Books I've Read This Week

Redshirts by John Scalzi examines the sci-fi troupe that originated in Star Trek the original series where on away missions Kirk, Spock and Bones always escaped unscathed but whoever the poor ensign that accompanied the big three always ended up dead. For those of you not familiar with ST:TOS ensigns wore the red shirts and that is where this novel gets it's name. In the novel Ensign Andrew Dahl has been assigned to the starship Intrepid. Once on-board Dahl quickly realizes there is a redshirt problem and sets his mind towards discovering the root cause of the problem. This leads to some hilarious and mind bending examination of science fiction writing in general. I greatly enjoyed the first three quarters of this book but once Scalzi got into the second and third coda's I kinda lost interest. It's not that the coda's weren't written well it is just that they moved on from the comedy of the first part of the book into more melancholy. All and all an enjoyable read.

I initially started picking up Batwoman when DC relaunched their entire line. The book is visually stunning so I decided to pick it up in hardcover once it was collected. My copy of Batwoman Vol. 1: Hydrology arrived this week and I immediately devoured it. JH Williams III is an amazing draftsman he continues his standout work from Batwoman: Elegy. The two page panel layouts are amazing and there is no way that it can be properly enjoyed on a tablet, you really need to have a hard copy in your hands. On this collection writing duties are handled by Williams and Haden Blackman who are replacing Greg Rucka who's left DC altogether. I can't say I enjoyed the writing as much in this collection as I did in Elegy but I will definitely pick up the next collection based on art alone. Williams is taking a break from the art but a few issues will be handled by Amy Reeder and Trevor McCarthy after a split between Williams and Reeder on the books direction. Anyway, pick up the book on art alone. Hopefully the quality remains just as high for the next collection. Fingers crossed!