Category Archives: Books

Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Baltimore: or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

In the darkest days of World War I, Lord Henry Baltimore, then a Captain in the English Army, watches his men fall in battle. Himself injured, he barely fights off a nocturnal predator, and in doing so, unleashes the unholy … Continue reading

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Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, and Grant Morrison’s John Constantine: Hellblazer: Rare Cuts

Twenty-three years ago John Constantine sprang from the fertile imagination of Alan Moore to become a part of The Saga of Swamp Thing. Two years later, in 1987, Jamie Delano was approached by Vertigo editor, Karen Berger about giving Constantine … Continue reading

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Eddie Campbell’s The Black Diamond Detective Agency

I suppose we’re all suckers for some things. I tend to love nineteenth-century American life depicted with a gritty realism. I have a soft spot for beautifully executed graphic novels, whether the style is loose and painterly or tight and … Continue reading

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Jim Butcher and Ardian Syaf’s Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle marks Jim Butcher‘s first foray into a genre near and dear to his heart: comics. This volume collects four individual issues comprising a standalone storyline in the world of Harry Dresden, prefaced by an introduction from … Continue reading

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Martha Wells’ System Collapse

This installment of The Murderbot Diaries series picks up pretty much where Network Effect left off. SecUnit (aka Murderbot) and its frenemy, the transport ship mind Perihelion (which Murderbot calls ART for Asshole Research Transport) and a handful of humans … Continue reading

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Anonymous’s Beowulf, translated and with commentary by Howard Chickering, Jr.

I first encountered the Beowulf saga while performing with my band at a local midwinter festival where a storyteller was doing the entire saga starting late in the evening around a roaring fire. This dual translation is good enough to … Continue reading

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Anonymous’ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J.R.R. Tolkien, translator; audio, read by Terry Jones

Matthew Winslow wrote this for Folk Tales. Aside from writing the highly influential and most important fantasy work of the twentieth century, J.R.R. Tolkien was also a scholar and philologist. While his actual scholarly work was not too prodigious, much … Continue reading

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Robert Foster and the Brothers Hildebrandt’s Tolkien’s World From A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-earth; and J.E.A. Tyler and Kevin Reilly’s The Tolkien Companion

Tolkien’s mythos is complex enough that having a guide or two to it is something that any reader should consider. There are, I doubt not, given the overwhelming popularity of Tolkien right now, dozens of concordances to the legends, history, … Continue reading

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Christopher Tolkien’s The History of Middle-earth Index

Matthew Scott Winslow wrote this review. With the publication of the final volume of the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth, Tolkien fans and scholars found themselves with a truly wonderful resource. Comprised of much of the unpublished writings and notes of … Continue reading

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book

Asher Black wrote this review. With the resurgence of interest in J. R. R. Tolkien’s work spurred by the Christmas 2001 release of the film version of The Lord of the Rings, and because, as the recent film review by … Continue reading

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