations" Saga originally appeared in issues #5-10 of Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 (Aug. 1984–Jan. 1985). The story was written and edited by Roy Thomas; pencilled by Jerry Ordway; inked by Mike Machlan (#5, 7-10), Al Gordon (#6), Tony DeZuñiga (#8-10), and Jerry Ordway (#9); co-plotted by Dann Thomas; lettered by David Cody Weiss (#5-10) and L. Buhalis (#9); and colored by Anthony Tollin (#5-10) and Adrienne Roy (#5, 7-10).

This post is the fifth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Showcase Presents... Power Girl. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
   

Review: Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, et al.

Comic hardcover, 192 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1983-84)
Acquired July 2011
Read June 2020

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One

​

Written by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Gardner Fox

Art by Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, Bill Collins, Joe Kubert, Al Dellinges
Colored by Gene D'Angelo, Anthony Tollin, Adrienne Roy
Lettered by David Cody Weiss, John Costanza

The success of All-Star Squadron spurred a second Earth-Two ongoing comic, Infinity, Inc., which debuted in 1984. It's funny, in the letter columns for both All-Star and Infinity, Inc., Roy Thomas is always talking about how he'd like to do an ongoing featuring the Justice Society itself... but he never actually does! And he was the editor! I don't know if this is because he kept coming up with better ideas, or if because his superiors at DC wouldn't let him. This series is a better idea, though, if you ask me: instead of focusing on the JSA, it focuses on their descendants. The team here is made up of Nuklon (son of the Atom's goddaughter), the Silver Scarab (Hawkman's son), the Huntress (Batman's daughter), Power Girl (Superman's cousin), Brainwave Jr. (son of JSA foe the Brain Wave), Jade and Obsidian (children of the Green Lantern), Northwind (mentee of Hawkman), and the Star-Spangled Kid (not actually someone's descendant). You have a group of people trying to live up to their pasts: a favorite theme of mine in superhero comics.

In All Star Comics and Showcase in the 1970s, the Brain Wave would use his illusion powers to make himself look like a younger man. Infinity, Inc. reveals that that younger man was patterned after his son... who here is using his illusion powers to make himself look like his father!
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #1 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

The Generations Saga, Volume One collects the first four issues of the series, alongside the three issues of All-Star Squadron (#25-26 and Annual #1) that introduced the team. The book's biggest flaw is not really its fault per se: in typical DC fashion, their efforts to collect an old series stalled out almost right away, and there never was another collection of Infinity, Inc., so you don't get a complete story. I can see why, though: $40 retail for seven issues of a pretty obscure team?

I always think Obsidian's shadow face looks more goofy than frightening, but I still like it.
from All-Star Squadron #25 (script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

And, to be honest, it doesn't read great on its own. The issues here are reprinted in publication order, but I followed Roy Thomas's advice in the introduction and read them in story order, which I liked, as it caused me to read the All-Star Squadron issues from the Infinitors' perspective, not the All-Stars' as I had the first time. Infinity, Inc. #1-2 introduces the team and ends with them being sent back in time to 1942, leading into their appearances in All-Star; then Infinity, Inc. #3-4 follow them back in the present day. #1-2 are kind of silly: the future members of Infinity, Inc. bust into a JSA meeting and demand to be admitted as members. Everyone fights instead of actually conversing for some reason, and then once a vote is held, they are sent packing, all depressed and wondering how they will be superheroes. It's not clear to me why they can't be superheroes without being in the JSA. If you want to save people, just get out there and do it! The necessity of action scenes also results in a weird sequence where they go to eat at a fast-food restaurant in full costume and get in a fight for no real reason.

This is done six separate times, which gets a bit repetitive.
from All-Star Squadron #26 (script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

I'm glad the All-Star issues are here, but without the lead-in issues (they capped off a storyline that began in #18), they're not as effective, and a lot of the stuff about time travel and balancing limbo and mental energy is sheer malarkey, even by comic book standards.

Not the waking up by Power Girl and Huntress the Star-Spangled Kid had hoped for.
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #3 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, & Bill Collins)

The actual storyline of The Generations Saga hasn't even really begun by the time the collection ends. In #3, the Infinitors fight Solomon Grundy; meanwhile in a totally separate plot, Superman has gone evil. This being a Roy Thomas comic, people are always having long conversations where they explain how their backstories fit into established continuity. This goes so far as #4 reprinting a 1946 Hawkman story in its entirety to fill in Northwind's history, which was pretty unnecessary. But at the same time, the characters somehow never have time to communicate essential information, always getting cut off by fight scenes so that the plot doesn't move too quickly from information being communicated effectively. The Generations Saga does really pick up in issues #5-10, which makes it a shame DC cut it half for some reason.

The answer is mind wipes. Always mind wipes. If the All-Star Squadron wasn't always getting mind-wiped of time travel and/or timeline adventures, Roy Thomas's retroactive continuity would be in a constant state of collapse.
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #3 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, & Bill Collins)

What does really work is the artwork of Jerry Ordway. His work on All-Star Squadron was always strong, but Infinity, Inc. is a whole 'nother level. Great use of close-ups, great character work in the faces, interesting layouts that really work to tell the story. The characters comes to life, especially (I thought) Jade and Obsidian, the two ordinary teens who suddenly discovered that they might be descendants of the Green Lantern. Mike Machlan's inks and the work of the various colorists also really shines, vibrant and lively.

This post is the fourth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
   

Reading Roundup Wrapup: June 2020

Pick of the month: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. I have this ranked third on my Hugo Award for Best Novel ballot... but it's still the best thing I've read this month, which has been kind of fallow quality-wise despite the fact my reading has been almost entirely dominated by Hugo finalists. But despite some minor issues, I did really like this book.

All books read:
1. Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, with Steps along the Way at Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Movie Stars, Cults, Slums, Sociopaths, and War Crimes by J. Michael Straczynski
2. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 3: Conversion by Al Ewing & Rob Williams
3. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
4. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 9, “OKAY” by Kieron Gillen
5. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
6. Emergency Skin by N. K. Jemisin
7. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One by Roy Thomas, with Dann Thomas and Gardner Fox
8. Joanna Russ by Gwyneth Jones
9. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
10. The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
11. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
12. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
13. Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen

All books acquired:
1. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
2. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
3. Octopussy & The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming
4. Last Days of the Justice Society of America by Roy Thomas with Dann Thomas
5. Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett

Books on "To be read" list: 660 (up 2)
Books on "To review" list: ZERO (down 14)

That's right! I finally cleared out my review backlog. I don't know exactly when I got so far behind (sometime during my exam reading, which was 2012-13), but I've been tracking my review backlog since September 2015, when I had 164 books to review. Tracking it served its purpose of giving me some concrete motivation: a year later, it was down to 76, and then another year, 20. But though it dipped as low as 3 in August 2019, I've never quite cleared out everything, and it steadily climbed upward once I lost all my blogging time during lockdown, peaking again at 23 in May.

Since the semester ended, though, I've been pretty diligent about blogging every day, and I finally wore the list down to nothing this past weekend, when I wrote a review of Middlemarch. (This hasn't appeared yet; I have a buffer of eleven posts stockpiled right now.) I suspect I'll be able to keep it down during the summer, but that it will climb up again come the fall. But I will bask in my accomplishment for now!