Links and musings

Very interesting blog post about America in Science Fiction, via Tobias Buckell.

Grant Morrison is taking over the DC Universe, with some help from Geoff Johns. This is a good thing, not only because both guys have the fanboy knowledge of the DCU necessary for the takeover, but because, more importantly, they also write good stories. A sense of cohesion throughout the DCU will be a good thing, and in many ways, was one of the appealing factors of Marvel's early days. With the whole Infinite Crisis thing looming, having these two guys act as "consultants" or whatever the Hell DC is calling them is something I'm looking forward to.

On the reading front, I'm halfway through Jeffrey Ford's wonderful collection, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, I may post up an official review of this one when I finish it. Over the weekend I read Batman: The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale. This came out during one of my comic-book hiatuses and I finally caught up with it. Sale's art is very good, though I admit to being surprised at the amount of splash pages he used. On the whole, at least in collected format, the story was very enjoyable and I'll eventually get my hands on some of the other Loeb/Sale collaborations. I saw a lot of storytelling elements in Halloween reappear in Loeb's Hush storyline, I hope this doesn't bode for a recycling act for Loeb's other stories..

I'm still trying to put together my review of The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, I really liked the book and I want to write a review that will, in some part I hope, do justice to the book and its effect on me. I've got another few days before I need to post it, so I hope to have something finished up by the weekend.

On the life front, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I are getting ready for the big move. We are in the process of buying a house and selling our townhouse, so life has been and will continue to be quite hectic over the next few weeks. We are both very excited about the new house. Within a couple of weeks, we should be all moved into the new digs, I just hope getting the internet connection won't be too problematic.

This weekend my wife and I are celebrating 5 years of marriage and we are heading down to Washington DC to catch a Nationals game, in our quest to hit all the ballparks in the US. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a trip to the Smithsonian on Saturday.

Back to life and books for now.