Friday Book Review: Fables - Legends in Exile Vol. 1

Recently I've been on a bit of a Fables kick. I've re-read the first 10 volumes of Bill Willingham's amazing series over the past two weeks.

Fables centers around characters from fairy tales or folklore that have relocated in present day New York City. The reason for this move is that a tramatic battle has taken place between the Fables and the Adversary. This has caused much devastation in the Homelands and the Fables were forced to flee to the real world with as much as they could carry.

The identity of the Adversary is one of the main mysteries in the early books. Luckily there is a resolution to this plot thread in later books.

Fables has a huge cast of characters as it is able to draw from fairy tales all the world over. Many of them you will recognized instantly. Although some may be a bit different than the disneyfied versions you've seen in cartoons.

In the first volume Fables: Legends in Exile you are introduced to a number of key characters but chief among them are Snow White who is the deputy mayor of Fabletown and Bigby Wolf, the big bad wolf, who is also the town Sherrif.

Bigby is investigating the murder of Snow Whites sister, Rose Red, apparently by Jack. This is the Jack of many fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk or Jack and Jill or Jack Be Nimble. Jack is a thouroughly dispicable character who is unlikable yet entertaining all at the same time.

The first volume unfolds into a film noir type murder mystery and I have to give this book a solid buy rating. Subsequent volumes deal with different issues like politics, war and espionage all the while advancing the underlying story.

Special mention has to go to the artist of most of the Fables issues, Mark Buckingham, who does an amazing job with the art chores. No space is wasted and some of the most beautiful work he does are in the gutters. That being the space between the panels.

Also, James Jean's work on the covers are breathtaking. So much so they release a book of just his cover art: Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean Vol. 1.

Again I have to recommend you buy the first volume of this great series and please do try some of the later volumes which are just as enjoyable.

Roof Coffee Cup

From Boing Boing: Guy drives around with coffee cup on top of his car and tweets the reactions he gets.

Friday Book Review: The Lost Symbol

As promised I have finished reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO! Usually, I like to stay positive with my book reviews so I tend to shy away from reviewing books I haven't enjoyed. However, when I picked this book it was for the express intention of cutting loose with my vitriolic sarcasm. Surprisingly, I didn't hate this book.

A number of years ago when The DaVinci Code was all the rage I decided to look into this hot new author. To that end I checked out Angles & Demons, The DaVinci Code, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. Reading all four of these books in a two week period. I do not recommend reading that many books by a single author in such a short span as you really begin to pick up on their formula. This was very much the case as I can distill the plot for all of Dan Brown's novels down into this simple scaffolding:

1. An old man dies who is a grand master of a secret society.
2. The protagonist is called to the scene by the dying grand master and only he can solve the riddle.
3. The love interest of the protagonist is somehow related to the dead grand master.
4. There is a grotesque assassin hunting the protagonist and love interest.
5. Also a misguided member of a law enforcement agency who is chasing the protagonist and love interest.
6. Behind it all is a secret enemy who is pulling all the strings and it is the person YOU'D LEAST EXPECT!

Sadly, after reading more than one of Dan Brown's novels it becomes laughingly easy to pick out the eventual villain. The Lost Symbol is no exception to the above rules as it follows each one of them with a slight twist that I won't mention for those of you who want to read this book.

Anyway, as I said The Lost Symbol follows Mr. Brown's usual formula and apparently the characters act in such a way that they'll believe anything that anyone says to them over the phone. Regardless, of the current situation where prudence should be exercised.

However the strength of the novel lies in the research done on the Freemasons and the city of Washington D.C. Both of which play a huge role in The Lost Symbol. It is there where I find the book to be entertaining but I confess I have not checked any of the facts laid out in this book but I suspect that some artistic license must have been applied. This is not unlike his previous two Robert Langdon novels Angles & Demons (Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City) and The DaVinci Code (Knights Templar and Paris).

Also, it wouldn't be a Dan Brown book without some religious controversy but I can't get into that without revealing major plot points. Grrr!

As much as I wanted to pants this book I'll have to give it a borrow rating. It wasn't as bad as I expected but maybe I just had really low expectations.

However, I feel bad of those who've shown up looking for me to shred Dan Brown. For that you want to read this sarcastic review of the book by Jennifer McKeown. Well played Jennifer, I couldn't agree more.

Pushing VIA Too Much?

Starbucks seems to be pushing VIA too hard for some customers tastes. Personally I haven't had any of the baristas ask me if I wanted to buy VIA. Mind you, we're way too polite up here in Canada.

Coffee Infographic

Funny infographic from The Oatmeal on 15 things worth knowing about coffee.

Free Coffee at McDonald's Starting Today

McDonald's is having another free coffee giveaway. Come in for breakfast from November 16-29 and get a free small coffee with breakfast.

Friday Book Review: Batman Year One

Not long after Crisis On Infinite Earths
DC comics decided they needed to reboot Batman for a new generation. To which they turned to Frank Miller the man who wrote and drew the amazingly successful Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Combined with Batman: Year One the two books set the course of a grim and gritty vigilante that Batman would become for the next 20 years.

As the title indicates the four issues collected into this trade we follow the early career of Batman. We see Bruce Wayne returning to Gotham City after more than ten years of training and we see Lieutenant James Gordon joining the Gotham Police Force. Both men are struggling with their new roles in society. Batman is still a little green and has difficulties with his equipment and tackling street level bad guys. While Lt. Gordon is not exactly fitting in with the rest of the corrupt cops in Gotham City.

In this story Miller muddies up the pristine backgrounds of a number of notable Gotham residents. The one retcon that I really didn't approve of was the changes made to Selina Kyle aka Catwoman's background.

All and all it is a good Batman story but not a great one. It's hard to be groundbreaking when you are re-telling a character's origin story that's been around for over 50 years.

I have to rate this book a borrow as it is a good story and the basis for the 2005 movie Batman: Begins.