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January 2022 Books
Touch by Claire North - This follows a similar theme to The First 15 Lives of Harry August, exploring a character with a superpower (in this case, the ability to jump bodies), from their perspective and the perspective of a society where they (and others like them) exist. There’s a lot of travelogue—I have to guess that Claire North loves to travel—but interspersed with flashbacks and such, it doesn’t seem to slow done the book. While the overall concept didn’t grab my brain as much as much as Harry August did (and it did leave open a lot of questions about ghosts, where they come from and what they’re capable of), I still thought this was really solid.
Steve Lichman by David Rapoza & Daniel Warren - The first two volumes of the webcomic, about a dorky lich and his dungeon-dwelling buddies. While it has some good lines and the art is very good, this has the overall problem of every character being an asshole and them generally being terrible to each other in a “reality TV” sort of way. The characters all feel like 19-year-olds in the early 2000s; sexist and homophobic losers with nothing to their lives who glom onto an abusive, charismatic cult leader who drifts by. The worldbuilding is also a little wonky, as apparently the modern world coexists with a lot of these fantasy elements including taverns full of human adventurers, and the second volume seems to indicate Steve’s dungeon is designed and expanded regularly for adventurers to raid (with some kind of MMORPG/LARP thing going on). I’m vaguely curious where this goes, but I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of the questions won’t be paid off.
Come Tumbling Down by Seanen McGuire - Unlike the past two Wayward Children books I read (a prequel and a sidestory), this one actually continues the “main” plot and features the central cast, picking up after the events of Under a Sugar Sky. It wraps up the story of Jack and Jill and their adventures on the Moors, and ends happily enough, as such things do. Honestly, I think I like the ongoing plots less than the standalones, because the latter are able to be about bigger topics, and these are character-driven adventures that end up generically critiquing “hero from another world” fantasy. Fun, but not standout.
Like a Bat Out of Hell: The Larger Than Life Story of Meat Loaf by Mick Wall - This is about 50% about Meat Loaf and 50% about Jim Steinman, which is absolutely as it should be, and notes how much their lives are careers were intertwined. Takeaways: Steinman was even nuttier than I realized, and I knew he was nuts. Meat Loaf and Steinman had an even more ridiculous on-again/off-again relationship than I realized. I keep forgetting how incestuous the music business is and the fact that 90% of hit songs were written by less than a dozen people. The book could have used another editing pass—a few stories and quotes got re-used in different chapters, and there are a few abrupt tone shifts between chapters that could have been smoothed out. The only noteworthy thing I noticed had been left out was any reference to late-90s VH1 Storytellers, which Steinman was left out of (he was ill), but got turned into an album and Meat liked the experience of so much he bought the set and made it the theme for a year’s worth of tours. This book was released only a couple of years ago, when Bat Out of Hell: The Musical was already in production, so it’s the most up-to-date and thorough look at both men’s careers that you’ll find. And while I wouldn’t be shocked if this gets re-released with a coda chapter about the past three years and their deaths, there isn’t much to add.
Steve Lichman by David Rapoza & Daniel Warren - The first two volumes of the webcomic, about a dorky lich and his dungeon-dwelling buddies. While it has some good lines and the art is very good, this has the overall problem of every character being an asshole and them generally being terrible to each other in a “reality TV” sort of way. The characters all feel like 19-year-olds in the early 2000s; sexist and homophobic losers with nothing to their lives who glom onto an abusive, charismatic cult leader who drifts by. The worldbuilding is also a little wonky, as apparently the modern world coexists with a lot of these fantasy elements including taverns full of human adventurers, and the second volume seems to indicate Steve’s dungeon is designed and expanded regularly for adventurers to raid (with some kind of MMORPG/LARP thing going on). I’m vaguely curious where this goes, but I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of the questions won’t be paid off.
Come Tumbling Down by Seanen McGuire - Unlike the past two Wayward Children books I read (a prequel and a sidestory), this one actually continues the “main” plot and features the central cast, picking up after the events of Under a Sugar Sky. It wraps up the story of Jack and Jill and their adventures on the Moors, and ends happily enough, as such things do. Honestly, I think I like the ongoing plots less than the standalones, because the latter are able to be about bigger topics, and these are character-driven adventures that end up generically critiquing “hero from another world” fantasy. Fun, but not standout.
Like a Bat Out of Hell: The Larger Than Life Story of Meat Loaf by Mick Wall - This is about 50% about Meat Loaf and 50% about Jim Steinman, which is absolutely as it should be, and notes how much their lives are careers were intertwined. Takeaways: Steinman was even nuttier than I realized, and I knew he was nuts. Meat Loaf and Steinman had an even more ridiculous on-again/off-again relationship than I realized. I keep forgetting how incestuous the music business is and the fact that 90% of hit songs were written by less than a dozen people. The book could have used another editing pass—a few stories and quotes got re-used in different chapters, and there are a few abrupt tone shifts between chapters that could have been smoothed out. The only noteworthy thing I noticed had been left out was any reference to late-90s VH1 Storytellers, which Steinman was left out of (he was ill), but got turned into an album and Meat liked the experience of so much he bought the set and made it the theme for a year’s worth of tours. This book was released only a couple of years ago, when Bat Out of Hell: The Musical was already in production, so it’s the most up-to-date and thorough look at both men’s careers that you’ll find. And while I wouldn’t be shocked if this gets re-released with a coda chapter about the past three years and their deaths, there isn’t much to add.