Books of 2021: March

Why the hell am I bothering you with two posts about books you're not going to read when it could easily fit into one post for you ignore? Based on last year's reading list and the pacing I had at the beginning of the year, I thought I might read enough to justify turning this into a once a month post. Then I got lazy and didn't write February's post until now and I'd already taken the pictures, so I didn't want to retrieve all those comics and books again just for another photo shoot. So, now here we are. As a future note, I'll probably switch back to the once every three months posting as my reading has slowed down a little.

 

Vicious by V. E. Schwab

"They still had a minute before the final bell sounded, and even if they were late, the teachers would never mark them down. All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective."

"'You thought our powers were somehow a reflection of our nature. God playing with mirrors, but you're wrong. It's not about God. It's about us. The way we think. The thought that's strong enough to keep us alive. To bring us back.'"

Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are both smart and ambitious medical students. It's during a class project that they discover a common trait amongst emerging EO's, those few deemed ExtraOrdinary for their superhuman abilities. With that knowledge, they devise a plan to gift themselves those powers. It's a plan that ends with Victor in jail and turns Eli into a serial killer. Ten years later, as mortal enemies, the two are on a path of confrontation from which only one can walk away.

Vengeful by V. E. Schwab

Set five years after the events of the first book, Victor Vale and his group are hunting for an EO with a particular power that might be able to save Victor before he dies. Eli Ever is locked away in a government facility, putting his previous experience to use in locating other EO's. As the two of these spend their time hunting, another EO emerges, and Marcella Riggins is not one to hide in the shadows as other EO's tend to do. With her new powers she sets her sights on taking over the city of Merit: building her own team of EO's, taking over the organized crime syndicates, and manipulating Victor and Eli against each other.

If you like superhero stories, these are definitely books to pick up. It's just the start of the emergence of ExtraOrdinarys (EO's) and the public is still not convinced while the government is trying to get a handle on the situation. Of course, a lot of the people using their powers are using them for bad reasons, and the ones trying to stop them aren't much better. The powers in these stories are interesting and thought out, each one matching to the person possessed of them, and are different from other powers that we've come across especially with all the superhero/ power movies recently.

One of my favorite things about these books and Schwab's writing is the pacing. Though the main story actually takes place in just a day, the backstory that Schwab gives is a story of its own and not just huge info dumps. Both books are told in chapters labelled in relation to where they fall to the Present Day (the main part of the story). They can range anywhere from a week ago to over twenty years ago from today. Despite the story constantly jumping through time periods in multiple characters' lives, Schwab's writing makes it easy to follow along with all the pieces until the climactic finale.

Though it's a lot of information setting up backstories and the different pieces that lead us to the ending, neither story seems to ever slow down. Everything about Schwab's writing makes you want to press forward to find out what happens next. That I wasn't able to stop to hold onto a particular quote from "Vengeful" is a testament to this, the story just moved so fluidly that I couldn't pause long enough to hold onto a passage that might encapsulate the story, or even just something that really stood out from the rest of the writing. The only reason I managed to find a couple for "Vicious" was because I'd read it a couple years ago and already knew what to expect.

Books of 2021: February

Obviously, from the title and from the last post regarding this year's reading list, I'd meant to post this last month but, you know, lazy.

 
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

"I can't force the things that happen to be fair. I can't make them happen for only good reasons that I understand and agree with. But I can do my own things. And I can do them for equally pointless and equally nonsensical reasons. Which is sort of like fairness. If you can't win, start playing a different game and score just as many points."

Allie Brosh's second book after "Hyperbole and a Half" and a long hiatus from updating her blog, "Hyperbole and a Half". Filled with stories ranging from her childhood to present-day adult life, from crazy and almost nonsensical to depressing and real, and all of it illustrated with her trademark crude, Paint artwork (at least I think that's what she uses). Some of my favorite stories are "Richard" describing how, as a child, she stalked her neighbor, stealing items from his house and leaving others at his house. It got to the point that her parents started to suspect that he might just be a child predator. I also enjoyed "Fairness," a story about how she got revenge on a neighbor who would hammer things too early by leaving a lone stick in the same spot in his yard every single morning for months. The chapter "Losing," .... this was a tough chapter to get through as it's about Brosh's downward spiral: her depression, health scare, her sister's suicide, and all the thoughts just racing through her head at this time. I literally needed to close the book after I was done just to take it all in.

I'm still not sure how I found the original website (I think someone must've recommended it to me). For the longest time, she disappeared and stopped updating it until several months ago when it announced she was releasing another book, "Solutions and Other Problems" (thankfully a link to her blog still appears on the right-hand of my own). Also, if for some strange reason you actually use these posts to find books to read (no one does because no one reads this), you're probably wondering why I have this since I've said multiple times that I always try to avoid buying hardcover books. Well, in this case, the timing worked out: I needed something to add to my Christmas wishlist for our Secret Santa game, and apparently I'm just as bad at thinking up gifts for myself as I am at buying them for other people. And that's how I got this book to read months earlier than I would have if I waited for the paperback.

Deadly Class written by Rick Remender, illustrated by Wes Craig, colored by Jason Wordie, and lettered by Rus Wooten

This ongoing comic series follows Marcus and a group of students from several different cliques at King's Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts, a high school to train students to become the best killers for their respective groups. They are trained in various ways to hurt, maim, and kill to make them useful assets to their respective families or organizations ranging from the CIA, Yakuza, Cartels, street gangs, freedom fighters, or anarchists. Navigating classes, friendships, teenage romance with violence constantly in the forefront of the story, the gang tries their best to make the right decisions for their survival. Though I originally started reading this comic for the cool fight scenes, it was the rest of the storyline that kept me coming back and wanting to read more. If you think that this just being a school where children are trained to kill is the craziest part of the story, it gets so much more insane. A roadtrip to kill someone's asshole father. A final exam testing yourselves literally against your peers. The artwork (as I mentioned previously when I talked about "The Umbrella Academy" I'm not good at art so my opinion means jack shit) wasn't the polished stuff you'd find in the pages of Marvel comics. Instead it has a grittiness to it that complements the storytelling. Like when I talked about reading "The Umbrella Academy" comics, I thought about writing about each volume individually, but I didn't write a summery after each one and I don't want to go scanning through the pages again to find out exactly what happened in each book, so that's not going to happen this time.

As I mentioned when I talked about Volume One a year ago, I found out about this series from the great but short-lived Syfy adaptation. If you can find it someplace, I'd recommend watching it. Originally, I had picked up volume one a year or so ago. Then, toward the end of last year, Gecko Books in Kaimuki went out of business and I picked up volumes 3 through 7 at a discount. Then it took me two tries to get volume 2 through Amazon (the first got returned without a reason and I was waiting for my refund before re-ordering). So, as timing would have it, I managed to get the full set at the same time I was reading "Solutions and Other Problems" and I dreaded carrying such a huge tome to work to read during my lunch breaks. So the timing of it worked out, and eventually I'll get around to picking up the other two volumes.

Replacement God

I shoved my way through the crowds packing the streets: some celebrating, some rioting, all of them uncertain about what the future might hold. Of course, who wouldn't be after finding out that not only was God real, but that He had been absent for quite a while and a new one would be taking over His position. For all they knew the next several hours would mean either Paradise or Pandemonium. And depending upon the outcome of our meeting, they would be right.

I dipped into a back alley, passing an old Harley, a white Rolls Royce, a battered pick-up truck, and a well used minivan. I banged on the steel door and when a slot opened I held up a gold coin. The slot closed and the door opened to reveal a large man with a sawed-off double-barrelled shotgun braced against his chest. "Down the hall, first door on the right, and take the stairs down," he said as he shut the door behind me.

I nodded, the serious look on his face deterring any questions. The coin went back into my pocket as I followed the man's instructions. At the bottom of the stairs, just like the vehicles parked in the alley, were an assortment of people who wouldn't have crossed paths if not for one common quality amongst them: they'd all been touched by the Divine. For most people, religion was about faith. Even the most devout in their faith carried the smallest amount of doubt. Those in this room, and others like it across the globe, though knew that a higher power existed, and worked tirelessly to contain it.

I took a seat at the table and waited for the meeting to start. "Can I see it?" asked a man to my right with a cocky smile. I reached into my shirt and pulled a small golden cross on a chain. The man shook his head. "That's not it," he said as his smile straightened.

I smiled at his sour face and pulled the gold coin from my pocket. "Aztec gold blessed by Huitzilopochtli," I said holding it between my fingers. As the man extended his hand, I snatched the coin away and slipped it back into my pocket. "Trust me, you're not going to want to experience this one." The man nodded in understanding as I closed my eyes. Any object blessed by The Divine carried its own weight. The memory of chests sliced open and hearts ripped out, and in exchange a blinding light that could dispel the ever-enveloping Darkness, washed over me like a tsunami of terror. Nightmares that haunted me since a crazed man in the park handed the coin to my twelve-year old self.

I opened my eyes to see the same haunted expression reflected back at me. The other man reached into his coat to reveal a single white feather, a streak of red marring an edge. "From The Fall," was all he said before turning away, the conversation over. I nodded. Contact with The Divine wasn't something most mortal minds are prepared to handle. It was the reason why The Dominion had called this meeting after centuries lying dormant, the tokens being passed along to someone who would hopefully never be called to serve.

A voice let out a short cough and the room silenced. A young woman stood at the front of the table, young enough that at first I thought she might be someone's college intern. Then I looked into her eyes and realized my mistake: eyes that had seen things over lifetimes, ages that the rest of the world only read about in books and some too old to have ever been chronicled. Not old enough to have heard The Voice proclaim, "Let there be light," but perhaps born in a time to have heard it echo across the world.

"You have been called as agents of The Dominion to respond to this new threat to the sovereignty of Humanity. You've all heard the broadcast, as did the billions across the globe - a new deity is coming to Earth. One that will want to play a more active role in out lives than our previous overseer. We are only human. We cannot prevent It. We cannot stop It. We can only work to minimize Its impact."

Though never having met before, without having spoken to each other before entering this chamber, we all nodded in agreement. We'd experienced the unfathomable power of The Divine. The wrath that destroyed cities, the love that ended famine and drought, the power that promised freedom while demanding obedience. No deity assigned to watch over humanity has ever been as benevolent as they claim. Most demand sacrifice of one thing or another. The ones that don't demand adherence to rules which humanity has no input in creating. Equality has never been the goal of an overload, only control.

The first meeting of The Dominion, and subsequent meetings, did what we were seeking to do again - wrest control of Humanity's fate from The Divine into our own hands. They too knew they couldn't fight directly against The Divine and instead sought to pull people away from the deity's control. Knowledge. Reason. Science. Humanities. These were their tools, and they would be ours as well. Persuading people that they didn't need a new deity to make their lives better. Sowing disinformation amongst the people to further distrust. Volunteering and funding efforts to help the most disenfranchised and vulnerable among us. Investing in medicine and technology to further advance humanity.

As we planned our missions, the woman continued to remind us that we were merely human, and to brace for the worst. People were still people. They'd give anything to just wish their lives even the slightest bit better. Or perhaps the new deity's idea of "hands-on" was more dictatorial in fashion - in which case we didn't stand a chance.

As I pushed back through the crowded streets to my apartment, I did something perhaps running entirely counter to our mission - I prayed. I looked around at the hope and chaos sown on the faces of every passerby and I asked the new deity, if It really wanted to help humanity, then  please, just stay up in the Heavens where It belongs. If It could do that, then perhaps all will be right with the world.

From the Reddit Writing Prompt: Humanity gets a message that a new deity is being put in charge after discovering the old deity has been neglecting its duties (it was a long prompt and I don't want to write it all out). So this took just a couple hours to not just write but to type as well. I hate that after not writing for so long because I was either sick, or tired, or just couldn't get started, or I was too busy, I was able to crank out something this quick because it just emphasizes how, really I'm just lazy if I can't get just one writing piece done per week as I keep promising myself I'll do. I also dislike how quickly I'm able to grind out the stories I write after long breaks as they've fallen into either the superpower or religious category. It makes me feel like I'm typecasting myself into these types if these are the subjects I can so quickly put together a story for. I guess the biggest inspiration for this story was Simon R. Green's Nightside series, or more specifically The Church of St. Jude. In the books, the church is just a lone stone structure with a set of benches and a table. It doesn't have a priest or anything to signify what type of religion it is associated with. The most important aspect of the church is that it is the place you go when you've got nowhere else to go because it is the one place in the Nightside you can be sure your god is listening and you may even get an answer. In the stories, the idea of God taking a personal interest in you and your situation is terrifying in that the answer you get usually will not be the one you wanted.