Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

February 25, 2019

Hawkeye, Vol 1: My Life as My Weapon by Matt Fraction

Filed under: Fantasy,Humor — Tags: — Randolph @ 6:11 pm

This was recommended by a friend and I was glad for the suggestion. The book consists of two short stories in the graphic novel. This is a collection of the first issues of Hawkeye comic books.

There are two protagonists in one persona, Hawkeye. The two are Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. The backstory is that Clint was one of the Avengers, with no special ability but an extraordinary talent with the bow. When he was presumed killed, Captain America passed the bow on to Kate, who possessed similar skills. The story works on the relationship between these to versions of Hawkman.

I found the characters and the stories are interesting. The artists, David Aja and Javier Pulido do a good job. I like the composition, both the scenes and the page layout. They make good use of color to delimit segments of different sequences within the story. Although I felt the pacing was too fast, a common issue with graphic novels in general.

The story is both exciting and funny. They way the two characters interact can draw you in and make you believe and like both characters. It is well worth a good read.

February 19, 2019

Aventures d’Alice au Pays des Merveilles by Lewis Carroll

Filed under: Fantasy — Tags: — Randolph @ 1:47 pm

I plan to read Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy and thought it might be interesting to reread the book, this time in French.

My first observation was that the translator did a good job and most of the book was translated well – at least to the limits of my memory. Then I did notice some shortcomings, for instance the wordplay in the mouse poem relating the mouse’s tail to the tale being told just didn’t work in French. However, the translator did include good footnotes. Here, he explained differences in the French and English version. He also added some historical notes that I found added value to the story. This included some notes about the symbology that I had been completely unaware of.

Some of the jokes and puns were, if my memory serves, and perhaps were replaced with new or similar ones taking advantage of the language differences.

Overall, it is a quick read, delightful and imaginative and well worth some time spent.

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