The Return of Brak

Well, they might not be the best stories in the sword-&-sorcery canon, but John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian saga is back as ebooks. Jason Waltz, of (unfortunately defunct) Rogue Blades Entertainment somehow found this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqA_ydQhWSs&feature=share

Jakes gives a thumbnail description of how Brak came about, and also mentions that the final Brak tale is outlined and in his office safe.

It took a little link hunting from the video, but I found the two e'collections links on the third page of thumbnails.

Brak the Barbarian/Mark of the Demons

Witch of the Four Winds/When the Idols Walked

Follow the "buy the ebook" links.  $3.99 each.  Not bad at all.

Seems that Witch of the Four Winds is Brak vs. The Sorceress renamed.

Both descriptions mention the collections include additional stories.  I don't know which ones and if they cover The Fortunes of Brak or not.  And I don't know whether these complete all the published Brak tales or not.

Also, there is a link to a free Brak estory,

"The Girl in the Gem"

All good stuff.  I'll be taking a look at other authors and ebooks from Open Road Media.

Recent read; Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega is a bit of a novelty, especially for Doctor Who fans. A lost French scifi novel from 1906, it has some vague similarities to the later television show. Mostly due to some editions' illustrations that look a lot like the (First) Doctor (William Hartnell.)  The novel has been resurrected by Black Coat Press - a small press devoted to publishing English-language translations of classics of French popular literature, in the science fiction, fantasy and mystery genres.

The story is a fun, light, quick read. Typical turn-of-the-last-century style with a first-person narrative of Mars exploration - various weird flora and fauna along the way, and a few perils and escapes.

This novel was "adapted and retold" which means the translators (who are also Doctor Who fans) took liberties to add additional ties to Doctor Who - making it seem that perhaps Doctor Omega is an alternate or perhaps the Doctor himself in some form of exile. While that is enjoyable, I would still like to read a straight translation (I can't read French) so I could see the original similarities for myself.

I did enjoy it, and look forward to Doctor Omega and the Shadowmen - a modern anthology of Doctor Omega tales, also from Black Coat Press.

For a bit of fun, Black Coat Press commissioned the first cover (non-illustrated edition) to match the classic Target novelization cover of Doctor Who and the Daleks.  I'd be tempted to get it, but I don't have that edition of Doctor Who and the Daleks, anyway. (though, that was re-issued recently with a forward by Neil Gaiman.  Oh, the temptations of a collector.)

Heading into July

Nothing major to write about, this time around.  Looking forward to the 4th of July holiday and long weekend coming.  Those who know me on Facebook know my wife just went through a hysterectomy - so most of my time right now is wrangling our two toddlers even more than usual (even with other helping hands on-board at our house.)

I did make a big splash at a comic store sale last week.  I also finished reading an interesting, if quirky, lost French scifi novel, which I'll be posting about on my next reading wrap-up.

For a little bit I am going to stay off novels, finish reading the Paizo collection, Who Fears the Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman and alternate those stories with a stockpile of comics I have built-up.

Recent Reads

The Gods Return by David Drake

The Gods Return marks the end of Drake's Isles series, and the third act of the closing trilogy of novels.  I've enjoyed the series, and revisiting the main characters every year or so since I started reading it.

The Isles have become a single continent, the land mass upheaved from time & space through sorcery.  This makes for interesting challenges for seafaring city-states that find themselves landlocked.

The old gods - if they ever existed - have fled from the new continent, and malefic gods from other dimensions are ready to invade, aided by marching armies of conquerors who wish to take advantage of the chaos in the wake of the upheaval.

Drake delivers a good novel, with the usual beats that have been happening all along in the series.  The ending surprised me, though it was setup and can be seen in hindsight.  The surprise was a good thing.

I did feel that this novel took a while to get going.  There is a lot of setup before the action gets cooking, but in the end, The Gods Return is a solid wrap to the Isles series.

p.s. - The classical style of the Donato covers on this series have been fantastic.  The Gods Return was no exception, which is why I went for the full wraparound here.

Ironwolf - Fires of the Revolution by Howard Chaykin (writer,) John Francis Moore(writer,) Mike Mignola (penciller,) & P. Craig Russel (inker)

This graphic novel was mentioned on The Swords & Planet League on Facebook. I spotted it at a comic store not long after. Mike Mignola's involvement piqued my interest, so I grabbed it.

The story is more along the lines of steampunk swashbuckler in a space opera setting, rather than sword-&-planet. (to me, anyway. I suppose the genre doesn't really matter – I am just trying to give you an idea of the flavor.)

Ironwolf is a nobleman from a decrepit and decadent empire, ruled by heartless vampires and their drug-addled sycophants. Disgusted by what he sees and experiences, he joins the rebellion, only to be betrayed by allies and family alike. After a multi-year coma, Ironwolf returns for revenge. But, his side lost the war, so navigating the Empire is fraught with peril.

It was entertaining enough for what it is, but I don't know if I'd return to the setting for another story.

The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning by Hallgrimur Helgason

When the e'book edition of this title popped up as the Kindle Daily Deal, the blurb intrigued me;

With some 66 hits under his belt, Tomislav Bokšić, or Toxic, has a flawless record as hitman for the Croatian mafia in New York. That is, until he kills the wrong guy and is forced to flee the States, leaving behind the life he knows and loves. Suddenly, he finds himself on a plane hurtling toward Reykjavik, Iceland, borrowing the identity of an American televangelist named Father Friendly. With no means of escape from this island devoid of gun shops and contract killing, tragicomic hilarity ensues as he is forced to come to terms with his bloody past and reevaluate his future.

I expected something along the lines of a British gangster movie – violence and grim humor. It turns out, this novel is straight ahead black comedy; though it does slip into drama along the way. There isn't a central crime caper like a gangster movie. The story is about Toxic's exile, and being on the lam, surviving day-to-day, eventually making a genuine effort to live straight and narrow.

Helgason has the sharp ability elicit laughter and then just as equally generate horror and sympathy for Toxic in regards to his past of warfare and violence. But the laughs subtly return again a few pages later. It that respect, I felt echoes of Joseph Heller.

A murderous hitman could be difficult to present as a sympathetic hero, but Helgason pulls the reader in. Given Toxic's mad world of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, his violent life as a hitman, and the crazy characters and situations Toxic experiences every day, Helgason manages to make the gun-free, idyllic life of Icelanders seem to be the absurdity.

What is with these Icelanders? No army. No guns. No nothing. Only gorgeous women driving luxury jeeps...

I really enjoyed this novel. It's dark and twisted, but it was such a change of pace, I couldn't help smiling most of the way through.

Planet of the Apes (television series)

Maybe this is coming from rosy-lensed glasses of my youth and long being an Ape-Head. But, I re-watched the first episode of the 1970s Planet of the Apes television series last night, and thought it was very strong. Some very suspenseful moments, a good setup. Very good classic scifi with hints of a much larger backstory.

Alas, the ratings failed early. Attracting only younger viewers, suit execs ordered the show dumbed down for kids. Ape menace and scifi threads were dropped in favor of action where buffoonish gorillas were constantly being whacked over the head with logs. As one actor noted, it became The Fugitive with apes. Who gets captured and who escapes this week?

The tactic didn't work, anyway, and the show continued to dwindle.

Too bad they didn't even get the old standard 24 episode season, and only managed 14 episodes. It would have been great if they could have explored more lost technology and possible mysteries of the gaps between their time and the future of the Apes.

Superman in the New 52

I finished up reading the initial arcs for the revamped Superman (and, everyone else in the DC Universe - see "New 52") in Action Comics and Superman.

Superman meets the new Brainiac, Action Comics #8.

I wasn't all that taken with the Superman opening story.  It was tied to the Action Comics tale, but I didn't feel a strong connection.  There was just something about the tone and timbre of Action Comics that I preferred.  It probably didn't hurt that they had Grant Morrison writing the opening story of the Action Comics revamp.

The Action Comics story involves Superman as a newly emerging superhero, trying to find his footing. He is very much a crusader for the little people, his cause augmented by liberal, investigative reporter Clark Kent.  Superman begins on the wrong side of the law, but with the arrival of a dangerous alien entity, Brainiac, people learn to value Superman's presence.

The immortality of fathers

"Well, I just bundled your father off to the hospital in an ambulance."

 On this past Saturday morning, that was not what I was expecting to hear my mother say on the phone.

The good news is he is home again, and what he experienced, though frightening, was mild by any yardstick.

He had a very, very small stroke.  It affected his left big toe, and the sole of his left foot.  He is expected to have a full recovery.  He still has some atrial fibrillation and I don't know if that will mean anything drastic later (pacemaker?) but for now the doctors think that will calm down.  The a-fib causes blood clots, so he is transitioning onto a blood thinner.  He sounds tired, says the drugs are giving him "weird" in his head.  Probably a combination of the long weekend and the drug acclimation.  I hope his body adjusts and the fatigue isn't a permanent side-effect.  I know I had some weird dreams for a week when I went on high blood pressure medicine (and the drug label did warn of such.)