What I'm Reading: The Walking Dead: Safety Behind Bars

The Walking Dead: Safety Behind Bars is the third collection of the Walking Dead, collecting issues #13-18. Of course, now the Walking Dead is a huge phenomenon with the TV show and action figures and lunch boxes (?), but it started off back in 2003 as an independent comic series by unknown author Robert Kirkman.

I started reading with issue #69 in early 2010, although other comics nerds had been telling me for a long time it was a series I had to get into. I resisted because zombies were so trendy at the time and I was pretty much burned out on zombie stories. But when I did give TWD a chance, picking up an issue on a whim, I was hooked right away. The characters are so well-written, so flawed and recognizably people you could actually meet, that it becomes harrowing to see them put into the impossible and scary situations they encounter. At some point, I went back and got a couple of the early collections to see how they ended up where they were later.

At the beginning of this volume, Rick, the leader of a small band of survivors after the zombie apocalypse, has come across a prison. This appears to be perfect, because once the zombies inside are cleared out, there'll be a double row of fences to keep others out, plus the prison must be well-stocked with canned goods and blankets and things. A complicating factor turns out to be that not all the prisoners have turned, and so there are four hardened criminals who have been living there for months, shut away in a part of a cell block that the zombies couldn't make it into. At first they're relieved to make contact with people from the outside world--but after awhile, they decide they don't want to share the premises with Rick and his friends. At one point, one of the criminals, a convicted murderer, tells the others that their visitors are too damaged by the horrible things they've seen to live in a civilized way.

I have one friend who says his girlfriend has been known to scream out loud when reading Walking Dead comics. I've never done that, but I can see how it happens. Kirkman's pacing is perfect, and he's not afraid to kill off major characters at any time. Sometimes the dread at turning the page wrests with a desire to see how an issue turns out, and I find myself wondering if I really dare see what terrible thing happens next. And yet, I can't stop myself and have to find out how it ends up. If you can handle that kind of tension, Walking Dead might be a series you want to follow. Start with Volume 1: Days Gone By. I bet you'll be hooked.

What I'm Reading: The Race Underground

The Race Underground by Doug Most is an account of the race at the end of the 19th century between Boston and New York to build America's first subway. Actually, the title is somewhat of an exaggeration--it wasn't much of a race, as Boston won it by 7 years (1897 vs. 1904). The real rivalry was between two brothers from Massachusetts who ended becoming the "transit kings" of Boston and New York in the 1870s and 80s and both had visions of building an underground railway. The Boston brother was named Henry Whitney and the New York brother was William Whitney. The NY Whitney is a little better-remembered today, as he gave the money to found New York's Whitney Museum and served as secretary of the navy under President Cleveland.

I am something of a city buff and especially enjoy learning about their histories and their mass transit, so this book really hit a sweet spot with me. (See here for the last city book I reviewed, City of Scoundrels, about Chicago in the 1919.) However, I think most other readers might not get the same enjoyment out of it, unless they have a special interest in the topic area. The main flaw of the book is that there are simply too many people, and they are too hard to tell apart. Both cities had numerous subway boosters, engineers, and financiers who played a critical role in getting their cities' first subway lines built, and Most doesn't want to leave anyone out. He is admirably thorough, but by halfway through the book the sheer number of people to keep track of is quite large. It might have benefited by cutting out a couple of the less important figures.

A second flaw is a lack of maps. I felt this lack again and again, as various figures in the book discussed routing options for subways, or where the surface streets were most crowded, or where the soil was conducive for underground tunneling. Now I have a pretty good mental map of New York, much less so for Boston, and more than once during reading this I took to the internet to figure out just where these people were talking about. The simple addition of a historical map for each city would have made reading far easier--something for Most to consider if there is ever a second edition!

Having said that, I must repeat that I personally really liked the book, and for those who like to learn about subways or urban history this book will likely be up your alley as well. In fact, Most points out that there is a paucity of good sources concerning the early days of the Boston subway, so if you are interested in that, this book is pretty much your only option for a popular history on the subject.

What I'm Reading: Roundup

Haunted Horror I haven't written about any comics series I've been reading for a while (I think the last series I mentioned was The Wake, here). Haunted Horror comes out bi-monthly and is one of my favorites. It reprints stories from old fifties comics with titles like Weird Mysteries and Chamber of Chills. These are stories from pre-code comics, meaning before the imposition of the Comics Code in 1954, when far more violence, gore, and sexuality was allowed in comics. There are four to five stories per issue, and usually at least one or two are really good and creepy. Often, though, the stories feel pretty hack-like. Since I imagine the editors are culling the best stories from the old issues, I hate to think what was left on the cutting-room table. That thought brings me to my next entry--

Tales From the Crypt, Vol. 3 This is a hardcover collecting EC's Tales From the Crypt issues 13-18, from 1952-53. EC was the premiere publisher of horror, war, and crime comics during this era. They had the best artists and writers in the industry--legends like Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood, Joe Kubert, and on and on--no hackwork here! The Comics Code in 1954 cut out the heart of what EC was doing, and by 1955 they had cancelled practically their whole line. Editor William B. Gaines decided to keep publishing one comic, however, switching over to magazine format to avoid the dictates of the Code, a little humor magazine you may have heard of called Mad.

There are a number of great stories in this volume of Tales of the Crypt, but one sticks out in my mind as especially bizarre and sick (that's good in this case!). Titled "Lower Berth," it tells about a traveling carnival in the old days, one with an especially good sideshow. The stars of this sideshow are Myrna, a real mummified teen-age girl from ancient Egypt, and Enoch, a two-headed inbred hillbilly from the Ozarks who died at sixteen and is kept in a vat of formaldehyde. At each new stop the carnival makes, the owners of these two attractions are in constant competition for better placement and billing. What they don't realize is that their freaky exhibits can see each other from across the midway and are falling in love with each other! I don't want to give away the ending but it's unexpected but appropriate for the nature of the material.

Reading Goals for 2015

OK, we've done the writing goals in 2015, let's do the reading goals as well.

I've discussed before that in any given year, I have some general reading goals:
1) a baseball book, during baseball season (in 2014, this was a memoir by Reggie Jackson)
2) a Biblical or religious reading, during Lent (NO! I didn't get to this goal in 2014)
3) at least one historical book (in 2014, this was a biography of Goya)
4) at least one work of "real" literature (in 2014 this was Moby Dick and the Epic of Gilgamesh)
5) at least 2-3 YA novels (yes, various)

This year, I already know that for my Lenten reading, I would like to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

For a historical book, I am currently reading The Race Underground, an account of the competition that developed between Boston and New York to build America's first subway at the end of the 19th century.

For my "real" literature book, I'm not sure if this counts, but for many years I've wanted to read T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Again, I'm not sure if this is quite literature, but this might be what I put in the category in 2015.

Not sure of the baseball book, and for the YA novels, I'll pick some up as I spot them, or as my wife recommends one to me.

Writing Goals for 2015

Here are my writing goals for 2015:

1. Work on super-secret project (more details to come in 2015, I hope!)
1a. Polish short story for super-secret project. Already written, but for some reason I just cannot get this thing edited! I really need to work on it.

2. Finish edit of novel manuscript. This is my third novel (current working title: Out of Place), which is in draft form but needs some editing and polishing. I don't think it actually requires that much work--but I do need to sit down with it for a couple months and get it into shape.
2a. Send third novel out to agents.

3. Edit Writers of Chantilly anthology in a more timely fashion than I did with last year's!

EITHER 4a. Edit second novel, and try sending it out to agents again;
OR 4b. Research, begin writing fourth novel. I'm fairly certain what I'm going to write about, just need to get some stuff figured out before I can start.

What I'm Reading: Nine Princes in Amber

Like the Dune series, the Amber series by Roger Zelazny is one I enjoyed greatly when I was younger and have decided to revisit. The first rather slim volume, Nine Princes in Amber, came out in 1970. I first read it in probably the 10th grade and immediately noticed it was different than other fantasy books I'd read. Although it does have kings and magic and such, it eschews the warmed-over Lord of the Rings-inspired cliches so often found in other fantasy books, as well as their flowery language. Indeed, its clipped, dry style is far closer to a detective novel by Hammett or Chandler than to Tolkien or Terry Brooks.

Its main character is Corwin, who wakes up in a hospital room with his memory gone, but realizing that he's being over-narcotized. Why? Probably somebody doesn't want to kill him outright, but doesn't want him waking up. He drags himself out of bed, rips out the IV, pushes aside the nurse and stumbles down to the hospital director's office, where he bluffs his way out with the threat of a lawsuit. But where to go from there? Indeed, after this first chapter we very easily could have ended up in a mystery.

But instead, as Corwin's memory gradually returns, he learns (and so do we) that he is actually one of nine princes of Amber, heirs to the throne of that kingdom which is the only real place in the universe. All other places are mere shadows of Amber, their realness and solidity dictated by their distance from Amber itself. Earth is a fairly important place for it is where several shadows cross, making it somewhat more real than most places and something of a crossroads for travelers through shadows.

Corwin discovers that during his stay in the hospital (and how long was he there, anyway...?), his brother Eric, a cruel and merciless man, has positioned himself to take over the kingdom and is in fact only a few weeks from his coronation. The book relates how Corwin gains his full memory of his true self, and his joining the tangled alliance of brothers who have decided to fight against Eric. But if you think you have already predicted the ending from what I've written, you are quite wrong. I meant it when I said this book eschews the fantasy cliches, and it ends up in quite a different place than expected, seemingly teasing the reader with certain fantasy tropes only to veer off in other directions entirely.

This book held up for me as an adult better than the Dune books. In fact, I'd say Nine Princes of Amber was full of pleasures. I've mentioned the writing style and the unexpected plot twists, but the characters also are superbly drawn: some have a measure of nobility but all have weaknesses and vices, and take time for the simple pleasures of food, beer, cigarettes, even walks in the woods or games of chess. All have mixed motives, complicated relationships with the other characters, and conflicting desires. This is the first of ten books, and I will definitely be reviewing the others over the coming year. I only ever read the first seven or eight of them in high school, but I have recently purchased The Amber Chronicles, which has all ten in one volume.

What I'm Reading: The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the world's oldest known story. Although our most complete version of it is from Assyria around 700 B.C., fragments of the story have been found from as far back as 2,000-ish B.C. Any writing that we have older than that consists only of records of commercial transactions, plus maybe some poems or prayers. If there are older written narratives than Gilgamesh we don't know of them.

It must have been fairly widely known around the Middle East back at that time because fragments have been found in several languages--for instance, its most famous episode, an account of a flood that destroys all life on earth except one righteous family, of course appears in an only-slightly modified form in the Bible, and was found also in the traditions of many other peoples. However, from the time of antiquity until an archeological expedition uncovered it in the early 20th century the rest of the story was lost.

The story follows Gilgamesh, a young and vigorous king of Uruk. Unable to find a match for his physical prowess among civilized peoples, the Gods send the wild man Enkidu to Uruk, where he engages with Gilgamesh in a wrestling match. After battling to a draw, the two become the best of friends, and set out on adventures together. They defeat a monster in the cedar forest of Lebanon, attracting the attention of the love Goddess Ishtar. She proposed to Gilgamesh, who turns her down. In revenge, she casts a sickness on Enkidu, killing him. Heartbroken after the death of his friend, Gilgamesh sets out for the garden of the Gods to find the secret to immortal life. He arrives and encounters several strange characters, including Utnapishtim, the only mortal man ever to be granted immortality, who relates to him the Flood story. Finally, Gilgamesh finds a kind of undersea plant that grants immortal life, only to lose it again. Upon his arriving again at his home city of Uruk he finally realizes the fate of all men is to die, and the best a man can do is achieve glory for himself while upon the earth.

I've wanted to read this book for a long time and I don't know why I never did before; it's pretty short and easy to read. It's basically an adventure story with larger-than-life heroes and epic journeys and magic artifacts. I would think anybody from high school on with an interest in fantasy or fairy tales would find it interesting, and it's also an intriguing document of life in earliest recorded history. Yet despite its distance from us in time, I find the problems and concerns of Gilgamesh are not so different than those of people today: friendship, romance and spurned love, finding your place in the world, and coming to terms with the inevitability of disease, aging, and misfortune.