Robin Marx's Writing Repository

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 15, 2013.

Japanese Colour Prints

By Jack Ronald Hillier – Phaidon Press – August 12, 1998

Review by Robin Marx

This book was a bit of a disappointment. The opening essay offered a decent overview of the history of ukiyo-e, but those readers without a background in art history (and ideally some knowledge of Japanese art) are likely to find it confusing and unhelpful.

While most of the most notable artists are present and accounted for, the example prints selected were lacking in several instances. Harunobu, Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige were all incredibly influential artists, yet the prints chosen for them are far from their best work.

The commentary accompanying the prints is also spotty. Rather than providing some much-needed cultural context for Kabuki scenes, allusions, etc., featured in the print, Hillier tends to go off on extraneous tangents about that artists' pupils.

I also felt Hillier's decision to exclude late period prints (after the introduction of foreign aniline dyes) was pure snobbery. He argues that “...few of the later prints rise above either ineffectual prettiness, or violently colored melodrama,” but Yoshitoshi was one of the giants of the art form, and dismissing his work is unforgivable.

In the end, this book offers a decent, unspectacular survey of the ukiyo-e art form, with commentary that goes into a little too much detail in arcane areas. Who is the audience for this book? Pairing introductory artwork with beginner-unfriendly text seems like a strange editorial decision. The artwork is nice, but I'd recommend those interested in ukiyo-e either look elsewhere, or supplement their reading with additional books.

★★☆☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Nonfiction #Art #ArtHistory #History #Japan #JapaneseColorPrints #JackRonaldHillier

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 18, 2019.

The Man Who Shook the Earth (Doc Savage #12)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1934

Review by Robin Marx

This installment in the Doc Savage series has a lot in common with previous volumes Quest of the Spider and The Czar of Fear. All of these stories deal with a disguised criminal mastermind trying to muscle out the competition and take over a specific industry. The previous two books involved lumber and mining, while this one involves nitrate production.

I groaned a bit when I saw the direction this story was taking, but the end result was more interesting than those previous two stories. Rather than taking place in the US, this story involved both New York and Chile, and—even when lightly sketched and reliant on broad stereotypes—Doc Savage's globe-trotting adventures tend to be the most fun.

The villain was also more intriguing this time, as his interest in nitrate production was about more than just personal enrichment. The reader is kept guessing as to the villain's true identity up until the very end, as well, instead of being obvious from their first appearance.

Despite the somewhat formulaic approach, this ended up one of the more interesting installments in the series.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Adventure #PulpFiction #TheManWhoShookTheEarth #DocSavage #KennethRobeson #LesterDent

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 5, 2021.

Blood of Elves

By Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok (Translator) – Hachette Book Group – May 1, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

The first of the Witcher novels, it was released after two volumes of short stories and is set after the most recently published book, Season of Storms (although there is some debate on when is the best time to read Season of Storms). So this is actually the fourth Witcher book I've read.

Although Geralt's fateful encounter with Ciri—an orphaned princess and a Source of powerful magic—is covered in a previous short story, this novel covers her early education. She spends roughly the first half of the book with Geralt, being instructed in the ways of the witcher, and the latter half with Yennefer, receiving magic tutelage. Along the way she learns some more about the world and its delicate political state, with the northern kingdoms trying to fend off the inexorable advance of the expansionist empire of Nilfgaard.

This book is tricky to rate. Like a lot of modern fantasy novels (in which a trilogy is assumed, at the bare minimum), this first book is all about preparing the board and setting up the game pieces. As a self-contained story, it fails miserably. There's not much of a plot, just prelude.

That being said, it was still a thoroughly engaging read, provided that the reader is familiar with the original short stories. The translation is smooth and draws zero attention to itself. The setting is immersive and the characters are great. It is such a pleasure spending time with Geralt, Triss, Ciri, Dandelion, and Yennefer. The interaction between these characters is always amusing, and it's masterful how much of their personalities are revealed through seemingly throwaway lines of dialogue and slight gestures.

Geralt himself is a particularly fun and surprising character. If you hear him described, he sounds like a one-dimensional edgy Mary Sue (and also kind of an Elric ripoff, with all the “White Wolf” stuff). But he's not really like that at all. Despite the two swords and the badass mutant monster hunter trappings, he's kind of a blue collar hero. He tackles monster problems like a plumber unclogging drains. His clients are happy to have him around, but they don't particularly respect him or his vocation. He keeps up a tough, world-weary front, but much like the old hardboiled detectives he reveals a softer, more noble side through his actions.

This book doesn't work very well as a novel, but it was an entertaining read that made me excited about the rest of the series.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #AndrzejSapkowski #DanusiaStok #BloodOfElves #TheWitcher

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 22, 2011.

The Ghost Pirates

By William Hope Hodgson – Stanley Paul – 1909

Review by Robin Marx

As with The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', William Hope Hodgson makes excellent use of his experience as a sailor, serving up an atmospheric ghost story. Apart from the nautical theme, however, The Ghost Pirates is a very different book from The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', and in some ways an inferior one.

The highlights of this book are without a doubt the dialogue and the atmosphere. The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' lacked any spoken dialogue, so its inclusion here is a nice change. The jargon-sprinkled sea salt conversations are at times hard to follow, but they feel authentic and flavorful. Some reviewers bemoan the lack of a glossary of nautical terms—Hodgson doesn't go to any effort to explain capstans and binnacles to the reader—but I didn't feel as if missing out on a word here or there impacted my enjoyment of the overall story.

While the plot itself is quite sleight (a characteristic shared by all of the Hodgson novels I've read to date), its execution is well done. Hodgson was a master of atmosphere, setting up a number of strange occurrences that gradually build into a tense, unnerving scenario.

I enjoyed The Ghost Pirates, but I think I would've liked it better had I read it before The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', rather than immediately afterward. 'Glen Carrig' is filled with such bizarre fever dream imagery that the spirits of the dead, however spooky, seem rather conventional by comparison. That being said, The Ghost Pirates is an interesting traditional ghost story, and well told.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #TheGhostPirates #WilliamHopeHodgson

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 25, 2016.

Quest of the Spider (Doc Savage #3)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1933

Review by Robin Marx

Despite being marked as #68, Quest of the Spider was originally printed as the third Doc Savage adventure.

I found this story to be a mixed bag. The swampy setting is interesting (albeit not as much as a dinosaur-filled Lost World) and there's plenty of action, but the core premise—the search for a shadowy crime lord who has been disrupting Louisiana's lumber industry—isn't as exciting as the ones presented in the first two stories.

Much of the second half of the story takes place deep in the swamp, where Doc Savage and his companions battle against the titular Grey Spider's henchmen, an isolated Creole voodoo tribe called the Cult of the Moccasin. This portion of the story has a lot of excitement, but readers are also subjected to a lot of dodgy pulp representation of the Cajun dialect and the voodoo cult characters are stereotyped as ignorant savages (mixed race but exhibiting only the worst characteristics of their origins and none of the positive ones, to paraphrase a line from the book) who revel in the idea of sacrificing a white child. That being said, late in the story two of the named swamp folk are given a bit more development; one realizes the error of his evil ways and another's defects are revealed to be the result of a brain injury and cured by Savage.

One interesting aspect of this story is how Doc Savage captures most of his opponents alive, drugs them, and has them shipped to a secret facility Savage has established in upstate New York, where he “corrects” criminal behavior through neurosurgery. This probably seemed both high-tech and humane at the time these stories were written (they're fixed now!), but perhaps seems a little ominous to the modern reader in our more cynical era.

Another interesting part of the story is how little “screen time” Doc Savage himself receives. He's missing and presumed dead for much of the last third of the book, and it's his assistants that feature most heavily. Also starring are a two-fisted lumber baron and his amazingly gorgeous daughter with an amazingly dowdy name: Edna. Both play an active role in helping Doc Savage help them. Once again we see Doc Savage ignore a beautiful woman's attention. This is presented as evidence of his gravely serious nature and lack of time for frivolity, but I like a bit of “spice” (to use the pulp term) and it seems like a missed opportunity for drama to me.

Like the last book, there's a bit of mystery surrounding the identity of the Grey Spider. It's not as blatantly telegraphed as in the second Doc Savage book, but neither is the reader given much of a reason to suspect the true enemy, nor is he given much of a motive than pure greed. The result is that when the Grey Spider is revealed, my reaction was less a gasp than a shrug. OK.

All-in-all this was a brisk, energetic read, but it didn't grab me as much as the stories that precede it.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Adventure #PulpFiction #QuestOfTheSpider #DocSavage #KennethRobeson #LesterDent

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 21, 2012.

The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game

By Garth Ennis (Writer), Darick Robertson (Artist) – Dynamite Entertainment – April 21, 2008

Review by Robin Marx

This comic exists in a similar sort of realm as Alan Moore's Watchmen. Superheroes exist, and they are flawed human beings. Sometimes extremely so. When young Scotsman Hughie's girlfriend is carelessly and callously killed by a Flash-like superhero, he gradually becomes involved with a CIA-sponsored anti-superhero group known only as “The Boys.” Who watches the Watchmen? The Boys.

This being a Garth Ennis comic, there's quite a bit of gore and depravity. DC also dropped this series fairly on in its run for its relentlessly negative take on superheroes, but you'd think they'd know what they were getting into. Some bits are over the top, but I have no problem rolling with it. I see the Ennis name on the cover and adjust my expectations accordingly, but there are always some people who get upset by gratuitous sex and violence, so if that's not your thing, this comic book will also not be your thing.

The artwork is excellent. The only distracting thing is that Hughie's appearance is based on actor Simon Pegg. This decision was made before he became the international star he is today, and is acknowledged in the book's introduction, but it's still a little strange.

This first volume is a little slow moving, as Ennis takes his time introducing the characters and their motivations. The series is headed in a very interesting direction, however, and I'm eager to see what happens next.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #ComicReview #Superheroes #TheBoys #GarthEnnis

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 7, 2012.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

By Michael Chabon – Random House – September 19, 2000

Review by Robin Marx

Unfamiliar with Michael Chabon and his work, I began this book with some amount of trepidation. As a geek, I've often found it a negative experience when mainstream literature intersects with genre fiction. You've got Margaret Atwood's prissy denials that she writes science fiction, and J.K. Rowling's irrational resistance to having her work labeled as fantasy. (While I haven't seen much commentary from Cormac McCarthy about the genre of The Road, his fans sure seem quick to disavow any relationship with Skiffy.) Sure, they'll happily play with SF and Fantasy's toys (i.e., themes and tropes), but when they get called out on the playground they deny any association with those two weird outcast kids. So I wasn't sure what to expect when presented with a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two comic book creators. The back of the book also made it sound like a fictionalized retelling of “two Jewish kids made good” Jerry Spiegel and Joe Shuster's creation of Superman, and that's not a story that's particularly fresh and new to most comics fans.

Fortunately, my skepticism was assuaged early on. Chabon proves right off the bat that not only does he understand comics, he (gasp!) enjoys them. In fact, this book is an ardent love song dedicated to the golden age of comics. While he doesn't hesitate to point out the “sucker born every minute” cynicism and lowest common denominator pandering that went into the creation of many comics (as he should; a lot of comics are dumb), he also never fails to show the lasting value of comics and costumed superheroes, why they resonate so much with fans. He also earns bonus points by specifically calling out the parallels between the experiences of his protagonists Josef Kavalier and Sammy Clay and Superman's Spiegel and Shuster, rather than leaving it an unacknowledged source of inspiration.

While it's always nice to see a facet of geek culture get a fair shake in this mainstream media, this book is much more than just a refreshingly pro-comic story. It ends up being rather epic in scope, covering not only the trials and tribulations experienced by a pair of young men and the evolution of their friendship, but also the first few decades of the comic book industry and America's entry into World War II. There's even a bit of enigmatic magical realism added to the mix, involving the Golem from Jewish folklore. That's a lot to cover in one book, and it can't be denied that this is a long, meandering read. Length and pacing are the only issues I had with this book, but this complaint ends up reminding me of Emperor Joseph II's “too many notes” gripe to Mozart. Everything turns out to be a thread in the greater tapestry, and in retrospect I find it difficult to locate passages that could safely be trimmed.

While the plot and ambition of this book are certainly praiseworthy, it's the characterization that is most remarkable. Clay and Kavalier (and to a slightly lesser extent, Kavalier's surrealist paramour Rosa Saks) are incredibly well-rendered. They feel like real people. We've all had the experience of watching close friends make regrettable decisions while at the same time fully understanding their motives for doing so, and this is something that happens several times over the course of the story.

Foreshadowing is also used to great effect, although it's almost always under sad circumstances. Two characters will have a blissful exchange, luring the reader into a sense that things are finally starting to go well for their fictional friends, and it'll be immediately followed with “This was the last time they saw/heard from each other again.” This caught me off-guard time and again. Well played, Chabon.

There are more agonies than ecstasies over the course of Kavalier and Clay's amazing adventures, but things never become too overly morbid, and in the end it comes to a perfect, immensely satisfying conclusion. (Albeit one tinged with melancholy.)

Just before finishing the book, I did some reading up on Chabon and his approach to writing. He's written that so much of modern literature boils down to “the contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story,” and that, first and foremost, his aim is to tell an entertaining story. I think it's a pretty damning sign of how influential (corrupting?) postmodernism has become that this can even be considered a controversial goal. He's gotten some flak from critics about his attraction to genre themes that basically can be summed up as “you're too good for that stuff!”, but so far it looks as if he's staying the course, and that he sees no incompatibility between nuanced literature and plot-driven stories with fantastical elements.

If that's the case, I can see no incompatibility between his particular brand of high-brow lit and myself. I've added all of Chabon's other books to my To Buy list. I think I'll read a shorter, less dense book next, however...

★★★★★

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Literature #TheAmazingAdventuresOfKavalierAndClay #MichaelChabon

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 31, 2011.

The Son of Tarzan

By Edgar Rice Burroughs – A. C. McClurg – 1915

Review by Robin Marx

While The Son of Tarzan gets off to a promising start, the second half was disappointing compared to the previous books in the series. The title character, Jack/Korak, suffers from not being as interesting as his father. The books lacks a compelling antagonist as well, replacing the strong villain Rokoff with a small and continually rotating rogues gallery that appear small time by comparison.

There's a fair amount of jungle adventure to be had in this installment. Jack's adjustment to life in the wilderness and his life with the ape Akut are the highlights of the novel. However, the plot takes a sharp turn halfway in, with almost the entire remainder of the book focusing on the least interesting character in the story. Perhaps a more fitting title would have been The Son of Tarzan's Girlfriend.

Despite the above complaints, the climax and denouement go a long way in redeeming the overall story. While nowhere near as strong as The Beasts of Tarzan, this book is still worth a read.

★★☆☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #PulpFiction #Adventure #Tarzan #TheSonOfTarzan #EdgarRiceBurroughs

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 17, 2018.

The Czar of Fear (Doc Savage #9)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1933

Review by Robin Marx

While this book had some high points, overall it was a pretty tepid entry in the series so far.

The plot felt like it borrowed a great deal from previous installment Quest of the Spider, but with the sinister criminal mastermind attempting to move in on a mining town rather than the lumber industry. I tend to prefer Doc Savage's more globe-trotting expeditions, however, so this small town America-bound story was less engaging for me. Apart from the titular Czar of Fear, the Green Bell, the other antagonists seemed pretty one-dimensional and ineffectual.

On the plus side, the villain makes some interesting use of technology and is also fairly clever in his struggle against Doc Savage. Having Doc on the run from false murder allegations also adds an extra twist to the tale, making this adventure seem like slightly less of a cakewalk than usual for him. And while I missed Ham's absence from most of the narrative, Long Tom has a bit more spotlight time than most episodes and Monk's soft spot for beautiful women is brought up again.

Overall, this book is worth a read for Doc Savage fans, but it's not a particularly distinguished or memorable adventure.

★★☆☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Adventure #PulpFiction #TheCzarOfFear #DocSavage #KennethRobeson #LesterDent

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 26, 2018.

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

By William B. Irvine – Oxford University Press – November 4, 2008

Review by Robin Marx

This book is simple and effective, with clear explanations and methodical organization. Irvine argues that, unlike the ancient Greeks and Romans, modern people tend to lack a philosophy for living, and that people can benefit from incorporating philosophical principles into their daily life. He makes the case for Stoicism in particular as a philosophy with special utility in helping people manage negative emotions and attain a greater sense of tranquility.

Throughout the book he introduces the major figures in Stoic history, their teachings, and advises how to apply them to modern life. Dealing with insults, aging, and grief are all topics covered in the book. While Stoicism today is somewhat obscure and misunderstood, many readers will see familiar parallels in Buddhism (which also understands that desire and attachments are a source of frustration and misery) and the literature about mindfulness.

While I discovered and adopted Stoicism on my own two decades ago (I'm what the author terms a “congenital Stoic”), I appreciated the history lesson and the systematic presentation of the philosophy's tenets and their application. While an interest in history is a plus, I'd recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone seeking more equanimity in their daily life, especially if they're skeptical of religion.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Nonfiction #Philosophy #AGuideToTheGoodLife #Stoicism #WilliamBIrvine