Thought Train to Pusan

The comedian, actor, (surprisingly fantastic) jazz musician Hugh Laurie? Why yes, a Jack-of-all-trades that one is. The Gun Seller is Hugh Laurie’s first novel, which had apparent promise of a sequel, which has yet to be released. But no matter, as this book is substantial and conclusive on its own, not to mention complex, quick-witted, and humorous. Essentially, I could just hear Hugh Laurie saying the words of the novel to me as I read it, and picturing a Fry-and-Laurie era Laurie acting it all out definitely added to my enjoyment of it. What we have in The Gun Seller is a retired Army officer in London, named Thomas Lang. Thomas works odd-jobs as a bodyguard and mercenary for connections he made during his time in the army, but when he is approached by a man who wants to hire him for an assassination, Thomas gets into a whole mess of trouble. Thomas chooses to try and warn the man who is to be assassinated that he is a target, only to find that the man who sought to hire hi...

(with art by David Aja and Javier Pulido) Apparently there is this idea that Hawkeye is the “most useless Avenger,” what with not being superhuman in any way, and using arrows rather than more “practical” forms of weaponry. But after The Avengers film came out last year, more people are starting to appreciate Clint Barton/Ronin/Goliath (I know, I know), and this series of Hawkeye comics focuses on Clint’s life outside of the Avengers. More specifically, the trouble he gets himself into on a regular basis, as well as some of the work he does for S.H.I.E.L.D. when he isn’t chumming up with the other superheroes. And well... it's pretty comical. A trim first volume at just around 130 pages, My Life as a Weapon includes the first 5 issues of Hawkeye , as well as one final installment of Young Avengers Presents #6. The first five issues all start with Clint in a seemingly disastrous situation, which he then explains and elaborates on. Generally, his getting out of these mis...

As we all know, Gods are immortal, so what happens when they find themselves in the modern era after almost everyone has stopped believing in them? What will their lives be like and will they conform to social norms, or still behave in the ways that they always have? Marie Phillips’ novel Gods Behaving Badly addresses this in a humorous satire about some of the major/most well known Gods of ancient Greece. Gods Behaving Badly centers on twelve Olympian Gods living in present-day London. While some still act in their typical roles as Gods, many have been forced to find “human” jobs to keep themselves going, as their powers have begun to wane over time; the problem is that nobody really believes in the ancient Gods anymore, which is where they have always found their power. Therefore, instead of living high on Olympus, the Gods find themselves all stuffed into a single, run-down flat, squabbling like they always have in all the myths of the past. After the God Ap...

Jay Asher’s young adult novel Thirteen Reasons Why focuses on the important topic of teenage suicide, and how a young person may be led to it. While the writing is effective in demonstrating how a person’s actions may affect another in ways that they could never have imagined, reading this novel made me feel a little strange, almost as if it left a slightly sour taste in my mouth upon finishing it. Not in that the topic of suicide makes me uncomfortable like it does some people, but that there may have been ways to make the whole thing have more of an impact? The tone was a little more bitter than I thought it would be? I’m not sure. In any case, here is specifically what the story is about: Thirteen Reasons Why starts with a young boy named Clay receiving a series of cassette tapes anonymously in the mail. As he listens to them, he finds that they are from one of his classmates, Hannah, who recently committed suicide, making a list of thirteen people/incidents that in...

The Scorch Trials is the second young adult novel in James Dashner’s “Maze Runner” series. Like the first installment of the series, this novel is predicated on a group of young people placed into a testing situation, with so many questions and few answers. I’ll try to keep the description brief (and slightly vague?) so as to not spoil anything from The Maze Runner . Also, these novels are the kind that seem as though they’d be better enjoyed if you don’t know what’s coming next: The Scorch Trials begins in the middle of the night after the boys of the Glade make it out of the maze. They feel as though they have found a safe-haven with the people of WICKED, and yet, things soon go wrong: hallucinations occur, and Thomas loses his connection with Teresa, yet the Gladers gain a new member to their company from another maze that was filled with only girls, known as “Group B”. The boys find themselves surrounded by people called “Cranks” who have been infected ...

This past weekend I spent my time at the Calgary comic expo, and one of my cousins (who is an avid fan of all comic books and genres) got into a big discussion with me about what he recommends I read, and American Vampire was one of them. He said it was one of the only vampire stories that has even interested him since he was about 12 years old, given that the whole thing has become a bit overpowering and sanitized in popular culture today. But American Vampire is quite intriguing regardless of this, as it addresses the concept of generational vampiric evolution, and isn’t afraid to leave a twisted trail of bodies behind. Scott Snyder predominantly writes the American Vampire series, with art by Rafael Albuquerque. For the first trade volume (single issues #1-5), however, the stories told alternate between writing from Snyder, and guest writing by Stephen King. Each volume of the series focuses on a different period of American history, and how the new bloodlines of v...

Dash ner, writing about running through a maze… huh. I just realized how much that seems like a terribly unintentional pun. In any case, The Maze Runner is the first book in the young-adult dystopian trilogy of the same name. It first came onto my radar when I saw one of those “If You Liked The Hunger Games then you might like…:” lists, and it sounded kind of interesting, if only because most of the young-adult fiction I’ve read over the years has been somewhat female-centric (I don’t know why, it just has been), and this one is centered around a society of boys. Then, I heard some internet whisperings that this was going to be another YA series being adapted for film, with actors such as the strangely endearing Dylan O’Brien, the stunning Kaya Scodelario, and that cutie-patootie Thomas Brodie-Sangster in the lead roles, and my interest was peaked all the more, hence, my delving into this novel. And was my intrigue warranted? Yes, it certainly was. While the novel has...