Some race to win. Others race to survive.
Every November, on the Island of Thisby, riders compete in the Scorpio Races. They attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Some riders live.
Others die – because the Water Horses, though fast, are man eating monster horses.
The writing is gorgeous and the island itself seems like a character, Stiefvater creates very atmospheric locations. There is something here for everyone, adventure, love (NOT ROMANCE), family relationships. This might be Stiefvaters best yet!
Channel Zero is a very early work by Brian Wood (of DMZ fame). How I managed to read two books in a row regarding pirate media (I just read Cory Doctorow’s excellent “Pirate Cinema”) is beyond me, but I regret nothing. This graphic novel was written in the ’90′s, but still feels fresh and relevant today. Perhaps even more so. In the world of Channel Zero, the US has passed “The Clean Bill”, which restricts all media to that which is deemed “appropriate” by the US government. Everything is censored and filtered through approved outlets, which means that the American public is not only denied perspective, they are denied their first amendment rights. Jennie 2.5 is pissed off. She’s mad enough to commandeer the equipment and security necessary to interrupt state-sponsored broadcasts with her own incendiary pirate broadcasts. She quickly becomes a cult hero to the people and the state’s biggest enemy.
I am admittedly a huge fan of vintage ephemera (a quick glance at my Pinterest profile will confirm this), so it’s no surprise to me that I wound up loving this collection of “found” photographs. Ransom Riggs (of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” fame) is a collector of vintage photos, many of them dug up from antique stores and flea markets. Their original owners are unknown, as are their settings, subjects and contexts. The only clues to these photos are the inscriptions written on them by either the photographers or the subjects themselves. It is this juxtaposition of the visual and the brief hints of clues that make this an absorbing read. The book is broken up into multiple thematic chapters, such as “Clowning Around” and “Life During Wartime”. Most heartbreaking, however, is the chapter simply titled “Janet Lee”. An introduction and afterward by the author bookend this brilliant collection and bring it all together. Riggs exhorts us to save as many printed pictures as we can. In this digital age, these gems are becoming an increasing rarity. The images may fade over time, but they are never completely gone. Difficult to say the same for that file you accidentally deleted, right?
Calling all remixers, hackers, activists, freedom fighters and rebels! Your book has arrived. Cory Doctorow hits it out of the park again with another scathing indictment of government surveillance and corruption. Our protagonist, Trent (aka Cecil B. DeVil), is your average teenaged bloke. His main distinguishing characteristic involves his obsession with remixing the films of his favorite movie star. When his hobby gets his entire family kicked off the internet for copyright violations, Trent/Cecil decides to leave home and head for London. In London, he meets a colorful array of characters, including the unflappable Jem, who teaches Cecil all he needs to know about Squatter’s Rights and dumpster-diving (i.e. how to be homeless with class). Eventually, Cecil gets a new laptop and begins to remix again. He’s getting increasingly popular online and is developing something of a fanbase. He joins up with a couple of other remix artists and become part of a network of “pirate cinemas” (film screenings in random locations like graveyards and abandoned sewers) across London. As his popularity increases, so too does his rap sheet. The British government is in the process of passing even more draconian copyright laws and they (or, rather, the large media corporations who hold the rights to Cecil’s downloads and have massive influence at the governmental level) are not happy with Cecil’s work. Cecil and co. find themselves drawn into the fight against criminalizing artists who use previously copywritten material as their artistic medium. Is Cecil a criminal? It certainly doesn’t appear as such. He merely views his art as putting things together that no one ever thought to combine before. And honestly, is that really so different from any other modern art form? Isn’t everything a remix at this point?
First things first: I was really looking forward to this one. It all sounded like so much fun…Alice in Wonderland plus zombies. How could it go wrong? After a few hundred pages, I now know better.
This slim volume covers two previously unpublished Vonnegut works. The first, “Basic Training”, is a very early novella, written a few years before “Player Piano”. “Basic Training” follows young Haley to his relative’s farm after the death of his parents. The head of the family is known as The General and runs the family in military fashion. The second half of the book is a unfinished novel entitled “If God Were Alive Today”. It is classic late Vonnegut, bitter, ironic and unabashedly honest. The protagonist, Gil Berman, is a self-proclaimed stand-up comedian who tackles everything from politics to morals to social mores and just about everything in between. Both works are semi-autobiographical, which should come as no surprise to any Vonnegut fan.
