Lucas Blogs About Books

Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: Macbeth  (1606-ish) by William Shakespeare into Throne of Blood ( 蜘蛛巣城 Kumonosu-jou  (Spider's Web Castle)) (1957) dir. Akira Kurosawa I know what you're thinking, but rest assured there will be no puns in this post. Oh I'm sorry, that should have read "there will be Noh puns in this post." The Original: Something is rotten in the state of Scotland. Specifically because of a rebellion against King Duncan. Don't worry though, he's just received word that the Thane of Cawdor was routed by Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis. Fun fact, "...

Oooh, shiny! So, what's this book's deal? All right, so you like fairy tales, right? I mean, I feel like fairy tales as a genre are too big to fail, I guess. Like whatever I think, they'll keep on going. Well, I guess that's true. Anyway, this book starts with one of the characters explaining how a Rumpelstiltskin-like fairy tale is really about skipping out on your debts. And in a way this novel is an extended fairy tale about paying your debts. That's not all of your synopsis . . . is it? Of course not. Last year, I read Uprooted  by Naomi Novik (who you may note is also the author of this novel), and I quite enjoyed it. It's a sort of fairy tale-like story about a young girl who becomes a wizard's apprentice in a somewhat fictionalized version of medieval Poland called Polnya. Meanwhile, Spinning Silver  takes place in a somewhat fictionalized version of a later medieval Lithuania called Lithvas (at least, I'm pretty sure it...

Ooh, looks like someone rolled the dice after watching season one on Netflix. My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman Background Info: You may be familiar with Syfy's television program The Magicians , if so, you probably won't be surprised to find out that they're based on the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman. Both have their merits and demerits, but I'm not here to talk about the TV show (they're different, but not enough to make a worthwhile Oddaptations ). I'm here to talk specifically about the books. And if there's one thing you need to know about these books before I summarize them, it's that all the charac...

Pictured: a selection of books whose plots I have enjoyed. So, what's this feature's deal? So, you remember that time when we talked about Philip K. Dick instead of a book that I'd just read? Yes, I do. Originally, Lucas Blogs About X was meant to encompass any literary subject, but inertia kinda turned it into my jokey review feature. So I decided to start another new Monday feature: Load-Bearing Elements. So, here's the pitch. Do you need to pitch ideas to me? No. But don't you want to know what we're doing? You mean, for the sake of actual readers? Yeah. Well, it's pretty self-explanatory, I think they can catch up. You're the rhetorical device. Then let's just jump right in and talk about plot. You mean story, right? No, they're two different things. All right, so the difference between "plot" and "story" is . . . ? Well, a story is simply a series of events. Let's look...

Yes, I did go to the library just to checkout a book I no longer own so that I could take this picture.  Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: Casino Royale (1953) by Ian Fleming into Casino Royale (1967) dir. Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, and Richard Talmadge, written by Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, and Michael Sayers The more writers and directors a movie has, the better it is, right? The Original: James Bond, Agent 007 of MI6 has been tasked with the very important mission of playing baccarat in Monte Carlo. "What's baccarat?" you ask. "It...

Ugh, screen glare. I hesitate to ask this, since the last review was literally the previous volume of this comic, but what's this book's deal? You don't need to be salty about it, Hypothetical Reader. But are we really going to have anything to talk about here? Sure, you may have noticed that we didn't really delve all that deeply into Volume 7 , so after I warn everyone that this review discusses SPOILERS  for that volume, we can jump right in and talk about abortion. Wait, what? Yeah, the subject matter of this one gets a little heavy. But I promise by the end we will have discussed the pinnipeds depicted here . OMG! They're so precious! Their names are Ghüs and Friendo. So — for real this time — what's this book's deal? Well, the end of Volume Seven went pretty dark. Sir Robot had a suicidal episode, Marko had to kill the two-headed freelancer that was after their family (once again breaking his vow to never again...

Nice comic books, NEEERRRDDD! My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: Silver Surfer (Volumes 7 and 8) written by Dan Slott, drawn by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred Background Info: The Silver Surfer was created by Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #48. He was the herald of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, who ultimately turned against his master and helped the Fantastic Four drive him away. For his betrayal, Galactus dismissed the Surfer but placed a barrier around the Earth trapping his former servant on Earth. Since then he's been the star of several limited series from Marvel, each one making up a "volume," the most recent is the only one I've actually read, and t...

Well, it may be large enough to easily cover my face, but even with my low standard of blog aesthetics, I can't help but be annoyed by the glare from my monitor in this crappy webcam pic. So, what's this book's deal? All right, so  Saga is an ongoing sci-fi/fantasy family drama/comedy written by Brian K. Vaughn and drawn by Fiona Staples. It's apparently about to go on hiatus for a year, so now's actually a pretty good time to catch up. Here's the premise in a nutshell: The planet Landfall is at war with its moon, Wreath. This war has been going on for so long that a sort of galactic cold war has built up around it as various other planets, asteroids, planetoids, etc. back one side or the other. The Landfallians are humans with wings who use advanced technological weaponry, while the inhabitants of Wreath are humans with horns who wield powerful magic and speak Esperanto. Also there are robots, which are basically grey-skinned humans with CRT monitors for...