I'd never heard of Mary Roach before coming across this book as a recommendation in some science magazine. And now that I've read some of her work, I'I'd never heard of Mary Roach before coming across this book as a recommendation in some science magazine. And now that I've read some of her work, I'm sure I'll be seeking out more.
Roach is one of those people who just seems effortlessly witty. Add to that the fact that the subject matter ("The curious science of humans at war," as noted in the book's subtitle) is naturally intriguing to begin with, and you've got a real winner.
It's a fast, easy read that's as informative as it is entertaining. If all of Mary Roach's other books are like this, then I'm in for a treat....more
In my continued quest to learn more about Mr. Sinister (because, apparently, I'm still trying to justify my childhood decision to dress up as the big In my continued quest to learn more about Mr. Sinister (because, apparently, I'm still trying to justify my childhood decision to dress up as the big blue guy for Halloween), I picked up Inferno, Vol. 2. I'd been disappointed with the amount of Sinister in Volume 1, but figured things were sure to pick up here.
The good news? More Sinister here than in the previous volume.
The bad news? Still not much Sinister.
Although we definitely do get more out of Nathaniel Essex this time around, it still didn't seem like enough to me. I think the biggest problem I had was when he was telling Madelyne Pryor about his diabolical plot: he outlined all the things he did, but never actually explained why.
What do I mean by that? Well, let's look at a made-up example (you know, to avoid spoilers from the actual book). Say you've got a villain boasting about his intricate plan to steal the radioactive material from the government facility. The hero, then, asks what the material is for. To which the villain replies: "Listen, don't worry about it. The important part is all the time I spent plotting this out."
It's possible this would make more sense with prior knowledge of Sinister's perpetual goals as a villain, but from what I've gathered, Inferno was one of his first major storylines--maybe even the very first. I'm sure his motivation for tampering with Cyclops and Jean Grey is delved into more later, but that doesn't change the fact that, in this volume, he was essentially "Evil for the sake of evil."
My other big criticism about the book is that it ended on issues of Power Pack and Cloak & Dagger, in an effort to tidy up some loose ends from the Inferno storyline. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) Neither Cloak nor Dagger had so much as appeared in a single other issue of the collected Inferno stories (though maybe they're somewhere in that Inferno Crossovers book I've heard about), and 2) Power Pack is horrible.
I skimmed the Cloak and Dagger issue and skipped Power Pack entirely. No one wants to read about kids.
All told, I give this collection three stars, which is the same rating I gave the first volume. Unfortunately, having read the books four months apart, I can't really remember which I like better. Ah well--I suppose it's all one storyline anyway, so if you're going to read any of it, you should probably read the whole thing....more
As a kid, I loved Mr. Sinister. Why? Because he looked cool, which was enough to impress me back then. (You could throw a red diamond and a shredded bAs a kid, I loved Mr. Sinister. Why? Because he looked cool, which was enough to impress me back then. (You could throw a red diamond and a shredded blue cape on a mound of wet fungus and I'd be asking my mom to buy me the matching action figure. What can I say? Kids are dumb.*)
Nowadays, things are different. In my old age I find myself more interested in character and story. As such, I've been looking for a good Mr. Sinister book. I'd thought I was going to get this with X-Men: Mutant Massacre, but the big blue baddie was scarce there. Inferno however, would surely be different! Mr. Sinister is right there on the cover, prominently featured among the villains!
. . . And that's the extent of his involvement for this book. Apparently Marvel couldn't hire him to be more than a cover model.
Okay, that's an exaggeration. He does appear briefly within the pages--just enough to leave me wanting more. I gather the rest of his arc (and Madelyn Pryor's, too) will show up in volume two of Inferno. So I've got that to look forward to.
But, childhood fanboy obsession aside, how was the rest of the book? Not bad. I dig demons, so it was fun to see them at work. N'Astirh, despite not being Mr. Sinister, was pretty cool.
My favorite part, however, was Illyana Rasputin, the Darkchilde. I've always been tangentially aware of Illyana (via comic-adjacent mediums, like trading cards or the 90s X-men cartoon), but I've never read any of her stories nor known much about her. As it turns out, when she enters combat mode she grows horns and a tail and oh my god she forged her sword from a dark piece of her own soul.
Remember how I said I dig demons? I suddenly find myself VERY interested in Illyana. Time to hit up the library for her origin story, methinks.
Still, the Inferno event itself was a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the characters I just didn't much care about--most notably Power Pack. Power Pack is a group of child siblings who keep their powers hidden from their parents, probably so they won't get grounded or upset the tooth fairy or something. But there's a problem:
*Kids are dumb.
No one wants to read about kids with super-powers. And yet, this book starts with two issues of Power Pack, then has the gall to END WITH TWO MORE. (Worse yet, these final two issues are only partially related to the main Inferno storyline--they're only there for people who are really interested in Power Pack, which is no one.)
Overall, I give it a three. Not enough Sinister/Pryor, too much Power Pack. Good amount of Illyana, though....more
We've all heard about some basic forms of animal trickery, whether it's camouflaged prey or eyespots on butterfly wings. But there's a lot more deceptWe've all heard about some basic forms of animal trickery, whether it's camouflaged prey or eyespots on butterfly wings. But there's a lot more deception than that to be had in nature, and Martin Stevens does a great job of sharing these strategies with the reader.
There were two main things I liked about this book, the first of which was the various examples of deception--and the details involved in each case. Yeah, I already knew cuckoos laid their eggs in other birds' nests, but I never realized the extent to which they took advantage of their hosts. Did you know that when cuckoo chicks are born, they'll throw the host chicks/eggs out of the nest? Did you know that greater honeyguide chicks are equipped with a spike on their beaks so they can outright murder the resident chicks of the nest they've parisitized?
If you don't believe me on that last one, don't worry--there's a goddamned picture of it in the book.
So, yeah--one of the main lessons I learned from this book is that birds can be huge assholes. (Or cloacas, I suppose.)
The other big takeaway from Stevens's writing was an interesting look into the scientific process. It was cool to see just how much work goes into proving something that may seem obvious to our human perception.
Take the aforementioned eyespots on butterflies, for example. If we know that eyespots sometimes scare off predators, it might be easy to say, "Oh, that makes sense, because they look like eyes, and the predators might be scared of the eyes." But that's not good enough for science! Science wonders if the eyespots' effectiveness is due to their resemblance to actual eyes, or due to the striking contrast of colors--something called a "startle display," which can cause a predator to hesitate during an attack. Stevens spends a good amount of time discussing different experiments that have tried to prove each hypothesis, and it's fascinating to get an inside look at the world of science.
In fact, this aspect of the book actually gives me a greater respect for the general scope of science, in that I now realize the facts we take for granted had to go through some pretty rigorous testing before the scientific community was willing to give its seal of approval. And with so many different things in the world that need to be studied and understood, it's a miracle science has catalogued as much as it has.
As far as the book's downsides go, there were definitely some sections I was less interested in strictly because of the plant or animal subjects involved. Like, I just don't care that much about fungi. But changeling murder-birds whose first act upon hatching is to slaughter their nest-mates? Sign me up! It's like when I was a kid watching the Discovery channel: I was all about sharks and big cats, but had little interest in flamingos and dirt.
In the end, Cheats and Deceits was a pretty cool book. If nothing else, it's given me a few fun facts to share at parties, because who doesn't want to hear about brown-headed cowbirds and their mafia enforcement tactics?...more
I'm writing this review over a month after finishing the book, so it's a little hard to remember exactly how I felt about it.
I'll start by saying thatI'm writing this review over a month after finishing the book, so it's a little hard to remember exactly how I felt about it.
I'll start by saying that this is pretty much the first Batman story I've read. (I did read the two Batman vs. Spawn crossovers as a kid, but the only thing I recall getting from them is a vague notion that capes and rooftop-jumping are cool.) I've never been a big DC guy, but I figured if I was going to give Batman a shot I couldn't go wrong with Alan Moore.
At first, I was pleased by how slim the volume was: if I'm going to try something new, I like to minimize the time investment involved. (You know, just in case I hate it.) But the unfortunate side-effect of this was that I felt like I didn't really get into Batman or the Joker here.
Don't get me wrong, I think The Killing Joke would make a fantastic episode for longtime Batman fans, but that wasn't me. So it felt a little sparse, which is a rare criticism coming from me, as I'm almost always in favor of making stories as short and tight as possible.
But like I said, this complaint is largely due to my personal circumstances. In the end, I can understand why The Killing Joke is considered a Batman classic. The Joker's origin flashbacks were pretty great, and I imagine if I'd had any sort of prior investment in Barbara Gordon I would have been more affected by her storyline.
All in all, not a bad book. I look forward to checking out the new animated film!...more
I probably didn't learn as much as I should have from this book, but that's not Kat Arney's fault: she did a great job of making the world of geneticsI probably didn't learn as much as I should have from this book, but that's not Kat Arney's fault: she did a great job of making the world of genetics accessible and interesting to everyday folk. She's funny and concise, which is really the best you can hope for from this sort of thing.
Unfortunately I'm dumb, and information tends to fall out of my brain at the same rate it's acquired.
Still, I did pick up a few interesting things along the way (which I'll surely forget by the time I'm done writing this review), and I imagine if I even just skimmed some of the chapters again I'd learn a lot more. It's a shame I don't really have the time for that, though, as my to-read list is piling up and the library keeps sending me things I've had on hold for a while. I just can't afford to review how genes work when X-Men: Inferno and the second half of The Great Book of Amber are waiting for me.
But to reiterate: if you want to learn about genes, this is the book for you. I really think it's good for a wide variety of people, be they novices to genetics or experts on the subject....more
I'm still not a fan of how Deadpool treats women (or any of his "friends," regardless of their gender), but in this volume I was at least pleased by tI'm still not a fan of how Deadpool treats women (or any of his "friends," regardless of their gender), but in this volume I was at least pleased by the story. I found myself genuinely curious about what was going on with the Mithras Directive, and continued to read despite my distaste for Deadpool as a character--so I guess that's a good thing.
There are definitely moments in this book where Deadpool shows signs of not being a total asshole, but they're sometimes hard to buy: after so many issues of him being a jerk, it just seems out of character for him to want to do the right thing.
However, in the final issues, I started to buy into his heroic turn. This was probably because either A) the sheer repetition of his insistence on being a hero made the idea start to stick, or B) we'd become so far removed from his most recent asshole antics that I was willing to accept maybe he could be a good guy.
The Deadpool in the last few issues is a character I could enjoy. The sexist dickfor is not. Here's hopin' the next volume continues Wade Wilson's evolution into a hero I can get behind!...more
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