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Books read in 2023 # 68-69 - Murder Stuff
Jun. 29th, 2023 06:24 pm68. Grendel: The Devil's Odyssey by Matt Wagner & Brennan Wagner - So I think this is it. Decades in the life of the artist/writer. Months reading the thing. Grendel is back to being one lone cyborg but this time he's searching the stars looking for a new home for humanity. The politics of Grendel-Khan and all the Grendel soldiers carrying out the dictates of a dying empire (who in many cases just become biker gangs and militias) is left behind.
Instead we get Grendel traveling from planet to planet and finding out why it's really bad for resettling. There's the planet where everyone is in suspended animation. There's the planet where everyone settles their differences by trial by combat. There's the planet where everything was automated but all the automation killed the humans. In pretty much every case, Grendel ends up killing a bunch of people. The trial by combat planet he really tries to prove that trial by combat is bullshit until he ends up against the main leader and the main leader kills his one friend so he just kills the leader and that turns everyone against him.
So in the end - yeah they encounter a big alien federation that sends him home so an earth where the Grendels (and most people) are dead. To be continued in books that haven't been published yet.
69.I am the Only Running Footman by Martha Grimes - Someone pointed out that there are many British mysteries where they are investigating a case but it's connected to another case. So that's the deal with this book. A woman gets strangled with her scarf. Another woman was strangled in the past. The detectives investigate. The scene shifts to other characters, mostly the family of the main suspect. Not really sure what the scene shifts really do for the story besides telling the reader the identity of the killer with a lot of last minute explanations concerning the patterns of the mystery. The killer is only identified in the last page when he tries to kill a witness. But it's not a surprise. The witness even gets a bunch of chapters that don't really add much. They almost seem like their own short stories.
Still decent writing style. I won't rush out to buy the next Martha Grimes book I can find but I will read the ones I currently got.
Instead we get Grendel traveling from planet to planet and finding out why it's really bad for resettling. There's the planet where everyone is in suspended animation. There's the planet where everyone settles their differences by trial by combat. There's the planet where everything was automated but all the automation killed the humans. In pretty much every case, Grendel ends up killing a bunch of people. The trial by combat planet he really tries to prove that trial by combat is bullshit until he ends up against the main leader and the main leader kills his one friend so he just kills the leader and that turns everyone against him.
So in the end - yeah they encounter a big alien federation that sends him home so an earth where the Grendels (and most people) are dead. To be continued in books that haven't been published yet.
69.I am the Only Running Footman by Martha Grimes - Someone pointed out that there are many British mysteries where they are investigating a case but it's connected to another case. So that's the deal with this book. A woman gets strangled with her scarf. Another woman was strangled in the past. The detectives investigate. The scene shifts to other characters, mostly the family of the main suspect. Not really sure what the scene shifts really do for the story besides telling the reader the identity of the killer with a lot of last minute explanations concerning the patterns of the mystery. The killer is only identified in the last page when he tries to kill a witness. But it's not a surprise. The witness even gets a bunch of chapters that don't really add much. They almost seem like their own short stories.
Still decent writing style. I won't rush out to buy the next Martha Grimes book I can find but I will read the ones I currently got.
