Mount TBR 2013 Reading Challenge discussion

#33 - Give the Boys a Great Big Hand by Ed McBain

The awful gag in the title is perhaps the funniest thing about this one, which sees tensions erupting inside the detectives bullpen during the course of a difficult case.

#34 - See Them Die by Ed McBain

McBain flipped the formula again for this book, turning it into a from-the-headlines thriller over the course of a day. Much of the focus is on Detective Frankie Hernandez, but there's equally as much on some wanna-be gang members, a young woman, a sailor, and a diner owner. Also somewhat of a focus is Detective Andy Parker, whose broken state of mind was on display in Give the Boys a Great Big Hand. It's McBain run through the filter of his Evan Hunter side, turning a cop story into a social drama.

#35 - Doctor Who: Storm Warning by Alan Barnes and Doctor Who: Sword of Orion by Nicholas Briggs

The first two Eighth Doctor stories from Big Finish, featuring new companion Charley Pollard. Paul McGann does a great job of carrying on Eight, despite only having had a single outing in the TV movie, but the stories themselves veer wildly to either side of the quality line, with the second being quite inferior in many respects -- well, it's a Cybermen story, so not too much of a surprise there.

#36 - Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Series 1 - Doctor Who: Frostfire by Marc Platt, Doctor Who: Fear of the Daleks by Patrick Chapman, Doctor Who: The Blue Tooth by Nigel Fairs, and Doctor Who: The Beautiful People by Jonathan Morris

The initial approach with this side series of audio stories was to provide stories of the first four Doctors, due to the death of the first three Doctors and the unwillingness of Fourth Doctor Tom Baker to do audio plays. The range has seen considerable success, despite the unevenness of these first four releases -- the second and third suffered somewhat from being yet again about Daleks and Cybermen, while the fourth is fluffy satire. Where they succeed is in the narration and performance of the lead actresses -- particularly Maureen O'Brien in the first, and Lalla Ward in the fourth (Ward in particular has a great deal of fun with the reading.) Essentially novellas done as two-hander readings, the stories benefit by not overstaying their welcomes at a compact 66 minutes apiece.

#37 - Doctor Who: Helicon Prime by Jake Elliot and Doctor Who: The Catalyst by Nigel Fairs

The two entries in the second series of The Companion Chronicles that I hadn't gotten to previously. The first has Frazer Hines delivering a brilliant Patrick Troughton impression in a story that ultimately just sort of stops, while the second has an excellent performance from Louise Jameson as Leela, although her attempt to voice Four is woeful -- but there's very few people who can even do a vague impression of Tom Baker.

#38 - Doctor Who: Here There Be Monsters by Andy Lane, Doctor Who: The Great Space Elevator by Jonathan Morris and Doctor Who: The Doll of Death by Marc Platt

The first three installments in the first extended season of the Companion Chronicles, proving as variable as usual -- the first features the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, in a puzzle story that gives away the solution almost immediately, though all credit to Carole Ann Ford for her performance. The second is a bit of a lame duck, with Deborah Watling doing very little to raise any enthusiasm for the bog-standard Base Under Siege story. The third, however, is a lot of fun, with Katy Manning both restraining herself and having a lot of fun (her Brigadier is hilarious) with a typically time-convoluted Marc Platt story.

It's good to be getting the audiobook stacks winnowed down somewhat.

#39 - Rampage West by Leslie Ernenwein

The tale of one Lew Tune, a somewhat rootless cowboy whose involvement with a friend's cattle drive leads him into the middle of an Arizona range war. Tune is a ropey, rangey, manly kind of man, not as swift with his brain as he is with his gun, but he's downright dogged. There's some nice little grace notes here and there, but mostly it's shootin', ridin', and bein' downright miserable in very bad weather.

This particular book came from a big pile of hardcover western reissues from a line produced, at various points, by BBC Audiobooks.

#40 - Doctor Who: The Stones of Venice by Paul Magrs

I'm not combining this with any other because it took such an effort to get through it -- repeated attempts, in fact. Normally I thoroughly enjoy Paul Magrs' writing, but this is lamentable, with even the main cast seeming lost at sea and dependable actors such as Mark Gatiss gurning onward as though life depends on frantic bad acting.

#41 - Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers by Brian K. Vaughan, et al

Even as a digest-sized collection, this was quite an entertaining romp to start off the second iteration of this series (one that needs to see the light of day again.) The children of the apparently destroyed Los Angeles villain group, The Pride, strike out on their own to right wrongs -- and as they're a disparate lot that had a bad upbringing, they're pretty cranky about it. In this story and older incarnation of a team member travels back two decades to warn them about "the son of the greatest evil in the Universe," who will destroy all of the heroes in 2025, and try to take over the world. Add in Excelsior, a group of former teen heroes dedicated to keeping young people from the costumed lifestyle, and it's a mix that makes for grand results.

#42 - Doctor Who: Dark Eyes by Nicholas Briggs

Following the dark, desperate end of the fourth series of 8th Doctor adventures, this release presents the shorter fifth series as a single story over four discs, and despite it being another Dalek story, it's actually quite an engaging production. Part of the engagement comes from a sterling cast, with Peter Egan and Toby Jones supporting, but the production is absolutely top-notch and the pace frantic, which helps sail the listener past some of the more incoherent bits of plotting (one of the core elements is Time Lord machinations, so things get a bit twisty.)

For fans of the new series, it's pretty clear that this is pretty much meant to be one of the earlier incidents in the Last Time War. While Big Finish will likely never go there altogether, they can certainly paint in some of the corners of the picture. Nicely done.

#43 - Doctor Who: The Time Museum by James Goss, Doctor Who: The Rocket Men by John Dorney and Doctor Who: Return of the Rocket Men by Matt Fitton

Three more Companion Chronicles, two featuring William Russell as Ian Chesterton, and one with Peter Purves as Steven Taylor. The best of the three is The Time Museum, which gives Russell quite the workout as an actor. The Rocket Men is less successful, in part because it's a fairly dull story and partly because it's written to take place as a mix of flash-forwards and flashbacks, which is frankly bizarre.

The sequel story, with Steven Taylor, also plays time games, but in a much better way. Unfortunately, again, it's a fairly dull story that tries to hang a lantern on an old cliche a a punchline. The annoying part here is the random switching from Purves' narration to narration by the main villain (who also gets lampshaded by being named Van Cleef, although the actor is by no means that quality.)

#44 - Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson and Thomas E. Sniegoski

Four novellas from authors who have a line in urban noir fantasy, featuring their investigators -- Harry Dresden, John Taylor, Harper Blaine, and Remy Chandler. The Simon R. Green novella would probably have benefited from being read by someone able to put across the Englishness of the piece -- it's read in a style that has more to do with the average Mickey Spillane novel. All the same, the Green story is a particular source of fun, being fast-paced noir with a very different kind of setting and visualization. Likewise, the Richardson story is a goofy paranormal piece that I imagine Janet Evanovich fans would enjoy.

The Butcher and Sniegoski pieces are more serious in tone, and come with a bit of baggage -- both are mid-timeline in their respective series, and neither one is functional as an introduction to those characters, as there are direct connections to earlier entries in the series, and serve to set up later events. Undeniably well written, however.

#45 - Doctor Who - The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter tackles a story featuring the Second Doctor, Zoe Heriot, and Jamie MacCrimmon, and works in many of his own interests (and certain background elements familiar to Baxter fans, such as the Malenfant operations) but even a wonderful reading by David Troughton can't overcome the feeling that this novel is bloody near endless -- it would definitely have been an eight or ten part serial in the Second Doctor's run, and is structured very much like as well, with regular cliffhanger moments. Written well enough (aside from a really poor human villain) but could have used some tightening.

Still, it's nice to see a full-tilt novel featuring one of the original Doctors. It's certainly been a while.

#46 - The Companion Chronicles: The Specials by divers hands

This is actually a compilation of Big Finish plays that were either included as extras on regular releases, or given away with Doctor Who Magazine. "The Three Companions," which stretches over three discs, was original made available as ten minute segments over the course of a year's releases in the main range, while "The Mists Of Time" and "Freakshow" were magazine releases.

"The Three Companions" features Polly (2nd Doctor's run), Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (2nd onwards) and audio companion Thomas Brewster. Polly and the Brig's stories can be enjoyed as is, but the Brewster story loses something without the context of the main stories he's in. "The Mists Of Time" is the standout story, thanks to another spectacular performance from Kary Manning in a fairly good, emotional story. "Freakshow"...well, if you like Vislor Turlough, you'll enjoy it. I never did like the conceited prat myself...!

#47 - The Cabinet of Light by Daniel O'Mahoney

I'd told myself I'd take another break from Doctor Who books, and indeed had started in on both The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst and Sanctus by Simon Toyne (this is my current walking-around audio book.) However, being me, I opted earlier today for the literary equivalent of a thin mint -- a Telos Doctor Who Novella.

It's an interesting read, and one of the better entries in the short-lived Telos series. The Doctor is at the heart of it as a mysterious and elusive figure, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The protagonist is a former American soldier turned London spiv who's hired by a young woman to find the mysterious Doctor, who she claims is her husband. Lachasseur is immediately drawn into a complex web of deceit and danger, but there's far more purpose to what's going on than anyone is actually saying outright.

A pretty good read, overall. It was later revised slightly and used as the opening story in the Time Hunter series from Phantom FIlms.

#48 - Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago...., Vol. 1 by Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, and others

Fitting that I should get around to picking this up from the piles this weekend, as Carmine Infantino, who did the marority of the penciling for the issues in this book (the first six were penciled by Howard Chaykin) Just passed away.

Very much a nostalgia trip for me, as I saw some of these comics when they first appeared -- the horror of Jaxxon, the giant green carnivorous rabbit, has never left my memory. There was very little oversight from Lucasfilm in the early days after the first film (one reason why we had the horror of the Star Wars Holiday Special), so these comics are hilariously off-model at times, as well as out of character, and prone to going all over the place when it comes to stories -- the first major arc leaves Luke and Leia well behind and focuses on putting Han Solo in a Magnificent Seven story.

Finally, though, Archie Goodwin came on board and things straightened out a bit...although Goodwin wasn't averse to tying up that Magnificent Seven story with his own version of The Return Of The Seven...! Also, readers will be amused and a bit squicked at Leia's tendency to snog Luke at the drop of a hat; it's only at the far end of the first 27 that hints begin to be dropped that Leia's feeling for Han might be stronger than those she has for Luke.

#48 - Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago...., Vol. 2 by Archie Goodwin, et al

A further 462 pages of old Star Wars comics, this time lurching through the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. By the time of that adaptation Lucasfilm was beginning to exert a little more control over the comics, although this really didn't help to keep the art much more on model than it had been. At least female characters didn't tend to show up in skimpy bikinis any longer.

For all of the flaws in the art, the presentation of it here is excellent -- it's full restored, and very clear, with resonant, if simple, colouring work.

#49 - Star Wars Omnibus: Tales of the Jedi, Volume 1 by Kevin J. Anderson, Tom Veitch, divers hands

After this I'm back to the huge Madman Atomica!, as well as The Spies of Warsaw and others. TOTJ was Dark Horse's original exploration into the history of the Star Wars universe, and while George Lucas approved everything, it's likely that many of the details of things like Sith history have been changed. I found this particular omnibus a bit tedious because more than half of it is taken up with a diptych by Kevin J. Anderson that's pretty much in keeping with his leaden style -- this supposedly epic story is about on the level of a Lin Carter fantasy outing. The other two stories, by Tom Veitch, are considerably better, although the concluding "The Saga Of Nomi Sunrider" just sort of stops dead. I wanted to see more of Sunrider's journey as a Jedi.

#50 - Star Wars Omnibus: Droids

This is Dark Horse's later series of Droids comics, rather than those done by Marvel, based on the Droids cartoon. That said, these stories are mostly aimed at younger readers, and are entertaining enough, with somewhat cartoony art until the final story, "The Protocol Offensive" (based on a Brian Daley outline, and co-written by C3-PO actor Anthony Daniels.) That last story is a bit of a whiplash, as it's more of an adult (or perhaps YA) piece.

#51 - The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst

A rather low-key tale of pre-WWII espionage and romance, centered around French diplomat and spy Lt. Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier. This is part of Furst's "Night Soldiers" series of espionage tales set around the start of WWII, and feels a little like a throwback to an earlier time, in that it's very focused on aristocracy and presents its espionage work as something controlled and almost polite, with the exception of the few Nazi characters we meet during the course of the book.

#52 - Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen by Thomas J. MacClean

Attempted film analysis and criticism that doesn't quite gel, at least for me (and my association with the early days of the X-Men films might well be a source of bias here.) Also, the book desperately needs a proofreader as some of the errors herein are truly jarring.

#53 - The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour & Laurence Ganem (Graphic Audio edition)

A Graphic Audio full-cast performance of a science fiction/pulp spoof that sometimes gets very silly, and sometimes gets very Hitchhiker's Guide. The book actually makes the transition very well.

#54 - The Doomsday Brunette by John Zakour and Laurence Ganem

A second entry in the Graphic Audio series of full-cast productions of the Zachary Nixon Johnson, the Last P.I. This time he's up against four cloned zuperwomen, one of whom has been murdered -- something that should be impossible. It's a lot of demented fun.

#55 - The Cleaners: Absent Bodies by Mark Wheaton and Joshua Hale Fialkov

On the surface it's a graphic novel about crime scene cleanup, which turns out to be quite a fascinating subject...but it's also crossed with the X-Files, as the crime scene cleanup crew turns out to have a sideline in dealing with monsters -- the wrinkle being that the authors try to provide some kind of semi-plausible science -- something that works better in the concluding short story than in the main story, mind you.

This strikes me as having been a television pilot, and it does leave plenty of hooks for further stories, from unresolved plotlines to elements to be explained later. In terms of art, there are some oddities -- the characters are often hard to differentiate, an most of them look middle-aged much of the time, while Burbank, CA is portrayed in a very retro manner -- "Burbank PD" is depicted as an old brownstone precinct house (a la New York) in the midst of a low-density area of one-storey buildings. There's a palm tree, however, to make sure we know where we are. Having lived in Burbank...that ain't the way it looks, guys.

#56 - Stranger In Paradise by Robert B. Parker

One of the later Jesse Stone novels, which applies something of the Spenser formula to his small-town police chief, with the introduction of Wilson "Crow" Cromartie, Apache warrior hit-man. It's as much about the main characters as the plot on which those characters hang.

#57 - Bloom County: The Complete Digital Library, Vol. 1 by Berkeley Breathed

The first year of the strip, restored and occasionally annotated. I'm surprised at how many of the more topical strips are actually still relevant, or have again become relevant. Always fun to revisit, however, and very interesting to see Breathed finding his feet with the strip in this first year. A kind of proto-Opus makes an appearance midway, but then quietly vanishes again, but the real take-off point seems to be the arrival of Cutter John -- all of a sudden, the strip starts to crackle with energy.

#58 - Sanctus by Simon Toyne

First bok of a trilogy. Basically a big shaggy-dog thriller built on an invented religious conspiacy centered around the fictional city of Ruin, Turkey. A rare female-driven story, the biggest failing is perhaps that the fictional setting doesn't really feel like Turkey -- which might be excused by Ruin being in some respects a mirror of the Vatican...equally full of secrets, lies, and conspiracies, but less prone to gilting the edges and more prone to leaving a trail of violent death around the world. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy (I started this one because I'd picked up the second book.)

#59 - Doctor Who: Minuet in Hell by Gary Russell and Doctor Who: Loups Garoux by Marc Platt

Two of the lesser entries in Big Finish's series of Doctor Who plays. Minuet In Hell is just flat-out horrible, thanks to a collection of ghastly attempts at American accents combined with a great deal of chewing the scenery, leaving the late Nicholas Courtney rather at sea. Loups-Garoux is just flat out lousy, no matter how much Peter Davison and Mark Strickson try -- the whole thing is is let down by wonky sound design and mixing, and the dodgy accents here are a small part of it.

#60 - Bloom County: The Complete Digital Library, Vol. 2 by Berkeley Breathed

Into the second year of the strip, and by now Breathed was very much on a roll. Opus was brought back and named, and development of the character happened fairly quickly a this point. Bill The Cat was still an occasional joke, but his time was certainly coming.

#61 - Bloom County: The Complete Digital Library, Vol. 3 by Berkeley Breathed

Covering 1983. By now Breathed is sailing along handily. Opus is starting to become very much the heart of the strip, and Bill The Cat is becoming...something else entirely.

#62 - Doctor Who: ...ish by Philip Pascoe and Doctor Who: The Prisoner of Peladon by Gary Cavan

Jumping around a bit in the stacks here. ...ish is notable mainly for its wordplay and running around in the language arts, along with Peri being written very well for a change, but the story itself veers between the mundane and the absurd. There is a neat bit on the idea of "In the beginning was the Word," though.

Prisoner Of Peladon is mainly notable for a fine performance from David Troughton as King Peladon, reprising a one-off character from the 1970s. Those watching the current series will be amused to note that this story has Nicholas Briggs doing the Ice Warrior voices. Troughton does a creditable version of Three, although it does shade into Two now and then -- which oddly enough serves to establish that these disparate figures are all one and the same.

#63 - Bloom County: The Complete Digital Library, Vol. 4 by Berkeley Breathed

Up the hill! Up the hill! 1984 was the year of the Presidential race, and things got a little bit tedious at times.

#64 - Doctor Who: Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker and Doctor Who: Bloodtide by Jonathan Morris

Two more full plays down. In the first, Seven and Ace are involved with the future destruction of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" -- but that's not all. Something horrendous has rippled trough the universe, and an ancient evil is trying to get hold of it. In the second, Six and Evelyn meet Charles Darwin and face down a testy bunch of Silurians in the Galapagos Islands. Not a bad pair, but the second is better than the first, with Colin Baker again showing what he can do.

#65 - R.I.P.D. by Peter M. Lenkov

Finally got around to this, which is a late 1990s Men In Black Meets Beetlejuice mashup. cartoonish artwork, poor story, no characterization, and mediocre dialogue. The comic that functions as a prequel to the upcoming movie, R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned by Patrick Thorpe, is a much better effort (though still not stunning.)

#66 - Doctor Who: The Raincloud Man by Eddie Robson and Doctor Who: Ringpullworld by Paul Magrs

Two about twisting reality inside out in various ways. Jumping to The Raincloud Man might have been a bad idea, as there's an additional internal mystery, but it doesn't stop it from being an engaging -- if tragic -- story, in the way many Five and Six stories are. Ringpullworld is meanwhile Magrs displaying as much whimsy as he can manage to insert into a story of Turlough trying to do the right thing and being stuck with a tough choice. The conceit of the Novelisors is very funny, and is handled very well (though the actor playing Huxley seems to have been rather clueless about science fiction), and there's a little Easter Egg thrown in for any old readers of the Target novelizations of decades past.

#67 - The Key by Simon Toyne

The big shaggy dog thriller ploughs on. The Citadel at Ruin has been breached, the monks are in disarray, the Sacrament is unlocked, and now the Pope's right hand man at the Vatican is throwing his considerable weight into the mix. Meanwhile, journalist Liv Adamson and the mysterious Gabriel Mann are on the run. Curiously, this is where the trilogy rather turns into a contemporary riff on Dune. I'm now on to the third book, The Tower...which won't get listed here, as it's a 2013 book.

#68 - The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 1: The Five Nightmares by Matt Fraction, Salvador Larocca

I read a couple of bits of this long ago and recall being unimpressed. Reading the whole thing doesn't improve matters, even if this was combined with the Extremis story and parts of Pepper Potts' journey as RESCUE (which begins here) for Iron Man 3. The story is a bog standard revenge against Tony Stark plot, the art is often quite distracting, and the dialogue is, to say the least, ham-fisted.

#69 - X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David, Vol. 1 with art by Larry Stroman

The start of David's seriocomic take on X-Factor, as he uses then b-listers to poke little holes all over X-Men mythology and let the air out of the pomposity. Unfortunately, the book is rather let down by Larry Stroman's often grotesque artwork.

#70 - Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux

Theroux retraces the route he took in The Great Railway Bazaar some thirty years later, going to old destinations some he couldn't reach before, traveling from London to Russia through a world that in some ways has been changed dramatically and in others seems hardly to have changed at all. There are some grand moments of travel writing, some great moments of personal poignancy, and even Theroux seemingly at a loss in the face of cultural elements he can't quite grasp -- he's particularly seen foundering in Japan. A great read, overall, and a great voice. I wish he could do another follow-up thirty-five years after this one.

#71 - Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

First of her books that I've gotten around to, and I enjoyed the Westlake-like silliness of it all. I gather that the between-the-numbers books are goofier than the main series, but that's okay by me.

#72 - Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich

T%he second of the four "between" books finds Stephanie Plum having to play Cupid, deal with the very weird Diesel, and face off against a mobster. Not so much of Stephanie's family in this one, but we do get some hilarious Lula moments.

#73 - Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Second book in the Thursday Next series. Entertainingly nuts alternate-world literary goofballery.

#74 - The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Hiding in the BookWorld, and under the tutelage of Dickens' Miss Haversham (who has a thing for high-speed driving), Thursday must cope with the predations of Aornis Hades, the debut of UltraWord, and her grandmother. Fun stuff, if tending to scatter plot elements all over -- it's almost like a couple of novellas and a short story.

#75 - A Man Called Trent by Louis L'amour

1947 book by L'amour, and pretty much what you'd expect -- the main plot is set in motion by the murder of a nester, and very quickly it's nesters up against the local land and cattle baron, with the taciturn Trent helping the little guys. But Trent, of course, is not he who appears to be....

#76 - Crisis on Infinite Earths Absolute Edition by Marv Wolfman, George Perez

It's a curious irony that the 2005 Absolute Edition of this book has a second volume that concludes by celebrating the release of Infinite Crisis, the Geoff Johns miniseries that reset the DC universe again, reversing everything that this particular story strove to achieve (which was slimming down and streamlining DC continuity.)

The Absolute restoration is a further step up on the initial restorations for trade hardcover and paperback release, and the package as a whole builds on the Graphitti version that came much earlier. The second volume, which delves into the creation of the series, as well as the behind the scenes during its production, and the aftermath, is quite an interesting document, thanks in part to the many memos that were kept on hand.

#77 - Supergirl: Wings by J. M. DeMatteis and Jamie Tolagson

This is lovely to look at, and wrestles with questions of spirit and predestination and what makes Hell and what makes Heaven, all tackled through an Elseworlds take on the 1990s version of Supergirl (who had her own spiritual arc, courtesy of writer Peter David, as she became an Earth Angel.) The problem is that the book -- which I can't believe I lost in the piles for as long as I did, considering I'm fond of the character -- is shorter than it really needs to be, resulting in a rushed ending, some "Huh?" moments and the problem that one of the most important characters gets no time at all for development.

I'm also going to throw Superman: War of the Worlds by Roy Thomas in here. It's pretty much OG Superman mixed with the Orson Welles version of War Of The Worlds.

And finally, Superman: Blood of My Ancestors by Steven Grant and Gil Kane, which uses Superman's run-in with a memory-eating creature to explore ancient Krypton history via encoded race memory. Sort of eh, that one, but a quick read. Both Grant and Kane have much better work in their CVs, mind you.

#78 - Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty by Mike W. Barr and sundry

I liked the Elseworlds concept -- taking DC characters and putting them in revised guises in different worlds -- but it could go badly wrong as often as it went brilliantly. This entry, which posits the Wayne family fated to battle Vandal Savage for thirteen centuries (and possibly longer, considering Savage just floats away on an asteroid at the end), is simply mediocre. The concluding chapter is rendered nearly incomprehensible by artwork that doesn't play to inker Bill Sienkevich's strengths in the slightest.

#79 - The Heckler by Ed McBain

Let's hear it for The Deaf Man, who would go on to be the major nemesis for the 87th Precinct in several books. In this one, a variety of people are being harassed by phone calls, pranks, and thuggery, and no-one can figure out what's going on. The storyline has gotten to be old hat these days, but that doesn't stop this from being a clever,and sometimes brutal, tale of brilliant criminality, with a lot of McBain humour scattered throughout.

#80 - BBC Cult Presents: Sherlock Holmes by various including Paul Cornell, Dominic Green, and Kim Newman

Five tales built on the premise of alternate takes on Sherlock Holmes, mostly read by Andrew Sachs. Kim Newman's take dispenses entirely with Holmes and tells a tale of Moriarty and Moran (and Newman would go on to write several more stories with this pair) while Green's take has an unhealthy dose of The Goon Show in there -- which would be rather more amusing if it wasn't so disconcerting.

#81 - Get Jiro! by anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose

Bourdain gives us Yojimbo in a future L.A. in which foodies rule the roost and Chefs are warlords fighting each other to the death. Yojimbo here is in the form of Jiro, a brilliant sushi chef, who becomes to focus of interest for the two biggest warlords, and ends up taking a personal approach to the treatment he receives. It's a heavy-handed satire that's very much in keeping with Bourdain in general, but it really isn't too good -- especially as Jiro is so enigmatic as to be a cipher. Bloody, gruesome (sometimes in a grossly funny way), and sequel-ready, but not really worth a second look.

#82 - X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris claremont and John Byrne

The actual DOFP is confined to all of two of the issues compiled here, so there's a lot of surrounding filler -- including the "clip show" issue where the late Jean Grey's history is recounted in detail.