A Graphic Novel Becomes a Graphic Novel

Octavia Butler's Kindred: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings
New York : Abrams Comicarts, 2017.
vi, 240 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 25 cm.

Almost two years ago, I read Butler's novel Kindred for the first time, and as I noted then, I loved it.   Therefore, about a year ago, I was excited to learn that two comics artists [Damian Duffy who lives in Urbana and John Jennings who used to live here] were in the middle of creating a graphic novel version of Butler's classic.  

If you are unfamiliar with Butler's novel, its hero is a black woman in the 1970s who finds herself suddenly dragged back in time to the antebellum enslaved world of Maryland - where she becomes tangled up with slaves and enslavers that are family connections from the past.  It is a brutal and dangerous world which she quickly has to figure out as she bounces back and forth from present to past.

Duffy and Jennings faced great challenges converting the novel to a graphic novel format, but they really have outdone themselves - and the reception to their work has been extremely positive - landing them on the NYT bestseller list.  With shifting uses of color and skilled condensing of narrative, they have preserved the power of Butler's work, while opening it up to a new generation of readers and fans of graphic novels.

The publisher Abrams has a nice page web page for the novel - allowing you to see samples of the gorgeous artwork of Duffy and Jennings.

This is a work that I will definitely be recommending.

A Slave to Time Traveling

Kindred by Octavia Butler
Boston : Beacon Press, [2004], c1979.
287 p. ; 21 cm.

Kindred is a great novel.  I had to state that before saying anything else about Butler's novel, such as how it is  very creative science-fiction, well thought-out historical fiction, and an exciting read.  It really is a wonderful book.

The premise of the plot involves an African-American woman in the 1970s who is suddenly and involuntarily thrown back into the early 1800s where she has to navigate the incredibly dangerous world of antebellum slavery in Maryland.  She bounces back and forth several times, usually against her will, and the duration of time is very different in the past and present dimensions. I don't want to give away much more since many of the details of the time-travel are tightly woven into the plot of the novel.

It was serendipitous that I picked this book right after reading Twelve Years a Slave - they make perfect reading companions.  The book, though written in the 1970s, is very timely with it's deep exploration of US slavery - exploring its effects on society, family, the psyche, ethics, and relationships.

Butler's accomplishment is to create a thrilling, fascinating and deeply disturbing story that is hard to put down.  It's well-written, engaging, creative and...well, like I said, a great novel.

Peculiar, Creepy, and Wildly Inventive

A found photo from Riggs' collection.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Philadelphia : Quirk Books, 2013.
382 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

I might have missed this book if not for a donation from our local Barnes & Noble store.  They gave our library several copies of various books from their "World Book Night"- including Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  I was intrigued by the cover...

...and thumbed through it to see that it was filled with enigmatic,evocative and unsettling photographs from times gone by.  I was definitely hooked.

The novel combines history (WWII and Holocaust survivors), time travel, monsters, the supernatural, danger, and romance - as Ransom Riggs weaves a great story sparked by his own hobby/obsession with old photographs.

I really enjoyed the wonderfully imaginative interweaving of photos and story.  As you read the novel, you will find the related photo reprinted within close proximity the page you're on. The photos are memorable and haunting in their own right, and add an element of "is this true" to what is otherwise a truly "out of this world" thriller.

I will definitely recommend this book to students looking for "something different," students who like fantasy/supernatural, and to any student who enjoys horror/monster/paranormal stories, too.

A Winter Read

Image of Antartica is from NSIDC

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
New York : Ace Books, 2000, c1969.
304 p. ; 21 cm.

It's been a brutal winter in the Midwest, so this was an excellent book to finish out winter with, and welcome in spring.  Le Guin's masterpiece is set on the planet Gethen - nicknamed "Winter" by the first visitors from earth.  The novel is told from the viewpoint of Genly Ai  - an envoy from earth, who is sent alone to the planet to try and persuade its humanoid dwellers to join the Ekumen - a loose confederation of eighty-plus planets peopled by other human species.

The great twist of Le Guin's novel is that on Winter the humans have no gender until they enter estrus - and the gender that emerges during the 5-7 period of "kemmer" is not set for an individual but is dynamic and requires a partner to fully proceed.  Le Guin uses this lack of fixed gender to explore many political, social and cultural concepts that could play out in such a gender free - and non monogamous culture.  Imagine a world in which individuals might be both a mother and father and in which there was a bond with "kemmer" partners, but not usually a lifelong bond.  Le Guin's spins out her story of Gethen with its two competing "nations" - Karhide and Orgoryen - with skill and creativity, and her storytelling seems effortless and completely believable.

The novel is exciting, interesting, contemplative, and wonderfully satisfying.   I would definitely recommend it to any student who likes science fiction, and would recommend it to any student looking for a really intelligent but fun to read novel.

Briefer for Busier Times

I'm not sure how many years it's been since I read Stephen Hawking's phenomenal best seller - A Brief History of Time.  It was published in 1988, and I'm guessing I read it at some time in the mid 1990s.  I recall finding parts of it really fascinating, but much of it a bit overwhelming - so I was really pleased to see that Hawking and collaborator, Leonard Mlodinow teamed up to reissue a revised, renamed and somewhat easier version of the classic.

This Briefer History of Time is a great introduction for the lay person, and of course for the interested high school student, to major concepts of cosmology, including the somewhat mind-bending concepts of Einstein's theories of general and special relativity - and the truly mind-blowing and bizarre concepts of quantum and string theory.

I found the inclusion of God in this work to be problematic.  Instead of discussing how current theories relate to beliefs in God, the authors at times seem to just assume - without evidence that God does exist.  Consider this excerpt from a discussion of the search for unified theories:

"Actually, the idea that God might want to change his mind is an example of the fallacy, pointed out by St. Augustine, of imagining God as a being existing in time.  Time is a property only of the universe that God created.  Presumably, He knew what He intended when He set it up!"

And a bit later in the book, in the conclusion they write:

"The question remains, however: how or why were the laws and the initial state of the universe chosen?" ("[C]hosen" seems an odd choice of language here)! 

I think it would have just been better to include a separate chapter on the religious implications of the current state of cosmology, but regardless, the book is still very strong and compelling.

Local Time (Traveling That Is)

Tempest by Julie Cross
New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin, 2012, c2011.
339 p. ; 22 cm.

When I heard that there was a new, future blockbuster (time will tell) YA book out there - and that the author was a local author, I knew I had to order it for our library and read it.

Tempest, as other reviewers have pointed out, is a potent read (sci-fi, thriller, romantic drama, and part fantasy) revolving around a 19-year old young man who only lately realizes he can time travel short distances and soon discovers that his Dad may not be his Dad and his time traveling is of great (and dangerous) interest to his Dad, the CIA, and a shadowy group called the Enemies of Time. As he tries to escape harm and figure out who is friend and foe - he discovers that he can travel further back in time than he thought - and becomes stuck (for quite a while) two years in his past.

This book should appeal to a wide range of readers, male and female - given it's dramatic action combined with its elements of science fiction and romance.  I found it readable and enjoyable, but it didn't grab me with the power that I thought it would.  Perhaps, like some of the negative reviewers on Goodreads, I found the plot to be a bit overstretched at times (several times I had to thumb back to the beginning of chapters to find out what year it was supposed to be). Like other negative critics I didn't find the main character Jackson, a somewhat egotistical user, to be all that likable. A few other things bugged me: the apparent inherent "goodness" of the CIA (that is sci-fi fantasy, indeed!) and the sudden transformation of Jackson into an almost superhuman action hero near the end of the book.  I also couldn't help but feeling that the jarring introduction of the little girl who takes Jackson on a rather confusing trip to a grim, distant future - and the clumsy way the "bad guy" gets away at the end - were dictated by the publisher's marketing desire to have the novel develop into a very lucrative trilogy - alas...

Problems aside, I think that Tempest will be a popular book and it does require levels of reader engagement that are positive.  I will certainly be recommending it and will be curious to see what students think of it.