Lucas Blogs About Books

You may have noticed that I daintily withdrew two fingers to make sure that the author's name would be visible. You're welcome. So, what's this book's deal? The idea that a deal could belong to any one book is propertarian excrement! Beg pardon? Just getting into the spirit of this week's book. The Dispossessed , a novel which is apparently labelled as "An Ambiguous Utopia" in previous editions. And speaking of this edition, Harper Perennial published it with a number of embarrassing typos. That's not something you usually harp on. No it is not, Hypothetical Reader. But there's a particularly egregious one I'd like to point out before we go any further. See, the novel follows the main character, Shevek, from infancy to adulthood, and in the section where Shevek is eight years old, his age is initially given as eighty. That's pretty egregious. But you're getting ahead of yourself. Who wrote this book? Oh, it's by Ur...

Oh, like you've never had to write a sutra all over your body to ward off monsters. So, what's this book's deal? Remember when we talked about Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths ?  I do, yes. So, this is another semi-autobiographical manga by Shigeru Mizuki   this one based on his experiences as a child in a pre-WWII Sakaiminato. Does it also overlap with material from Showa: A History of Japan ? It does, but at the same time its focus is different enough that it doesn't feel as repetitive. But both of of these manga were published before Showa , so isn't Showa   the repetitive work? Uh . . . But like, I read Showa fir. . . The deal is that Shigeru "Shige" Muraki (an extremely thinly veiled stand in for the author—whose birth name is Shigeru Mura) learns about yōkai from his elderly neighbor (and sometimes domestic servant) Nonnonba. Nonnonba is the wife of a Shinto priest and just so happens to be an expert on the various spirits, m...

You can kinda judge this one by its cover. So, what's this book's deal? Space Opera  is a Hugo-nominated sci-fi comedy premised around a pan-galactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. Oh, a low-stakes affair? Nope! The very fate of the Earth itself hangs in the balance. See, after the last big interplanetary war, the sentient species of the galaxy instituted the Metagalactic Grand Prix as a way of sorting out the people from the meat. That's sort of an artless way of putting it. Anyway, an alien who looks like a turquoise flamingo with an anemone on it's head appears to every human simultaneously to explain that their only chance to prove their worth as a species is to not come in dead last in the next Grand Prix. Should they come in last, the planet will be destroyed. And you say this is a comedy? Indeed. It is a very silly book. And honestly, that silliness is somewhat infectious. It starts off with a whole chapter that basically posits the boo...

Happy 13th of the month, readers (both hypothetical and otherwise)! You know what that means: it's time for me to revisit another entry in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events! This is the boilerplate intro you were musing about last month ? Whaddya think? A little underwhelming? Fair enough. I'm not changing it. Anyway, if you don't know the drill already: here there be SPOILERS ! Book the Fifth – The Austere Academy So what did you remember about this book before re-reading it? Okay, so this time the Baudelaires are sent off to boarding school. It isn't called "Austere Academy," but I forget what it is called. The principal plays the violin, badly, and is named . . . Nero? We'll see. Count Olaf disguises himself as the gym teacher and I believe that he is wearing a turban to cover his unibrow. If I'm not wrong, and I may be wrong, this book also introduces the two surviving Quagmire triplets, Isadora and Duncan, and i...

What knockers! Ann Leckie is one of my favorite science fiction writers. Back in 2013, I picked up her debut novel, Ancillary Justice , and was unsurprised to see it sweep the major science fiction awards the next year. I mean, how could it not? A sci-fi revenge drama about a starship tracking down an evil galactic emperor for ordering her to kill her favorite officer? And one that vividly describes multiple cultures and the complex ways in which they interact? And that includes compelling side characters who undergo personal growth? I'm gushing, aren't I? Get used to it. Anyway, I devoured the subsequent books in the trilogy, Ancillary Sword and  Ancillary Mercy , and the stand-alone follow up, Provenance , set in a different corner of the galaxy, but still dealing with some of the fallout of the Imperial Radch trilogy. That said, as much as I like the universe Leckie created in those books, I was interested to see what she would do in a fantasy setting. That's where ...

You maniacs! So What's this book's deal? Well, Life is Too Short, Squirrel  is the tenth volume in Ryan North and Derek Charm's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl  monthly superhero comic book. We open with the funeral of Squirrel Girl! That's a dramatic shift in the status quo! Well, it would be if this weren't a superhero comic. Oh, right, so she's alive? Well, a woman with a fish head and in indomitable spirit shows up to the funeral calling herself Bass Lass, and insisting that she be allowed to see video evidence of Squirrel Girl's demise. So, then Count Olaf isn't the only character on this blog who wears transparent disguises? No. Anyway, after the funeral, Squirrel Girl and her best friend Nancy visit her old pal Tony Stark (fun fact, the first Squirrel Girl comic was about her rescuing Iron Man from Doctor Doom), to try and figure out just who (or what) was in the coffin at Squirrel Girl's funeral. Eventually, it's revealed t...