Nimi: Haiteksti
Alkuperäinen nimi: The Raw Shark Texts
Kirjoittaja: Steven Hall
Julkaistu: 2007, WSOY
Genre: Jännitys
Sivuluku: 447
Taitaa olla toinen suomenkielinen kirja tässä blogissa. Mitäköhän sitä osaisi sanoa, sain kirjan luettua jo suunnilleen viikko sitten.
Haiteksti oli ehdottomasti taas yksi niitä kirjoja, joita ei voi oikein laskea käsistään. Useampi kuin yksi ilta meni yön puolelle, kun luin kuinka kirjan päähenkilö, Eric Sanderson toinen, heräsi makuuhuoneensa lattialta muistamatta mitään. Pöydältä löytynyt viesti neuvoi menemään tohtori Randlen luo, mutta pian Ericille alkaa tulla lisää viestejä ensimmäiseltä Eric Sandersonilta, ja yksinkertainen muistinmenetysjuttu paljastuu vähitellen kaikeksi muuksi kuin yksinkertaiseksi. Ei ole kuitenkaan ihan jokapäiväistä että olohuoneen lattian läpi ilmestyy muistoja syövä hai.
Kansitekstissä kirjaa verrataan mm. Matrixiin, David Lynchin elokuviin ja Da Vinci -koodiin, ja se oli ilmestymisvuonnaan 2006 Lontoon kirjamessujen kuumin puheenaihe. Ei ihme, sci-fiä ja perinteistä jännäriä yhdistelevä Haiteksti on jotain ihan muuta, ja uutta. Suosittelen, jos ei tähän ole jo törmännyt. Suomennoskin on hyvä ja sujuva, ja Hallin omat kuvitukset tuovat kirjaan pelottavan lisäulottuvuuden.
"Minulla ei ollut harmainta aavistustakaan, kuka tai missä olin."
keskiviikko 29. heinäkuuta 2009
sunnuntai 19. heinäkuuta 2009
The Caterer
Title: The Caterer
Writer: Jeff Lint
Artist: Brandon Sienkel
Published: Sometime in the 70's by Pearl Comics
Genre: ...wtf? No, seriously, wtf?
Pages: 30 pages
A reprint of the third issue of legendary The Caterer, which apparently was responsible for the collapse of Pearl Comics. The mighty Alan Moore described this as "the holy barnacle of failure", and for good reason.
This is... hysterical. But it's so out there that it's best summed up with something like 'what the motherloving fuck?!'. You really have to read it for yourself. It cannot be explained.
"Stroll on! Toxic darts - the stuff of life! By the time they come around I'll be king of this place and its meagre assets! I'm everywhere and in all things and that's fab! Stroll on!"
Writer: Jeff Lint
Artist: Brandon Sienkel
Published: Sometime in the 70's by Pearl Comics
Genre: ...wtf? No, seriously, wtf?
Pages: 30 pages
A reprint of the third issue of legendary The Caterer, which apparently was responsible for the collapse of Pearl Comics. The mighty Alan Moore described this as "the holy barnacle of failure", and for good reason.
This is... hysterical. But it's so out there that it's best summed up with something like 'what the motherloving fuck?!'. You really have to read it for yourself. It cannot be explained.
"Stroll on! Toxic darts - the stuff of life! By the time they come around I'll be king of this place and its meagre assets! I'm everywhere and in all things and that's fab! Stroll on!"
Three shadows
Title: Three shadows
Pictures and words: Cyril Pedrosa
Published: 2007 by First Second
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 272
I get to read a lot of comics at work, and I really should write about them as well, so that I'd remember which ones I really want to buy some day. This is one of those.
There are three shadows standing outside the house of a small family: Louis, Lise, and their small son Joachim. The parents know that the shadows are out there for the child, and they're there to take him away. To prevent this, Louis takes Joachim and flees, hoping that he can keep running from the shadows and keep his son alive.
Pedrosa has worked for Disney before as an animator, and this shows in his style. It is, to put it simply, beautiful. Art in Three shadows is in black and white, and it's not too 'finished', making it seem all the more alive. Reminds me of Jeff Smith's Bone, if Smith didn't work with so much black in and clear lines.
This comic is well worth the money just for the art, but the story shouldn't be forgotten, either. Pedrosa wrote it after the son of some dear friends died very young. Three shadows, then, is about what parents are ready to do to protect their children, and what they can and can't do. It's beautiful, funny and touching, with a touch of magic. Really worth checking out.
Here is an excerpt of the first ten or so pages.
Pictures and words: Cyril Pedrosa
Published: 2007 by First Second
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 272
I get to read a lot of comics at work, and I really should write about them as well, so that I'd remember which ones I really want to buy some day. This is one of those.
There are three shadows standing outside the house of a small family: Louis, Lise, and their small son Joachim. The parents know that the shadows are out there for the child, and they're there to take him away. To prevent this, Louis takes Joachim and flees, hoping that he can keep running from the shadows and keep his son alive.
Pedrosa has worked for Disney before as an animator, and this shows in his style. It is, to put it simply, beautiful. Art in Three shadows is in black and white, and it's not too 'finished', making it seem all the more alive. Reminds me of Jeff Smith's Bone, if Smith didn't work with so much black in and clear lines.
This comic is well worth the money just for the art, but the story shouldn't be forgotten, either. Pedrosa wrote it after the son of some dear friends died very young. Three shadows, then, is about what parents are ready to do to protect their children, and what they can and can't do. It's beautiful, funny and touching, with a touch of magic. Really worth checking out.
Here is an excerpt of the first ten or so pages.
Dead until dark
Title: Dead until dark
Author: Charlaine Harris
Published: This edition in 2008, originally in 2001.
Genre: Romance with teeth.
Pages: 292
First of the Sookie Stackhouse -books by Harris, the first season of the HBO series True Blood was based on this one. Or so I'm told, I only saw the first two episodes. I'd like to see the rest as well, though.
Anyhoo, Sookie is a waitress in a small Louisiana town, and she's got a bit of a problem: she can read people's minds. That makes things like dating kind of difficult, until along comes Bill the vampire. She can't read his mind at all.
The books are set in an alternate of our world, where vampires exist and have just started to dwell among humans, claiming that their vampirism is just a medical condition caused by an infection. Anyhoo, thanks to the quiet that Bill causes in Sookie's head, they end up seeing a lot of each other - after dark. And everything would be nice and cozy if waitresses from the bar Sookie works at wouldn't start popping up dead, with vampire teeth marks on them.
Dead until dark was fun and quick to read, with a lot of action and humour. I'll probably check out the next book as well, once/if I get paid.
"I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.
"Ever since vampires came out of the coffin (as they laughingly put it) two years ago, I'd hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town - why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?"
Author: Charlaine Harris
Published: This edition in 2008, originally in 2001.
Genre: Romance with teeth.
Pages: 292
First of the Sookie Stackhouse -books by Harris, the first season of the HBO series True Blood was based on this one. Or so I'm told, I only saw the first two episodes. I'd like to see the rest as well, though.
Anyhoo, Sookie is a waitress in a small Louisiana town, and she's got a bit of a problem: she can read people's minds. That makes things like dating kind of difficult, until along comes Bill the vampire. She can't read his mind at all.
The books are set in an alternate of our world, where vampires exist and have just started to dwell among humans, claiming that their vampirism is just a medical condition caused by an infection. Anyhoo, thanks to the quiet that Bill causes in Sookie's head, they end up seeing a lot of each other - after dark. And everything would be nice and cozy if waitresses from the bar Sookie works at wouldn't start popping up dead, with vampire teeth marks on them.
Dead until dark was fun and quick to read, with a lot of action and humour. I'll probably check out the next book as well, once/if I get paid.
"I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.
"Ever since vampires came out of the coffin (as they laughingly put it) two years ago, I'd hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town - why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?"
sunnuntai 5. heinäkuuta 2009
Transmetropolitan
Title: Transmetropolitan
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Published: 1997 - 2002
Genre: Futuristic, humour, somewhat horrid.
Pages: 60 x ~23 pages, plus some extra stuff
Transmetropolitan. Yes.
I first started reading Transmet back in 2007, but then stopped as I moved to England. Now, couple of weeks ago, I moved to Espoo, and the comic was handy, so I re-read the first ~30 issues, and the rest for the first time.
Transmetropolitan is about a journalist called Spider Jerusalem, who writes a popular column into a big city newspaper. He hates it there, but he can't write anywhere else. Along for the ride are his filthy assistants, first assistant-become-bodyguard Channon Yarrow, and second assistant Yelena Rossini. They hate him, but since they know he's doing the right thing, they stick by him.
What's the right thing, then? Going against the current president, and when it turns out that the new president is even worse, making his life hell. So, it's about politics and presidents and journalism and what people in power (at least think they) can get away with. And what they're willing to do to keep the power. I'd guess the comic was based on the W administration, if it had not been started a couple of years before him. Art imitates life, or life imitates art?
But it's also about the City, and its people, in a futuristic world in America, which doesn't seem too far fetched, scarily enough. Hence the 'somewhat horrid' -part. There are people who are transitioning to be aliens, people who take weekend breaks as dolphins, reservations for cultures and kingdoms gone. And there's people dying needlessly, children selling their bodies for money, and two-headed cats.
And it's about Spider, his thoughts, attitude, willingness to try and do the right thing, and his drug abuse. It's a scary and extremely funny look into the future, written exquisitevely by Ellis and drawn gorgeously by Robertson. And if I were a man, I'd shave my head, get a spider tattooed on it, and dress like Spider. Just because I could.
"I hate it here. I hate the way it smells (except when you get into a fully residential quarter where people are predominantly first-gen American: the way people express their culture in their cooking is one of the few good reasons for being alive).
"I hate the way it looks (except for the weird beauty that hits you in the eye every other second). I hate the way it thinks (except when it buys this newspaper). I hate the things it does to itself (except when it lets me do to them).
"I hate the way it loves me, and I hate the way it makes me feel.
"I hate it here... but God help me, I can't imagine living anywhere else."
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Published: 1997 - 2002
Genre: Futuristic, humour, somewhat horrid.
Pages: 60 x ~23 pages, plus some extra stuff
Transmetropolitan. Yes.
I first started reading Transmet back in 2007, but then stopped as I moved to England. Now, couple of weeks ago, I moved to Espoo, and the comic was handy, so I re-read the first ~30 issues, and the rest for the first time.
Transmetropolitan is about a journalist called Spider Jerusalem, who writes a popular column into a big city newspaper. He hates it there, but he can't write anywhere else. Along for the ride are his filthy assistants, first assistant-become-bodyguard Channon Yarrow, and second assistant Yelena Rossini. They hate him, but since they know he's doing the right thing, they stick by him.
What's the right thing, then? Going against the current president, and when it turns out that the new president is even worse, making his life hell. So, it's about politics and presidents and journalism and what people in power (at least think they) can get away with. And what they're willing to do to keep the power. I'd guess the comic was based on the W administration, if it had not been started a couple of years before him. Art imitates life, or life imitates art?
But it's also about the City, and its people, in a futuristic world in America, which doesn't seem too far fetched, scarily enough. Hence the 'somewhat horrid' -part. There are people who are transitioning to be aliens, people who take weekend breaks as dolphins, reservations for cultures and kingdoms gone. And there's people dying needlessly, children selling their bodies for money, and two-headed cats.
And it's about Spider, his thoughts, attitude, willingness to try and do the right thing, and his drug abuse. It's a scary and extremely funny look into the future, written exquisitevely by Ellis and drawn gorgeously by Robertson. And if I were a man, I'd shave my head, get a spider tattooed on it, and dress like Spider. Just because I could.
"I hate it here. I hate the way it smells (except when you get into a fully residential quarter where people are predominantly first-gen American: the way people express their culture in their cooking is one of the few good reasons for being alive).
"I hate the way it looks (except for the weird beauty that hits you in the eye every other second). I hate the way it thinks (except when it buys this newspaper). I hate the things it does to itself (except when it lets me do to them).
"I hate the way it loves me, and I hate the way it makes me feel.
"I hate it here... but God help me, I can't imagine living anywhere else."
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