The Doctor vs. the Daleks

Doctor Who
Lucie Miller (4.9) & To The Death (4.10)
8th Doctor Adventures
Big Finish (audio-plays)

In the last quarter of last year, Big Finish ran quite a few sales on their Doctor Who line of audio-dramas if you went the download route.  I had some of the initial CDs, but lost track for a while.  It seemed like a good time to get back into it.  Being a Whovian, having the CDs as collectibles is always tempting, but the downloads were priced very low at sale time, so I skipped the CDs (also saved shelf space at home.)

Lucie Miller and To The Death are two parts of a single tale that closes out the 8th Doctor's 4th Big Finish series.  (The numbering is a little confusing because Paul McGann also had many 8th Doctor Adventures in the main release line before they spun him out specifically.)

Anyway.  The Daleks are back.  Back on Earth.  Back in the 21st century.  Lucie Miller, the Doctor's off-and-on again companion for most of this season is trapped, crippled by a disease unleashed by the Daleks before their invasion.  The Daleks are following a very familiar pattern.  Susan - the Doctor's granddaughter - is exiled on Earth and she notes it is the same as before - referencing the television serial, The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  And the Doctor has failed to answer desperate summons from his friends and family.

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure

I'm not very versed in Tarzan.  I've seen a few movies, and I've read the first novel.  Recently, two strong recommendations for this movie appeared in my web-crawling circle.  Noted by both Charles R. Rutledge and Ryan Harvey, I knew I needed to give this one a viewing.

When greedy diamond prospectors steal dynamite from an African village and murder his friend, Tarzan picks up their trail to exact vengeance.  Along the way, he picks up a feisty blonde companion, Angie.  Jungle dangers abound as Tarzan comes closer to his prey, and the psychological pressure on the villainous band soon has them tearing each other apart, even as they battle against Tarzan.

Don't let the black-&-white stills fool you, this movie is in color.  As noted by others, it was filmed on location in Africa, getting away from the stagnant movie sets of the past.  Gordon Scott's Tarzan is no longer monosyllabic, but neither does he speak eloquently as an English Greystoke might.  While Scott might not have been the best deliverer of a line, as Tarzan his delivery works very well.

One drawback; there is a notable absence of Tarzan through the fourth fifth of the movie.  Wounded and out of commission, Tarzan mostly falls off-screen while the focus shifts to the heroine and the villains.  I was enjoying Scott's Tarzan portrayal enough that I found the absence distracting.

As someone who did not grow up with jungle adventures, I did have a little bit of disconnect when the movie went into "stock footage" mode - mixing terrain and animals that would never be found that close together.  (e.g.; From the heart of a thick jungle, Tarzan and his companion observe a lion hunt & kill on the veldt!)

But, this isn't about accuracy, it's about having a grand adventure on the Dark Continent.  As a fun throwback to Saturday matinee adventure films, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure hits its mark and does so strongly.

Dejah Thoris vs. the White Apes

Not gonna lie, this one can probably be summed up in one panel.

T & A and apes and gore.

So, the quirky thing about this was that I was rooting for Dynamite, even with all the obvious T & A. (Yeah, I know in the original Barsoom stories, everyone ran around in their birthday suits, still...)  You see, I think one thing wrong with the John Carter movie was the portrayal of the White Apes.  They seemed more monstrous than ape - strange faces, really oversized bodies compared to the original A Princess of Mars descriptions.  And, the movie only hauled them out for the big arena fight.

I think one of the stronger chapters of A Princess of Mars is when Carter first encounters the apes.  The apes haunt the ruins of Mars.  It is a much more suspenseful reveal and certainly could be setup as a horror movie scene, rather than the big monster of the arena, thing.

Anyway, at first glance of plot it seemed Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars might harken back to those roots.  But, it got stuck in gore horror mode.  Blood and dismemberment and apes gnawing on flesh.  A lot of it.

Plot motivation is a little on the simplistic side.  Set in the ten years John Carter disappeared, Dejah is bored and decides on a archaeological field trip with her lady friends.  Given the "girly" dialog at some points, I find it hard to believe these women wouldn't rather be at a weekend spa.  Their airship crashes near some ruins before they reach their destination.  Cue apes.

On the plus side it is sharply drawn.  It is a very visual story with little dialog once the action starts.  Dejah is rather badass, fighting to the last.

I guess I might buy the digital version if it were on sale and I didn't already have the print.  Might be okay in print if you don't pay full cover price.

Overdue reviews

Men of Bronze by Scott Oden

Great historical epic, rich in details from daily life to battlefield carnage. Setups and payoffs work well from the opening skirmish, through the political intrigue through to the crescendo of the final battle.  When Greek mercenaries swap their allegiance from Pharaoh to the Persians, the Phoenician Hasdrabal Barca leads his own mercenary company - the Medjay - to stamp out the traitors before it is too late.  Oden was directly inspired by Robert E. Howard - in fact, his first novel attempt was a Conan novel, but he came to understand his niche might be found in historical fiction.  And we readers are all the richer for his decision.  If you want a historical that is action-oriented and set in a period you don't usually read about, this would be a great change of pace for your reading list.

Plague of Shadows (Pathfinder Tales) by Howard Andrew Jones

Good adventuring with a nice angle, as someone else noted, "what happens when elves get too old for this s*&^?" A blend of D&D adventuring with tones of Jirel of Jory and the western, Unforgiven. The payoffs here are setup through characters, hard truths and exposed lies. I look forward to Jones' next entry in the Pathfinder universe, and I need to check out some of the other authors and novels of this world.

Sharpe's Havoc by Bernard Cornwell

Fun Sharpe romp, as usual. This time around Sharpe and his riflemen are trapped behind enemy lines in Portugal while under orders from a duplicitous colonel. Fine blend of historic details, fun characters and action.

Assimilation² (graphic novel)

Star Trek: the Next Generation Meets Doctor Who!  The Borg meet the Cybermen!  Could a Whovian who generally enjoyed Star Trek: the Next Generation resist?  No, because resistance is futile!

Yes, it's a geek fest.  But, it's not a bad crossover.  Featuring the current Doctor, the 11th, played by Matt Smith, and his companions Amy & Rory.  Some details are lost in the rush to have all the characters meet from across the two universes.  The Borg merging with Cybermen makes sense.  The Borg showed they weren't afraid to penetrate dimensions in Star Trek: Voyager, and the current restart of Doctor Who's Cybermen started in an alternate universe.  It is never satifactorily explained why the TARDIS and the Doctor and his companions universe hopped, though.  But, we're here more for the ride than the how & why.

There's even a Captain Kirk / 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) flashback as the universes start to produce new memories when their timelines collide.

I read this as individual issues over last year, I did not get the current collected trade paperbacks.  The painted art-style took some getting used to.  When I heard they were doing this crossover, honestly, even I wasn't too interested until I learned it would be the Cybermen and Borg.  I always said the Cybermen were the original Borg.

If you're a fan, it works.  Check it out.

Boston

Boston.  I was born there.  I grew up in the suburbs and live in those suburbs still.  Today is our celebration of the battles of Lexington and Concord.  The shot heard 'round the world.

All the towns where I have lived sent Minute Men to Lexington and Concord when the call went out.  I have seen graves of Revolutionary soldiers still bedecked with the stars-&-stripes on Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

We are the birthplace of the American Revolution.

And you, whoever you are who attacked us today, had a few bombs.

Not impressed.  Then again, I am never impressed with cowards.

comics

Sorry for lack of posts.  Been busy and tired.

Most of last month's reading was spent in comics, largely in the behemoth collected story, The Return of Superman.

Some good stuff in there, but also some of goofy stuff, too.  Series that have gone on so long that they keep adding on crazy stuff to keep going, or retcon deaths or retcon character behavior, do seem to get out of hand.  I find myself preferring self-contained story arcs.

But it was good to read, finally, the original story for myself.

I am also continuing to follow the various Planet of the Apes stories coming from Boom Studios. I like that we get to see the wider Ape world beyond Ape City, and they are setting up interesting plot lines and elements that later become exposed in the original movie.  (For instance, when Zaius accuses Taylor of being a mutant, and references "nests" of mutants - did you ever wonder why Zaius had that idea in his head?)

Snuck in a read of Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures; Volume 1, which features a host of guest artists doing short one-offs with Robo's writer, Brain Clevinger.  I can't rave about this comic enough.  Get yourself some, you'll be glad you did!

recent reads; Gath and Garrett

The Winds of Gath by E. C. Tubb

I didn't know anything about E. C. Tubb until his death in 2010, and then I read all sorts of tributes and posts.  The mention that really caught my attention was from author John Maddox Roberts, who noted (on the REH Forums,) "I loved those [Dumarest] books. If Conan were a spacefarer, he'd be Dumarest, just with a knife in his boot instead of a sword at his belt."

As you can imagine, Tubb's Dumarest went right on my radar.

Winds of Gath is the first novel of the series.  Dumarest is stranded on the planet Gath, where pilgrims and tourists caravan to the mountains to hear the singing winds.  But the winds are dangerous, driving men to madness, and the coming storm is worse than anyone predicts.  Against that backdrop, Dumarest becomes embroiled in political maneuvers including assassination attempts.  He must stay alive, and earn his passage from Gath.  There is action and intrigue.  The setting, the setup of galactic factions (that will continue throughout the series) and the characters were all interesting and had their own voices.

Dumarest is his own character, but I can see why there might be echoes of Conan.  I felt more like Dumarest reminded me of Ian Fleming's original James Bond.  Not that Dumarest is a spy anymore than a man who becomes king - but when he kills out of necessity he executes with grim precision.  He lacks the red lust of Conan when it comes to mortal combat.

I enjoyed this story, and as a bonus, it was an "old school" novel - a short, quick read.

If you can't hunt down the paperbacks, the entire Dumarest series are available as e'books, though I wish they were priced a bit cheaper.

I'll be reading more of them, for certain.

Dread Brass Shadows by Glen Cook

I was surprised to look back over my 2012 reads and realize I had not read a single Glen Cook novel. I usually read at least one.  I grabbed Dread Brass Shadows off the shelf.

Garrett is a noir private eye whose beat is the fantasy city of TunFaire (which Cook bases on St. Louis.)  Unlike most "urban fantasy" featuring fantasy creatures in our modern cities, this is the opposite - a human gumshoe in a fabled city populated by multiple races - human, dwarf, elf, ogre, etc.  Also should note; Garrett is not some guy who fell through from our world, either.  He's a native of TunFaire, a Marine veteran getting by the only way he knows how.

I don't know if Cook invented this milieu, but he does it very well.  He is faithful to the tones of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, et al. while pulling in all kinds of sorcerous and fantastical elements.

This time out, Garrett must locate the Book of Shadows - a magic tome spells that allow the reader to take the shape and form of whatever is on the brass-plated page.  Battling factions catch Garrett in the middle, as he tries to understand why he got pulled into the situation in the first place.  The stakes rise as Garrett finally understands he must confront the biggest mobster chief in the city - and only one of them will come out alive, this time.

I always enjoy Glen Cook, and Dread Brass Shadows was no different.