Book 33: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

I'm cheating again and still haven't finished Pasternak in Russian.  However, in order to try to keep up with the project I'm reading another book over the weekend.  This time it's a graphic novel, actually a collection of graphic novels consisting of the first two volumes of the comic with 6 issues in each volume.  Since so many films, etc. are based on comics and graphic novels these days I thought I would try to work in a few to round out my reading.  There are no page numbers in this book, but it looks to be about 250-270 pages and I should be able to finish within 2-3 days.

REVIEW:  I really wanted the movie version of this to be good but it really just wasn’t.  I figured that, maybe, the source material would be better and there I wasn’t disappointed.  This omnibus version of the material contains the first two volumes along with a couple of prose stories in between them.  Each volume contains six of the original issues. 

The story revolves around a group of literary “superheroes” for lack of a better word.  The League consists of 5 characters, Mina Harker from Dracula, Allan Quatermain from King Solomon’s Mines, Dr. Jeckyll and his alter-ego, Hawley Griffin a.k.a. the Invisible Man and Captain Nemo (do I really need to tell you what where he’s from?).  The five “superheroes” band together to help the government of England defeat some of the biggest challenges facing it.

It’s an interesting concept, and the main characters are not the only ones from fictional sources to be included.  There are characters galore from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft and many, many others both famous and obscure.  In fact, it was sort of a side-game for me to try to identify even minor characters and their sources. 

I did have a couple of problems with the book.  The ending of the second volume is a little unsatisfying, but that’s not really a big deal.  My main problem is with the two main protagonists, Mina Murray (Harker) and Allan Quatermain.  It seemed to me that neither one of them really did much of anything.  Quatermain was aghast at just about everything that happens and behaves rather cowardly most of the time.  Mina tries to keep the group focused and is, supposedly the brains of the operation, but she doesn’t really do anything either.  Quatermain is supposed to be a great hunter but doesn’t shoot anything and Mina is, supposedly, a vampire but never even defends herself when attacked.  All the real action is left to the other three members of the League.

Overall, the story moves at a good pace, the art is good and the plot is interesting.  It was definitely much better than the film.  Of the two prose sections, the first is a prologue about Allan Quatermain and was relatively interesting, but the second is a sort of travelogue of the world showing how full of random literary places and people it is.  Somehow that failed to be interesting and came across as kind of dry. 

7 out of 10.

Book 32: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I'm cheating on my little project here as the Russian book is giving me a harder time than expected.  I should have finished by now but am only about 160 pages in.  I'm going on a weekend vacation and don't really feel like working through Pasternak, so I'm taking a little break and reading a murder mystery.  It's pretty short at 256 pages and I'll probably try to finish it by the end of the long weekend so about 85 pages per day. 

REVIEW:  This is the second Agatha Christie mystery that I’ve read and I was impressed with this one as well.  I have this little game that I like to play with mystery novels where I write down a list of suspects and, every quarter of the book or so, I try to guess who is the guilty party.  I find that my choice generally changes as more evidence is uncovered.  I generally take it as a sign of a good mystery if the crime is solvable at the end of the book without additional “clues” being introduced at the last minute.  Christie is really good at laying out all of the information but still surprising you at the end.  Twice now, I’ve played my little game and didn’t even come close to guessing the guilty party.

This book wasn’t quite as good as the previous one I read as I felt the ending was a little bit unfair but that may just be sour grapes because she got me again.  I do really like the character of Hercule Poirot and I’m wondering if I would like her other main character, Miss Marple, as much.  Maybe I’ll explore that next.

Overall, it was a great little mystery and another interesting read.  I suppose there’s a reason that Agatha Christie has sold over 2 billion books.  It wasn’t quite as good as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, however as the ending felt a little contrived and the mystery was laid out a bit too clinically. 

7 out of 10.

Book 31: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

This one is going to be a challenge.  I decided last time around that, if I speak the language in which the book is written, I should read the book in that language.  I did this with The Three Musketeers in French, but Russian is a more difficult language, so I've been shying away from it.

I'm determined this time, though, and I'm going to try to read the Russian version of the book.  One plus side of this is that, in trying to procure a Russian version, I found that my library has an original, 1st edition copy of the book.  It's not in great condition, but there's something cool about knowing that, when Pasternak first published Doctor Zhivago, this is one of the copies that rolled off the presses.

566 pages in this one which would be about 81 pages per day, but I'll be lucky to get half of that number... I'm going to need to make up time once I finish this one.

Review:  Wow!  This one took me a lot longer than anticipated.  Instead of one week it took a total of three weeks to plod my way through it.  At first, I started with the book and a dictionary and was looking up 3-5 words per page, it was taking a long time.  Near the end, I was able to go many pages without having to resort to the dictionary but my reading speed was still pretty low.  Pasternak's writing, it turns out, is quite poetic and therefore very dense.  I am glad that I made the effort, however.  I feel that the practice really improved my Russian reading skills and it was good to read the book in it's original language.

Being unfamiliar with the material, either the book or the films, I was under a wrong impression of this book.  I thought that it was going to be a very romanticized love story between Dr. Zhivago and his love, Lara, set against the Russian Revolution of 1917.  In this way, I thought that it would be much closer in tone and content as something like Anna Karenina.  It turns out, however, that this is not the case.  The story follows Dr. Yuri Zhivago from his youth through his adulthood and his trials during the revolution.  He grows up, marries, is conscripted, released, reunites with his family, is shanghai'd again, escapes, etc. During this time, he is also in love with Lara Guishar, who moves in and out of his life multiple times.  At first, their relationship evolves as events push them around and eventually they depend on each other for support more than any fierce passion.  In this way, the book reminds me more of War and Peace or Gone with the Wind than Anna Karenina.  It's a love story, but one in which the main characters are almost lost amongst the huge, dramatic events unfolding around them.

I liked the book quite a bit, even though it was hard work getting through it.  The writing was beautiful, especially in Russian, and the characters were very likable.  The story was engaging and never really slowed down and you are engaged with Yuri's fate every step of the way.  I would highly recommend anyone to read this book.  Doing it in Russian was merely a challenge for myself and certainly not necessary.

8 out of 10

Book 30: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I'm back to Harry Potter.  I can tell that this series is good because I'm always excited to get back to it and, here it is, the penultimate book.  The last book fully evolved the theme into it's more adult, darker tone and I'm sure this one will continue in that way.  People tell me that it's a really good book, and I haven't seen the movie for this one yet either, so the entire plot should be a surprise for me.

It's a little bit shorter than the last installment at 652 pages.  To complete it in one week would be 94 pages per day, but I tend to read these obsessively so I may finish ahead of time.

REVIEW: Another great installment of the Harry Potter series.  The thing I liked best about this book was the pace.  Because the plot is now revealed and Lord Voldemort is now acting openly, Rowling is free to advance things much more quickly.  Harry has grown out of his petulant phase and it much more trusting of his friends, Dumbledore is now acting in a much more direct and less mysterious manner and even Harry’s classwork seems to be much more focused and useful.

I like the pace that I’m going through these books as well.  I’m reading them about 10 weeks apart as I cycle through other genres and it builds up the suspense nicely.  I’m glad that I didn’t read them when they were first released or it would be a year or two between books. 

The whole reason that I started reading these books is that I felt that there was too much missing from the movie versions.  I wondered what became of Harry’s first love interest, Cho, and how his romance wth Ginny started.  I also wanted to know more about characters like Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom.  I have been completely satisfied with the books in that regard.  I have even come to like the house elves. 

The book is so full of surprises that I can’t really say much more without spoiling things, but I’m really impressed with the growth of Rowling’s writing and the overall plot of the books.  Harry Potter has definitely justified all the hype that surrounded the series and then some.  I’m looking forward to the final chapter in the story.

9 out of 10.