Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. vol.1 "This is What They Want" by Warren Ellis

If you recall the original posting on this blog, you will note that this was not on the list of borrowed books. I decided to break my rules in this regard because I had been borrowing it from Wade for a while before handing it back unread right before I started this resolution. His insistence that I read this got it placed onto the list.

I've yet to read anything by Warren Ellis that I didn't like. Transmetropolitan is the greatest Hunter Thompson fan fiction anyone has ever written, Fell is a delightfully twisted detective comic, and Crooked Little Vein is, well... I learned a lot about fetishes that I didn't believe were real until I looked them up on the internet.

And so it is with Nextwave, a comic series with which Ellis seems intent on giving the middle finger to the entirety of modern comic books. It is fast-paced almost to a fault, story arcs never last more than two issues, and he gleefully mocks the entire concept of gritty anti-heroes with dark pasts. There is almost nothing I can compare it to, other than perhaps Joss Whedon's Sugarshock, but to be honest the pacing and rapid-fire jokes are the only things the two books have in common. An example of what had me in stitches:

I don't know about you, but I thought that was hilarious.

Well, that's it. I have finished (or at least decided not to finish after careful consideration) every book I had borrowed at the beginning of the year. It is now time to turn my attention to my own library. I'm pretty psyched about it. Do you know why? I haven't read this next book since high school, and it's long overdue for a re-read.

Next: The Hitchhikers Trilogy (All Five Books!) by Douglas Adams.

On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

This one was loaned to me by Beth some time ago, although I forget exactly why. We had probably been talking about death or something.

Look, I'm going to be honest. If you write a book in which there are incarnations of abstract concepts and you play around with Judeo-Christian mythology a bunch, chances are I'm going to love it. On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony was almost an exception.

There are many parallels to be drawn between this book and other pieces of pop culture, so I'm just going to get those out of the way first. The concept of the Eternals is similar to the Endless in Neil Gaiman's Sandman, a normal guy taking up the mantle of Death is also the plot of Mort by Terry Pratchett, and the method of taking a persons soul out of their body is done in exactly the same way on the woefully cancelled TV series Dead Like Me. On a Pale Horse predates all three. To my knowledge Dead Like Me is the only one that acknowledges any direct influence. Not to say that Gaiman and Pratchett stole from it or anything. Great minds and all that, not to mention the point I made a couple of entries ago about everything being a remix. But I felt like it had to be mentioned.

Anyhow, Piers Anthony is an author who has escaped my attention until now. I vaguely knew about him. He wrote some fantasy series about a place called Xanth, which a guy I knew back in high school assured me were some of the weirdest books he had ever read. This American Life did a super interesting story about a teenage fan who ran away and tried to move in with the Anthony family. I now find it kind of surprising that I never got around to reading him as a teenager. He would have been right up my alley at age 14.

At 28, though, I must confess that I struggled with parts of it. Particularly the rather dated gender and racial politics of the book. I'm not even sure they weren't dated in 1983. Women in this book seem to be introduced first with a run down of how attractive or not attractive they are, and then go on to not do much except act as objects of affection or temptation for the male characters. Even the female lead is pretty much just a MacGuffin with legs. Race is barely touched in the book, but when it is it's a hamfisted kumbaya. To be honest, the dated attitudes almost put me off from finishing the book. But the lead character started getting interesting before I reached the cutoff point.

Zane begins the story as an uninteresting sad-sack who attempts to kill himself and then winds up killing Death instead. In a twist that would later be stolen (er, remixed) by The Santa Clause, he is now required to take up the mantle of Death. As the story goes on it is revealed that he had been set up for the position by Fate and Chronos (guess what they govern) for reasons that are too spoilery to go into here, but it involves the female lead being a MacGuffin in the war between God and Satan. The story is fun enough, if somewhat predictable. But what interests me (and ultimately saves the novel) is how Zane approaches his duties.

Zane is ultimately too compassionate a person to simply reap souls and leave it at that. He bends every law of time and space that is within his power to give people second chances, to reduce their suffering, to make their deaths count for something. This image of a compassionate Death is a forerunner of Gaiman's Death, of Mort, of the Reapers from Dead Like Me. It is from this that Anthony wins me back. In particular, the scene in which Zane comforts two dying coal miners with a parable about a whale who turned into a human is quite moving. While Gaiman's Death is still at the top of my list for Grim Reapers I wouldn't mind seeing, Zane has joined the company of George, Mason, and Daisy as runners-up.

Do I recommend On a Pale Horse? Sure. It's far from the best book I've ever read, and it is dated in many ways, but I had fun with it. I might even get around to reading more Piers Anthony eventually. But for now, my shelf is absent of Anthony and this book goes back to Beth.

Next: Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. by Warren Ellis.

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

I've been distracted by my Doctor Who marathon, so it took me a few weeks to get started on this, but I've been knocking it out during Merchant rehearsal and finally finished it last night.

Reminder: Viking is a profession, not a people, and they didn't wear horns.

I'll be honest: I don't have a lot to say about this one. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know enough about the period it is set in to know how accurate it is, but from what I do know it seems to be pretty realistic. As historical fiction, it has sparked my interest in learning more about the period, as well as learning a little more about my ancestry. That is unusual for me, because I've always valued having an attitude of looking forward. Who my ancestors were doesn't define me. Yes, I enjoy St. Patrick's Day, but mostly for the music and the Guinness. I'd rather look forward to a more peaceful and egalitarian time for the human race as a whole, why should I worry about what my great-great-great-great-great-grandparent's culture was? I'll make my own culture, thank-you-very-much.

Yet I couldn't help but feel stirred by this story which could easily have unfolded to or around my ancestors. There's a scene in which Uhtred (the protagonist) is admonished by his friend Brida about who are truly their gods:

"You think the Christian god is watching us."
"No," I said, wondering how she knew that I had been thinking about that very question.
"He was never our god," she said fiercely. "We worshiped Woden and Thor and Eostre and all the other gods and goddesses, and then the Christians came and we forgot our gods, and now the Danes have come to lead us back to them."

 Now I have no inclination to run off and worship Thor (sorry Ryan), but I couldn't help but feel as though my heritage had been stolen from me by those pesky Christians. It hearkened back to someone I knew once who refused to celebrate St. Patrick's day for this very reason: that the Christian god is not an Irish god. Maybe she's right. I've pondered it many times since, and loved that this book was able to stir those feelings, even if the feelings are nothing more than a flight of romantic fancy.

In any case, the book is the first in a series, so as per the rules of this venture I could choose to continue on through the series before moving on to the next book on my pile, but I have decided to hold off on that. I'm almost through all my borrowed books. However, since I picked up my own copy of The Last Kingdom thanks to Grounds for Thought, I'll probably pick back up with the series when I reach Cornwell in the alphabet. The next book in the series is called The Pale Horseman, so I find it odd that the next book on my pile has a similar title.

Next: On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony