In a recent post I talked about buying several new graphic novels and getting a new book that I was really excited about. Well I was so excited about it that I actually finished it, which brings my average up to about 70%. (damn that wine book!) I’ve also finished most of the graphic novels. But I’m starting to think that reading 3 series at once is going to get expensive, with them going for about 10 bucks each. I only like the Trade Paperbacks (TPB) because I like to collect them.

Well anyway, here’s the reviews.

Fables: I like it, but it seems a little forced, maybe that’s just because it had to introduce so many characters it didn’t have time for a strong enough story. a little like the first X-Men movie.

DMZ: A strong first book. It drops you in the middle of an occupied NYC and just hits the ground running. It has certain cinematic elements, so much so that I can really see this being made into a movie at some point.

Transmetropolitain: Spider Jerusalem is one of the best characters to come along in a long time. The book has certain elements that also made DMZ a good read, like the city setting. But being a futuristic novel it takes things to the extreme. Spider reminds me a lot of Tank Girl, which is exactly why I hope they never make a movie out of this comic. Well live action movie anyway.

World War Z: This book was absolutely amazing. Well for me anyway since I love Zombie / Post-Apocalyptic movies. But I don’t think the zombie genre has ever been done on this scale, I should know, I’ve seen a lot of those movies. It’s always set in some small town, a single farmhouse, or at most you get to see the story of one group of survivors from all over the place. The notable exception being Land of the Dead, but for some reason that movie really didn’t do it for me. just something wasn’t there. But I digress…
In this book you get to see the story from all sides. The narrative is set up as the author interviews survivors of the war 10 years after victory has been declared. Most of the interviews are only a few pages long, he uses them to widen the scope of the story. Not that it doesn’t have some of the cliched zombie movie parts, rich people paying for protection, greedy people looting. But those are balanced out by the depth of the story.
But what really makes this book different is that the author (Max Brooks) has thought of everything. I mean what would happen if the US army set up in New Jersey to fight the 10 million Zombies that came pouring out of NYC? (it doesn’t end well for us) How would the governments of the world really respond if their people started dying and returning to life? Japan? China? North Korea? Cuba? Russia? You get a glimpse of all those places through the course of the story. What happens when zombies walk/fall into the ocean? (They just keep walking) The story also goes on after we start to win the fight against the zombies, on to the cleanup and reclamation of the world.

What I’m really interested is that this book is being made into a movie. But the problem is that they’ll never be able to get all this story into one movie. I trust the writer that they have in charge now, J. Michael Straczynski who wrote the show Babylon 5. He has a history of being able to weave in a lot of details in one story.

Here’s my final word on the book. I like it so much I might start reading it again.

Later!
Mark