City of Thieves - David Benioff (2008)
I had relatively high expectations for David Benioff's second novel, City of Thieves, and after trudging through the slow beginning, those expectations were quite easily exceeded. Not just a World War II novel, City of Thieves is also an epic adventure tale as well as a coming of age story. Equally humorous and gruesome, it was an intense, enjoyable read that was hard to put down after the half-way point. The characters are rich and extremely likeable. The dark tones and tragic events that occur blend well with the subtle humor that pops up throughout the novel, especially amongst such events as cannibalism, sex slavery, and obviously war. All of this builds up to awesomely tension filled conclusions. Simply put, City of Thieves ruled even more than I had hoped.
Transmission - Hari Kunzru (2005)
Satirically covering subjects such as culture clash, pop culture and technology, Hari Kunzru's Transmission is a smart, unique novel with strong characters and an interesting, sprawling storyline. Whether it be book's anti-hero main character, or all the minor ones that play surprisingly large roles, these characters are well fleshed out and easy to sympathize with, whether you actually like them or not. This, along with the intricate and unrelenting sense of satire, is Transmission's greatest strength. The story is unquestionably unbelievable in an obnoxious way, and perhaps a wee bit dated, but it's not too difficult to overlook this when the characters are so fascinating. Not a great read by any means, but I enjoyed Transmission enough not to regret spending the time on it.
Bone: One Volume Edition - Jeff Smith (1991-2004)
Reading through the entirety of Jeff Smith's award winning and crucial comic book series Bone for the second time was like hanging out with a long lost bud. This epic fantasy series is quite possibly my favorite comic of all time. The writing can seem a bit cheesy, or at least childish at times, but that's the point right? Bone is an amazing merging of Sunday comic strip visuals and humor like Calvin and Hobbes with an eerie and mature fantasy tale not unlike The Lord of the Rings. Some might find that comparison a major turn-off, but trust me, everything about Bone is charming and masterful, and probably even perfect. If you like comics/graphic novels and haven't read this, you are out of your mind.
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