[books 2016] The Aeronaut's Windlass

5. The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series.

Having said that, I was a bit dubious about the premise here so I waited till the library let me have a copy.

It's Very Steampunk. I couldn't bring myself to care about the airships or the massive tower structures the inhabitants of his world live in. The battles (on both land and air) go on for far too long.

However, it's Butcher so the dialogue is fun and the characters are likeable. Except the cat. The cat is an asshole.

I'll read the sequel, but I think I'll continue to wait for library copies.

[books 2016] 1493

6. 1493: How Europe's Discovery of the Americas Revolutionized Trade, Ecology and life on Earth by Charles C Mann

The follow up to 1491, which I read recently. The thesis here is that every aspect of life on earth was affected by what Mann (borrowing from someone else) refers to as the Columbian Exchange - the movement of peoples, animals, plants and diseases around the world following the European discovery of America. He concentrates on a few examples in detail - tobacco, rubber, the Spanish shipping of silver around the world, slavery. For me the most interesting part was probably the chapter on runaway slave societies. I knew of their existence in, particularly, Jamaica, but not of their extent and, particularly in Brazil, how their existence still affects people today.

This one is even longer than 1491 but it's well worth the effort. There was a lot here that I knew, but loads that I didn't. Such as the fact that before the fens in England were drained, malaria was endemic to England.

I enjoyed 1491 more, but this one is a very important book too.

[graphic novels 2016] The Doom That Came To Gotham

I'm trying to read more graphic novels this year. To that end I dropped a truly frightening amount of money at Excelsior Comics over the last month.

I started with The Doom That Came To Gotham because it's a stand-alone. It is based in alternative Batman universe based on the Lovecraft mythos where the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents is linked to other dimensional weirdness, and Bruce leaves Gotham at an early age to sail around the world.

The story opens in Antartica where Wayne is tracking down the Cobblepot[1] expedition where there is weirdness in the ice, and, naturally, brings it back to Gotham.

I'm not sure how qualified I am to comment on this. The only other Batman comic I've ever read is Arkham Aslylum, over 20 years ago. I only caught some of the Batman references because I watch the new Gotham series and have started working my way through Arrow. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[1] Yes, that Cobblepot.