Lucas Blogs About Books

 Hey! That's right, it's my winter break. I know it's not the new year yet, but I'll be happy to put this year behind me. And I know that the first few months of 2021 aren't going to be easy, but I'm letting myself hope that maybe by this time next year things will be at least a little bit better.

I like how the guy on the back cover is just casually flexing his ram chair. Like, "Why yes, the armrests are giant ram's horns, nbd!" So, what's this book's deal? Would you believe we're already up to volume six of Witch Hat Atelier ? You mean Kamome Shirahama 's ongoing manga series? The very same. Yes, I would believe it, given that you have blogged about all the previous volumes. Cool. Then let's just jump right in! Of course, anything from volumes 1-5 is fair game for TEH SPOILARZ!  So, when we left off at the end of volume five, Euini had been saved, but Master Quifrey's confrontation with the Brimmed Cap Witches (the witches who violate the ban on performing magic on humans) has left him in dire need of medical assistance. Also, some Knights Moralis (Witch Cops) summon everyone from the atelier to the Great Hall (the seat of the witches' governemnt). While Quifrey recovers, Beldaruit, one of the witch elders, presents Agott and Richeh wi...

I don't have a joke about this one. So, what's this book's deal? Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes  is a graphic novel (I will never not feel pretentious typing those words) about the events leading up to the Chinese government crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations that had taken place in Tiananmen Square in the Spring of 1989. Sounds a little heavy, are you sure you want to do this one in the Hypothetical Reader format? Well, we've already started haven't we? It's never too late to turn back. Nah, it'll be fine. Anyway, Tiananmen 1989  was co-written by Lun Zhang a sociology professor who helped the student protesters organize and French journalist Adrien Gombeaud with art by Améziane. Zhang's dedication makes it clear that it is not a strictly autobiographical account, and that it presents a condensed version of the events portrayed. Formally, it's structured as a lecture, with the fictionalized Zhang addressing the reader from a stage an...

Minimizing the screen reflection on the glossy cover was Ruff.   So, what's this book's deal? You're serious? It was recently adapted as an HBO series. Lucas, you don't even have basic cable, let alone HBO. Right you are, Hypothetical Reader. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff is a novel, kind of, that uses the tropes of pulp literature to explore issues relating to racism (both on an individual and systemic level) in America and in the kinds of literature that inspired it. How can something be "kind of" a novel. Well, it's really more a collection of inter-connected short stories that coalesce into a larger narrative. But I'm splitting hairs. It's a novel, it's just got a more specific form. But let's talk about that later. It's 1954, and Atticus Turner, a Black Korean War veteran is on his way to Chicago to visit his father, Montrose. However, when he arrives he finds out that Montrose isn't there and has left behind a note for Atticu...

By now you shouldn't be surprised that it's the same old photo.   The Intro Welcome back to  What That Month   — Lucas Blogs About The Canterbury Tales . Last month I closed out the fourth fragment with a discussion of The Merchant's Tale. While I wasn't crazy about it, it did at least complement  The Clerk's Tale  which preceded it. This month I hope to read the entirety of the fifth fragment, which comprises The Squire's Tale and The Franklin's Tale. This raises an important question, namely: The "Wait a Minute, What Exactly is a Franklin?" Way back in the fourteenth century, when Chaucer was writing The Canterbury Tales , a franklin was one of the social classes. Specifically a franklin was a free man, that is to say, not a serf. To be more specific, by Chaucer's time, a franklin was a landowner who wasn't a member of the gentry or the nobility. The Squire's Prologue Okay, so maybe the fourth and fifth fragment aren't as separat...

Hey, no regular post this week. You know, because I gave myself the week off for Thanksgiving. I hope whatever your plans are that you and your loved ones will be safe this year. I know that it hasn't been a great year, but I do find myself with a few things to be grateful for. In any case, instead of talking about that, let's talk about a big corporation (allegedly) screwing over a writer! That's right, last week Alan Dean Foster (ghostwriter of the novelization of the first Star Wars film, and the author of the first Star Wars Expanded Universe novel, The Splinter of the Mind's Eye ) and the grievance committee of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) released a public statement accusing Disney of not paying Foster the royalties he is owed for books now published by Disney. Specifically the two Star Wars books I mentioned before (which Disney acquired publishing rights to when they purchased Lucasfilm) and the novelizations of the first three Alie...

  For real? You just had used the inOpportune cOntent rePlacement proceSs last month for your birthday! I know, I've just been really busy at work lately so I wasn't able to get anything ready to post this week. I don't even have a subject for this particular OOPS! But look at this way, it's like you get two weeks off in a row, Hypothetical Reader. That's not how that works. ‾\_(ツ)_/‾. Whatever. I'm really tired. Posting will resume next Monday. But that's Thanksgiving week, please tell me that you have more planned for that than just a one paragraph Thanksgiving message. No comment. You're the worst, Lucas.

Abandon all hope, ye who read . . .   Don't read this blog post. Go read this book. Okay, I'm being a little disingenuous, I would like you to continue reading this blog post, I wanna talk about Evan Dahm's The Harrowing of Hell . That said, I kinda think that it's best experienced on its own terms. Also, I'mma SPOIL  the hell out of it (to the extent that any story based on millennia-old texts can be spoiled). So, if you don't want your first reading tainted by my opinions (I find that once, again, I am being disingenuous. Let's face it, it's hard to go into a story about Jesus free of preconceptions.), then just close the tab and go out and read the book first. Otherwise, let's talk about it. As the title suggests, The Harrowing of Hell  recounts the events between Jesus's death and resurrection, when he is said to have descended into Hell in order to save every righteous person who had predeceased him. This story is told in the apocryphal Gosp...

Shiny! So, that's this book's deal? Well, Hypothetical Reader, The Empire of Gold  is the conclusion to S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy that began in The City of Brass and continued with The Kingdom of Copper . Oh, yeah, it's that series about genies! Djinn. They prefer to be called djinn. Most of them, some of them prefer to be called daevas. Hence Daevabad. And that's where the SPOILER free portion of this post ends. If you haven't read the first two books, go back and read those. Anyway, here's a quick recap of the story so far: Nahri is a conwoman in Egypt during the Napoleonic Wars who longs to become a doctor. One day she accidentally summons an ifrit but is saved by a dashing daeva named Dara who reveals that she's a shafit (that is to say, someone of mixed human and djinn heritage). He takes her to the city of Daevabad which was once ruled by her ancestors, the Nahid clan. That is, until they got a little too genocide-y and were overthrown b...

Recycled photo FTW! The Intro Welcome back to  Whan That Month  — Lucas Blogs About  The Canterbury Tales .  Last month  I tackled the first half of the fourth fragment and talked about how "The Clark's Tale" didn't really do it for me. This month we're closing out that fragment and talking about "The Merchant's Tale." Will my opinion be any different? Let's find out. But first let's talk about: The Merchant's Prologue Turns out that the Merchant knows a thing or two about unhappiness in marriage because he spends pretty much all of his prologue complaining about his wife. Turns out that unlike the patient Grisildis, she's a nagging shrew who would even overwhelm the devil if they were married. Even though they've only been married for two months, he swears by Saint Thomas (yes, that Saint Thomas) that no other man could know more of unhappiness in marriage than he. Harry Bailly interrupts him to encourage him to begin— The Merch...

A 2000s sci-fi period piece you say? Tell me more.   So, what's this book's dea—Wait a minute, it's by Lindsay Ellis, the YouTuber? Yes, that Lindsay Ellis. She wrote a book? She wrote a book. I like her video essays. As do I. In fact, that's how I found out that she wrote a book. Wanna talk about the book? Yeah. Okay. So it's 2007, and Nils Ortega has just leaked a government memo detailing the fact that the US government has been hiding a group of aliens for decades, and that scientists have made no progress in attempting to communicate with them. Enter Nils's estranged daughter Cora Sabino who's just trying to get by at a temp job after dropping out of UCI, when she finds herself under surveillance by the FBI following both the release of the Fremda document and the Ampersand Incident. Ampersand Incident? It's the codename for a recent meteorite strike in Southern California. In light of the recent leaks and the fact that the government is being parti...

I took the dust jacket off while reading this one in the break room at work. What in the world possessed me to read a book about Josef Mengele, the Nazi scientist known as "the Angel of Death" for his horrific experiments on children at Auschwitz? Well, I was initially drawn to it because the author, David G. Marwell, is a historian who worked with the Justice Department to help track down Mengele (or rather, his remains) in the 1980s, and I felt a morbid curiosity about how exactly Mengele managed to evade capture for nearly forty-four years. Also, I remember I was annoyed with the role he played in Amazon's The Man in the High Castle adaptation, where he's depicted as one of the scientists testing out a machine to travel between worlds. I mean, seriously, Mengele had doctorates in medicine and anthropology. He didn't have the background in theoretical physics that would be necessary to build a portal. That said, he definitely would be interested in performing ex...

Hold the phone! Is this going to be an annual thing ? Why not, Hypothetical Reader? People love annual events commemorating someone's birth: Christmas, Lincoln's Birthday, Martin Luther King Day. But those are all people who are widely admired. Fair enough. Wanna talk about Art Brut? Do you mean art brut like Outsider Art ? No, I mean, Art Brut, the indie rock group fronted by Eddie Argos . I'm going to regret this, but could you describe their sound? Sure. Art Brut has a kind of mid-2000s British dance punk-ish sound with spoke-sung semi-ironic lyrics. Honestly, that sounds even worse than Neutral Milk Hotel. Oh, yeah, they're definitely not as good as Neutral Milk Hotel. But the lyrics have a sort of mordant charm. If you say so. I do say so. Anyway, you know how over the course of 10+ years a lot bands will mature and grow their sound and outlook. Yeah. Art Brut steadfastly refuses to do that. The songs off of their most recent album sound like they could have come o...

Yup! Five-ish months in and I'm still sticking with the same picture. No regrets. The Intro Welcome back to  Whan That Month  — Lucas Blogs About The Canterbury Tales . Two months ago , I tackled the third fragment, comprising tales told by the Wife of Bath (named, Alisoun, natch!), the Friar, and the Summoner. A good time was had by all. This month I start in on the fourth fragment, starting with "The Clerk's Tale" and I gotta say this one looks like it'll be a bit more like "The Man of Law's Tale" from a few months ago. A lengthy morality play with an out of date moral. But you never know, I could be wrong. The Hold-up, A Clerk Like the Guy who Checks You out at the Store? No, a clerk (pronounced "clark") is more like a medieval college student. But since medieval universities were affiliated with the Catholic Church, presumably the clerk is preparing for a career in the clergy. That said, if we judge by The Canterbury Tales , college st...