Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond

http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Another 2015 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee. Also, another review zine.

Unfortunately, during as much of the nominated year as I could push through, it's visually hard to read--light text on dark grey background. I also didn't find the tone and style of the reviews engaging, but I was probably less receptive because of the dark background and very light, thin text. For me, that's a dealbreaker. If I'm going to read it, it has to be readable.

Not recommended.

The Revenge of Hump Day--Hugo Nominated Best Fanzine

Included in the sample are a perfectly charming Christmas story that, except that it is "Uncle Timmy's" heartfelt personal experience, is in no way original; a collection of unoriginal and unfunny "jokes"; fannish and sf-related news items that would have been very interesting and useful to the target audience when published; real-world political opinion pieces, some by "Uncle Timmy" and some not.

It's all perfectly competently and clearly written. I'm sure it's well-received by its intended audience. On the other hand, I don't see any exceptional excellence.

Withholding final judgment till I've read samples of the other nominees.

Sex Criminals Volume 1:One Weird Trick (Sex Criminals #1-5), by Matt Fraction (writer) Chip Zdarsky (artist)

Image Comics, ISBN 9781607069461, April 2014

This one I did not expect to like. I got a surprise. It's intelligent, thoughtful, does some really interesting things, and Suzie, as an adult, is a librarian, and a well-done librarian is always a win for me, Yes, it's self-indulgent. So sue me.

As a preteen and teen, Suzie is put through major trauma, with the senseless murder of her father, and her mother's retreat into an alcoholic haze of grief. As she starts to mature physically, Suzie mostly has to figure things out on her own, with the dubious help of school health class and her doctor. The utterly mundane, conventional answers provided wouldn't necessarily be much help to the average kid. Unfortunately, Suzie is not the average kid. When she has an orgasm, time stops. Not a metaphor; literally. Time stops for some period of time that is, for obvious reasons, difficult for her to measure. She calls that experience/place "The Quiet," and it's both wonderful and terrifying.

The Zombie Nation, by Carter Reid

http://www.thezombienation.com/

There is no story here, only, as far as I can see, the daily lame joke. The art is not good enough to be a distraction from anything, much less the complete absence of story. The site is tricky to navigate to get to the nominated (2014) material.

A complete loss, in my opinion.

Saga (Collected Editions #3), by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

Image Comics, ISBN 9781607069317, March 2014

There's a war going on, among alien races, and two of our principal characters are soldiers for opposing sides who fell in love, had a baby, and took off to raise their child together. There's technology, robots and space ships, here, except that one of the spaceships at least is a tree, and people talk about healing spells, not medication or surgery.

It's the third book in the series, so a lot of the background is just assumed. I have no idea what the war is about, or if Wreathians and Landfallians just hate each other. It's confusing and left me frustrated.

Despite that, I got to like Marko (the Wreathian) and Alana (the Landfallian), as well as some other characters. The artwork is lovely and, honestly, held me until I started to get caught up in the characters.

In the end, though, I think too much of the background needed for the story to make sense is just not here. It's likely in the two earlier volumes, but it's not here in Volume 3, which is what I'm being asked to judge. I suspect I would like this a good deal better if I'd read the earlier volumes. As is, though? Art, very nice. Story, meh.

I received this as part of the Hugo Voters' packet.

Rat Queens, by Kurtis J. Wiebe (writer), Roc Upchurch (illustrator)

Image Comics, ISBN 9781607069454, 2014

Booze-guzzling, death-dealing, battle maidens-for-hire.

This is so not my thing.

The art is excellent. The writing is quite good. There's a plot--but here's where I run into trouble. The plot appears to be mainly a vehicle for as much violence and carousing as possible. There's more than just violence and carousing. There is character development, and despite this being identified as Volume 1, I had a strong sense of there being more backstory than is included, that might have featured in earlier works in which perhaps the Rat Queens weren't the central characters, but played a role.

If that's correct, if this is part of a larger whole, I'm at a disadvantage in evaluating it. Yet even if that's correct, this is still not something I would ordinarily choose to read. That's not to say other people won't love it, particularly as I do think the art is excellent.

I received this work in the Hugo Voters' packet.

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist), Ian Herring (colorist), Sara Pichelli (cover)

Marvel, 2014

Kamala Khan is just an ordinary girl, growing up in Jersey City, with parents who are a bit strict, but very loving.

Until she breaks curfew, goes to a party with boys and alcohol, doesn't like it, and gets lost in a weird fog going home. Surely she must be hallucinating or dreaming her encounter with The Avengers! Hallucination or not, she confesses her dream to be one of them, to be Captain Marvel--and wakes up with some very disturbing new abilities.

Having superpowers and rocking the thigh-high boot look does not, as she had imagined, make her happy. In fact, it makes her life complete chaos. Helping people does, though, even when it's rescuing the school Mean Girl from a near-disaster of her own making.

If only she had an answer she could give her parents about where she disappears to all day, and why she's over an hour late to her cousin's pre-wedding party.

It's You, by Jane Porter

Penguin Group, ISBN 9780425277157, June 2015

Over a year after his death, Alison McAdams is still emotionally hamstrung by the suicide of her fiancé, Andrew Morris. It doesn't help that her mother died a few weeks after that, and it may not help that Alison, a dentist, as Andrew was, is working in Andrew's father's dental practice. She'd like her father, now living in a retirement community in Napa Valley, to come live with her in Scottsdale, but he refuses.

Reluctantly, she takes a month off of work to go visit her father.

On the plane flight, she makes a new friend, Diana, a florist. At Napa Estates, she meets her father's friends, including a very prickly old woman named Edie Stephens. Edie had gone to Germany to study music before WWII, then went to work for the US Embassy there, and met and fell in love with a German officer, Franz.

Jeffro Johnson Hugo Nomination Fanwriter Sample

The last of the Fan Writer Hugo nominees.

I've never been a serious gamer, and these selections will work better for those who are. It's mainly about the interrelationships between gaming and major parts of our fantasy and science fiction heritage. I totally get the love letter to Jack Vance's Dying Earth. The enthusiasm for E.C. Tubb's Dumarest as "awesome" because, in one book, Derai, he dumps his girlfriend on page three, and then threatens a man who is dead broke to collect payment from him, is harder to understand. Johnson cheerily assures us that Mal Reynolds is far inferior, because he can't always manage to get paid. Another section looks at a much-treasured old favorite of mine, The High Crusade. Johnson's view of this seems to be that Anderson was making an early warning against the Social Justice Warriors, i.e., anyone even slightly to the left of Attila the Hun, whom Johnson believes are ruining modern society. It seems we were all far better off under feudal lords and, I gather, paternal authority, though I may be over-reading, there. At any rate, in Johnson's view, the alien empire represents everything that's wrong with 21st century Europe and America.

I don't find this convincing, at all. Some, of course, will find it more persuasive, and regardless of that, a greater interest in gaming will make the whole much more interesting. This might be the best of the Puppy Fan Writer nominees. At the very least, I can see real substance in it that doesn't work for me, but surely will for its intended audience.

Laura J. Mixon Hugo Nominee Fanwriter Sample

Laura Mixon's fanwriting sample is, quite logically, her thorough, documented exposure of the rage blogger Requires Hate/Benjanun Sriduangkaew.

This is a clear, well-supported explanation of Requires Hate's multiple online identities, cyberstalking, and harassment, as well as her habitual deletion of hateful posts after the fact, making it hard for her victims to prove what happened to them. Mixon has included only episodes that she can document, and includes screen caps. Names are included only with the agreement of the individual. This was a major service to the sf community, and it's well-written.

Recommended.