Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Bryan Lee O'Malley)

You may or may not know this already, but July 20, 2010, will see the release of one of the most highly-anticipated comic books of all time: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Now, I know what some of you are saying. Who is this Scott Pilgrim character? Why do I care? Well, you care because the Scott Pilgrim series is one of the GREATEST LITERARY CREATIONS OF ALL TIME AND SCOTT HIMSELF IS AWESOME!

Oh yeah, and did I mention that the entire series is going to be a movie directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and starring Michael Cera (Superbad, Arrested Development)??? Because it is! August 13! Yes!

::SPOILER ALERT::

Over the course of the next five weeks, I'm going to post reviews of each of the first five volumes of Scott Pilgrim, culminating in a review of the final volume on July 23. Well, review doesn't seem to be the right word. These are going to be more like recaps. Unlike normal Genoshan reviews, these WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, so read at your own risk! If you just want the straight up ratings, without any spoilers, feel free to scroll down to the bottom of each recap, where the usual numerical ratings will remain spoiler-free. Now that all the business stuff is taken care of, let's get this show on the road!

Synopsis

Toronto. 2004. Scott Pilgrim—23; awesome—has just started dating Knives Chau—17; Chinese—and his friends are giving him shit about it. In order to stop the beration (berating? berativeness?), Scott brings Knives to meet his friends and fellow band members at one of their rehearsals. The band's name: Sex Bob-omb, one of roughly three trillion video game references in the series. The band meets Knives; Scott's gay roommate Wallace Wells meets Knives; Scott's little sister Stacey finds out about Knives; EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL FOR SCOTT OH YEAH! But then Scott starts seeing this mysterious hipster chick with funky hair in his dreams. Then he sees her in real life, at the library! After meeting her at a party, he finds out that she works for Amazon.ca, so he places an order, hoping that she'll bring him his package. She does! Her name is Ramona Flowers, and through an awkward dialogue with a smitten Scott the world discovers that she's been entering his dreams through a subspace highway—basically a shortcut on her delivery route that runs directly through his brain. Weird!

Scott somehow manages to convince Ramona to go on a date with him (even though he's technically dating Knives! Uh oh!), and then invites her to come see his band perform at a local bar. After their date, Scott receives a strange email, and subsequent letter, from someone named Matthew Patel, claiming that they should schedule a time to fight. Pssh, junk mail. Scott and the other Sex Bob-omb band members, Stephen Stills and Kim Pine, show up to their gig and meet up with: Stacey Pilgrim; a boy that Stacey brings; Wallace Wells, who hits on Stacey's boy; Young Neil, Sex Bob-omb's biggest fan; Knives Chau; Knives' friend, also 17; some other people; AND RAMONA FLOWERS OH NO BUT ISN'T KNIVES THERE YES SHE IS. Scott hides backstage while the first band, Clash and the Boys, plays their set. Unfortunately, the final song in Clash and the Boy's set knocks most of the audience unconscious, except for Scott's friends, who were all either in the balcony, or in the bathroom. As Sex Bob-omb takes the stage to play to a mostly comatose audience, Matthew Patel bursts through the ceiling and attacks Scott! Unfortunately for Matthew Patel, Scott Pilgrim is the best fighter in the province (we're in Canada, remember). Scott fights Matthew Patel! Matthew Patel summons flying demon hipster chicks! Scott summons his friends! The flying demon hipster chicks shoot fire balls at Scott! Deflected! Scott K-O's Matthew Patel, turning him into coins.

What was that all about? Oh, sorry Scott, that was the first of Ramona Flowers' SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS! All of whom have to be defeated if Scott wants to date Ramona. Bummer. Scott and Ramona start dating, and the book ends with several cliffhangers, mainly: what's Scott gonna tell Knives? who are Ramona's other evil exes, and will Scott be able to defeat them all?? why does Ramona get a weird blinking halo around her head whenever Scott asks her about her past??? WILL SCOTT GET MORE THAN $2.10 NEXT TIME HE DEFEATS AN EVIL EX-BOYFRIEND BECAUSE THAT'S HOW MUCH HE GOT FOR BEATING MATTHEW PATEL AND THAT DOESN'T EVEN COVER BUS FARE?!?!?

So there's that. Why is this book so good? Where do I even start? How about I don't, and just jump right to the ratings?

Rating

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
by Brian Lee O'Malley

Story—9.4
It's soooooo original. Bryan Lee O'Malley creates a unique, quasi-realistic, video game-esque world where normal, mundane things happen all the time, but boss battles and subspace highways get thrown in for good measure. This first volume loses just a few tenths of a point for having a completely unexpected ending. I didn't have a problem with it, and actually think that it shouldn't have been unexpected at all, but alas, it's the number one complaint people have about the volume.

Style—10
I have never seen anything like this ever in my life and it is glorious. This is the kind of book that people will be stealing ideas from forever. A+++++

General—9.33
Maybe you don't read comic books. So what? This is exactly the kind of comic book that I would give to someone who doesn't read comic books. It's funny, accessible, easy to follow, but also has a decent amount of conflict and genuine emotion. Scott Pilgrim is a real person with real problems and real reactions. He just happens to live in a world where people can build up a 64-hit combo.

Overall—9.58



Now before you get too worried that the 2010 Daily Genoshan Top Ten List is going to be 60% Scott Pilgrim, let me tell you how the rating system is actually going to work. Similar to previous comic book series that have been reviewed, the final rating will encompass each of the individual volumes. This volume's rating of 9.58 will be averaged in with the ratings of the other five books to produce the Ultimate Scott Pilgrim Rating that will be revealed alongside the final review. Until next time, keep reading, Genoshans!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)

Other writing responsibilities and World Cup soccer have been cutting in on Genoshan time lately, so unfortunately this has to be short. Luckily, though, reviews are easy to make short when the book is good, like this one.

Synopsis

Christopher Boone is an English boy living with what has to be some kind of autism. He remembers absolutely everything, but has trouble handling even the simplest social and emotional issues. One day Christopher comes across a dead dog in his neighbor's yard, and decides that the death is a mystery that he must solve. Christopher's father objects to the investigation, but it continues nonetheless, sending the boy off on a path that leads him to startling realizations about his own life.

Okay. This book is actually really well written. It reminds me a lot of 2009's #1-rated Daily Genoshan book, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Both books follow a special young boy who goes off on a quest to answer a question that's been nagging him. Both are written from a diary-like first person perspective. Both boys come from broken households. I couldn't help thinking of Jonathan Safran Foer's book while I was reading this one, though it should be noted that this book actually came out first. Regardless, the likeness is a good thing. Mark Haddon does an excellent job getting into Christopher's mind. Everything makes perfect sense the way Christopher explains it, even ridiculous actions like detesting the color yellow or punching a cop in the face. Christopher writes everything down, even things that make him look bad, because that's what he thinks he is supposed to do. It's great, though. I could never imagine having to live that like, but Haddon brings me about as close as I think I could ever be.

There's a ton of really good conflict, and the book takes some very unexpected turns. Christopher winds up learning much more about himself than about the dead dog. Not all of it is good, though. His reactions, while slightly exaggerated to us, make perfect sense to him, and create a depth of drama you don't often find. I also really enjoyed the fact that there are plenty of puzzles, maps, and diagrams included in the book. Christopher is primarily a logic-based entity, and does his best to explain things in as rational a way as possible. Sometimes this means illustrating examples. Haddon is able to bring everything together in such a way that it all makes complete sense. It's an excellent book, I highly recommend it to pretty much everyone.

Rating

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

Story—8.5
I was genuinely intrigued by Christopher's compulsion to continue on with his investigation even after his father made him swear he would stop. He has to find justifiable ways to keep going so that he can't be labeled a liar, which is extremely important to him.

Style—9
This book came out two years ahead of what I personally labelled one of the best books ever written, but shares many of the same stylistic quirks. Haddon doesn't take things to the extreme that Foer did, but the creativity is astounding.

General—8.5
I can see why this is such a popular book, and my only regret is that I never read it sooner. It's easy to find, often filling up "Buy 2, Get the 3rd Free!" tables at Barnes & Noble.

Overall—8.67



Pick this book up. It's bound to be a classic. Keep reading, Genoshans!

City of Thieves (David Benioff)

Wow. So good.

Synopsis

From the guy who brought you The 25th Hour and the screenplays for The Kite Runner and—more importantly— X-Men Origins: Wolverine, comes a book about two guys trying to find a carton of eggs. Huh? Wait, this book is about a couple of guys just running around trying to find some eggs? There's got to be more to it than that...

Okay, so there's a little bit more to it than that. Lev Beniov is a teenaged boy living in Leningrad well into the Nazis' horrific siege of the city during World War II. Starving and lacking any hope of relief in the near future, he resorts to robbing a dead German paratrooper that lands outside Lev's building. Unfortunately, the dead Nazi doesn't have any food on him, and Lev is arrested for breaking curfew essentially without reward. Expecting to be executed alongside his handsome and outgoing cellmate, Kolya, Lev is surprised when he and his new friend are instead taken to a mansion on the other side of the city. They are met by a powerful Soviet colonel who sends them on a deadly mission: secure a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Lev and Kolya's ration cards are confiscated as an incentive to comply, and the two are left with little choice but to search the city for a carton of eggs that they know they won't find.

Let me just get something out of the way here: this book is incredible. It's not some profound, paradigm-shattering epic that speaks to very essence of man. It's not a poetic masterpiece, sure to be cherished for generations to come because of its beautiful handling of the English language. Screw that noise. It's a 260-page novel with a plot that covers probably 240 of those pages. But damn, is it a good plot. Benioff writes conflict so well. No, really, so, so, so well. Everything that can go wrong for this poor kid Lev doesn't just go wrong, it goes horribly, hellaciously wrong. Early on in their journey, Lev and Kolya are confronted by a man who says he has eggs if they've got cash. They go with the man, but stay on guard. When he invites them up to his apartment, they're clearly a little skeptical, assuming they're about to get robbed. Nope, cannibals. Dude starts swinging a cleaver around, his wife coming at the pair with a knife, people's flayed corpses just chilling from meat hooks in the ceiling. Terrifying stuff. It doesn't get much better for the kid after that, either. They realize that the most likely place to find eggs these days is outside the city—the city that's surrounded by Nazis—on farms—controlled by Nazis—where farmers might still have chickens laying eggs—for Nazi omelettes or whatever Germans eat for breakfast. Oh yeah, and Lev's Jewish. We all know how much the Nazis love them some Jews.

Seriously, folks, this book is top notch. It's got love, war, cannibals, chickens, Nazis, hookers, death marches, paratroopers, candy made out of glue, Scandinavian rebels, sexy snipers, and a little bit of chess and poetry for all you cultured readers out there. Great conflict, great drama, beautiful characterization, and just overall fantastic storytelling. READ THIS BOOK!

Rating

City of Thieves
by David Benioff

Story—9
Benioff keeps it simple: strong plot, strong characters, strong motivation. It's surprising how far good old rising action will take you.

Style—8.03
This kind of thing has been done before, sure. You don't read this book because you're looking for something completely new. You read this book because you're looking for something to reassure yourself that strong, quality writing still exists and that a book can succeed on the strength of its story.

General—9.67
This book is extremely quick to read, extremely fun to read, and deceptively easy to get hooked into once you've started. Don't be surprised if you pick it up early one afternoon and find yourself turning the last page at 3 am, clueless as to where your day went.

Overall—8.9

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Seth Grahame-Smith)

Hot damn, have I got a book for you!

Synopsis

Seth Grahame-Smith, co-author of the wildly successful Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has moved on to more sophisticated fare. He now fancies himself a biographer, and for his first post-Austen work he's decided to tackle Abraham Lincoln. Normally, that would be boring. Countless biographies have already been written on the 16th president, and I'm not sure how they keep finding new information. Grahame-Smith, however, tells the reader EXACTLY how he got his new information: from a vampire friend of the president himself.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter details the secret life of Honest Abe as he wages a silent war on the vampires responsible for the propogation of slavery in the South. Huh? Yup. Through journal entries and historical photographs, AL:VH works vampires into the man's entire life, from his humble log cabin beginnings to his run for the presidency. It's ridiculous. The book reads like a legit biography, but with some vampires thrown in to spice things up a bit.

And oh, is it spicy! Abe was known for his size and backwoods upbringing, and Grahame-Smith uses this to his advantage as he descrives the man's training and conquests on the road to becoming America's foremost vampire hunter. It's difficult to describe how incredible this book is, because the concept is right there on the front cover, but I was genuinely surprised at how well this thing reads. This is a scholarly work of biographical fiction. I can't imagine how much research must have been involved in the writing process. Similarly to P&P&Z, the additions are flawless, seamless, sensational. I admit, I thought that that Seth Grahame-Smith wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of this book, since so much of his earlier effort was the original Austen text, but he really shows himself to be a fantastic writer with this one. Historical figures like William Seward, Stephen Douglas, and Jefferson Davis make appearances which add a depth of flavor to the experience that proves to be invaluable. Great, great book. I absolutely, 100% recommend it to any- and everyone.

Rating

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
by Seth Grahame-Smith

Story—8.5
This is an incredible piece of fiction, and just like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies before it, I hope this spurns more of the same type of work.

Style—8.9
I wish I could be more specific about the reasons why this book is fantastic, but I'm on vacation, and it's been difficult to find the time to post reviews. Just know that Grahame-Smith executes his premise superbly.

General—9.25
This book is easy to read and amazingly suspenseful. Each time Abe went out to slay a vampire, I knew he'd survive, because he still hadn't become president yet. Somehow I was still worried he might not make it out alive. Excellent writing.

Overall—8.88



READ THIS BOOK!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Steve Hockensmith)

Almost a full year ago now, I reviewed a little book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a literary mash-up wherein author Seth Grahame-Smith injected zombies into the Jane Austen classic. I rated it a 9.22, which was the highest rating yet given at the time (it's still #4 on the all-time list). Then, a few months later, a sequel was released—though using a different Austen classic and a different co-author—titled Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Ben H. Winters had the honors of slicing in aquatic abominations this time around, and S&S&SM earned an 8.89, putting it at #8 on the all-time list.

I picked up the most recent installment, Steve Hockensmith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a few weeks ago, and am excited to have finally found the time to slip it into the rotation.

Synopsis

Dawn of the Dreadfuls is very much what the publisher, Quirk Books, calls a "Quirk Classic." It takes characters from a novel in the public domain and mashes in anachronistic fantasy elements. This "Quirk Classic" differs from its predecessors in one major respect, however. DotD is not taken directly from an existing literary work. Sure, the Bennet family is already well-known via their introduction to the world in the original Pride and Prejudice, but the plot and supporting characters in DotD are all original. The book, a prequel to the Seth Grahame-Smith P&P&Z, follows the Bennets as they witness the outbreak of the zombie plague in the small English village of Meryton. Mr. Bennet, the stoic patriarch of the family, sees the outbreak as an excuse to finally train his five daughters in the "deadly arts," which he himself learned during the very first manifestation of the undead plague several decades before. During the earlier outbreak, what he often refers to as "the Troubles," he studied in the Far East under a Master Liu, and wishes that his daughters would adhere to the same warrior code that rules his own life. Unfortunately, Mrs. Bennet, and most of the neighboring countryside, find it abominable that a woman might think it acceptable to parade about with swords and shuriken slicing the heads off of things. The five Bennet girls are cast out from proper British society and informed that they are no longer welcome to attend the upcoming ball. Well, clearly this is unacceptable, and most of the book tackles the Bennet girls' attempts to train themselves in the ways of zombie self-defense while also maintaining their more genteel and ladylike traits.

Sounds fun, right? And it is. The book is full of zombie ridiculousness, just like it's predecessor. I enjoyed it. There were a few things, though, that I wasn't sure about. The first book has the advantage of being a perfect replica of the original Jane Austen text, except for the addition of the risen dead. Austen was a pretty stellar writer. Her plots and character development, even though dealing with seemingly trivial social matters, are virtually unparalleled. With DotD, Steve Hockensmith had to basically start from scratch. He benefits somewhat from the fact that Seth Grahame-Smith built up a fair amount of backstory in the original P&P&Z, but at times that fact also hurts him. DotD doesn't take place in Japan or China, as I thought it might considering Grahame-Smith's comments regarding the girls' training. It also occurs during a time when the "dreadfuls" are essentially returning after a decades-long absence, not at the true "dawn" of the plague. That's fine, and Hockensmith writes it all very well considering he's completely on his own, it's just not what I was expecting.

I also thought that the plot could have been a little more fully developed. I was disappointed at how much the scenes tended to focus on highly repetitive actions and conversations. It made the writing feel a bit heavy-handed, since most of the revelations towards the end of the book were very obviously set up in advance. Honestly, though, I think most of these problems have to do with the fact that Hockensmith was forced to emulate a style that is not his own, without the benefit of a preexisting text to guide him. Taking that into consideration and looking at the book primarily as a source of ninja-on-zombie action, I have to say that the writer has done an excellent job of keeping this franchise fresh and interesting for Quirk. I would still really like to see something written about the original zombie outbreak from Mr. Bennet's youth, and either his or the girls' time spent studying in Asia, but I can only judge this book on what it is, not what I wish it were. And despite the issues that I had with the book, the truth is I didn't want to put it down. Mr. Bennet plays a much larger role in this book than the original, which I loved. His wife is still annoying as hell, and I really enjoy his sarcastic remarks when dealing with her. It was also good to see the girls' personalities developing towards what they ultimately become in Grahame-Smith's book. It's difficult to write convincing prequels—just ask George Lucas—and even more difficult to write them when you weren't the original author. Steve Hockensmith deserves credit for a job well done, even if the book might not have been as strong as its progenitor.

Rating

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
by Steve Hockensmith

Story—7.13
I can't really give the man credit for someone else's idea, but I can give him credit for his original supporting characters, most of which I found to be hilarious. Also, sometimes it's fun knowing characters are almost definitely going to die (since they only exist in the prequel).

Style—7.27
The score would've been much higher here except originality really kicked its ass. Hockensmith was working in a highly restricted space. While I think he managed extremely well given the circumstances, the story did feel a little boxed in at times.

General—8.47
Regardless of anything else, you will have fun with this book. It's not a masterpiece, it's not something that scholars will still be discussing centuries from now, but in the grand scheme of things, who cares? If you read this book, you will have a good time. I think that should count for a lot.

Overall—7.62



Keep reading, Genoshans!

Graduation!

Hi there folks!

I regret to inform you that there is not going to be a book review today, because today is GRADUATION DAY!!!!! That's right, today I am a master! Well, master of professional writing at least. Commencement takes place on the University of Southern California's downtown campus bright and early at 8:30 am. Hopefully I won't trip over my robes or anything. Wish me luck!

Agaat (Marlene van Neikerk)

A novel. I picked it up at AWP. It just came out.

Synopsis

Milla is a white South African landowner, newly married, eager to prove that she can run a farm without her mother and in spite of her dandy of a husband. In an attempt to bring some semblance of order to her household, Milla brings on a young black girl named Agaat to act as her chief maidservant. Milla's husband, Jak, hates Agaat and the amount of responsibility Milla entrusts to the girl, but once their son, Jakkie, is born, Agaat proves to be invaluable. Agaat follows the story of Milla and Agaat's relationship over the decades as the two women move between periods of open disdain and quiet admiration for each other.

That doesn't sound like much. When I read the back cover, I wasn't expecting to be blown away at all. Much of the story takes place in the 1990s when Milla is suffering from near-complete paralysis. With Jak dead and Jakkie living abroad, Agaat is forced to take care of her. Through flashbacks and diary entries, the reader slowly discovers that the relationship between the two women was not always so smooth, though it may have always been as symbiotic. Each chapter is broken into four parts, each with their own unique structure and narrative style. There's the first-person inner monologue of Milla as she lies in bed, completely paralyzed, thinking about her life while Agaat tends to her; there's the second-person storytelling section where Milla talks to the woman she used to be; there's the heavily stylized diary entries written by Milla in her youth; and finally there is a psuedo-poetic portion of each chapter that doesn't always make sense, but gives the reader a strong sense of that chapter's emotional tone. It's really heavy stuff.

No, I mean it, it's really, really, really heavy stuff. This is one of the densest, most descriptive books I've ever read. It's gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but this book took me absolutely forever to read. This isn't one of those nice, "you might want to free up your weekend" books. This is one of those nice, "you might want to free up your SUMMER" books. I have to say, though, I usually hate those dense, super-descriptive books because nothing happens, it's all flowery detail. That's not the case here. Shit happens, constantly. Marlene van Neikerk makes a woman lying in a bed staring at the wall interesting. That's the kind of thing that you would normally say hyperbolically if you really enjoy someone's writing. "Oh, they could make a woman lying in a bed staring at the wall interesting." Sorta like when people say "he could be funny reading the phone book." No, I'm not being hyperbolic: THE WOMAN IS LYING IN HER BED STARING AT THE WALL AND IT IS SO COMPELLING! Seriously, so, so compelling. In the very first chapter, Milla confesses to the reader that she's trying to signal something to Agaat, that she wants Agaat to find one of her old maps and put it up on the wall for her to see. The only problem is that Milla has lost all physical control of her body, and has to signal to Agaat with her eyes. Instant conflict. You can be damn sure that from then on I was dying to find out if Milla was ever going to be able to convey her message to Agaat. That's fantastic writing right there.

Rating

Agaat
by Marlene van Neikerk

Story—8.57
I'm a plot guy. I want to see my characters looking for someone, striving for something, or racing against time. There's none of that here. It's a woman and her servant. And it's incredible.

Style—9
This chick knows her shit.

General—7.3
I had fun, and I wanted to keep reading, and I wanted to know everything about these people, but the book takes forever to get through. Points off for being a book of 600 pages that felt like a book of 2,000 pages.

Overall—8.29



Keep reading, Genoshans!