K.J. Bishop, The Etched City (2003)

This book is about two characters, Raule and Gwynn. Previously, they were both part of a failed revolution in (apparently) a Western-ish type region. Now, they're living disparate lives in this city of Ashamoil. She's a doctor working in a slum; he's a mercenary/enforcer/assassin for a slaver's corrupt business empire. And...that's about the shape of it. I know that sounds kind of sketchy, but this is not a plot-heavy novel.

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Duck Comics: "Donald Duck and the Rheinegold"

I spent a fair bit of time preparing this entry on the duck version of Wagner, so you should read it.

's a good one, all right.

Jeff VanderMeer, City of Saints and Madmen (2001-2004)

This book consists of a series of novellas and short stories, some published here for the first time, some not, set in VanderMeer's fictional city of Ambergris, a mutable city in a mutable fantasy world resembling M John Harrison's Viriconium.

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I smile like Herbert Hoover when the big bands play.

I wrote here about the Sparks concert I attended last night.

Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory (1984)

Iain Banks is a well-regarded Scottish novelist I'd never read.  He recently announced on his website that, at the age of fifty-nine, he's been diagnosed with advanced gall bladder cancer and is unlikely to have more than a year to live.  This, it's fair to say, sucks a lot, so I decided to pay my respects by finally reading this, his first and (I suppose) best-known novel, which I had been meaning to for a while.

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Ducks Update

You'd better believe that Duck Comics Revue is getting more love than this place currently is!  Since I've last mentioned that blog here, I wrote about five Romano Scarpa Mickey stories, and just the other day I wrote about the Disney comic with the Worst Title Ever--and not just of Disney comics; of things in general.  Check 'em out!