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Graphic novel roundup, part 3

There was one Neil Gaiman story left on the shelf the last time: Signal To Noise. Probably out of print, it’s a tale of a dying movie director who’s trying to finish, in his head, a movie of the coming apocalypse at the end of the first century. Beautifully illustrated by Dave McKean, [...]

Graphic novel roundup, part 2

After dealing with the serialized books for a while I decided to switch to something more concise, self-contained, and found just what I was looking for in Scott Morse’s The Complete Soulwind. A tapestry of interwoven stories, all dealing with a legendary sword whether directly or tangentially, it’s a wonderful fairy tale illustrated just [...]

Graphic novel roundup, part 1

Looking at my library, I realize that I’ve been reading a lot of graphic material - call it graphic novels, collected comics, or what you will. I hadn’t really commented on these lately, so here’s a few short notes on those that spring to mind.
Let’s take out the garbage first. Fabricio lent me - [...]

Mallcity 14

When you start reading authors whom you had heard nothing of before you’re kind of playing a quality raffle: they open a bag, you stick your hand in, grope around for a while and eventually come out with a ticket. Rarely it’s valid for that perfect combination of an interesting idea with good [...]

Confessions of an Economic Hit man, or why I now like Audiobooks

I’d always had a low impression of audiobooks. From my bastion of literary snobbishness, they seemed too much like a way out for lazy people to claim they’d read something, when at best they’d listened to a few minutes of an abridged version.
No more.
I started exercising a few months ago. Originally I [...]

RebelFire: Out of the Gray Zone

I’d heard of Claire Wolfe before my friend Jorge lent me her latest book (which is also her first fiction book, it seems). I knew she was a libertarian author, and it was on her site that I first saw the V for Vendetta poster, but other than that I was a complete [...]

Lost Girls

I read Alan Moore’s latest, Lost Girls, about two weeks ago. It’s taken me a while to digest it, and only until now I understood it was because I was torn between my emotional and intellectual responses to the book.
What follows is more of a commentary on the book than a review. It’ll [...]

Dating advice books nonsense

These sort of books have always seem self-disqualifying to me.
Jacqueline has a post on her blog referencing The Rules, a dating advice book whose subtitle is Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right, and how it makes good economic sense.
Not having read “The Rules” I may be missing something, but it sounds [...]

Governments should be afraid of their people

The V for Vendetta trailer is up. Some choice quotes from government officials:

“Fear became the ultimate tool of this government.”
“If our government was responsible for the deaths of a hundred thousand people… would you really want to know?”
“I want this coutry to realize that we stand in the edge of oblivion. I want everyone [...]

Ayn Rand, deliver me from your followers

I remember seeing once a bumper sticker begging God, deliver me from your followers. I guess the same could be said about libertarian fiction writers.
A few of them, like Vernor Vinge, manage to subtly convey a feeling of what libertarianism is like and why it may be better, with superb novels and shows in [...]