KARLA'S CHOICE

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Had to give up on Nick Harkaway's debut under his dad's John Le Carré name, KARLA'S CHOICE. Liked what I read of it (and I adore Harkaway's work, GNOMON especially; his turning of phrase and rhythm is spectacular) and Harkaway made an honest go of it, but it lacked the authenticity of his dad's work. Not in the spycraft sort of way, but in the human voice behind it. Felt too much like reading a really good novelization of a really good film adapt of a Le Carré classic: I'd rather read the original. Had a similar feeling watching Mangold's INDIANA JONES flick: the characters are there but the absence of the heart behind is acutely felt. Time to let Le Carré rest. Solid go, but no.

a few stray thoughts on recent comics

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While every title in the Absolute DC line is fantastic, Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez's ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER is my favorite by far. Insanely good; invention pours off the page... At this point, I'm reading DAREDEVIL solely out of my love for the character - no matter how much I love seeing the black armored costume again: Ahmed's run is readable at best and moderately painful at worst; ideal team: Chris Condon and Montos from GREEN ARROW but please keep them on GA too because it's so good and it's nice to read GREEN ARROW again... ... ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS is at the top of the to-read stack every month (and Camp's THE ULTIMATES is my favorite of the line which makes sense given that he's writing ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER which brings me full circle to....