Maps and Mirrors

In honor of the today's Rapture That Didn't I thought I'd use the excuse to recommend one of my favorite books that not enough people have heard of, Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost.

Fitcher's Brides takes place in New York state in 1843 and concerns a preacher who has prophesied that the end of the world is very soon in coming and three sisters whose father and stepmother have fallen under the Reverend Elias Fitcher's spell. Not only are these parents willing to sell everything they own and join the rest of the believers in Fitcher's created community of followers preparing for the End Times, but also to offer up the oldest daughter for marriage to the reverend. Eventually they end up offering her two sisters as well, for this is a Bluebeard story.

I feel completely inadequate to the task of describing this book and why it's so good. The sense of time and place is captured nicely and is fairly interesting. Alongside that is an atmosphere of quiet menace, a subtle but growing unease that continues past a showy climax to the last sentence. Frost has used history and two fairy tales as foundation stones to build a rich and full novel.

When I quit smoking a few years ago my reading dropped dramatically due to habit association issues. It got a bit of a bump when my TV died but it's still nothing what it was before. Still, I thought it might be nice to post what I've been reading, so this is a new thing for me this year. Even though it will show you what a COMPLETE DORK I am.

Palace of the Plague Lord by C.L. Werner
Short summary: a northern barbarian seeking revenge for his tribe that was wiped out is chosen by a god for a quest with the promise of a reward that is almost too good to be true. A Warhammer tie-in novel. Short review: meh.
( the rambling bits )

Baltimore: or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Short summary: an encounter on a battlefield in WWI instigates a vampiric plague and the soldier who was there gathers three friends who have had their own encounters with evil to help him fight. Short review: Well done, boys!
( the rambling bits )

Batman: Arkham Reborn by David Hine and Jeremy Haun [graphic novel]
Short summary: Arkham has been destroyed and a descendant of Amadeus Arkham rebuilds it from plans Amadeus left behind. Short review: it brings the crazy and is for the most part a solid Arkham tale.
( the rambling bits )

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Keith [graphic novel]
Short summary: a day-in-the-life of the asylum, much of it through the eyes of a nurse working a shift that's waaaay too long. Short review: Enjoyable interpretations of our cast of crazies, especially the Joker; allows a nice creepy atmosphere to build but the payoff is a bit lacking.
( the rambling bits )

B.P.R.D Volume 4: The Dead & B.P.R.D. Volume 5: The Black Flame by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi and Guy Davis [graphic novels]
Short summary: it's Mignola - awesome Liz is awesome, we find that Roger is better off not wearing pants and though everyone in a Mignola book has a haunted house for a psyche this time around it's Abe who does the guided tour. Short review: I feel Arcudi and Davis were good choices to work with Mignola. I loved Liz here; I'm still on the fence about Daimo. I wish these collections weren't so small, but I'm glad I could check them out from the library. And that's as rambly as I'm going to get with these.

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Michael Moorcock (b. 1939)

15 High-Brow, 13 Violent, -1 Experimental and 29 Cynical!

( Read more... )

Those qualities sound like me all right. Though I've probably read more commentary by Moorcock than fiction, I've been thinking recently that I need to address the gap in my Fantasy Literature 101 education by reading at least one Elric novel (and at least one Lankhmar novel and the Kalevala).

Between the critical attention Frank Miller was getting for The Dark Knight Returns and the success of Tim Burton's movie, the publishing world became very Batfriendly in the late eighties/early nineties. One of the results of this was a series of prose anthologies, The Further Adventures of Batman with sequels that had stories focusing on Catwoman and the Penguin (eventually Superman and Wonder Woman got the same treatment). There were some impressive authors in the roster, but the stories ranged from just OK (Isaac Asimov's story appears to be missing part of its denouement and the Lansdale story is a God of the Razor tale which I've never been able to get into. I think it's the shoes; I always end up thinking, "How could he possibly walk in those...?" and then my suspension of disbelief is just gone.) to a few that could have learned a thing or two from fanfic.

However, there was another anthology, The Further Adventures of the Joker, and that subject appears to have really gotten the creative juices flowing. Not every story was a standout, but the duds were rare compared to the ones that succeeded. The anthology included some of the creepiest portrayals of the Joker I've ever seen, and some surprisingly piercing looks at Bats himself. I still enjoy going back to those stories almost twenty years later.

What is it about the Joker?